Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/56325
8A Daily News – Friday, February 24, 2012 WORLD BRIEFING Gas prices nearing $4 a gallon could slow recovery WASHINGTON (AP) — Soaring gasoline prices are threatening to undercut President Barack Obama's re-elec- tion prospects and offer- ing Republicans an easy target. With prices push- ing $4 a gallon and threat- ening to go even higher, Obama sought Thursday to confront rising public anxiety and strike back at his GOP critics. Obama said dismis- sively that all the Republi- cans can talk about is more drilling — ''a bumper sticker ... a strate- gy to get politicians through an election'' — when the nation's energy challenges demand much more. In a speech in Miami, he promoted the expansion of domestic oil and gas exploration but also the development of new forms of energy. For all the political claims, economists say there's not much a presi- dent of either party can do about gasoline prices. Certainly not in the short term. But it's clear that people are concerned — a new Associated Press- GfK poll says seven in 10 find the issue deeply important — so it's sure to be a political issue through the summer. ''Right now, we're experiencing yet another painful reminder of why developing new energy is so critical to our future,'' the president said. At an average of $3.58 a gallon, prices are already up 25 cents since Jan. 1, and experts say they could reach a record $4.25 a gallon by Memorial Day. Those higher prices could hurt consumer spending and unravel some of the recent improvements in the economy. And they could also be a daily reminder to voters to question Obama's contention that he's making the nation — and them — more secure. Millionaire tax popular, but people prefer cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — Most people like Pres- ident Barack Obama's proposal to make million- aires pay a significant share of their incomes in taxes. Yet they'd still rather cut spending than boost taxes to balance the federal budget, an Associ- ated Press-GfK poll shows, giving Republi- cans an edge over Democ- rats in their core ideologi- cal dispute over the nation's fiscal ills. The survey suggests that while Obama's elec- tion-year tax plan target- ing people making at least $1 million a year has won broad support, it has done little to shift people's basic views in the long- running partisan war over how best to tame budget deficits that lately have exceeded $1 trillion annu- ally. ''Everybody should be called to sacrifice. They should be in the pot with the rest of us,'' Mike Whittles, 62, a Republi- can and retired police officer from Point Pleas- ant, N.J., said of his sup- port for Obama's tax pro- posal for the wealthy. But Whittles said he still prefers cutting govern- ment spending over rais- ing taxes because of fed- eral waste and what he calls ''too many rules, too many regulations.'' Sixty-five percent of the people in the AP-GfK poll favor Obama's plan to require people making $1 million or more pay taxes equal to at least 30 percent of their income. Just 26 percent opposed Obama's idea. Yet by 56 percent to 31 percent, more embraced cuts in government ser- vices than higher taxes as the best medicine for the budget, according to the survey, which was con- ducted Feb. 16 to 20. That response has changed only modestly since it was first asked in the AP- GfK poll last March. The question on Obama's tax on the rich was not asked previously. Romney says Santorum's compromises prove he's a give-and-take politician MILFORD, Mich. (AP) — Republican pres- idential candidate Mitt Romney tried to upend Rick Santorum's image as a principled defender of conservative ideals Thurs- day, telling voters in Ari- zona and Michigan that the former senator is just another give-and-take politician. Romney's team believes Santorum opened himself to the attacks with a somewhat anguished explanation of his reluc- tant vote for a Bush-era school program in Wednesday's televised debate. Romney hoped to stop his chief rival's momentum on a day when Santorum was qui- etly raising money. But President Barack Obama wasn't helping. His allies aired anti-Rom- ney ads in Michigan while the president campaigned in Florida, a crucial swing state that GOP candidates can't afford to re-visit until their nominee is set- tled. A Romney setback in either Michigan's primary or Arizona's on Tuesday Victory Gardening 101 Class Series Class #1: Saturday, March 3rd @ 10:00 am Class #2: Saturday, March 10th @ 10:00 am Class #3 Saturday, March 17th @ 10:00 am Please call to reserve a seat thank you would be embarrassing, or worse. His campaign seemed grateful for San- torum's unsteady showing in what may have been the GOP campaign's last big debate. Romney pounced on Santorum's explanation for supporting President George W. Bush's ''No Child Left Behind'' pro- gram, now disliked by many conservatives. ''It was against the principles I believed in,'' Santorum said in the debate. ''But, you know, when you're part of the team, some- times you take one for the team.'' Homs being destroyed 'inch by inch' BEIRUT (AP) — Medics stitch wounds with thread used for clothing. Hungry resi- dents risk Syrian govern- ment sniper fire or shelling to hunt for dwin- dling supplies of bread and canned food on the streets of the besieged city of Homs. The opposition strong- hold was being destroyed ''inch by inch,'' by gov- ernment forces, with col- lapsed walls and scorched buildings, according to accounts Thursday, while Western and Arab leaders hoped to silence the guns long enough to rush in relief aid. The pressure for ''humanitarian corridors'' into the central Syrian city of Homs and other places caught in President Bashar Assad's crushing attacks appeared to be part of shifts toward more aggressive steps against his regime after nearly a year of bloodshed and thousands of deaths in an anti-government uprising. In back-to-back announcements, U.N.- appointed investigators in Geneva said a list for pos- sible crimes against humanity prosecution reaches as high as Assad, and international envoys in London — including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — made final touches to an expected demand for Assad to call a cease-fire within days to permit emergency shipments of food and medicine. Washington and Euro- pean allies remain pub- licly opposed to direct military intervention. But there have been growing signs that Western leaders could back efforts to open channels for supplies and weapons to the Syrian opposition, which includes breakaway sol- diers from Assad's mili- tary. 7 Marines killed in collision of 2 helicopters SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two Marine Corps heli- copters collided over a remote section of the Cal- ifornia desert during a nighttime exercise, killing seven Marines in one of the Corps' deadliest train- ing accidents in years. There were no sur- vivors in the latest in a series of crashes involv- ing troops from Camp Pendleton, officials said Thursday. Two Marines were aboard an AH-1W Cobra and the rest were in a UH- 1 Huey utility helicopter when the crash occurred Wednesday night near the Chocolate Mountains along the California-Ari- zona border, said Lt. Maureen Dooley with Miramar Air Base in San Diego. Six of the victims were from Camp Pendleton — the largest base on the West Coast — and one was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Ari- zona. Their identities will not be released until their families have all been notified. Officials were still scrambling after sunrise to gather evidence at the crash site in a remote sec- tion of the Yuma Training Range Complex. Gingrich, Santorum tax and budget plans would hike deficit WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive tax cuts pro- posed by GOP presiden- tial candidates Newt Gin- grich and Rick Santorum would cause the national debt to explode while Mitt Romney's budget plan could generate red ink in line with current projec- tions, according to a new study released Thursday. The nonpartisan Com- mittee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Wash- ington-based budget watchdog group, esti- mates that the wrenching budget cuts proposed by Ron Paul would lessen the flow of red ink compared with current policies but still leave the government running a sizable deficit. The candidates' budget plans provide a sharp con- trast with President Barack Obama, who released his latest fiscal blueprint just last week. Like Obama, the GOP candidates have the luxu- ry of suspending political reality and assuming law- makers would quickly enact their ideas into law. That translates into a tax code in which taxes on investments and capital gains are sharply reduced or eliminated. Each candi- date would eliminate inheritance taxes on large estates. And tax rates on individuals would be cut as well — all in the face of deficits that economists say would eventually cripple the economy. The results, according to the study, would be higher deficits, except in the case of Paul, whose spending cuts dwarf any- thing being considered by his three rivals. 7 states file to block birth control coverage rule LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Seven states are asking a federal judge to block an Obama administration mandate that requires birth control coverage for employees of religious- affiliated hospitals, schools and outreach pro- grams. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Nebras- ka alleges that the new rule violates the First Amendment rights of groups that object to the use of contraceptives. The rule, announced as part of the federal health care law, has come under fire from religious groups that object to the use of birth control. In response to the criticism, Obama administration officials have said they will shift the requirement from the employers to health insur- ers themselves. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning says the proposed change still fails to address their con- cerns. Joining the lawsuit are Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Caroli- na and Texas. Fury and ridicule doomed Virginia bill RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Once the word ''transvaginal'' became a big joke on ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,'' it wasn't long before Virginia's conserv- ative Republicans realized they had overreached on abortion. Gov. Bob McDonnell and GOP state lawmakers Wednesday abandoned a bill requiring women to undergo an intrusive type of sonogram before an abortion — an abrupt reversal that demonstrated the power of political satire and illustrated again how combustible the issue of women's reproductive health has become over the past few weeks. ''You never want to get on the wrong side of pop- ular culture,'' said Steve Jarding, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Demo- cratic consultant who has run campaigns in Vir- ginia. He added: ''When people are laughing at you, you know you've gone too far.'' At issue was a bill pushed by anti-abortion lawmakers that would have required women seeking an abortion to undergo a transvaginal sonogram, in which a wand is inserted in the vagina to yield an image of the fetus. The proce- dure differs from an abdominal sonogram, in which a wand is rubbed over the woman's belly. Seven states have laws mandating some form of pre-abortion ultrasound exam. The Guttmacher Institute, which research- es abortion-related issues, said none of the ultra- sound laws in other states explicitly require the transvaginal procedure. Stepmom accused of murder gave birth after arrest MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama woman is under guard at a hospital after she gave birth following her arrest in the death of her 9-year- old stepdaughter, who authorities say was forced to run for three hours as punishment for lying about eating a candy bar. Jessica Mae Hardin, 27, was transferred from the Etowah County Detention Center to a hos- pital on Wednesday, sher- iff's office spokeswoman Natalie Barton said. Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp confirmed that Hardin had given birth hours after she was arrested. He said he didn't know whether the newborn was a boy or a girl. Hardin and her mother- in-law, 46-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, were arrested and charged with murder on Wednesday in the death of Savannah Hardin. Roger Simpson, who lives up the hill from the doublewide trailer where Savannah lived with Jessi- ca and her father Robert Hardin, said he saw the girl running in the yard. When emergency vehicles arrived at the home hours later, he said he thought they were there for the pregnant woman. Alabama law requires people who are arrested to be informed of the charges against them in an initial appearance within 72 hours. Barton said Jes- sica Hardin's hearing will likely be held once she is released from the hospi- tal. Registration Antelope School District Date: February 29, 2012 Time: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM Place: Antelope School Cafeteria Children must be 5 years old on or before November 1, 2012. Red Bluff Garden Center 527-0886 766 Antelope Blvd. (Next to the Fairground) If your child's birthday falls between November 2 and December 5, they will be eligible for Transitional Kindergarten. Please bring proof of residency, birth certificate, and immunization. If you have questions please call 527-1272 Kindergarten