24+JANV

 **** __Obama Moves to Centralize Control Over Party Strategy__ **** By JEFF ZELENY and PETER BAKER President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections.

**** __Foot on Bomb, Marine Defies a Taliban Trap__ **** By C. J. CHIVERS A near-miss with an I.E.D. began a journey through the Taliban’s tactics and led to an affirmation of friendship.

**** __Cultural Riches Turn to Rubble in Haiti Quake__ **** By MARC LACEY In stealing symbols that gave Haitians their hope and a reminder of a common purpose, the earthquake cast a kind of cloud over their future. **** __More Than 150,000 Have Been Buried, Government Says__ **** By DAMIEN CAVE Haiti’s government provided a preliminary assessment of the quake’s body count and said the search for survivors would soon end.

**** __Biden Says U.S. Will Appeal Blackwater Case Dismissal__ **** By ANTHONY SHADID The vice president said the U.S. would appeal the dismissal of charges against five contractors involved in a 2007 shooting.

****PENTAGON MEMO**** **** __Gates Sees Fallout From Troubled Ties With Pakistan__ **** By ELISABETH BUMILLER Pakistani leaders showed Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates they were angry about the surge in American drone strikes in the tribal areas. ****THE RADIATION BOOM**** **** __Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm__ **** By WALT BOGDANICH While new technology saves the lives of countless cancer patients, errors can lead to unspeakable pain and death.

**** __Tennessee Woman Accused in Trail of Death__ **** By SHAILA DEWAN Raynella Dossett Leath has been charged with murder in the deaths of her first and second husbands.

**** __White House Is Confident Bernanke Will Be Confirmed__ **** By JACKIE CALMES As the president endorsed a bill to create a bipartisan budget commission, officials said they were confident the Federal Reserve chairman would get a second term. **** __For Richer or for ... Not Quite as Rich__ **** By DAVID SEGAL Every era needs an emblematic tycoon, and for the age of the Great Recession, you couldn’t do better than Peter M. Brant, a media billionaire facing a very public divorce.

**** __Why Is a Utility Paying Customers?__ **** By KATE GALBRAITH As saving energy becomes a rallying cry, Idaho Power is in the vanguard, paying farmers and others to cut peak use.

****ECONOMIC VIEW**** **** __Underwater, but Will They Leave the Pool?__ **** By RICHARD H. THALER Even if they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, many people feel obligated to repay their loans. But what if those borrowers walked away?