SPB News for Saturday.

New record high of foreclosed homesMillion+ homes affected; 2.9% rate up dramatically from same time last year.

Palin Won't Make Trooper-Gate Testimony Public

Paul Rieckhoff: Military Divorce Numbers On The Rise

India, Russia ink nuclear deal

Fidel Castro: We'd talk with Obama

Sweden announces $1 billion stimulus

WaPo: Obama Team To Join Treasury In Bailout Talks
Henry Paulson's Treasury reached out to the Obama transition team to attend a meeting to convince lawmakers to release the second $350 billion installment of the bailout, and the Obama team agreed -- but still wants to know how the Treasury would spend the money, the WaPo reports.

Overtime
House to go back to five day work week for 2009.

Ken Blackwell Tosses Hat Into Race For RNC Chair

Two Jurors Lied on Questionnaires, Stevens’ Lawyers Say - Two jurors who were part of the panel that found Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens guilty in October made false statements of their own on jury questionnaires, according...

Justices Take Case on President's Power to Detain --Man arrested December 2001 in Peoria, Ill., has been held without charge in isolation for more than five years The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide the most fundamental question yet concerning executive power in the age of terror: Can the president order the indefinite military detention of people living in the United States? The case concerns Ali al-Marri, the only person on the American mainland being held as an enemy combatant, at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Mr. Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was legally in the United States when he was arrested in December 2001 in Peoria, Ill., where he was living with his family and studying computer science at Bradley University.

Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto In another regulatory action in the waning days of the Bush dictatorship, the Interior Department on Thursday unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress’s authority to prevent mining planned on public lands. Congress has emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years. The most recent was in June, when it put a three-year moratorium on uranium mining on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed. The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.

More polar bears go hungry in the spring Climate change is already starting to bite in the Arctic. Rising temperatures and melting ice shelves are leaving polar bears hungry, a new study shows. Filling up during the spring months is important for polar bears, helping them to survive the leaner summer months, when the sea ice has retreated and seals are harder to catch. However, new research shows that polar bears are now struggling to find enough food during the spring.

A New Attorney Scandal? Bush-Appointed U.S. Attorney Won't Vacate Office Under Obama — Mary Beth Buchanan was appointed by President Bush to serve as U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh in Sept. 2001. Buchanan has held several significant posts within the Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales Justice Department …

Caroline Kennedy interested in NY Senate seat — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Caroline Kennedy has spoken to New York's governor about the Senate seat that will come open when Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state …

Ted Kennedy gives up his seat on Senate Judiciary Committee — Sen. Ted Kennedy announced that he is stepping down from his position on the Judiciary Committee, according to a statement released from his office, reports Sarah Abruzzese. — “As Chairman of the Senate Health, Education …