AP - In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night, filled with new spending and tax cuts at the core of the young adminstration's revival plan for the desperately ailing economy. The vote was 244-188.
AP - A destructive winter storm left more than a million customers in the dark before barreling into the Northeast on Wednesday, delaying flights and turning the morning rush into the morning slush as communities braced for the worst.
AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to make a statement, but not answer any questions, at the impeachment trial he has thus far avoided, the Illinois Senate president announced Wednesday.
In a desperate act after he and his wife were fired from their jobs, Ervin Antonio Lupoe shot her and their five children to death before killing himself, police say. "After a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone else's hands," Lupoe said in a fax to a Los Angeles TV station. "We have no job and 5 children under 8 years with no place to go. So here we are."
The effort to delay next month's scheduled death of analog television suffered a setback in Congress on Wednesday, despite warnings that millions of American homes will not be able to see broadcast shows in three weeks.
In his first week in office, President Obama focused on fixing the nation's economic crisis, but he also addressed other urgent issues -- and he wasted no time putting his military and diplomatic agendas into action. Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst, describes Obama's first week as a "neat balancing act."