SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Supreme Court today gave a thumbs up to Gov. Pat Quinn’s showcase $31 billion public works program and the video poker that’s supposed to help pay for it.

The 7-0 ruling allows state lawmakers and the governor to exhale after an appellate court had thrown out the deal earlier this year. You can read the state Supreme Court opinion here.

More than just bricks-and-mortar projects involving schools, roads and sewers were at stake in the ruling by the seven Illinois justices. Also at issue were new and controversial sources of state revenue: Increases in driver’s license and license plate fees, higher taxes on alcohol, candy, soft drinks and beauty products, and the video gambling. All were targeted to cover the cost of construction bonds plus interest.

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Illinois Senate President John Cullerton hailed today’s court ruling.

“This ruling serves as a reminder of just how important the 2009 jobs program was and what the General Assembly can accomplish when politics is set aside and people participate” said Cullerton, D-Chicago, a reference to Democrats and Republicans coming together on the construction deal.

The appellate court had sided with an argument that the law creating the construction program had too many different issues tied together.

The state Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Anne Burke, maintained the General Assembly’s actions were valid and dealt with a single matter rather than several unrelated matters.

The laws all fell within the boundaries of an overall effort to put together a “capital plan” for the state, she wrote.

The state has borrowed roughly $4 billion to get the construction projects started, said Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Quinn’s budget office. Kraft said $1.3 billion of that is left to spend.

Since the construction program began, the state has raked in more than $640 million from the increases in driver fees and additional taxes, according to documents on the state treasurer’s website.

The increased taxes and fees have been collected for a little less than two years, and it was possible that a ruling against the state would have required expensive refunds. That in a state that already carries a multibillion-dollar backlog of overdue bills.

The legalization of video gambling at bars, restaurants and truck stops was the most controversial element and promised the most money to the state. But the new gambling hasn’t materialized because the state Gaming Board is still working to create a large new regulatory program. In the meantime, dozens of municipalities have rejected the new form of legal gambling.

A recently approved expansion of casino gambling, which is not part of the lawsuit, would require regulators to expedite video gambling.

The case before the Supreme Court involved a multifaceted challenge to a series of bills approved by lawmakers in 2009 and signed by Quinn that created and funded the public works program. Rocky Wirtz, best known as owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, also heads his family’s liquor distributorship empire and he alleged in a lawsuit that various provisions of the law were unconstitutional.

A circuit court rejected the Wirtz allegations. Then in January a state appellate court issued a narrow but potentially devastating decision for Quinn and state lawmakers: The law was unconstitutional because it violated the “single-subject rule,” a provision that prohibits combining various unrelated subjects into the same bill. The appeals court stayed enforcement of its ruling  while it was appealed to the Supreme Court.

The “single-subject rule” was designed to prevent bundling less popular initiatives into more palatable bills to make them easier to pass, a process known as logrolling.

Logrolling was a popular legislative tool from the state’s beginnings. Legislation that then-state Rep. Abraham Lincoln pushed in 1837, linking a massive public works program with a move of the capital to Springfield, was the inspiration for the “single-subject rule” being adopted in the Illinois Constitution. The state later defaulted on its debt from the 1837 public works plan.

The appellate court ruled the various aspects of Quinn’s public works program did not fit within a single broad category of “revenue” and that the state’s arguments were “unconvincing.”

The appeals court said provisions that included mandating a University of Illinois study on the effects on Illinois families of purchasing lottery tickets, a required quarterly accounting by the state of public works expenditures and a change in truck-weight limits had “no natural and logical connection to revenue to the state.”

But Attorney General Lisa Madigan, on behalf of the Quinn administration, argued to the Supreme Court that the law’s provisions fell under a single umbrella of “capital projects,” not the subject of “revenue” that the appeals court used.

Pressing the necessity of keeping the public works program intact, Madigan’s appeal to the Supreme Court noted it was passed by lawmakers “when the state’s economy was suffering the effects of the severe recession gripping the entire nation.” She noted that in the 15 months prior to passage of the plan, the state’s unemployment rate rose from less than 6 percent to more than 10 percent.

Quinn had forecast the public works program would create or retain 439,000 jobs over six years.

Lawyers for Wirtz and his distributorship, Wirtz Beverage Illinois LLC, also alleged that the state improperly raised taxes on beer at a lower rate than those on wine and spirits.

His lawyers said Wirtz and his firm “seek to have the constitution enforced as written, rather than ignored for purposes of expediency as it was in the legislation challenged here.”

An FBI spokesman said Monday that it does not appear a stun gun found aboard a JetBlue plane that landed late Friday in Newark was intended to be used in an attack.

Bryan Travers, a spokesman for the FBI’s Newark office, said information from the investigation so far suggests that no attack was imminent. He would not detail why investigators think that.

The stun gun was found by a crew that was cleaning Flight 1179 from Boston around 10:20 p.m. Friday, after the flight had landed and all 96 passengers were off the plane.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police removed the stun gun from the plane and handed it over to the federal Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for screening passengers.

The investigation, being led by the FBI’s office in Boston, is focusing on how the stun gun got onto the plane, Travers said.

“People get caught bringing stuff to the checkpoint all the time,” he said.

Travers said that by Monday morning it was not clear who may have brought the gun aboard.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman said there were no indications the stun gun was fired.

JetBlue spokesman Sebastian White said the plane’s next flight was slightly delayed.

Mitt Romney’s Jewish supporters find solace in the fact that, like them, Mitt Romney comes from a “religious minority.”

An “emphasis for Romney in his appeal to Jewish backers is the shared experience of being in a religious minority,” the Jerusalem Post wrote Monday morning. “Romney, 64, is a Mormon. ‘Mitt and I can appreciate coming from another heritage,’ his wife, Ann, told the Republican Jewish Coalition in April.”

The Post cites Romney’s “readiness to compromise in order to seal a deal” as another prominent Team Romney selling point for Jewish backers.

Gallup released polling last week showing Pres. Barack Obama’s approval rating is falling among Jewish voters. During June 2011, 60 percent of Jewish Americans liked the job Obama is doing — a figure 14 percent higher than Americans in general, but still a significant drop from Obama’s 68-percent favorability rating among Jewish voters in May 2011 or the 78-percent approval rating Jews gave Obama at the time of his 2008 election.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency examined two competing schools of thought regarding the cause of Obama’s falling Jewish numbers in an article published Sunday.

“The question is whether Obama’s Jewish popularity dip since ’08 stems from the same cause of his fall generally — America’s persistent economic problems — or whether it has to do with the president’s policies on Israel. Apparently the interpretation depends on who is answering: Democrats and Gallup say it’s the economy; Republicans say it’s Israel.”

EMAIL: jaskar@desnews.com twitter: askargo

By CHARLES WILSON, Associated Press
–
1 hour ago

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a former classmate at a central Indiana school last spring has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Morgan Superior Court Judge D. Thomas Gray issued his verdict Monday after a brief trial in which accused shooter Michael Phelps of Martinsville and victim Chance Jackson were the only two to testify.

Phelps was accused of shooting the 15-year-old Jackson at Martinsville West Middle School on March 25. Jackson survived but is still recovering.

Phelps testified he intended to kill Jackson when he shot him.

Phelps had previously waived a jury trial, and prosecutors and defense attorneys waived opening arguments Monday.

Gray scheduled sentencing for Aug. 12.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By CHARLES WILSON, Associated Press
–
1 hour ago

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy accused of shooting a former classmate at a central Indiana school last spring has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Morgan Superior Court Judge D. Thomas Gray issued his verdict Monday after a brief trial in which accused shooter Michael Phelps of Martinsville and victim Chance Jackson were the only two to testify.

Phelps was accused of shooting the 15-year-old Jackson at Martinsville West Middle School on March 25. Jackson survived but is still recovering.

Phelps testified he intended to kill Jackson when he shot him.

Phelps had previously waived a jury trial, and prosecutors and defense attorneys waived opening arguments Monday.

Gray scheduled sentencing for Aug. 12.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Bachmann leads Romney in new Iowa survey

How to honor former first lady Betty Ford

Bachmann leads Romney in new Iowa survey

How to honor former first lady Betty Ford

(CBS News) 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge dazzled this weekend in Southern California.

From polo to shining with the stars, Prince William and his new bride, Catherine, had a full schedule for their one stop in the U.S. – their first official visit to the States.

CBS News Royal Contributor Victoria Arbiter said on “The Early Show” the stop was an enormous success for the couple, as well as the British royal family as a whole.

Pictures: William Kate wrap up California tour

“(The trip) really promoted their interests, put them right back at the forefront of media coverage, and so I think William and Kate can go home very happy, having also raised – early estimates are saying – $5 million for charity.”

The trip to the U.S. included a polo match. William’s team won, and the prince himself scored four points. A good thing, too, according to Arbiter, because William is a “terrible, shocking loser.”

“He’s very competitive, but he’s a good player, he and (his brother Prince) Harry,” Arbiter said. “I’m delighted to say his team did win. … It was nice for us, because Kate was presenting the prize, the Tiffany and Co. cup, which meant we did get to see a little royal kiss. We haven’t gotten to see one of those since the wedding day on the balcony.”

“Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill said, “It did feel a little royal, though. It was the kiss on two cheeks. Not a kiss-kiss, (but) still very nice!”

Pictures: Newlyweds attend BAFTA gala
Pictures: William and Kate at charity polo match
Pictures: William and Kate arrive in California

The couple also attended an event for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, of which William is president. And the stars, for once, Hill noted, seemed star-struck themselves.

Arbiter agreed, saying, “Nicole Kidman was positively giddy at the idea of meeting the prince. She thought she might be too shy to even speak with him, but her mother was very proud she was going. The idea was to take 42 up-and-coming British artists, whether they were writers, actors, set designers and put them in among Hollywood’s movers and shakers to give them a head start. And William is very keen to focus on the needs of young people and give them a chance in life.”

The couple also visited inner-city children on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, the homeless capital of the world. Arbiter explained that 30,000 at-risk kids live within a three-mile radius of the center.

Arbiter said, “William is so focused on the needs of the homeless — he took on Princess Diana’s patronage of (the United Kingdom charitable organization) Centrepoint. Much of what they do in city arts compliments the work of Centrepoint. … Kate painted a fabulous red snail and William, he was asked to help with a giant red tortoise. He got clay all down his suit and hand prints.”

Hill noted the couple also flew home on a commercial airline.

“People are often surprised to learn the royal family does, every now and then, fly commercially,” Arbiter said. “They would have had their entourage with them, flew first class. They were in the front first two seats, and the entourage would have acted as a buffer between the rest of the passengers. But they’re very proud to fly British Airways. And for Kate’s mother, who’s a former British Airways flight attendant, it’s quite a nice full-circle moment.”

Arbiter added, “They need to get home just like everyone else. (There’s) no need for them to fly a private jet all that way when British Airways has a flight going in the same direction. It’s another way to support British industry, which was the whole idea of this trip.”

(CBS News) 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge dazzled this weekend in Southern California.

From polo to shining with the stars, Prince William and his new bride, Catherine, had a full schedule for their one stop in the U.S. – their first official visit to the States.

CBS News Royal Contributor Victoria Arbiter said on “The Early Show” the stop was an enormous success for the couple, as well as the British royal family as a whole.

Pictures: William Kate wrap up California tour

“(The trip) really promoted their interests, put them right back at the forefront of media coverage, and so I think William and Kate can go home very happy, having also raised – early estimates are saying – $5 million for charity.”

The trip to the U.S. included a polo match. William’s team won, and the prince himself scored four points. A good thing, too, according to Arbiter, because William is a “terrible, shocking loser.”

“He’s very competitive, but he’s a good player, he and (his brother Prince) Harry,” Arbiter said. “I’m delighted to say his team did win. … It was nice for us, because Kate was presenting the prize, the Tiffany and Co. cup, which meant we did get to see a little royal kiss. We haven’t gotten to see one of those since the wedding day on the balcony.”

“Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill said, “It did feel a little royal, though. It was the kiss on two cheeks. Not a kiss-kiss, (but) still very nice!”

Pictures: Newlyweds attend BAFTA gala
Pictures: William and Kate at charity polo match
Pictures: William and Kate arrive in California

The couple also attended an event for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, of which William is president. And the stars, for once, Hill noted, seemed star-struck themselves.

Arbiter agreed, saying, “Nicole Kidman was positively giddy at the idea of meeting the prince. She thought she might be too shy to even speak with him, but her mother was very proud she was going. The idea was to take 42 up-and-coming British artists, whether they were writers, actors, set designers and put them in among Hollywood’s movers and shakers to give them a head start. And William is very keen to focus on the needs of young people and give them a chance in life.”

The couple also visited inner-city children on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, the homeless capital of the world. Arbiter explained that 30,000 at-risk kids live within a three-mile radius of the center.

Arbiter said, “William is so focused on the needs of the homeless — he took on Princess Diana’s patronage of (the United Kingdom charitable organization) Centrepoint. Much of what they do in city arts compliments the work of Centrepoint. … Kate painted a fabulous red snail and William, he was asked to help with a giant red tortoise. He got clay all down his suit and hand prints.”

Hill noted the couple also flew home on a commercial airline.

“People are often surprised to learn the royal family does, every now and then, fly commercially,” Arbiter said. “They would have had their entourage with them, flew first class. They were in the front first two seats, and the entourage would have acted as a buffer between the rest of the passengers. But they’re very proud to fly British Airways. And for Kate’s mother, who’s a former British Airways flight attendant, it’s quite a nice full-circle moment.”

Arbiter added, “They need to get home just like everyone else. (There’s) no need for them to fly a private jet all that way when British Airways has a flight going in the same direction. It’s another way to support British industry, which was the whole idea of this trip.”

After years of bucolic images of New England and Iowa same-sex weddings, New York‘s gay couples are pushing the glamour factor as they race to the altar to legally wed at last, beginning July 24.

• 

  By Mario Tama, Getty Images

  Joe Bednar, right, and Phil Mason march in New York City’s pride parade June 26, two days after state lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage.

By Mario Tama, Getty Images

Joe Bednar, right, and Phil Mason march in New York City’s pride parade June 26, two days after state lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage.

Ceremonies are booked from the Four Seasons to Gracie Mansion, where the mayor himself will officiate at the wedding of two aides.

Yet even before New York joined five other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing these marriages, the trend’s economic and social impact was becoming visible since Massachusetts led the way in 2004.

It can be seen in impersonal statistics and in the deeply personal stories of gay couples, their supporters and the opponents of this cultural shift.

• MORE: N.Y. legalizes gay marriage

• BLOG: Gay marriage impact: Changing minds

An estimated 9% of the 581,300 same-sex couples in the USA have married in this country since 2004, according to studies by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

In several reports, drawn on data from state administrative offices, surveys and Census data, the institute finds:

Gay marriage status by state

Same sex marriage and civil union laws by state:

• Six states plus the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage: Connecticut (2008), Iowa (2009), Massachusetts (2004), New Hampshire (2010), New York (2011) and Vermont (2009).

• Five states permit civil unions: Delaware (2011), Hawaii (2011), Illinois (2011), New Jersey (2006) and, as of July 2, Rhode Island. Three of those states — Delaware,Hawaii and Illinois — also have laws restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

• Gay marriage and civil unions are still a legal battleground in New Mexico where no law currently forbids either.

• Forty-one states have laws or constitutional amendments restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

Source: Human Rights Campaign

•About 50,000 same-sex couples have married in places where it is legal and during the time it was legal in California.

•An additional 30,000 couples who say they’re legally married may have wed in Canada or Europe.

•About 38% of same-sex couples living in states that allow them to marry are currently married.

•The divorce or dissolution rate for same-sex and opposite-sex couples remains about the same, about 2% of couples per year in any state that has marriage or civil union registrations.

Gay marriage appears to have had no measurable impact on the rates of marriages, divorces or childbirth among state residents who are not gay, says Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute.

Child custody and parental rights cases are too few and too scattered among the courts to establish any pattern, Sears says.

New York can expect a cloudburst of wedding confetti come July 24, Sears says. He estimates, based on other states, that about half of all same-sex couples will marry or have a civil union in the first three years after such ceremonies become legal.

The “I do” deluge in Massachusetts pumped about $100 million into the state economy from 2004 to 2007, the institute found.

One couple could turn up in two states’ tallies.

Keith Hershberger and Kevin Green, a Brooklyn couple who once planned to move to Massachusetts, were 32nd in line to get a marriage license in Cambridge Mass., the first day they were available in 2004.

They wed in Lynn, Mass., in a double ceremony with friends. Now they’re planning a recommitment ceremony in New York.

“Our experience has been all positive,” says Hershberger, who recalls how his father, who once shunned him for speaking about his gay life, is now “a quiet champion for gay marriage.”

That’s the kind of story that disturbs Kris Mineau, president of the 20-year-old Massachusetts Family Institute.

Over time, this trend, he says, has a “destabilizing effect on the values of our children and it is a threat to religious liberty and free speech.”

“Gays think this is a breakthrough to a new frontier, and we see it as a gateway to the breakdown of the family. If we don’t esteem the unique role of a man and a woman in committed matrimony, I fear for our nation,” says Mineau, who cites the Bible for his beliefs and describes himself as an evangelical Christian.

Most of the nation’s major religious denominations such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as well as Mormons, Orthodox Jews and Muslims, do not permit their clergy to wed same-sex couples.

However, since 2004, several liberal denominations have begun to welcome gay clergy and agree to gay ceremonies.

Among them: the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Reform branch of Judaism.

The National Organization for Marriage — now revving up a campaign to drive New York Republicans who voted for gay marriage out of office — and the Alliance Defense Fund say religious protections in marriage-legalization bills are inadequate to protect individuals and damaging to religious institutions, particularly faith-based non-profit organizations.

Alliance attorney Austin Nimocks cites an example: The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston ceased offering adoption services because it would not allow gays to adopt children.

Posted | Updated

After years of bucolic images of New England and Iowa same-sex weddings, New York‘s gay couples are pushing the glamour factor as they race to the altar to legally wed at last, beginning July 24.

• 

  By Mario Tama, Getty Images

  Joe Bednar, right, and Phil Mason march in New York City’s pride parade June 26, two days after state lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage.

By Mario Tama, Getty Images

Joe Bednar, right, and Phil Mason march in New York City’s pride parade June 26, two days after state lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage.

Ceremonies are booked from the Four Seasons to Gracie Mansion, where the mayor himself will officiate at the wedding of two aides.

Yet even before New York joined five other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing these marriages, the trend’s economic and social impact was becoming visible since Massachusetts led the way in 2004.

It can be seen in impersonal statistics and in the deeply personal stories of gay couples, their supporters and the opponents of this cultural shift.

• MORE: N.Y. legalizes gay marriage

• BLOG: Gay marriage impact: Changing minds

An estimated 9% of the 581,300 same-sex couples in the USA have married in this country since 2004, according to studies by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

In several reports, drawn on data from state administrative offices, surveys and Census data, the institute finds:

Gay marriage status by state

Same sex marriage and civil union laws by state:

• Six states plus the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage: Connecticut (2008), Iowa (2009), Massachusetts (2004), New Hampshire (2010), New York (2011) and Vermont (2009).

• Five states permit civil unions: Delaware (2011), Hawaii (2011), Illinois (2011), New Jersey (2006) and, as of July 2, Rhode Island. Three of those states — Delaware,Hawaii and Illinois — also have laws restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

• Gay marriage and civil unions are still a legal battleground in New Mexico where no law currently forbids either.

• Forty-one states have laws or constitutional amendments restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

Source: Human Rights Campaign

•About 50,000 same-sex couples have married in places where it is legal and during the time it was legal in California.

•An additional 30,000 couples who say they’re legally married may have wed in Canada or Europe.

•About 38% of same-sex couples living in states that allow them to marry are currently married.

•The divorce or dissolution rate for same-sex and opposite-sex couples remains about the same, about 2% of couples per year in any state that has marriage or civil union registrations.

Gay marriage appears to have had no measurable impact on the rates of marriages, divorces or childbirth among state residents who are not gay, says Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute.

Child custody and parental rights cases are too few and too scattered among the courts to establish any pattern, Sears says.

New York can expect a cloudburst of wedding confetti come July 24, Sears says. He estimates, based on other states, that about half of all same-sex couples will marry or have a civil union in the first three years after such ceremonies become legal.

The “I do” deluge in Massachusetts pumped about $100 million into the state economy from 2004 to 2007, the institute found.

One couple could turn up in two states’ tallies.

Keith Hershberger and Kevin Green, a Brooklyn couple who once planned to move to Massachusetts, were 32nd in line to get a marriage license in Cambridge Mass., the first day they were available in 2004.

They wed in Lynn, Mass., in a double ceremony with friends. Now they’re planning a recommitment ceremony in New York.

“Our experience has been all positive,” says Hershberger, who recalls how his father, who once shunned him for speaking about his gay life, is now “a quiet champion for gay marriage.”

That’s the kind of story that disturbs Kris Mineau, president of the 20-year-old Massachusetts Family Institute.

Over time, this trend, he says, has a “destabilizing effect on the values of our children and it is a threat to religious liberty and free speech.”

“Gays think this is a breakthrough to a new frontier, and we see it as a gateway to the breakdown of the family. If we don’t esteem the unique role of a man and a woman in committed matrimony, I fear for our nation,” says Mineau, who cites the Bible for his beliefs and describes himself as an evangelical Christian.

Most of the nation’s major religious denominations such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as well as Mormons, Orthodox Jews and Muslims, do not permit their clergy to wed same-sex couples.

However, since 2004, several liberal denominations have begun to welcome gay clergy and agree to gay ceremonies.

Among them: the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Reform branch of Judaism.

The National Organization for Marriage — now revving up a campaign to drive New York Republicans who voted for gay marriage out of office — and the Alliance Defense Fund say religious protections in marriage-legalization bills are inadequate to protect individuals and damaging to religious institutions, particularly faith-based non-profit organizations.

Alliance attorney Austin Nimocks cites an example: The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston ceased offering adoption services because it would not allow gays to adopt children.

Posted | Updated

Mitt Romney’s Jewish supporters find solace in the fact that, like them, Mitt Romney comes from a “religious minority.”

An “emphasis for Romney in his appeal to Jewish backers is the shared experience of being in a religious minority,” the Jerusalem Post wrote Monday morning. “Romney, 64, is a Mormon. ‘Mitt and I can appreciate coming from another heritage,’ his wife, Ann, told the Republican Jewish Coalition in April.”

The Post cites Romney’s “readiness to compromise in order to seal a deal” as another prominent Team Romney selling point for Jewish backers.

Gallup released polling last week showing Pres. Barack Obama’s approval rating is falling among Jewish voters. During June 2011, 60 percent of Jewish Americans liked the job Obama is doing — a figure 14 percent higher than Americans in general, but still a significant drop from Obama’s 68-percent favorability rating among Jewish voters in May 2011 or the 78-percent approval rating Jews gave Obama at the time of his 2008 election.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency examined two competing schools of thought regarding the cause of Obama’s falling Jewish numbers in an article published Sunday.

“The question is whether Obama’s Jewish popularity dip since ’08 stems from the same cause of his fall generally — America’s persistent economic problems — or whether it has to do with the president’s policies on Israel. Apparently the interpretation depends on who is answering: Democrats and Gallup say it’s the economy; Republicans say it’s Israel.”

EMAIL: jaskar@desnews.com twitter: askargo

Mitt Romney’s Jewish supporters find solace in the fact that, like them, Mitt Romney comes from a “religious minority.”

An “emphasis for Romney in his appeal to Jewish backers is the shared experience of being in a religious minority,” the Jerusalem Post wrote Monday morning. “Romney, 64, is a Mormon. ‘Mitt and I can appreciate coming from another heritage,’ his wife, Ann, told the Republican Jewish Coalition in April.”

The Post cites Romney’s “readiness to compromise in order to seal a deal” as another prominent Team Romney selling point for Jewish backers.

Gallup released polling last week showing Pres. Barack Obama’s approval rating is falling among Jewish voters. During June 2011, 60 percent of Jewish Americans liked the job Obama is doing — a figure 14 percent higher than Americans in general, but still a significant drop from Obama’s 68-percent favorability rating among Jewish voters in May 2011 or the 78-percent approval rating Jews gave Obama at the time of his 2008 election.

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency examined two competing schools of thought regarding the cause of Obama’s falling Jewish numbers in an article published Sunday.

“The question is whether Obama’s Jewish popularity dip since ’08 stems from the same cause of his fall generally — America’s persistent economic problems — or whether it has to do with the president’s policies on Israel. Apparently the interpretation depends on who is answering: Democrats and Gallup say it’s the economy; Republicans say it’s Israel.”

EMAIL: jaskar@desnews.com twitter: askargo

The Garridos pleaded guilty in April to kidnapping, raping and confining Dugard and were sentenced last month to long prison terms. The plea deal spared the victim from having to testify. During the trial, it was revealed that parole officials repeatedly visited the Garridos’ Antioch home but never ventured into the backyard, where they might have found Dugard.

She was discovered by police in 2009. When Dugard finally wrote down for police the name she had not used for 18 years, “it was like breaking an evil spell,” she said. “It was like a piece of me came back.”

–Martha Groves

ALSO:

Royal couple’s fans line up early for downtown L.A. appearance

Prince William, Catherine head to skid row to visit Inner-City Arts

Hollywood A-listers turn out for royal couple in L.A.    

Photo: ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, left, speaks with Jaycee Dugard in her first interview since being kidnapped near her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991, when she was 11.  (Jill Belsley, ABC News / July 1, 2011)

The Garridos pleaded guilty in April to kidnapping, raping and confining Dugard and were sentenced last month to long prison terms. The plea deal spared the victim from having to testify. During the trial, it was revealed that parole officials repeatedly visited the Garridos’ Antioch home but never ventured into the backyard, where they might have found Dugard.

She was discovered by police in 2009. When Dugard finally wrote down for police the name she had not used for 18 years, “it was like breaking an evil spell,” she said. “It was like a piece of me came back.”

–Martha Groves

ALSO:

Royal couple’s fans line up early for downtown L.A. appearance

Prince William, Catherine head to skid row to visit Inner-City Arts

Hollywood A-listers turn out for royal couple in L.A.    

Photo: ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, left, speaks with Jaycee Dugard in her first interview since being kidnapped near her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991, when she was 11.  (Jill Belsley, ABC News / July 1, 2011)

Though a recent Gallup poll finds that nearly two-thirds of America believes that Casey Anthony was guilty of murder, one of her defense attorneys considers himself squarely in on that topic.

1. 1. 
      

      
      Casey Anthony attorney: ‘She did not kill her child’
      
      

      
      
      Updated 40 minutes ago
      
      7/11/2011 1:23:05 PM +00:00
      
      
      
      
      Cheney Mason, a member of defense team for the Florida mom whose acquittal has sparked widespread outrage, said Monday he believed her story “from the first time I met her.” He also said Anthony’s relationship with her parents is “pretty well burned.”
      

   2. 
      

      
      
      Newborn baby boy tips the scale at 16 pounds
      
      

   3. 
      

      
      
      Will and Kate back in UK after Calif. trip
      
      

   4. 
      ‘Great American Awakening’: Sen. DeMint shares his vision
      
      

   5. 
      J.Lo reportedly set to return to ‘Idol’
      
      

“I do believe her story,’’ defense attorney Cheney Mason told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie on Monday. “I believed it from the first time I met her. I have never for one minute had any doubt at all. She did not kill her child. Period.’’

Mason was part of a defense team that secured an acquittal for the 25-year-old Anthony on the charge that she murdered her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, a jury decision that outraged much of the nation. Anthony was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of lying to police and is expected to be released on Sunday.

Story: Casey Anthony juror in hiding, fears retribution after verdict

Despite the established pattern of dishonesty by Anthony, Mason has not been dissuaded about his position that she was telling the truth when it came to being uninvolved in the death of her child. “I don’t think her story has changed from the very beginning,’’ he said.

Mason said he met with Anthony in her home weeks before he officially became a member of the defense team. Even at that time, he told Guthrie, he believed her story.

Frenzy and frustration

Yet as the poll numbers and angry protesters outside the courthouse indicate, Anthony has been convicted in the court of public opinion. One juror has even gone into hiding: Her husband told NBC News that she retired from her job over the phone, packed a bag, and left the state shortly after the trial.

Timeline: Verdict reached in Casey Anthony murder trial (on this page)

Cheney’s frustration with that public outrage and the accompanying media frenzy recently boiled over. While celebrating Anthony’s acquittal with some cocktails at a restaurant in Orlando, he flipped his middle finger to reporters looking in the window, and the image was captured by an Associated Press photographer.

“She was not only tried, but convicted and sentenced by the news media, and that conviction was overturned by the jury,’’ Cheney told Guthrie.

Story: States weigh ‘Caylee’s Law’ in verdict aftermath

He said his vulgar gesture was directed at a specific, unnamed entity. “My frustrations are not with the news media itself or in general,’’ Mason said. “There was one particular stalker that had been stalking our defense team, morning, noon and night, every day of the trial, yelling obscenities and threatening and trying to embarrass and expose [fellow defense attorney Jose] Baez, myself and the others. [This person] went so far as to even ask some of the women on our team, on the street, whether or not they were on their periods.

“That little non-human person deserved what he got. He’s fortunate he wasn’t in the same room.’’

Video: What’s next for Casey Anthony? (on this page)

Family tensions

While Mason feels Anthony was unfairly convicted in the headlines, he was also asked whether the defense team unfairly tarnished Anthony’s father, George, who was portrayed by Baez in opening arguments as having molested Anthony was she was 8 years old. No evidence was ever presented, and George tearfully denied the allegations.

Guthrie asked Mason if that was a savvy strategy by the defense or a dirty trick.

Story: Casey Anthony refuses jail visit from her mother

“It wasn’t a dirty trick,’’ Mason said. “The allegation wasn’t new in trial. It had been made in the public eye from letters written in jail sometime before that. Sometimes testimony in trial doesn’t turn out what you expected it to be.’’

Video: Casey Anthony lawyer: ‘I do believe her story’ (on this page)

That was one of many sordid details and allegations that arose during the trial, with Anthony’s defense team portraying her family as dysfunctional. In addition, her mother, Cindy, recently tried to visit Anthony in jail but Anthony refused to see her.

It does appear unlikely that Anthony will reconcile with her parents, Mason opined. “I don’t know that anything is ever beyond repair, but I would say odds are pretty strong that it is,’’ he said about the relationship between Anthony and her parents. “She may have a relationship in the future with her brother at some point. I don’t know when or how, but I think with her parents, that’s pretty well burned.’’

Anthony and Mason have reportedly received death threats, so there is a worry about Anthony’s safety upon her release. But Anthony should not leave the country out of fear for her well-being, Mason said.

1. 1. 
      

      
      
      Updated 40 minutes ago
      
      7/11/2011 1:23:05 PM +00:00
      
      
      
      

      
      Casey Anthony attorney: ‘She did not kill her child’
      
      

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“I don’t know [where she will go], and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,’’ Mason told Guthrie. “Yes, we are all concerned about her safety and her future, but one thing at a time.

“It’s as much her country as anybody else’s. She just needs to have some time and counseling and be re-introduced to society. She’s been in lockdown for 23 hours a day for three years.’’

Did ‘Springer Show’ offer Casey Anthony $1M?

In addition to the issue of where she will live, there is the question of Anthony’s mental competence. In the midst of the trial, her defense team moved to have her undergo a psychiatric examination. But Anthony is not mentally ill, in Mason’s opinion.

“No one was asking her to be found incompetent,’’ Mason said. “We just wanted to have her examined and make sure she was OK to continue with the trial. She’s under a lot of pressure. Not only is she in trial for her life, but [when] she is not in the trial, she’s back in lockdown.

“Just imagine 23 hours a day for three years. Most people would be drooling.’’

Video: States consider ‘Caylee’s Law’ after Anthony verdict (on this page)

While she never took the stand, the emotional Anthony could often be seen crying or reacting demonstrably to others’ testimony during the trial. That was understandable given the circumstances, Mason felt.

“We sometimes warned her when the cameras were focusing on her, but she’s pretty savvy,’’ he said. “Nobody coached her about doing anything. If anything, we tried to keep her emotions down, but that’s pretty hard to do when your family is testifying against you and people are calling for your blood like a lynch mob.’’

© 2011 MSNBC Interactive. 



Reprints

NEWARK, N.J.
— An FBI spokesman says there’s no indication that an attack was imminent using a stun gun found in a plane that landed in Newark, N.J., after a flight from Boston.

Newark FBI spokesman Bryan Travers says the investigation is focusing mostly on how the stun gun ended up on the flight.

The stun gun was found in the pocket behind a seat on a JetBlue plane around 10:20 p.m. Friday by a cleaning crew. Authorities say they gave it to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police, who handed it over to the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA is responsible for screening people before they board flights.

The Boston office of the FBI is heading up the investigation as to how it got onboard.

The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill has continued an excessive heat warning today for eastern Kansas and western Missouri, including the Kansas City area as afternoon temperatures are expected to soar into the upper 90s to lower 100s.

Heat indices are expected to range 105 to 115. The heat will continue into Tuesday.

The Weather Service warns that these conditions will lead to an increased risk of heat-related illnesses, especially in the urbanized Kansas City metropolitan area.

The excessive heat warning is expected to remain in effect until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Outside the Kansas City metropolitan area, temperatures are expected to reach in the lower 100s in east central Kansas through parts of western and central Missouri. In northwestern and northern Missouri, temperatures are expected to reach the upper 90s.

The Weather Service expects there to be little relief tonight as heat indices will remain in the upper 70s.

People are being advised to avoid prolonged exposure to the heat, stay out of the sun and to drink non-alcoholic beverages. People should also check up on relatives, the elderly and pets.

Olathe Fire Department’s Office of Emergency Management and the Olathe Public Library announced it will open two cooling centers from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today to offer relief from the heat.

The temporary centers are located at Olathe’s two public libraries:

•Olathe Main Library, 201 E. Park St., enter through the main entrance.

•Indian Creek Branch, 12990 S. Black Bob Road.

Meanwhile, an unhealthy amount of smog is expected in the Kansas City area today.

The Mid-America Regional Council Air Quality Program issued an orange Ozone Alert.

People are being urged to consider limiting outdoor activities to early morning or the evening. Children, seniors and those with breathing or heart problems should attempt to stay inside between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Because of the Ozone Alert, the The Metro, The JO and Unified Government Transit are offering 75 cents bus rides.

People can help reduce the amount of ozone in the air by riding the bus instead of driving. Vehicle emissions are the greatest contributor to ozone pollution in the Kansas City area.

Call the Regional Call Center at 816-221-0660 between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. to plan a commute by bus or go to http://www.kcata.org for routes and schedules and to use the Trip Planner.

| Robert A. Cronkleton, bcronkleton@kcstar.com

Driving rain and hail pelted the Chicago area as thunderstorms packing 75 mph winds halted flights, stopped trains, downed power lines and apparently blew down a tent in the south suburbs.

Ambulances were being sent to 109th Street and 88th Avenue near Moraine Valley Community College after a tent appparently collapsed, according to fire communications. No details were available.

The high winds were also affecting Metra’s Union Pacific West, Northwest and North lines, with delays of about 45 minutes to an hour, according to Metra’s Web site. About two dozen Union Pacific trains were being stopped until about 8:45 a.m., and the speeds of Burlington Northern-Santa Fe trains have been reduced during the storm, Miller said.

The CTA was reporting major delays on all its rail lines, and service on the Purple Line has been halted because of debris on the tracks. Shuttle buses were running between Howard and Linden. Power was off on the CTA’s Yellow Line.

Flights have been grounded at both O’hare and Midway airports.

In the Gurnee area, the storm sent large trees and power lines toppling in the Gurnee area and caused power outages throughoutLake County. Along Grand Avenue west of Illinois Highway 21,l traffic was being rerouted around large tree trunks, and cars were driving over downed power lines.

Commonwealth Edison said a total of 88,000 customers were without power, 78,000 of them in the western suburbs.

A thunderstorm warning was issued for northwestern Lake, Cook, Dupage, northwestern Will and northeastern Kendall counties until 8:30 a.m. The warning was extended until 9:15 a.m. for southeastern Cook and Will counties andLake County, Ind.

The storms hit the area around 8 a.m., with Doppler radar showing a line of severe thunderstorms capable of producing 70 mph winds and quarter-size hail.

The storms moved in at 70 mph. Midway Airport clocked winds of 75 mph and O’Hare Airport saw 63 mph winds mph as 65 mph winds hit Naperville. High high winds downed trees in Warrenville and other area towns.

Even with the storms, temperatures are expected to be in the lower 90s today with a heat index reading of around 100 in the afternoon.

The overall chance of rain is 70 percent.

Tonight will be partly cloudy with lows in the lower 70s. Tuesday will be partly sunny with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. The high will be in the mid 80s.

For updates, check the Chicago Weather Center.

The Daily Beast, Monday, July 11, 2011, 5:52am (PDT)

So much for California dreaming: the royal visit to Los Angeles this weekend was nothing if not a tightly choreographed dance. Over the course of 72 hours, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge adhered to a minute-by-minute schedule that had them meeting with Hollywood studio executives, flying up the California coast, making sculptures with schoolchildren on Skid Row, and even meeting Harvey Weinstein and Jennifer Lopez.

Their whirlwind visit to California came at the tail end of a two-week-long sweep of North America—the majority of which unfolded very differently across Canada: in pastry kitchens and in canoes, with Will and Kate playing hockey and planting trees.

But the royal couple proved this weekend that they’re up for anything. From the way the pair patiently greeted fans—and the way Kate even joked about her husband—it was easy to forget that these were two international icons merely expanding the reach of their own celebrity.

There was, of course, uncertainty among the Hollywood set about how to greet a future queen. “What is the protocol, do you know?” asked actress Leslie Mann before going in to the BAFTA event on Saturday night. “Is it Sir and Catherine?” said 22-year-old Dancing With the Stars contestant Chelsea Kane: “Wait, am I supposed to curtsey?” Some stars, however, threw that out the window entirely. “[Bridesmaids director] Paul Feig and I were joking about how it’s a good thing Kate didn’t see Bridesmaids before she got married,” said actress Dana Delany.

On Sunday, the final day of their trip, the couple visited Inner-City Arts, an organization for underprivileged children in Skid Row. William (in a navy suit and a maroon tie) and Kate (in a navy-blue cardigan and white skirt by British designer Whistles) met with schoolchildren, toured the facilities—and even made ceramic tortoises. During a session with fifth graders, the couple learned to make mandalas. As Kate and William sat in front of their own easels, the future queen leaned over to ask her husband: “William, do you know what you’re doing? Start from the center.”

Later that afternoon, they were whisked to Los Angeles’ Culver City, where they attended a Mission Serve job fair for veterans at Sony Studios. They were greeted by Sir Howard Stringer, president and CEO of Sony. William took to the podium to address the crowd. “This is the last event on our tour of North America, but to my mind, it is one of the most important,” he said. “This is because it is about men and women who—of their own free will—choose to put their life on the line for their country. They are the front line of a remarkable relationship between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada which has safeguarded our freedoms for a century.”

On Saturday night, the duke and duchess attended a black-tie gala for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), which honored 42 “Brits to Watch”—emerging talents across entertainment—in downtown Los Angeles.

Hundreds of fans in Union Jack T-shirts and face paint lined the barricaded blocks of downtown Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of the royal couple. The duke and duchess finally arrived in a long LAPD motorcade, a shocking nine minutes behind schedule. Catherine, dressed in a floor-length lavender dress by Alexander McQueen, Jimmy Choo sandals, and earrings reportedly borrowed from the queen, alighted from their blue Range Rover to shrieking fans. Greeted by an entourage of security and handlers, the pair swept down the red carpet (breezing past the video cameras and press teams) and beelined straight to 20 lucky fans stationed in front of the theater. The royals spent a few minutes shaking hands until they were whisked inside.

For Houston native Solome Williams, 21, who met the duke and duchess, it was a night to remember. “Kate apologized for being late,” she recounted. “She joked that William was busy fixing his hair.” A few spots down the barricade, Katie Symes, a 22-year-old from Pasadena, was “dying” because Kate told her she liked her chandelier earrings. “I probably won’t wear any other earrings ever again,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the couple took a chopper to Santa Barbara to participate in the Foundation Polo Cup. The duchess sat front-row center in a floral Jenny Packham dress while William galloped around the field. Though Oprah was rumored to be making an appearance, the guest list was considerably more B-list—it included only Zoe Saldana and Rob Lowe. Tickets sold for $4,000 a pop, which included access to a VIP tent and a luncheon catered by Giada De Laurentiis. (The $400 tickets got you only a boxed lunch.)

The couple arrived in Los Angeles just after 4 p.m. on Friday aboard a Canadian Air Force A310. They were greeted at Los Angeles International Airport in 90-degree heat by Governor Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

First stop was, somewhat appropriately, straight into the eye of the storm: the Beverly Hilton—a sprawling hotel in Beverly Hills where the Golden Globes take place. They attended Variety’s Venture Capital and New Media Summit, where venture capitalists, new-media guys, and a handful of Hollywood agents convened to talk about technological innovation in the entertainment industry.

A security sweep two hours before the couple was set to arrive locked down the Hilton, and bathroom access was closed off at 3 p.m. Police were everywhere, dragging around overheated German shepherds. Will and Kate arrived on the premises—passing through clusters of tourists in the lobby—and were escorted into a green room, where they were greeted by a reception of 20 people. “This makes a presidential visit look like Grandma’s coming over,” one onlooker said.

Shortly after producer Brett Ratner and Dancing With the Stars contestant Chelsea Kane left the stage, a panel of British entrepreneurs began to discuss Tech City, London’s answer to Silicon Valley. At 5 p.m., the panel stopped to “welcome the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the stage.” The crowd rose, and amid total silence—aside from the relentless snapping from the pool of photographers—Will and Kate took the stage, each taking a seat on a plush couch. The audience sat back down, and then, inexplicably, the panel kept going as if nothing had changed. “Google has done a great job with Google+,” one panelist said nervously. The duke and duchess just sat there, smiling, staring out at the crowd. Finally, one panelist acknowledged the royals onstage. “Enough talk about autocratic leadership,” he said. “We have a future queen on the panel!” Everyone let out a deep breath at once. Following the event, the duke and duchess met with entrepreneurs in the ballroom, receiving brief tech demonstrations and posing for pictures.

On Friday evening, they attended a private dinner at the British Consulate, where they saw Victoria and David Beckham. The duchess looked as radiant as ever in a jewel-green belted dress by Diane von Furstenberg. “I love seeing it,” the designer said in an email to The Daily Beast. “[Catherine] is cool, smart, and beautiful. She represents all DVF is about: she is the woman she wants to be!” As American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe told The Daily Beast: “She smiled, and literally it lit up the entire garden. I told her I would be escorting her, but there wasn’t much time for small talk!”

Washington (CNN) – Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum sough to clarify their support of a pledge that contained a controversial preamble suggesting black children born into slavery had better family structures than black children now.

The excerpt has been removed from “The Marriage Vow – A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family,” a pledge issued by the conservative Christian organization The Family Leader.

The Family Leader is an important socially conservative group in the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa, holding sway over the state’s traditionally more conservative caucus goers who influence the fate of presidential campaigns.

A spokesman for former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania told CNN Monday he was “pleased” to sign the pledge, but agreed with the Leader’s decision to remove the language about slavery.

“Senator Santorum was pleased to sign the Iowa Family Leader’s pledge because he is committed to standing up for traditional marriage. The bigger question here is why aren’t more Republicans having the courage to stand up for the institution of marriage and signing this pledge,” Virginia Davis said in an email. “With that said, Senator Santorum believed it was the right thing for the Iowa Family Leader to remove the language from the preamble to the pledge about slavery.”

Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart, who confirmed the Minnesota congresswoman signed the pledge, said Sunday “In no uncertain terms, Congresswoman Bachmann believe that slavery was horrible and economic enslavement is also horrible.”

The passage causing the stir read, “Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.”

The section’s end note cited “The Consequences of Marriage for African Americans: A Comprehensive Literature Review” from 2005 – before Barack Obama was elected president.

The Family Leader said in a statement last week that the purpose of the pledge “is to have on record the personal convictions of each presidential candidate as it relates to the issue of marriage. The signing of the pledge will be a requirement for future endorsement” by the Iowa-based group.

The slavery excerpt was the first bullet point in the original pledge’s preamble; “The Candidate Vow” begins the second page of the pledge. It is not clear whether Bachmann or Santorum read the preamble before signing the candidate vow.

The pledge requires signatories “to defend and to uphold” the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman.

Each signing candidate must also promise personal fidelity to his or her spouse and recognize that “robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security.”

Other provisions include supporting the enactment of safeguards for married and unmarried military personnel from sexual harassment and the “rejection of Sharia Islam.”

Pledges have become an important feature in this election cycle, forcing candidates to take a hard line stance over social and fiscal issues. CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen said these agreements are constraining for candidates.

“Pledges are proliferating in political campaigns and people are being asked to sign up to things that, in this case, are way out of bounds,” Gergen said on CNN Sunday. “In other cases they lock their hands so they can’t act.”

He pointed specifically to the no new tax pledge, pushed by conservative crusader Grover Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform. Two-hundred and thirty House members and 40 senators, almost all of them Republicans, signed the pledge. Gergen said that agreement is now constrictive in the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations.

“That means they have promised while in Washington they will never raise taxes,” Gergen said. “That makes it very, very difficult to try to reach and foster some sort of compromise to get us out of the debt problem.”

– CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

Gordon Smith, a former US senator from Oregon, today endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In a statement, Smith said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, “has a proven job creation record as governor and in the private sector.�

In response, Romney said Smith “will help me spread my message that President Obama has failed and that his policies must be reversed.�

Like Romney, Smith is a Mormon. Also like Romney, he has a reputation as a moderate Republican, having been a member of the centrist Republican Main Street Partnership.

Smith was elected to the Senate in 1996, after serving in the Oregon state Senate. He served two terms on Capitol Hill before losing reelection in 2008.

He is currently president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Romney recently announced several endorsements from elected officials, including Utah Senator Orrin Hatch.

Shira Schoenberg can be reached at sschoenberg@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shiraschoenberg.

In a sign the 2012 presidential race is moving into a new, more discordant phase, Minnesotans Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty exchanged harsh words over their respective capacities to handle the economy.

Pawlenty, who, like Bachmann, has his White House hopes pegged to doing well right out of the box in Iowa, triggered the hostilities while on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

Calling Bachmann’s record as an office-holder “nonexistent,” Pawlenty said, “We’re not looking for folks who just have speech capabilities. We’re looking for people who can lead a large enterprise in a public setting and drive it to conclusion. I’ve done that, and she hasn’t.”

• Related

• 

  Michele Bachmann says a miscarriage helped define her anti-abortion stance

• 

  Bachmann has her ‘Waterloo’ — minus John Waynes

• 

  In Iowa, Pawlenty swipes at rivals, talks Gaga

Interestingly, Pawlenty was using the same attack that many Republicans have tried against President Obama. The former Minnesota governor, who has been trailing in the polls despite his intense efforts in Iowa, has built a campaign theme around “results, not rhetoric.”

In response, Bachmann’s campaign issued a statement Sunday evening in which the three-term Minnesota congresswoman largely resisted assailing Pawlenty in return. Defending her work in the House, she cited her opposition to Democratic “cap-and-trade” legislation that would limit greenhouse gases, the massive 2008 billion Wall Street bailout, and the Democratic healthcare initiative.

On healthcare, Bachmann was “a leading voice,” she said. “My message brought tens of thousands of Americans to Washington, D.C., to oppose `Obamacare.’”

She also took one shot at Pawlenty, suggesting that he, like many Republicans, once supported the polarizing requirement in the law that Americans purchase health insurance.

Last week, Pawlenty hinted that he was targeting Bachmann, who polls say is surging in Iowa, making a veiled reference at a campaign event to a failed ballot initiative she backed to outlaw same-sex marriage and suggesting that she has been ineffectual.

There’s good reason for it. Bachmann, more than anyone, has laid to waste Pawlenty’s early-season strategy, which was built around courting social and fiscal conservatives in Iowa in a bid to brand himself as the leading alternative to Mitt Romney, who isn’t concentrating on winning the Hawkeye State.

Instead, Bachmann, so far at least, seems to have filled that niche. With just a month until the critical Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, which will provide an instant snapshot of the respective strengths and weaknesses of the GOP field in the state, now appears to be the time for Pawlenty to go on the offensive.

A new poll conducted by The Iowa Republican shows that Pawlenty has work to do. The poll, a survey of 500 likely Republican caucus-goers, shows Bachmann out in front at 25 percent, four points ahead of Romney, and 16 points ahead of Pawlenty.

The poll noted, however, that Pawlenty appeared to be gaining a small amount of momentum, comparing the results to Des Moines Register poll conducted in late June that showed Pawlenty with just 6 percent of the vote.

President Barack Obama meets with, from left, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., right, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Sunday, July 10, 2011, in Washington, to discuss the debt.

(Credit:
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Obama will reconvene with lawmakers Monday afternoon to hammer out a deal to raise the debt ceiling – a routine he says will continue daily until a deal is reached.

Though the so-called “grand bargain” he proposed last week appears all but dead, Mr. Obama again plans to “make a case for doing something big” at a press conference Monday morning, a senior administration official tells CBS News political analyst John Dickerson.

The official said Mr. Obama told congressional leaders on Sunday that “if they didn’t think they could go big, they should come back today with alternatives that could pass both” the Republican controlled House of Representatives and the Senate, controlled by Democrats.

Ahead of the Sunday night meeting between the president and bipartisan congressional leaders, which dissolved without resolution to the months-long stalemate, Mr Obama said “we need to” work out a compromise within the next ten days – and that he plans to continue his push for a comprehensive deal that will take the U.S. government through 2013.

Boehner, after earlier proposing doing something big himself, acknowledged on Saturday that a plan to save the government $4 trillion would not garner the support of Obama: We have 10 days to make a debt dealhis conservative colleagues, who are firmly opposed to bringing more revenue to government coffers.

During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Mr. Obama “wants to do the largest possible deal that’s going to do the most for the economy.”

A Republican briefed on Sunday’s meeting told CBS News that while GOP leaders also hope for a comprehensive deal, they don’t see a feasible path for reaching such a compromise. The Republican indicated that tax increases remain a primary matter of contention in the talks, and that Boehner has shut down the suggestions that he move off his dollar-to-dollar debt limit increase-to-spending cut framework.

Boehner said Saturday that a more modest deal of $2 trillion – half of the original $4 trillion goal – was more reasonable, particularly in light of the suggestion, by Republicans, that the Vice President Joe Biden’s bipartisan team had identified (although not agreed on) approximately $2 – $2.5 trillion in cuts.

Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who has been representing House Democrats in the talks with Biden, calls that figure “grossly inflated.”

“It was never there. That’s the problem,” Van Hollen said of the $2 trillion in cuts, on a Monday appearance on CBS’ “The Early Show.” “What we talked about was about $1.1 trillion in cuts and savings. You’re hearing grossly inflated numbers coming out from the Republican side. In the Biden group we did not get close to $2 trillion in cuts and again the gap there was closing these corporate tax loopholes.”

“We did make some progress but at the end of the day as you know the republicans walked out of the talks,” Van Hollen said. “Democrats agreed to some cuts, but at some point we said you need to have balance here. You cannot be whacking all these programs – and of course the Republican budget calls for the end of the Medicare guarantee, called for deep cuts in Medicaid and education. We’ve said we’re not going to be doing those things when you’ve got people with these big tax loopholes, oil and gas companies. That’s why the president is saying in some ways, doing the medium sized deal is just as hard as doing the big deal so why don’t we just do a big deal and get something done for the country.”

Boehner, however, appears firmly resistant to the idea of tax increases.

An aide for Boehner told CBS News Sunday that the Speaker reiterated during the meeting “the fundamental principles that must be met for any increase in the debt limit: spending cuts and reforms that are greater than the amount of the increase, restraints on future spending, and no tax hikes. The President agreed with the Speaker that their previous talks did not produce any agreement. The group agreed to continue talks in the coming week.”

According to the aide, Boehner thought the Biden team was most likely to produce a “viable” deal.

“The Speaker told the group that he believes a package based on the work of the Biden group is the most viable option at this time for moving forward,” the aide said.

In a Sunday night statement, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Obama’s performance in the negotiations “disappointing.”

“The members will meet again tomorrow, though it’s disappointing that the president is unable to bring his own party around to the entitlement reform that he put on the table,” Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesperson, said Sunday night.

“It’s baffling that the president and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis while refusing to take significant action on spending reductions at a time of record deficits,” he added.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has continually insisted that any deal must not include reductions that would hurt the beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare programs.

“This package must do no harm to the middle class or to economic growth. It must also protect Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries, and we continue to have serious concerns about shifting billions in Medicaid costs to the states,” she said in a Sunday night statement.

The former Speaker emphasized, however, that Democrats remain “hopeful for a large bipartisan agreement, which means more stability for our economy, more growth and jobs, and more deficit reduction over a longer period of time.”

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reiterated his commitment to a deal that included tax increases, and accused Republicans of taking “the easy way out.”

“Senator Reid remains firmly committed to getting the most robust deal possible,” said Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson. “He stressed the need for an approach that is balanced between spending and revenues, in terms of timing, specificity and dollars.”

“Senator Reid believes the stakes are too high for Republicans to keep taking the easy way out,” he continues. “He is committed to meeting every day until we forge a deal, however long that takes.”

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She said she heard Garrido laughing and telling his wife Nancy Garrido “I can’t believe we got away with it,” calling the moment “the most horrible moment in your life, times 10.”

Dugard said she tried to hold in her tears because of her cuffed hands.

“I tried not to cry because I couldn’t wipe them away,” she said, “and then they get itchy.”

She recalled the soundproof door of the backyard studio that Garrido shut and locked each time he left her.

“I can still hear it, consciously, when I’m awake,” Dugard said. “Some sounds and smells just don’t leave you.”

Dugard told Sawyer that in later years despite going out into public with her captors, she was just too scared to try to leave, especially for her daughters. The fear was fueled by what the Garridos told her about the world.

“What I knew was safe,” she said. “The unknown out there was terrifying, especially when thinking about the girls.”

Parole officers paid visits throughout the years to the home to check on Garrido and give him drug tests, but none reported any irregularities.

“I actually talked to one of the agents, and the agent proceeded to give Phillip his urine test and left,” Dugard said. “He made me feel like he didn’t really care.”

Phillip Garrido, 60, a serial sex offender, was given the maximum possible sentence of 431 years to life in prison last month after pleading guilty to kidnapping and 13 sexual assault charges, including rape and committing lewd acts captured on video.

His plea was part of a deal with prosecutors that saw Nancy Garrido, 55, sentenced to 36 years to life after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape.

Without going into many details, Dugard talked about the long, drug-fueled sex sessions Garrido would put her through, and said that to her great confusion he would cry afterward.

“He would tell me what an awful man he was,” Dugard said. She said she would think that despite her own terrible pain, “I have to comfort him?”

Dugard told of her strange relationship with Nancy Garrido, who she said was “very jealous of me for some reason, like I wanted her husband to rape me, very jealous, and sick.”

Dugard said she is not full of rage, that to be angry all the time would be to let Phillip Garrido win.

But her mother, Terry Probyn, who was interviewed by Sawyer alongside her daughter, said she was.

“I think I have enough hate in my heart for the both of us,” Probyn said. “I hate that he took her life away, I hate that he stole her from me, he ripped out a piece of my heart, and he stole my baby.”

She then looked to her daughter.

“He stole your childhood, he stole your adolescence, he stole your high school proms, and pictures and memories.”

Dugard’s reply: “But he didn’t get all of me.”

Gov. Rick Perry may not be running for president yet, but his Texas-based associates are reaching out to prominent operatives in South Carolina and other early nominating states to gauge interest in a potential candidacy.

• 

  AP

  “Nothing has changed,” an aide says about Perry’s interest in the Oval Office.

AP

“Nothing has changed,” an aide says about Perry’s interest in the Oval Office.

“The governor continues to think about a potential run for president, and nothing has changed,” said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Perry’s 2010 reelection campaign. “Information and process-gathering calls have been made in some states, but no staff has been hired.”

South Carolina is scheduled to hold the third key contest in the race for the Republican nomination, after the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

Some Republican donors and campaign operatives are still waiting for a candidate they like better than those now running and hope Perry will fit the bill as a conservative who also can raise money to challenge President Obama, said Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina GOP chairman who says he has been contacted by associates of Perry.

• STORY: Texas Gov. Perry not a 2012 candidate just yet

Initially, Perry dismissed the possibility of a 2012 presidential bid, but after decisions by governors Mitch Daniels of Indiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi to bow out of the race, Perry said he was considering a bid.

Dawson said he received a call from “very close” Perry associates “about an hour” after he stepped down as former House speaker Newt Gingrich‘s campaign manager last month. Dawson was one of about 16 aides to resign from the campaign less than a month after Gingrich made his run official. “Right now, you’ve got Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, both who are sort of the anti-Romney candidates,” he said.

Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate, is leading many polls, while Bachmann, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, is second.

Perry has talked about his role in bringing jobs to the state. Unemployment in Texas was 8% in May, well below the national average of 9.1%, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. From May 2010 to May 2011, Texas added 205,400 jobs, according to the commission.

Perry is scheduled to visit South Carolina in August to speak at a two-day conference in Charleston. The event coincides with the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa.

Perry also is getting backing from a California-based fund called Americans for Rick Perry, which has raised $400,000 in the past three weeks, according to federal campaign finance reports.

The group, which is not affiliated with Perry, has hired staffers in Iowa and plans to hire in other states if it keeps raising money, said Bob Schuman, the group’s campaign director.

The group is trying to get space for next month’s straw poll, even though it is unclear if Perry’s name will be on the ballot, Schuman said. The group also hired Craig Schoenfeld, Gingrich’s former Iowa campaign manager, to lead the operation in the early caucus state. “We’ve just hired essentially Gingrich’s old team from Iowa,” Schuman said.

Schoenfeld said there is about a “50/50″ chance that Perry will run for president. “Draft” efforts rarely work, Schuman acknowledges, but the extraordinary nature of this year’s race could make this effort different.

Posted | Updated

DEMOPOLIS, Ala. –
A small plane crashed in Alabama after one of its engines failed, killing all seven people onboard, the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday.

The pilot of the Cessna C421 tried landing at an airport in Demopolis after it lost its right engine Saturday night, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Holly Baker said in an email. The plane – which was flying from St. Louis to Destin, Fla. – crashed in a wooded area within two miles of the airport.

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Marengo County Coroner Stuart Eatmon told Montgomery television station WAKA that the people killed were a mother, father and their five children who ranged in age from 2 to 10. Their names hadn’t been released.

Searchers found the plane around 2:17 a.m. Sunday. Authorities said the crash site was accessible only by all-terrain vehicles.

FAA records show that the plane was built in 1978. It’s registered to Advanced Integrated Technology Solutions LLC in Niceville, Fla.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Cheaters In College Athletics Should Forfeit Money Rather Than Wins

2012 Presidential Republican Contenders

GOP Passes Up Generational Conservative Victory In Order To Protect The Wealthy

Tax Deadline: Making Last-Minute Moves

“The answer is yes,” former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum told CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday when asked if he would sign a “fidelity pledge” promising to be faithful to his spouse.

• Gallup: Herman Cain Rising in Recognition
• GOP Presidential Candidates Speak at National Right to Life Convention
• Romney Under Attack for Refusing to Sign Abortion Pledge
• Rick Santorum Hopes Christian Voters Will Look Beyond Mormon Faith of Romney, Huntsman
• Rick Santorum: It Is Our Time, I’m Ready
• Bachmann, Romney Tie for Lead in Iowa

(CNN) — Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard, who gave birth to two children during her 18 years in captivity, said she did what she had to do to survive.

During a wide-ranging interview with ABC News’ Diana Sawyer, set to air Sunday night, Dugard opened up about her experiences at the hands of her captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido.

Dugard was just 11 years old when she was abducted in 1991 from the street in front of her South Lake Tahoe, California, home. The Garridos held her and her two children in a hidden compound of sheds and tarpaulins until she was found in 2009.

Dugard is now 31 and working to build a new life, one in which she and her children are finally free.

“There’s a switch that I had to shut off,” she told Sawyer, according to excerpts posted on the network’s website before the interview aired. “I can’t imagine being beaten to death, you know? And you can’t imagine being kidnapped and raped, you know? So, it’s just, you just do what you have to do to survive.”

Dugard recounted the first moment Phillip Garrido entered her life.

She was on her way to school, wearing her favorite shirt and a ring her mother had given her, ABC reported, when all of a sudden Dugard felt “tingly” and “numb.”

Phillip had shocked her with a stun gun, the network said. The Garridos then put her in their car. She recalled Phillip laughing at one point, and telling his wife: “I can’t believe we got away with it.”

“It was like the most horrible moment of your life times ten,” Dugard told ABC.

She also recalled the first time she gave birth, in the backyard, at just 14 years old.

“I didn’t know I was in labor,” Dugard said. “Then I saw her. She was beautiful. I felt like I wasn’t alone anymore. (I) had somebody that was mine … And I knew I could never let anything happen to her,” she said, wiping away tears.

Throughout her 18-year ordeal, Dugard managed to hold onto the ring her mother had given her and the hope that she would one day be reunited with her family, ABC reported.

“I wanted to see her more than anything,” she said about her mother. “I would cry every day. (It was) hardest when I would think about her and what she was doing and then — trying to convince myself she was better without me.

“Worried I’d forget what she looked like, or what she sounded like. Would she forget me?”

Her mother, Terry Probyn, also appeared in the ABC interview.

Last month, a judge sentenced Phillip Garrido to 431 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and 12 counts of sexual assault. His wife Nancy Garrido got 36 years to life in prison for her role in the crimes, including kidnapping and one count of rape by force. The couple had pleaded guilty in late April in El Dorado Superior Court.

A statement from Dugard, read by her mother at the sentencing hearing, called the Garridos “evil” and described her kidnapping by them as a “sexual perversion.”

During the ABC interview, she stressed she is moving on with her life. Dugard said she wants to study writing, ABC reported.

She spoke out just days before her memoir, “A Stolen Life,” is scheduled to be released. The book is due in stores on Tuesday.

“I don’t feel like I have this rage inside of me that’s building,” Dugard said. “I refuse to let him have that. He can’t have me.”

Bannon, 57, was reared in a working-class Catholic family in Richmond, Va., and served in the Navy before making his way to Harvard Business School. There and later, working in mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs, he acquired a lasting skepticism of the Eastern establishment. “At Harvard, and then on Wall Street, I noticed something: guys had academic credentials, and quantitatively, they’re very smart,” he says. “But I still never met anybody as smart as my grandfather, and he was a guy who went to the third grade. That’s kind of what I see in Sarah Palin—this combination of lived experience and intellectual curiosity. At Harvard, they didn’t have the lived experience; they avoided it. And by the way, that permeates the elite culture today.”

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Published: July 10, 2011 2:19 PM

By The Associated Press
 GENARO C. ARMAS (Associated Press)

Quick ReadParents are late Pa. soldier’s ambassadors

(AP) — The condolence letters to Tom and Romayne McGinnis have slowed to a trickle, as have the invitations to the memorial dedications and veterans ceremonies.

Come December, it will be five years since their 19-year-old son, Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis, gave up his life to save four others from a grenade blast inside a Humvee — an act so courageous he was posthumously awarded the Medal of…

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May local officials dredge so barges can get through here along the Mississippi River even though laid-off state officials are not around to watch? Might 41 State Patrol officers not quite done with field training be deemed essential and sent back to work like others in the patrol?

Could state workers sign the adoption forms for a Minnesota couple who had been sitting in a Texas motel room with their new baby for the last week, unable to cross state lines without the paperwork? (“So our petition would be, um, could we please come home?” the woman asked the ad hoc court on Friday in the latest such hearing, conducted, in her case, by speakerphone.)

If the outlines of a government shutdown are simple — politicians cannot agree on how to spend money, so everything stops — the details are not. Since Minnesota officially closed its doors on July 1, the deadline by which the state’s political leaders were required to settle on a budget for the fiscal year, officials here have found themselves wandering a new labyrinth.

With the broadest shutdown in state history entering its second full week and no sign of a compromise on the horizon, political leaders in Washington, facing their own standoff and looming deadline, may want to ponder Minnesota — one cautionary reminder, if on a smaller scale, from the nation’s middle.

In many ways, of course, the situations are distinct, but Minnesota’s essential impasse sounds familiar: Republican lawmakers who control St. Paul want to rein in state spending and have rejected calls from Mark Dayton, the Democratic governor, to raise income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.

Leaders in Washington disagree on what passing an August deadline without raising the debt ceiling would really mean (it has never happened), but some experts say it could result, along with devastation to the nation’s ability to borrow and to the broader economy, in a confusing, partial halt to some programs as the government has to pick and choose what it has enough cash to cover.

In Minnesota, carrying out a shutdown — and a relatively ordinary one, as these things go — has turned out to be a whole new, time-consuming government function, including convening the special hearings to weigh exceptions to the shutdown rules. The costs of closing (who knew it cost money to halt spending?) are themselves swiftly rising. And, puzzlingly enough, the shock of a shuttered Capitol, of 22,000 laid-off state workers and of barricaded state parks in the heart of Minnesota’s camping season seems, so far, not to have introduced urgency to the political negotiation.

No one knows exactly what the shutdown is costing Minnesota. For one thing, a final tally will depend on how long it lasts; for another, some of the people who might be estimating the extra costs and lost revenue in various state departments right now are laid off.

“There’s nobody there to answer the phone call,” said John Pollard, a spokesman for Minnesota Management and Budget.

But whatever the precise numbers, the counterintuitive truth is that freezing nonessential state services costs money. For instance, the state had to pay the postage to send layoff warnings to 36,000 people as the new budget deadline grew close. The 22,000 workers who were ultimately sent home are expected to receive unemployment benefits, which will cost the state.

And Minnesota is losing revenue it would otherwise be collecting, including $1.25 million a day in lottery sales (the lottery is closed), an unknown amount in parking and licensing fees the Departments of Health, Education and Administration are not getting, and about $52 million a month that the Department of Revenue would ordinarily be bringing in if its compliance officers (now laid off) were scrutinizing tax payments.

By the end of last week, there were other hints of financial repercussions for the state. Fitch Ratings lowered the state’s bond rating, noting the budget impasse, meaning that it will be more expensive for the state to borrow money.

URBANDALE, Iowa — Could Minnesota’s budget woes rescue Tim Pawlenty‘s presidential bid?

Critics accuse the state’s two-term governor, who left office in January, of using short-term fixes that laid the groundwork for the state’s current fiscal problems. For Pawlenty, though, the crisis that has shut down the state government for a record 11 days and counting has provided a platform to tout his tight-fisted stance toward spending during a shutdown of his own in 2005.

“Look, let me be very candid and blunt with you: Many of the Republican candidates are going to come to town and tell you the same things,” Pawlenty told a town-hall meeting here. “I respectfully ask you to think not just who comes here and flaps their jaw and gives a speech,” but instead weigh who has delivered results.

The Minnesota battle is parallel to the budget debate roiling Washington, he says: In both capitals, Republicans should eschew compromise and “draw real lines in the sand.”

The crisis may have arrived in the nick of time.

Seen at the start as a credible alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney and a figure who could bridge the divide between the party’s fiscal and social conservatives, Pawlenty has been overshadowed by a string of potential candidates who have stayed out of the race and by one who has jumped in, fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann.

If his campaign falters, the Republican presidential race is likely to become a sharper, more polarized battle between the GOP establishment and its new Tea Party forces. That could boost Romney among some mainstream Republicans who have been slow to warm to him but view Bachmann as too extreme to be elected.

The next month looms as a critical time for a comeback. Pawlenty acknowledges he must show “progress and momentum” in an Aug. 11 Iowa debate and the Aug. 13 GOP straw poll, a carnival-like contest in Ames that sometimes winnows out the weak. He needs to climb out of his sixth-place standing in last month’s Des MoinesRegister poll to the top of the field, or at least within shouting distance of the top.

The consequences if he fails?

“The consequences won’t be good,” he said with rueful laughter in an interview in the lobby of his Des Moines hotel. Though the Iowa caucuses are seven months away, Pawlenty has opened a five-week sprint that may determine whether his presidential ambitions will continue to be taken seriously.

He is being forced to deny that his campaign already is over. “If I’m ‘dead,’ Heaven is a great place,” he tweeted Friday night, linking to a friendly article in the Cedar RapidsGlobe Gazette about his appearance there.

Pawlenty plans to spend 15 days stumping in the state this month and more in August. His campaign is spending a significant share of his campaign cash to air TV ads and distribute slick flyers. He’s hired Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a political adviser to her father, Mike Huckabee, when he staged a surprise second-place finish in the straw poll four years ago and went on to carry the caucuses.

“From the beginning, he’s been the ultimate second-choice candidate,” says Dan Schnur, a veteran of John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign and director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. “If the party’s going to nominate a nice guy, Mitt Romney has the first claim. If they turn away from him, odds are they’re going to want a fire-breather.”

“Pawlenty’s problem is that everyone likes him but he excites no one,” says Mark McKinnon, a campaign strategist for president George W. Bush. “He’s a kiss-your-sister candidate.”

While Pawlenty’s lukewarm support in Iowa (6% of likely caucus-goers in the Iowa Poll) hasn’t budged, Bachmann’s has soared. At 22%, the third-term congresswoman stands a single, statistically insignificant percentage point behind Romney.

Romney, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former House speaker Newt Gingrich aren’t actively competing in the straw poll, leaving a field of mostly lesser-known candidates: former corporate CEO Herman Cain, Michigan Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum.

That makes the marquee contest between Bachmann, a Tea Party favorite who has burst onto the scene in recent weeks, and Pawlenty, who has been methodically laying the groundwork of a presidential campaign for a year and more, perhaps since he was on McCain’s short list of prospective running mates in 2008. It’s the political equivalent of the tortoise versus the hare.

The question for Pawlenty: Is there enough time and the sort of political climate in the GOP that lets slow-and-steady win the race?

Throwing a punch

Pawlenty’s state headquarters is in a nondescript office park here just off Interstate 35 — a straight shot 235 miles south of his hometown of Eagan, Minn. — in the same space Romney rented four years ago. On Saturday, Bachmann opened her state headquarters a five-minute drive away in the same Des Moines suburb.

Their campaigns intersected at the first major Republican debate in New Hampshire last month. Bachmann’s confident demeanor launched her campaign while Pawlenty’s more hesitant performance, including his refusal to confront Romney face-to-face over the Massachusetts health care law, raised questions about his willingness to throw a punch.

On the stump, Pawlenty continues to target Obama, saying the president “duped” voters into supporting him in 2008 and is leading the country in a dangerous direction. Now, without mentioning Bachmann by name, he also cautions Iowans they should take care to support a credible candidate.

In three of the past five contested Iowa GOP caucuses, the winner has failed to go on to get the party’s nomination. The state’s sizable number of Christian conservatives helped Huckabee beat Romney and McCain here in 2008 and boosted televangelist Pat Robertson to second place, ahead of then-vice president George Bush, in 1988.

“You have the vaunted, privileged position of being the first caucus state in this nation, and I think it’s important for Iowa and important for this race not just to be first but to pick the right candidate,” he said at the town hall. “It’s little consolation to put forward a candidate who can’t really be the nominee or is unlikely to become president of the United States.”

That afternoon, at a session with the Register’s editorial board, he was a bit more direct. (The Register, like USA TODAY, is owned by Gannett.) His record was one of “actually getting things proposed and results to conclusion,” he said. Asked about Bachmann’s record, he said, “As to specific results that have been achieved, I’m not sure what they would be.”

He criticized Bachmann Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, calling her legislative accomplishments “non-existent.”

“Instead of negativity, I want to focus on my accomplishments,” Bachmann responded in a statement, noting her opposition to Obama’s proposals on the economy, health care and climate change.

More than 100 people turned out to see Pawlenty here, but few seem ready to commit. “I’m still shopping,” says Hannah Bretz, 27, of West Des Moines, though she likes Pawlenty’s potential to reach across party lines.

“Four years ago, my wife and I thought he’d be a good vice president,” offers James Keller, 65, a farmer and realtor from Waukee. “He’s honest, and I agree with him on issues. My only concern is, does he have enough charisma?”

He contrasts his low-key demeanor with Bachmann. “She’s a pizazz-y little lady,” he says.

Before the town hall begins, campaign intern Rachel Cutler, a student at Drake University in Des Moines, is calling Iowa Republicans off a phone list — asking which candidates they like, extolling Pawlenty’s record, and coaxing them to provide an e-mail address for future contacts.

“Have you heard anything about Tim Pawlenty that you liked?” she asks, then listens.

“Actually, I think he’s more conservative than Ron Paul,” she says.

‘That question mark’

Pawlenty, 50, brings significant assets to the race.

His blue-collar roots — he’s the son of a truck driver who grew up in gritty South St. Paul, Minn. — contrast with Romney and Huntsman, whose fathers made it big in business and have personal fortunes to tap for their campaigns. His mother died when he was 16. He worked in a grocery to help support the family and pay his college tuition.

He’s hired an experienced and highly regarded campaign staff. And he has a record of being elected and re-elected in one of the most Democratic states in the country.

“Just look at his past as a reflection of what you can expect in the future: a guy who was always expected to lose and always ended up winning,” campaign manager Nick Ayers says. “The next phase of this campaign for us is the governor being in front of voters, sometimes a handful at a time, showing them he’s got the fight and the intensity and the energy to be president of the United States rather than have that question mark.”

The Minnesota budget shutdown is “unfortunate for the people of Minnesota, but it makes the case for us,” Ayers goes on. “It just reinforced everything we’ve been saying about his philosophy and record of governing versus Democrats.”

Jennifer Horn, leader of a Tea Party-affiliated group in New Hampshire, cites Pawlenty’s 2005 budget showdown in explaining why she endorsed his campaign last week.

“He stood strong on that and the taxpayers of Minnesota saved billions of dollars,” she says. “And he came out the other side and got re-elected.”

This time, the Minnesota government shut down July 1 over an impasse in how to bridge a $5billion budget gap, sending thousands of state employees on unpaid furlough, closing state parks and suspending services judged non-essential. The Republican-controlled Legislature has proposed a plan that relies on spending cuts and accounting changes while Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton wants to also raise taxes on top earners.

Former Republican governor Arne Carlson and former Democratic vice president Walter Mondale, members of an ad hoc group trying to chart a way forward, call the shutdown part of Pawlenty’s legacy.

“He left basically the mess that we see, the huge deficits,” Mondale told reporters in Minneapolis last week. “He shifted these issues into the future.”

Critics say that while Pawlenty presided over balanced budgets, as required by the state’s constitution, he did so by draining reserve funds and using one-time money from the state’s tobacco settlement and federal stimulus money. He appointed a panel to study overhauling the state’s tax system but never acted on its findings.

“Whenever he had the opportunity to tackle the long-term problems that were identified in the mid-1990s, he passed,” says Louis Johnston, an economist at Minnesota’s College of Saint/Benedict/St. John’s University.

Political scientist Steve Schier at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., concurs: “The budget was technically balanced, but long-term structural issues weren’t solved and they’re at the root of our current shutdown.”

Palenty blames the projected shortfall in the new budget for a proposed 20% hike in spending and defends his record for holding down spending and resisting tax hikes — though he did agree to a cigarette “user fee” of 75 cents a pack in 2005 — and using stimulus money to help balance the budget. “If the federal government is stupid enough to give it to us, we’re going to be smart enough to take it,” he said.

He mocks Mondale and Carlson as “a political Jurraisic Park from the 1970s era.”

As the USA TODAY interview ends, Mike Mollis, 69, rushes up to shake Pawlenty’s hand and pose for a photo beside him. “We’ve seen him on television and we’re familiar with the role he’s going to play as the next president of the United States,” Mollis declares afterwards.

The good news for Pawlenty is that Mollis supports him. The bad news is he’s not from Iowa. The retired golf professional lives in Ormond Beach, Fla.

Florida likely will hold a key primary, but only after contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

To take advantage of Mollis’ enthusiasm, Pawlenty’s campaign will have to last until then.

Posted

The couple then attended an art class where fifth-graders were painting mandalas, a circular type of artwork that is traditional to various Asian cultures. Prince William and his wife participated in the creative process by sitting at easels to paint their own mandalas.

At one point, Catherine turned to her husband and said, “William, do you know what you’re doing? Start from the center.” After a few moments, he turned back to his wife and said, “Catherine, what are you supposed to do?” She laughed and instructed him again.

Next was a ceramics class where the couple assisted students in the making of a giant clay tortoise. During the class, the couple placed their hands in a set of clay squares and signed them. They each imprinted a right and a left hand, and they did a hand together as well.

The final stop was at ICA’s performing-arts theater for a dance production that included a hip-hop-infused number followed by a piece that addressed homelessness.

The couple left at 12:50 p.m., taking with them two miniature ceramic tortoises created for them the week before.

Outside, Prince William and his wife were greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of around 150 who had lined up along 7th Street across from ICA. Some of Skid Row’s regular residents didn’t know what all the hoopla was about. Dana Myles, a transient who said he has lived in Skid Row on and off for 10 years, said he had no idea that the royals were coming that morning. He said the visit was good for the neighborhood because “it shows that they care.”

Launched in 1989, ICA is an arts-education center that serves mostly poor students from around Southern California. The nonprofit organization collaborates with local schools to bring in students for periodic instruction in the arts. Among the subjects taught are animation, ceramics, dance, drama and music.

The campus sits on an approximately 1-acre site on the edge of Skid Row in downtown L.A. Architect Michael Maltzan worked on the first phase of construction, completed in 1995. In 2008, Maltzan finished an $8.5-million expansion of the campus to include a small theater and a library and learning center.

“A lot more people know us today than three weeks ago,” said Cynthia Harnisch, the president and CEO of ICA. She said the organization didn’t apply or lobby to have Prince William and his wife visit. Rather, she said, they were informed only about 3 1/2 weeks ago that ICA would be part of the royal itinerary.

After their visit to Skid Row, Prince William and his wife traveled across town to Culver City to attend a veterans jobs fair held at Sony studios. They were scheduled to depart LAX to head back to London later in the afternoon.

RELATED:

FULL COVERAGE: The Royal Visit

Photos: The Duke and Duchess in L.A.

Architecture review: Coming clean in the inner city

— David Ng, Alexandra Zavis and pool reports

Photo (top): Prince William and his wife, Catherine, attend an art class at Inner-City Arts. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times.

Photo (bottom): Prince William with a student at Inner-City Arts. Credit: Alex Gallardo / AFP/Getty Images.

Boehner to Obama: No big debt cut deal

Michele Bachmann is going up in Iowa with the first television ad of her presidential campaign, a 30-second spot titled “Waterloo” that Bachmann’s team says will start running statewide today.

The bio spot, produced by Strategy Group Media, features a direct-to-camera Bachmann talking about growing up in Waterloo, Iowa, her five children, her foster kids and her professional life.

Continue Reading

POLITICO 44

“I know we can’t keep spending money that we don’t have,” Bachmann says, pivoting to politics and touting her congressional record of fighting “the wasteful bailout [and] against the stimulus,” and pledging: “I will not vote to increase the debt ceiling.”

The commercial is upbeat, with a strumming guitar overlay as Bachmann speaks. The spot is going up just as Bachmann is introducing herself to Iowa voters, who already put her in a statistical tie for first place in a recent Des Moines Register poll.

She is making a serious push to win the Ames Straw Poll next month, and even some Democrats are taking note that she is running a professional campaign so far, with crisp visuals at her stump stops following an effective rollout.

POLITICO first reported yesterday that a statewide TV campaign was about to begin.

OMAHA, Neb. • Experts say several levees along
the Missouri River, especially older ones in rural areas, are at
risk of failing this summer as massive amounts of water continue to
flow through the river system from upriver reservoirs, but chances
of such failures in urban areas remain remote.

So far, most levees have held along the 811 miles the Missouri
travels from the last dam at Gavins Point in South Dakota to its
confluence with the Mississippi River near St. Louis.

But engineers who have studied past floods say the earthen
levees in rural areas are at greater risk.

“Most of the levees are agricultural levees. They’re not
engineered. They’re just dirt piled up,” said David Rogers, an
engineering professor at Missouri University of Science and
Technology.

A few levees have failed, but most of the flooding thus far has
covered more than 560,000 acres of mostly rural land. The water has
forced some evacuations, but the extent of the damage may not be
clear until it recedes. That’s not expected to happen until the
fall as the Army Corps of Engineers says it needs to continue
releasing substantial amounts of water from upstream reservoirs
inundated with heavy spring rains and melt from an above average
Rocky Mountain snowpack.

The corps on Friday said the amount of water held in reservoirs
has started to decline slightly, but Col. Robert Ruch, who leads
the corps’ Omaha office, said there are no plans to significantly
decrease the amount of water being released from dams because any
major rain in Montana or the Dakotas would force the corps to
increase the amount of water being released.

“We’re still in a very active flood fight,” Ruch said.

The corps predicts the Missouri River will remain 5 to 7 feet
above flood stage in much of Nebraska and Iowa and may rise as high
as 10 feet above flood stage in Missouri until at least
mid-August.

The corps predicts that the river will eventually rise high
enough to flow over some 18 to 70 levees, mostly in rural areas of
southeast Nebraska, southwest Iowa and Missouri. Other levees will
become saturated, and water can erode their foundations, seep
underneath or find other flaws to exploit.

A saturated levee may lose stability, potentially causing it to
crumble, as one did in June near Hamburg, Iowa, allowing floodwater
to cover several miles of farmland and threaten the town. Flaws in
levees, such as animal burrows, can allow water to flow through and
eventually destroy the structure.

“At times like these, this is when we find out where the weak
spots are,” said Erik Loehr, an associate professor of engineering
at the University of Missouri.

Rural levees, experts say, are likely to be older, privately
maintained and not tall or strong enough to stand up to such a
long-running flood.

Corps officials and engineering experts are more confident that
city areas such as Omaha, Kansas City and St. Louis are well
protected by substantial floodwalls that have been maintained.

Omaha’s main floodwall, for instance, is built to contain a
river 40 feet deep — which is 4 feet higher than the river is
expected to reach. But several of the rural levees in northwest
Missouri are more than 2 feet shorter than the river’s expected
crest, and some have already been exceeded.

A key factor in levee performance is what material was used to
build it.

Levees were often constructed using whatever material was near
or could be delivered cheaply.

Many levees along the Missouri were built with a clay cap over
sand or gravel to combat seepage, but any damage to the clay cap
can cause them to fail.

“The designers at the time felt they were as good, with less
expense, than the solid clay layer levees — as long as they are
maintained properly,” said civil engineer John LaRandeau, with the
corps’ Omaha office.

The standards for levee construction have changed, with modern
designers concerned more about fortifying the foundation material.
Newer levees are likely to be built entirely out of clay or another
nonporous material.

Jud Kneuvean, who serves as the emergency management chief for
the corps’ Kansas City district, said he feels good overall about
the flood protection along the Missouri River, especially in
downriver stretches.

Most levees in Missouri were rebuilt after the devastating Flood
of 1993 that set flooding records in the state. But that flood
wasn’t as bad in Nebraska and Iowa so fewer of the levees in those
states were improved recently.

OAKLAND, Calif. – Before hitting the streets, Oakland police officer Huy Nguyen’s routine usually goes something like this:

Gun ready? Check. Bulletproof vest strapped? Check.

Body camera secured? Check.

Wait, body camera?

“It feels uncomfortable when I don’t have it,” Nguyen said of the video camera that is smaller than a smartphone and is worn on his chest. “You can never be too safe.”

Oakland and hundreds of other police departments across the country are equipping officers with tiny body cameras to record anything from a traffic stop to a hot vehicle pursuit to an unfolding violent crime.

Whether attached to shirt lapels or small headsets, the cameras are intended to provide more transparency and security to officers on the street and to reduce the number of misconduct complaints and potential lawsuits.

“First and foremost, it protects the officers, it protects the citizens and it can help with an investigation and it shows what happened,” said Steve Tidwell, executive director of the FBI National Academy Associates in Quantico, Va. “It can level the playing field, instead of getting just one or two versions. It’s all there in living color, so to speak.”

In Oakland, where the department is still under federal supervision because of a case in which four officers were caught planting drugs on suspects a decade ago, the cameras are like another set of eyes, said Capt. Ed Tracey.

Last year the department began a pilot program with about a dozen patrol officers wearing the VIEVU (Vee-view) body camera, and now officials hope to equip at least 350 officers by the end of summer.

Tracey said the cameras are proving helpful to a budget-strapped police force that has reduced staff while covering what is still one of the country’s most dangerous cities, even though overall crime has trended downward.

The cameras, which run about $125 each, were brought instead of purchasing video equipment for squad cars, he said, noting that the smaller devices can also be mounted on a patrol car dashboard.

Officers are required to turn on their cameras for calls. They are also required to download their video within a day and they are not allowed to edit or manipulate it. The video can be stored up to five years.

However, Tracey acknowledges some officers have had a hard time adjusting to the cameras.

“I commend the officers for their adaptability and professionalism. If they fight it or resist it, then our jobs become harder.” Tracey said. “It’s not an easy sell, and I get some resistance, but others see the value in them and won’t go on the street without it.”

Will and Kate are visiting southern California this weekend. Will found time to play polo, but their loaded itinerary had little room for meeting Americans. Want to pencil in some mingling?

Britain’s Prince William (L) rides at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club for a charity event held in support of the American Friends of The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry in Santa Barbara, California on Saturday.

Alex Gallardo/Reuters

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By

Daniel B. Wood and Gloria Goodale, Staff writers /
July 10, 2011

Los Angeles

In their visit to southern California this weekend, young royals Will and Kate partied with British film and TV actors, spent the night with a British diplomat, and played British-style polo on behalf of a charity devoted to the prince. That’s pretty much it, other than a quick visit to Skid Row on Sunday before heading out of town.

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  Gallery: Prince William and Kate’s first royal tour

In case that itinerary leaves any doubt, the maiden voyage of these young Brits to their nation’s largest former colony is focusing “on supporting British interest in California through the prism of their own interests,” according to a release from St. James’s Palace.

MONITOR QUIZ: Weekly news quiz for July 3-8, 2011

In their efforts to support “British interest,” they visited a Consular-General reception “on behalf of United Kingdom Trade and Investment,” a black-tie dinner for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a polo match to benefit the American Friends of the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry.

Clearly, these newly-minted monarchs-in-waiting feel the breath of the British taxpayer on their young necks and desire to set a new standard of serious purpose for their royal existence. According to a palace spokesman quoted in the Huffington Post, “The couple view this as a working visit, not as an opportunity for them to meet celebrities.”

Really? Humble, they may be, but Barbra Streisand and Tom Hanks, guests for the Saturday soiree, not celebs? But the real question is, does this British-first-and last approach really serve your best interests?

Let’s just call this the “When in Rome…” memo to Will and Kate.

No doubt, spontaneous hanging with the locals would be impossible, now, and probably forever. Security around the weekend residence is at a new high, with law enforcement champing at the bit to test three new untried anti-paparazzi laws enacted over the last few years. It’s hard to imagine how anything spontaneous could occur in this vise of protection. Nobody needs yet another faux-reality show, à la “Will and Kate plus 8 …million Angelenos.”

IN PICTURES: Will and Kate’s first royal tour

So how about a shift in perspective?

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