AP - Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is paying a tax penalty — not the kind you get from the IRS.

AP - After weeks of watching their counterparts in the House make headway on anti-war legislation, Senate Democrats say it is their turn to put their members on record on whether President Bush should pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

AP - About 47 percent of parents in families earning less than $40,000 a year are offered health insurance through their employers — a 9 percent drop during the past decade.

AP - President Bush's trip to sunny Latin America was no day at the beach. He was buffeted by complaints about immigration laws, ethanol tariffs, the Iraq war and accusations that the United States was ignoring its southern neighbors.

AP - Confronted with congressional concerns about global warming, the leaders of the U.S. auto industry are highlighting their work to develop alternative vehicles and asserting that the burdens of climate change cannot fall to one industry alone.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has launched an online petition drive to rally support for legislation he co-sponsored to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next March.

AP - Fire from a terrorism attack against a tanker ship carrying liquefied natural gas could ignite so fiercely it would burn people one mile away, according to a congressional study.

AP - The House Wednesday pressed forward on bills to open government records to the public and protect whistleblowers, brushing aside White House warnings that the bills faced opposition and in some cases a veto.

AP - Democratic presidential candidates promised Wednesday to provide better health care for military veterans, saying troops returning from Iraq have received shoddy care under the Bush administration.

AP - The chairman of the congressional panel that oversees the Federal Communications Commission accused the agency of overstepping its authority in approving an order meant to create more competition and lower prices in the cable television industry.

AP - President Bush, seeking to rebuild ties with Mexico, pledged Wednesday to intensify efforts to overhaul U.S. immigration laws and crack down on illegal drug trafficking.

AP - The House Wednesday passed three bills to open government records to the public, brushing aside White House opposition, and in one case, a veto threat.

AP - Democrat Bill Richardson told oil and gas investors Wednesday how he'd wean the United States off foreign sources of their product if elected president in 2008.

AP - Open-government bills sped to House passage Wednesday as Democrats pushed to make the president and his executive branch more forthcoming about their actions. The White House struck back with veto threats.

AP - Democratic presidential candidates promised on Wednesday to provide better health care for military veterans, saying troops returning from Iraq have received shoddy care under the Bush administration.

AP - U.S. automakers and a top union official told Congress on Wednesday that the industry cannot deal alone with global warming, and they warned that proposed fuel efficiency increases could cost jobs.

AP - China's U.N. ambassador called on Sudan's president to explain his letter challenging a plan to send United Nations peacekeepers to help African Union troops in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region.

AP - President Bush pledged Wednesday to intensify his push for languishing immigration legislation, standing alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon who acknowledged he has relatives picking vegetables in the U.S.

AP - The Bush administration is preparing to impose economic sanctions against Sudan following the refusal of President Omar al-Bashir to allow deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.

AP - The chairman of a congressional panel that oversees the Federal Communications Commission accused the agency of overstepping its authority in approving an order meant to create more competition in cable television.

AP - The government is preparing to punish some subprime mortgage lenders under investigation for discriminatory practices, the Bush administration's housing secretary said Wednesday.

AP - Open-government bills sped to House passage Wednesday as Democrats pushed to make President Bush and his executive branch more forthcoming about their actions. The White House struck back with veto threats.

AP - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who spent years investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, told lawmakers Wednesday that he could offer little help during congressional hearings on the leak.

CQPolitics.com - Texas Rep. Ron Paul — the conservative and iconoclastic congressional veteran who in 1988 was the Libertarian Party nominee for president — said Monday that he is formally seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

AP - Rudy Giuliani's law firm has received $100,000 to $200,000 since 2005 to lobby Texas legislators on behalf of Citgo Petroleum Corp., a Houston-based oil company ultimately controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

AP - The Bush administration on Wednesday rejected key recommendations from a citizens' group asked by Congress to find out people's health care wishes.

AP - Senate Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a budget for next year that awards near-term budget increases for education, veterans and local police while avoiding difficult decisions on looming tax increases.

U.S. News & World Report - Progressive House Democrats have outlined two key benchmarks for their colleagues in charge of writing a budget resolution for the 2008 fiscal year.