AP - Tagg Romney was in his office the other day when the door opened and in popped his father, Mitt Romney, dropping off the family dog.

AP - Wanted: Democratic congressional aide seeking new career. Must have strong powers of persuasion, excellent connections and good marksmanship. Contact the National Rifle Association's government affairs office for details.

Politico - Here's how you can tell the campaign is over and the transition has begun: Barack Obama's aides now wear suits and ties, their desks are in the Federal Building on 6th Street in Washington, D.C.—and Clintonites are everywhere.

AP - Minnesota is preparing to move a seemingly stalemated U.S. Senate election into the tedious process of a statewide recount as it readies an army of workers to sort through nearly 3 million ballots.

AP - A federal safety board is expected to decide what caused last year's deadly collapse of a Minneapolis highway bridge, a day after pointing to design flaw as the origin.

Reuters - Iran's U.N. envoy on Thursday accused Israel of abusing a Saudi-sponsored U.N. interfaith conference for political purposes and suggested the Jewish state had no right to take part.

AP - With economic damage piling ever higher, President George W. Bush and other world leaders are gathering to explore options for relief and to work on ways to prevent similar credit and financial calamities from happening again.

AP - Three big city mayors asked the federal government Friday to use a portion of the $700 billion financial bailout to assist struggling cities.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama met Thursday with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at his transition headquarters in Chicago as a growing chorus of advisers pushes her for secretary of state. 

AP - A bill to rescue the troubled auto industry with $25 billion in emergency loans inched forward Friday when Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will begin debate Monday and hold a test vote two days later. Supporters scrambled for votes to break an expected filibuster.

AP - A Belfast judge convicted a notorious Protestant militant Friday of trying to kill Catholic politicians during his bizarre — and internationally broadcast — attempt to attack the Northern Ireland Assembly two years ago.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama will have limited authority to overturn federal regulations approved in the waning months of the Bush administration. But a little-used power offers the new Democratic Congress an early test of how aggressively lawmakers might unravel such rules pushed through by Republicans.

AP - Three big city mayors asked the federal government Friday to use a portion of the $700 billion financial bailout to assist struggling cities.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama met Thursday with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) at his transition headquarters in Chicago as a growing chorus of advisers pushes her for secretary of state. 

AP - Lawmakers complained Friday that the Bush administration is ignoring the will of Congress and slighting homeowners on the verge of foreclosure in its latest approach to spending $700 billion in economic rescue money.

AP - The Supreme Court is stepping into a sensitive dispute over a state judge's decision to participate in a case that involved a key campaign supporter.

AP - The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from a conservative group that wanted to promote and air its anti-Hillary Clinton movie without complying with a landmark campaign finance law.

AP - Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a stalwart of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges last month, trails his Democratic rival by more than 800 votes and many of the outstanding ballots come from parts of the state that have favored the challenger.

Politico - After leaving the Clinton administration in its waning months, newly tapped Vice Presidential chief of staff Ron Klain lobbied for an asbestos industry bailout package, an airline merger, mortgage regulations to help Fannie Mae and a drug-maker under congressional scrutiny for withholding life-saving drugs from dying patients, among other clients.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama has won one of Nebraska's electoral votes, making history in a state that has never split its electoral votes.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate seat is still warm — and occupied — but the first notes are already sounding in the New York game of musical chairs to succeed her.

AP - A California Republican is challenging House GOP Leader John Boehner for his post after the party lost at least 20 seats in last week's elections.

AP - A former Interior Department official who pleaded guilty to creating a lucrative post-retirement consulting position for himself received probation from a federal judge on Friday.

AFP - The UN delivered Friday the first food aid in two weeks in territory held by rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and said it needed to urgently move 60,000 refugees from the frontline.

AP - During the Democrats' quarrelsome nominating contest, Hillary Rodham Clinton argued that she, and not upstart rival Barack Obama, had more impressive credentials as a statesman: familiarity with world leaders and problems, toughness under fire.

AP - This isn't your grandfather's fireside chat.

Politico - After leaving the Clinton administration in its waning months, newly tapped Vice Presidential chief of staff Ron Klain lobbied for an asbestos industry bailout package, an airline merger, mortgage regulations to help Fannie Mae and a drug-maker under congressional scrutiny for withholding life-saving drugs from dying patients, among other clients.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama’s intelligence transition team leaders have a past that might spook a few Democrats. 

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to rule on a new challenge to the federal campaign finance law by a conservative group that wants to broadcast and promote a movie critical of Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Politico - Six members of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team for government operations worked in the Clinton administration, and one of them runs a consulting firm that has listed Freddie Mac as a client.

AP - A court refused Friday to free a cancer-stricken Libyan convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Politico - President-elect Obama has tapped a handful of former government bureaucrats now in the private sector to head his transportation review team.

AP - Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a stalwart of Alaska politics who was convicted of felony charges last month, fell further behind his Democratic rival Friday, and most remaining ballots come from parts of the state that have favored the challenger.