AP - Senate Democrats failed Friday to advance a measure to rein in oil market speculators, one of a series of efforts to tell voters they are serious about addressing $4-a-gallon gasoline, and they rejected Republican calls to expand offshore oil production.

Reuters - The Senate was on course for a Saturday vote to approve a major housing market rescue bill offering a lifeline to mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and bond market action on Thursday indicated investors were encouraged by the progress.

AP - Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, fresh from an Iraq trip with Democrat Barack Obama, said the presidential candidates should focus on the war's future and stop arguing over the success of last year's troop surge.

Reuters - The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to pass legislation intended to cool off gasoline prices by requiring the government to sell 70 million barrels of light sweet crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the national stockpile.

AP - House Republicans on Thursday scuttled a bill that Democrats hoped would help lower gasoline prices by forcing the Energy Department to release 70 million barrels of oil — about a three-day supply — from the national stockpile.

AP - The House voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

AP - Lawmakers on Thursday questioned the legality and effectiveness of the government's tactics in a May raid that led to the arrest of nearly 400 immigrants.