Obama appoints legislative adviser

CHICAGO — President-elect Obama has chosen a veteran Capitol Hill aide as his top White House representative to Congress, the Democrat's transition team said Saturday.

Philip Schiliro has worked in Congress for more than 25 years, many of which were spent as a top aide to longtime Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and the House Oversight Committee. Schiliro's official title will be assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.

The move signals a continuing effort by Obama to ensure he has a smooth relationship with the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Others on his team also have long ties to Capitol Hill, including Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff.

Obama's team also formally announced that Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore, would serve in the same role for Vice President-elect Joseph Biden.

Electoral vote in Nebraska is split

OMAHA, Neb. — President-elect Obama won one of Nebraska's electoral votes, the first time the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years that it had given a vote to a Democrat.

After remaining ballots were counted Friday, Obama had a 3,325-vote lead over Republican John McCain in unofficial results for the 2nd Congressional District. Nebraska and Maine are the two states that divide their electoral votes by congressional districts.

Obama, who won the White House on Nov. 4, has 365 electoral votes to McCain's 162. Missouri, with 11 electoral votes, is still too close to call. Election officials in that state have until Tuesday to finish counting.

The last Democrat to win Nebraska was Lyndon Johnson, who carried the state in 1964.

A 1991 state law allows Nebraska to divide its five electoral votes. Two go to the statewide winner and one is awarded from each of the state's three congressional districts.

Obama, MLK items hawked

ATLANTA — Since Barack Obama's election as the nation's first black president, street-corner vendors and online stores have been hawking T-shirts, buttons and posters juxtaposing images of him and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as twin pillars of racial progress.

Obama will not be making any money from those sales. But King's family is considering whether to get in on the profits.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of King and president of the King Center in Atlanta, said the family is considering several options, including lawsuits against sellers of unauthorized merchandise linking the two leaders under slogans such as "The Dream Is Reality."

"It's not about the money," Farris said. "The law says that if you don't assert and protect the right to an image, you can lose that right." But he added: "We do feel that if somebody's out there making a dollar, we should make a dime."

The King family celebrates Obama's election, Farris said, but wants to protect King's name and estate. Most likely, he said, the family will wait 30 or 45 days before suing, to allow vendors time to stop selling the items.

Critics said the lawsuits against vendors would be difficult to enforce and could dampen the spirit of Obama's victory.

"This is the King estate piggybacking on the success of Obama," said David Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of King.

Seattle Times news services