Pat Dollard

CNBC: Fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week, an encouraging sign the job market may be slowly improving. The Labor Department says that weekly applications dropped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000. Even with last week’s decline, applications have now topped 400,000 for 14 weeks.

Foxnews: According to multiple reports, Mila Kunis’ hectic work schedule may stop her from accompanying Sgt. Scott Moore to the Marine Corps Ball in North Carolina on November 18. FOX411.com was the Cupid who helped set up the Marine/Mila date when we asked Kunis this past weekend if she would attend the event with Sgt. [...]

Dallas News: Several Dallas residents seeking hard-to-get Section 8 rental assistance vouchers suffered bumps and bruises Thursday in the pre-dawn rush to line up at a Red Bird football stadium. Thousands of people lined up early Thursday, some of them camping out overnight, at the Jesse Owens Memorial Complex in southwest Dallas. Many had been [...]

ABC’s The Note: In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations. “Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,” Boehner said. “Some days [...]

Associated Press: With compromise talks at a vituperative standstill, Senate Republicans unexpectedly offered Tuesday to hand President Barack Obama new powers to avert the first-ever government default threatened for Aug. 2. Under a proposal outlined by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Obama could request increases of up to $2.4 trillion in the government’s borrowing authority [...]

AFP: ..Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has a “suicidal plan” to blow up the capital Tripoli if it is taken by rebels, the Kremlin’s special envoy to Libya told a Russian newspaper Thursday. “The Libyan premier told me: if the rebels seize the city, we will cover it with missiles and blow it up,” Kremlin envoy [...]

pp Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

The Hill: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke painted a bleak picture Wednesday of the global economy if Congress fails to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit. In comments that led to a market rally, Bernanke also told lawmakers that the Fed was considering additional stimulus for the economy if the recovery continues to lag. The [...]

Politico: A long-running tiff between the White House press corps and the West Wing over presidential access flared anew today when press secretary Jay Carney faced off with reporters over the right to shout questions at the president during debt talks. Obama chafes at the time-honored practice of answering questions shouted at him during pooled, [...]

National Journal: Even as negotiators trooped back to the White House on Wednesday for more talks, efforts to raise the federal debt limit have splintered into competing plans from different chambers as congressional leaders moved to avoid blame for a potential default without making clear progress on a passable compromise. House Republicans leaders have begun [...]

Bloomberg: Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. under review for a credit rating downgrade as talks to raise the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit stall, adding to concern that political gridlock will lead to a default. The Aaa ratings of financial institutions directly linked to the U.S. government, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal [...]