PITTSBURGH — It was widely billed as the first uplifting story in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital: two young American women rescued 54 Haitian orphans in an airlift organized by Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania and supported by top Obama administration officials. . . .But for 12 of the children, last month’s airlift transported them from one uncertain predicament to another. As it turns out, those children — between 11 months and 10 years old — were not in the process of being adopted, might not all even be orphans and are living in a juvenile care center here while the authorities determine whether they have relatives in Haiti who are able to take care of them.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The $800 billion federal stimulus bill has boosted employment by 1 million to 2.1 million and helped the economy grow about 1.5% to 3.5% larger than it would have without the stimulus, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. Those estimates are in line with the CBO’s previous estimates, and those of other economists who’ve looked at the economic impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was passed about one year ago.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iranians were living at the very heart of an Islamic Revolution which is duty bound to correct the whole world and materialize the ideals of humanity. The president made the remarks on Wednesday while addressing local officials in the eastern province of South Khorasan. He said the Islamic Revolution intended to replace all vice with good deeds.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is comparing climate change skeptics to those who disregarded the Nazi threat to America in the 1930s, adding a strident rhetorical shot to the already volatile debate over climate change. “It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place,” said Sanders, perhaps the most liberal member of the Senate, during a Senate hearing Tuesday. “During that period of Nazism and fascism’s growth-a real danger to the United States and democratic countries around the world- there were people in this country and in the British parliament who said ‘don’t worry! Hitler’s not real! It’ll disappear!”

Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job. That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago.

Favorable views of labor unions have plummeted since 2007, amid growing public skepticism about unions’ purpose and power. Currently, 41% say they have a favorable opinion of labor unions while about as many (42%) express an unfavorable opinion. In January 2007, a clear majority (58%) had a favorable view of unions while just 31% had an unfavorable impression.

. . .Law enforcement sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation continues, said Zazi began to accelerate his cooperation after authorities charged his Afghan-born father with crimes and threatened to charge his mother with immigration offenses — options that are not available in the military justice system.

If the Pledge of Allegiance is a laughing matter, then the joke may be on a California congressman. A Republican candidate for Congress in California is calling on U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra to “clarify his reaction” after the Democrat was caught on a YouTube video laughing at a suggestion that the Pledge of Allegiance be recited prior to a union meeting in Los Angeles.

Washington (CNN) — A new classified directive to coalition forces in Afghanistan puts restrictions on nighttime raids of Afghan homes and compounds, according to a senior U.S. official who has seen the document. The official declined to be identified because a declassified version of the document has not been made public. The directive is signed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, the official said.

President Obama released his healthcare bill yesterday providing an astounding $11 billion to “Community Health Centers” like Planned Parenthood. Today, LiveAction.org, led by undercover student journalist Lila Rose, released its 9th video showing the 10th Planned Parenthood clinic deliberately covering up child sex abuse.

Mark Knoller of CBS tweets: Actor Michael Douglas, who played The American President in the movie of the same name, just visited the WH Briefing Room. Getting a tour.

The U.S. banking industry continued to struggle in the fourth quarter, as the number of banks on the brink of failure continued to rise and the government’s fund to protect deposits fell sharply into the red. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday that its deposit-insurance fund fell to $20.9 billion at the end of 2009, a $12.6 billion drop in the final three months of the year, as bank failures continued at a pace not seen since the savings and loan crisis. The fund’s reserve ratio was -0.39% at the end of the quarter, the lowest on record for the combined bank and thrift fund.

Need evidence that passions are running high at CPAC this weekend? Then watch the following exchange between Andrew Breitbart and Mediaite columnist Tommy Christopher over ACORN, Dan Savage, mucus, James O’Keefe and a myriad of other subjects that, to be truly appreciated, need to be viewed in the following video. For the record, the thoughts and ideas expressed in this exchange are those of Mediaite columnist White House reporter Tommy Christopher and not those of Mediaite.

The cast discusses life after becoming famous and assigns nicknames to the hosts of “The View”!

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party’s major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress. Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck’s local crew to cater the RNC’s Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

Miss Beverly Hills 2010 Lauren Ashley is also speaking out in support of traditional nuptials. “The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, ‘If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’ The Bible is pretty black and white,” Ashley told Pop Tarts. “I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone. If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that’s a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life.”

From the video: “A lot of the things that the government does, the people don’t have a voice in and it seems to be getting worse.”

Rep. Michelle Bachman: ACORN, the community organizing group unable to erase the scandals associated with them, appears to be dismantling their operating structure. [...] No matter the structure, this is the same group shown on video last summer recommending methods to create an illegal prostitution business. It is the same group which intimidated banks into risky financial practices before the financial collapse. It is the same group whose employees have been indicted for voter registration fraud.

Street vendors be warned: Take a bathroom break, and it may be your business that gets flushed down the toilet. That’s what happened to Shiraj Islam, a nut vendor for 12 years, who suddenly found himself without a livelihood. Health inspectors, cracking down on unattended vendor carts across the city, revoked his permit last week when a bathroom emergency forced him to leave his stand in lower Manhattan. “Everybody has to go sometimes,” Islam, 42, who had been a fixture near J&R Music World, told The Post.

Washington (CNN) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney was “feeling good” a day after being hospitalized with chest pains, a source who spoke to Cheney said Tuesday. The source said Cheney watched some Olympics coverage on television Monday night hours after being admitted to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, but he was in a “holding pattern” until more tests were conducted