New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg denies knowing that one of his guests at City Hall this week is a Muslim leader long suspected of conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing. The New York Post reports that Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly played host to Islamic imam Siraj Wahhaj and other religious and community leaders on Wednesday to discuss last week's massacre in Fort Hood, Texas. The roundtable meeting was closed to the media.

On Thursday, Major Nadil Malik Hasan was charged with 13 counts of murder for the killing spree last week at Ft. Hood, Texas. Hasan will be tried by a military tribunal, an indication that investigators believe he acted alone in killing 13 people and wounding 30 others at the army post’s Soldier Medical Readiness Center.

Anxious to find a revenue source rich enough to fund the proposed government-supported healthcare behemoth, Senate Democrats are considering dipping their buckets into a familiar well — the pockets of the “wealthy.” According to aides familiar with Senate deliberations, Senator Harry Reid and others are prepared to raise Medicare payroll taxes from 1.45 percent to 1.5 percent in order to meet the substantial fiscal demands of the overhaul. Presently, the Medicare tax amounts to 2.9 percent of wages, with half contributed by the employer and the other half paid by the employee.