World Fact Book,  Information Please Almanac - provides information about countries throughout the world including geography, people, government, economy, etc., National Geographic  - current articles and easily searched archives, and National Geographic Index - which allows you to search for volumes and issues since their beginning. 
Books, books, and more about books...
If you are looking for a good book, a recommendation, what someone else thinks, a new author to try, or anything else about books, these are some great places to try.
NancyPearl, Tillabooks, Popgoesfiction, Nonanon, RickLibrarian, Librarything, and Bookpage.
Poetry...
To find a poem, a little bit about a poet, short biographies, etc.
Poetry Hunter, Poets.org, Famouspoets.
To hear your favorite poet recite his poem online, check out the ever expanding selection at Last.fm.
Literature aids...
If you need help understanding a book, or just looking for a summary to help you out, try Cummings or Cliffs.
Bartlett’s Quotations, and Merriam Webster Dictionary are helpful. 
When writing a paper, Infoplease guidelines and MLAguidelines are a great way to get started.  CitationMachine will help put together your citation page for you as well.
For biographies...
Literature.org and Oxford National biography database will serve you well.

Internet Movie Database – lists credits for movies and television shows.
Movie Reviews by Roger Ebert

Oregon, Idaho  – provides access to State Government offices and departments with web pages.

Census Information – a great site for statistics, graphs and local information
Law...
To search laws and court cases from State to Federal, use Lexisone

Yahoo News,  Associated Press,  The Washington Post,
The New York Times,  Cable News Network