Barack Obama in the White House lift. Photograph: Pete Souza/White House

Deadline USA has ceased publishing but coverage of American politics and news continues on Guardian.co.uk over on my blog, live from the Guardian's Washington DC bureau.

You can find it here: Richard Adams's blog

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is engaged to marry her longtime boyfriend Ed Mezvinsky.

The engagement, announced by the couple in a mass email over the Thanksgiving holiday last week, was first reported by ABC news.

The pair wrote to friends:

We're sorry for the mass e-mail but we wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Thanksgiving! We also wanted to share that we are engaged! We didn't get married this past summer despite the stories to the contrary, but we are looking toward next summer and hope you all will be there to celebrate with us. Happy Holidays! Chelsea & Marc.

Clinton, 29, and Mezvinsky were childhood friends in Washington, then attended Stanford together. Mezvinsky is himself from a political family – the son of two former Democratic Iowa congressman. His father, also Ed Mezvinsky, was released from federal prison last year after pleading guilty in 2002 to defrauding business associates, friends and family out of millions.

Mezvinsky, 31, is an investment banker with Goldman Sachs; Clinton works for a hedge fund. The couple live in New York.

Although she has sought to lead a private life outside the media spotlight, Clinton was a fixture on the campaign trail during last year's Democratic primary race. She refused to give interviews (even stonewalling a 9 year-old girl on assignment for a children's newsletter) but issued treacle on Hillary Clinton's behalf like this video, in which she invited supporters to sign a Mother's Day card for her mum.

Clinton's relationship Mezvinsky has been a subject of Washington media gossip for months. In September word went around the pair had secretly wed on Martha's Vineyard, an island enclave where President Clinton took holidays during his presidency. The rumour persisted despite repeated denials from the Clinton camp.

The New York Times wrote:

The persistence of the rumor despite the lack of tangible evidence says something about the Internet-driven media culture, where facts sometimes do not get in the way of a good story. It also says something about the Clintons and the mistrust they have engendered over the years that so many people do not take them at their word, even over a question like this.

Newsweek Magazine puts a picture of Palin in running shorts on its cover this week, and Palin goes after them

In the US, Fox News has been promoting a series of right-wing protests against Obama and the Democrats' health care plan. They urge viewers to attend the protests, then give them huge coverage on the network.

But the network went a step too far this week, as Jon Stewart showed on the Daily Show.

The network's Sean Hannity had a segment in which he and two conservative Republican congressmen crowed about the size of an anti-health care rally held last week. But as The Daily Show discovered, they used video footage from a much larger rally held in September. What tipped them off? Thursday was clear and the leaves on the trees were a beautiful autumn colour. On September 12, the sky was cloudy and the leaves green. Check out the clip for yourself.

This episode shows perfectly why the White House has decided to treat Fox News as a political opponent, not a news organisation like CNN.

Conservative Republicans have vowed to challenge moderates in next years congressional and senate races, buoyed in part by the massive "tea party" protests that gripped the country over the spring and summer.

Activists have pledged to press on despite the loss Tuesday of the favoured conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman, in a special congressional election in northern New York state.

A Connecticut senate candidate has a solution: a talisman to ward off a conservative challenger. According to the Washington Post, former congressman Rob Simmons, regarded as a moderate, carries in his pocket a copy of the constitution and a tea bag.

And they say garlic keeps vampires away.

The constitution, presumably, is a prop suitable for wielding when the inevitable red-faced, spittle flecked town-hall heckler demands he read the document.

Washington Post style section staffers Henry Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia got into it Friday after Allen, a Pulitzer Prize winner, reportedly said a piece Roig-Franzia and a colleague wrote on past ethical scandals in Washington was the second-worst he had ever seen in 43 years at the section.
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George Bush throws the ceremonial first pitch before game three of the Japan Series in Tokyo. Photograph: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty

As pitcher Cliff Lee helped propel the Philadelphia Phillies to a win against the New York Yankees in game five of the World Series, a former US president took the mound in Japan's baseball championship.

George Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch in game three of the Japan Series between the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome last night.

Sporting a Yomiuri jacket, the right-hander tossed a pitch to Shinnosuke Abe of the Giants. The ball bounced in the dirt once before Abe caught it.

When the game started, Bush took his seat in a private box with Junichiro Koizumi, the former prime minister of Japan. Joining Bush and Koizumi were US ambassador John Roos and former Japanese baseball star Sadaharu Oh.

The Giants defeated the Fighters 7-4 and lead the best-of-seven series two games to one.

Despite the warm reception Bush received in the stadium, protests took place outside the building. Anti-war demonstrators carried signs reading: "Bush Go to Jail."

For the best commentary from, on, around and about the United States, check out the new tweeting arm of Comment Is Free America. You can follow us here: http://twitter.com/CifAmerica

Bjørn Halvard Knappskog holds a trophy after winning the Monopoly World Championships in Las Vegas. Photograph: Ray Stubblebine/Reuters

The recession has taken a toll on the real estate business, but Norwegian student Bjørn Halvard Knappskog proved yesterday you can still make money by snapping up properties.

Knappskog, 19, was able to fend off fierce competition to win $20,580 (£12,619) at the Monopoly World Championship in Las Vegas. The prize money represents the total amount in the bank of a standard Monopoly board game.

New Zealander Geoff Christopher landed consecutively on Pacific and North Carolina avenues, two properties owned by Knappskog. Christopher was unable to pay the $1,600 rent, handing Knappskog the win.

"I was really happy to be here whether I won or lost, but I'm also very happy to have won," Knappskog said. He said: "[I'm] the most surprised you could ever be. I think this was a really good final. It was the best game I played in the whole tournament."

Monopoly was patented in 1935 by American Charles Darrow, who designed the game with the help of his wife and son. Darrow lost his job in the stock market crash of 1929 and was inspired to create Monopoly after seeing neighbours play a homemade game about buying and selling property.

With 485 million players worldwide, Monopoly is considered to be the most commercially successful board game in US history.

Deadline USA: Famous folks who have spoken out for their causes in Washington

The USS New York cruises on the Mississippi river near Avondale, Louisiana. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Assault ship named in honour of 9/11 victims begins voyage to New York

John Tabutt thought his fianceé was in bed next to him, when in fact she was down range from his pistol

Former House Republican leader Tom Delay has dropped out of ABC television's Dancing with the Stars.

The Texan former exterminator known in Washington as the Hammer was not eliminated, but had to quit the competition after developing stress fractures in his feet. Having dealt with knee issues that limited my running, I feel for him.

Whatever he is enduring is a fraction of the hurt he put on the Democrats during his tenure – and on America's faith in its elected officials.

Here is his final dance, a samba. What an outfit! Check out the elephant on the back of his red and white striped shirt.

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Gourmet magazine from September 2009. Photograph: Gourmet

Deadline USA: US publisher to shut down food magazine and three other titles

The sister of Roman Polanski's murdered first wife says he won't get a fair trial in the "broken" US justice system