AP - In his time off between presidential bids, Democrat John Edwards courted Wall Street financial gurus and Main Street labor leaders.

AP - John McCain's slide in the presidential race shows up everywhere on the campaign trail.

CQPolitics.com - Many Americans serving in the military cast absentee ballots, but Maine Republican Charlie Summers is waging an unusual campaign as an absentee candidate. The lawyer and Navy reservist is running in Maine’s open 1st Congressional District — his third try for the Down East seat — even though his deployment to Iraq will run past the June 2008 GOP primary.

AP - The House and Senate voted Friday to direct $250 million to rebuild the Minnesota bridge that was destroyed in this week's deadly collapse.

AP - Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Sunday stood by foreign policy comments that sparked an anti-U.S. protest in Pakistan and attacks from his opponents, telling an audience in rural Nevada, 'There was no mistake there.'

AP - Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton was calling Tuesday for a crackdown on 'unscrupulous mortgage brokers,' proposing penalties on those who engage in predatory lending.

Rasmussen Reports - New York Senator Hillary Clinton has been steadily gaining support since April in her quest for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Reuters - The appetite for trade deals in the United States is fading and the window to strike an agreement in the Doha round of farm talks is closing, analysts and lawmakers said Tuesday.

AP - Republican Fred Thompson, the all-but-certain presidential candidate, will make his initial foray into Iowa next week, meeting with lawmakers and checking out an Iowa State Fair tradition — a cow carved from butter.

AP - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, under fire at home with calls for his resignation, is spending some time in Iraq.

AP - South Carolina Republicans moved up their presidential primary to Jan. 19, a move certain to push other early voting states to shift their dates, especially Iowa and New Hampshire. Here is the tentative primary calendar for the 2008.

AP - Speaking loudly and carrying on like Theodore Roosevelt. It's a rare part of the 2008 presidential campaign rhetoric that crosses party lines.

Reuters - Saying he had no regrets, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson on Sunday dropped out of the crowded race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination after a poor showing in a straw poll in Iowa.

AP - Mitt Romney accuses former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of making his city a haven for illegal immigrants. Giuliani denies it, insisting he cracked down on lawlessness of every kind.

AP - Six Democratic presidential contenders, courting one of the party's most crucial interest groups, pledged Wednesday to work to reverse decades of decline in the nation's union movement.

AP - Republicans rushing to embrace Fred Thompson's would-be presidential candidacy might have trouble figuring out what he would do if he actually won the White House.

AP - Rep. Bill Sali has apologized to a Muslim colleague for remarks suggesting the nation's founders never intended for Muslims to serve in Congress.

AP - White House political adviser Karl Rove stepped up his attack on Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday, saying voters' strong negative opinions about her will be difficult to overcome.

AP - The U.N. secretary-general urged the Security Council to back a new international mission that would deploy European and U.N. forces in Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians trying to escape violence.

AP - Barack Obama knows it's a stretch to think of him as president.

AP - Opening a new front in the Bush administration's battle to keep its records confidential, the Justice Department is contending that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

AFP - Texas governor Rick Perry bluntly rejected an appeal from the European Union to bring in a moratorium on the death penalty as the state prepares Wednesday for its 400th execution since 1976.

Reuters - European Union observers said on Thursday they had no confidence in the results of April elections in Nigeria because of fraud in collating the votes.

AP - Sudan expelled the top Canadian and European Union diplomats from the country Thursday for what was described as 'meddling in its affairs,' state media reported.

AP - Republican presidential candidate and self-described 'recovering foodaholic' Mike Huckabee told Southern governors Saturday that an obesity epidemic could cause serious problems for the American economy, and even for national security.

AP - The Sudanese government, which fought efforts to bring international peacekeepers to the devastated Darfur region, seems to be cooperating as the United Nations-mandated force takes shape, a top U.N. official said Friday.

AP - The good citizens of Iowa are getting an eyeful and an earful of political ads these days, far more than before, even for one of the epicenters of presidential politics.

AP - Two weeks before receiving a major assessment of the war in Iraq, President Bush gave a ringing defense of the war effort Tuesday in a speech that sounded like he'd already made up his mind to stay and fight.

AP - Don't expect to hear much talk about farming from the presidential candidates who regularly tour Iowa, one of the nation's premier agriculture states.

Reuters - Major Western nations must offer more police for Darfur to end four years of violence, the retiring U.N. police chief said on Thursday as the world body struggles to find enough officers for the Sudanese province.