What’s on Tap – Monday April 20th, 2009

Here are the big stories on the agenda today.

• Breaking now: A hostage crisis on the runway.  Police are surrounding a Canadian jet in Jamaica.  Officials say the final two passengers have been released, but an armed suspect is still holding the crew, and we’re waiting to hear his demands.
• Tornadoes in the dead of night – Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings throughout the southeast overnight.  There are reports that a tornado touched down in Alabama.  One person killed.  Another critical.
• The “torture” memo fallout.  Just days after his administration released the four Bush-administration memos on interrogation methods, President Obama visits CIA headquarters to meet with Director Leon Panetta and other CIA officials.
• Former CIA Director Michael Hayden is criticizing the Obama administration for the release of the memos, saying that they have made the CIA’s job more difficult. He also said that four former CIA-heads as well as current Director Panetta had opposed the release.
• Obama’s cost cutting challenge.  The president returned to Washington Sunday night with his eye back on his domestic agenda and a plan to save government money. Today, he’ll gather his full Cabinet together for the first time as president and challenge them to cut a total of 100 million dollars in the next 90 days, two senior administration officials said.
• Payback time?  The bailout money seems to be working.  Short-lived or not, banks do appear to be turning things around.  Citigroup reports a first-quarter profit of $1.6 billion, the company's first quarterly profit since the fall of 2007.  Is this a sign that the rescue plan is working, and at whose expense?
• Craigslist murder.  A gorgeous New York model who advertised massage services on Craigslist was shot dead at a posh Boston hotel.  And cops think the suspect struck again.
• Madonna takes a tumble.  The material girl is thrown from a horse in the Hamptons, her second scare on the saddle.  And man is “Madge” having a bad year.  Divorce, adoption rejection and now this!