Obama, Chavez, Ahmadinejad

Something to take note of: President-Elect Barack Obama is celebrated by many on the political left for wanting to reach out, for saying he's even willing to talk to those aligned against us: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, etc.

And now he says he wants Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration, and the political left is in a tizzy.

Is that fair?

Billey Joe Johnson Jr.: Did He REALLY Commit Suicide?

Billey Joe Johnson Jr.

Just 17 years old, he was considered one of the most promising young football players in the country.

He's dead.

According to the official police account, Billey Joe apparently killed himself with his own shotgun during a predawn traffic stop.

Billey Joe's family isn't buying it. They want answers. They won't let this incident fade away without them.

Neither will we.

In this clip, Rick talks to a Biloxi-area news reporter, as well as Billey Joe Johnson's heartbroken father.

It's a case we've talked about all week: a little Texas girl writes in a letter to Santa that she wishes a relative would stop molesting her and her sister.

Well, a man is now arrested, and charged with multiple counts of continuous sexual abuse of a young child.

Scroll down to see some interviews we've done on the case so far, but we also did some research and were surprised at what we learned.

What percentage of child abuse victims know their abusers? Ask yourself that question and choose an answer below. And leave a comment if you like.

I'll reveal the correct answer and the institute reporting it today on the newscast (3-4 PM EST).

Issue: Texas Santa/Abuse Arrest Case

The "relative" in that tragic and extraordinary child sex abuse case in Texas has now been identified.

We invited a local newspaper reporter on to give us the latest developments in the case, and a special guest: Oscar-nominated actress Meg Tilly.

She's written books about her own childhood abuse and gives Rick fascinating insight on what the young victims in this case are going through.

Bernard Madoff

Here's something I want you to take note of today.

Many of my colleagues in the media are feigning outrage over the story about Bernie Madoff and his infamous alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

You know how it works, right? It's like a pyramid scheme. Take from the top and everyone at the bottom gets hosed.

So now everybody's asking how can this happen? Why didn't regulators see and stop this?

We lock up more people in this country than in just about any country in the world. But most people in prison were not pretending to be respectable businessmen in expensive suits.

Maybe we ought to start looking a little closer at these guys.

Oh, and when it comes to schemes that regulators did or didn't see, is there a better example than the mess we're in right now? The one that's costing taxpayers $700 billion and counting?

What do you call giving a worker who makes $14,000 a year a no-down-payment mortgage to buy a $750,000 home, and then bundling that mortgage with 100 others into bonds...then selling them to banks and pension funds all over the world?

My colleague Tom Friedman of the New York Times asks if that isn't a pyramid scheme, then what is?

CNN Staff suggestion: Socks.
Top: Line Producer Chris Hall Naps During Rick's Morning Meeting

Rick and Executive Producer Angie Massie

"Network 2.0" is an Atlanta Magazine profile of Rick and his social-networkin' ways.

Read it.