Latest Updates on Hudson Jet Rescue  —  [Refresh this post for continuing live blog updates.  Please also see complete coverage on NYTimes.com.]  —  A news conference with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. David A. Paterson is wrapping up.  Mayor Bloomberg said that it appeared …

The Elephant in the Room: McCain may be Obama's secret weapon  —  A desire by both men to secure their places in history might forge an unlikely pairing.  —  I have been to New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington in recent weeks.  In those cities, at least, you cannot watch the news …

Obama To Hold Fiscal Responsibility Summit  —  President-elect Barack Obama visits the Post newsroom after a meeting with the editorial board and Washington Post Co. Chairman Don Graham, right.  (Photo, The Washington Post)  —  President-elect Barack Obama will convene a “fiscal responsibility summit” …

Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal  —  WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, issued a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order …

Holder to Senate: ‘Waterboarding is torture’  —  Obama's nominee for attorney general vows break with controversial tactic  —  Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shake hands just prior to Holder's confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Commitee.

West Wing ‘Ghost Town’  —  From long-time ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton:  —  President and Mrs. Bush fly to Camp David Friday afternoon for a final weekend in the rustic seclusion of “the Camp.”  Over the next 36 hours, White House staffers will go through the behind …

Hamas minister Siam dies in IAF strike  —  The IDF stepped up pressure on Hamas on Thursday, killing Interior Minister Said Siam and pushing deep into Gaza City as defense officials predicted a cease-fire would begin soon.  —  Siam, the most senior Hamas political leader killed since Operation …

O'Reilly Freaks Out Over the Thought of Holding Bush Admin Torturers Culpable  —  Bill O'Reilly came briefly unhinged last night, but managed to keep himself from having one of his infamous all-out temper tantrums.  I thought for sure he was about to start shouting, “Do it live!  F—k it!

10 Take Aways From the Bush Years  —  There's actually a lot that President-elect Barack Obama can learn from the troubled presidency of George W. Bush.  Over the past eight years, I have interviewed President Bush for nearly 11 hours, spent hundreds of hours with his administration's key players …

Vince Foster, Fifteen Years Later  —  I was looking over a daily almanac and saw that Vincent Foster would have been 64 years old today.  In the 1990s, I spent a lot of time covering his death, beginning with trip to Fort Marcy Park the morning after his body was discovered.

Where Sweatshops Are a Dream  —  Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I'd like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh.  —  This is a Dante-like vision of hell.  It's a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across …

Filling Her Senate Seat: New Yorkers Favor Cuomo to Replace Clinton  —  This Marist Poll reports:  —  · New Yorkers Clamor for Cuomo...Kennedy Stagnates in Pool of Public Opinion: The tides of support have changed in the contest over who voters think should fill Hillary Clinton's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

EFCA in International Comparison  —  Seth Michaels notes that not only do countries with strong economies feature strong unions even according to the Heritage Foundation, but specifically they feature the kind of labor-friendly legal environment that progressives are trying to bring to the United States:

Follow Jesus Like Nazis Followed Hitler, Rick Warren Tells Stadium Crowd  —  On April 17, 2005, at the southern California Anaheim Angels sports stadium thirty thousand Saddleback Church members, more than ever gathered in one spot, assembled to celebrate Saddleback's 25th anniversary …

House Democrats Present $825 Billion Stimulus Package  —  House Democrats unveiled a two-year stimulus package worth $825 billion that directs more to new government spending and less to tax cuts than president-elect Barack Obama proposed in his stimulus outline last week.

Obama Visits Post Newsroom  —  Here's the President-elect walking directly toward me in the Post newsroom a few minutes ago, but tragically unfocused on his favorite blogger — clearly more interested in the colleague on my left, the fabulous Lonnae O'Neal Parker.

What if I didn't pay taxes?  —  Would it be OK if I stopped paying my taxes until Barack Obama names me to be his secretary of the treasury?  —  That is a deal I would like to get.  That is the deal financial wizard Timothy Geithner got.  —  He didn't pay all of his federal taxes for years.

Iran Wields The Gavel At The UNDP  —  What do Obama and Susan Rice propose to do about this?  —  Truly, I had plans to write this week about something other than the United Nations.  But over at Turtle Bay, here they go again.  —  To chair the 2009 governing board of the U.N.'s flagship agency …

MOORE MISUSES WAR PICTURE  —  MICHAEL Moore may wind up in court with a prize-winning journalist who claims the mountain-size moviemaker ripped off his most famous photo to use in a George W. Bush-bashing rant.  —  Last year, to illustrate one of his anti-administration bombasts …