SPB News for Friday.

Judge to rule Friday on O.J. Simpson's fate

Oprah: Palin snubbed show offer

AT&T to slash 12,000 jobs

Suit contesting Barack Obama's citizenship heads to U.S. Supreme Court Friday — Justices will decide whether to consider the case — The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship …

House and Senate leaders are taking up legislation to cut the pay of Sen. Hillary Clinton and other members of Congress nominated by President-elect Barack Obama. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits new appointees from “serving in a confirmable position within the executive branch if that position has had its pay increased while they were serving in Congress.”

Chris Matthews is being advised to resign his post at MSNBC as soon as possible if he is serious about running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Despite the fact that Matthews is currently looking for a house in the state, some at NBC believe Matthews’s potential candidacy is simply a “negotiating ploy to jack up his contract.”

Ted Stevens' New Trial Motion to Land with a Thud
When government prosecutors get their copy of the motion for a new trial in Sen. Ted Stevens’ case this week, the printed document will be slightly heavier than first anticipated.

Bush’s new ‘ranch’: A $2 million estate in Dallas.
The Bush family has purchased a new home in Dallas, TX, a White House spokesperson said today. While they will still own and “spend time” at their ranch in Crawford, TX, the new home fulfills the First Lady’s reported desire to return to Dallas where the family lived prior to her husband’s election as the governor of Texas. The Dallas Morning News provides this photo of the $2 million property

Tangled Web: Rangel son got campaign cash — Between 2004 and 2007, Rep. Charles Rangel steered nearly $80,000 in campaign cash to an Internet company run by his son - paying lavishly for a pair of political Web sites so poorly designed an expert estimated one should have cost no more than $100 to create.

Thomas Refers a Previously Rejected Case Challenging Obama Eligibility — In a highly unusual move, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the court to consider the request of an East Brunswick, N.J. attorney who has filed a lawsuit challenging …

Alito jabs at Biden over long-ago plagiarism — WASHINGTON (AP) — His Supreme Court confirmation hearings three years old, Justice Samuel Alito apparently still harbors some hard feelings toward one Democratic questioner at the time. — Alito made several joking references …

CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team — Despite network's intention to launch wire service, compete with the AP — CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology …

U.S. military sets high-stakes missile-shield test The U.S. military is set to run a "realistic" test Friday of a system built to knock out long-range missiles that could be fired by North Korea or Iran [more likely by the US], the Pentagon said. The drill, over the Pacific, will be the first since September 2007 involving an attempted intercept by the sole U.S. shield against long-range ballistic missiles.

Terrorists could mount nuclear or biological attack within 5 years, warns Congress inquiry An investigation by the US Congress into weapons of mass destruction published yesterday made a chilling prediction of terrorists mounting an attack using biological or nuclear weapons within the next five years. The six-month inquiry mentioned Pakistan as one of the likeliest sources of such an attack. The target could be the US or some other part of the world. The report, by the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, said "unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013".

Italian judge suspends CIA kidnapping trial A Milan judge on Wednesday suspended the high-profile trial of U.S. and Italian agents suspected of a CIA kidnapping after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi authorized witnesses to invoke state secrecy. Judge Oscar Magi said Berlusconi had made it extremely difficult to know what evidence should be allowed in the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians accused of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Milan in 2003.

Report: India Warned of Airborne Attacks --New Intelligence Puts Indian Airports On High Alert, Unexploded Grenade Found At Hospital Local media reports quoted the Indian air force chief Thursday as saying authorities had received warnings of a possible airborne terrorist attack. Major airports across the country were put on high alert after receiving the information from intelligence agencies about possible aerial strikes.