RIDGE NOT RUNNING  —  From NBC's Domenico Montanaro  —  Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge will not run for U.S. Senate in 2010.  —  “After careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate …

Obama's Budget Knife Yields Modest Trims  —  Plan Likely to Face Tough Fight on the Hill  —  President Obama has said for weeks that his staff is scouring the federal budget, “line by line,” for savings.  Today, they will release the results: a plan to trim 121 programs by $17 billion …

New Deal: Specter Gets a Subcommittee Chairmanship  —  Senate Democratic leaders have reached agreement with Sen. Arlen Specter to partially restore the party switcher's status on the Judiciary Committee, by granting Specter the chairmanship of the Crime and Drugs Subcommittee.

Republicans in the Wilderness: Is the Party Over?  —  These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species.  They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter.

National Security Adviser Jones Says He's ‘Outsider’ in Frenetic White House  —  President Obama's national security adviser, James L. Jones, looks for rare opportunities to ride his bike from his McLean home to work at the White House.  On occasion, he has pedaled back across the Potomac River for lunch.

Conservatives Prep Dossiers, Polls for Court Fight  —  Clockwise from top left: Curt Levey, Gary Marx and Kellyanne Conway (YouTube, Judicial Confirmation Network)  —  Curt Levey sometimes wears a lapel pin with the faces of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito and the legend “Thanks, W.”

Dem centrists press Pelosi to shelve climate bill  —  Democratic centrists are pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set aside a flagging climate change bill to focus on what they think is a more achievable goal: overhauling the nation's healthcare system.  —  But those close to Pelosi …

Franken schools heckler  —  Politicians and stand-up comedians both get plenty of hecklers.  And it looks like Al Franken, as both a comedian and the still-disputed senator from Minnesota, is getting his fair share these days.  —  On Tuesday night, at Bobby Van's on 15th Street near the White House …

How We Tested the Big Banks  —  THIS afternoon, Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve will announce the results of an unprecedented review of the capital position of the nation's largest banks.

ACORN workers charged with forging voter registrations  —  Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala today charged seven employees of ACORN — the left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — with forgery and election law violations, saying they filed hundreds …

Bush Administration Officials Behind Interrogation Memos May Avoid Professional Sanctions  —  Efforts to impose professional sanctions on Bush administration lawyers who drafted memos supporting harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects face steep hurdles, experts on legal ethics said yesterday.

Is Anyone Reading the News?  —  This remark, from David Simon as reported by Adam Serwer, seems to me to have the correct focus for fretting about the future of journalism: “The day I run into a Huffington Post reporter at a Baltimore zoning board hearing is the day I will no longer be worried about journalism.”

The ‘Free Choice’ Act Is Anything But  —  George Meany and binding arbitration.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The recent news that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter has become a member of the Democratic caucus has given new life to legislation that many thought had been put to rest for this Congress …

Newspaper Narcissism  —  Our pursuit of glory led us away from readers  —  American journalism is in trouble, and the problem is not just financial.  My profession is in distress because for more than a decade it has been chasing the false idols of fame and fortune.

Free cars for poor fuel road rage  —  Gov. Deval Patrick's free wheels for welfare recipients program is revving up despite the stalled economy, as the keys to donated cars loaded with state-funded insurance, repairs and even AAA membership are handed out to get them to work.

Band of centrists forming for Senate GOP in 2010  —  For those writing Republican centrism's obituary after Arlen Specter's party switch, holster your quills.  —  In fact, if the next few weeks go well for the GOP, it might pave the way for a whole new chapter in the left flank of the right-leaning party.

EXCLUSIVE: Records violations dog housing nominee  —  Office handed largest fine in U.S. history  —  President Obama's choice for the government's No. 2 housing job is embroiled in the largest fine in U.S. history for “blatant violations” of open records laws after the Washington State …

Free web news era over, says Murdoch  —  Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul  —  Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model.