Unanimous ruling: Iowa marriage no longer limited to one man, one woman  —  REGISTER STAFF REPORTS  —  The Iowa Supreme Court this morning unanimously upheld gays' right to marry.  —  “The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause …

Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting  —  The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.  —  Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations …

Question that flummoxed great orator  —  Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (™all news organisations), didn't exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis.

Obama's Ultimate Agenda  —  Five minutes of explanation to James Madison, and he'll have a pretty good idea what a motorcar is (basically a steamboat on wheels; the internal combustion engine might take a few minutes more).  Then try to explain to Madison how the Constitution he fathered allows …

Congress Approves Budget  —  $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan Paves Way for Obama Goals  —  Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

Jobless Rate Hits 8.5% as March Payrolls Fall by 663,000  —  The American economy shed another 663,000 jobs in March, the government reported Friday, bringing the toll of job losses during the recession to 5.1 million.  —  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment rate climbed …

Russia's Medvedev hails ‘comrade’ Obama  —  LONDON (AFP) - - Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as “my new comrade” Thursday after their first face-to-face talks, saying the US president “can listen” — even if little progress was made on substance.

New frontiers in sore loserdom  —  THIS may be the first case of a politician being asked to resign over something his opponent did.  On Wednesday, the Department of Justice moved to toss out charges against Ted Stevens, the 40-year senator who was convincted on seven counts of corruption a week before the November 2008 elections.

Video: No, Obama wasn't cleaning the floor when greeting Abdullah  —  While I don't post a lot on Twitter myself, I do learn a few things by monitoring my feed.  For those wondering why the media hasn't reported at all on Barack Obama's protocol-smashing deep-waisted bow to King Abdullah …

Little Change in Negative Images of Bush and Cheney  —  Favorable ratings for both are at or near their all-time lows  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Neither George W. Bush's deliberate silence about the Obama administration nor Dick Cheney's ready criticism of it appear to have altered U.S. public perceptions about either man.

Free-Marketeers Should Welcome Some Regulation  —  The private sector made the biggest mistakes.  —  President Barack Obama took his proposed financial regulatory reforms to London this week for the G-20 meeting, while free-market advocates objected.  While many of Mr. Obama's ideas warrant skepticism …

Shooting at American Civic Association  —  Some are released from building  —  At least four people were shot and dozens of others were being held hostage by a gunman at the American Civic Center in Binghamton.  —  At least five people have been taken to Wilson Regional Medical Center in Johnson City …

THE STRANGE CASE OF EVAN BAYH.  —  Ben Nelson genuinely is a conservative Democrat.  The Poole-Rosenthal rankings — which most consider the leading measure of a congressman's relative ideology — have, for years, ranked Nelson as the most conservative member of the Congress.  Call him Democrat #1.

As Crisis Loomed, Geithner Pressed But Fell Short  —  Before Timothy Geithner became Treasury chief, he regulated major U.S. banks.  Now he says: “We're having a major financial crisis in part because of failures of supervision.”  —  In September 2005, Timothy Geithner made one of his most visible moves …

Michelle's fashion face-off with Carla  —  It was the moment the fashion world was waiting for: stylish Michelle Obama and chic Carla Bruni-Sarkozy came face-to-face in Strasbourg.  Who came out on top?  —  Last year, we avidly followed the wardrobe manoeuvres of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

CASH-STARVED TIMES COMPARED TO DARFUR  —  NEW York Times Execu tive Editor Bill Keller equated the Gray Lady to a PBS pledge drive, claiming readers have offered to donate money to keep the Times alive.  —  Keller was speaking at Stanford University to dedicate a new building for the campus newspaper …

CDC: Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula  —  ATLANTA - Traces of a chemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of powdered baby formula, and could exceed what's considered a safe dose for adults if mixed with water also contaminated with the ingredient, a government study has found.

D.C. Vote Memo Called Informal  —  After receiving a legal memo that declared the pending D.C. voting rights bill unconstitutional, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. reached out to another lawyer on whose judgment he had relied for years.  —  Holder contacted Deputy Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal …

I smoke pot, and I like it  —  “The answer is no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”  President Obama said it with a chuckle last week at a town hall-style forum.  The idea was for Obama to answer some questions about the economy submitted to the White House website.

Video shows girl's flogging by Taliban  —  Mobile phone movie shows that militant influence is spreading deeper into Pakistan  —  A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, offering a shocking glimpse of militant brutality …

A Rare Triumph of Substance at the Summit  —  International economic summits deserve to be regarded with skepticism: The most important decision to come out of them is usually the call for yet another meeting.  —  But yesterday's G-20 meeting in London was an exception.

Obama's $163,000 Tax Bomb  —  Families well below the president's ‘no-tax’ threshold will get a six-figure bill.  —  The House and Senate are preparing to pass President Barack Obama's radical budget blueprint, with only minor modifications, by using (abusing would be more accurate) the budget “reconciliation” process.