CNN 2009-01-16（在线收听）

Hello, I'm Mellisa Long,here at the CNN Center in Atlanta with a look at some of the stories happening NOW IN THE NEWS on this Thursday the 15th of January.

A busy day for potential members of the Obama Administration. There's already been an approving committee vote on Senator Hillary Clinton's secretary of state nomination. Other confirmation hearings are going on today, Susan Rice for ambassador to the UN,  Ken Salazar, secretary of interior, Mary Schapiro for SEC chairman and Eric Holder for attorney general.

President-elect Obama's senate seat will finally be filled today. Democrat Roland Burris will take the oath at 2 pm Eastern. Democratic senates initially tried to keep Burris out, because of the scandal surrounding Rod Blagojevich. That's the governor of the state of Illinois, Mr. Rod Blagojevich.

Half of the 750-billion-dollar financial sector bailout has been spent. And eight Senate republicans say they are going to do everything they can to keep the Treasury from getting the rest of the money. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid is scheduled to vote today on a GOP proposal to block the release of the funds. Sources tell CNN democrats are hopeful they have enough votes to defeat the proposal, but they say they are not so sure.

The weekly jobless number’s coming out today. And they were worse than expected. The Labor Department says first time applications for jobless benefits shot up to 524,000 last week.  Analysts were expecting new filings to total half a million applications. The Labor Department credits the jump to people who delayed filing claims over the holidays.

And President Bush will bid farewell on a prime-time address to the American public tonight. The president's speech is expected to last about 10-15 minutes. Predecessors Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and many before of them also gave  a farewell address to the nation. Earlier today, the president and the first lady paid a visit to the State Department where they thanked everyone for serving the country.

And those are the headlines making news at this hour on this Thursday. Do stay with CNN and cnn.com for more on these stories or other news of the day.