White House Drafts Executive Order to Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects  —  The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely …

Sanford: King David Didn't Resign, So Why Should I?  —  Mark Sanford has been holding a televised cabinet meeting this afternoon.  —  And the South Carolina governor started out by using an interesting comparison to respond to calls for his resignation.  King David didn't back down after …

Rep. Broun receives applause on the House floor for calling global warming a ‘hoax.’  —  During the floor debate this morning over the historic American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) received a round of applause from GOP colleagues when he claimed that man …

Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him  —  LONDON, England (CNN) — How many people does it take to break the Internet?  On June 25, we found out it's just one — if that one is Michael Jackson.  —  The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice …

Climate bill clears House in close vote  —  WASHINGTON — The highly publicized Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill (H.R. 2454) cleared the House Friday afternoon by a roll call vote of 219 to 212.  —  Proponents hailed its passage as a crucial step towards the creation of what prominent Democrats have called a new green energy economy.

The Obama Pattern  —  The Obama Administration appears to me to be pursuing many goals, poorly.  Here are four:  —  1) The stimulus failed to meet Larry Summers' famous criteria of timely, targeted, or temporary.  —  2) The cap and trade legislation maximizes rent-seeking …

House Democrats win key test vote on climate bill  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats narrowly won a key test vote Friday on sweeping legislation to combat global warming and usher in a new era of cleaner energy.  Republicans said the bill included “the largest tax increase in American history.”

House Passes Bill to Address Threat of Climate Change  —  WASHINGTON — Overcoming deep divisions within its Democratic majority, the House passed legislation on Friday intended to address the threat of global warming and transform the way the United States produces and uses energy.

White House Watched  —  Today's column is my last for The Washington Post.  And the first thing I want to say is thank you.  Thank you to all you readers, e-mailers, commenters, questioners, Facebook friends and Twitterers for spending your time with me and engaging with me over the years.

God and Science Don't Mix  —  A scientist can be a believer.  But professionally, at least, he can't act like one.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  My practice as a scientist is atheistic.  That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel or devil is going to interfere …

Members of U.S. House Financial Services Committee snapped up or dumped bank stocks as bottom fell out of market  —  WASHINGTON — As financial markets tumbled and the government worked to stave off panic by pumping billions of dollars into banks last fall, several members of Congress who oversee …

Naked ex-mayor arrested at campsite  —  Gainesville's Musselwhite denies causing earlier trouble  —  A former mayor found sitting naked and holding a beer at a Rabun County campsite told police he wasn't the same naked man seen walking around earlier.  —  Mark Musselwhite, 43 …

D.C. Summer Jobs Contractor Fired for Posts on Twitter  —  The D.C. Department of Employment Services fired a contractor who was working with youths in the city's summer jobs program after officials became aware of messages on his Twitter site that Anacostia is “ghetto” and that he was loafing at work.

U. of I. jobs-for-entry scheme  —  E-mails reveal law school put a price on admission of unqualified candidate  —  What does it cost to get an unqualified student into the University of Illinois law school?  —  Five jobs for graduating law students, suggest internal e-mails released Thursday.

300 Pages Out of Thin Air  —  Today is the day that the House plans to vote on the cap and trade bill that has mysteriously changed this week.  Last night, the bill changed again.  We are now looking at an additional 300-pages that will be considered as amending H.R. 2998, the replacement bill of origins unknown.

Cap-and-Trade, State-by-State  —  Regional considerations tend to loom larger in debates over environmental policy than in other sorts of affairs.  Some states consume more energy than others.  Some states have more carbon-intensive economies than others.  Some states are more or less likely …