GERRY: SHE'S NOT READY  —  Geraldine Ferraro gave a thumbs down to Caroline Kennedy's bid for the Senate yesterday - even as the Camelot daughter won her biggest endorsement for the job, The Post has learned.  —  Ferraro, the first woman nominee for vice president, sent a letter …

Jerry Brown asks California Supreme Court to void gay-marriage ban  —  The state attorney general, who had earlier vowed to defend Prop. 8, offers a novel legal theory for why it should be overturned.  The action surprises some legal experts.  —  Reporting from San Francisco and Los Angeles …

Document drop: The story behind Change.gov  —  I've obtained documents sent to a reader in response to his FOIA request regarding the creation of Barack Obama's Change.gov website.  It gives you the rest of the story.  You'll recall last month that I blogged several questions about the propriety …

If criminal penalties are removed, what will deter lawbreaking by political officials?  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus today perfectly expresses the consensus view of establishment Washington regarding the exemption which political elites should and do enjoy …

“The search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us”  —  In the latest weekly address, President-elect Barack Obama took a bold stand for making decisions based on science and facts rather than ideology as he introduced leading members of his science and technology team.

A Chance for Consensus on Iraq  —  After our visit to Iraq this month, it is clear that what was once unthinkable there is now taking place: A stable, safe and free Iraq is emerging.  Violence has fallen to the lowest level since the first months of the war.

Johnston's arrest was oxycontin-related  —  WASILLA — Wasilla resident Sherry L. Johnston, mother of Bristol Palin's boyfriend, faces a Jan. 6 court date for an oxycontin-related arrest at her home by Alaska State Troopers.  —  Little additional information was available Friday on the case …

Veep-Hunting  —  Looking for the party line on Cheney?  Here it is.  —  Angler  —  The Cheney Vice Presidency  —  by Barton Gellman  —  Penguin, 384 pp., $27.95  —  Anyone still interested in the sorry state of mainstream journalism should have a good, long look at Barton Gellman's blistering portrait of Dick Cheney.

Pilot killed as plane crashes in Lake Twp.  —  LAKE TWP.: A single-prop, private airplane crashed next to a vacant house on Charolais Street Northwest Friday evening, exploding into flames and killing the pilot.  —  Michael Connell, 45, of Bath Township, was alone in the plane, according to State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard.

China Blocks Access to The Times's Web Site  —  HONG KONG — Chinese authorities have begun blocking access from mainland China to the Web site of The New York Times even while lifting some of the restrictions they had recently imposed on the Web sites of other media outlets.