Jewcy Zeitgeist: Phelps Goes Free, Obama Goes Budget-Conscious, Chimpanzee Goes Ape

Here are today’s top stories in no particular order:

• President Obama has announced that he will release his first budget proposal on February 26. The budget will be for the 2010 fiscal year and not include the current stimulus plan.
• A domesticated chimpanzee named Travis, who has appeared on TV and in commercials, was shot dead by authorities in Stamford, Connecticut yesterday after he attacked and injured a woman. Travis, who was suffering from Lyme disease, had been given Xanax in an attempt to calm him down.
• Muzzammil Hassan, who founded America’s only Muslim TV network, Bridges TV, has been arrested for suspicion of murdering his wife. Aasiya Hassan was seeking a divorce against her husband. Her decapitated body was found on Thursday.
• Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps will not face charges stemming from an incident where he was photographed smoking marijuana at a party at the University of South Carolina. Phelps has apologized for using drugs and recently lost his endorsement with Kellogg.
• The FDA has just approved a new drug called Uloric, which treats gout. It is the first new gout medicine in more than 40 years.
• Some of the charges against The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based file-sharing site, have been dropped. The four defendants insist that their site merely acts as a search engine and does not host illegal files.
• Acclaimed jazz drummer Louis Bellson has died at the age of 84. Bellsom’s career spanned more than six decades, and he collaborated with music greats like Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sarah Vaughan.