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President Biden has said in a pre-midterms radio interview that he feels like he’s 50 and that his looming 80th birthday seems as distant as being able to fly. “What would 80-year-old Joe tell 50-year-old Joe in this moment?” radio host Willie Moore Jr. asked Biden in the sitdown, which was recorded Sunday and aired Monday. “That I’m still 50 — that’s the first thing I’d tell him,” Biden answered. “You think I’m kidding. I’m not kidding. That’s number one. “Number two, I can’t even say that number, 80, you know. But I’m serious, I no more feel that than...

(Reuters) - With Russia's incursion into Ukraine reviving Cold War-style tensions, President Barack Obama is at risk of suffering a blow to his credibility at a time when he can least afford it: as he tries to convince voters to stick with his fellow Democrats in congressional elections that will help shape his legacy. For five years, Obama has practiced a cautious approach to foreign policy crises, prizing sober diplomacy and the search for consensus over brinkmanship, in prolonged conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the deliberative style that Obama's team sees as a statesmanlike attitude in tune with Americans'...

SACRAMENTO – Call it overhead. The state Air Resources Board plans to collect more fees from industries responsible for large amounts of greenhouse gases to recoup the administrative costs of implementing California's landmark climate change law. The proposed $50 million in annual assessments would nick Californians for about $1.50 a year after the costs are passed down, regulators estimate. The climate change program has been partly living on borrowed money for some time, tapping various state accounts to pay for 155 positions within the air board and for about 20 others assigned to different agencies. The additional staff, which includes...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AFP) - White House candidates battled in dueling rallies and airwaves saturated with attacks ads Saturday, five days before Iowa activists make their picks in the first 2008 nominating contests. Democratic hopeful Barack Obama turned his fire on rival John Edwards, and kept up the heat on former first lady Hillary Clinton, in the latest hostilities in a running soundbite joust over who can best spark change. Republican rivals Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney meanwhile swapped jabs, betraying rising tensions as candidates criss-crossed the frigid state chasing wide-open party nominations, ahead of the leadoff caucuses on Thursday....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An improved economy could leave the state with a budget surplus of nearly $3 billion in mid-2006, but California would still face deficits of at least $3 billion to $4 billion in the following years, the legislative analyst said Tuesday. Analyst Elizabeth Hill warned that the annual deficits would climb to nearly $10 billion if the Democrat-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger don't agree on ongoing ways to eliminate at least $5 billion in red ink. That could happen through spending cuts, tax increases or a combination of the two, said Brad Williams, director of budget...

Three crucial debates loom large By Andrew Miga Thursday, September 2, 2004 NEW YORK - Next stop, the presidential debate stage. With the two-month battle to Election Day in full roar, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are looking ahead to their three planned debate showdowns - events that both sides say could prove pivotal in the razor-close race. The first prime-time encounter later this month will be a good opportunity for both men to win over undecided voters who hold the key to victory in 2004. ``Many of these undecided swing voters in the middle are not going to...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Amid much fanfare inside the Capitol's historic rotunda, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a $105 billion budget package Saturday that he celebrated for imposing no new taxes while balancing spending with income. While technically accurate, the Republican governor failed to mention that $7 billion in loans and one-time saving are embedded in the spending plan and are used - much as former Gov. Gray Davis did last year - to paper over the state's spending problems one more time. The budget, negotiated after a difficult 26-day standoff with the Legislature's Democratic majority, does little to resolve the spending...

From the moment he - somewhat surprisingly - offered himself as California's governor nearly a year ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised that he would close the state's chronic budget deficit without new taxes or major damage to vital services by taking a realistic, tough-minded approach. "The public doesn't care about figures," he said early in his campaign. "They have heard figures for the last five years. Figures and drafts and percentages. And all kinds of things. What the people want to hear is, are you willing to make the changes? Are you tough enough to go in there and provide...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Mohammed Salem Abu Bakr was a devout Sunni Muslim and a seller of religious books, who ran a small business from a rickety stand outside a mosque in Baghdad. After U.S. troops overran Baghdad in April, Abu Bakr's hatred grew. He once pulled a large knife from a wooden cabinet, ran his fingers along its blade, and said, "Do you think it's sharp enough to slaughter an American?" When the 35-year-old father of four was killed Aug. 29, however, it was not in a fight with U.S. troops; it was in a gun battle with Shiite...

<p>As pressure mounts on state and federal officials to clean the San Joaquin Valley's dirty air, agricultural lobbyists are reluctantly writing legislation that would subject California farms to more pollution rules.</p> <p>The proposal, still in draft form, calls for tightening a decades-old state law that has shielded the $27 billion agriculture industry from air emissions rules imposed on other large industries, such as oil refineries and glass manufacturers.</p>