NewsWithViews.com | Twenty years ago, Americans enjoyed walking into their supermarkets, banks, recreation halls and hardware stores with confidence knowing that cashiers, clerks and managers spoke English--America’s national language for 233 years.

Blogs.nytimes.com | Many of its rivals are getting ready to throw back the government’s lifeline, but not Citigroup: To the contrary, Citi on Wednesday said it was moving forward with a plan to convert a large chunk of its preferred shares into common equity. The long-awaited move is expected to give the United States government a 34 percent ownership stake in the troubled bank.

Reuters | CIA Director Leon Panetta said on Thursday the U.S. intelligence agency believes al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan and hopes joint operations with Pakistani forces will find him.

DailyPress.com | Same brashness. Same spontaneity. Same lightning-rod remarks. If you were thinking the Rev. Jeremiah Wright had been tempered by a national backlash that nearly derailed Barack Obama's trip to the White House, guess again.

Reuters | The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic of the 21st century on Thursday, Sweden's health ministry said.

CNBC |  The Federal Reserve's balance sheet is so out of whack that the central bank would be shut down if subjected to a conventional audit, Jim Grant, editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, told CNBC. With $45 billion in capital and $2.1 trillion in assets, the central bank would not withstand the scrutiny normally afforded other institutions, Grant said in a live interview.

Wired.com | In a sparsely decorated office suite two floors above a neighborhood of strip malls and car dealerships, former oncologist Douglas Jackson is struggling to resuscitate a dying dream.

Prisonplanet.com | There should be absolutely no doubt Glenn Beck is a government disinfo operative tasked with taking down the 9/11 truth and patriot movements. In fact, Fox News — as a primary fount of Operation Mockingbird — is tasked with attacking not only the 9/11 truth movement but the pro-liberty and Constitution movements as well.

AntiWar.com | A rare car bombing at a marketplace in southern Iraq killed and wounded dozens of Iraq civilians. Although reports of large bombings can often mean an increase in reports from throughout Iraq, the rest of the country remained fairly quiet.

Newsweek | Staff Sgt. Shaun McBride would rather be in a war zone than at home. He likes the adrenaline, he says, even the "fear someone can shoot you." He hates the petty responsibilities of home life, the bills and family issues.

Torrentfreak.com | This week police and anti-piracy groups moved to close down a very large BitTorrent tracker. With 250,000 users, Snowtigers was possibly the largest French tracker. According to reports, police arrested 10 members of staff and seized more than 20 servers, after the military assisted in locating the operators.

NewsWithViews.com | Much has been made of President Barack Obama's "reconciliation" speech in Cairo, Egypt, last week. For the most part, the American media have focused on Obama's attempt to "repair" relations with the Muslim nations of the world.

RawStory.com | Whether the Republican Governor of Rhode Island likes it or not, medical marijuana patients in his state will likely soon be able to purchase their medicine from retail shops that specialize in cannabis and cannabis-infused medicinal products.

NY Times | The city’s Police Department and the F.B.I. will collaborate tonight in a joint counterterrorism exercise in Queens, testing New York’s ability to intercept a so-called dirty bomb. Around 300 city police officers and 400 employees from the F.B.I. will work together in the exercise. The main events are scheduled to take place between 9 p.m. tonight and 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning on the Clearview Expressway.

CNSNews.com | Last October, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson ordered nine banks that the Treasury Department described as "healthy" financial institutions to surrender ownership interests to the government or else face regulatory action that would force them to surrender ownership interests to the government, according to an internal Treasury Department document.