Palin must pay tax on past per diem, state says  —  EXPENSES: Governor received meal money while living in Wasilla.  —  ldemer@adn.com  —  Gov. Sarah Palin must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money she received while living at her Wasilla home, under a new determination by state officials.

Obama Unveils $75 Billion Plan to Fight Home Foreclosures  —  MESA, Ariz. — President Obama pledged on Wednesday to help as many as 9 million American homeowners refinance their mortgages or avert foreclosure, an initiative he said would shore up distressed housing prices …

Buy-Buy, Mr. Burris  —  WHEN THEN-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested in December for, among other things, allegedly trying to auction off the U.S. Senate seat left open by Barack Obama's election to the presidency, we feared that whomever Mr. Blagojevich eventually chose would be tainted by the association.

The White House's missing documents  —  In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor's system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D'Ivoire.

New York Post Chimp Cartoon Compares Stimulus Author To Dead Primate  —  A cartoon likening the author of the stimulus bill, perhaps President Barack Obama, with a rabid chimpanzee graced the pages of the New York Post on Wednesday.  —  The drawing, from famed cartoonist Sean Delonas …

George McGovern To Be Honored At CPAC For ‘Courage Under Fire’  —  In August 2008, former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern published an op-ed on the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal attacking the Employee Free Choice Act.

Court Reverses Ruling Bringing 17 Detainees to U.S.  —  A federal appeals court this morning blocked the transfer to the United States of a small band of Chinese Muslims held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  —  In a decision released this morning, the three-judge panel …

Pope lectures Pelosi on abortion stance  —  Pope Benedict XVI made clear to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday that she cannot advocate for abortion rights and still be a good Catholic.  —  After meeting with Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the Vatican, the pontiff stressed that Catholic politicians …

Charlie Savage's Alarm  —  The NYT reporter who, at the Boston Globe, helped expose the worst abuses of executive power under Bush-Cheney, writes a piece today that reminds all of us that vigilance is vital if we are to maximize civil liberty with potent measures to counter the terrorist threat.

Dem exclusive?  Reporters jump ship  —  In three months since Election Day, at least a half-dozen prominent journalists have taken jobs working for the federal government.  —  Journalists, including some of those who've jumped ship, say it's better to have a solid job in government than a shaky job …

Jindal Signals Louisiana May Not Take Stimulus Money  —  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a potential 2012 GOP presidential candidate, has suggested his state may not be interested in all of the roughly $4 billion allotted to it in the economic stimulus package to be signed by President Obama today.

Manhunt: Accused Financier Scammer Stanford Missing  —  Authorities say Investor Losses Could Rival Madoff Scandal  —  Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is accused of cheating 50,000 customers out of $8 billion dollars but despite raids Tuesday of his financial empire in Houston, Memphis …

Major cache of fossils unearthed in L.A.  —  Volunteer Judy Scharf, left, assistant lab supervisor Trevor Valle and volunteers Pat Simun and Linda Wright carefully brush away dirt surrounding the pelvis of a mammoth at the Page Museum in Rancho La Brea.  The mammoth, which museum researchers …

GOP ousts Senate leader, budget deal in question  —  (02-18) 02:28 PST Sacramento — A state budget deal to close a $41 billion shortfall has been put further into question early this morning after Senate Republicans ousted their leader who had helped negotiate the long-awaited plan with other top lawmakers in California.

Comrade Greenspan: Seize the economy's commanding heights!  —  Here.  Truly, it's amazing how compelling the logic of temporary nationalization is.  How long will it be before the Obama administration is ready to take the plunge?  —  The WaPo reports that Tim Geithner realized late …

KNOWLEDGE MAY BE POWER, BUT INFORMATION IS PROFIT.  —  Doc-blogger Kevin Pho — no liberal, and no fan of government action — writes in defense of federally-funded comparative effectiveness research.  “Physicians need an authoritative source of unbiased data, untainted by the influence …

More than 500 protest Obama's arrival  —  GARY GRADO, SONU MUNSHI, HAYLEY RINGLE, TRIBUNE  —  Presidential protestors made their voices heard in chants and signs Wednesday outside Dobson High School.  —  The protestors, about 500 to 600 strong and growing, began arriving as ticket-holders walked in.

Patrick Fitzgerald, 50 others, still serving  —  With all the controversy surrounding the Bush administration's firings of several U.S. attorneys, the question for the Obama administration became: What now?  —  And with all the muck that the hard-charging Chicago-based U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald …

Obama approval over 50  —  Obama Approval in North Carolina:  —  Approve 52  —  Disapprove 41  —  Barack Obama has the highest approval PPP has ever found for the President in North Carolina.  Of course that may have something to do with the fact that we were formed during the Bush administration...

There's Virtue In Geithner's Vague Bank Plan  —  At least he doesn't want to guarantee more bad debt.  —  On Jan. 27, Bank of America sold a whopping $6 billion of three-year notes at a yield of 2.2% — a good 3.5% less than what its other bonds of similar maturity were trading for.

Geography professor claims to have found Osama bin Laden  —  A Californian geography professor has used techniques for hunting endangered species to pinpoint three houses in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden could be hiding.  —  Using patterns of how animal species spread …

Watchdog: Bush FDA decision put patients in danger  —  WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration put patients' lives at risk by halting enforcement of 30-year-old requirements that medical device makers meet federal laboratory standards prior to testing their products on humans, a watchdog group charges in a new report.