AP - It was very windy when a Continental Airlines jet was destroyed while trying to take off in Denver last month, leading aviation safety experts to cite crosswinds as a likely factor in the accident.

AP - If Senate Democrats stick to their refusal to seat Roland Burris as a senator from Illinois, his best bet could be getting a federal judge to force open the Senate's doors.

AP - Four men being held as terror suspects at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan are asking a federal judge for the right to sue for their release — a right already given to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

AP - Senate Democrats are looking for ways to defuse the standoff that has denied Roland Burris the vacated Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama of Illinois, but maybe not much longer.

AP - To a public wary of government spending, President-elect Barack Obama is offering a salve with his massive economic stimulus package: the promise of long-term fiscal discipline.

AP - The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. "We need action and we need action now," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama — to a point.

AP - Republican Norm Coleman filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging Democrat Al Franken's apparent recount victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race, delaying a resolution of the contest for weeks or months.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama has approached CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, about becoming the country's next surgeon general, the cable network said Tuesday.

AP - A prominent businessman caught up in a grand jury probe whose political donations ended any role for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in the Obama administration also was a generous contributor in support of the president-elect.

CQPolitics.com - The incoming chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee softened her critique of the choice of Leon Panetta to head the CIA after being contacted by President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Politico - Roland Burris heads into a pivotal meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin on Wednesday with an unmistakable sense of momentum.

Politico - In a one-two punch at fellow Democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein suggested on Monday that Barack Obama had made the wrong pick for the CIA and on Tuesday that Democratic leaders are taking the wrong approach with Roland Burris.

AP - Roland Burris failed to capture President-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theater, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do. Democratic leaders, set to meet with Burris on Wednesday, were searching for a way to defuse the dispute before it further overshadows the 111th Congress.

AP - Aviation safety experts said Tuesday strong crosswinds likely were a factor in an accident last month that sent a Continental Airlines jet into a bone-jarring veer off a Denver runway and across open, snowy fields before it came to a halt and caught fire.

Politico - Joe Biden has always had a flair for doing things differently – but his upcoming trip to South Asia may set a new standard.

AP - President George W. Bush's national security adviser said Tuesday that Iran is the biggest challenge President-elect Barack Obama will face in the Middle East and that more sanctions will be needed to force Tehran to forgo its nuclear ambitions and support for extremists.

AP - Roland Burris failed to capture President-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theater, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do. Democratic leaders, set to meet with Burris on Wednesday, were searching for a way to defuse the dispute before it further overshadows the 111th Congress.

AP - Israeli mortar shells exploded Tuesday near a U.N. school in Gaza that was sheltering hundreds of people displaced by Israel's onslaught against Hamas militants, killing at least 30 Palestinians, tearing bodies apart and staining streets with blood.

Politico - Joe Biden has always had a flair for doing things differently – but his upcoming trip to South Asia may set a new standard.

AP - As the nation sinks deeper into recession, the IRS is offering to waive late penalties, negotiate new payment plans and postpone asset seizures for delinquent taxpayers who are financially strapped, but make a good-faith effort to settle their tax debts.

AP - Roland Burris failed to capture President-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theater, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do.

AP - Majority Democrats rewrote House rules Tuesday on the first day of the new Congress to wipe out the small sliver of influence that minority Republicans finessed to win small victories on gun rights, immigration and an investigation of gasoline prices.

Politico - President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday that $1 trillion deficits could last for “years to come” as he sought to make the case for budget reforms amid an economy in peril.

AP - The chairman of the Senate Rules Committee has parted with many of her Democratic colleagues and says that the Senate should seat former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris.

AP - Former Gov. Jeb Bush announced Tuesday that he won't run for the U.S. Senate in 2010 to replace the retiring Mel Martinez, saying that it was not the right time to return to elected office.