Why Two Bush Appointees Are Refusing to Leave  —  The Mess Condi Left for Hillary by Mort Zuckerman  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Two U.S. attorneys appointed by Dubya are refusing to leave the Justice Department when Obama takes office.  Their explanation: they've got too many corrupt Democrats to prosecute!

California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks  —  John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state's cash crisis.  Student grants are also affected.  —  Reporting from Sacramento …

Poll Finds Disapproval of Bush Unwavering  —  President Bush prepares to leave office with no evidence that public opinion toward him is softening during his final days in power, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.  —  When asked about Mr. Bush's performance over the last eight years …

Obama On The Employee Free Choice Act  —  Here's a transcribed portion of President-elect Barack Obama's interview yesterday with the Washington Post:

Circuit City to close 567 remaining US stores  —  Bankrupt Circuit City Stores Inc., unable to work out a sale of the company, said Friday it will go out of business — closing its 567 U.S. stores and cutting 30,000 jobs.  —  The nation's second-biggest consumer electronics retailer …

The Bush Record  —  Thinking back to George W. Bush's farewell address it's striking that the best thing the man can say about his record in office is that only once during his term in office were 3,000 people killed by foreign terrorists.  And it's really striking that other people …

Provocation of The Day: Coleman Could Still Win  —  In some ways, Al Franken's 225 vote lead the Minnesota Senate race is an illusory number.  That's his margin after the state canvassing board completed its recount.  Why isn't he in the Senate?  —  Thank Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Senators urge Obama to buy F-22s  —  Senators are pressing President-elect Obama to allow the Air Force to continue buying F-22 Raptor fighter jets.  —  Deciding whether to buy more F-22s after the final aircraft on order is delivered at the end of 2011 is one of the first strategic …

Profiles in Courage: Obama's Freshman Democratic Senators  —  Of seven newly minted freshman Democratic senators, six voted for releasing the second half of the $700 billion TARP funds in what is being considered Obama's first major test of strength on the Hill.

Fox reporter: Bush ‘inherited the 9/11 attacks.’  —  Fox reporter: Bush ‘inherited the 9/11 attacks.’»  —  Today, President Bush left for Camp David for what is expected to be his last departure from the White House via Marine One.  During Fox News's coverage of the event …

NO DANCING!  —  SEN. John McCain might regret choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, but an even worse decision will deprive his fellow Americans of what would have been the best season of “Dancing With the Stars” ever.  Our impeccably placed source says, “Just before Thanksgiving …

Rescue of Banks Hints at Nationalization  —  WASHINGTON — Last fall, as Federal Reserve and Treasury Department officials rode to the rescue of one financial institution after another, they took great pains to avoid doing anything that smacked of nationalizing banks.  —  They may no longer have that luxury.

Our world may be a giant hologram  —  DRIVING through the countryside south of Hanover, it would be easy to miss the GEO600 experiment.  From the outside, it doesn't look much: in the corner of a field stands an assortment of boxy temporary buildings, from which two long trenches emerge …

Report Finds Major U.S. Companies Have Offshore Tax Havens  —  A majority of America's largest publicly traded companies and the U.S. government's largest federal contractors — including some receiving millions in federal bailout money — use multiple subsidiaries in offshore tax havens …

Exit Bush, Shoes Flying  —  Except for Richard Nixon, no president since Harry Truman has left office more unloved than George W. Bush.  Truman's rehabilitation took decades.  Bush's will come sooner.  Indeed, it has already begun.  The chief revisionist?  Barack Obama.

Tom Hanks Says Mormon Supporters of Proposition 8 ‘Un-American’  —  LOS ANGELES —  Tom Hanks Says Mormon Supporters of Prop-8 “Un-American”  —  Tom Hanks, Executive Producer for HBO's controversial polygamist series “Big Love,” made his feelings toward the Mormon Church's involvement …

Perino Mocks Newsweek and Obama's Guantanamo Posturing in Farewell Breakfast with Reporters  —  Ahead of her final White House press briefing, press secretary Dana Perino spoke with reporters at a breakfast in Washington hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Governor's lawyers quit impeachment trial  —  The legal team that has represented embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich in impeachment proceedings in Springfield has stepped down in protest before the governor's trial in the Illinois Senate, the Tribune has learned.

Secret List of U.S. Military Bases to Replace Gitmo  —  Pendleton, Leavenworth, Miramar Included as Possible New Home for 250 Detainees  —  The U.S. military has prepared a list of U.S. military bases that could be used to house as many as 250 detainees currently being held at the U.S. Naval base …

January 10, 2009: The Intifada is globalized as the Gaza War becomes a world war  —  On January 10, the war between Israel and Hamas became a global conflict.  No longer confined to the Gaza Strip, the fighting spread to cities around the world: what were billed as “anti-war” …