AP - A group of centrist senators who halted a previous filibuster fight is making plans for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, but at least two of the group's Republicans say their decision is already made: no filibuster.

AP - Rep. Tom DeLay's staff tried to help lobbyist Jack Abramoff win access to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, an effort that succeeded after Abramoff's Indian tribe clients began funneling a quarter-million dollars to an environmental group founded by Norton.

AP - Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not.

AP - President Bush and the thousands of demonstrators protesting his visit to Argentina that will begin Thursday have a common goal of reducing poverty, but the test for Bush will be whether he can convince others in the hemisphere to support his solution.

AP - A House Republican wants to build a fence along the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, a plan that could cost billions of dollars and one that critics say would do little to stop illegal immigration.

USATODAY.com - The indictments against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have helped persuade congressional analysts that Democrats have at least a chance to win back the House and Senate majorities they lost 11 years ago.

AP - Michael Schiavo, who was at the center of a passionate national end-of-life debate over his brain-damaged wife, Terri, endorsed Democrat Tim Kaine for governor Wednesday.

AP - The Senate on Thursday sent a $100 billion food and farm spending bill to President Bush that includes a two-year delay on labels telling grocery shoppers where their meat comes from.

AP - Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not.

Reuters - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), narrowly rejecting a Democratic attempt to strike the plan from a budget bill.

AP - More corporations and wealthy taxpayers had their tax returns audited by Internal Revenue Service examiners this year, helping the agency haul in a record $47.3 billion in unpaid taxes.

AP - Senate opponents to drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge failed Thursday to strip the measure from a massive budget package as supporters of exploration argued that the oil is needed to help break America of its import habit.

AP - President Bush faces ruffled relations in the Western Hemisphere with street protesters ranting against the U.S. in Argentina and Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, waiting to bait him.

AP - Still angry a year later, John Kerry supporters across the country are donating money to an effort to overhaul elections in the state they blame for costing them the White House.

AP - The Supreme Court's middle ground is disappearing. If Samuel Alito is confirmed, he could almost immediately begin to erase the court's balanced rulings on contentious social issues like abortion, religion and capital punishment.

AP - Democrats tried unsuccessfully Thursday to force the House to take up a measure condemning Republicans for 'their refusal to conduct oversight' of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy and to order investigations into it.

AP - The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on public attitudes about President Bush was conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 2 is based on telephone interviews with 1,006 adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii and areas heavily damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Because of hurricane damage, Ipsos did not try to interview respondents in Louisiana, southern Mississippi and central and southern Florida.

AP - Business leaders, demographers and the past three directors of the Census Bureau are lobbying to save funds for a new annual survey set to replace the long-form questionnaire used every 10 years by census takers.

AP - The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, spurning President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end.

AFP - The World Food Programme (WFP) said it is negotiating a development assistance program for North Korea as the impoverished Stalinist nation ends 10 years of humanitarian aid this year.

AP - Three Democratic congressmen Thursday asked Vice President Dick Cheney to testify on Capitol Hill about the disclosure of a covert CIA officer's identity, saying "there are many wide-ranging questions about your involvement."

AP - President Bush on Thursday announced the recipients of this year's Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award.

AP - Politicians looking for a fresh way to get voters' attention have seized on something that is more 'South Park' than 'West Wing': cartoons.

AP - Amtrak needs to improve the way it monitors performance and oversees its finances to reach solid financial ground, congressional investigators said Thursday.

The Christian Science Monitor - A nine-member bipartisan panel on tax reform spelled out its recommendations Tuesday, hoping the White House and Congress might agree that its politically balanced compromises on changing the tax code would help people save more and borrow less.

AP - President Bush reinstated wage laws Thursday that were suspended in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

AP - The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved the first cuts since 1997 to benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and farm subsidies, giving Republicans a modest victory against ever-rising government spending.

AP - A Texas county official said Thursday he would not prosecute presidential adviser Karl Rove after investigating whether he voted illegally in the state.

AP - A new judge was selected to preside over Rep. Tom DeLay's conspiracy and money laundering trial Thursday, after a GOP judge became the second to step away from involvement in the case because of political contributions he has made.

AFP - Two deminers contracted to the United Nations in southern Sudan were killed in an ambush by suspected Ugandan rebels, prompting condemnation from UN envoy Jan Pronk.