Book: Treasury Secretary ignored Obama directive  —  NEW YORK (AP) — A new book offering an insider's account of the White House's response to the financial crisis says that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order from President Barack Obama calling for reconstruction of major banks.

Clinton Popularity Prompts Buyer's Remorse  —  The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  —  Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering …

Free to Die  —  Back in 1980, just as America was making its political turn to the right, Milton Friedman lent his voice to the change with the famous TV series “Free to Choose.”  In episode after episode, the genial economist identified laissez-faire economics with personal choice and empowerment …

You Don't Make Social Security More Solvent By Eliminating Its Funding Base  —  Television hosts who like to ask Republican Party members politically charges questions about Social Security (you know who you are) really ought to take 10-20 minutes to think about how Social Security works …

Weiner gets 'brush'off  —  By S.A. MILLER in Washington and CARL CAMPANILE in NY  —  Scrub out the stench of Weiner!  —  Newly sworn-in Republican Rep. Bob Turner's family ordered a thorough cleaning of the House office space he inherited from his disgraced predecessor, Anthony Weiner …

General Reported He Was Pressured on Testimony About White House-Backed Project, Sources Say  —  Gen. William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, told House members in a classified briefing earlier this month that he was pressured to change prepared congressional testimony …

Hoyer, Pelosi, Berman, Lowey, House Democrats Send Letter Calling on Heads of State to Oppose Unilateral Palestinian UN Effort  —  WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer Hoyer (MD) led a letter that was signed by 58 House Democrats including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi …

Approval of Congress Matches Record Low  —  Congress faces historically low approval ratings as it wades into the debate over the $447 billion jobs package proposed by President Obama, with just 12 percent of Americans now approving of the way Congress is handling its job, matching its all-time low …

John Boehner's misfire on pending federal regulations  —  “At this moment, the Executive Branch has 219 new rules in the works that will cost our economy at least $100 million.  That means under the current Washington agenda, our economy is poised to take a hit from the government of at least $100 million — 219 times.”

Mayor Bloomberg predicts riots in the streets if economy doesn't create more jobs  —  Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs.  —  “We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs,” Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show.

A dose of reality for the HPV debate  —  If Republican presidential candidates want to debate sexual health and hygiene, it would be nice if they displayed more collective knowledge and judgment than your average eighth-grade family-life class.  During the Tampa debate, a viewer longed for a blunt …

The Planning Fallacy  —  When the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman was a young man, he led a committee to write a new part of the curriculum for Israeli high schools.  The committee worked for a year, and Kahneman asked his colleagues how long they thought the rest of the project would take.

Tom Ridge to endorse Huntsman at St. Anselm  —  CONCORD — Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman will announce the endorsement of former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Gov. Tom Ridge Friday in an event at St. Anselm College in Goffstown.  —  Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania …

2 Men Accused Of Taking Dead Friend Out For Night On The Town  —  DENVER (CBS4) - Two men are facing charges in a crime that has family members shocked.  —  They are accused of putting their deceased friend into a car and then heading out for a night of bar hopping.  —  Jeffrey Jarrett died last month.

Groups Call for Super Committee Members to Make Avenues of Influence Transparent  —  The drumbeat continues for the twelve members of the Committee on Deficit Reduction to step up and match their newly acquired power with a new-found commitment to transparency.

The law and Justice Clarence Thomas  —  The Supreme Court justice's reporting of spousal income and his ties with a real estate developer who paid for some of Thomas' air travel raise disclosure questions.  —  Two liberal groups have asked the Judicial Conference of the United States …

Ford TV Ad Slams Obama Auto Bailouts  —  America is still fighting over President Obama's costly bailout of Chrysler and General Motors.  Especially the owners of Ford, the only member of Detroit's “Big Three” who rejected the government dole and emerged perfectly healthy.

Living Miserably  —  Economy: What's a six-letter word that describes what you get when you combine spiking jobless claims and rising inflation?  Answer: M-I-S-E-R-Y. And as new reports show, Obama is dishing out heaping portions of it.  —  The two reports out of the Labor Department are troubling enough on their own.

The Rogue's Gallery  —  I of course can't prove it, but my strong suspicion is that Steve Randy Waldmann has the curious intractability of the “rogue trader” problem about right.  These rogue traders are out there because their bosses don't want to know what they're doing.

White House works to quell Dem dissent  —  Senior administration officials met with Senate Democrats for an hour and a half on Thursday to answer their complaints about President Obama's jobs bill.  —  Democratic lawmakers voiced objections to several of the president's proposals to pay …

Koch May Test His Political Voice on National Stage  —  Former Mayor Edward I. Koch's strategy seemed almost nutty at first: ask Jewish residents in Brooklyn and Queens to vote against an Israel-loving observant Jew for Congress to send a message to President Obama.

Some Cabbies Given Right to Say No to Racy Ads  —  For Mohan Singh, the breaking point came last year when his granddaughter, who was 6 at the time, saw a seductive woman in an advertisement affixed to the roof of his taxicab.  She proudly announced that she suddenly knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

Republican E-Verify Bill Faces Growing Internal Opposition … WASHINGTON — A House Republican bill that would require businesses to screen for undocumented immigrants is facing a growing bloc of opposition — even from within the GOP.  —  At a Thursday markup of the bill …