AP - St. Louis County keeps election ballots in the courthouse attic. Anoka County keeps them locked in the basement. Hennepin County relies on its cities to keep ballots safe.

Politico - Michelle Obama wasn’t always an admirer of Hillary Clinton, but last Wednesday the soon-to-be first lady dialed up the former first lady for pointers on protecting her two young daughters from the media maelstrom of the White House.

AP - No matter how people remember President Bush's time in office, let there be no doubt about how he wants to end it: gracefully.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she thought the Election Day contest between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain would be closer. But she added that, in retrospect, 'it's really not so much a surprise' that Obama's margin of victory was so large.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she wouldn't hesitate to run for the presidency in four years if it's God's will, even though she never thought Campaign 2008 would be 'as brutal a ride as it turned out to be.'

AFP - Foreign Secretary David Miliband said here Monday he was to urge Bosnian political leaders to urgently implement EU-oriented reforms, during a brief visit to the Balkans country.

Politico - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pushed back against the growing number of negative leaks coming from John McCain’s former campaign staffers Tuesday, calling those who have spoken on condition of anonymity “cowards.”

AP - Democrat Frank Kratovil is accepting victory one week after Election Day in a very tight U.S. House race in Maryland.

AFP - Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo Monday said they were holding to a ceasefire despite some skirmishes, as European ministers lamented the deteriorating situation but made no offers to send troops.

AP - Barack Obama accepted a rush of congratulatory phone calls from world leaders after last week's election. But personal visits with the president-elect will have to wait.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama wants a high-profile point person to oversee reforms in the ailing auto industry, according to members of Obama’s transition team.

AP - President-elect Obama says he'd be happy to have Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman continue to caucus with Democrats.

AP - European and Australian dignitaries paid quiet homage Tuesday to the millions of World War I soldiers who lost their lives on the blood-soaked battlefields of a shattered Europe nearly a century ago.

AP - Aides to President-elect Obama, who said lobbyists would not work in his White House, said Tuesday that lobbyists could serve in his transition so long as their activities do not involve areas of policy they have tried to influence in the past year.

AP - Heading to the capital city to be part of history on Jan. 20? Good luck finding a room.

Politico - This may be the final, final, final set of rules for lobbyists in regards to the transition and administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Maybe. 

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for 'emergency and limited financial assistance' for the battered auto industry on Tuesday, to be completed within days in a postelection session of Congress.

AP - Poland marked with joy the moment it emerged from the empires shattered by World War I and became a modern nation, celebrating its 90th anniversary Tuesday with waving flags and booming cannons.

Politico - While some are coy about their prospects in the new Obama administration, health care expert Ken Thorpe is straightforward. “I’m happy to help inside or outside,” he says.

AP - President-elect Obama, who said lobbyists would not run his White House, signaled Tuesday that lobbyists could serve in his transition so long as their activities do not involve areas of policy they have tried to influence in the past year.

AP - Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican convicted of seven felony counts last month, faces a vote by his Republican colleagues next week on whether to kick him out of the Senate's GOP conference and strip him of plum committee assignments.

AP - Roman Catholic Church officials are sending messages to U.S. president-elect Barack Obama, saying they will oppose any changes in U.S. policies on embryonic stem cell research.

Politico - A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos Tuesday morning after political analyst Michael Barone said journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans' vice presidential nominee, because 'she did not abort her Down syndrome baby.'

AP - President-elect Obama, who campaigned against lobbyists' influence, on Tuesday opened the door for them to work for him if they sign an ethics code that restricts their role in and out of government.

AP - After nearly a year of studying how to assist airline passengers delayed for hours, a federal task force has finalized its recommendations, and none of them requires airlines or airports to do anything differently.

AP - Nikola Kavaja, who hijacked a U.S. passenger jet in 1979 with the intention of crashing it into Yugoslav Communist Party headquarters, has died.

Politico - Making his first public comment a week after he lost the election to Barack Obama, John McCain joked with 'The Tonight Show' host Jay Leno that his defeat was 'all the press' fault' and that he's 'ready to go again' in 2012.

AP - A week after Election Day, about 30 percent of the Alaska votes that will decide the fate of convicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens haven't been counted.

AP - A federal task force that spent nearly a year wrestling with ways to assist people delayed for hours aboard planes parked on tarmacs has finalized its recommendations — none of which requires airlines and airports to do anything.