Justices Rule for White Firefighters in Bias Case  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

Betraying the Planet  —  So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill.  In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.  —  But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill …

Obama Picks Camp David Church — Not a D.C. Congregation  —  For the past five months, White House aides and friends of the Obamas have been quietly visiting local churches and vetting the sermons of prospective first ministers in a search for a new — and uncontroversial — church home.

Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years in Prison for Ponzi Scheme  —  A federal judge sentenced Bernard L. Madoff to 150 years in prison on Monday for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people, calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil.”  —  In pronouncing the sentence …

Honduras Defends Its Democracy  —  Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution.

HORRIFIC Video Captures Basij Thugs Shooting At Protesters From Rooftop  —  Busted!  Regime thugs shoot down at democracy protesters on the street from a rooftop in Tehran.  —  This is one of those videos that you will not forget.  What kind of regime fires on its own people peacefully demonstrating for freedom?

Chambliss blocks regulatory pick over animal lawsuits  —  Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has blocked President Obama's candidate for regulation czar, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, because Sunstein has argued that animals should have the right to sue humans in court.

The Way We Love Now  —  It's been a good month for reckless romance in America.  The nation's most famous reality-television father, Jon Gosselin of “Jon and Kate Plus Eight,” threw over his marriage for a fling with a 23-year-old schoolteacher.  Not one but two prominent conservative politicians torpedoed …

Wonkette Goes After Trig Palin Again  —  It really is hard to understand why some adults feel the need to make fun of Trig Palin, a one-year old who has Down Syndrome.  Politics alone cannot explain it.  If you don't like Sarah Palin, fine, but why go after Trig?

Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia  —  For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been kidnapped by the Taliban.  —  But that was pretty straightforward compared with keeping it off Wikipedia.

Paper Avalanche Buries Plan to Stem Foreclosures  —  LOS ANGELES — Somewhere on earth, there must be a more difficult task than this: persuading American mortgage companies to lower payments for homeowners who can no longer afford their loans.  But as Karina Montenegro struggles to accomplish …

Israel May Shift on Settlements Freeze Amid Broader Effort  —  JERUSALEM — Israel would be open to a complete freeze of settlement building in the West Bank for three to six months as part of a broad Middle East peace endeavor that included a Palestinian agreement to negotiate an end …

Obama is choosing to be weak  —  As he promised last year, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation's attention.  As well as evangelising, he is pressing Congress to act.  Last week the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap …

Morning Fix: A New Republican Leader?  —  Dispirited Republicans looking for national leaders amid a wash of scandals that have dominated national news over the last fortnight got a bit of good news on Sunday with an inspired performance on “Meet the Press” by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R).

Gays, lesbians rally in Fort Worth over bar raid  —  Police say 7 arrested for public intoxication; one man remains hospitalized with brain injury incurred during incident  —  FORT WORTH — About 18 hours after officers with the Fort Worth Police Department and agents with the Texas Alcoholic …

Washington to California: Drop dead  —  Members from California know that a California-specific bailout wouldn't be popular with their colleagues from the not-so-Golden states — and even less so since the White House isn't on board.  —  And analysts say the California delegation isn't quite as a powerful as it looks.

Aide's tale of John Edwards sex tape  —  Former presidential candidate John Edwards is out of luck if he hoped that the extramarital affairs of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign would take people's minds off his own cheating scandal.  —  Former Edwards aide Andrew Young says the ex-senator …

Quote For The Day  —  “No democracy has been nearer the fire and survived than was Britain in that long winter [of 1940].  And one reason for survival was that the nation did not betray the things in which it believed.  After Italy entered the war, one of the few murder cases to reach the Law Lords on appeal was decided.