Morning folks…It is Friday….Thank GOD!!!  Grab your coffee and take a look at today’s headlines, but first today is the 4oth Anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr…

Remembering King
The other side of the mountaintop…
Near the end of his life, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. felt cornered and under siege. His opposition to the Vietnam War was widely criticized, even by friends. He was being pressured both to repudiate the black power movement and to embrace it. Some of his lieutenants were urging him to jettison his urgent new campaign to uplift the poor, believing that King had taken on too much and was compromising support for the civil rights struggle.

Top Stories
Tornado hits Arkansas…
At least one tornado ripped through central Arkansas Thursday evening, savaging a mobile home park and sending National Weather Service forecasters into a bunker as the storm roared overhead.

Iraq PM warns of more offensives…
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki vowed Thursday after last week’s battle in the southern port of Basra to carry out more offensives around Iraq, mentioning as targets neighborhoods in Baghdad associated with Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.

1000 Iraqi soldiers refused to fight…
More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.

U.S. on the wrong track?
More than 80 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest such number since the early 1990s, according to a new survey.

Australian PM comes under fire…
Australia’s prime minister came under fire at home Friday over a playful salute he gave President Bush at a NATO summit, which critics said seemed to suggest Australian subservience to Washington.

Border complicates Afghan fight…
As a cold darkness enveloped the tiny US Military camp just inside Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, word spread that Taliban fighters were on the move nearby, planning an attack.

Raw Politics
Is the country ready for a Black or a woman President?
The number of Americans who believe that the country is ready for a black president is rising, a poll released Thursday suggested.

Super delegate trouble for Clinton…
Nearly three weeks remain before the next Democratic primary, but the results are rolling in from another part of the presidential contest — and they signify trouble for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama out raises Clinton…
Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama continued to display his unrivaled prowess for fundraising by collecting more than $40 million in March, about double the amount raised by Sen. Hillary Clinton, to bring the overall take for his White House bid to more than $200 million, aides said Thursday

Cindy McCain beer fortune…
On a spring day at a speedway in North Carolina, John McCain posed with his wife, Cindy, and racing star Dale Earnhardt Jr., highlighting the couple’s political and business interests in a single snapshot.

Program NOTE: Erica Hill profiles John McCain tonight on AC360

John Edwards says NO to VP…
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said on Thursday he would not accept the nomination for U.S. vice president as he did four years ago.

Crime & Punishment
Man threatens “tech” like killings…
A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the Internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said Thursday.

4 indicted in Tenn football player murder…
Four men accused of killing a University of Memphis football player during a botched robbery have been indicted on first-degree murder charges.

Stripper-turned-soccer mom convicted…
A former stripper-turned-soccer mom convicted of plotting to kill her former fiance 12 years ago was sentenced Wednesday to 99 years in prison.

Keeping Them Honest
Inspectors say FAA ignored violations…
The Federal Aviation Administration may know considerably less about the state of airline safety than it claims, a parade of witnesses and lawmakers said at a Congressional hearing on Thursday.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
1864 Lincoln letter…
A rare Lincoln manuscript sold for $3.4 million on Thursday at Sotheby’s auction house. The 1864 letter in which Abraham Lincoln replies to the abolitionist pleas of 195 young boys and girls was bought by a private American collector over the phone.

Morning folks….Happy Monday!!

Fifteen minutes before Treasury Secretary Paulson unveils a new economic plan, HUD Secretary Jackson will allegedly resign…check out Top Stories.  In Raw Politics new poll numbers out showing Obama with a ten point lead, but Hillary is stayin’ in the race… AND the NCAA final four is set, it is the first time EVER all FOUR number 1 seeds will play in the FINAL FOUR… OK, OK, if you’re not a college hoop fan, there is plenty of other stories to chew over… So grab your coffee and let’s go…

Top Stories
HUD secretary to resign…
Housing Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson is expected to resign Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday night.

Paulson’s plan…
A sweeping overhaul of financial regulation that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. will propose today started out last year as an effort to streamline and deregulate oversight of global markets, but the administration was forced to add elements addressing the mortgage crisis as it escalated this year.

Body found of Ohio soldier…
After nearly four years of hoping, waiting and praying, an Ohio family learned Sunday their missing son died in Iraq.

Al-Sadr calls of fighting in Iraq…
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on followers to stop shooting and cooperate with Iraqi security forces Sunday, a move Iraq’s government praised as a step toward ending six days of fighting that has left hundreds dead.

Raw Politics
New POLL: Obama 10 pt lead…
Barack Obama has extended his lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally to 52% to 42%, the third consecutive Gallup Poll Daily tracking report in which he has held a statistically significant lead, and Obama’s largest lead of the year so far.

Obama: Clinton should stay…
Barack Obama refused Saturday to go along with other Democrats who are calling for Hillary Rodham Clinton to step away from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Bill Clinton tells superdelegates to “chill”
Former President Clinton urged Democratic Party superdelegates and activists Sunday to be patient in selecting a presidential nominee and let the primary election process play out over the coming months.

Hillary appeals to blue collar…
Hillary Clinton kicked off her North Carolina primary campaign last week at a technical school that bills itself “College for the Real World.” After some pleasantries and a stab at a basketball reference, she began to outline what she called “the problems that we face” as a nation

Obama tries to reach PA votes…
 Barack Obama hit the bowling lanes and walked the factory floor, hoisted the local brew and even nursed a calf as he introduced himself over the weekend to the working-class residents of hardscrabble towns in the valleys and mountains of southern Pennsylvania.

Obama, McCain forge alliance…
A year into his tenure on Capital Hill, Sen Barack Obama (D-Ill.) approached John McCain on the Senate floor to propose the two work together on a lobbying and ethics reform bill. The four-term Arizona Republican, 25 years Obama’s senior, quickly saw a willing apprentice to help shake up the way business was done on Capitol Hill.

McCain faces test in wooing elite donors…
With attention focused on the Democrats’ infighting for the presidential nomination, Senator John McCain is pressing ahead to the general election but has yet to sign up one critical constituency: the big-money people who powered the Bush fund-raising machine.

Keeping them Honest
Popular cholesterol drug fails…
Leading doctors urged a return to older, tried-and-true treatments for high cholesterol after hearing full results Sunday of a failed trial of Vytorin.

Crime & Punishment
No evidence of murder in Princess death…
The coroner heading the inquest into the death of Princess Diana  says there is no evidence that Prince Philip, the Secret Intelligence Service or any other government agency was involved in her death in 1997.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Islam has overtaken Catholicism…
Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world, the Vatican said on Sunday.

NCAA basketball: ALL four #1 in final four…
Stephen Curry darted this way, faked that way. Nothing open, and the bright red numbers on the clock getting close to zero.

Morning folks…It is Friday!! Thank GOD!!! In honor of it being Friday, I won’t bore you with the details of today’s headlines…Soooo grab your coffee and let’s go…

Top Stories
U.S. joins offensive…
U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.

U.S. suspends Afghan arms dealer…
U.S. investigators are looking into accusations that a company hired by the U.S. military supplied corroded and decades-old Chinese ammunition to the Afghan Army and police

Puerto Rico Governor indicted…
Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila and 12 associates, including his former administrative director in Washington, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax crimes during three recent political campaigns.

Tibet tension lingers…
From behind bars, the young man fidgeted. His eyes flickered over to a policeman standing nearby as he debated how to answer a very sensitive question.

New Central Command Chief…
One of the Army’s most Iraq-savvy generals is taking charge, at least temporarily, of arguably the most important command in the U.S. Military, with responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Raw Politics
Dodd says STOP…
Q: As I mentioned earlier, you were the General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Now, you know that a lot of Democrats feel that this increasingly bitter race between Obama and Clinton is hurting the party. First of all, do you think that is true, and secondly, if you were in charge, what would you do? Dodd: Well, I think it is hurting

Obama would have left church…
White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama’s campaign, not stepped down.

Three candidates, three proposals for the economy…
The deteriorating economy took center stage in the presidential election Thursday as Democrat Barack Obama called for tighter regulation of financial markets and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed more retraining for displaced workers, creating a sharp contrast with Republican John McCain over how much the government should intervene.

Clinton details health plan…
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview on Wednesday that if elected president she would push for a universal health care plan that would limit what Americans pay for health insurance to no more than 10 percent of their income, a significant reduction for some families.

Obama bus tour…
When he steps aboard a campaign bus in Pittsburgh on Friday, Senator Barack Obama begins a six-day journey across Pennsylvania and its complex political landscape, one that is largely favorable to his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama-Bloomberg ticket?
It was only hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg finally made it clear that he was not running for president that his chief political guru, Kevin Sheekey, suggested that he would be the perfect running mate for Senator Barack Obama.

Obama rewriting rules for online contributions…
When Christen Braun decided it was time to learn more about the presidential candidates, the 28-year-old high school teacher from suburban Pittsburgh turned to Google — right where Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign was waiting for her. 

Crime & Punishment
Learn english or go to jail…
A judge known for creative sentencing has ordered three Spanish-speaking men to learn English or go to jail

Keeping Them Honest
Hundreds of flights canceled or grounded, why?
Hundreds of flights were canceled Thursday as mechanics for American Airlines and Delta Airlines inspected wiring in aircraft to ensure the planes met federal safety rules.

Tapes destroyed…
When officers from the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting harsh interrogations in 2005, they may have believed they were freeing the government and themselves from potentially serious legal trouble.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Parents pick pray over treatment…
Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl’s death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.

Good morning folks….Floods, planes being grounded and yes, according to the Generals on the ground in Iraq “the troops are feeling the strain” — really? Surprise, surprise!!! In Raw Politics the Democratic infighting continues, while John McCain lays out his foreign policy plans…AND check out the latest in the death of Carol Gotbaum in Crime & Punishment…her family has filed an 8 million dollar wrongful death suit, the police responded immediately by saying “if she was so sick, why was she traveling alone?” AND greeting cards for inmate? What will Hallmark think of next? There are lots of headlines to chew over this morning…Sooo grab your coffee and lets get this headline party started…

Top Stories
Arkansas braces for more flooding…
Arkansans sandbagged their front doors and pumped out their flooded basements Wednesday as a historic crest on the White River moved downstream, and a flooding expert said the state will have to deal with high water for weeks.

U.S. planes grounded…
The nation’s aging airline fleets, already struggling with high fuel costs and growing passenger demand, delivered another blow to travelers Wednesday as American Airlines and Delta Air Lines canceled hundreds of flights while planes were reinspected for compliance with federal maintenance rules. More disruptions are expected

Florida apologizes for slavery…
The Florida Legislature formally apologized Wednesday for the state’s “shameful” history of slavery, joining five other states that have expressed public regret for what Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, recently called America’s “original sin.”

Saddam paid for US congressional delegation…
Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency footed the bill for a U.S. congressional delegation’s trip during a buildup to the Iraq war, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in the case of an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen charged with spying for the Iraqi government.

Troop strain…
Behind the Pentagon’s closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush they are worried about the Iraq war’s mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they’d go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.

U.S steps up strikes in Pakistan…
The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against Al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that Pakistan’s new leaders will insist on scaling back military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials.

Raw Politics
McCain outlines foreign policy…
Sen. John McCain, carefully distancing himself from President Bush and seeking to sound a moderate tone, called Wednesday for stronger ties with allies and cautioned that American power “does not mean we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.”

New poll: Clinton takes a hit…
As expected, one of the two major Democratic candidates saw a downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, but it’s not the candidate that you think. Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowest personal ratings of the campaign. Moreover, her 37 percent positive rating is the lowest the NBC/WSJ poll has recorded since March 2001, two months after she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.

Clinton backers send letter to Pelosi…
Top fundraisers for Sen Hillary Clinton’s campaign upbraided House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday for suggesting that Democratic superdelegates should back the candidate with the most pledged delegates and urged her to respect the right of those delegates to back whomever they choose at the end of the primary season.

Obama warns of “you’re on your own society…”
Presidential candidate Barack Obama, largely ignoring his Democratic rival for now, ridiculed likely Republican nominee John McCain on Wednesday for offering “not one single idea” to help hard-pressed homeowners facing foreclosure.

Dem party divide runs deep…
Political tension between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton is inflaming Democrats’ emotions as it spills over into the electorate with more voters threatening to defect from the party should their candidate lose the presidential nomination.

Finding political news online…
Senator Barack Obama’s videotaped response to President Bush’s final State of the Union address — almost five minutes of Mr. Obama’s talking directly to the camera — elicited little attention from newspaper and television reporters in January.

McCain’s daughter view of her dad…
“McCain Blogette” seems an oxymoron: a senior citizen and his presidential campaign chronicled by the Facebook generation.

Keeping them Honest
GPO profits go to bonuses and trips…
When the government’s main printing agency booked $100 million in unexpected profit it went on a spending spree: large bonuses to top managers, trips to Paris and Las Vegas, and an official photo of the boss that cost $10,000.

U.S. unconcerned about erroneous shipment…
After Taiwanese officials reported in early 2007 that four packages they had received from the U.S. military did not contain the helicopter batteries they had expected, U.S. officials suggested that Taiwan simply dispose of the incorrect items — which turned out to be parts for U.S. nuclear missiles.

Crime & Punishment
Family seeks $8 million…
The family of a woman who died last year while in police custody at Phoenix, Arizona’s, Sky Harbor International Airport filed an $8 million claim Wednesday against the city of Phoenix and its police department, the first step in filing a wrongful death suit.

Peterson search will continue…
Assured early on by authorities that her sister, Stacy Peterson, did not leave home by choice, Cassandra Cales is more determined than ever to know what happened to the young Bolingbrook mom who vanished five months ago.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Greeting cards for inmates?
Ever find yourself struggling to craft the perfect sentence for a loved one who’s, um, serving a sentence? Now, you have a friend in the greeting card business.

Good morning folks….There are only a few headlines to chew over in Top Stories today. So grab your coffee and head right to Raw Politics… But definitely scroll down to What YOU will be talking about TODAY  and read about an outrageous story about a Walmart employee involved in a traffic accident and who is now being sued by Walmart for medical bills…Randi Kaye will have that story tonight on AC360.  

Top Stories
Floods in Arkansas…
Volunteers armed with sandbags held back water springing up from under a rural levee Tuesday as the White River continued its highest surge in a quarter-century through eastern Arkansas.

Iraq PM gives deadline…
Iraq’s prime minister on Wednesday gave gunmen in the southern oil port of Basra a three-day deadline to surrender their weapons and renounce violence as clashes between Shiite militia fighters and Iraqi security forces erupted for a second day.

Pilot suspended after gun fires in cockpit…
A US Airways pilot who accidentally discharged his handgun in the cockpit during a flight has been suspended from the federal program that permits pilots to carry firearms and has been removed from flight duty pending the outcome of an investigation, the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

Raw Politics
Clinton seeks to soften impact on Bosnia statement…
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried Tuesday to put a softening spin on her misstatement that she ran from sniper fire at an airport in Bosnia as first lady, saying the comment was a mistake that “proves I’m human.”

Presidential hopefuls mum on social security & medicare…
With the presidential campaign going full tilt, a new government report on a big national problem is usually followed by volleys of rhetoric from the candidates. But on Tuesday, when the annual report on the precarious state of Medicare and Social Security came out, the reaction was not exactly deafening.

Obama posts tax returns…
The 2000-through-2006 tax returns for Sen. Barack Obama and his wife were posted on his campaign Web site Tuesday, part of an ongoing effort to paint Sen. Hillary Clinton as a secretive politician who has failed to disclose key information.

McCain: Life experience shapes views…
On Sept. 28, 1983, a freshman Republican took to the House floor and did something unexpected: He opposed President Ronald Reagan’s plan to keep U.S. troops in war-torn Lebanon.

Meghan McCain offers her own straight talk…
Meghan McCain, who blogs about life inside her dad’s presidential campaign, is not terribly interested in matters of policy, but she is acutely attuned to matters of footwear.

Obama and the “L” word…
Sen. Barack Obama offers himself as a post-partisan uniter who will solve the country’s problems by reaching across the aisle and beyond the framework of liberal and conservative labels he rejects as useless and outdated.

Obama foreign-policy views draw criticism…
Barack Obama is drawing fresh fire for pledging to hold direct talks with foreign adversaries, an approach both Hillary Clinton and John McCain say they will hit hard.

Chelsea: “I do not think that is any of your business”
Chelsea Clinton had a quick retort Tuesday when asked whether her mother’s credibility had been hurt during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Keeping Them Honest
250 sick in Colorado…
Crews started pumping chlorine through this southern Colorado city’s water system Tuesday to rid it of salmonella bacteria that has sickened nearly 250 people.

Cigarette company paid for cancer study…
In October 2006, Dr. Claudia Henschke of Weill Cornell Medical College jolted the cancer world with a study saying that 80 percent of lung cancer deaths could be prevented through widespread use of CT scans.

Crime & Punishment
Parachute from D.B. Cooper found?
The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Walmart sues employee  involved in traffic accident…
Shank suffered severe brain damage after a traffic accident nearly eight years ago that robbed her of much of her short-term memory and left her in a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.It was the beginning of a series of battles — both personal and legal — that loomed for Shank and her family. One of their biggest was with Wal-Mart…

Program NOTE: Randi Kaye has this report tonight on AC360 

Family ties..Obama related to Pitt? Clinton to Jolie?
Perhaps, now the candidates will play nice.For all their insistence on how unlike they are from one another, the three U.S. presidential candidates share some noteworthy family connections, the New England Historic Genealogical Society has found.

Morning folks….it is Friday. THANK GOD!!!! It has been a long news week…SO lets skip the introductions….grab your morning coffee and lets get right to this Friday headline party….

Editors NOTE:  Please do notice that “March Madness” has begun, I am an avid College hoops fan…so I have added a link to Sport Illustrated for all the latest scores…ENJOY!!!

Top Stories
Earthquakes in China…
A total of four earthquakes — the strongest of them a powerful 7.2 magnitude quake — hit western China on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Slump moves from Wall Street to Main Street…
In Seattle, sales at a long-established hardware store, Pacific Supply, are suddenly dipping. In Oklahoma City, couples planning their weddings are demonstrating uncustomary thrift, forgoing Dungeness crab and special linens. And in many cities, the registers at department stores like Nordstrom on the higher end and J. C. Penney in the middle are ringing less often.

An agent, a green card and much more…
No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?

US Justice defends tactics used on Spitzer…
The Justice Department used some of its most intrusive tactics against Eliot Spitzer, examining his financial records, eavesdropping on his phone calls and tailing him during its criminal investigation of the Emperor’s Club prostitution ring.

Raw Politics
Bill Richardson to endorse…
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico plans to endorse Sen. Barack Obama in the Democratic race for president Friday, an Obama campaign spokesperson told CNN.

Obama passport breached…
On three occasions since January, Sen. Barack Obama’s passport file was looked at by three different contract workers, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

McCain on the World stage…
Sen. John McCain on Thursday conceded that the British public is “frustrated” over the war in Iraq, but warned that the battle is not won despite recent improvements in the security situation.

Wall street darlings…
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who are running for president as economic populists, are benefiting handsomely from Wall Street donations, easily surpassing Republican John McCain in campaign contributions from the troubled financial services sector.

Back to square ONE…
A proposal to stage a new Michigan primary to give the state’s voters a voice in the fiercely contested nomination battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama collapsed Thursday. Neither candidate appeared any closer to agreement over the fate of the state’s 156 delegates to the party’s national convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

Keeping Them Honest
Keeping Starbucks honest…
Starbucks got caught with its hand in the tip jar and was ordered Thursday to pay California baristas more than $100 million.

Crime & Punishment
Wrongly accused man freed…
Willie Earl Green walked out of a California courtroom as a free man Thursday after serving nearly 25 years in prison for the execution-style murder of a Los Angeles woman, which he insists he never committed.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
March Madness…
Who won and who lost in the NCAA tournament.

Public Health risk…
In a highly unusual outbreak of measles here last month, 12 children fell ill; nine of them had not been inoculated against the virus because their parents objected, and the other three were too young to receive vaccines.

Morning folks…No one story is dominating the headlines this morning. In Top Stories…floods, a new Bin Laden message and V.P Cheney makes a stop in Afghanistan. In Raw Politics…you can get a re-cap of  Anderson’ s  EXCLUSIVE back-stage access to Barack Obama if you missed last night’s show AND Hillary continues to push for a re-vote in Michigan and Florida. BUT the story of the day…Is sin dead? Headlines everyday about scandal and extra-marital affairs…as we approach Easter, do people see themselves as sinners? Grab your coffee and take a look at today’s headlines….

Top Stories
Record flooding…
Residents of low-lying towns stacked sandbags or grabbed belongings and evacuated Wednesday as a foot of rain pushed rivers over their banks in the nation’s midsection. At least 13 deaths had been linked to the weather, and three people
were missing.

Pentagon divided over Iraq strategy…
By many important measures, the U.S. military has reason to feel better about Iraq. Violence has declined, casualties are down, the president is touting the current strategy and the public’s anguish has ebbed.

Cheney in Afghanistan…
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney met with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to discuss ways the country’s fragile government can counter rising threats from al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Bush approval all-time low…
Five years after he green-lighted the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Bush faced strikingly low approval ratings as he reaffirmed his commitment to “accept no outcome but victory” in the war.

New Bin Laden message…
A new statement attributed to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden condemns European countries for siding with the United States in Afghanistan and for allowing the publication of cartoons considered insulting to Islam’s prophet, Mohammed.

Raw Politics
“This has shaken me….”
Sen. Barack Obama told CNN on Wednesday the recent uproar over his former pastor’s sermons has reminded him of the odds he faces in winning the White House.

Document dump sheds little light on Hillary…
Federal archivists Wednesday released 11,000 pages of schedules from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s eight years as first lady, but the material offered little to support her assertion that her White House experience left her best prepared to become president.

Clinton presses re-vote in Michigan & Florida…
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) shifted her schedule to make a last-minute visit here Wednesday, demanding that the state’s Democratic Party hold another primary vote or count the results of the earlier disqualified balloting, and she challenged Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to live up to his claim that he cares about making sure people’s votes count.

Economy may NOT be good for John McCain…
As the economy sours, voters are increasingly demanding immediate government relief — a boost for Democrats who propose just that sort of quick fix, but a problem for Republican Sen. John McCain, whose focus has been on longer-term solutions such as tax and spending cuts and free trade.

Crime & Punishment
Charges filed against boyfriend of girl stuck in toilet…
A man whose girlfriend authorities say spent nearly two years in a bathroom in their house, sitting on the toilet so long that the seat adhered to her body, has been charged with mistreatment of a dependent adult.

Sentence in racially charged killing angers victim family…
The family of a black man who fatally shot a white teenager during a racially charged confrontation was under police protection after the victim’s father blasted the man’s sentence as too mild and made what defense lawyers saw as a threat.

Keeping Them Honest
Why few finish high school…
When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books.

What you WILL be talking about TODAY
Is sin dead?
Is sin dead? No, not by a long shot. Yet as Easter approaches, some pastors and theologians worry: How can Christians celebrate Jesus’ atonement for their sins and the promise of eternal life in his resurrection if they don’t recognize themselves as sinners?

A happy marriage = low blood pressure…
Marriage really can be a matter of the heart with a U.S. study finding that happily married couples have lower blood pressure than single people.

Morning….Today we enter the 6th year of the Iraq war. Five years ago…the administration predicted it would cost between $50 to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein..Today, the cost topples $600 billion AND the cost of US Military lives nears 4000…McCain was in Baghdad earlier this week making the case to “stay the course…the surge is working.” Obama, after delivering what critics call an impressive speech on “race,” hits the campaign trail in North Carolina to talk about his plan for Iraq. AND guess who is along for the ride? Anderson Cooper will be with him every step of the way!  TONIGHT on AC360 you can see Anderson’s EXCLUSIVE interview with Obama and get a an ALL-ACCESS pass to the Presidential contender….

In other news…floods swept  through parts of Arkansas and Texas. John Murtha endorsed Hillary Clinton. Clinton will be in Michigan today pushing for a primary do-over. AND check out What YOU will be talking about TODAY…the most competitive program for medical residents to get into nowadays is PLASTIC SURGERY…says a lot about our society… ANYWAY grab your morning coffee and lets get to it…

Top Stories
Rains lead to flooding in Arkansas, Missouri & Texas…
Torrential rains chased hundreds of people from their flooded homes and deluged roads in the nation’s midsection Tuesday, killing at least two people in Missouri and sweeping a teen down a drainage pipe near Dallas, Texas.

Female suicide bomber kills 3 in Baghdad…
Iraqi police say a woman suicide bomber  has killed three people and wounded 12 in an attack near a bus terminal northeast of Baghdad.

Shock & Awe: Five years later…
For a majority of Americans, today marks the fifth anniversary of the start of an Iraq war that was not worth fighting, one that has cost thousands of lives and more than half a trillion dollars. For the Bush administration, however, it is the first anniversary of an Iraq strategy that it believes has finally started to succeed.

Cost of the war…
At the outset of the Iraq war, the Bush administration predicted that it would cost $50 billion to $60 billion to oust Saddam Hussein, restore order and install a new government.

Issue #1…
The Federal Reserve reduced short-term interest rates for the sixth time in six months on Tuesday, capping an extraordinary series of measures it has taken to stabilize financial markets. The cut was smaller than investors had been expecting, though, and exposed some signs of a split among policy makers.

Raw Politics
Clinton heads to Michigan to push for primary do-over…
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton scheduled a last-minute trip to Detroit this morning to try to salvage a Michigan Democratic primary do-over that earlier Tuesday was all but pronounced dead in the Legislature.

Murtha endorses Clinton…
Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine and Vietnam War veteran who has become one of Congress’ most outspoken critics of the Iraq war, on Tuesday endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president, saying she is “the candidate that will forge a consensus on health care, education, the economy and the war in Iraq.”

Obama urges ALL to help heal racial divide…
Sen. Barack Obama in a speech Tuesday addressed the controversy surrounding his former minister, using it as an opportunity to challenge Americans to take a closer look at race relations.

Obama speaks…
After making what many political analysts are calling the most important speech of his political career, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., sat down for an exclusive interview with “Nightline’s” Terry Moran to further discuss the delicate issue of race in America. Obama explained to ABC News why this was the right moment for him to give such a politically risky speech.

Program note: Anderson’s exclusive interview with Obama airs tonight at 10 pm

Crime & Punishment
Jump in homocides in LA…
Los Angeles Police Department officials, alarmed by the continued rise in the homicide rate this year, sought Tuesday to debunk the notion that racial animosity has been at the heart of many of the killings.

Reporters apologize to McCanns…
Two British newspapers apologized Wednesday to the parents of missing Madeleine McCann for suggesting the couple was responsible for the death of their daughter.

Keeping Them Honest
Rezko jury hears tales of bribes & drugs…
The government’s star witness in the corruption trial of Antoin “Tony” Rezko took the stand Tuesday and in just 48 minutes laid out a stunning personal tale of bribery, treachery, rampant drug abuse and a precipitous fall from grace.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
For med students, appearance matters…
March Madness has a different meaning for Thomas Hocker and Meena Singh, a married couple in their final year at the Harvard Medical School, who are waiting to learn Thursday if they have been accepted into their residency programs of choice.

Report out on Tiger escape…
An organization that accredits zoos says the San Francisco Zoo had an “impressive” response to a tiger escape on Christmas Day but could have done more initially, according to a report the zoo released Tuesday.

Morning folks….Well, there seems to be some good “dish” in Top Stories and in What YOU will be talking about TODAY… A NY paper is reporting that the NEW NY Governor admits he had an affair while married to his current wife, the NEW FIRST lady of NY…and the former Governor of NJ is claiming he and his wife used to engage in three-way sex. Yikes…TMI, too much information, in my opinion!!! AND is the Madonna marriage on the ropes? That is what some are sayin’…. 

In Raw Politics…the race issue is rearing it’s ugly head again in the race for the Democratic nominee. Barack Obama plans to confront it head on… He will give a major speech in Philly, today.  AND no re-vote in Florida!!! BUT there is a glimmer of hope in Michigan, a June 3rd re-vote is the rumor…. There a lots of headlines to chew over this morning, so grab your coffee and let’s get to it….

Top Stories
NEW NY Governor admits to affair…
New York Gov. David Paterson, who took over the state’s top job Monday after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal, has admitted he and his wife Michelle had affairs during a rough patch in their marriage several years ago, a newspaper reported.

The Governor’s affair…
The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state’s new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs.

He said, she said…
He says it’s true. She says it’s not. Former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey says he and his wife Dina Matos McGreevey used to engage in three-way sex with his ex-aide and driver.

Fed poised to cut rates…
The Federal Reserve is expected to aggressively lower interest rates in its intensified battle against the credit crisis and spreading economic weakness. The question is whether all of the effort will turn the tide.

The Fed to the rescue…
Investors dumped stocks of the nation’s major investment firms yesterday after a rescue plan for one of the biggest, Bear Stearns, exposed unexpectedly large cracks in the foundation of the financial system.

SCOTUS takes up gun issue…
Shelly Parker wants to know why she cannot keep a handgun in her house. As a single woman she has been threatened by neighborhood drug dealers in a city where violent crime rates are on the rise.

U.S. adapts cold-war idea to fight terrorists…
In the days immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, members of President Bush’s war cabinet declared that it would be impossible to deter the most fervent extremists from carrying out even more deadly terrorist missions with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

Violence in Tibet continues…
The Dalai Lama urged Tibetans to show restraint Tuesday, saying that “if things become out of control,” his “only option is to completely resign,” The Associated Press reported.

Raw Politics
Obama to address race issue today…
Sen. Barack Obama, confronting ongoing questions about inflammatory sermons delivered by his former pastor, announced Monday he will deliver a “major address” on race and politics in Philadelphia on Tuesday in an attempt to move beyond the controversy.

Congregation defends Obama former pastor…
The Rev. Jeremish Wright spent 36 years teaching this congregation how to recognize injustice, and his parishioners sense it all around them now. On Sunday, more than 3,000 of them filled Trinity United Church of Christ on the city’s South Side to pray for their former pastor. They read a handout that described Wright’s newfound infamy as a “modern-day lynching.” They scrawled his name in tribute on the inside of their service programs and applauded as Wright’s protege, the Rev. Otis Moss III, stepped to the pulpit.

No Florida re-vote…
Florida Democrats scrapped plans Monday to redo the state’s presidential primary, turning to national party leaders to find another way to resolve the political stalemate over the disputed January nominating contest.

New poll re: Super delegates…
A majority of Democratic voters say it would be unfair for Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the presidential nomination through the support of “super delegates” if she lags among the convention delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll.

Economy on the campaign trail…
For months, the top presidential candidates have focused on showing a war-weary public that they have what it takes to be the next commander in chief. But on Monday, as the Iraq war entered its sixth year, they faced a test with far more relevance to the everyday lives of Americans: whether they could serve as economist in chief.

Crime & Punishment
Fugitive arrested…
Chicago police arrested a man Sunday night in Chinatown they believe is a fugitive long-sought in connection with a California 1998 double homicide and featured on the Web site of the TV program “America’s Most Wanted.”

Keeping Them Honest
DOD delayed brain scans…
For more than two years, the Pentagon delayed screening troops returning from Iraq for mild brain injuries because officials feared veterans would blame vague ailments on the little-understood wound caused by exposure to bomb blasts, says the military’s director of medical assessments.

2.4 million toys recalled…
Federal safety regulators recalled an additional 2.4 million potentially deadly Mega Brands magnetic toys Monday, at least 14 months after learning there might be problems with some of those products.

Probe reveals doctor payoffs…
A settlement to end a federal investigation into potential kickbacks to U.S. doctors is shining light on hundreds of agreements under which surgeons across the country receive trips, meals and consulting deals from artificial-hip and -knee makers.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Spears to pay Federline…
Britney Spears was ordered by a court commissioner Monday to pay ex-husband Kevin Federline $375,000 to cover his attorney fees in their child-custody dispute.

Is Madonna marriage on the ropes?
Madonna is squashing suggestions that her marriage may be ending.”I am delighted to confirm that Mr. and Mrs. Guy Ritchie remain happily married,” the pop star’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, said in a statement Monday.

Morning Folks….Happy Monday!!! Iraq seems to be the place to be, today. Vice President Dick Cheney is there! Senator John McCain is too. McCain is trying to look “Presidential,” while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to battle it out on the campaign trail. This week we mark the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq invasion, which I gotta believe is the reason for the visits…Hillary Clinton will deliver what her campaign calls a “major” speech on Iraq today, but from DC, not Iraq.  SO I am sure we will hear from Obama on the topic in the next few days, too…

In Crime & Punishment…just a bizarre twist in the Charles Manson story. Grave sites were discovered on the Mansion compound…could there be more victims??? AND watch out for those bees…commuters in Sacramento had to when a honey truck tipped over and thousands of bees escaped… Soo grab your morning coffee and literally take a look at today’s morning BUZZ….

Top Stories
Cheney in Iraq…
Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Baghdad on Monday on an unannounced visit, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said.

McCain in Iraq, too…
Senator John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday morning on a trip that was described as a visit by an official Congressional delegation, but that also served to showcase his foreign policy credentials as he campaigns for the White House.

Federal Reserve makes move to avert crisis…
The Federal Reserve took dramatic action on multiple fronts last night to avert a crisis of the global financial system, backing the acquisition of wounded investment firm Bear Stearns and increasing the flow of money to other banks squeezed for credit.

JP Morgan buys Bear Stearns for $2 dollars a share…
In a shocking deal reached on Sunday to save Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay a mere $2 a share to buy all of Bear — less than one-tenth the firm’s market price on Friday.

Three missing still in crane collapse…
Three people were missing Sunday, a day after a crane collapsed, killing four construction workers on the east side of Midtown Manhattan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters.

Tornadoes hit in the southeast…
Two people in rural northwest Georgia are dead and dozens injured after a series of severe storms moved through the Southeast this weekend, producing the first-ever tornado to hit downtown Atlanta.

16 dead in Tibet riots…
Tibet’s governor promised leniency to anti-Chinese protesters who turned themselves in before the end of Monday — and harsh consequences for those who don’t — while troops fanned out to quell sympathy protests that have spread to three neighboring provinces.

Raw Politics
Obama ex-minister under attack…
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s former church criticized the news media Sunday for coverage of his sermons, saying in a statement that Wright’s “character is being assassinated in the public sphere.”

Styles vary on the campaign trail…
The Democrats running for president are promising sweeping changes to reinvigorate America’s economy and boost its workers, including health care for all, overhauling or scrapping of trade deals, broad tax cuts for the working class and a crackdown on companies that ship jobs overseas.

Male vote key to win…
In the fierce campaign between Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, a battle dominated by questions of race and gender, white men have emerged as perhaps the single critical swing constituency.

As campaign drags on, aides put lives on hold…
There is the abandoned $1,000-a-month temporary apartment in Des Moines, littered with dirty T-shirts and a deflated air mattress. The campaign aide whose 105-degree fever sent her to the hospital. The neglected fiancée in New York who handed down an ultimatum: Take a weekend off — or else.

Crime & Punishment
Graves found Manson campound…
Bone-white stretches of salt, leached up from the lifeless soil, lay like a shroud over the high desert where a paranoid Charles Manson holed up after an orgy of murder nearly four decades ago.

Man defends self in murder case…
It’s an axiom known by every lawyer and judge in every courthouse in the land: A man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.

Keeping Them Honest
Tainted drugs put focus on F.D.A.
After a contaminated medicine from China was linked to as many as 17 deaths in the United States, members of Congress clamored for changes while regulators defended their actions.

Families sue Chiquita…
Tania Julin remembers hearing the distinct sound of feet racing through the dark Panamanian forest moments before armed masked men burst through the door of the modest hut she shared with her husband.

What YOU will be talking about TODAY
Bees swarm morning commute…
Imagine driving down the highway amid the typical stream of cars and trucks to suddenly discover millions of bees swarming toward the morning commute.