Ny Safidinao

Like" us on Facebook.com/TrendingNow and follow me on Twitter @Knowlesitall! If you have anything you want to look up on Wikipedia, you'd better do it today, or you're going to have to wait a full 24 hours to get your answer. Why? Well, Wikipedia will be leading a number of high-profile websites going dark on Wednesday to protest two controversial bills in Congress. SOPA, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives, and PIPA, the Protect I-P Act in the Senate, are designed to crack down on the illegal sharing of movies and music on the Web. However, critics say the anti-piracy legislation is censorship and would force sites to police the online world. On Twitter, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, confirmed that all of Wikipedia's 3.8 million English-language articles will be unavailable from midnight Eastern time tonight until midnight Wednesday. Anyone who visits the site will be redirected to a banner that reads "The Internet mus...

Rick Santorum's powerful finish in the Iowa caucus is bringing fresh attention to his tenure in Congress, including ethics questions that dogged him about a preferred mortgage he received from a bank run by campaign donors, and federal funds that went to a real estate developer who backed his charity. One of the top donors to Santorum's charity was also the beneficiary of an $8 million Santorum-sponsored federal earmark, according to published reports. Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor who filed an ethics complaint against Santorum in 2006 on behalf of a watchdog group, said her organization's website received a tidal wave of visitors in the past 24 hours, and in an interview she said she believes people will discover that the GOP presidential contender is "hardly the moral paragon he purports to be." "There were several instances in which Santorum appeared to have taken campaign contributions in direct exchange for legislative assistance," said...

There's far too much talk about turnout on election days, largely because there's little else to talk about until the results come in. Most of the discussion on TV is sound and fury, signifying nothing. The total number of voters who show up to the caucuses is far less meaningful to the campaigns than the makeup of electorate--which particular voters show up to cast a vote. To help fill some of the airspace between now and then, here's a guide to interpreting tonight's results from Iowa as they're coming in: 1. Geography. First, pay attention to the big population centers. That's where the votes are. Polk County, home to Des Moines, was responsible for nearly 20 percent of the Republican vote in 2008, and Mike Huckabee won it by a substantial margin. If Romney is significantly besting the 23 percent he received in Polk County four years ago, that will bode well for his evening. He likely needs to do the same in neighboring suburban Dallas County. Sioux County h...