Bush Tax-Cut Deal With Jobless Aid Said to Be Near  —  WASHINGTON — White House officials and Congressional Republicans said Sunday they were closing in on a deal to temporarily continue the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels, while bitterly frustrated Democratic Congressional leaders …

WikiLeaks Ready to Release Giant ‘Insurance’ File if Shut Down  —  Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has circulated across the internet an encrypted “poison pill” cache of uncensored documents suspected to include files on BP and Guantanamo Bay.  —  One of the files identified this weekend …

WikiLeaks cables: Barack Obama is a bigger danger  —  WikiLeaks harms the US.  But the president's refusal to acknowledge the threats we face is a bigger danger  —  WikiLeaks has yet again flooded the internet with thousands of classified American documents, this time state department cables.

GOP: Doc fix can break health reform  —  Congressional Republicans are hoping to put Democrats in a no-win new year's jam: defund a big chunk of their health care overhaul or slash Medicare payments instead.  —  Despite rampant repeal rhetoric, Republicans have so far struggled to dismantle any part of health reform.

Tension grows between Calif. Muslims, FBI after informant infiltrates mosque  —  IRVINE, CALIF. - Before the sun rose, the informant donned a white Islamic robe.  A tiny camera was sewn into a button, and a microphone was buried in a device attached to his keys.

Hugo Chavez blames massive flooding on capitalism as 70,000 remain homeless in Venezuela  —  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said he knows what's been causing the floods that have killed 32 people in his country and left 70,000 homeless: “criminal capitalism.”

Rangel in deeper with new ethics charge  —  Tweet  —  The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned.

RNC General Counsel Quits  —  Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee's top legal counsel, resigned his position early Sunday morning, The Hotline has learned, a move that will be widely interpreted as a major step toward running for chairman of the organization and a big blow to current chairman Michael Steele.

The Myth of Jewish-Only Roads  —  Helen Thomas is at it again.  —  “I can call a president of the United States anything in the book,” she said at an anti-Arab-bias workshop in Detroit, “but I can't touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank.  No American would tolerate that — white-only roads.”

Senate Republican to push states' rights in response to healthcare law  —  A Republican senator is planning on introducing legislation this week that would allow state officials to challenge federal regulations before they go into effect.  —  Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) …

Examiner Sunday Reflections by Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Obama presidency turns government up to 11  —  President Obama's term so far has been compared to many fictional and non-fictional characters: Chauncey Gardener of “Being There” is frequently invoked, along with the self-invented charmer Don Draper from …