Bank of America Reaches Deal for Merrill  —  In a rushed bid to ride out the storm sweeping American finance, 94-year-old Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed late Sunday to sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for roughly $44 billion.  —  The deal, which was being worked out in 48 hours of frenetic negotiating …

Lehman Expected to File for Bankruptcy Protection  —  According to people briefed on the matter, Lehman Brothers will file for bankruptcy protection on Sunday night, in the largest failure of an investment bank since the collapse of Drexel Burnham Lambert 18 years ago.

Barclays Walks from Lehman Deal; Likelihood for Transaction Narrows  —  The fate of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s darkened early Sunday afternoon after Barclays PLC, the sole remaining bidder for the 158-year-old Wall Street firm, told federal regulators that it is walking away from a transaction, people familiar with the matter say.

MAC HATER HAS A LOUSY ‘IMAGE’  —  MAG FOTOG IN DIRTY TRICK TO TURN POL ‘EVIL’  —  Controversial celebrity photographer Jill Greenberg, a self-professed “hard-core Dem,” deliberately took a series of unflattering shots of Republican nominee John McCain for the current cover of The Atlantic - and then bragged about it on a blog.

ROVE SAYS MCCAIN HAS GONE ‘ONE STEP TOO FAR’.... Karl Rove was reluctant to say it, and he tried really hard not to say it, but he conceded on Fox News this morning that John McCain's ads aren't exactly accurate.  —  Here's the clip, by way of the Jed Report, of Rove pontificating on “Fox News Sunday” earlier today.