Clay Aiken's Cheap Baby; Erin Brockovich Takes New York

What you Gentiles who are at work need to know this morning:

Business

• Keep your money in your mattress. George Bush is going to go on the TV again this morning to beg for his bailout. European banks are failing left and right. Nonprofits and foundations are going to take a huge hit this year, with the economy now undermining the terrifying balancing act that was the favored "public-private partnership" (ie, rich people pay to keep city services running) structure of the past few years.

Law

• Hey, the other day the Second Circuit upheld the fingerprinting and registration of Muslim men in the United States! Oh, yay America.

• At last, a special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate the firing of U.S. Attorneys under Alberto Gonzalez for "partisan and political" reasons.

• Erin Brockovich is working in New York City now, for Weitz & Luxenberg, which handles lots of asbestos cases.