Boom! [via TDW]

The neverending News Corp phone hacking scandal continues to chip away at the Murdoch family's prestige. James Murdoch—son of Rupert and onetime heir to the company throne—is stepping down as the head of News International, News Corp's UK publishing arm. He'll be, ah, setting up shop here in New York in order to "Focus on expanding international TV businesses," according to the company.

Snookie is possibly with child. After denying rumors started about a month ago, sources are reporting that she and boyfriend Jionni LaValle are indeed expecting a baby guiditto of their own.

Bloomberg's Max Abelson, who's carved out a fantastic beat providing Wall Street types with lengths of hangman's rope, has another fantastic story today, this time about the tragic lives of bankers dealing with smaller bonus checks. (Spoiler alert: some of them have to do their dishes by hand.)

On tonight's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert took a moment (in his one thousandth show) to profile two young Republicans who are about to burst onto the national scene as they have already proven themselves perfect ideologues in Colbert's view. Indiana's Bob Morris is opposed to the homosexual cabal that is the Girl Scouts and New Hampshire's Kyle Jones who opposed mandatory a mandatory lunch break. The future of the GOP is bright indeed.

If you are a barred owl and you can understand these words, know this: your days are numbered.

Tonight's Daily Show took a look at an issue that should be a surprise to no one: that Fox News is little more than a mouthpiece for the GOP. How bad is it? Their hosts are reading position papers that the GOP sends out to help them shape the debate about the recovering economy. Yes, it really is that blatant.

People Magazine reports that Jennifer Garner gave birth to a baby boy in Santa Monica on Tuesday. This is the third child and the first son for Garner and husband Ben Affleck; the couple also have two daughters: Violet, 6, and Seraphina, 3.

Some call Ötzi the Iceman the world's first murder victim. While we are no closer today to bringing his killer to justice, scientists can confirm that Ötzi had brown eyes.

Partial remains of several victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks ended up in a landfill, it was revealed today.

Last week, the world fell in love with a moderately ambitious, hamburger-loving crackhead from America's badger state.

A 41-year-old Brazilian man was arrested and charged with falsifying public documents after trying to use a fake ID to open a bank account. The false identity he was borrowing? Jack Nicholson's.

Bronies are on the march. One of the strangest, most volatile fanbases on the internet has exploded over a tiny change to a beloved character on the children's cartoon "My Little Pony."

In honor of Leap Year tomorrow, Reuters posted a light article brimming with Leap Year-inspired fluff. The article patiently waits for Raenell Dawn and Peter Brouwer, the founders of the Honor Society for Leap Year Day Babies, to list off the inconveniences "leapers" face: rare birthdays, calendar complications, issues with the DMV, etc.

"Do you have items lying around that you don't use?" asks Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign website. "Now, you can sell these items with little hassle and the added benefit of supporting Governor Mitt Romney." Welcome to Mitt Market.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the world as we know it is almost certainly going to end. Scientists have found evidence of flu in bats and are reporting the existence of a "never-before-seen virus whose risk to humans is unclear," which is almost exactly how the devastating virus in the movie Contagion is billed.

James "this loser" Kolb should be more careful about the computer-savvy women he double crosses. His wife took to Craigslist after finding pictures of James posing with a woman, presumably his girlfriend. Revenge is a dish best posted on the Internet. With the good-for-nothing's full name and location.

Two more Chardon High School juniors, Demetrius Hewlin and Russell King Jr., have died from wounds sustained in yesterday's cafeteria shooting, bringing the death count to three.

It's all coulda, woulda, shoulda with you, Marky Mark. After claiming he could have stopped 9/11 and being immune to masturbation, he claimed to have big friends in high places doling out insider Oscar information the night before the awards.

A new survey says that "although black women are heavier than their white counterparts, they report having appreciably higher levels of self-esteem." White women are still too fat to be happy.