NPR People: Mark Memmott

(Note: This is a post about obscenity. Proceed with caution if the subject bothers you.)

We've got one more thing to say about "the bird" and singer M.I.A.'s flipping of her middle finger on national TV during Sunday's halftime show at the Super Bowl.

For the record:

As our live blog has reported, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won today's Republican presidential primary in South Carolina.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to have finished second.

In third: former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

That puts Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) in fourth.

So the race continues, with Florida's Jan. 31 primary as the next major contest.

Rick Santorum has ended up 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney after a recount of the results from the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, The Des Moines Register is reporting.

But, the newspaper adds, Iowa GOP officials say that results from eight of Iowa's 1,774 precincts "will never be certified" because they're missing — meaning the outcome remains basically unresolved, as the Register's headline says. Or, as one Republican official tells the Register, it's going to be viewed as a "split decision."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is going to drop out of the Republican race for the White House, sources are telling The New York Times and CNN.

NPR has not independently confirmed the news.

We'll pass along more as the story develops. Perry is expected to hold a news conference at 11 a.m. ET.

Update at 10:25 a.m. ET. Tonight's Debate May Be A Factor In Announcement's Timing:

Just to be clear:

Wikipedia's English pages have indeed "gone black" until midnight ET tonight — part of an organized protest by it and many other websites over pending anti-online piracy legislation in Congress.

But "black" is something of a relative term in this case. You can still get to Wiki's English site today, as it explains here:

"Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?

Comedian Stephen Colbert's "big announcement" last night (which we previewed yesterday)?

He's forming "an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the president of the United States of South Carolina," The Comedy Central host declared on his show.

"I'm doing it!" Stephen shouted.

White House Chief of Staff William Daley is stepping down from his post and will be replaced by Budget Director Jack Lew, NPR's Scott Horsley has confirmed.

The news, first reported by the Los Angeles Times and quickly followed by other news outlets, puts "a veteran staffer of the White House, Capitol Hill and State Department in a critical position at a difficult time for the president" — a reelection year — as the Times says.

Saying he's there "to make sure we make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States of America," 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain just returned to New Hampshire to endorse the White House bid of his one-time rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

McCain and Romney fought a hard battle for the GOP nomination n 2008, after which Romney endorsed the Arizona senator.

McCain, who spent considerable amounts of time in the Granite State during the 2000 and 2008 primary seasons, went to New Hampshire today to return the favor. His announcement comes the morning after Romney barely edged — by eight votes — former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

Though he said last night that he would go home to reassess his bid for the presidency — a signal that he might drop out of the race — this message just popped up on the personal Twitter page of Texas Gov. Rick Perry:

"And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State...Here we come South Carolina!!!"

Plug the name "Jon Huntsman," the state "New Hampshire" and the word "lonely" into a search field and you'll get lots of hits.

"In New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman Walks A Lonely Path," a Los Angeles Times headline reads.

As with everything happening in Congress these days, the deal reached Thursday to pass a 2-month extension of a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed isn't a "done deal" just yet.

And for it to be "done" later today will require the "unanimous consent" of House members — something that sounds rather daunting as one of the most partisan years in recent memory draws to a close.

As Politico wonders this morning, the key question is: "Will House frosh comply?"

With the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican caucuses set to kick off the "real" battle for the party's presidential nomination, there's word that:

-- "Newt Gingrich has leapt to a sizable lead in preferences for the Iowa Republican caucuses," according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll of "likely Republican caucus-goers" in the state. It shows 33 percent of those surveyed favoring the former House speaker, 18 percent preferring former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and 18 percent supporting Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent in October as payrolls went up by 120,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

While the jobless rate is now the lowest it's been since March 2009, economists say one reason it fell isn't good news — the size of the labor force shrank by 315,000 as more people stopped looking for work because they're discouraged about the chances of finding a job. Also tempering the enthusiasm about today's news: 120,000 new jobs on payrolls is still considered to be weak growth.

We'll be updating this post with more from the report.

Update at 10:15 a.m. ET. White House, Republican Reactions.

(New material based on NPR reporting added to the top of this post at 12:30 p.m. ET.)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is reassessing his campaign but still plans to move ahead at this time, his Iowa campaign director tells The Associated Press and NPR.

That Iowa campaign aide, Steve Grubbs, reports Cain said to senior staff today during a conference call that new allegations from a woman who claims to have had a long affair with him have taken an emotional toll on his family. Cain also said the allegations — which he denies — have damaged his fundraising, Grubbs says.

American Airlines, one of the giants of the U.S. airline industry, just announced it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Saying it has begun the "legal process ... to improve competitiveness," AMR Corp., the airline's parent, said in a statement that it is taking the step "to achieve a cost and debt structure that is competitive in the airline industry so that it can continue delivering a world-class travel experience for its customers."

American had resisted the move, which its competitors made in recent years to cut costs — particularly labor expenses.