Newsweek columnist Dan Gross on the stock market's response to the financial regulations bill; headlines.

After months of debate and attacks from both sides of the aisle, the Senate passed a financial regulatory bill by a 59-39 vote, Thursday. The biggest change in the bill is the creation of an agency whose sole job is to monitor fairness of any product that is bought by the consumer. Next, the Senate and House versions of financial reform have to be reconciled and combined before heading to the president's desk, perhaps as early as the Fourth of July.

Which creatures have just one eye and are made from drops of steel? Wenlock and Mandeville, the 2012 Olympics mascots, unveiled earlier this week in London. They are magical, androgynous figures, fashioned from materials used to build London's Olympic stadium.

A team of scientists have successfully developed new living bacteria from non-living parts, which they’re calling the first “synthetic cell.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has given BP 24 hours to find a less toxic chemical dispersant to break up the oil gushing from their ruined pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. These dispersants are used to break up the crude into droplets that will sink into the water, making them more easily diluted by ocean currents and less likely to threaten shoreline ecoystems or marine life on the surface.

In honor of “MacGruber,” which hits theatres nationwide today, we look at the best and worst movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches – from "The Blues Brothers" (quite successful) to "It's Pat" (called "shockingly unfunny") and ask: What makes for a good SNL movie? The story? The characters? The acting?

Jay Holcomb, director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center describes the scope of the damage on the Gulf Coast's animals; headlines.

The White House announced that director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, would step down from his post effective today. Blair has held the position for just a little more than a year, but his relationship with the White House was rocky almost from the beginning. And tensions between him and the administration escalated after the "Christmas Day bombing," when a Nigerian man nearly detonated a bomb aboard a plane on Christmas Day. 

Thousands of gallons of oil are still spewing each day from leaking pipes at the Deepwater Horizon's wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil has touched land along the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi and is headed for other coastlines along the Gulf. The amount of wildlife affected has been minimal so far, but more damage seems inevitable.

North Korea has threatened to wage a "full-scale war" against South Korea after the country accused its northern neighbor of sinking a warship on March 26. The South Korean government says it has forensic evidence that North Korea sank one of its warships, killing 46 sailors, but North Korea denies the charges and says the formal accusations could escalate tensions. The country has also threatened to engage in military action if South Korea implements punishments.

Earlier this month Tennessee was hit with severe rainfall that left more than a foot of water on the streets of Nashville. The city’s oldest buildings, including the State Capitol, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Schermerhorn Symphony were affected by the storms. And along with them, the Opryland Mills Mall.

Over the past six years, viewers (or perhaps the better term is devotees) of television’s hit mystery show, "LOST," have been patiently perplexed by the same questions as the show’s main characters. While these questions far outnumber answers in this show made famous for its mind bending twists and turns, that hasn’t stopped the legions of faithful to hope for the best when the show wraps in a 2 ½ hour series finale, set to air this Sunday.

This week, cyclist Floyd Landis accused many of his teammates, including Lance Armstrong, of using performance enhancing drugs. Yesterday, Armstrong responded to these allegations and addressed Landis' claims directly, saying, "I would remind everyone that this is a man that has been under oath several times with a very different version." Armstrong added that he has nothing to hide and nothing to run from.

We join with The Week Magazine to take a look back at the best and the worst of  the past week. It was a bad week for cyclist, Floyd Landis, who admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. But our "bad week" nod goes to Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock, an identity theft protection service. Todd Davis revealed his social security number on TV to prove that his company could protect anything, but the plan backfired when his identity was stolen multiple times. But there's good news for couples, who can now buy a new blanket that absorbs odors in bed, putting an end to that "silent, but deadly" problem.

A little over a year ago, the Obama administration and Congress doled out $100 billion in education money via the stimulus package. However, that money is running out, and slowly school districts across the country are having to cut funding and lay off teachers.

There's a new lead in the case of Faisal Shahzad, the man allegedly behind the Times Square bomb attempt. It is being reported that a Pakistani major was aware of Shahzad's plans to attack a U.S. target and that the Pakistani military major may have helped finance the bomb attempt.