Specter: Republicans Support Stimulus, Don't Want ‘Fingerprints’ On It  —  Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.

Stimulus Plan Receives Final Approval in Congress  —  WASHINGTON — Congress on Friday approved a $787 billion economic stimulus measure, meeting the crushing mid-February deadline that Democrats had set for adopting the centerpiece of President Obama's early agenda but without quelling partisan divisions in Washington.

BREAKING: Court Excludes ‘Huge Number’ of Ballots in MN's U.S. Senate Election Contest  —  [Updated several times at bottom of article.]  —  A late Friday finding from the 3-judge panel presiding over the Coleman/Franken U.S. Senate election contest in Minnesota has limited the number …

Bipartisanship Isn't So Easy, Obama Discovers  —  WASHINGTON — On the day before the big vote, President Obama took a freshman Republican member of Congress aboard Air Force One to visit Illinois.  Before an audience in Representative Aaron Schock's district, Mr. Obama praised him as …

Prominent Orchard Park man charged with beheading his wife  —  Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.

Borders Bookstore in Dallas Praises Saint Obama  —  A reader sent me this picture taken at a Borders Bookstore in Dallas.  He says the picture was taken in the Kids section.  I guess Borders understands that it's never too early to indoctrinate the younguns.  —  Welcome to the Obamanation.

Afghan President Karzai hopes Obama will “settle down,” show “better judgment”  —  President Barack Obama is moving up in the world in terms of picking fights.  Or walking into them.  —  First came a disagreement over the impact of the administration's economic stimulus package in East Peoria …

Addicted to fake outrage  —  I'm not sure if it's because we're strung out on “Lost” episodes, or if it's because we're still suffering from a post-9/11 stress disorder that makes us crave “breaking news” alerts, or if it's because the economy has turned us into distraction junkies.

Friday The 13th  —  AP: “Major victory ... muscled to the brink of final passage.”  Sure.  He let his own party's Congress go wild with its own bill, and lost virtually every Republican by insulting them when he wasn't ignoring them.  I guess that's a big victory if they say it is …

A Smaller, Faster Stimulus Plan, but Still With a Lot of Money  —  On its way to becoming law, two crucial things happened to President Obama's economic recovery plan: It got smaller and faster.  —  Smaller in that it was cut to $787 billion from more than $800 billion in early versions in the House and Senate.

Failed Banks Pose a Big Test for Regulators  —  WASHINGTON — When regulators took over the First National Bank of Nevada last year, they faced a showdown with the Terrible Herbst, the mustachioed cowboy who boasts of being the “best bad man in the West.”  —  This was no real gunslinger …

Justice Dept. Lawyers in Contempt for Withholding Stevens Documents  —  An angry federal judge held Justice Department lawyers in contempt yesterday for failing to deliver documents to former senator Ted Stevens's legal team, as he had ordered.  —  U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called it …

THE WHITE HOUSE BUBBLE  —  From NBC's Chuck Todd  —  Obviously, I'm one of the newbies here in the White House press corps, so maybe I'm unfamiliar with the ways of how this place works.  I have to say, nothing is more frustrating than covering an actual event here at the White House …

Virginia GOP Chair goes all Cro-Magnon on Darwin, on his birthday  —  Yesterday was the birthday of Lincoln and Darwin, and Virginia GOP chairman Jeff Frederick couldn't pass up the opportunity to go all Cro-Magnon on the father of modern biology.  —  Frederick obviously put a lot of thought …

White House books Brown's flight to D.C.  —  Sarah Abruzzese reports:  —  A government plane will ferry Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) back to Washington from his mother's wake in Ohio in time to vote tonight, courtesy of the White House.  —  Brown won't even be leaving until viewing hours end …

Geithner Hampered by Staff Deficit as Wall Street Demands Speed  —  Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, under intensifying pressure from Wall Street and Congress to complete his financial-rescue plan, is being handicapped by a dearth of staff experts critical to the effort.

Stimulus Bill Bravado  —  Obama claims the stimulus legislation will do all sorts of things.  But there are no guarantees.  —  In recent weeks, in his pitches to Congress and the public on the need to pass the economic stimulus bill, Obama has made several claims about what it would do.

Judiciary Committee Members Call for Investigation of Sheriff Arpaio's Disregard for Rights of Hispanic Residents  —  WASHINGTON - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler …