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 …

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 …

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!

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 …

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.

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

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 …

Freeh: Holder was ‘used’ in Rich pardon  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former FBI Director Louis Freeh said Friday that Attorney General-designate Eric Holder allowed himself “to be used” by the Clinton White House in the pardon process for then-fugitive financier Marc Rich in January 2001.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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” …

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.

‘Drug-crazed idiot’ Boy George jailed for 15 months for chaining male escort to wall and beating him … Boy George was jailed for 15 months yesterday for falsely imprisoning a male escort.  —  The former Culture Club singer - real name George O'Dowd - shackled Audun Carlsen to a wall …

Arabs lost 2.5 trillion dollars from credit crunch: Kuwait … Arab investors have lost 2.5 trillion dollars from the credit crunch, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah, whose country hosts an Arab economic summit next week, said on Friday.  —  “The Arab world has lost 2.5 trillion dollars …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Justices to Hear 2 Cases Brought Against Schools  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide two cases pitting parents against public schools.  —  One concerns a 13-year-old honor student who was subjected to a strip search by school officials in Arizona looking for prescription-strength ibuprofen.

River Scoured for Clues to Crash  —  The US Airways plane lost both engines when it splashed down in the Hudson River on Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a news conference on Friday.  The Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers spent the day scouting the river bottom …