Here’s the best thing that can be said about the new detention powers the Senate has tucked into next year’s defense bill: They don’t force the military to detain American citizens indefinitely without a trial. They just let the military do that. And even though the leaders of the military and the spy community have said they want no such power, the Senate is poised to pass its bill as early as tonight.

There are still changes swirling around the Senate, but this looks like the basic shape of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. Someone the government says is “a member of, or part of, a...

SAN BRUNO, California — YouTube is ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille.

Google’s streaming-video arm launched a complete site overhaul on Thursday, setting its sights squarely on reshaping the media landscape.

The central focus of the redesign rests mainly on the idea of the channel, a concept we’ve known since the birth of the television. Until now, Google concedes, YouTube viewers haven’t seen the site as a destination for a channel filled with content, but rather a series of ‘one-off’ videos on the web.

Google wants the YouTube audience to become a destination site for media. Instead of a...