Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project  —  The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency's director, Leon E. Panetta …

Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter  —  WASHINGTON — Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.  —  On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing …

Freshman Rep. Grayson Taken to Cleaners in Ponzi Scheme  —  Freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) lost $3 million in a stock swindle between 2000 and 2005, a Florida television station reported this week.  —  According to Orlando's Local 6, Grayson was an investor in a Ponzi scheme run by the company Derivium Capital.

Gov. Ritter Steered Stimulus Money To Ex-Employer  —  DENVER (AP) ― Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has awarded some of the state's first stimulus money to his former employer in a no-bid contract.  —  Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson …

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE GHANAIAN PARLIAMENT  —  Accra International Conference Center  —  Accra, Ghana  —  THE PRESIDENT: (Trumpet plays.)  I like this.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I think Congress needs one of those horns.  (Laughter.)  That sounds pretty good.  Sounds like Louis Armstrong back there.

Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa  —  CAPE COAST, Ghana — President Obama traveled in his father's often-troubled home continent on Saturday as a potent symbol of a new political era but also as a messenger with a tough-love theme: American aid must be matched by Africa's responsibility for its own problems.

The Stumbles That Led to an Ethics Blunder  —  The Washington Post's ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record “salons” was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions.  —  Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli have now taken full responsibility …

The new Report on illegal spying is not a real investigation  —  The Bush-era torture regime might have been that administration's most flamboyant act of criminality, but its illegal NSA warrantless eavesdropping program (and other still-unknown surveillance programs) has always been the clearest.

David Brooks' Strange Tale  —  I don't know if David Brooks had a couple of drinks at lunch or not, but he went on MSNBC this afternoon and claimed that he had once sat through an entire dinner with a Republican U.S. Senator's hand in his lap.  BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot …

Obama Says Economic Stimulus Plan Worked as Intended  —  President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.  —  “It has already extended unemployment insurance …

Weekly remarks: Obama still clearing wreckage; Cantor asks, where are the jobs?  —  This week's weekly remarks open with President Obama in Africa opening on foreign affairs.  But by the second paragraph out of 20, he gets to what he really wants — needs — to talk about: domestic business in general and the economy specifically.

House Health Bill Relies on Wealth Tax  —  WASHINGTON — House Democrats plan to pay for their health-care legislation with a big tax increase on wealthy households, aiming to raise $540 billion over the next decade with a package of surtaxes on families making $350,000 or more.