Private investigator Anthony Pellicano broke many laws covering up and smearing for clients like Tom Cruise, Chris Rock and Mike Ovitz. After a trial that became a media sensation, he's quietly heading to jail.

Good news! The cop who shoved the guy off his bike in Times Square then arrested the cyclist and filed a false report claiming the cyclist rode into him has been indicted!

So Barack Obama's transition team finished its official report on the Blago scandal and it turns out that no one did anything wrong, hooray!

Execs at the National Lampoon are charged with illegally inflating the company's stock price, which leads to a blogger making a predictable joke. Comedy sucks these days. [TheStreet.com]

Hedge fund hustler Bernie Madoff made $50 billion in wealth evaporate—much of it from some of America's richest Jews. Does this fact have a greater significance? We'll say... yes(?)

Change.gov has a neat page called Your Seat at The Table, which tracks Obama transition meetings posts documents, in the interest of full transparency. But oddly, there are no meetings regarding Obama's Senate seat!

Muntader al-Zaidi will probably never again do something as awesome as hurling his shoes at the US President during a press conference. But was it worth it, considering what came next?

You're having difficulty making ends meet in these challenging economic times. You've got bills to pay. And you're not sure how you're going to come up with the cash to, say, go on vacation or have that plastic surgery procedure you've been thinking about. What to do? Maybe you'll find some inspiration in the story of Sonia Ringoir: The 31-year-old Belgian woman was so determined to have liposuction, she sold off her newborn twins for $15,000. [Times UK]

• The list of companies, charities and individuals who lost massive sums in connection with Bernie Madoff continues to grow: Mort Zuckerman, Elie Wiesel, Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a charity tied to Steven Spielberg are just a few of the latest victims. [WSJ, NYT]
• Many of Madoff's victims were located in Palm Beach, where the mood is especially grim as wealthy retirees account for their losses. [NYT, WSJ]
• The Madoff saga isn't the only outrageous scheme to have been revealed in recent days, of course. The Times' report over the weekend on how Marc Dreier duped the likes of Sheldon Solow and the bank Perella Weinberg. [NYT]

Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman is the latest billionaire revealed to have fallen prey to ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. How many of Rupert Murdoch's papers does it take to cover the story?

Chicago Tribune editors sat on the Rod Blagojevich story starting in October. Publishing Dec. 5th seems to have only pissed off the Justice Department and wrecked what might have been a much bigger scoop.

Who, exactly, are the rich suckers who just got bilked out of $50 billion (collectively) by Hedge Fund Hustler extraordinaire Bernie Madoff? Here are the names we know so far:

In these days of Kool-Aid and poverty, we all dream of easy, dirty money. That's why a violent gang of Eastern European jewel thieves called the "Pink Panthers" are the new darlings of the media!

Time for an up-to-date roundup on the nifty story of Bernie Madoff, the Wall Street titan accused yesterday of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Bathrobes! Big shots! And plenty of broke Jews, below!

The national mood demands businessmen in handcuffs. And here's one already: Federal agents have arrested Bernie Madoff, the 70-year-old founder of a Wall Street brokerage, accusing him of bilking $50 billion from investors.

ROD BLAGOJEVICH might've gotten something "tangible" from associates of Jesse Jackson, Jr! The scandal is in its baroque period now, with the fun transcripts picked through, leaving only complicated questions of political propriety.

Everyone got bored with attacking idiot Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich at some point mid-yesterday, so naturally today brought the SHAME ON HIS WIFE stories.

The Post had a fun time this morning with two Fashion Institute students who giggled about being arrested for dealing coke. Now the school assures everyone: there are no drugs on campus any more:

Barack Obama just tried to reintroduce us to Tom Daschle, his new Health and Human Services secretary, but the press just wants to talk about bad Governor Blagojevich. Question time!

Now that we know (or are told at least) that Rod Blagojevich's "Senate Candidate 5" is Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr, well, we have almost more questions than we did before. Why was he such a great bargaining chip against Obama in the (admittedly crazy) mind of Blago? Did Obama really not want Jackson to take his seat? Also why did Blago expect he'd get something "tangible up front" in exchange for a Jackson appointment? That last question seems to hinge on an unnamed "Individual D." Try to guess who we are wildly speculating that is!