AP - The reality that the nation is indeed in recession and that the downturn may well be prolonged sent Wall Street plunging Monday hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 700 points and wiping out more than half of last week's big gains. All the major indicators fell more than 7 percent with the Standard & Poor's 500 index down nearly 9 percent.

Reuters - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi met leading governors on Monday to discuss the size and shape of an economic stimulus package that one Democratic aide said was likely to cost around $500 billion.