Moments after the The New York Times broke the news that Rep. Anthony Weiner would be stepping down — around 9:35amET — the cable channels went into rolling coverage. It appears our weeks-long national nightmare is about to be over. Weiner is holding a news conference at 2pmET.

CNN’s Dana Bash was the first TV correspondent to report the news citing her own sources at 9:40amET.

We’re told Bash, who is 36 weeks pregnant, had an off the record heads up last night that this would be happening (that’s enough to make you go into labor) and did not report the news until after her sources confirmed it this morning.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer will anchor special coverage of the 2pm news conference, joined by John King and CNN’s Gloria Borger.

The power is still not fully restored in the neighborhood that is home to CNN’s Washington Bureau. The network may need to produce today’s late afternoon shows on generator power after a series of outages left the network without primary and backup power for several hours last night.

“The Washington Bureau and every piece of television equipment inside was down,” writes bureau chief Sam Feist in an email to staff, obtained by TVNewser.

Three hours of CNN’s programming a day comes from Washington — “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” from 5-7pmET and “John King USA” at 7pm. Feist writes, “Remarkably, both Wolf and John King even had prompter and unless we had told our viewers otherwise, they might never have known something was up.”

In the middle of the outage, CNN’s Dana Bash and CNN producer Ted Barrett were on Capitol Hill getting comments — or no comments — from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) about so-called Weiner-gate. At one point, Weiner called Barrett a “jackass.” The entire tape of the testy, abrupt news conference (video after the jump) was played during the 6pmET hour of “The Situation Room” which Blitzer anchored from the plaza in front of the bureau.

“After 20 years at CNN, I’ve seen a lot of CNN heroes and I’ve seen our colleagues pull off some remarkable feats,” writes Feist. “Today goes near the top of the list for me. Because of the work of hundreds and hundreds of our colleagues in New York, Atlanta, and DC who literally leapt into action – CNN kept its DC-based programs on the air and in fact produced some outstanding and flawless newscasts.”

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While many CNN anchors remain in Joplin, MO, including John King, Ali Velshi, Anderson Cooper and T.J. Holmes, whose first TV job was in Jopin — the network is planning another CNN/U.S., CNNi simulcast of  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress this morning. Wolf Blitzer, Hala Gorani and Suzanne Malveaux anchor the special report beginning at 10:45amET with Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.

CNN anchor John King and his wife CNN correspondent Dana Bash were in Boston for the weekend for a family gathering. King took in Saturday’s Boston Red Sox – Chicago Cubs game with seats atop the Green Monster. Right place. Right time, for King — bottom of the fourth inning David Ortiz smacks his 300th home run. Over the Monster, heading directly for King who caught — or as he Tweeted, “knocked it down.” Big Papi becomes just the fourth player in club history to hit 300 home runs.

“We just sent papi the ball,” King Tweeted at someone who’d asked if he caught the piece of history. In return, King got this sweet bat, autographed by Ortiz with the simple, “Thanks!”

Sarah and Todd Palin along with Greta Van Susteren and Bill Press.

Last year at the annual pre-White House Correspondents Dinner Garden Brunch, Greta Van Susteren brought Kim Kardashian as her guest. This year, Greta looked beyond Hollywood and headed straight for Alaska bringing along Sarah Palin who really had brunch-goers turning their heads.

Tammy Haddad‘s annual brunch — which has outgrown its original location in Haddad and husband Ted Greenberg‘s backyard — was held this year at the historic Beall – Washington House, with its expansive yard, larger patios, and multiple watering holes. Haddad, a former MSNBC, CNN and NBC executive and producer shuttled the A-listers around the event — which is always a diverse mix of politicians, actors and journalists.

In addition to Palin, “Glee”‘s Matthew Morrison dropped in, as did Jesse Tyler Ferguson, of “Modern Family” and Chace Crawford of “Gossip Girl.”

We chatted up ABC’s Jonathan Karl, Chris Wallace of Fox News, Pete Williams of NBC News, and Ed Henry and Jessica Yellin of CNN and also spotted MSNBC’s Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell, FNC’s Bret Baier, CNN’s Dana Bash and Suzanne Malveaux (and twin sister Suzette) and NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.

Susan Axelrod, wife of Obama adviser David Axelrod, and Wendi Murdoch, wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch (both right, with Matthew Morrison) co-chaired the event which was a fundraiser for CURE (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy).

More photos after the jump…

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Last night People & TIME hosted their White House Correspondents’ Dinner cocktail party at the St. Regis in DC. The event drew a mix of celebs and media.

Several tvnewsers from ABC, CNN, NBC, MSNBC and FNC showed up including: Norah O’Donnell (below, left with Arianna Huffington, Savannah Guthrie (below, right), Ed Schultz, Wolf Blitzer, Dana Bash, Kelly O’Donnell, Chris Wallace, Greta Van Susteren, Betsy Fischer, Kelly O’Donnell, Ann Compton, Michelle Jaconi and Sam Feist.

(Photos: Getty)

FishbowlDC called it last month and now it’s official. Kate Bolduan has been named Congressional correspondent for CNN.

“[Kate] has excelled at everything from filling in at the White House, to covering the Supreme Court and even anchoring,” said David Bohrman, senior vice president of programming and Washington bureau chief, himself about to take on a new role at CNN.

Bolduan has been a general assignment reporter in the DC bureau. She came over from affiliate service CNN Newsource.

Bolduan joined CNN in 2007 from WTVD-TV in Raleigh. She began her TV news career as a production assistant for NBC News and MSNBC in Washington D.C.

Bolduan joins Dana Bash on the Capitol Hill beat and will be a part of CNN’s 2012 election team.

The cable networks are planning special coverage around Pres. Obama’s fiscal responsibility address at George Washington University this afternoon.

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer, along with Randi Kaye, lead coverage beginning at 1pmET. Ed Henry at the White House, Dana Bash on Capitol Hill and Gloria Borger and Christine Romans take part as well. Fox News’s Martha MacCallum, in for Megyn Kelly who is about to give birth any minute, will anchor coverage. Mike Emanuel will report from the White House. On MSNBC, the speech falls during Andrea Mitchell‘s show. She’ll anchor and be joined by Rachel Maddow.

NBC and CBS will not be carrying the speech live on TV. ABCNews.com will livestream it and ABC NewsOne will make it available to affiliates. FNC’s Jon Scott anchors a special report that is optional for FOX affiliates.

Around 10:30, the cable networks began reporting on a deal to keep the government running. The husband and wife CNN team of  John King and Dana Bash broke the news during “Anderson Cooper 360.” Bash even turned up on Fox News around 10:15 during Greta Van Susteren‘s show and again around 10:45 as Fox Business Network’s Eric Bolling interviewed Karl Rove, as networks kept cameras trained on the House side. Van Susteren and Bolling are anchoring for their respective Fox networks until Midnight, as will Cooper on CNN.

MSNBC, which normally runs Lockup at 10pm and 11pmET on Friday nights, is live with coverage from Chris Hayes, filling in for Ed Schultz at 10pm and Lawrence O’Donnell at 11pm.

Earlier in the evening, Wolf Blitzer filled in for Piers Morgan at 9pm to continue CNN’s coverage. Bloomberg TV has also been doing cut-ins all night with correspondent Lizzie O’Leary.

CNN’s Bash got out of the shot just in time for Rep. John Boehner to arrive at 10:53pmET announcing a deal had been struck on a continuing resolution and ultimately a final deal.

> Update: Pres. Obama spoke at 11:04pmET. Because Obama’s remarks occurred during the late local news in the Eastern and Central Time Zones the networks left it to the local stations to carry the statement. But at least one network correspondent, CBS’s Chip Reid did a Q&A with WCBS in New York.

> Update: At MidnightET Fox News with Bret Baier and MSNBC with Lawrence O’Donnell continued live. CNN re-aired the 11pm hour of AC360.

The New York Post reports that CNNers John King and Dana Bash are expecting their first child together, due this Summer.

The couple were engaged in 2008, and King converted to Judaism to marry Bash.

King has two children from a previous marriage.

(h/t HuffPost Media)