Plame's Suit Against Top Officials Dismissed  —  A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and other top officials over the Bush administration's disclosure of Plame's name and covert status to the media.

Poll: 63% Say Clinton "Likely" To Win  —  CBS/NYT Poll: Majorities Of Both Men And Women Think New York Democrat Will Be Next President  —  (CBS) A new CBS News/New York Times poll out Thursday shows 63 percent of voters believe it's likely that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton …

Pentagon rebukes Sen. Clinton on Iraq  —  WASHINGTON - The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.  —  In a stinging rebuke to a member …

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings  —  White House Says Hill Can't Pursue Contempt Cases  —  Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never …

Democrats cut 'John Doe' provision  —  Congressional Democrats today failed to include a provision in homeland security legislation that would protect the public from being sued for reporting suspicious behavior that may lead to a terrorist attack, according to House Republican leaders.

U.S. Generals Request Delay in Judging Iraq  —  The top commanders in Iraq and the American ambassador to Baghdad appealed for more time beyond their mid-September assessment to more fully judge if the new strategy was making gains.  —  Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq …

Options backdating probe hit by delay  —  Investigations into allegations of stock options backdating are being delayed and could be undermined by turmoil in the US Attorney's office in San Francisco, sources familiar with the probes say.  —  Prosecutors in San Francisco are probing options grants …

A CORRECTION?  NOT ON YOUR LIFE!  —  We wrote here about a story in the Chicago Sun-Times by columnist Jennifer Hunter, reporting on a plaintiffs' lawyers convention in Chicago.  The five principal Democratic presidential candidates addressed the convention, and Hunter's story was on the lawyers' reaction.

Overhaul Plan for Vote System Will Be Delayed  —  Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are slowing their drive to revamp the nation's voting systems, aides said yesterday.  —  Under pressure from state and local officials, as well as from lobbyists for the disabled …

Eating beef ' is less green than driving'  —  Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours, it was claimed yesterday.  —  Japanese scientists used a range of data to calculate the environmental impact of a single purchase of beef.

When Infrastructure Attacks! (a special you won't see on Fox)  —  There was an explosion in Midtown Manhattan yesterday.  I found out about it because 10 people were text messeging my cell to make sure I was ok - each with varying levels of fatalism about my prospect of survival (maybe they want my apartment?