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WASHINGTON—The White House and Republican lawmakers were close to an agreement on a broad tax package that would extend the Bush-era rate cuts, reduce worker payroll taxes for one year and give more favorable treatment to new business investments.As the White House and Republican leaders try to reach a deal to extend cuts, one idea that could gain traction is a temporary payroll-tax holiday. Other possible elements of the still-developing deal include a temporary reinstatement of the estate tax at 35%—the level favored by most Republican lawmakers—as well as an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and temporary...

After WikiLeaks' unauthorized release of a quarter of a million State Department documents Sunday, Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) called for the Swedish website to be designated a "foreign terrorist organization" and its founder Julian Assange to be charged as a spy. "WikiLeaks presents a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States," he wrote Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I strongly urge you to work within the administration to use every offensive capability of the U.S. government to prevent further damaging releases by WikiLeaks," said King in the letter he made public Sunday.

These wan domestic squabbles are merely prelude to the movie's major plot development. Samantha is approached by an Arab sheik to devise a PR campaign for his business enterprises, and he offers to fly her and her three gal pals on an all-expenses-paid luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi. (These scenes were filmed in Morocco.) Even in an escapist fantasy, the spectacle of women sinking into this billionaire's paradise at a time of widespread economic hardship initially seems creepy and off-putting. Soon, however, their Arab sojourn takes unexpected turns. First of all, Carrie encounters her old flame, Aidan (John Corbett), at...

But WH might be willing to execute an executive order.

As their whip efforts narrow to a just handful of Members, House Democratic leaders are facing an unlikely problem vote: Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.). Sanchez was nowhere to be found on Saturday — she was in Florida on a fundraising jaunt, two Democratic sources said — and while leaders expected her to return for the Sunday vote on final passage, they weren’t assured. What’s more, leaders now list the Orange County Democrat as a “no” vote.

ALBANY - Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy will announce Friday he is leaving the Democratic Party to run for governor of New York as a Republican, a Levy campaign spokeswoman said late Wednesday night. Levy will declare his candidacy in Albany with the endorsement of "a large majority of Republican vice chairs as well as many Republican county chairs," spokeswoman Rene Babich said. Levy's entry into the race upends a campaign whose only declared candidate had been former Rep. Rick Lazio, of Brightwaters, who has trailed the expected Democratic candidate, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, in both polls and fundraising.

Per CNBC

Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the real estate tycoon and publisher of The Daily News, is considering a bid for the Senate seat now held by Kirsten E. Gillibrand, according to two people told of the discussions. Mr. Zuckerman regards Ms. Gillibrand as vulnerable to a challenge and is hoping that, at a time of economic tumult and political unrest, his background as an outsider to government, and his record as a business executive, will appeal to the state’s electorate, these people said.

Vice President Biden released a statement today expressing sympathy to those affected by the shootings at Fort Hood that left 12 dead and 31 wounded. Here is the full text, as released by the White House: Jill and I join the President and Michelle in expressing our sympathies to the families of the brave soldiers who fell today. We are all praying for those who were wounded and hoping for their full and speedy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the entire Fort Hood community as they deal with this senseless tragedy.

WASHINGTON -- Timothy Geithner didn't pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for several years while he worked for the International Monetary Fund, and he employed an immigrant housekeeper who briefly lacked proper work papers. President-elect Barack Obama's pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, left, employed an immigrant housekeeper with expired work papers. Those issues, and a series of other tax matters, caused the postponement Tuesday of Mr. Geithner's confirmation hearing as Treasury secretary. They were instead the subject of a closed-door meeting between the nominee, currently president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and members of the Senate...

State Senator David Paterson’s bid to be Eliot Spitzer’s candidate for Lieutenant Governor and campaign-trail partner was launched last month in a flurry of confusion and political intrigue. It stunned his Harlem-based world, and left him for a few days opposed by a candidate who had been endorsed by his wife and father. And when things settled down, Mr. Paterson unsettled some of Mr. Spitzer’s supporters with a public promise of a “Paterson-Spitzer administration.” Those who follow the Harlem Senator’s career were not surprised. Mr. Spitzer selected a man described as “a living contradiction” by one longtime associate. Indeed, Mr....

February 16, 2008 -- BREAKING: POLICE HAVE ARRESTED DAVID TARLOFF IN THE BRUTAL MURDER UPPER EAST SIDE PSYCHOLOGIST OF KATHRYN FAUGHEY. DEVELOPING STORY COPS SAID THAT FOUR SEPARATE WITNESSES POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED TARLOFF

Oliver Stone has set his sights on his next directing project, "Bush," a film focusing on the life and presidency of George W. Bush, and attached Josh Brolin to play the title role. The director has begun quietly shopping a script by his "Wall Street" co-writer Stanley Weiser. Pic will be produced by Moritz Borman, who teamed with Stone on "World Trade Center" and "Alexander," and Jon Kilik, a producer of "Alexander" as well as "Pinkville," the pre-strike project about the Army's investigation of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam that Stone expected to direct until United Artists pulled the...

The physician whose reuse of syringes caused the infection of two patients with hepatitis C has been identified as Dr. Harvey Finkelstein of Dix Hills, according to Nassau officials and an internal investigation by the state Department of Health. Finkelstein, 52, an anesthesiologist since 1981, practices at Pain Care of Long Island, a pain management clinic in Plainview, according to his Web site. He has admitting privileges at the New Island Hospital in Bethpage, North Shore University Hospital in Plainview and Long Island Surgicenter in Melville, according to the Web site. State health investigators indentified patients administered injections by Finkelstein...

Updated, 4:47 p.m. | The New York City public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, called this afternoon for an official investigation into the death of her 45-year-old stepdaughter-in-law, who died in police custody at the airport in Phoenix on Friday while on her way to Tucson to enter an inpatient alcohol rehabilitation program. In a statement, Betsy Gotbaum’s office criticized the Phoenix police’s handling of the case. The statement said Carol Gotbaum had been “manhandled” and mistreated, sentiments that the family’s lawyer echoed in an interview. “The family has not reached a conclusion as to whether her care and treatment were inappropriate,...

NEW YORK -- One person carrying a rifle in a bag was arrested on the St. John's Queens campus Wednesday afternoon, police said. The man appeared to be wearing a President Bush mask, according to preliminary information from law enforcement officials. Authorities asked students and faculty across the campus to stay indoors. There was a large police presence on the campus. Areas near the site of the man's apprehension have been locked down. Police said they were possibly looking for more suspects. The St. John's University Web site issued this advisory: "A male with a rifle in a bag was...

A subcontractor who provided carpenters to many large-scale home building projects on Long Island pleaded guilty Friday to failing to pay federal taxes on the wages of his workers, many of whom were illegal immigrants from Ecuador working off the books, according to officials. The plea by Jay Kuhn, the head of Kuhn Brothers Construction of St. James, is just the start of a large-scale federal investigation into illegal practices in the construction industry on Long Island that cheat the government out of tax revenue, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Kuhn pleaded guilty to one count of evading...

Senate Leader [Kate O'Beirne] A veteran Senate aide reminded me that the essential function/core responsibility of a Senate majority or minority leader is to represent his party on procedural issues. This responsibility doesn't rest with other members of the party's Senate leadership. Speaking for his party on procedural issues defines the job of a Senate leader. A majority of Republican senators voted against cloture and Senator McConnell voted on the other side. Apparently, that's unprecedented.

The Senate immigration bill now being resurrected is long on promises and short on actual reforms. Outside of providing amnesty to an estimated 12 million aliens living in the United States illegally, the bill contains little substance. No guarantee for control of our borders. Insufficient fraudulent document protections. No real protections against alien gangs and criminals. And no fixes for our broken visa system. In other words, it is a huge step in the wrong direction, a bill that would reward 12 million lawbreakers and only serve to weaken the security of our nation. To counter this misguided bill, Representative...

June 19, 2007 -- MICHAEL Moore’s latest documentary, “Sicko,” is an urgent bipartisan plea. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, Yankees and Red Sox can surely all agree, says Moore, that our health-care system ought to be run by Fidel Castro. The silliness of Moore’s oeuvre is so self-evident that being able to spot it is not liberal or conservative, either; it’s a basic intelligence test, like the ability to match square peg with square hole. His documentaries are political slapstick that could have been made by a third Farrelly brother or a fourth Stooge. I will pay him the...