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President Barack Obama's budget proposal is placing conservative Democrats in a tight spot. Republicans are asking them to be fiscally cautious. Liberals are targeting them with a barrage of ads, urging them to support the president's budget.

A new translation of Carlo Collodi's 1881 classic Pinocchio reveals a puppet that's much darker than Walt Disney might have you believe. Critic-at-large John Powers has a review.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner went to Capitol Hill on Thursday with expansive plans to reduce "systemic risk" in the financial system. He called for new rules and better referees. And he was met with skepticism, particularly from Republicans.

The attorneys general of Utah and Arizona say they won't do what Texas did. They won't raid polygamist groups in their states, even though the polygamists targeted in Texas last month are based on the Utah-Arizona border. The officials spoke at a town meeting on polygamy Thursday night in Utah.

In Washington, it was a crucial day of meetings between the leaders of the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari huddled first with Secretary of State Clinton and later with President Obama and made a number of key commitments.

President Obama is expected to nominate federal appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. She would be the first Hispanic justice. If confirmed by the Senate, Sotomayor would succeed retiring Justice David Souter.

The Bush administration has imposed new rules for the State Children's Health Insurance Program that state officials say may result in loss of coverage for thousands of kids. Congress has been working to renew the program, which is set to expire at the end of next month.

President Bush has called once again for the House to adopt a Senate bill on foreign intelligence — and by noon, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was saying the House would take up a bill next week. Whether the bill includes the retroactive legal immunity for phone companies that the president demands was not immediately clear.

The race is crucial for Hillary Clinton and John McCain. In last-minute campaigning, Clinton struggled to avoid a highly damaging second straight defeat in the Democratic presidential race. Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney fought hard for victory in New Hampshire, where neither could afford to lose.

Florida is next on the Republican presidential program, and all of the big names are arriving ahead of the vote a week from Tuesday. But one major GOP contender has been working the state all month, counting on a breakthrough there to overcome the influence of the early contests: former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.