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.

WASHINGTON — Despite the Bush administration's insistence that its warrantless eavesdropping program was necessary to protect the country from another terrorist attack, FBI agents, CIA analysts and other officials had difficulty evaluating its effectiveness, according to an unclassified government report made public Friday.

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.

Fresh on the heels of new proposals to regulate mortgages and other consumer credit products, the Obama administration on Friday sent Congress proposed legislation designed to head off another Bernard Madoff-style fraud.

Senate supporters of a bill that for the first time would put limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have launched an intense one-on-one effort to sound out their Senate colleagues' views in hopes of winning their support.

Attorney Stephen Bough's client owes Medicare several thousand dollars and is anxious to pay, if only Bough knew how much. Medicare won't say, despite repeated pleas over the past year for an answer.

The Burmese python can grow longer than 20 feet, produce several dozen offspring in a litter and devour small children and pets. In North Carolina, it has a new natural enemy: the lawmaker. The legislature is likely to give final approval next week to a bill that would restrict the ownership and prevent the escape of venomous and large constrictor snakes, as well other dangerous reptiles.

In his effort to fill the state's massive $26.3 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is targeting social service programs he says are rife with fraud and abuse.

President Barack Obama on Friday tapped Jon Jarvis to head the National Park Service, turning to a 30-year-veteran who oversees the national parks across the Western states, and who also has angered a powerful U.S. senator and backers of a Northern California oyster farm.

President Barack Obama on Friday tapped Jon Jarvis to head the National Park Service, turning to a 30-year-veteran who oversees the national parks across the Western states, and who also has angered a powerful U.S. senator and backers of a Northern California oyster farm.

President Barack Obama nominated Brendan Johnson, the 34-year-old son of Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., on Friday to serve as U.S. attorney for South Dakota.

Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling.

Key House Democrats decided Friday to raise taxes on the wealthy to help pay for health care legislation, capping an up-and-down week for President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. At the same time, Democratic leaders tried to quell concerns among moderate and conservative lawmakers about other elements of the bill.

Text of President Barack Obama's news conference on Friday in L'Aquila, Italy, as provided by the White House:

Women's groups, euphoric when President Barack Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, have been remarkably quiet in the weeks since on the judge who would be the court's third woman ever.