AP - Prospects appear dim that President Bush will win significant changes in either Social Security or Medicare in his second term after his major effort to overhaul Social Security stalled in Congress last year.

AP - Mike Nifong has spent more than a month leading the rape investigation involving Duke University men's lacrosse team while also running an election campaign to keep his job.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a key figure in the state's decisive 2004 presidential election, won his bid on Tuesday to run for governor on the Republican ticket in November.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats sought on Thursday to jump-start a long-awaited debate on legislation to allow federal funding of embryonic stem cell research by considering it while it debates other health measures this month.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - President Bush plans to nominate Mark Myers, a critic of Alaska's Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski's close ties with oil companies, to head the U.S. Geological Survey, the White House said on Thursday.

AP - The state Supreme Court on Friday allowed a county commissioner to take his seat following an 18-month challenge by his opponent, who protested the counting of some provisional ballots.

AP - A leading Republican came out against the front-runner for CIA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, saying Sunday the spy agency should not have military leadership during a turbulent time among intelligence agencies.

BERLIN (Reuters) - President Bush told a German newspaper his best moment in more than five years in office was catching a big perch in his own lake.

AP - A conservative Republican seeking the congressional seat vacated by jailed former Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham said Monday he's dropping out of the race.

AP - Football coach-turned-congressman Tom Osborne tried — and failed — to take down Gov. Dave Heineman on Tuesday in the Republican primary for governor of this football-crazy state.

AP - Critics complain the Bush administration once again dropped the ball by failing to cite China for a currency system they see as a prime culprit in the loss of millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs.

AP - Lambasting the Bush administration for lax protection at U.S. seaports, House lawmakers acted on Thursday to increase spending on port security by $448 million more than this year.

AP - Democratic chairman Howard Dean and several officials backed out of giving graduation speeches at the University of California, Berkeley, to avoid crossing a picket line for janitors.

AP - More than 11,000 people cast their ballots early in the mayoral runoff election to see who will lead the city as it rebuilds after Hurricane Katrina, officials said.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been out of state all or part of 163 days since his inauguration in November 2003 — nearly one of every five days he's been in office.

AP - Chic Hecht, a Republican known as much for his verbal miscues as his upset victory in a U.S. Senate race over two decades ago, died of cancer Monday in a Las Vegas hospital. He was 77.

AP - Mayor Ray Nagin claimed during a nationally televised debate Tuesday that his opponent in the New Orleans mayoral race raised millions of dollars from backers who represent old city politics.

AP - The House passed a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint early Thursday after GOP moderates won a promise for modest increases in spending on education, health and other social programs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate late on Thursday approved boosting fines tenfold to $325,000 on television and radio broadcast stations that violate rules on airing profanity or sexually explicit material.

AP - Democrats endorsed Sen. Joe Lieberman's bid for a fourth term Friday, but an anti-war challenger collected enough delegates to force the senator into his first primary fight as an incumbent.

AP - Hope springs eternal when black Republicans seek higher office, yet often the first question that hits them is what are they doing in the GOP. This election year, a man named Steele in Maryland and a former football star named Swann in Pennsylvania are among a small but determined number of black candidates trying to win one for the Republicans despite the Democratic Party's near lock on the black vote.

The Christian Science Monitor - Just 35 hours after they passed a $2.8 trillion budget for FY 2007 with zero Democratic votes, House Republicans ran into a wall: the division between appropriators and fiscal hawks in their own ranks.

AP - The FBI's weekend search of the House office of a Louisiana Democrat under investigation for bribery may have overstepped Constitutional boundaries, House leaders said as the congressman under investigation pledged to stay in office.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez complained on Tuesday that the United States is making peace in the world impossible, a comment he said was a response to recent criticism from President George W. Bush.

AP - Summoning the Veterans Affairs chief to Capitol Hill, lawmakers are demanding to know why the department waited nearly three weeks to disclose the theft of personal data from 26.5 million veterans.

AP - Two days into the first trial emerging from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, e-mails are speaking louder than words.

AP - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is getting her bid for a second term under way with a sometimes emotional 18-minute video that features praise from her husband and even some New Yorkers who opposed her candidacy six years ago.

AP - An outspoken British lawmaker appeared on Cuban television praising Fidel Castro as a "lion" of world politics and defending the Cuban leader against a magazine report naming him one of the world's wealthiest rulers.

AP - Hawaii politicians are scrambling to gather enough votes in Congress to pass a bill that would grant Native Hawaiians a degree of self-government and possibly a share of the land ruled by their ancestors.

AP - Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles said Monday he will run for a new term, challenging the nation's oldest governor for a chance to return to office.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles said on Tuesday he plans to seek another term in office, pledging to undo a deal for a controversial $20 billion natural gas pipeline contract negotiated by Republican incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski.