AP - Alaska Republican Don Young has won a 19th term in the House after the toughest fight of his long political career.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama’s review of the vast federal bureaucracy will be led by past aides to former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

AP - Trailblazer and Tempo are making way for Renegade and Renaissance.

AP - Just as Sen. Ted Stevens appeared ready to take his criminal record back to Congress — perhaps opening a door for Gov. Sarah Palin to replace him — his re-election bid faltered.

AP - Congressional Democrats are marshaling support for a rescue package to pump $25 billion in emergency loans to U.S. automakers in exchange for a government ownership stake in Detroit's car companies.

Politico - CHICAGO — It was a standard applause line on the campaign trail: Barack Obama condemned the “perpetual campaign” that has consumed Washington, contending that the slash-and-burn politics practiced by the Bush White House had gotten in the way of governing.

CQPolitics.com - Democratic challenger Mark Begich held an 814-vote lead over Republican Sen. Ted Stevens early Thursday as Alaska counted the absentee ballots and early ballots that weren't tallied on Election Day.

Reuters - Britain has circulated a draft resolution that would impose new U.N. sanctions on anyone contributing to violence and instability in Somalia, U.N. Security Council diplomats told Reuters on Wednesday.

Politico - Ronald A. Klain, former chief of staff and counselor to Vice President Al Gore, has accepted an offer to be chief of staff to Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Democratic officials said.

AP - Vice President-elect Joe Biden chose as his chief of staff a man who once served in that same role for Vice President Al Gore, Democratic officials said Thursday.

Politico - The oldest son of Vice President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to deploy to Iraq by Thanksgiving, according to sources familiar with the plans.

Bloomberg - Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Republican Representative Don Young of Alaska won his bid for a 19th term over Democrat Ethan Berkowitz, a former state House minority leader.

AP - A top investigator says a sailor set off the fire safety system on a Russian nuclear submarine last weekend that killed 20 people.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is trying to tamp down talk about a 2012 presidential run. She says the Republican Party and its leaders need to focus on governors races in 2010.

Politico - The oldest son of Vice President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to deploy to Iraq by Thanksgiving, according to sources familiar with the plans.

AP - The high-profile White House meeting this week between outgoing and incoming presidents is being followed Thursday night by a much lower-key get-together hosted by Vice President Dick Cheney for his successor, Democrat Joe Biden.

AP - Congress is looking at requiring banks and other financial institutions to increase their lending to qualify for the second half of a $700 billion bailout program.

AFP - The United Nations will suspend its food distribution to half of Gaza's 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said.

AP - Vice President-elect Joe Biden chose as his chief of staff a man who once served in that same role for Vice President Al Gore, Democratic officials said Thursday.

AP - Sarah Palin called on fellow Republican governors to keep the new president and his strengthened Democratic majority in check on issues from taxes to health care as she signaled she'll take a leadership role in a party searching for a new standard-bearer.

Politico - The auto industry picked up precious Republican support Thursday as Ohio Sen. George Voinovich said he will sign on to Democratic efforts to tap Treasury’s rescue funds to help the Big Three weather cash problems this winter.

AP - Hate your job? Out of work? Tired of scanning Monster.com for something better?

AP - A court has ruled that a former Serbian diplomat who is accused of helping a Serb college student flee criminal charges in the United States must be released from jail.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he will resign from the Senate, effective Sunday.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration is expected to draw 1 million-plus to the capital, and already some lawmakers have stopped taking ticket requests and hotels have booked up.

Politico - Barack Obama may have won the presidential debates during five key moments, each of which was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on video-sharing sites on the Internet in the ensuing days, according to an analysis of viewership figures of every video uploaded to the major video sites — including YouTube, DailyMotion, Veoh, MySpace and MetaCafe.

AP - Democrat Al Franken, locked in a tight Senate race headed to a statewide recount, sued Thursday for access to data on voters who had their absentee ballots rejected.

AP - Georgia's secretary of state has certified election results that make a Dec. 2 U.S. Senate runoff official.

AP - The Postal Service ended its fiscal year $2.8 billion in the red, battered by a faltering economy that cut the amount of mail being sent.

AP - Two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and Republican strategist Karl Rove don't see eye-to-eye on much, but in a spirited debate Thursday they agreed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin needs to hone her knowledge of foreign policy and geography if she runs for president in 2012.

AP - John McCain is returning to the campaign trail for the first time since losing the presidency, headlining a Republican rally for a Georgia senator locked in a runoff that could push the Democratic majority closer to 60 votes.

AP - Rights groups asked a Spanish court on Thursday to indict a former president of El Salvador and 14 ex-officials over the massacre of six Jesuit priests and two others during the Central American country's 1980-92 civil war.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he will resign from the Senate effective Sunday.

AP - Vice President-elect Joe Biden was all smiles Thursday when he paid a courtesy call the man he will succeed, Dick Cheney. But he has insisted he wants to be nothing like him.

Politico - Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean is not a serious contender to be secretary of health and human services in the new Obama administration, sources said.

AP - North Carolina U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan has withdrawn a defamation lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole over a TV campaign ad that Hagan said questioned her Christianity.

AP - The Labor Department on Thursday announced final revisions in the Family and Medical Leave Act, including new rules defining how families of wounded service members will be able to take unpaid leave to care for them.

Politico - Several Obama transition advisers are strongly advocating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for secretary of State, a move that would create the ultimate “Team of Rivals” cabinet, according to officials involved in the discussions.

AP - Bill Ayers, the Vietnam War-era radical who was a campaign headache for Barack Obama, says in a new afterword to his memoir that the two were neighbors and family friends. Ayers' reflections appear in a new paperback release of his 2001 memoir, 'Fugitive Days.' The Associated Press obtained a copy of the new afterword Thursday.

AP - A Transportation Department investigation has concluded that Federal Aviation Administration officials covered up safety errors at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the second such admonishment in the past three years.

AP - Ukraine is unlikely to return more than a dozen paintings by Western European artists brought here from a German museum as Soviet war trophies during World War II, an official said Thursday.

Politico - Former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele shook up the emerging race for chair of the Republican National Committee Thursday, announcing that he would join the contest in an appearance on Fox News's 'Hannity and Colmes.'

AP - An Italian court convicted 13 police officers Thursday of violence against protesters during the 2001 Group of Eight summit in the northern Italian city of Genoa.