Attorney general collapses  —  Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed Thursday night while giving a speech to the Federalist Society in Washington, according to three senior administration officials.  —  Details about Mukasey's condition were not immediately available.

Obama plans to name Clinton to State  —  President-elect Barack Obama is “on track” to name Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as his secretary of state shortly after Thanksgiving, two senior Obama aides said.  —  Financial disclosure issues have been worked out, aides said.

Recount, Day 2: Coleman, Franken trade gains, losses  —  Today is Day 2 in the Minnesota recount of ballots in the overtime election struggle between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken.  The candidates traded modest gains and losses throughout the day.

Obama's cell phone records breached  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, his transition team said Thursday.  —  Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the team was notified Wednesday …

Goolsbee out at CEA?  —  I'm flabbergasted.  If true, this is a bloody embarassment: … I take nothing away from Professor Rouse.  But she's a labor economist with a heavy, heavy specialty in returns to education.  Goolsbee, by contrast, focuses on taxation and capital formation.

The Insider's Crusade  —  Jan. 20, 2009, will be a historic day.  Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard Law) will take the oath of office as his wife, Michelle (Princeton, Harvard Law), looks on proudly.  Nearby, his foreign policy advisers will stand beaming, including perhaps Hillary Clinton …

Eric Holder on firearms policy: Earlier this year, Eric Holder—along with Janet Reno and several other former officials from the Clinton Department of Justice—co-signed an amicus brief in District of Columbia v. Heller.  The brief was filed in support of DC's ban on all handguns …

e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right  —  PARIS (AFP) - It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.  —  A brainpower consortium led …

Director's checks on ‘Joe’ called unfounded  —  Job and Family Services head suspended for a month  —  Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is standing by an agency director who OK'd improper computer checks for confidential information on “Joe the Plumber” and used state e-mails for political fundraising.

The Lame-Duck Economy  —  Everyone's talking about a new New Deal, for obvious reasons.  In 2008, as in 1932, a long era of Republican political dominance came to an end in the face of an economic and financial crisis that, in voters' minds, both discredited the G.O.P.'s free-market ideology and undermined its claims of competence.

Middle East Priorities For Jan. 21  —  The election of Barack Obama to be the 44th president is profoundly historic.  We have at long last been able to come together in a way that has eluded us in the long history of our great country.  We should celebrate this triumph of the true spirit of America.

Obama Raised Half a Billion Online  —  Barack Obama raised half a billion dollars online in his 21-month campaign for the White House, dramatically ushering in a new digital era in presidential fundraising.  —  In an exclusive interview with The Post, members of the vaunted Triple O …

Fannie, Freddie Suspend Foreclosures Through Jan. 9  —  Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies seized by the U.S. government, will suspend foreclosures and evictions over the holidays.  —  The six-week halt will begin Nov. 26 …