Auto Makers to Get $17.4 Billion  —  The White House announced a $17.4 billion rescue package for the troubled Detroit auto makers that allows them to avoid bankruptcy and leaves many of the big decisions for the incoming Obama administration.  —  Speaking from the White House …

CNN Meteorologist: Manmade Global Warming Theory ‘Arrogant’  —  Network's second meteorologist to challenge notion man can alter climate.  —  Business & Media Institute  —  Unprecedented snow in Las Vegas has some scratching their heads - how can there be global warming with this unusual cold and snowy weather?

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95  —  Mr. Felt was the No. 2 F.B.I. official when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon and became the most famous anonymous source in American history.

The Madoff Economy  —  The revelation that Bernard Madoff — brilliant investor (or so almost everyone thought), philanthropist, pillar of the community — was a phony has shocked the world, and understandably so.  The scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend.

Obama's Inaugural Mistake  —  It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation.  And the Obama campaign's response to the anger about this decision?

The Employee Free Choice Act Is Unconstitutional  —  Free speech and the takings clause are at stake.  —  A top priority of the incoming Democratic Congress and Obama administration is the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.  The EFCA, as is well known, introduces a card-check procedure …

Coleman leads Franken by just 2 votes  —  Two votes is all that stands between Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, according to the Associated Press tally in the state's still-unresolved Senate race.  —  Coleman's shrinking lead, combined with a state Supreme Court decision handed …

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl  —  It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston.  She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

Democrats Are the New Ethics Story  —  Blagojevich is just the tip of the iceberg.  —  A note to all those visitors who will soon flood Washington for the inauguration: Be careful of the “swamp.”  —  That would be the swamp Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to drain when she led her party to victory in 2006.

Labor ties drive Solis pick  —  Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) will take over the Labor Department in an imploding job market, while Big Labor is licking its chops for payback in Washington.  —  So why is she giving up a potential leadership track in the House for one of the more daunting cabinet jobs?

Plans Being Drawn to Close Guantanamo Prison  —  The Pentagon is drawing up plans to shut the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be prepared for any order from President-elect Barack Obama, who has promised to close the controversial facility after he assumes office Jan. 20, a defense official said yesterday.

“The American Public has a Right to Know That They Do Not Have to Choose Between Torture and Terror": Six questions for Matthew Alexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist  —  At 5:15 p.m. on June 7, 2006, two American F-16 fighters dropped 500-pound bombs on a farmhouse about five miles north of the Iraqi town of Baqubah.