AP - Al Franken ascended Tuesday from the ranks of former “Saturday Night Live” comedians to an even more exclusive club, outlasting Republican Norm Coleman in an eight-month recount and courtroom saga to win a seat in the U.S. Senate.
AP - On civil rights and campaign cash, the Supreme Court earned an “incomplete” grade in the term that just ended. There is a good chance the court will have a new member but the same right-of-center tilt when the justices return in late summer to deal with unfinished business.
AP - U.S. troops are out of Iraq’s cities but not its future. Even a best-case scenario is likely to feature an American role there for years — militarily as well as diplomatically.
Politico - A close vote after intense debate.
Politico - Vanity Fair piece has started a blistering exchange between high-profile Republicans.
AP - President Barack Obama asked Congress on Tuesday to create a new agency to police the fine print on credit card bills and mortgage documents and determine what fees, penalties and interest rates are fair.
AP - U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.
AP - Senate aides say a Puerto Rican legal advocacy group has sent a trove of documents on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s past to the panel considering her nomination.
AP - The Environmental Protection Agency took a major step toward tougher reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks Tuesday by giving California the green light to impose new requirements that could become the national model for combatting tailpipe pollution linked to global warming.
AP - Foes of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor celebrated the high court’s reversal of her decision in a reverse discrimination case.
AP - The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda.
AP - Facing a rare defeat, President Barack Obama put a big dose of political capital on the line and scored a major victory just when he needed one.
AP - A potential White House contender in 2012 staked a claim Sunday to rehabilitating the Republican Party in the wake of extramarital affairs by two leading Republicans that have damaged the GOP’s family-values image.
AP - A senior White House adviser said Sunday the economic stimulus has not yet “broken the back of the recession” but set aside calls for a second massive spending bill. Republicans, meanwhile, called spending under way a failure.
AP - Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday the committee preparing for hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor needs time to review 300 boxes of records that recently turned up in connection with her work for a legal advocacy group.
AP - Republicans concerned about the Obama administration’s big spending on economic stimulus, energy and health care are asking, “Where are the jobs?”
AP - Don’t look to the Supreme Court to set school rules, only to clarify them when officials have abdicated that responsibility, Chief Justice John Roberts said Saturday.
AP - Health officials in Scotland say a 73-year-old man infected with swine flu has died at a hospital outside Glasgow.
AP - In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.
AP - Stymied by Congress so far, the White House is considering issuing an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release, two administration officials said Friday.