Politico - It might have been the perfect symbolism for Barack Obama – abolishing a key anti-abortion provision on the very anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision Thursday.

AP - A three-judge panel in Minnesota's contested Senate election has denied Democrat Al Franken's motion to dismiss his opponent's recount lawsuit, clearing the path for the trial to start next week.

AFP - The US Senate passed a major wage discrimination bill, moving one step closer to presenting the legislation to President Barack Obama so that it may signed into law.

AP - Lawyers defending two Chechen men charged in the 2006 slaying of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya presented phone records Thursday that they said disprove prosecutors' claims the suspects rehearsed the brazen shooting days before it took place.

Politico - There may be less than meets the eye to the executive orders President Obama issued yesterday to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and prohibit the torture of prisoners in American custody. Those pronouncements may sound dramatic and unequivocal, but experts predict that American policy towards detainees could remain for months or even years pretty close to what it was as President Bush left office.

AP - Helena Bohle-Szacki was seized by the Nazis in 1944 and thrown into the Ravensbrueck concentration camp as a forced laborer.

AP - A congresswoman says reports that a man released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is now an al-Qaida leader in Yemen should not slow the Obama administration's determination to quickly close the facility.

Politico - Blog: David Paterson's choice of Kristin Gillibrand is, by the estimate of the New York pols I talk to, a pretty good pick: A young woman who won a hard-f

Politico - Al Franken’s effort to dismiss Norm Coleman’s election lawsuit was rejected by a three-judge panel yesterday, and the Minnesota Senate trial will proceed as scheduled next Monday:

AP - It's nine down, six to go to fill President Barack Obama's Cabinet. Yet, for all of the progress, his picks for attorney general and deputy defense secretary remain mired in questions over interrogation methods and ethics.

Politico - Federal agents on Thursday raided the offices of a Pennsylvania government contractor with close ties to Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the powerful Defense panel on the House Appropriations Committee.

AP - European Union diplomats have reached tentative agreement to remove an Iranian opposition group from the 27-nation bloc's list of terrorist organizations, officials said Friday.

AP - Senior citizens receiving Social Security would get a bonus payment of $300 under the Senate version of President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan.

Politico - Blog: It's not just Pepsi: Starbucks seems to be jumping on the Obama marketing bandwagon with this video which, Dan Lavoie notes, matches Obama's

Politico - Joe Biden ended his own presidential bid after coming in fifth in the Iowa caucuses more than a year ago. But his presidential campaign lived on – and continued receiving taxpayer money – well after he was elected vice president.

AP - A federal judge has decided to give the Obama administration time to weigh in on some of the legal cases brought by terror detainees held by the United States.

AP - Upgrading outdated maps used to calculate flood danger would save lives, prevent damage to property and businesses, and preserve infrastructure, researchers say.

AP - Rome's chief rabbi has asked the Vatican to halt reported plans by Pope Benedict XVI to rehabilitate an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Politico - Blog: As the RNC race remains, it seems, wide open, one of the many anonymous emailers to RNC members -- they've received a fairly nasty, anonymous, set o

Politico - During a morning meeting with congressional leaders from both parties, President Obama acknowledged the philosophical differences between his stimulus package and the Republican plan – but, sources familiar with the conversation said, Obama then noted: “I won.”

AP - The FBI's stepped-up effort to fight Internet child pornography has led to an evidence backlog in the bureau's computer labs, auditors said Friday.

AP - The French state will help provide free newspaper subscriptions to teenagers for their 18th birthdays, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced Friday. But the bigger gift is for France's ailing print media.

AP - Iraq is stable enough to allow the roughly 22,000 U.S. Marines there to withdraw, the service's top general said Friday.

Politico - Blog: No poetry recitation in Chicago today, but Blagojevich does compare himself to an unfairly accused cowboy in a Western. His main goal

Politico - Blog: JMart, deprived of blog, is left defenseless in the face of Lyndon Johnson-style shoulder rubbing. Guess who somebody close to Chuck

AP - Sen. John McCain says he is disappointed in President Obama's decision to waive a new ethics requirement for the man picked to be the No. 2 at the Pentagon.

AP - A Canadian company will pay the United States just over $1 million to resolve allegations it violated federal law by selling a defective material used in bulletproof vests worn by law enforcement officers, the Justice Department announced Friday.

AP - Marion Stearns White, the widow of Supreme Court Justice Byron White, has died at 87, the court announced Friday.

AP - French troops, Turkish monitors, British ships, German tunnel detectors, European radar equipment — officials say all these options are being weighed as they try to cement the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

AP - A former Raytheon lobbyist nominated to be deputy defense secretary has agreed to sell his stock in the military contractor and similar holdings but won't be forced to step back from decisions related to his former employer, the Pentagon said Friday.

Politico - Within the high school gossip circle that is New York’s congressional delegation, Kirsten Gillibrand’s nickname is “Tracy Flick” — a not-so-flattering reference to the over-eager, blonde, bubbly and viciously competitive Reese Witherspoon character from “Election.” 

AFP - New York Governor David Paterson announced Friday he has chosen congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's vacated US Senate seat.

Politico - Blog: Thrush gets hold of Gillibrand's opposition research on herself from her congressional race, which contains nothing particularly devastating, but ra

AP - A three-judge panel on Friday rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to investigate alleged vote-counting irregularities that may have contributed to his opponent's lead in Minnesota's Senate race after a recount.

Politico - Blog: When word of Richard Holbrooke's appointment as special envoy first leaked to the New York Times earlier this month, he was described as 'a spe