AP - The $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry, desperately sought by Detroit's beleaguered Big Three, collapsed Thursday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they wouldn't even consider it until the companies produced a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry.
AP - Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.
AP - What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me" his remaining as defense secretary beyond Inauguration Day is looking a bit more conceivable to the rest of Washington.
AP - "Uncle Ted" Stevens, an old-style Senate giant and the chamber's longest-serving Republican, delivered his swan song address and yielded the floor for the final time Thursday. He was saluted by his colleagues as a staunch friend and teacher.
AP - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
AP - An agency director improperly used state computers to find personal information on "Joe the Plumber," a government watchdog said in a report released Thursday. There was no legitimate business purpose for the head of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services to order staff to look up the records, Inspector General Tom Charles said.
AP - Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
AP - George Steinbrenner is boss of the New York Yankees no more. The omnipresent owner's colorful 35-year reign of pronouncements, threats and firings ended Thursday when he passed control of baseball's most famous franchise to his youngest son, Hal.
