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BREAKING: Fox News is reporting that Helen Thomas has announced her retirement effective immediately from the Hearst Corporation, and as a member of the White House Press Corps. In the video above, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today called anti-Jewish remarks by Helen Thomas “reprehensible”: “I think those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. I think she should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect the opinion, certainly, I assume, of most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”

Byrd spokesman Jesse Jacobs says Byrd plans to spend his birthday quietly reading the hundreds of birthday wishes that have flooded his offices. Byrd also expects to have lunch with his staff and to visit with his seven great-grandchildren. A surprise 90th birthday party was held Thursday in the ballroom of the Capitol Hill hotel. More than 300 people attended, including West Virginia's entire congressional delegation and Governor Manchin. Manchin presented Byrd with a West Virginia Living Legend Award, which the governor created as a tribute to renowned West Virginians. The award has been given to only two other people:...

WASHINGTON -- At a time the nation is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force is battling another enemy: age. The average age of military aircraft during the Vietnam War in 1973 was nine years. Today, the average age is 24 years, and venerable planes such as the KC-135 Stratotanker and the B-52H Stratofortress are well into their 40s, nearly twice as old as some of their pilots.

In a speech on the Senate floor on Tuesday, former Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, pledged to put President Bush on trial in the Senate if the House impeaches him. Addressing the president in absentia, Sen. Byrd began by warning that Congress retains all its original powers under the Constitution. "You better read that again in the Constitution," Byrd said, declaring that the Senate's powers include "serving as a court of impeachment. "You better believe it, Mr. President," Byrd continued. "The Senate can send you home. You better believe that." The ex-Klansman then added: "If the House impeaches you,...

PASADENA, CALIF. -- Walter Cronkite is some kind of hero. He's old and he doesn't give a damn. There's no reason why he should. He'll be 90 this year. He moves a little slowly and he's a bit deaf, but his mind is very sharp. He knows exactly who he is: a newsman. In 1981 when he retired as anchor of the CBS Evening News, he was voted, for the umpteenth time, "the most trusted man in America." In 1994, years after he'd stopped delivering the daily news he was still voted "the most trusted man in America." He's a...

Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 6:56 a.m. EDT Walter Cronkite: U.S. Too Ignorant to Vote The man once known as the most trusted journalist in America no longer trusts Americans to vote for their own leaders, saying average citizens are just too ignorant to cast their ballots wisely. "We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week. In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way...

The following is a fictitious exerpt from the testimony of Donald Rumsfeld before the Senate Armed Services Committee, June 23, 2005 Mr. Kennedy: Mr Secretary, this war has been grossly mismanaged and we are stuck in an intractable quagmire, isn’t it about time you accpeted your egregious failure and resigned to save more American kids lives? Mr. Rumsfeld: Wow, well you cut me sir. Let me answer by asking a few questions of my own. Mr. Kennedy: This panel is here to ask the questions, not answer them, that is totally out of line. Mr. Rumsfeld: Well, it will help...

Now that President Bush has won reelection, maybe he'll feel secure enough to restore the First Lady of the Press to her front-row seat. "No," predicted Helen Thomas on Friday when she keynoted the 9th Annual WomenVenture Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center. "He's still afraid of me. He can't take my questions. Mine are very simple." When I asked her how it feels to be the scariest little old lady in America, as far as W. is concerned, she said, "I don't feel anything but sorry for him, if he can't take a tough question. He's the president of...

Q Since you speak for the President, we have no access to him, can you categorically deny that the United States will take over the oil fields when we win this war? Which is apparently obvious and you're on your way and I don't think you doubt your victory. Oil -- is it about oil? MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, as I've told you many times, if this had anything to do with oil, the position of the United States would be to lift the sanctions so the oil could flow. This is not about that. This is about saving lives by...