Ex-Miss USA Fakih reaches plea deal in DUI case

Rima Fakih, the first Arab-American to be crowned Miss USA, pleaded no contest Wednesday in a Michigan drunken driving case.

A poll is more thermometer than crystal ball (AP)

AP - At this point four years ago, national polls taken in the run-up to presidential primaries said to get ready for a faceoff between Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Rodham Clinton. And in 2004, Howard Dean was coasting to the Democratic nomination to face President George W. Bush.

Gingrich allies airing 30-minute show (AP)

AP - Newt Gingrich is getting a little help from his friends.

Iowa race shifts from persuasion to mobilization (AP)

AP - In the race for Iowa, Republican presidential candidates are shifting from persuading people to mobilizing them to attend Tuesday's caucuses.

Icons of 2011: A 'winning' actor, a runaway bride (AP)

AP - Sure, we had wars, natural disasters, a growing populist movement and a presidential race heating up, not to mention the deaths of a technology icon, a silver-screen goddess and a couple of shadowy dictators.