SPB News for Thursday.

Specter Sends Pennsylvanians Misgiving-Riddled Letter On Stimulus
Holder: We Are A 'Nation Of Cowards' On Racial Issues

Kansas Governor Is Seen as Top Choice for Health — WASHINGTON — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, an early Obama ally with a record of working across party lines, is emerging as the president's top choice for secretary of health and human services, advisers said Wednesday.

ND House Passes Abortion Ban — North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a bill effectively outlawing abortion. — The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person. — That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.

GOP governors consider turning down stimulus money — BATON ROUGE, La. - A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Accused Financier Under Federal Drug Investigation — Authorities: Stanford May Have Laundered Drug Money for Mexican Cartel — The SEC's fraud charges may be the least of accused financial scammer R. Allen Stanford's worries. Federal authorities tell ABC News that the FBI and others

WH: We're Not Interested In Restoring The Fairness Doctrine

Siegelman: America needs Rove to testify

MI5 fed questions to CIA for interrogation --Agency refused to say how or where prisoner held MI5 provided the CIA with material to interrogate Binyam Mohamed, the former UK resident at the centre of torture allegations, even though it had no idea where he was being held and in what condition he was in, it emerged yesterday. Fresh evidence surrounding Mohamed's detention before he was flown to Guantánamo Bay shows the CIA rejected MI5's request to see him.

Obama urged to create special detainee commission The former general who investigated abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison is joining an ex-FBI director and others in seeking a presidential commission to investigate the Bush regime's treatment of terror detainees. They want President Barack Obama to create a nonpartisan, independent panel that would review policies such as harsh interrogations torture and "extraordinary renditions," kidnappings the forced movement of suspected terrorists.

Court bars release of 17 Uighurs detainees into US A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that 17 Turkic Muslims cleared for release from Guantanamo Bay must stay at the prison camp, raising the stakes for an Obama administration that has pledged to quickly close the facility and free those who have not been charged

Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush could get book thrown at him In the two months since he chucked a pair of shoes across a crowded Baghdad room and narrowly missed former President [sic] George W. Bush, Iraqi journalist Muntathar al Zaidi has emerged as a folk hero... Since that throw, Zaidi has received job offers, a residency invitation from U.S. foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and even a wedding proposal on behalf of an Egyptian woman... On Thursday, Zaidi is scheduled to go to trial in the Central Criminal Court on charges of assaulting a foreign head of state. Conviction could lead to as many as 15 years in prison.

ABC News: Some Credit Card Companies Financially Profiling Customers A new policy being used by at least one major credit card company judges a shopper not necessarily by his credit purchases and payments alone, but also by the fiscal behavior of the fellow shoppers in the stores he visits. And in some cases, the bad repayment history of the guy behind you in line at your local megastore could result in a reduction of your credit line, which, in turn, could lead to a reduction in your credit score -- all because of where you shopped.

New York Post in racism row over chimpanzee cartoon At first glance, the main editorial cartoon in today's New York Post seemed like just another lurid reference to the story... about the shooting by Connecticut police on Monday of a pet chimpanzee that viciously attacked his owner's friend. But the caption cast the cartoon in a more sinister light. "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," it read, prompting accusations that the Post was peddling a longstanding racist slur by portraying president Barack Obama, who signed the bill into law yesterday, as an ape.

Palin told to pay taxes for Wasilla meal money

Syria welcomes better ties with US