Flip-flopping sentiment about the prospects for U.S. automakers battered stocks again Thursday as hopes rose then fell that lawmakers would soon put together an aid package for the companies. Stocks declined after a brief advance that came on hopes that Washington would agree to help Detroit's Big Three.

Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress rushed Thursday toward keeping unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for Americans whose benefits are running out.

Hopes that lawmakers could extend relief to the troubled auto industry eased some of investors' worries about the economy Thursday. Stocks pulled off of steep losses but remained volatile after aides to a bipartisan group of senators said they have reached a compromise to funnel emergency loans to Detroit's car makers.

In 2006, Alaska desperately needed cash to complete a museum featuring a mummified bison and other natural wonders of the frozen north. So the state dipped into its share of the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement.