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• Obama, Clinton to hold joint fundraisers in NY
  Now that they're allies, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton will help each other raise money in a series of fundraisers in New York next week.

• Democrats hit GOP on support for Medicare cuts
  Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, accused Republicans of putting seniors and military families at risk by siding with President Bush against a measure to prevent Medicare cuts.

• Bush honors troops, new Americans in radio address
  President Bush, serving almost seven years as a wartime president, marked the nation's 232nd birthday by honoring the U.S. armed forces and celebrating the citizenship of new Americans.

• FDA reports more cases of salmonella illnesses
  The government on Saturday increased the number of people reported being sickened in a record salmonella outbreak in which tomatoes are the leading suspect although investigators are testing other types of fresh produce.

• Analysis: McCain struggles to regain footing
  John McCain calls himself an underdog. That may be an understatement. The GOP presidential candidate trails Democrat Barack Obama in polls, organization and money while trying to succeed a deeply unpopular fellow Republican in a year that favors Democrats. McCain also doesn't seem to have a coherent message let alone much of a strategy despite securing the nomination three months earlier than Obama.

• Challenges abound for Bush at last economic summit
  The problems do not get any easier as President Bush attends his final summit with leaders of industrialized democracies.

• Employers use federal law to deny benefits
  Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

• Presidential candidates' housing plans at a glance
  Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama envision the Federal Housing Administration backing new, cheaper mortgages for distressed homeowners who otherwise would have difficulty refinancing into more secure government-insured loans with lower monthly payments. For the plans to work, lenders would have to be willing to take a substantial loss by reducing the amount owed on the loan in the hope they could recoup more money through refinancing than through a costly foreclosure and resale.

• Foreclosures to rise whoever wins White House
  Home foreclosures will keep rising next year no matter who is elected president in November.

• Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser
  "Compromise, hell!" Jesse Helms screamed in a 1959 editorial that captured what would become the legacy of his Senate career and his place in the conservative movement.

• Today on the presidential campaign trail
  IN THE HEADLINES

• Franken tries the switch from comic to Congress
  Moving from celebrity to senator isn't exactly an untraveled path. But that doesn't mean comedian Al Franken, who is vying for a Senate seat in Minnesota, will coast to Capitol Hill on a wide, smooth road.

• Former Republican Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
  Former Sen. Jesse Helms, an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress, where he relished his battles against liberals, Communists and occasionally a fellow Republican, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.

• Bush welcomes new US citizens
  President Bush invoked the memory of Thomas Jefferson Friday in welcoming new U.S. citizens at a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, saying "I'll be proud to call you a fellow American."

• Obama and family spend Fourth of July in Montana
  It was a family Fourth of July for Democrat Barack Obama as his wife, daughters, sister and other relatives helped him make an Independence Day play for this reliably conservative state.

• Analysis: Obama's centrist emphasis gives GOP ammo
  Is Barack Obama close to being shadowed by giant flip-flops and, worse, having the image stick with people all the way to the voting booth?

• Obama visits traditionally Republican Montana
  Barack Obama is celebrating the 4th of July in Butte, Montana, attending a parade and picnic. It's a state that usually gives its three electoral votes to a Republican. Only two Democrats have carried Montana since 1948. Republicans typically take it for granted and Democrats usually write if off. But this year, Obama is spending a sizeable amount of time and money to try to win it.

• Obama looks to turn Montana blue in the fall
  Only two Democratic presidential candidates have carried Montana since 1948. Barack Obama is betting he can do it in November.

• Obama may accept nomination at Invesco Field
  Barack Obama's campaign is considering having him accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High instead of the Pepsi Center, the chosen site for the Democratic National Convention, two people with knowledge of convention planning said Thursday.

• Obama says Jones mailer is not an endorsement
  Barack Obama's presidential campaign distanced itself Thursday from a mailer by Georgia Democratic Senate hopeful Vernon Jones that shows them together under Obama's signature slogan: "Yes we can."

• White House says ruling could free detainees in US
  The White House said Thursday that dangerous detainees at Guantanamo Bay could end up walking Main Street U.S.A. as a result of last month's Supreme Court ruling about detainees' legal rights. Federal appeals courts, however, have indicated they have no intention of letting that happen.

• Bush will attend opening ceremonies of Olympics
  President Bush will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, the White House said Thursday. The announcement quashed any talk of a presidential boycott over China's violent crackdown after anti-government riots and protests in Tibet.

• Obama says Iraq trip could refine his policy
  Democrat Barack Obama struggled Thursday to explain how his upcoming trip to Iraq might refine, but not basically alter, his promise to quickly remove U.S. combat troops from the war.

• Pentagon extends tour of Marines in Afghanistan
  The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.

• Today on the presidential campaign trail
  IN THE HEADLINES