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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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” …

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.

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!

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.

Of Judges, By Judges, For Judges  —  In November, 13,402,566 California voters expressed themselves for or against Proposition 8, which said that their state's Constitution should be amended to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.  The voters, confident that they had a right …

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 …

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.

Vitter casts lone vote against Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.»  —  Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-1 to approve President-elect Obama's nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  Casting the sole “nay” vote was Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) …

State of the People is Grim: More Budget Cuts Are Exactly the Wrong Prescription  —  As Governor Schwarzenegger prepares to report on the State of the State tomorrow, California's families today declared that “the State of the People” is increasingly grim with a record number of Californians having lost …

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 …

Globe to cut up to 50 jobs in newsroom  —  The Boston Globe said today it will offer buy-outs to all newsroom employees by the end of the month in an effort to cut as many as 50 jobs.  —  In a memo to employees, Globe Editor Martin Baron said, “Our industry is facing unprecedented financial pressures …

Torture's Blowback  —  Susan Crawford, the senior Pentagon official who dismissed charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Guantánamo detainee, said in a published report on Wednesday that she had concluded that he had been tortured by interrogators.  “His treatment met the legal definition of torture.