• Blender API, Local Copy

• ob = bpy.data.object[“Cube”]
• ob = bpy.data.object.get(“Cube”) # If not found, returns None gracefully
• for ob in bpy.data.objects # returns all of the objects iterable

• Create a datablock with datablock = bpy.data.lamps.new (or bpy.data.objects.new)
• Create an object, linking datablock to it
• Can also use operators to create a new object, e.g., bpy.ops.object.add

From docs, example is to create a lamp

import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix
 
scene = bpy.context.scene
 
# Create new lamp datablock
lamp_data = bpy.data.lamps.new(name="New Lamp", type='POINT')
 
# Create new object with our lamp datablock
lamp_object = bpy.data.objects.new(name="New Lamp", object_data=lamp_data)
 
# Link lamp object to the scene so it'll appear in this scene
scene.objects.link(lamp_object)
 
# Place lamp to a specified location
lamp_object.location = (5.0, 5.0, 5.0)
 
# And finally select it make active
lamp_object.select = True
scene.objects.active = lamp_object

for vertexGroup in ob.vertex.groups:
  print vertexGroup.name

After establishing a group, you can add vertices to it:

verts = ((x,y,z), (x+w, y,z), (x+w,y,z+h), (x,y,z+h), \
    (x,y+t,z), (x+w,y+t,z), (x+w,y+t,z+h), (x,y+t,z+h))
faces = ((0,1,2,3), (5,4,7,6), (5,6,2,1), (6,7,3,2), (7,4,0,3), (4,5,1,0))
me = ob.data
me.name = name+'Mesh'
 
# Create mesh from given verts, faces.
me.from_pydata(verts, [], faces)
# Update mesh with new data
me.update()    
 
vg = ob.vertex_groups.new("Card Face")
vg.add([0,1,2,3],1,"ADD")
# The indexes 0,1,2,3 are referring to the vertices 
# in the order they are added to the object