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A foundation chaired by Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry, who is deeply involved in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, is funding a radical anti-Israel, anti-American snack bar near the Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh University campuses. The restaurant, Conflict Kitchen, which proudly boasts that it serves food only from countries with which the U.S. is in conflict, received a $50,000 grant from the Heinz Endowment in April to assist it in moving locations. However, the restaurant lately has been serving its hummus and baba ghanoush sandwiches in propaganda wrappers that carry quotes from Palestinians opposing the...

WASHINGTON — In the first national poll since the presidential campaign became a two-person race, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry leads President Bush, 52%-44%. Kerry's 8-point lead with likely voters in the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll comes after he effectively clinched the Democratic nomination on Tuesday and Bush followed with three speeches criticizing Kerry's record in the Senate and charging that the country would be less safe under his leadership.

Teresa Heinz Bankrolling Hillary Clinton Billionaire ketchup queen Teresa Heinz is helping to bankroll Hillary Clinton's Senate reelection race with a contribution that Mrs. Clinton will be able to use when she runs for president in 2008 - against John Kerry. It's not clear whether Mrs. Heinz's $2,100 maximum donation signals a rift within the Kerry household. But while Sen. Kerry has made his 2008 intentions apparent, his wife has been more circumspect of late. "We’ll know by the end of the year," she said in January, when asked whether her husband would rule out another presidential bid. Gossip maven...

Charities controlled by billionaire ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz have pledged a relatively modest $450,000 to tsunami relief in recent days, with Mrs. Heinz explaining she prefers to keep her charitable contributions local. Heinz Endowments announced Saturday that it would contribute $400,000 to tsunami relief, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. And the Washington, D.C.-based Heinz Family Philanthropies will add another $50,000. The Heinz money will go to the Brother's Brother Foundation, a local international relief group. In a prepared statement, Mrs. Heinz explained, "Obviously, our philanthropic focus is here in America and in Pittsburgh, but the astronomical proportions of this...

Top Democrat Will Fight by the Rules By Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON — After the GOP sweep last week, the only place in town Democrats may still be able to slow or stall President Bush's conservative agenda is in the Senate. And to lead the effort, they're backing a backstage master of parliamentary infighting, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid. "Reid is a kind of Dickensian figure. He haunts the floor. He's like the hovering spirit of the Democrats," said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University who specializes in Congress.

Managing Teresa. Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, presented a host of behind-the-scenes drama for Kerry. Early on, the campaign staff regarded Teresa as something of a hypochondriac, and she canceled three trips in October at the last minute, usually for what was described to aides as a "nonspecific malady." Kerry's first campaign manager, James Jordan, had little patience for her strong opinions, sending emails trashing the candidate's wife...which inevitably reached his rivals within the campaign, including Bob Shrum (an old Teresa friend) and helped seal Jordan's eventual dismissal. Later came Kerry campaign's post-convention "Sea to Shining Sea" tour: a 3,500-mile...

John Kerry's second wife was in Colorado Friday, where, as usual, she had many ridiculous things to say. "Day One of his presidency, every child in America will have health care. Period," Teresa Heinz Kerry told an audience in Fort Collins, according to the Coloradoan, the local paper. Apparently she doesn't realize that this would require an act of Congress--or perhaps she intends to pick up the tab herself. She also offered this wisdom on education policy: "Tests should be a measure that is enabling, not disabling. Tests that are a trap are sinful." Huh? And in Pueblo, the Associated...

Wise Irishman      "I am having fun listening to Teresa Heinz Kerry. The Democrats muzzled Hillary Rodham Clinton in '92 after the 'baking cookies' remark, but I don't think John Kerry will be able to do so with his meal ticket. When I was growing up, I had friends who wanted to marry girls with some wealth, but my dad, a wise old Irishman, told me: 'No one works harder for his money than the man who marries it.' "     — Irish-American Republicans founder and co-chairman Frank Duggan.

The time has long past for Teresa Heinz Kerry to end the free ride she has been enjoying ever since she used her immense inherited wealth for the second time in less than eight years to resuscitate her husband's faltering political career. She needs to reveal the details of her finances, which Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has deftly exploited to his maximum political benefit — first during his tightly contested 1996 Senate race and then during this year's Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses.

“Isn’t she great?” said candidate Kerry in Milwaukee, following the “four more years of hell” remark of his wife Teresa. Lawyer Kerry surely knows that, technically speaking, he is asking a question, not necessarily paying  a compliment. “And by the way, how great was Teresa Heinz Kerry last night?” said running mate Edwards to the Democratic National Convention. Another lawyer asking another question, masquerading as a compliment. Teresa Heinz, as she still formally calls herself, (“Teresa Heinz Kerry” is her self-described “political name”) has emerged as a problem for the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Her husband, who advertises his diplomatic skills as...

It's only a matter of time before we witness another Howard Dean Moment in the Democratic presidential race -- but not, I predict, from any of the Democratic presidential candidates. Skulking in the campaign background is a ticking time bombette with a volatile temper and acid tongue who makes Dean look like Mr. Rogers on Prozac. She's the wife of front-runner Sen. John Kerry, Teresa Heinz. Formerly known as Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira, the hot-headed widow of the late Pennsylvania GOP Sen. John Heinz is self-aggrandizingly known among her wealthy liberal friends and fellow environmental radicals as "Saint Teresa" (and...