Rain douses Rose Garden presidential class picture
WASHINGTON (AP) -- That photographers' dream shot of the current president, the next president and the still-living presidents posing for a picture in the Rose Garden? Forget it! An unrelenting rain has forced the class picture inside....

Opposition to seating Burris in Senate weakening
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats are looking for ways to defuse the standoff that has denied Roland Burris the vacated Illinois seat of President-elect Barack Obama....

Stimulus aside, Obama vows future budget restraint
WASHINGTON (AP) -- To a public wary of government spending, President-elect Barack Obama is offering a salve with his massive economic stimulus package: the promise of long-term fiscal discipline....

A rare gathering: Bush, Obama and 3 ex-presidents
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An entire generation has gone by since the nation last saw this tableau of American history: every living U.S. president together at the White House....

Burris' best bet could be federal court
WASHINGTON (AP) -- If Senate Democrats stick to their refusal to seat Roland Burris as a senator from Illinois, his best bet could be getting a federal judge to force open the Senate's doors....

End to Minn. Senate race pushed even further out
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota's grueling U.S. Senate race, already dragging on two months past Election Day, has now moved even further from the voters - and into the hands of lawyers....

'Everyday Americans' invited to whistle stop tour
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama has invited a group of "everyday Americans" to join him and Vice President-elect Joe Biden on their Whistle Stop Tour to the nation's capital on the Saturday before Inauguration Day....

Former Australian leader has Blair House reserved
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a D.C. property so exclusive that even the president-elect couldn't reserve it. So who's staying at Blair House, the White House's guest quarters across Pennsylvania Avenue?...

Ex-Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush won't run for Senate in 2010
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Former Gov. Jeb Bush announced Tuesday that he won't run for the U.S. Senate in 2010 to replace the retiring Mel Martinez, saying that it was not the right time to return to elected office....

New Congress opens pledging to rescue economy
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. "We need action and we need action now," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama - to a point....