AP - President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan won't include money for politicians' pet projects and will include provisions aimed at ensuring his administration is open and accountable to taxpayers and Congress, a transition official said Tuesday.

AP - No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman was headed to court Tuesday, seeking to overturn a state board's certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.

AP - Roland Burris failed in his bid to take President-elect Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat on Tuesday in a scripted piece of political theater staged just before the opening of the 111th Congress.

Story created Jan 06, 2009 - 11:14:50 CST. The year 2008 was one for the record books.

Bloomberg - Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- In a mirrored office tower overlooking Caracas, a top Venezuelan official says his government is ready to accept Barack Obama’s offer to talk with U.S. adversaries -- if the president-elect scraps George W. Bush’s division of the world into friends and foes.

Reuters - The new U.S. Congress convened on Tuesday under pressure to pass an economic stimulus package that Barack Obama could sign into law soon after being sworn in as president on January 20.