AP - To a public wary of government spending, President-elect Barack Obama is offering a salve with his massive economic stimulus package: the promise of long-term fiscal discipline.

AP - Four men being held as terror suspects at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan are asking a federal judge for the right to sue for their release — a right already given to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

AP - If Senate Democrats stick to their refusal to seat Roland Burris as a senator from Illinois, his best bet could be getting a federal judge to force open the Senate's doors.

Politico - Barack Obama’s elaborate rollout of his economic recovery plan could provide an impressive early victory for his incoming administration.

AP - An entire generation has gone by since the nation last saw this tableau of American history: every living U.S. president together at the White House.

AP - It's a D.C. property so exclusive that even the president-elect couldn't reserve it. So who's staying at Blair House, the White House's guest quarters across Pennsylvania Avenue?

AP - The federal budget deficit will hit an unparalleled $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year, according to a Capitol Hill aide briefed on new Congressional Budget office figures.

AP - That photographers' dream shot of the current president, the next president and the still-living presidents posing for a picture in the Rose Garden? Forget it! An unrelenting rain has forced the class picture inside.

Politico - The Congressional Budget Office released a grim forecast Wednesday for the coming year that projects a federal deficit of almost $1.2 trillion in 2009 as revenues fall off and housing prices continue to decline even as unemployment rises. 

AP - President-elect Barack Obama has returned to the White House for a private sit-down with President George W. Bush, less than two weeks before their official transfer of power.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama has declined to support giving his vacated Senate seat to former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris.

AP - Nissan Motor Co. is recalling more than 240,000 trucks in 20 cold weather states to fix a problem that could prevent front air bags from deploying in a crash.

AP - Officials say the U.N.'s top human rights body will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the situation in crisis-hit Gaza.

AP - The Bush administration said Wednesday that nuclear-armed North Korea will be an early test for President-elect Barack Obama's new administration, conceding that one of President George W. Bush's top foreign policy initiatives is unlikely to be resolved before Obama takes office Jan. 20.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama said Wednesday he'll have to juggle the competing interests of economic stimulus and deficit control, but that restoring general business health must come first.

AP - The Bush administration said Wednesday it won't finish implementing new vehicle fuel-efficiency rules, leaving the issue to the incoming Obama administration.

AP - A human rights group is asking President-elect Barack Obama to end immediately a ban on most American travel to Cuba.

AP - House Democrats plan to give President-elect Barack Obama an early victory on health care with a vote next week on legislation to expand a children's health insurance program.

AP - A hoarse Pope Benedict XVI asked the faithful during a general audience Wednesday to bear with his weak voice.

AP - A conservative watchdog group has sued the Senate for refusing to immediately seat Roland Burris as the new senator from Illinois.

AP - The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for Illinois Democrat Roland Burris to be allowed to fill President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Politico - John McCain is dipping his toes back into campaign politics after his lopsided presidential election loss, creating a new committee to help raise money for likeminded Republican candidates.

AP - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday she intends to support President-elect Barack Obama's choice for CIA chief, Leon Panetta, despite her earlier comments that she had reservations about the choice.

AP - Joseph Kelliher will step down as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission effective Jan. 20, coinciding with the end of the Bush administration.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on Friday on two bills to combat workplace sex discrimination, including legislation named after an Alabama woman who lost a pay equity case at the U.S. Supreme Court because she waited too long to file a lawsuit, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday.

AP - Pointing with concern to 'red ink as far as the eye can see,' President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.

Politico - When it comes to legislative bodies, the first rule is always: Don’t just do something, stand there.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama wants to use his economic aid plan to cut energy use in federal buildings, a long-sought goal that has achieved mixed success.

AP - Future donations to presidential libraries would have to be publicly disclosed, the House decided Wednesday.

AP - The lunar new year stamp marking the Year of the Ox goes on sale Thursday, perhaps a special event for President-elect Barack Obama.

AFP - Outgoing US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Wednesday that negotiations on a global trade round should step back from the limelight over the coming year and focus on quiet confidence-building.

AP - Senate Democrats who thought they could push away Roland Burris misjudged the racial fallout, underestimated public reaction and wound up on shaky legal ground.

Politico - Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that his image has gotten a bad rap in the press and that he is in fact “a warm, loveable sort.”

AP - The nation's tax code is so complex that taxpayers spend nearly $200 billion a year on the work required to comply with requirements, the government's taxpayer advocate said in a report released Wednesday.

AFP - US Senate Democrats Wednesday unveiled an agenda topped by economy, health and the environment for the new Congress, set to tackle the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.

AP - The Bush administration has failed to provide protections required by law to more than a dozen marine mammals potentially at risk of death or injury due to commercial fishing, congressional investigators said Wednesday.

AP - Terrorists based in Britain have plotted fewer attacks against the U.K. over the last 18 months — but the overall threat from terrorism remains severe, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence agency was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Politico - Harry Reid is poised to let Roland Burris take a seat in the Senate — an embarrassing about-face for a Democratic leader at the pinnacle of his power.

AP - MSNBC political commentator Chris Matthews has told his colleagues he won't be leaving television to run for a U.S. Senate seat from Pennsylvania.

AP - Police are blocking off all bridges crossing the Potomac River into Washington and a huge chunk of downtown when Barack Obama takes the oath of office Jan. 20, securing the largest area of the nation's capital for any inauguration.

AP - The Security Council failed to agree on action to end the escalating crisis in Gaza on Wednesday, but the U.S. threw its weight behind a cease-fire initiative and Egypt announced it will host separate talks with Israel and Hamas on the proposal.

Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel on Wednesday to seriously consider an Egyptian ceasefire proposal as the U.N. Security Council weighed action to end Israel's attack on Gaza.