Eliot Spitzer

It was the way she stood there, enduring. Silda Wall Spitzer did not say a word as her husband, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, brusquely apologized to his family and the public after he was allegedly caught on a wiretap doing business with a high-priced prostitution ring. Her face was drawn. But she took her husband's hand as they left the room. This scandal has many salacious details, but it was the image of Silda Wall Spitzer at her man's side that dominated conversations across the country Tuesday.

The investigation that allegedly caught New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer paying a call girl for sex was triggered by an elaborate financial surveillance system that was expanded after the Sept. 11 attacks to snare terrorists, drug traffickers, international organized-crime figures and white-collar criminals, federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The federal Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to report suspicious transactions to the Treasury Department.

New details emerged Wednesday about the purported call girl at the center of the prostitution scandal engulfing New York's governor, with a newspaper report identifying her as a 22-year-old aspiring musician from Manhattan. The New York Times reported that the real name of the woman -- identified as Kristen in court papers alleging that Gov. Eliot Spitzer paid more than $4,000 for prostitutes' services -- is Ashley Alexandra Dupre. Don D.

Two days after federal agents publicly identified Eliot Spitzer as a client of a high-priced prostitution ring, the first-term governor announced his resignation at a somber news conference Wednesday, relinquishing his duties to Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson. Paterson, 53, who will be sworn in as New York's top state official Monday, will inherit a politically riven Legislature facing a $4.4-billion deficit.

Unlike Eliot Spitzer, I've never been to a hooker. That's because, like everything else in my life, sex is all about my ego. If I were to pay someone, every time I got that I can't believe she was willing to do that rush, it would be ruined by Oh, right, that's because I paid her $1,000. Spitzer is clearly more self-assured than I am. I'm not going to chastise him, though, because maybe I'll change my mind.

For the doodling classes, nothing fills a day like a sex scandal. To misquote Kurt Vonnegut, God bless you, Eliot Spitzer! Stories about "Client 9" and his high-priced help (the ladies, not the lawyers) were a Page One staple, and cartoonists couldn't resist. Signe Wilkinson sympathized with the shamed, stoic spouse. Dan Wasserman let his ethical fantasies run wild. But Mike Lester's punch-line-drawing provided the keenest perspective.

Prosecutors considered trying to indict Eliot Spitzer for official misconduct for his role in the so-called Choppergate affair but decided not to after the former New York governor resigned in a prostitution scandal, according to a report released Friday by Albany Dist. Atty. David Soares. The highly anticipated report was an about-face from one Soares' office released in September clearing Spitzer of any wrongdoing.

Democrat Eliot Spitzer, who built an international reputation fighting corruption on Wall Street, took office as governor, calling for an end to "the politics of cynicism and division." Spitzer said frequent deadlocks between Republican Gov. George E. Pataki and the Legislature thwarted school improvements, ethics reform and efforts to cut the highest taxes in the nation.

They appear to have little in common, these two governors. One is a pumped-up, Harley-riding movie star with a taste for Hummers, Armani suits and the Kennedy clan. The other is a rail-thin wonk with a perfect LSAT score who is far more comfortable jousting over budgets than making small talk. One threw a $2.4-million party to celebrate his most recent electoral victory, an event televised nationally and paid for by big business.

Three colleges agreed Monday to change how they recommend lenders on campus, and one of them will reimburse students $88,000 to settle a probe into the student loan industry. Washington University in St. Louis; Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based DeVry University; and Career Education Corp. agreed to a code of conduct to protect students from kickbacks paid to colleges by lenders in exchange for steering students their way. Career Education Corp., a for-profit college based in Hoffman Estates, Ill.