AP - A bailout for the nation's ailing automobile industry tops the agenda as lawmakers return to work this week to name leaders and reorganize committees for the new Congress convening in January.

AP - John Podesta, a leader of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, was the Clinton administration official who worked to douse scandals, outmaneuver Republicans and keep Bill Clinton popular even through impeachment. He's now in charge of a 450-person staff whose experts — including Podesta himself — aren't always in sync with those of his new boss.

Politico - Party leaders agree that the GOP has had a rough go of it at the polls in recent years.

AP - The Postal Service is investigating whether the nation's postmaster general improperly received a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial Corp., the chairman of the service's governing board said.

Politico - Barack Obama isn’t likely to offer the Secretary of State post to Hillary Clinton unless he’s given assurances Bill Clinton’s global charitable foundation won’t create future conflicts of interest with foreign governments, according to a person familiar with the situation.

AP - Ninth seed Armenia, winner of the last Chess Olympiad, held second seed Ukraine to a 2-2 tie in open division play Sunday, drawing all four games in their match in the fourth round of this year's event.

Politico - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is President-elect Obama’s first choice for secretary of State but his aides are becoming exasperated by the Clinton camp’s pokey response to demands for extensive information about former President Bill Clinton’s finances, according to numerous Democrats involved in the process. 

Bloomberg - Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be closer to being tapped for extended duty by Barack Obama because of the near certainty a Democrat -- possibly Hillary Clinton -- will be named secretary of state and Gates's willingness to accept a new team around him, according to Democratic and Republican experts.

AP - A high-profile federal prosecutor has told superiors at the Justice Department that he is leaving his job in New York to join a private law firm.

AP - A paralyzed man who has sued hundreds of businesses over accommodations for the disabled lost his Supreme Court appeal Monday to get out from under a court order requiring special permission to file new lawsuits.

AP - Many themes swirl through Wagner's Lohengrin — love, betrayal, redemption. But at the Vienna State Opera Sunday, the work was mostly a study in darkness and light.

AP - A federal judge on Monday ordered the Justice Department to release the information it used to persuade the courts to let it search the home of a former Army scientist who was exonerated in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

AP - The lawyer for an American citizen imprisoned in Belarus says his client has been hospitalized.

Reuters - The newest United Nations messenger of peace, actress Charlize Theron, made her name in hard-hitting movies about abused women but she says audiences don't want to see that kind of film.

CQPolitics.com - Despite campaigning for the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman has 'significant support' within the Senate Democratic Caucus, ally Ken Salazar said Monday.

The Christian Science Monitor - President-elect Barack Obama vowed in his campaign to reduce the toxic partisanship that has poisoned the federal government. One critical way to make good on this promise and provide an antidote to longstanding toxicity is through bipartisan judicial appointments.

Reuters - California's Attorney General on Monday urged the state Supreme Court to consider whether a gay marriage ban passed by voters this month was legal.

AP - A Russian court decided Monday not to ban reporters from the trial of three men accused in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya — paving the way for an open trial where details of the much-criticized investigation will be made public.

AP - Churches in the nation's capital have started extending invitations to President-elect Barack Obama and his family, touting their African-American roots, their ties to presidents past and to Obama himself.

AP - Democrat Al Franken's Senate campaign, trailing slightly just before a statewide recount, argued Monday that a key Minnesota election board should examine rejected absentee ballots before certifying the race results.

Politico - Remember Barack Obama's Jewish problem?

AP - A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a contempt order requiring fines of up to $5,000 a day against a former USA Today reporter who refused to identify sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks.

AP - Russia's chess team, hailed as the highest rated ever assembled for a Chess Olympiad, hit a bump Monday as 11th-seed Germany battled all four games against them to a draw in round five of the biennial tournament in open division play.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama and vanquished rival John McCain talked Monday about reforming parts of the political process, but they skipped a good governance issue of mutual interest over which they sparred bitterly during their campaign: fixing the public financing system.