SORE LOSERS WILL BE STRIFE OF THE PARTY
The hard-fought battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama has rubbed off on many of their diehard supporters - who plan to abandon the Democratic Party in November if their favored candidate isn't the nominee, exit polls showed last night. In Kentucky, where Clinton won in a rout yesterday, two in three of her voters say they would not support Obama for president if he's leading the ticket, according to surveys of voters leaving the polls. About 40 percent say they would defect to Republican John McCain, while a quarter said they would just stay home. In the more liberal Oregon, three in 10 said Obama wouldn't get their vote against McCain, while eight in 10 Obama backers said they would support Clinton against McCain. NY Post 

Ore. Win Puts Obama On Brink
Barack Obama took a major stride in the marathon campaign for the Democratic nomination Tuesday by winning in Oregon, locking up a majority of the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention and declaring that the title is within his grasp. The Illinois senator reached the milestone by winning some delegates in Kentucky -- even though he was blown out in the statewide vote more than 2-1 -- and more in Oregon. Hillary Clinton remained unbowed, vowing to campaign on and pointing to her crushing win in Kentucky as evidence that at least some Democrats want the race to go on. Now fewer than 100 votes short of clinching the nomination, Obama still needs to win unelected delegates, called super delegates, to win it. Detroit Free Press 

School For Muslims To Change 2 Islam-Related Areas
The curriculum at a school for Muslims complies with federal and state law, the Minnesota state Education Department said but it directed that other changes be made in religious areas. The state said Tarek ibn Zayad Academy should change its busing schedule and its handling of Friday prayer services. The shorter prayer services on other days were found to be acceptable, but not the 30-minute service on school grounds on the Muslim holy day. The department said bus rides home should be available right after school ends; currently students must wait until after a voluntary after-school religious program. State law requires charter schools publicly funded schools with more autonomy than traditional public schools — to be nonsectarian. Fox News

Senate Panel Passes Housing Rescue Plan
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved legislation on that could save a half million homeowners from foreclosure and help stabilize the nation's rattled housing market. Congress is trying to stem a wave of foreclosures estimated to hit about 1.4 million this year with home prices falling and many borrowers unable to make payments on costly mortgages taken out before the real estate bubble burst. Under the Senate plan, lenders who agree to erase a large share of the original loan amount could win a government guarantee on future mortgage payments. Both the Senate bill and a similar House bill call for creating a fund under the Federal Housing Administration to let thousands of distressed borrowers refinance into government-guaranteed loans. Reuters

Kennedy Battles Tumor
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor Tuesday in what could be the grim final chapter in a life marked by exhilarating triumph and shattering tragedy. Some experts gave the liberal lion less than a year to live. Doctors discovered the tumor after the 76-year-old senator and sole surviving son of America's most storied political family suffered a seizure over the weekend. The diagnosis cast a pall over Capitol Hill, where the Massachusetts Democrat has served since 1962, and came as a shock to a family all too accustomed to sudden, calamitous news. Detroit News 

McCain To Attend NAACP Convention
What a difference a nomination makes. Now that he's wrapped up the Republican nomination for president, Sen. John McCain has decided to attend the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Cincinnati in July. A year ago when he was just one of a pack of GOP contenders, he turned down the civil rights group's invitation. McCain disclosed his plans in an interview with the African-American publication Essence, which was released Tuesday. Asked how he might reach out to the black community, McCain replied that he would "go to places and venues that would allow me to continue a dialogue with the African-American community. I will go to the NAACP convention." Las Vegas Sun

FBI Drew Line On Interrogations
A Justice Department audit of terror interrogations at three military bases overseas concluded Tuesday that FBI agents refused to participate when detainees were questioned under harsh and potentially illegal methods.The FBI clashed with the Pentagon and the CIA over how at least two top al-Qaida operatives were interviewed, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine found during a three-year investigation. In part, that led to an August 2002 order by FBI Director Robert Mueller for agents to withdraw from interrogations during which coercive or extreme methods were used to get information from detainees, the audit concluded. MSNBC

GOP Fails To Recruit Minority Candidates
At a time when Democrats are poised to knock down a historic racial barrier with their presidential nominee, the GOP is fielding only a handful of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses  none of whom seem to have a prayer of victory. At the start of the Bush years, the Republican National Committee in tandem with the White House vowed to usher in a new era of GOP minority outreach. As George W. Bush winds down his presidency, Republicans are now on the verge of going six - and probably more years without an African-American governor, senator or House member.  Republicans will have only one minority governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an Indian-American, when the dust settles on the ’08 elections. Democrats have three minority governors and 43 African-American members of Congress, Sen. Barack Obama, who is their likely presidential nominee.  CBS News

U.S. Prohibits Slaughtering Weak, Sick Cows
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced a total ban on meat plant slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand.  The planned change comes in the wake of the nation's largest beef recall. It would shut down an exception, which critics call a loophole, that allows a small number of so-called "downer" cattle into the food supply if they pass veterinary inspection. Downer cows pose increased risk for mad cow disease and other infections, partly because they typically wallow in feces. CNN

Iraqi Force Sweeps Across Sadr City
At least 10,000 Iraqi troops fanned out in Baghdad's Sadr City yesterday, taking positions on main roads and rooftops and near hospitals in a bid to establish government control in the Shiite militia enclave for the first time since Saddam Hussein's ouster. Success relies on whether a truce holds with fighters loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The large force in tanks and humvees and on foot met no resistance from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia as it rolled into the sprawling district. The area is a 12-square-mile grid of avenues laid over a maze of tiny alleys forming densely populated slums that are home to two million Shiites. Philadelphia Inquirer 

Court Strikes Down Va. Late-Term Abortion Ban
A federal appeals court says Virginia's law banning a type of late-term abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2-1 decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court's 2005 ruling striking down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another look at the law after the ruling on the federal ban. The appeals court cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on a procedure that abortion opponents call "partial-birth abortion." The federal law protects doctors who set out to perform a legal abortion that by accident becomes the banned procedure. The Virginia law provides no such protection. Newsday

Cell Phone Users May Get Break On Fees
The government is quietly negotiating to help cell phone customers avoid expensive fees when they cancel contracts with wireless companies, The Associated Press has learned. Cell phone companies routinely charge customers $175 or more for quitting their service early. Under a proposal to the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up to 30 days after they sign a cell phone contract or until 10 days after they receive their first bill. The proposal also would cap such fees and reduce them month by month over the course of a contract based on how long customers have left Sun-Sentinel

Banks Keep $35 Billion Markdown Off Income Statements
Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their income statements at least $35 billion of additional writedowns included in their balance sheets, regulatory filings show. Citigroup Inc. subtracted $2 billion from equity for the declining value of home-loan bonds in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 2 without mentioning the deduction in the earnings statement or conference call with investors that followed. Bloomberg

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Do Cell Phones Harm Unborn Babies?
Medical experts say media reports of a study that suggests a pregnant woman's cell phone use could cause later behavioral problems in her baby raise unnecessary alarm. In the study, slated for publication in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology, researchers at the Universities of California, Los Angeles, and Aarhus, Denmark, issued a survey to mothers of 13,159 children in Denmark. The survey asked the mothers questions about their use of cell phones during their pregnancy as well as their child's behavior and their current cell phone use. The researchers found that the mothers who said they used cell phones during their pregnancy also reported a higher level of behavioral problems in their children. ABC News

McCain Targeted For Opposing Full College Tuition For Veterans
Democrats and their allies are ready to convert Sen. John McCain's stance on college aid for military veterans into a presidential campaign cause. McCain, the all-but-nominated Republican presidential candidate, opposes a Democratic-backed bill that would significantly expand the breadth of education benefits for veterans, first adopted for those returning from World War II. Democrats want the proposal included in a war spending bill the Senate is scheduled to vote on this week. Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's most likely general election opponent, already has raised objections to McCain's resistance. CNS

Candidates Vie To Be The Anti-Lobbyist
Sen. Barack Obama accused Sen. John McCain of running a presidential campaign bought and paid for by lobbyists and criticized the presumptive Republican nominee for waiting more than a year to address the conflicts of several key advisers. During a speech at a high school Obama said voters should be concerned that "after nearly three decades in Washington, John McCain can't see or won't acknowledge what's obvious to all of us here today, that lobbyists aren't just part of the system in Washington, they're part of the problem." McCain's campaign shot back quickly, challenging Obama to "shed light on the long list of federal lobbyists advising him on policy issues" and accusing him of diverting attention from more serious matters. CBS

U.S. Ads Push Patients To Shop For Hospitals
The Bush administration today launches a $1.9 million advertising campaign touting its effort to rate hospitals and urging patients to check a government website before choosing one. The ad campaign in 58 regional newspapers lists hospitals and their scores on two of more than 30 measures available on the website: the percentage of patients getting antibiotics before surgery to prevent infection and whether patients "always" got help when they asked for it. The government's campaign promoting the website by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) comes amid a flurry of efforts by states and the private sector to rate medical providers. USA Today 

Dollars Discriminate Against Blind
Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It’s also discriminatory, a federal appeals court says. Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features. MSNBC

White House Denies Imminent Plans To Attack Iran
The White House on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli media report that President Bush intends to attack Iran before his term ends in January. President Bush isn't taking any options off the table in dealing with Iran, the White House says. An article in today's Jerusalem Post about the president's position on Iran that quotes unnamed sources, quoting unnamed sources, is not worth the paper it's written on, the White House said in a statement hours after the Israeli newspaper published the report on its Web site. CNN

Farm Bill's Subsidy Costs May Rise
A major new program in the recently enacted farm bill could increase taxpayer-financed payments to farmers by billions of dollars if high commodity prices decline to more typical levels, administration and congressional budget officials said yesterday. The potential costs came to light as administration officials pored over details of the 673-page, $307 billion legislation. President Bush has promised to veto the measure, which he called "bloated." The House and Senate passed the bill by bipartisan margins large enough to override him unless dozens of lawmakers switch sides. Washington Post 

Problems Rare But More Likely In Teen Blood Donors
Complications from donating blood are rare but happen more often in teens than in older donors, including dizziness, fainting and falls, a study found.The findings come as blood agencies increasingly rely on young people to maintain an adequate supply. Blood donation has declined in recent years, particularly among some older age groups, and the American Red Cross, which conducted the study, has supported efforts to allow more high school students to donate. Las Vegas Sun

Puerto Ricans Help Pick Nominee They Can't Vote For In November
From San Juan's streets to muddy backroads that skirt Puerto Rico's coastal farmland, backers of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are wooing voters with dueling salsa and reggaeton tunes, thousands of flags and placards, and convoys of loudspeaker trucks and honking cars. The tight Democratic race has made voters in this U.S. commonwealth more passionate and relevant  than they have been in decades. The contest casts a spotlight on the question that's festered at the center of Puerto Rican politics for years U.S. statehood, independence or status quo even as it cuts across the debate by uniting normally warring partisans. Bloomberg

Clinton Supporters Resist Calls To End Contest
A top Barack Obama adviser urged Democrats to unite behind the Illinois senator for the fall campaign and bring the marathon contest for the presidential nomination to a close, but some Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters weren’t buying that as Oregon and Kentucky held primaries Tuesday. In a full page ad in The New York Times, Clinton’s female supporters demanded she stay in the race despite overwhelming odds. Fox News

Stocks Fall On Oil Spike, Credit Fears
U.S. stocks fell sharply Tuesday as concerns about surging oil prices, consumer spending and the credit crisis returned to the fore after several weeks of calm in financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average fell by nearly 200 points. Shares of financial companies led the declines after a widely followed analyst lowered earnings estimates for the U.S. banking sector. Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, who garnered attention late last year when she correctly predicted that Citigroup would have to cut dividends, warned that the credit crisis would "extend well into 2009 and perhaps beyond." Washington Post 

"Imminent" Recession May Cost NYC 59,400 Jobs
An imminent recession could cost New York City 59,400 jobs between now and the middle of next year, with the profit-stricken financial sector the "epicenter" of the downturn, a report said on. This would amount to one-quarter of the hiring by private employers after the 2001 recession, according to the Independent Budget Office, a fiscal monitor that serves as the city's equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office.But the previous downturn, which accelerated after the September 11, 2001 attacks, will still turn out to have been more severe, as employers cut about 43 percent of jobs added in the expansion that lasted from 1993 to 2000. Reuters

Judges Stance Bolsters McCain
Prominent conservatives and activists are indicating they will put aside their differences with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain and rally their supporters to his side because of one issue: federal judgeships. In big gatherings and small, in e-mails and one-on-one conversations, conservative opinion leaders fear a Democratic president, especially Sen. Barack Obama, will use the presidential power to appoint federal judges who will remove references to God and religious symbols from public places. Washington Times

Lenders Meet With Feds On Student Loans
The student loan industry is pressing the Bush administration to boost its bottom line. Lenders, including industry leader Sallie Mae, say they need some more federal help if they're going to continue serving college students under the federal student loan program. A meeting between Bush administration officials and leading lenders was set for Tuesday evening. Congress sets the interest rates borrowers pay and the subsidy levels lenders receive under the federal student loan program. Last year, lawmakers cut billions in subsidies to lenders to pay for increases in student aid. Newsday

US Effort To Defeat al-Qaida Questioned
A congressional watchdog group and several senators declared Tuesday that nearly seven years after the 9/11 attacks, there appears to be no winning plan to defeat al-Qaida and other extremists in tribal areas of Pakistan. "I am troubled by where we find ourselves," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as he chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that took two hours of testimony from Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Atlanta Journal

Aid From U.S. Warships Is Rejected By Myanmar
Myanmar will allow U.N. helicopters to ferry aid to cyclone victims, the U.N. chief said. But state media reported today the government will not accept any disaster relief from U.S. warships. The New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that such U.S. military assistance would come "with strings attached." The U.S. has several helicopters on standby on a warship off the Myanmar coast and in neighboring Thailand. Seattle Times
 
Farm Bill Includes Lots Of Help For Sugar Growers
The farm bill that just sailed through Congress includes provisions aimed at helping sugar growers, which is of special interest to Minnesota, the nation's largest producer of sugar beets. The legislation calls for a gradual 5.2 percent increase in the loan rate for sugar beet growers, or guaranteed minimum price, through 2011, and a 4.2 percent increase for cane. That would be the first increase since 1985. It also uses the ethanol industry as a hedge against the effects of more imported sugar. The bill calls on the government to buy surplus domestic sugar and sell it to ethanol producers - for use in a mixture with corn - in the event of a glut of imported sugar. The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota is prime sugar beet country. Miami Herald

USA's Drought Begins To Ease
Heavy rainfall in the Southeast and record snowpack in the Rockies have eased dramatically the nation's worst drought in more than a century. Drought conditions are the least severe since January 2006. A quarter of the USA is suffering some form of drought today, down from 65% last summer, federal agencies said. In the Southeast, where drought has been most severe, the area in drought has plummeted from 86% in August to 40% today. USA Today 

McCain Adviser From Austin Quits To Avoid Fighting Obama
Sen. John McCain's chief advertising strategist, Mark McKinnon, announced Tuesday that he was resigning, following through on a vow he had made months ago not to work against the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama. His resignation follows the departures of five other aides in recent days because work they have done outside the campaign — as lobbyists for corporations and foreign nations, and, in one case, as a strategist for an independent political group — had presented conflict of interest issues. In telling the Cox News Service last June that he would not work against an Obama candidacy, McKinnon had said that Obama's election to the presidency "would send a great message to the country and the world." Houston Chronicle 

Socioeconomics, Not Race Drives Vote
Polling from Tuesday's Democratic primaries indicate a tale of two states, with differing profiles of the voters in Kentucky and Oregon informing vote preferences. Working-class whites dominate in Kentucky: In preliminary exit poll results about two-thirds of white voters there lack a college degree, far more than the number across all primaries to date, 49 percent. In Oregon, the voter poll indicates that less-educated whites make up about half of the electorate, again well under their share in Kentucky. Hillary Clinton has done better in past primaries with working-class whites, Barack Obama with their better-educated and higher-income counterparts. ABC News

Hikind Says He Saw Olmert Take Cash
Assemblyman Dov Hikind said that he saw then-Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert take an envelope full of cash following a Brooklyn fundraiser for the New Jerusalem Foundation in the 1990s. Hikind said he had hosted the fundraiser at his Brooklyn home. When it was over, he said, he walked Olmert out and saw a person "give him an envelope filled with cash." However, Hikind wasn't sure when the fundraiser was held and would not identify the individual who he claimed handed over the envelope. Jerusalem Post

UN To Fly Aid To Burmese Victims
Burma has allowed nine UN World Food Programme helicopters to deliver aid to remote cyclone-hit areas, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says. He said aid had reached only a quarter of those in need, following the 2 May storm which killed tens of thousands. Mr Ban welcomed the Burmese military's "recent flexibility" in allowing Asian aid workers into the country, relaxing restrictions on foreign relief teams. Mr Ban is to meet officials of Burma's ruling junta and tour affected areas. BBC

Foreign Aid Arrives As Quake Region's Death Toll Nears 40,000
The death toll from China's earthquake has reached almost 40,000 in Sichuan, the province's government confirmed today. The announcement came as foreign medical teams and mobile hospital equipment were dispatched to the region after government appeals for medical aid from the international community. With only slim hopes of finding more people alive, the scope of the mission has shifted to caring for those who have survived, including the 250,000 people left injured. Hundreds of aftershocks have been felt over the past week, leaving thousands of people so anxious they are sleeping in cars and in the street, fearing more building collapses. Guardian

Mbeki Is To Blame For Xenophobic Attacks
Aid workers in Johannesburg are struggling to feed and shelter the thousands of immigrants who have fled a wave of xenophobic attacks in which 24 people have been killed. The Institute for Race Relations, a respected think-tank, blames the ANC government and President Thabo Mbeki for the violence, the worst South Africa has seen since the dying days of apartheid. Its chief executive, Frans Cronje, said corruption, failing law and order, economic mismanagement and lack of proper border controls "contributed to create a perfect storm of lawlessness, poverty and unfulfilled expectations which has now erupted into violence". Independent News

Iran's Nuclear Program Feeding Proliferation
Iran's disputed nuclear program has sent a wave of interest in atomic energy across the Middle East, a think tank said, warning that it risked setting the scene for a regional nuclear arms race. At least 13 Middle Eastern countries either announced new plans to explore atomic energy or revived pre-existing nuclear programs between February 2006 and January 2007, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, or IISS, said in a report. CNS

Egyptian Official: Israel Has Accepted Gaza Cease-Fire
A senior Egyptian official said on Tuesday night that Israel had accepted in principle a proposal for a truce in the Gaza Strip, according to the official MENA news agency. Israeli leaders have informed us of their support for and understanding of the Egyptian proposals for a truce," the news agency quoted the unidentified official as saying. It added that Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman had relayed the news to a Hamas delegation from Gaza earlier in the day. Israeli officials declined to confirm the report. Jerusalem Post

Tough Penalty Urged In Aziz Trial
Mr Aziz served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister under Saddam. The prosecutor at the trial of the former Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, has called for a tough penalty to be handed down. Prosecutor Adnan Ali called for a punishment which would "ease the hearts of widows". Mr Aziz, once the public face of Saddam Hussein's government abroad, is accused over the deaths of 42 traders executed for sanctions profiteering in 1992. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty or be jailed for life. BBC

World 'More Peaceful' In 2008
Iceland is the world's most peaceful country, according to an index measuring internal and external turmoil in 140 countries. Only one of the G8 countries, the world's most economically powerful nations, makes it into the top ten of the survey, which is published today. While Iraq, Somalia and Sudan unsurprisingly take the bottom three places in the index, the survey suggests that the world is a marginally more secure place than it was a year ago. Angola, Indonesia and India are seen as the nations that have made the greatest strides away from conflict in the twelve months since the previous index was published. Guardian

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