IN BRIEF: In online speech, president-elect Barack Obama urges unemployment extension

PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

"If Congress does not pass an immediate

plan that gives the economy the boost it needs,

I will make it my first order of business as president,” he said in his Democratic Party’s weekly radio address.

The radio address was also video recorded and posted online through a YouTube link to Obama’s transition Web site, www.change.gov. Before Obama appears in the video, "Your weekly address from the president-elect” flashes across the screen.

The president-elect plans to continue to record online videos of the addresses after he takes the oath of office Jan. 20.

"This is the greatest economic challenge of our times,” he said. "And I am more hopeful than ever that America will rise once again.”

Obama names liaison to Congress

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a veteran Capitol Hill aide as his top White House representative to Congress, the Democrat’s transition team announced Saturday as he works to fill out the senior ranks of his team. Philip Schiliro has worked in Congress for more than 25 years, spending much of the time as a top aide to longtime Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and the House Oversight Committee. His official title will be assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.

From Wire Services