Latest Updates on Hudson Jet Rescue  —  [Refresh this post for continuing live blog updates.  Please also see complete coverage on NYTimes.com.]  —  A news conference with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. David A. Paterson is wrapping up.  Mayor Bloomberg said that it appeared …

The Elephant in the Room: McCain may be Obama's secret weapon  —  A desire by both men to secure their places in history might forge an unlikely pairing.  —  I have been to New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington in recent weeks.  In those cities, at least, you cannot watch the news …

Hamas minister Siam dies in IAF strike  —  The IDF stepped up pressure on Hamas on Thursday, killing Interior Minister Said Siam and pushing deep into Gaza City as defense officials predicted a cease-fire would begin soon.  —  Siam, the most senior Hamas political leader killed since Operation …

Obama To Hold Fiscal Responsibility Summit  —  President-elect Barack Obama visits the Post newsroom after a meeting with the editorial board and Washington Post Co. Chairman Don Graham, right.  (Photo, The Washington Post)  —  President-elect Barack Obama will convene a “fiscal responsibility summit” …

Holder to Senate: ‘Waterboarding is torture’  —  Obama's nominee for attorney general vows break with controversial tactic  —  Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shake hands just prior to Holder's confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Commitee.

Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal  —  WASHINGTON — A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, issued a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order …

West Wing ‘Ghost Town’  —  From long-time ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton:  —  President and Mrs. Bush fly to Camp David Friday afternoon for a final weekend in the rustic seclusion of “the Camp.”  Over the next 36 hours, White House staffers will go through the behind …

10 Take Aways From the Bush Years  —  There's actually a lot that President-elect Barack Obama can learn from the troubled presidency of George W. Bush.  Over the past eight years, I have interviewed President Bush for nearly 11 hours, spent hundreds of hours with his administration's key players …

O'Reilly Freaks Out Over the Thought of Holding Bush Admin Torturers Culpable  —  Bill O'Reilly came briefly unhinged last night, but managed to keep himself from having one of his infamous all-out temper tantrums.  I thought for sure he was about to start shouting, “Do it live!  F—k it!

Filling Her Senate Seat: New Yorkers Favor Cuomo to Replace Clinton  —  This Marist Poll reports:  —  · New Yorkers Clamor for Cuomo...Kennedy Stagnates in Pool of Public Opinion: The tides of support have changed in the contest over who voters think should fill Hillary Clinton's vacant U.S. Senate seat.

Of Judges, By Judges, For Judges  —  In November, 13,402,566 California voters expressed themselves for or against Proposition 8, which said that their state's Constitution should be amended to define marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.  The voters, confident that they had a right …

Where Sweatshops Are a Dream  —  Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,” I'd like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh.  —  This is a Dante-like vision of hell.  It's a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across …

Iran Wields The Gavel At The UNDP  —  What do Obama and Susan Rice propose to do about this?  —  Truly, I had plans to write this week about something other than the United Nations.  But over at Turtle Bay, here they go again.  —  To chair the 2009 governing board of the U.N.'s flagship agency …

Vince Foster, Fifteen Years Later  —  I was looking over a daily almanac and saw that Vincent Foster would have been 64 years old today.  In the 1990s, I spent a lot of time covering his death, beginning with trip to Fort Marcy Park the morning after his body was discovered.

Follow Jesus Like Nazis Followed Hitler, Rick Warren Tells Stadium Crowd  —  On April 17, 2005, at the southern California Anaheim Angels sports stadium thirty thousand Saddleback Church members, more than ever gathered in one spot, assembled to celebrate Saddleback's 25th anniversary …

Obama Visits Post Newsroom  —  Here's the President-elect walking directly toward me in the Post newsroom a few minutes ago, but tragically unfocused on his favorite blogger — clearly more interested in the colleague on my left, the fabulous Lonnae O'Neal Parker.

House Democrats Present $825 Billion Stimulus Package  —  House Democrats unveiled a two-year stimulus package worth $825 billion that directs more to new government spending and less to tax cuts than president-elect Barack Obama proposed in his stimulus outline last week.