Meeting with his economic team in Washington on Tuesday, Barack Obama warned that the country faced the prospect of “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”

New senators and those re-elected were sworn in today.

Meeting last month, Fed officials worried that even a dramatic cut in interest rates would not be enough to cauterize the country’s economic troubles quickly.

Senator Dianne Feinstein broke with many of her Democratic colleagues to say that Roland W. Burris should be seated as a Senator from Illinois.

Roland Burris arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday to claim the Senate seat appointed to him by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois.

New members of Congress are sworn in on Tuesday, broadening the moderate coalition of an expanded Democratic majority.

The White House cat, an 18-year-old black American shorthair, died Sunday, the office of Laura Bush said.

The choice of Leon E. Panetta, a former White House chief of staff, to head the intelligence agency raised questions about his relevant experience.

The trip this week effectively represents the incoming administration’s first foray into foreign policy since the election.

The state canvassing board certified that Al Franken won by 225 votes, but Norm Coleman’s lawyers said they would go to court.

President-elect Barack Obama is working to build a bipartisan coalition to endorse his plan of tax cuts and new spending.

Roland W. Burris nonetheless planned to arrive Tuesday to be sworn in as the new junior senator from Illinois.

National health spending grew in 2007 at the lowest rate in nine years, mainly because prescription drug spending increased at the slowest pace since 1963.

Executives from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Hollywood, as well as former Clinton supporters, have written checks of up to $50,000.

Many of the president-elect’s other picks have had a centrist bent, but he signaled a new direction at the Justice Department.

The action will protect vast tracts of American-controlled islands, reefs, surface waters and sea floor from fishing, mining, oil exploration and other commercial activity.

The new Congress plans to move aggressively against the tobacco industry by regulating cigarettes, raising sales taxes and ratifying an international antitobacco treaty.

Senate leaders are challenging Roland W. Burris’s appointment, setting the stage for a showdown on Capitol Hill.

Bernard L. Madoff tried to hide at least $1 million in assets from investigators, prosecutors told a judge.

In the case of Robert J. Steven, the Supreme Court is likely to address questions about whether and when the government can decide that some sorts of information have no social value at all.