Vote results

FRANKFORT — As Democratic candidates rolled to victory Tuesday in many other states, those in Kentucky did little more than tread water.

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will return to Washington as the titular head of a party that has lost the presidency and seen its congressional ranks diminished.

Fighting against a national Democratic tide, U.S. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell survived what he called an "exhausting" re-election race and emerged as the nation's most powerful Republican.

No state House incumbents lost a race for re-election Tuesday, but Democrats posted a net gain of one seat.

No state House incumbents lost a race for re-election Tuesday, but Democrats posted a net gain of one seat.

Republicans defended their turf in key state Senate races to maintain a comfortable majority and greatly reduce the Democrats' chances of reclaiming the chamber any time soon.

Madison County residents will have to wait until at least 11:30 p.m. for election results from the county.

Little will change in Kentucky's congressional delegation next year, with five U.S. House incumbents re-elected Tuesday and Republicans holding onto the sixth seat, vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Cecilia.

DANVILLE — Voters rejected a measure that would have forced a change in the way Danville city government does business.

District Judge Julie Muth Goodman narrowly edged out seven other contenders Tuesday to keep the Fayette County judgeship she was appointed to in August.

Although Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in Kentucky, most of the state's voters sided with Republican John McCain instead of Democrat Barack Obama for president.

The former mayor of a Texas town won a nail-biter election to represent Lexington's 5th Urban County Council District.

Fayette County voting officials moved the Meadowthorpe Precinct early Tuesday morning after electrical problems developed.

It didn't pay to be first. The line of early-bird voters at the Lexington Fire Department's headquarters on Third Street snaked around the building in the dark and down in front of a Marathon gas station, where some people stopped for coffee Tuesday morning before waiting to cast their vote.

The state's largest and most complicated voting problem Tuesday took place in Northern Kentucky's Kenton County, where a glitch in electronic voting machines affected straight-ticket votes.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson offered to pay $1,000 a month to one of three girls who had accused him of inappropriately touching her while she was involved in his St. HOPE Hood Corps program, the girl told federal agents during their investigation of Johnson's nonprofit St. HOPE organization last year.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver wanted people to stop complaining for a day and count their blessings. What he got, however, was just more complaints.

The dollar chase never stops for California incumbents and challengers alike, who keep busy raising campaign funds for themselves and for others.

If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The "botax" may be on the way.

The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose. It needs 60 votes to cut off a Republican-led effort to block consideration of the bill, however. A vote is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Saturday. Democrats control 60 seats, but two moderates are wavering.

The Confederate flag must be removed from the State House grounds if South Carolina is to attract jobs, according to one Democrat running for governor. Mullins McLeod, a Charleston attorney, released a plan to create jobs and reopened an old S.C. wound about whether it's appropriate to fly the flag on Capitol grounds.

Fort Bragg has asked Sarah Palin, who will make a stop at the base on her book tour on Monday, not to make a speech at the public book-signing. The base also wanted to bar reporters from the event because it determined that by keeping out the media, the base would prevent Palin, a Republican and possible candidate in 2012, from having a platform from which to attack President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

President Barack Obama's eight-day trip to Asia produced no tangible wins for the United States, though he is citing talks with Asian allies that he says could help create thousands of jobs and open new markets for American goods in the future.

Military prosecutors said Friday they plan to seek new charges against the alleged mastermind of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

A retired State Department employee will spend life in prison without parole after he and his wife pleaded guilty Friday to serving as covert agents for Cuba for three decades.

The Federal Aviation Administration is blaming an equipment outage this week for delaying 819 flights.

A retired State Department employee and his wife pleaded guilty Friday to charges that they have been spying for Cuba for decades.

WASHINGTON - The government intercepted at least 18 e-mails between the alleged Fort Hood gunman and a radical Muslim cleric, and a key senator says there could be more communications that might have tipped off law enforcement or military officials.

The Senate is poised to approve on Saturday the start of a historic debate over health care legislation aimed at making coverage easier, less expensive to obtain and harder to lose.