Minnesota recount mess continues in court

Republican Norm Coleman is suing to challenge Democrat Al Franken’s apparent recount victory in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race. At a news conference Tuesday, Coleman says he won’t accept a board’s determination that Franken won 225 more votes in the November election. Read more

Panetta a surprise pick to run the CIA

In choosing Leon E. Panetta to be the next CIA director, President-elect Barack Obama appears to have concluded that a spy chief who understands politics may be better equipped to carry out the incoming administration’s national security agenda than one who understands espionage.

The surprise selection of Panetta, a former California congressman and chief of staff to President Clinton, would give Obama a CIA director with loyalty to the White House and an experienced managerial hand to steer the administration away from potential intelligence scandals.

But it runs the risk of putting an outsider at the helm of the CIA just as it seems to be regaining its footing after years of criticism over intelligence failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks and the Iraq war, and for aggressive interrogation tactics used in their aftermath.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-cia-panetta6-2009jan06,0,5514283.story

Obama: 600,000 new gov’t jobs on the way

In his radio address today, President-elect Obama uses some new language when discussing what he wants the stimulus package to achieve in terms of jobs. First off, he has a name for the package — the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” Read more

U.S. governors seek $1 trillion federal assistance

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Governors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession. Read more

Retailers want in on “stimulus plan”

The country’s largest retail trade association asked President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday to add a series of sales tax-exempt shopping days to a coming economic stimulus package in an effort to revive consumer confidence and spur spending. Read more

Minnesotans line up for big spending

The first big wave of change in the new Obama administration, a roughly $850 billion economic stimulus package, has brought out a swarm of Minnesota officials, businesses and special interest groups vying for a chunk of the nationwide infrastructure buildup. Read more

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