AP - House investigators accused veteran New York Rep. Charles Rangel of 13 violations of congressional ethics standards on Thursday, throwing a cloud over his four-decade political career and raising worries for fellow Democrats about the fall elections.

AP - A criminal investigation into the leak of tens of thousands of secret Afghanistan war logs could go beyond the military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, and he did not rule out that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be a target.

AP - WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's election-year jobs agenda suffered a new setback Thursday when Senate Republicans blocked a bill creating a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses.

AP - On the surface, a judge's decision to block tough provisions of Arizona's immigration law was a defeat for the state's Republican governor and a win for the Democratic Obama administration. But neither party is sure it will play out that way politically, either this fall or beyond.

Politico - The Oval Office is nearly as familiar an image as the president himself.

AP - President Barack Obama said the government will recover all the taxpayer money his administration provided to bail out the auto industry last year.

AP - Estimates of the number of graves that might be affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery grew from hundreds to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery's former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the scandal that forced his ouster.

AP - President Barack Obama's nominee to be chief of U.S. intelligence, James R. Clapper, was unanimously approved Thursday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

AP - Partisan disagreements in the Senate will delay passage of legislation responding to the Gulf oil spill until at least September, when Congress returns from its summer recess.

AP - In 1969, Sen. Gaylord Nelson was so moved after seeing the devastation of an oil spill off the California coast near Santa Barbara that he called for a national teach-in on the environment. The following year the resulting "Earth Day" kick-started the modern environmental movement and shaped the way Americans thought about their air, water and soil.

AP - Vote early, vote often. It's an old joke in Illinois politics but state residents will be choosing twice in November to fill President Barack Obama's former Senate seat.

AP - Sarah Palin is criticizing President Barack Obama for appearing on "The View."

Reuters - Senate Republicans blocked a $30-billion plan to help community banks boost lending to small businesses, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's election-year battle to reduce unemployment.

AFP - US President Barack Obama on Thursday signed a spending bill to pay for the troop "surge" aimed at turning around the faltering Afghan campaign.

AP - President Barack Obama on Thursday signed legislation to fund his troop surge in Afghanistan, even though it was stripped of money for domestic stimulus programs.

AP - Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo has made it official — he's running for Colorado governor on the American Constitution Party ticket.

AP - Despite billions in aid from Washington and a shared threat from extremists, Pakistanis have an overwhelmingly negative view of the United States, according to results of a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday.

AP - President Barack Obama has signed a bill giving American Indian tribes more authority to combat crime on their reservations.

AP - Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted a video edited in a way that made her appear racist.

AP - Jurors deciding if former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to sell President Barack Obama's old Senate seat were out of sight Thursday, a far more benign result for Democrats than if the corruption trial had lasted through the summer as expected while the party geared up for tough elections.