In the wake of the Bear Stearns crisis, the Federal Reserve has moved quickly to try to restore calm in financial markets both domestically and abroad. Beginning today, Wall Street investment houses can obtain short-term emergency loans from the Fed, and its emergency lending rate to financial institutions has been cut from 3.50 percent to 3.25 percent. “These steps will provide financial institutions with greater assurance of access to funds,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday. President Bush has scheduled a White House meeting this afternoon with his Working Group on Financial Markets, which includes Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox.

Tomorrow, President Bush meets at the White House with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, and Christian human rights activists have strongly urged the president to bring up Jordan’s recent expulsions of evangelical Christians. In a Web Extra just posted on our magazine site, Mindy Belz interviewed Christian Solidarity International representative Keith Roderick, who said:

“[President Bush should] highlight the issue of the deportations [with King Abdullah]. Since they are meeting and since it has become an international issue, we believe it should be discussed at this level. Many Jordanian evangelicals want to try to handle each case individually, but that does not mean we should ignore this opportunity. I think there is some education that needs to be going on with the king about how important it is to U.S. Christians. The fact of the matter is that in Jordan it is not illegal to proselytize or distribute Bibles.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, the 15th president of the Mormon Church, died Sunday at the age of 97. The grandson of Mormon pioneers was the oldest president in the church’s history. “While serving for over seven decades in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon demonstrated the heart of a servant and the wisdom of a leader,” said President Bush in a statement. “He was a tireless worker and a talented communicator who was respected in his community and beloved by his congregation.” GOP candidate Mitt Romney, who plans to attend Hinckley’s funeral, said that the church leader was pleased with his quest to become the first Mormon president of the United States: “He smiled and said it would be a great experience if you won and a great experience if you lost.”

Tonight President Bush will go before Congress and the nation to make his final State of the Union address, setting the agenda for his final year in office. But with so much focus and attention on who will be his successor, will anyone be paying attention? Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will be in attendance, with the cameras checking out their every raised eyebrow, grimace, and smile. On the GOP side, John McCain will skip the speech to continue campaigning for votes in tomorrow’s Florida primary.

Al Gore finally made it to the Oval Office. As one of the 2007 Nobel Prize winners, he was invited to the White House for a reception with his old buddy President Bush. It was their first meeting in almost seven years. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during their private, 40-minute meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin drew an historical parallel today, comparing the U.S. missile shield of today with the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s, when the world came its closest to nuclear war: “For us, technologically, the situation is very similar. On our borders such threats to our country are being created.”

Did Syria raze a bombed building to conceal a nuclear reactor site? David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, analyzed new commercial satellite images of the Israeli-bombed building. He said Syria “took down this facility so quickly it looks like they are trying to hide something.”

President Bush visited a fire-ravaged California on Thursday, promising to do everything in his power to help. Some 30,000 people have been evacuated from the South Bernardino Mountain area.

CNN says Iran is becoming a hot campaign issue. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman dismisses U.S. sanctions of Iran are “worthless and ineffective” and “doomed to fail.” Condoleeza Rice defends the sanctions: “The international community cannot just sit idly by until we face unpalatable choices.” Experts say they may upset the oil market.

Barack Obama is running as a uniter, but an analyst said he might need to change his tone: “Democrats are tired of being bullied. They want a candidate who will punch bullies in the nose.”

GOP candidates aren’t pulling punches. In the last GOP presidential debate, Rudy Giuliani quoted Hillary Clinton: “’I have a million ideas. America can’t afford them all.’ No kidding, Hillary — America can’t afford you.” Mitt Romney had his say, too: “She hasn’t run a corner store. She hasn’t run a state. She hasn’t run a city. She has never run anything.” (Listen to WoW’s audio pick for Townhall commentary.)

Congress decides to keep the Internet tax-free for another seven years. Bush says it’s time for Congress to “stop wasting time” on some other issues: appropriations bills and emergency war funding.