AP - Two thousand federal transportation workers will be furloughed without pay on Monday, and the Obama administration said they have a Kentucky senator to blame for it.

CQPolitics.com - Periodically (it seems more often these days, actually), I come across some really silly political stuff that screams out for attention. Here are four examples. Caveat emptor!

AFP - The US Supreme Court on Monday will take up the appeal of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who is serving 24 years in jail for his role in the energy giant's 2001 bankruptcy and one of the biggest corporate scandals in US history.

AFP - US President Barack Obama is making final decisions on a broad new nuclear strategy for the United States that will permanently reduce the US nuclear arsenal by thousands of weapons, The New York Times reported Monday.

AP - Troops from Uruguay are regularly among U.N. peacekeeping forces deployed around the world, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is hoping to persuade that country's new president to continue the support.

AP - The U.S. ambassador to Chile says he knows of no American deaths from the earthquake in Chile, but stresses that officials are having a difficult time getting information from the most devastated region of Conception.

AP - President Barack Obama will offer $900 million in grants to states and school districts to turn around low-performing schools — but recipients would have to take drastic action, such as replacing principals, reopening schools as charter schools or closing them outright.

Politico - Speaker won't act until ethics committee does.

Politico - It's make-or-break time with consensus-building, agenda-setting, vote-counting and campaigning.

AP - As of Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, at least 924 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych makes his first foreign trip to Brussels on Monday, but the gesture of goodwill toward Europe may ring hollow days later when he goes to strike concrete deals with the Kremlin.

Politico - Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter is moving ahead with a primary challenge to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, he announced Monday.

Politico - He ramps up outreach for possible campaign.

AP - Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter said Monday he's seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, challenging the two-term incumbent as she faces the toughest fight of her political career.

AP - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is coming to France as Moscow and Paris pursue a courtship centered around potential deals on gas pipelines and a massive French warship.

AFP - The EU rolled out the red carpet Monday for new Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, on his first foreign trip, hoping to hear that his pro-Russian past won't reverse Kiev's recent turn to the West.

AP - The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal Monday from the seven Chinese Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Bay because they have been offered another place to live.

AP - Poll results, congressional head counts and federal deficits aren't the only numbers President Barack Obama has to worry about. Now, he's trying to walk off a marginally high cholesterol count.

Politico - Report: California Dem was belligerent and insulting as he secretly videotaped the interview.

AP - Republican Rep. Nathan Deal is leaving Congress to concentrate on his previously announced race for governor of Georgia.

Reuters - The Supreme Court said on Monday it will not decide an appeal by Chinese Muslim detainees held for years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba because they have received at least one offer to go to another country.

AP - The British government said Monday it is banning Somali terrorist organization al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked Islamist group fighting the anarchic country's transitional government.

AP - Donald Kohn, the second-highest ranking official at the Federal Reserve, announced Monday that he will leave at the end of June, giving President Barack Obama a chance to put a bigger imprint on the central bank.

CQPolitics.com - Rep. Nathan Deal announced Monday that he will quit his job in Congress on March 8 to concentrate on his campaign for governor of Georgia.

AP - Democratic U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a moderate already considered one of the Senate's most vulnerable members, is facing another roadblock in her bid for a third term: a challenge from the left side of her own party.

Politico - Billionaire investor says the current bill doesn't do enough to control health care costs.

AP - The Supreme Court appears ready to tell suspects that if they want the right to remain silent, they have to say so.

Reuters - Tax increases and spending cuts will both be needed to spread the burden of bringing down U.S. budget deficits to a sustainable level, House of Representatives Democratic leader Steny Hoyer said Monday.

AP - Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, a nationally renowned constitutional scholar who once hired Barack Obama as a research assistant, is joining the Justice Department to spearhead an initiative aimed at opening up legal access for the poor.

AP - Far-right German activist Ernst Zundel was freed after serving five years in prison for denying the Holocaust ever happened — something he wouldn't speak about Monday.

AFP - US President Barack Obama plans 'dramatic reductions' in the country's arsenal of nuclear weapons as part of a sweeping policy review, a senior administration official told AFP on Monday.

AP - When the ship is sinking is it really women and children first, or every man for himself? The answer, it seems, may depend on how fast it's going down.

AP - The Supreme Court appeared troubled Monday by the selection of the jury that convicted former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling as well as the use of a federal fraud law against him.

Politico - House GOP will move again to oust the chairman.

AP - The State Department says drug traffickers are adapting to law enforcement pressures in Mexico by shifting their illicit operations to Central America and the Caribbean.

AFP - The US Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an appeal by Guantanamo inmates from China's Uighur minority to be freed on US soil, in a decision sure to bring relief to the Obama administration.

AFP - EU competition authorities on Monday approved a planned merger between T-Mobile UK and Orange which will create Britain's largest mobile phone operator.

AP - Improving ties with the European Union is a 'key priority' for Ukraine, the country's newly elected President Viktor Yanukovych said Monday as the EU expressed support for plans to reform Ukraine's vital gas sector.

AP - President Barack Obama says a Rhode Island school that recently fired all its educators is an example of how there needs to be accountability.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON _The Department of Transportation said Monday that Republican Sen. Jim Bunning's blockage of legislation designed to keep a host of federal programs operating forced the agency to furlough nearly 2,000 employees without pay, temporarily shut down highway reimbursements to states worth hundreds of millions of dollars and stalled multi-million dollar construction projects across the country.

CQPolitics.com - The Obama administration's newly released 2010 trade agenda gives little indication that the White House will quickly advance long-stalled pacts with Panama, Colombia or South Korea, despite President Obama's increasing focus on international commerce.

Politico - Congress jumps in to help revive educational benefit from the Pentagon for military spouses.

Politico - Shelby’s recent proposal would create a consumer protection division within the FDIC.

AP - Defense company BAE Systems PLC has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and has been sentenced to pay a $400 million fine in a case involving false statements to the U.S. government.

AFP - The US Supreme Court Monday took up the appeal of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, jailed for his role in the energy giant's bankruptcy, in a case with wide-ranging legal ramifications.

Reuters - Iran launched a fierce verbal assault on the West on Monday, charging some European countries of subjecting Muslim communities to insult and violence and suggesting the United States and Europe aided terrorism.

AP - The Cabinet of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi proposed legislation Monday to keep politicians out of Parliament if convicted of embezzlement, bribery or other forms of corruption after scandals hit a top aide and politicians in his party.

Politico - Leaders of Arizona’s four largest tea parties say they’re not endorsing in state’s Senate race.

AP - Opponents of gay marriage are asking the Supreme Court to put a hold on the District of Columbia's new law allowing same-sex couples to wed.

AP - NEW CONSUMER AGENCY: Proposed by the Obama administration to protect consumers, it's now a key sticking point in Senate talks on financial overhaul legislation. It would enforce rules and police the fine print of credit cards, mortgages and other transactions.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — The Department of Transportation furloughed nearly 2,000 employees without pay Monday as the government began to feel the impact of Republican Sen. Jim Bunning's one-man blockage of legislation that would keep a host of federal programs operating.

AP - Senate negotiators closed in on a deal on Wall Street regulations Monday, proposing a new entity inside the Federal Reserve to oversee consumer financial products ranging from credit cards to mortgages.

Politico - Sen. Jim DeMint and Senate-hopeful Marco Rubio have launched DeMintRubio.com — a web site featuring the tagline 'The Comeback Begins' and funded by a joint campaign committee.

Politico - Former Tenn. representative has abandoned plans to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand.

AP - Former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr. says he's decided not to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand (KEHR'-sten JIL'-uh-brand) for U.S. Senate in New York's Democratic primary because he doesn't want to divide the party.