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Casey Johnson, the hard-living 30-year-old heiress to the Johnson and Johnson company empire, has been found dead in Los Angeles.

“The Johnson family is mourning its tragic loss and asks for privacy during this very difficult time,” a family spokesman said.

Johnson was found dead on Monday.

No cause of death has been declared.

Celebrity news website TMZ quoted a law enforcement source as saying she may have been dead for several days before her body was found.

Johnson was part of the family behind the huge Johnson and Johnson hygiene products and pharmaceutical business.

Her father, Woody Johnson, owns the New York Jets football team and had just been celebrating his team’s progression into the NFL playoffs.

Johnson reportedly had a troubled relationship with her father and suffered from diabetes.

Her love life frequently involved public disputes with girlfriends, including Courtenay Semel, daughter of former Yahoo! chief executive Terry Semel.

Her most recent relationship was with fellow TV reality show star Tila Tequila.

The New York Post reported that Tequila sent a tweet reading: “Everyone please pray 4 my Wifey Casey Johnson. She has passed away.”

- AFP

Liz Cheney is echoing her father's recent criticism of President Obama's response to the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

(CNN) - Liz Cheney is echoing her father’s recent criticism of President Obama’s response to the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day, saying Wednesday the president has not taken sufficient national security steps in the wake of the botched plane bombing.

Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and the founder of the nonprofit group Keep America Safe, released a statement calling on President Obama to reverse his decision to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, and to overrule the Justice Department’s decision to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed before a civilian court in New York City.

Cheney also called on President Obama to classify the attempted Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, as an enemy combatant to be tried before a military tribunal.

“President Obama has weakened American security by treating terror as a law enforcement matter, refusing to use every tool at his disposal to prevent attacks, and taking his eye off the ball. America’s homeland security and counterterrorism systems will continue to erode in the absence of strong, consistent, unwavering presidential stewardship,” said Cheney. “It’s time for the President to make defending this nation his top priority.”

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama announced Wednesday a $250 million public-private initiative designed to improve national math and science education.

Specifically, the money will be used to promote five new partnerships intended to help train over 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next five years. It will also be used to support the professional development of more than 100,000 current math, science, technology and engineering teachers, according to the White House.

The new funding builds on Obama’s math and science “Educate to Innovate Campaign,” which was announced last November. Several large companies, including Intel, Xerox, Kodak and Time Warner Cable have already pledged $260 million to the effort.

American students, Obama noted, currently rank 21st in science and 25th in math compared with students around the world, putting the United States at a disadvantage on vital issues such as medicine, energy and security.

The administration, Obama said Wednesday, is committed to moving the United States “from the middle to the top of the pack.”

The president handed out awards to over 100 math and science teachers after making the announcement.

Last year, Obama unveiled a $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” fund to offer competitive grants to states pursuing creative strategies for recruiting, training and retaining teachers.

North Dakota Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy will not run for the Senate in 2010.

(CNN) – North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy will not run for the Senate in 2010, two Democratic congressional leadership sources tell CNN.

Pomeroy will make the announcement this afternoon that he will not seek to succeed retiring Sen. Byron Dorgan, a fellow Democrat. A Senate Democratic leadership source noted that national Democrats are eyeing former state Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp as a possible candidate to run for the seat.

MSNBC talk show host Ed Schultz said in an interview on the cable network Wednesday that a state Democratic leader has reached out asking him to consider running for Dorgan’s seat.

Follow Mark Preston on Twitter: @prestoncnn

Washington (CNN) – The initial report ordered by President Barack Obama on the failed Christmas Day terror attack will be released Thursday, Obama’s spokesman said.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that the unclassified version of the report by John Brennan, the assistant to the president on homeland security and counterterrorism, would be made public.

Obama ordered a review of security screening and other issues that allowed a Nigerian man to allegedly board a U.S.-bound flight with explosives. The bomb failed to detonate as the flight approached Detroit, Michigan, on December 25.

(CNN) - Sen. Joe Lieberman, Chris Dodd’s fellow Connecticut senator, issued a statement hailing Dodd’s retirement as the end of a “remarkable era of service in the Senate.”

Full statement:

“Chris Dodd has been a genuinely great Senator for our state and country, and a close and valued friend and colleague for me. His retirement ends a remarkable era of service in the Senate by two generations of the Dodd family, beginning with his father Tom who was elected more than a half century ago in 1958.

“Chris Dodd has been an unusually skillful and productive legislator and leaves a great legacy of accomplishment that has improved the lives of millions of American families and children. I am sad for our state and country, and for myself frankly, that Chris is leaving the Senate but I am happy for his family that he will have more time to spend with them now. And I know that his service to America and our friendship will continue in different ways in the years ahead.

“Senator Chris Dodd will leave the Senate in January 2011 with the knowledge that he has made a difference that will last in the lives of his constituents and his country. For that, we are all grateful.”

(CNN) - Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, one of the most powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill, announced Wednesday that he will not seek a sixth term in November.

Watch: Dodd says he’s done

Dodd, 65, was first elected to the Senate in 1980.

He had been winning congressional elections in his state since 1974, but he’s recently been considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election in 2010. Dodd has been trailing likely Republican challengers in recent polls, even though Connecticut typically leans Democratic.

Full story

A senior Democratic official told CNN Wednesday that party officials felt Sen. Chris Dodd's re-election race was 'virtually unwinnable' for Democrats.

Washington (CNN) – A senior Democratic source involved in Chris Dodd’s campaign tells CNN that Democratic party officials had become convinced that Dodd’s Connecticut re-election race was “virtually unwinnable for us.”

Still, while this source and others admit there have been quiet conversations among party officials for some time about Dodd stepping aside, they say it does not appear that party leaders specifically asked him to do so.

“People have too much respect for Chris Dodd to try to get him out of this race,” said the source involved with his campaign. “He had to come to it on his own.”

Another source close to Dodd tells CNN he had been well aware of his uphill battle for months. This source concedes that the political reality was a big part the reason he decided not to seek re-election, but insists “this isn’t a decision forced upon him or by anyone. He was looking at his career, looking at his record of accomplishments over the past 35 years, asking what else is there.”

An internal Dodd campaign poll taken last month showed him trailing the leading Republican contender for his seat, Rob Simmons, 46-51 percent, in the Democratic-leaning state - where the same poll indicates President Obama holds a high favorability rating.

The source close to Dodd says his recent personal tragedies and challenges also weighed heavily in his decision to retire. He was diagnosed and treated with prostate cancer this summer, and also lost his sister and best friend, Ted Kennedy, to cancer in the span of three weeks.

“At a certain point he asked himself ‘Why am I running? Why put myself through this? He looked back and said ‘I’ve already done a hell of a lot,” said the source close to Dodd.

Democratic sources say Dodd began making calls to associates about his decision Tuesday. However, a source with knowledge of the conversation tells CNN that he did not call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid until after midnight Eastern time, after the news had already been reported.

Despite what many Democratic sources call widespread respect for Dodd, it was hard for party strategists to hide their happiness with his decision, since it clears the way for Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to run. He is a popular, long-serving figure who Democrats believe has a good chance of keeping the seat in their column.

Related story: GOP FOIAs Blumenthal

“It’s not a cakewalk, but it turns that race from a very uphill - pushing a boulder up a cliff - to a race that is very much winnable,” said a senior Democratic strategist.

At his formal announcement Wednesday, Dodd - whose father, former Connecticut Sen. Thomas Dodd, lost his own re-election bid in 1970 - will have his wife Jackie, children and extended family on hand.

(CNN) – National Republicans wasted little time Wednesday in building an opposition research file against Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who will announce later in the day he will run for the Senate this year, CNN has learned.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent a request this morning to Blumenthal’s office asking for copies of information ranging from “budget requests” and “state credit cards issued to Attorney General Blumenthal or provided for his use” to statistics on “plea bargain rates, felony conviction rates, and all other data associated with cases handled by the Office of the Attorney General for each year beginning in 1991 through present.”

Blumenthal, a Democrat first elected as attorney general in 1990, will run for retiring Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd’s seat. Former Rep. Rob Simmons and businesswoman Linda McMahon are seeking the GOP Senate nomination.

The NRSC asked for the information about Blumenthal under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.