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Ky. Poll Shows Obama Still Must Deal With Race, Rev. Wright
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's race and inflammatory racial remarks made by his former preacher negatively affect how likely voters view the candidate, according to a new poll in Kentucky. More than one in five likely Democratic voters surveyed said being black hurts Obama's chances of winning an election in Kentucky, compared to 4 percent who said Obama's race helps him.  More than half of respondents said Obama's race isn't a factor in the upcoming May 20 primary. But many still said the racially charged remarks by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright will play an important role as they decide whom to support.  Among white voters, Wright's statements were important to 46 percent, compared to only 11 percent of black voters. Kansas City Star
VOA VIEW: Race is a major issue, and the major reason why Obama can't win.

Obama Takes Superdelegate Lead For The First Time
Barack Obama has taken the lead in superdelegate endorsements for the first time, marking a potential turning point in the endgame of the Democratic primary. Obama picked up four superdelegates Saturday, after rounding up nine such endorsements the day before. The gains erased Hillary Clinton’s once-imposing lead among the party officials and insiders who play a key part in selecting the nominee. The milestone is important because these are the Democrats who will decide the nomination for president, and Clinton would need their support by a wide margin to win. Obama has a big lead among pledged delegates, but neither candidate can win the nomination without support from the superdelegates. Fox News

Secret Service Racist E-mails Filed
New evidence was filed Friday in a long-running civil-rights case against the Secret Service, including e-mails that portray an offensive image of a naked black man and racist jokes. Among the 10 e-mails submitted to the court were jokes circulated within the agency that made fun of the way a "20-year-old 5th grader" in Harlem spoke, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and a black golf caddy's work ethic. In 2000, a group of black employees filed a lawsuit that alleges that since at least 1999, black agents have been passed over for promotions because of their race. The plaintiffs also claim their white colleagues and supervisors regularly use a racial epithet to refer to criminal suspects and black leaders of other countries. The lawsuit claims the Secret Service has always had a discriminatory culture. Philadelphia Inquirer
VOA VIEW: Blacks make racial statements or display prejudices more often and openly than whites.

Schools Face Sanctions Under Landmark Law
At Las Palmitas Elementary School, nestled between rundown homes and fields of grapes, peppers and dates in Southern California, 99 percent of students live in poverty and fewer than 20 percent speak English fluently. Las Palmitas and other schools in the Coachella Valley Unified School District are just the type policy makers had in mind when Congress passed the federal No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 to shed light on the disparities facing poor and minority children. Nineteen of the district's 21 schools including Las Palmitas have not met the federal law's performance benchmarks for four years. Now the entire district faces sanctions for the first time. MSNBC

Nursery Programs Allow Imprisoned Moms, Newborns To Bond
At the Indiana Women's Prison, where a new program allows some inmates to keep their newborns in their cells for up to 18 months. The program debuted last month, becoming the sixth in the nation in a growing trend among state prison systems. New York has had prison nurseries for more than a century; Washington, Ohio, California and Nebraska started ones in recent years, and West Virginia is preparing to launch one, too. The programs come at a time when the nation's female inmate population is rising. Newsday

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Flu Vaccine Doses To Make Record Numbers
Flu vaccine manufacturers expect to make a record number of doses for the next flu season despite concerns that demand may drop because this year's vaccine was largely ineffective. This flu season was the worst in four years for adult deaths from flu and pneumonia.  The five companies that make flu vaccine for the U.S. market plan to make at least 143 million doses for the 2008-09 season. They made 140 million doses for the current season, the worst in four years for adult deaths from flu and pneumonia. Part of the problem was that the vaccine didn't work well against the viruses that ended up circulating. CNN

Growing Deficits Threaten Pensions
The funds that pay pension and health benefits to police officers, teachers and millions of other public employees across the country are facing a shortfall that could soon run into trillions of dollars. But the accounting techniques used by state and local governments to balance their pension books disguise the extent of the crisis facing these retirees and the taxpayers who may ultimately be called on to pay the freight, according to a growing number of leading financial analysts. State governments alone have reported they are already confronting a deficit of at least $750 billion to cover the cost of the retirement benefits they have promised. But that figure likely underestimates the actual shortfall because of the range of methods they use to make their calculations, including practices that have been barred in the private sector for decades. Washington Post 
VOA VIEW: The government is cooking the books.

2008 Growth Outlook Deteriorated
Even with some signs of improvement in the U.S. financial markets and a temporary boost from the economic stimulus package, the growth outlook for the second half of this year has deteriorated, according to a panel of economic forecasters. The weakest annual consumer spending since 1991 will lead to a darker outlook, the Blue Chip Economic Indicators found. The consensus of economists polled between May 5 and 6 in the survey said the economy will grow at a 1.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter, down from the 2.0 percent forecast a month ago. Reuters

Federal Marriage-For-Citizenship Sting Nets 83 Fla. Arrests
A federal sting of four companies accused of arranging fraudulent marriages for U.S. citizenships, complete with wedding photos of brides in gowns and elaborate fake cakes, has netted more than 80 arrests, authorities said. Immigrants, Americans and company officials were among the 83 arrested. The immigrants paid as much as $10,000, while the U.S. citizens were offered up to $2,500, U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill said. The couples were coached on how to pass immigration checks with fake answers, even though in some cases they didn't speak the same language as their purported spouse, officials said. Las Vegas Sun

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Bill Clinton's Message To Rural America
As Sen. Barack Obama, avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments. Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even. He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, will be the Democratic presidential nominee. So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia? ABC News

Apocalyptic Sect Leader Released From Jail
The leader of an apocalyptic sect accused of sex crimes against underage female followers was released from jail after bond was posted, authorities said. Wayne Bent left the city-county lockup in the small northeastern New Mexico town of Clayton. Bent was released after his son, Jeff Bent, gave the Union County Magistrate Court in Clayton a cashier's check for $55,000, according to Michelle Jones, chief clerk of the court. Conditions of Bent's release include not leaving the county without court permission and having no contact with the alleged victims or other minors unless they're blood relatives. CBS News

Bush Mideast Trip Likely To Do Little
The 2008 race for the White House is casting a long shadow over President Bush. So long, in fact, that it may extend all the way to the Middle East. When Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves to peace talks after meeting in Annapolis, Md., last November, Bush had hopes of ending his presidency on a foreign-policy high note, with a deal for the contours of a Palestinian state. But with Bush headed to the region this week for the second time in five months, peace seems as elusive as ever. Many analysts predicted the most Bush could accomplish would be to hand over a working peace process to his successor. Seattle Times
VOA VIEW: Middle East peace is a political illusion.

Citigroup Leads Wall Street Drive To Hurt Taxpayers
Taxpayers from Massachusetts to California are paying Wall Street banks to end derivative contracts gone bad as they exit the collapsing auction-rate bond market, with penalties in some cases topping $10 million and compounding the pain of rising borrowing costs. Sacramento County, California, paid Morgan Stanley $5 million to cancel an interest-rate swap agreement when it refinanced $79.5 million in auction-rate securities last month. The fee added to the cost of the bonds after the rate on the securities more than doubled to 9.8 percent in March as dealers stopped supporting the market. Bloomberg

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First-Class Stamp Prices Rise To 42 Cents Monday
The cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny to 42 cents on Monday, the latest in what are expected to be annual price adjustments by the Postal Service. A new law regulating the post office makes it easier to raise rates as long as the agency doesn't exceed the rate of inflation. Rates are to be adjusted each May. But the post office also has introduced a way for people to save money when the price goes up, the Forever stamp, which remains valid for first-class postage regardless of any increases. With the rate increase approaching, sales of the Forever stamp reached 64 million-a-day in April, postal officials said. Newsday

Border Agents Detain Those Leaving U.S., Too
U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out. At random times on the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don't have proper documentation. The operation appears to be an expansion of a broader federal crackdown targeting illegal immigrants in jails, airports and workplaces across the country. Houston Chronicle
VOA VIEW: Illegals should know that there is constant vigilance it rooting them out.

'Pet Crematorium' Complaint Leads To Pentagon Change
Military cremation procedures have been changed after a soldier complained that his buddy's remains were taken to what appeared to be a "pet crematorium," the Pentagon announced.  The Pentagon says that the facility had separate incinerators for animals and humans but that the signage and location of the facility in a warehouse district near Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, did not show the appropriate respect due military personnel who have died while serving their country. The Torbert Funeral Home also displays a sign advertising the "Friends Forever" pet cremation service. CNN

FBI, ATF Battle For Control Of Cases
In the five years since the FBI and ATF were merged under the Justice Department to coordinate the fight against terrorism, the rival law enforcement agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents. Their new boss, the attorney general, ordered them to merge their national bomb databases, but the FBI has refused. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long trained bomb-sniffing dogs; the FBI started a competing program. At crime scenes, FBI and ATF agents have threatened to arrest one another and battled over jurisdiction and key evidence. The ATF inadvertently bought counterfeit cigarettes from the FBI the government selling to the government because the agencies are running parallel investigations of tobacco smuggling between Virginia and other states. MSNBC
VOA VIEW: The government is a big mess from top to bottom.

CLINTON: I'LL GO ALL THE WAY
Hillary Rodham Clinton is as determined as ever to stay in the Democratic race, vowing at a Manhattan campaign event yesterday to "go all the way to the general election and beat John McCain." Clinton gave no hint that the end might be near, despite trailing rival Sen. Barack Obama in the popular vote, delegate vote and now, for the first time, in superdelegates - 275 to 271.5. Addressing the mostly female crowd that turned out for her Mother's Day event in the Sheraton New York yesterday, Clinton got a rousing cheer when she said she was going to be "the first mother in the White House." NY Post 

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Obama Gives Clues to How He Would Run Against McCain
Barack Obama began sketching the outlines of his expected presidential contest against Republican John McCain on Saturday, saying the fall election will be more about specific plans and priorities than about questions of political ideology or who is more patriotic. Barely mentioning Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama said he was open to campaigning with McCain in “town hall” events. But he also warned that controversial issues such as McCain’s ties to the Keating Five savings and loan scandal are fair game, and he called McCain’s proposal for a temporary halt in the federal gasoline tax a pander and a gimmick. Fox News

Admiral Lied About Having Sex In White House
Vice Adm. John Stufflebeem seemed to have it all. He rose from deck seaman to a Naval Academy football star whose punting prowess earned him the nickname "Boomer" and a part-time practice gig with the Detroit Lions. He opted to fly jets instead, logging more than 4,000 hours in several different aircraft, won plum assignments and became a Navy star. As a commander, Stufflebeem was a military aide to President George H.W. Bush, and after rising to flag rank, was the public face of the Afghanistan war as he briefed reporters from the podium at the Pentagon while serving as deputy director of global operations on the Joint Staff. He went on to command 6th Fleet and, last year, became director of the Navy Staff. A fourth star was all but assured. In January, an anonymous letter revealed an 18-year-old secret that Stufflebeem thought was long buried and forgotten. The letter accused Stufflebeem of carrying on an eight-month affair with a female State Department staffer while the two were assigned to the White House in 1990. USA Today 
VOA VIEW: Consensual sex among adults is no big deal.

Another Sign of Hard Times: Demand For Imports Drops
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in April as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. The Commerce Department reported that the deficit totaled $58.2 billion, down 5.6 percent from February, a larger improvement than had been expected. The smaller deficit reflected spreading weakness in the U.S. economy, which cut demand for imports by 2.9 percent, the largest one-month decline since December 2001, one month after the last recession ended. The decline, which pushed imports down to $206.7 billion, was led by a 5.9 percent decrease in America's foreign oil bill. ABC News

Murdoch Drops Newsday Deal
Rupert Murdoch has dropped his bid to purchase Newsday, his spokeswoman said Saturday. Murdoch's withdrawal means Newsday's next owner is likely to be Cablevision Systems Corp., barring the last-minute entry of a new suitor or a higher offer from Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman. A source close to talks between News Corp. and Newsday's parent, Tribune Co., confirmed that they had parted ways. Tribune properties also include the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Sun-Sentinel
VOA VIEW: News conglomerates limit diversity in views and independence.

Leader Of GOP Convention Quits After Myanmar Ties Reported
The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator and issued a two sentence statement. According to Newsweek, Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime and led a public relations campaign to improve the junta's image. Newsweek said the firm drafted news releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses. Las Vegas Sun

New Round Of Deadly Storms Strikes Midwest
A tornado that spun across the Oklahoma-Missouri border killed several people as severe storms raked the nation's heart Saturday, taking at least 11 lives, mangling buildings and trapping people in rubble in the storm-weary region. At least six people were killed as the tornado flattened the northeastern Oklahoma town of Picher before the funnel struck about 15 miles away near Seneca, Mo., and killed at least three, authorities said. Detroit News 

Journalist Facing Fines Urges Press To Protect 1st Amendment
A former USA Today reporter facing fines for failing to reveal her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks said Saturday that news organizations need to go on the offensive in the fight to protect the First Amendment. "As we all know, the news business is on a collective nervous breakdown," Toni Locy told a coalition of open-government and press groups. "It's time to stop running. It's time to turn and fight. If we don't fight for the First Amendment, who will?" Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, spoke at the annual convention of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. She said the country needs a shield law that would protect reporters from having to reveal their sources. Charlotte Observer
VOA VIEW: A shield should not be used protect someone from false claims or illegally obtained info.

New Rules And Economy Strain Adoption Agencies
Faced with a tightening of federal regulations governing foreign adoptions, and suffering from a downturn in business, international adoption agencies in the United States are finding themselves in financial straits and closing their doors in unprecedented numbers, experts say. Reece and Amanda Heinrich of Holt, Mich., say they lost more than $14,000 to an agency after a foreign adoption fell through. At least 15 percent of agencies that specialize in international adoptions have recently shut down, are expected to do so this year or will probably merge with other agencies to survive, according to the National Council for Adoption, an advocacy and education group in Virginia. NY Times 

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Darfur Rebels Poised To Take Khartoum
The vicious conflict in Darfur suddenly came to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, yesterday, with fighting reported in the western suburbs of the city. A Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), claimed it had already taken the town of Omdurman, on the western bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum, and appeared to be moving to seize the capital. The daring attack the first by Darfur rebels so close to Khartoum shook the government of President Omar al-Bashir, which has been held responsible for a scorched-earth policy and the loss of over 200,000 lives in the west of the country. In recent days there has been heavy fighting in Kordofan province, which stretches from Darfur to the Nile. Independent News

Key Obama Middle East Adviser Resigns
A principal Middle East adviser to US presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama resigned after reports surfaced that he had been in repeated contact with members of Hamas. According to the reports, Rob Malley interviewed Hamas officials, as well as Israeli, Palestinian and other international officials, while researching reports he wrote for the International Crisis Group, a nonpartisan conflict-resolution think tank. Malley, also a former US National Security Council aide to president Bill Clinton, said that all visits with Hamas members were coordinated with the State Department, and that the government was always briefed following the meetings. Jerusalem Post

Ceasefire Deal With Sadr Militia
The Sadr City fighting has killed about 1,000 people, including many civilians The Iraqi government has agreed to a ceasefire with Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to end weeks of fighting in Baghdad. Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army militiamen are to lay down their weapons and remove snipers and bombs from roads leading into the Shia Sadr City area. US and Iraqi forces have been trying to disarm Shia militants in the district. The ceasefire agreement came as the Iraqi army launched a major operation in the northern city of Mosul against al-Qaeda and its allies. The ceasefire is expected to come into effect today. BBC

Israel PM Urged To Quit Over Corruption Claim
Ehud Olmert faced pressure from colleagues and political rivals to resign yesterday after police released details of a corruption investigation into the Israeli prime minister, the fifth such inquiry since he replaced Ariel Sharon in 2006. Olmert is suspected of illegally receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the US financier and political donor Morris Moshe Talansky, and possibly other foreigners, beginning in 1993 when he first ran to be Jerusalem's mayor and later when appointed as minister of industry, trade and labour in Sharon's government. While Sharon also weathered bribery allegations as prime minister, only to be forced from the helm by a massive stroke. Guardian

Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Blackout
A fuel shortage forced the Gaza Strip's main power station to shut down on Saturday, leaving much of the Hamas-controlled territory without electricity, a senior official at the generating plant said. An Israeli official said fuel shipments would resume on Sunday, adding there had not been any deliveries for a few due to Israel's independence day celebrations and because of repeated militant mortar attacks on the supply point. Gaza has been facing a fuel shortage in recent months because of Israeli restrictions on supplies. Fuel for the power plant which supplies electricity to 800,000 of the strip's 1.5 million people, is funded by the European Union. Reuters

Hizbullah To Withdraw Its Gunmen
Hizbullah TV announced Saturday that opposition forces will withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with an army request. An opposition statement said the move came after the army issued a statement calling on gunmen to get off the street and reopen the roads. However, the statement said a "civil disobedience" campaign would continue until its demands were met. But while tensions in the capital appeared to be defusing, violence spread to other parts of the country. Jerusalem Post

Burma Exports Rice As Cyclone Victims Starve
Children standing amid the debris of their village, which was destroyed by the cyclone, near the township of Kunyangon, Burma. Burma is still exporting rice even as it tries to curb the influx of international donations of food bound for the starving survivors of the cyclone that killed up to 116,000 people.Sacks of rice destined for Bangladesh were being loaded on to a ship at the Thilawa container port at the mouth of the Yangon River at the end of last week, even though Burma's 'rice bowl' region was devastated by the deadly storm a week ago. Guardian

Burma: The River Of Death
For the people living alongside the Payapon river, a branch of the mighty Irrawaddy, the slow-moving waters have always been a sustainer of life. The river has provided irrigation for their crops, as well as clean, sweet water for washing and bathing, and the fish from which so many of them make their livelihoods. Now the same river is delivering the dead. The corpses of hundreds of people swept away and killed by the surging tidal wave of Cyclone Nargis are now being washed back. They lie on the river's edge, snagged in the roots of the mangrove swamps, bloated and burnt by the sun. Many of the corpses have already been buried by family or friends but there are plenty more that lie floating and abandoned. Independent News

US Operation Sparks Afghan Unrest
The east Afghan region of Nangahar has seen violent protests after US forces raided a house, killing three people, arresting nine and seizing arms. The US-led coalition said they had come under attack after targeting a "foreign fighter network". But local people said they were civilians and they blocked the main road to the Pakistani border. Police opened fire and a number of demonstrators are reported to have been killed or injured. Protesters blocking the main road to Pakistan carried the bodies of the three men killed. Police who came to break up the five-hour demonstration say they shot into the air as a warning but the head of Nangahar provincial council says they fired into the crowd, killing two people and injuring a number of others. BBC

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