Politico - Newly minted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s finances got a recent boost, thanks to a plump $435,000 severance payment from his old employer – the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

AP - America's roads, public transit and aviation have gotten worse in the past four years. Water and sewage systems are dreadful. The basic physical backbone of American society is barely above failing, a report by top engineers says.

Politico - Bill Clinton pulled down $5.7 million in speaking fees last year – almost entirely from foreign sources, including nearly $2.1 million after news circulated that Hillary Clinton was in line for Secretary of State.

AP - American Indians stand to gain almost $3 billion as part of the economic stimulus moving through Congress, money that could help some of the nation's poorest communities rebuild roads, improve health care and boost employment that has lagged behind the rest of the country for decades.

Politico - Kirsten Gillibrand was sworn in as New York’s new junior senator on Tuesday.

AP - The interim leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has been elected as the new patriarch of the world's largest Orthodox Christian church.

Politico - Barack Obama's pick for top deputy at the Pentagon is in line for a payout of as much as $1.25 million in the coming weeks - for his work as a lobbyist for one of the nation's top defense contractors.

AP - An Austrian court sentenced a man to 20 years in prison Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to murdering his sister, brother and their spouses in a long-running family feud over rent.

AP - Eric Holder likely will soon be confirmed as the next attorney general, but it won't stop questions about whether government officials or agents should be prosecuted for harsh interrogations.

Politico - Blog: With George Mitchell in Cairo and Richard Holbrooke getting down to work, a reader wonders why Dennis Ross -- who is expected to take the equally vi

Politico - Former Vice President Al Gore is joining President Obama’s push for a $900 billion economic stimulus, heading to Capitol Hill on Wednesday and e-mailing his list of more than 2 million to urge pressure on Congress.

AP - Former Vice President Al Gore is urging Congress not to be sidetracked by the current financial crisis and to take 'decisive action' this year to reduce the heat-trapping gases responsible for global warming.

AP - A Catholic-Protestant commission proposed Wednesday that the families of all 3,700 people slain in Northern Ireland's conflict should receive a 'recognition' payment — an idea being denounced by many politicians and victims' relatives.

AP - Looking beyond an expected partisan House vote approving his economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama said Wednesday the nation is poised at a 'perilous moment' that requires swift action to kick-start the economy.

AP - Eric Holder's nomination as the first African-American attorney general moved to the full Senate on Wednesday with broad bipartisan support, as Republicans who earlier criticized the nominee determined he was well qualified for the job.

AP - Amid widening unemployment, home foreclosures and credit woes, union membership jumped to 12.4 percent of the work force last year.

Politico - Blog: Some cheer for a snowy day: The Observer reveals that Andrea Mitchell is a secret gay icon.

Politico - Norm Coleman appeared on Sean Hannity’s FOX News show last night to make the case that he can overcome his current deficit against Al Franken in the Minnesota Senate trial, currently underway.

AP - Republicans are airing a television ad in Nevada criticizing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as a 'super-spending partisan.'

AP - Safety investigators say the pilots of two Phoenix news helicopters had so many distractions they lost track of each other, resulting in a midair crash that killed four.

AP - The European Union promised billions of dollars in aid to the world's poorest nations on Wednesday to entice them to sign a new global climate change pact.

AP - Barack Obama is making his first foreign trip as president to Canada on Feb. 19.

AP - President Barack Obama is building a White House staff so loaded with big names and overlapping duties that it could collapse into chaos unless managed with a juggler's skill.

Politico - Blog: Hillary's ascension to the State Department meant that she's shuttered, or is shuttering, her various campaign committees and PACs. B

Politico - The Senate’s top Republican is calling for a stimulus provision to reduce mortgage interest rates.

Reuters - An effort to delay the nationwide switch to digital television signals by about four months failed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

AP - A Guantanamo Bay prisoner who says he merely cooked meals for Taliban forces and never fired a shot in battle lost his petition to be released Wednesday after being held for more than seven years.

Politico - Blog: There are some interesting hints that, after a rocky start, the presidents of the U.S. and Russia are quietly backing down from what had looked like

Politico - Former President Jimmy Carter said President Barack Obama “personally” promised him that he would not wait until the last year of his presidency to begin working on a Middle East peace process.

AP - It won't thrill health advocates, but U.S.-based foreign diplomats with a taste for tobacco can rejoice: their smokes are now tax-free.

AP - Federal investigators say NASCAR's aviation division violated federal regulations when it allowed a plane that crashed outside Orlando, Fla., in 2007 to return to the air without maintenance after a pilot reported an electrical malfunction the previous day.

AP - British police charged a book dealer Wednesday with stealing a rare First Folio of Shakespeare's plays from a university library a decade ago.

AP - President Barack Obama says his administration faces tough decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan. But the new commander in chief is offering no new details about his decisions on the wars in both countries.

Politico - Blog: The NRSC goes after Reid. The Do-Nothing Crowd makes its voice heard. ProPublica lists all the 'war on terror&

Politico - The cost of Pentagon service is high – literally. 

AP - This much apparently isn't changing at the White House: You better know the language of sports.

AFP - The US House of Representatives handed President Barack Obama his first legislative setback on Wednesday, rejecting his call to delay next month's planned nationwide shift to digital television.

Politico - BLOG: Former President Jimmy Carter has long been kept on the margins of his party.

Politico - Just eight days after his Inauguration, President Obama’s recovery plan cleared the House Wednesday evening after Republicans failed in back-to-back efforts to shift the focus more to tax cuts and traditional highway and water infrastructure projects. 

AP - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is calling for a top-to-bottom review of ethical misconduct and reforms at the Interior Department, raising the possibility that investigations closed by the Bush administration may be reopened.

AP - The White House on Wednesday defended Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's choice of Mark Patterson — an ex-lobbyist from Goldman Sachs — to be his chief of staff.

AP - The Senate on Wednesday confirmed retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the new national intelligence director.

AFP - Attorneys for five Cubans sentenced in 2001 on espionage charges will file an appeal with the US Supreme Court on Thursday, a source close to the case told AFP.

AP - A former deputy to Jack Abramoff was charged Wednesday in the lobbyist corruption scandal, accused of wining and dining public officials and showering them with other gifts to win favors for clients.

AP - Civil libertarians urged the Obama administration to release dozens of memos under its control that could shed light on secret Bush-era interrogation, detention and surveillance activities.

AP - Investigators blamed NASCAR for a 'tragic, unnecessary' plane crash in 2007, saying the racing organization let one of its aircraft take off without checking an electrical problem reported the day before.

Politico - Despite President Obama's trip to the Hill on Tuesday, he couldn't pry loose a single Republican vote for his stimulus plan, which nonetheless passed with overwhelming Democratic support. Still, the partisan split signalled that despite their weakened political state and the popularity of the new president, Republicans won't be won over by charm alone.

AP - The financial sector — from banks to private equity funds — needs tough new regulations that reduce dangerous risk taking, give consumers greater protections and limit threats to the overall economy, a congressional watchdog panel says.