AP - Obama says 'reckless' GOP economic policies hammer middle class, would continue under McCain ... Analysis: McCain eager to reassure anxious conservatives he won't raise taxes

Reuters - Veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was charged on Tuesday with concealing more than $250,000 worth of gifts, including home renovations, that he received from an Alaska oil services company, the Justice Department said.

CQPolitics.com - The indictment Tuesday of longtime Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens puts Republicans in serious jeopardy of losing his Senate seat to the Democrats this year.

AP - The indictment of Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens on charges that he lied about accepting gifts from an oil contractor only adds to his party's already bleak electoral prospects in November, and not simply because it could cost the GOP a Senate seat that should be safe.

Reuters - Veteran Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was charged on Tuesday with concealing $250,000 of gifts from an oil services company and its top executive, the Justice Department said.

AP - Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and a figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven counts of failing to disclose thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Reuters - An effort to break a Republican hold on U.S. election-year legislation that would aid medical research, help crack down on child pornography and advance other popular measures failed in the Senate on Monday.

AP - Under a Democratic dare, Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a bill that would aid victims of torture, disability and disease, insisting the legislation would add to the deficit and demanding that Congress first act to lower soaring gas prices.

U.S. News & World Report - Despite media raves about Barack Obama's weeklong trip to the Mideast and Europe, Republican strategists say his nation-hopping exposed major vulnerabilities that they hope to exploit in the fall.