In the past several months, newspapers, government offices and some prominent people have received letters containing suspicious white powders, sparking fears of the deadly anthrax mailings after Sept. 11, 2001. All substances were proven harmless. Last week The Wall Street Journal received 20 envelopes of powder, all of which turned out to be nontoxic.

Today in Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune received a similar suspicious white powder that prompted an evacuation.

It wasn't anthrax, but it wasn't necessarily harmless, either. Turns out it was cocaine — on a dollar bill. The paper says it measured about "one half of a tablespoon."

Police aren't considering it a threat to the paper, and the employee it was mailed to is not under suspicion.

Yesterday we noted the unveiling of a new work of art in Saddam Hussein's hometown — a giant shoe to commemorate the footwear that an Iraqi journalist threw at former President Bush last month.

Today, CNN reports, it's gone — hauled away by order of the central government in Baghdad.

"We will not allow anyone to use the government facilities and buildings for political motives," said Abdullah Jabara, Salaheddin deputy governor.

Children from the Tikrit Orphanage helped sculptor Laith al-Amiri build and erect the big shoe, which is made of fiberglass and coated with copper (not bronze, as stated yesterday). It cost $5,000.

"Those orphans who helped the sculptor in building this monument were the victims of Bush's war," said the orphange director, Faten Abdulqader al-Naseri. "The shoe monument is a gift to the next generation to remember the heroic action by the journalist."

Journalist Muntadhir al-Zaidi is in jail awaiting trial.

Hackers have stolen job-seekers' information from the federal government's jobs database, The Washington Post reports.

The government said “certain contact and account data were taken, including user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data."

Resumes and "sensitive data such as social security numbers or personal financial data” were not taken.

The government warns that the stolen information could be used in phishing schemes. Here are tips from the Federal Trade Commission on avoiding online scams.

The 17th annual Wing Bowl was a blowout today in Philadelphia.

Final score: 203 chicken wings to 180.

The champ: Jonathan "Super" Squibb of Winslow Township, N.J., who inhaled his 203 wings in 20 minutes. Richard "Not Rich" Razzi was a distant second in the Super Bowl-related contest.

The 23-year-old Squibb takes home a Mini Cooper, a $7,500 diamond ring — and a crown of miniature chickens.

Philly.com has complete coverage, with this advisory: "Content on the Wing Bowl page may be considered graphic and provocative by some readers."

That would be because of the "Wingettes," who displayed their own wings, thighs and breasts to the male-dominated crowd at the Wachovia Center.

Anyone from Buffalo have anything to say about this?

(The winner, Jonathan "Super" Squibb. Photo by Matt Rourke, AP.)

Darvon, a widely prescribed painkiller for 52 years, should now be banned, FDA advisers have recommended.

Consumer groups argued that the drug and its derivatives do not offer strong pain relief and thereby pose risks of overdose and potential suicide. Drug makers said it is safe and effective when used as directed.

After hearing about the benefits and risks, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted, 14-12, to urge that Darvon (Propoxyphene Hydrochloride) be withdrawn, news services say. Today it's most commonly prescribed as Darvocet, which also contains the active ingredient in Tylenol. More than 20 million prescriptions were written in 2007, and it's one of the top 25 prescription painkillers.

The FDA will make the final determination on whether to accept or reject the panel's recommendation.

Here's more information about Darvon.

Stocks continued yesterday's tumble, knocked down by slumping corporate earnings and the withering economy.

The S&P 500 closed out its worst January ever, losing nearly 2.3% for the day and 8.6% for the month. (Don't forget to add that to 2008's loss of 38%.) It ended at 825.

The Dow Jones gave up 1.8% today (148 points) to finish at 8,000; the Nasdaq fell 2% (31 points) to 1,476; and the Russell 2000 dropped 2.1% (9 points) to 443.

That bad news belies some (tentative?) signs that investors are moving back into the markets. MarketWatch reports that mutual-funds experienced the first positive inflows this month since last May. At the same time, money is flowing into that old "safe haven," gold.

Read more about the day's particulars from the AP, Bloomberg and MarketWatch.

To go even deeper, Naked Capitalism and Real Clear Markets have links to an array of articles addressing these challenging times.

Michael Steele has been elected the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee.

He's the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and considered the most moderate of the four candidates.

See On Politics for more.

Mike Duncan, current chairman of the Republican National Committee, has withdrawn from his bid for a second term, the Associated Press reports.

The move came after three rounds of voting in Washington for the top party post failed to settle on a chairman.

Update at 2:37 p.m. ET:  The Kentucky Republican, who owed his tenure as chairman to President Bush, said after withdrawing: “Obviously the winds of change are blowing at the RNC,” the AP reports.

For more details, check with our friends at OnPolitics.

The Justice Department says it has foiled an alleged plan by a fired Fannie Mae contract employee to unleash a virus that would have destroyed data on all of the finance company's 4,000 computers on Saturday, the Associated Press reports.

Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, is the largest U.S. mortgage finance company. It owns or guarantees about $3 trillion in home loans

The news agency says the suspect, Rajendrasinh  Makwana, 35, of Glen Allen, Va., pleaded not guilty Friday in a federal court in Baltimore to one charge of computer intrusion. Makwana, a citizen of India, worked at a Fannie Mae data center in Urbana, Md., the AP says.

The AP says a federal indictment charges says that Makwana, before he turned in his Fannie Mae badge in October after his firing, "intentionally and without authorization caused and attempted to cause damage to Fannie Mae's computer network by entering malicious code."

If the virus was executed this Saturday as allegedly planned, the indictment says, it would have destroyed and altered all of the data on Fannie Mae servers and caused millions of dollars in damages. The indictment says the virus was found "by chance" in late October and removed.

A workman at the state Capitol building in Springfield removes the nameplate of Illinois former governor Rod Blagojevich following his ouster by the state Senate.

(photo by Frank Polich/Reuters)

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has agreed to join the government as prime minister, ending a chaotic stalemate stemming from disputed presidential elections in September, the Associated Press reports.

The AP says Tsvangirai's reversal comes amid speculation that President Robert Mugabe would form a government on his own if the opposition did not come aboard. Still unresolved is what ministries the opposition will control.

The decision coincides with a United Nations report Friday that 60,401 Zimbabweans have been sickened and 3,161 killed since August in a cholera outbreak caused by worsening sanitation and health conditions.

In the opposition newspaper Zimbabwe Independent, Tsvangirai said, "Now is the time for us to put aside our political differences, to prioritize the welfare of the people in both our policies and our actions and to focus on stabilization, development, progress and democratization."

(Photo by Desmond Kwande AFP/Getty Images)

President Obama and Vice President Biden will speak on the economy today at 10:45 a.m. ET

We'll hit the highlights here at OnDeadline, but our friends at The Oval will be covering it in more detail.

In a preview, Biden writes about the middle class and the economy today in a column in USA TODAY.

Update at 11 a.m. ET:  Obama, responding to a report that the economy shrank at a pace of 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, says this "isn't just an economic concept, it is a continuing disaster for America's working families."

He says the recession "is deepening and the urgency of our economic crisis is growing."

The president says he welcomed the passage by the House this week of a new stimulus and investment package and hopes "we can strengthen it further in the Senate."

"What we can't do is drag our feet or delay much longer," he says. "The American people expect us to act, and that's exactly what I intend to do."

Update at 11:21 a.m. ET: Obama formally announces a new White House task force on the problems of middle-class Americans, and installs Biden as its chairman.

Remember the California woman we told you about a few days ago who gave birth to eight children? The Los Angeles Times reports that the woman, who has not been publicly identified, already has six other children at home in Whittier.

The woman's mother, Angela Suleman, told the newspaper her daughter had embryos implanted last year and "they all happened to take."

"I looked at those babies," Suleman said. "They are so tiny and so beautiful."

Update at 9:38 a.m. ET: Dr. Mandhir Gupta, from Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center where the children were born, says seven of the babies are breathing without assistance, the Associated Press reports. One is still receiving oxygen through a tube in his nose. The AP says the infants are expected to remain in the hospital for several more weeks.

The economy shrank at a 3.8 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, the Associated Press reports.

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET: While grim, the figure is not as bad as the 5.4 percent that some analysts had predicted, Reuters reports.

  Exxon Mobil reports $45.2 billion annual profit, a U.S. record, the Associated Press says.

Good morning. It's Friday.

Economy: Grim economic news continues to dominate most front pages. The Washington Post warns that "economic signs turn from grim to worse." It tells readers to brace for this morning's  report on U.S. economic performance that could show the economy shrank at a 6 percent annual rate. The Wall Street Journal reports that the government is weighing a two-part bailout for banks that would involve buying a portion of their bad assets and offering guarantees against future losses on some of the remainder.

Blago:  Many papers report the ousting of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but the Illinois papers do it in style. The top two-thirds of the front page of the Chicago Tribune shows a grim-looking Blagojevich waving at supporters in front of his house. The headline quotes his successor, Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn: 'The ordeal is over.'  The paper also takes a look Quinn, saying he faces a "challenge of a lifetime" with an ailing state. A grim Blagojevich also fills the front of the Chicago Sun-Times, with a quote from the governor: 'Sorry for what?' The paper then tracks his final hours, which it describes as going "from 'lonely place' to a throng of adoring fans." And The Telegraph from River Bend, Ill., offers this screaming headline: "Bla-gone."

Coming Friday:

• The Justice Department unveils a national electronic database for used vehicles. The program is aimed at ending the unscrupulous practice known as "title washing" — giving rebuilt salvaged wrecks or stolen cars new titles and then selling them to unsuspecting buyers.

• Economic reports: Gross Domestic Product and the Employment Cost Index for the last quarter of 2008; consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan; Chicago purchasing managers' index; and current farm prices.

• The Republican National Committee elects new leadership.

• In Denver, Timothy Ryan Gutierrez, 20, will be arraigned on charges of threatening to kill President Obama and blow up the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis.

• Japan Airlines demonstrates a flight powered by biofuel. Two weeks ago, Air New Zealand tested biofuel during a two-hour flight.

• A hearing is scheduled in  Noblesville, Ind., on whether to continue to freeze assets of Marcus Schrenker. He's the Indiana investment manager who allegedly tried to fake his death in a plane crash to flee financial problems.

In Tikrit, hometown of the late Saddam Hussein, children walk past a new monument to the shoes that an Iraqi journalist threw at former President Bush during a news conference.

Here's a clearer shot, from Agence France-Presse.

The BBC says the artist insisted the sofa-size bronze copper work was not political but a "source of pride for all Iraqis." About 400 people attended today's unveiling.

The Beeb also has a refresher on the significance of shoes in Arab culture.

Following the report that Wall Street firms had handed out $18.4 billion in bonuses last year amid the financial meltdown, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said he would look for "every possible legal means” to get the money returned.

"I’m going to be urging — in fact not urging, demanding — that the Treasury Department figures out some way to get the money back," Dodd said. "This is unacceptable."

The New York state comptroller's 2008 report said that although the $18.4 billion was 44% less than the 2007 gift box, it was the sixth-largest bonus bonanza on record.

President Obama called the largesse "the height of irresponsibility" and "shameful."

"There will be times for them to make profits and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time,” Obama said. "The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of, but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re asked to fill it up."

"Secretary Geithner already had to pull back one institution that had gone forward with a multimillion-dollar jet plane purchase at the same time as they’re receiving TARP money," the president continued. "We shouldn’t have to do that."

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been convicted in his impeachment trial and removed from office. The vote was 59-0.

Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn becomes Illinois' 41st governor.

The state Senate also voted 59-0 to ban Blagojevich from again holding elected office in Illinois.

USA TODAY's Judy Keen has more.

Here's the live blog from the Chicago Tribune.

See On Deadline's earlier coverage.

Update at 6:23 p.m. ET: Quinn has been sworn as governor. NPR has an introduction to the man it calls a "mostly humor-challenged pol":

"He is an outsider who spent many years, and many elections, trying to make it on the inside. He champions the little guy, the powerless, with his longtime support for citizen initiatives, and has spent a career battling special interests....".

Update at 7:23 p.m. ET: Blagojevich tells reporters outside his home that he will continue to fight to clear his name.

He said he was saddened, but not surprised, by the Senate's vote to oust him, the AP reports. He said he "loves the people of Illinois" more than ever. He also asked the media if they would continue to cover him or is this the "last hurrah."

Meanwhile, the Chicago Sun-Times says that as one of his final acts as governor, Blagojevich expunged the 1985 forgery conviction of a prominent Chicago developer and pardoned a South Side man who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2000 for drug offenses. In doing so he by-passed the state's pardon board, which had submitted 3,000 pardon requests for him to review.

(Top: Former governor Rod Blagojevich spoke with reporters as he arrived home after delivering his plea to state senators. Photo by Nam Y. Huh, AP. Bottom: As his son holds the Bible, Pat Quinn is sworn in. Photo by Jeff Roberson, AP.)

A federal judge in California has denied a request to keep names of donors to the state's anti-gay marriage initiative secret. An updated list of late donors is to be released Monday.

U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. sided with the state in ruling that the public has a right to know who contributed to Proposition 8, the voter-passed constitutional amendment that outlaws same-sex marriage.

"If there's ever a need to bring sunshine on a political issue, it is with a ballot measure," England said, according to The Associated Press.

He noted that many campaign committees have vague names that obscure their intent or backers. The public would have no way of knowing who is behind the campaigns unless they can see who's giving money, he said.

The Sacramento Bee points out that the Political Reform Act — approved by state voters in 1974 — requires disclosure of the name, occupation and employer of anyone contributing $100 or more to campaigns.

An article on Alternet looks at whether Prop. 8 will stand or be struck down: "New legal actions from businesses like Google to civil rights organizations are threatening to get Prop. 8 off the books."

Traders grabbed four days of winnings and headed to the exits today, as profit reports, unemployment claims and sales of homes and durable goods all pointed toward a deepening recession. Stocks gave up yesterday's gains.

The Dow Jones gave up 2.7% (226 points) to close at 8,149; the S&P 500 shed 3.3% (almost 29 points) to end at 854; the Nasdaq lost 3.2% (50 points) to 1,507; and the Russell 2000 coughed up 4.1% (19 points) to finish at 453.

“What earnings show are the recorded fact of what the economic data represents, and that’s bad news,” Jonathan Vyorst, senior vice president of Paradigm Capital Management Inc., told Bloomberg. “That adds to volatility and continues to weigh on the market. We are going to see bad news for some time to come.”

One money mover sees the financial meltdown in the rear-view mirror:

"It seems like we've gotten through the financial crisis. Now we're dealing with global synchronized recession," Brian Battle, vice president of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners, told the AP.

Briefing.com offers some perspective:

The month of January has been less kind to stocks than the past week. Stocks are down almost 6% for the month. Whether January's performance is a harbinger of the year to come will only be seen in time. The stock market declined 4.6% in January 2008, but that was mild compared to the 33% slide stocks took over the entire course of 2008.

MarketWatch turns to the analysts at Action Economics for more prognostication:

Thursday's reports suggest "an ugly economic trajectory with rapidly deteriorating labor and housing markets as we entered the first quarter. We expect another big gain in the jobless rate to 7.5% in January, and we assume a 9% peak rate in the third quarter of 2009."

An Alaska volcano, which spewed so much dust the last time it erupted that international travel was disrupted, is starting to rumble again, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reports.

The last time the 10,197-foot peak blew, for about five months starting in December 1989, "clouds of volcanic ash had significant effects on air travel as they drifted across Alaska, over Canada, and over parts of the conterminous United States causing damage to jet aircraft," the observatory reports.

The Associated Press notes that the blast also "placed a layer of volcanic dust throughout the Anchorage area."

AP says city and state officials have posted bulletins on how to deal with the ash. "Tips include staying inside, wearing a mask or wet bandanna if going outside and wearing goggles over contact lenses."

A judge in California brushed aside union complaints and cleared the way for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to furlough 238,000 state workers two days each month, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The ruling means state employees will be taking unpaid leave on the first and third Fridays of each month, starting next week. The Times says the furloughs equate to a 9% pay cut and will save the state $1.3 billion through June 30, 2010.

The bad news comes in a state already promising to issue IOUs instead of state income tax refunds starting next week.

California is battling a deficit that the governor says could hit $42 billion by the middle of next year.

An Australian father has been charged with murder for allegedly stopping his car in the middle of Melbourne's 190-foot high West Gate Bridge and throwing his 4-year-old  daughter into the river, The Australian reports.

The newspaper says the man, identified as Arthur Phillip Freeman, allegedly acted so quickly, horrified motorists were helpless to stop him. London's Daily Telegraph says Freeman then drove off, with his two sons, aged 6 and and 8, still in the car.

Police arrived within 10 minutes and pulled the girl, Darcey, still alive, out of the river, but were unable to resuscitate her, the papers report.

Suicides among Army troops hit a nearly three-decade high last year, senior defense officials tell The Associated Press.

The officials, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because the data have not been formally released, say at least 128 soldiers killed themselves in 2008, compared with 115 in 2007 and 102 in 2006.

French workers in Marseille join a nationwide protest over global economic conditions.

(Photo by Claude Paris/AP)

CNBC.com says a panel appointed by Congress to oversee the $700 billion TARP bailout program will release a "stinging report" today on regulatory failures that led to the current financial crisis.

CNBC.com says it has obtained a copy of the draft report that concludes that "the regulatory system not only failed to manage risk, but also failed to require disclosure of risk through sufficient transparency."

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, after boycotting his state Senate impeachment trial, is changing course and will make what he calls a "closing argument" at the trial today at 12 p.m. ET.

Update at 11:51 a.m. ET: USA TODAY's Judy Keen, who is monitoring the trial, reports that House prosecutor David Ellis has told the Senate that the two-time governor is guilty of "a pattern of abuse of power" and should be removed from office.

       After the governor speaks, Ellis will rebut those remarks. Then the Senate will vote; it takes the votes of 40 of 59 members to oust Blagojevich. If he is convicted, Blagojevich will be succeeded immediately by Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn.

Updated at 12:05 p.m. ET: Blagojevich has begun speaking.

Update at 12:17 p.m. ET: He says he chose to speak to the Senate to show that "I have done absolutely nothing wrong, that I followed every law, that I never, ever intended to violate any laws. and that when the whole truth is told that ultimately is what will be shown."

Blagojevich charges that he was not permitted to call such witnesses as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"How can you throw a governor out of office who is clamoring, and begging with you to bring witnesses in to prove his innocence?" he asks.

Blagojevich says he is appealing to their "sense of fairness."

"I am asking you to imagine you walking in my shoes," the governor says.

He also says there is no evidence that shows him guilty of criminal activity.
"It may not been flattering in some cases, but it is the truth," he says.

(Photo by Frank Polich/Reuters)

It took two days and three phone calls from a Detroit reporter, but city authorities eventually recovered a body frozen in ice in an elevator shaft at an abandoned building, The Detroit News reports.

Charlie LeDuff, the reporter, writes that a friend tipped him about a body "encased in ice, except his legs, which are sticking out like Popsicle sticks." After checking it out for himself, LeDuff called 911 -- three times. It wasn't until a day later that he heard from the fire department, which arranged to meet him at the site.

Capt. Emma McDonald, who was among those at the scene, told LeDuff: "Every time I think I've seen it all, I see this."