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Ticket sales for President Obama’s big fundraiser Monday at the SFJazz Center are so sluggish, organizers are cutting the price of some tickets in half. The cheap seats for the Democratic National Committee luncheon — the ones that were going for $1,000 — have been reduced to $500, according to an e-mail to potential donors sent out Monday by Ella Arnold of Buell Private Political Management in San Francisco. Arnold added, “We are thrilled to announce that if you have already purchased a $1,000 ticket … your seat will now be upgraded to VIP, which includes rope line access!” We’re...

Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesday’s hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily. “With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “They have. That offer is on the table.” Asked by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) about how much those countries would contribute, Kerry said they have offered to pay for all of a full invasion.

Saif al-Islam told Kara he would speak in Jerusalem ‘like Sadat’ in exchange for reduced pressure from NATO and Europe on Libya. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi offered to sign a peace treaty with Israel and to negotiate captive soldier Gilad Schalit’s release in exchange for reduced pressure from NATO and Europe on Libya, Deputy Minister for Galilee and Negev Development Ayoub Kara told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “Saif al-Islam and I have mutual acquaintances in Austria. Long before the whole mess in Libya, I asked them to talk to him about Gilad Schalit, because the Gaddafis are close with [Hamas...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration's military intervention in Libya, confirmed Friday that he was invited to visit the North African nation in an attempt to end months-long conflict between the Qaddafi regime and the rebel forces who have been aided by NATO air strikes. (Snip) But Kucinich, who was worried about security, declined the offer and visited Syria instead. In a statement, Kucinich said he was contacted by both sides seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

In secret negotiations with Iran, Argentina has offered to "forget" the bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in 1992 and 1994, respectively, in exchange for improved relations between the two countries. According to the Argentine weekly Perfil, which broke the story yesterday, Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is personally involved in the talks. The Argentinean Foreign Ministry has so far declined comment. (Snip) According to the article, Timerman made the offer via Syrian President Bashar Asad and Foreign Minister, Walid Moallem, who were brought in as mediators.

WASHINGTON – Speaking about the State of the Union, Barack Obama slams the notion of extending tax breaks for millionaires, rails against the war in Iraq and speaks of a time when one party would not sit on its hands while another across the aisle stood and applauded the president.Obama was then a United States senator, speaking in a video response to President Bush's final State of the Union address that was sent to supporters just days after Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary, and while he was preparing for 22 primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday.

The Obama administration agreed Tuesday to pay up to $680 million to American Indian farmers to settle an 11-year-old class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who took office promising to address longstanding complaints by minority farmers against the department, said eligible farmers and ranchers can receive up to $250,000 each for showing that USDA discrimination caused them economic losses. However, most farmers will probably opt for a uniform $50,000 payment, which involves less red tape. In the class-action suit, American Indian farmers allege that USDA bureaucrats denied them the low-interest rate loans

Here’s a Blagojevich-Obama connection you may not know about unless you’ve been reading the Chicago newspapers for quite some time. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, D, tried to hire Eric Holder (now the U.S. Attorney General) six years ago to give a clean bill of health to a gaming company that prosecutors say had just paid Blagojevich a $40,000 bribe. Blagojevich wanted to hire Holder to a $300,000 special investigator’s position, so that he would dispel allegations by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan,D, that Emerald Casino was tied to the mafia. Even as Blago tried to whitewash Emerald, the company’s...

Hizbullah will take 10 of 30 seats in a proposed list for a new national unity government submitted to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman. Prime minister-designate Saad Hariri said Monday that the Western-backed parliamentary majority would get 15 seats out of the 30-member Cabinet. The Hizbullah-led parliamentary minority would get 10 seats, while the president would choose the remaining five seats.

CHICAGO – The only "agent of change" Princess ever supported was the person who freshened the water in her fishbowl. So election officials in Chicago's northern suburbs want to know why voter registration material was sent to the dead goldfish. "I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process," said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year. Beth Nudelman, who owned the fish, said Princess may have landed on a mailing list because the family once filled in the pet's...

WASHINGTON - Some small Internet radio broadcasters are rejecting a new offer from a music industry group to pay discounted royalty rates for streaming music online through 2010. SoundExchange, the music industry group that collects royalties from webcasters and distributes them to artists and record labels, said its offer was aimed at resolving a dispute over higher fees due July 15. Smaller providers said the higher royalties would be too big a financial burden. Under the latest SoundExchange offer, qualified webcasters — those earning $1.25 million or less in annual gross revenue and with a certain size audience — could...

For all the media discussion, blogging boom, and enthusiasm for Michael Steele as Republican National Chairman among RNC members, no one in the Bush White House ever offered or even suggested the party post to the former Maryland lieutenant governor and 2006 U.S. Senate nominee. That’s what Steele himself told me this morning, as he arrived at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. “No, we never had any offer,” said Steele, who was the nation’s highest-elected black Republican while serving in Maryland’s second-highest office from 2002-06. “The [talk of me as a possible...

One-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr was offered a plea deal Tuesday in Sonoma County Superior Court on child pornography charges that would free him on probation. Assistant District Attorney Joann Risse said prosecutors would waive three of the five child pornography possession charges against him if he pleaded guilty on two remaining charges. Karr, 41, would get credit for time served and would be placed on probation for three years. Defense lawyer Robert Amparan said he would discuss the deal with Karr, but said he still believes his client is innocent. Amparan said the public had received...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2006 – Tax season has once again arrived, and military personnel should know several things to make their returns easier and more beneficial, a military official said here yesterday. One of the most notable changes to the tax code this year is the addition of provisions for victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, said Army Lt. Col. Janet Fenton, executive director of the Armed Forces Tax Council. The provisions for hurricane victims are lengthy and complicated, so servicemembers who were affected by the hurricane should seek advice from their installation tax center or the Internal Revenue...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Now through the end of July 2006, all members and veterans of the Sea Services – active duty and reservists – are able to enroll in the U.S. Navy Memorial’s Navy Log without charge and without any obligation. The U.S. Navy Memorial, located on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C., is a national memorial that honors those who served, and are serving, in America’s Sea Services – Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine, but the heart of the U.S. Navy Memorial is the Navy Log. “The Navy Log is the heart and soul of the Navy...

Asylum seekers are offered £2,000 cash to go home By John Steele (Filed: 13/01/2006) Thousands of asylum seekers are to be offered millions of pounds in cash to return to their home countries under a scheme announced yesterday by the Home Office. The Government expects to spend about £6 million over six months encouraging around 3,000 refugees, who have been refused permission to stay or are awaiting decisions, to return home. As an incentive, they will be offered up to £2,000 cash and a further £1,000 worth of help "in kind" for reintegration, to fund education or training. A pilot...

German women offered man-free banking By Kate Connolly in Berlin (Filed: 06/12/2005) A bank for women is being launched in Germany with the aim of liberating female customers from dealing with patronising, traditional bank managers. Its founder, Astrid Hastreiter, a 41-year-old information technology specialist, said women wanted more thorough advice from their bank managers and more understanding about career breaks. Astrid Hastreiter: support for her idea is growing Frauenbank, in Munich, has been set up, to begin with, as a financial advisory service on everything from investments to retirement plans for women. Miss Hastreiter has to raise around £7 million...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2005 – Like their military counterparts, families of DoD civilian employees ordered to evacuate their duty stations due to Hurricane Katrina and whose housing is now uninhabitable can seek temporary safe haven anywhere within the continental United States. The policy, announced by David S. C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in a Sept. 2 memo, affects civilian employees who were ordered to evacuate their official duty stations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama by installation commanders or civil authorities. Affected civilian employees must remain within the geographic area designated by their respective commanders. However, their...

WASHINGTON – The Marine Corps commandant casually acknowledged Tuesday something that would have been considered unthinkable only a few years ago – the Marines offered to close the San Diego Recruit Depot in this current base closure and realignment process. But Gen. Michael Hagee told the independent closure commission that the proposal was dropped because the cost of moving the historic training post from its location next to Lindbergh Field outweighed the possible savings. Hagee's comments were the first indication that the Marines had changed their previous strong opposition to losing the San Diego boot camp, which has been creating...

Saddam spies 'offered to help Chirac get re-elected' By Francis Harris in Washington, Henry Samuel in Paris and David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 14/05/2005) Saddam Hussein's spies planned a wide-ranging scheme to bribe members of the French political elite in the run-up to the Anglo-American invasion, including an offer to help fund President Jacques Chirac's 2002 re-election campaign. That bid failed, according to Iraqi secret service papers seen by The Daily Telegraph, when Mr Chirac's aides allegedly said they did not need the cash. Former EC president Jacques Delors According to the series of Iraqi intelligence service memorandums uncovered by...