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WASHINGTON - President Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday. The Bush budget also will likely exceed $3 trillion, this official said. Bush on Monday will likely present his proposed budget for the new fiscal year to Congress, where it's unlikely to gain much traction in the midst of a presidential campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Before Bob Jansen can teach English to the adult immigrants in his lowest-level class, he has to show about a quarter of them how to hold a pencil. Adult education teachers like Jansen are finding themselves starting from scratch as uneducated immigrants and refugees from conflict regions of Africa and rural areas of Mexico and Central America flock to the United States. An estimated 400,000 legal and 350,000 illegal immigrants are unable to read or write even in their native language, according to a July 2007 report from the Migration Policy Institute, an independent Washington think...

As another World AIDS Day dawns this morning, prepare for the usual media blitz of stories designed to promote more spending on failed approaches to HIV/AIDS, and more bashing of the Bush Administration despite increases in spending by the billions each year.  Here are some of the questions that the media probably won’t ask the professional HIV/AIDS lobby, which grows ever fatter while the human tragedy rises: • What have American taxpayers gotten for the $20 billion per year (and rising) government spending on HIV/AIDS? • What has happened to the more than half a billion condoms that the...

But what about farmers and ranchers who plant grain where unfavorable weather is the norm rather than an exception? Not much rain falls on Oklahoma, the Dakotas or the Texas panhandle. That's just the way it is. Between 1985 and 2005, more than 12,000 purportedly drought-stricken agricultural producers in those states claimed federal disaster payments at least every other year. This group collected $1.4 billion in all, about 60 percent of total federal farm disaster relief aid during those two decades, according to a database compiled by the Environmental Working Group. You'd think that Congress would have concluded that there...

There may be no better sign of the changing debate over the nation's farm subsidies: A Midwestern governor running for president calls for cuts in a system that has steered hundreds of millions of dollars a year to his state. "I didn't get much of a reaction from farmers," said Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), "because deep down most of them know the system needs to be changed." Politicians such as Vilsack have joined a host of interest groups from across the political spectrum that are pressing for changes in government assistance to agriculture. They want the money moved from...

Kent Conrad's Web site proclaims that the North Dakota Democrat "has been a leading voice for fiscal responsibility" in Washington... ...$4.9 billion, which is the amount of emergency drought relief the parsimonious Mr. Conrad is attempting to shovel into a Senate military construction bill in this week's lame duck session. If this is the sort of "fiscal discipline" we can expect from the new Democratic majority, K Street ought to be popping the champagne corks. Farm-state Senators have been pushing for this handout for months, and the only good news is that they've modestly scaled back their demands. Nebraska Democrat...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- Nearly five years after America “awoke to a nightmare attack” on Sept. 11, 2001, the nation is thankful that terrorists haven’t succeeded in launching another attack on U.S. soil, but recognizes that it’s not for the terrorists’ lack of trying, President Bush said at the White House today. “Nineteen men, armed with box cutters, took control of airplanes and turned them into missiles,” Bush said of the Sept. 11 attacks. “They used them to kill nearly 3,000 innocent people. We watched the Twin Towers collapse before our eyes -- and it became instantly clear that...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Aug. 28, 2006 -- As members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit here make last-minute preparations for their upcoming deployment, Staff Sgt. Danny Sava and his family are getting their own affairs in order so they’re ready for another long separation. Marine Staff Sgt. Danny Sava, his wife, Julia, son, Anthony, and daughter, Alyssa, stroll past a sign at the top of a stairwell in the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s command headquarters that marks the days until Sava’s upcoming deployment. “E-22” marks “Embarkation minus 22,” or 22 days until Sava and 2,300 fellow...

HEIDELBERG, Germany (Army News Service, June 6, 2006) – An increase in locally focused contributions from Soldiers and Department of Defense civilians to the Combined Federal Campaign Overseas will bring nearly $100,000 to family and youth programs in U.S. Army, Europe. Brig. Gen. Rusty Frutiger, USAREUR deputy chief of staff for personnel, and Peter F. Sun, IMA-EURO chief of staff, received the $98,895 check, symbolizing the donations designated for Family Support and Youth Programs, from Renee Acosta, worldwide CFC campaign manager. “The FSYP is unique to the CFC-O and is the only way to donate locally while overseas,” said Constance...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2006 – Spouses of the military's senior enlisted leaders gathered here today to learn about each service's program for wounded troops and to share ideas for the future. Marine Gunnery Sgt. J.A. Burks, a representative for the Marine for Life program, speaks to the spouses of senior enlisted leaders during a conference at the Pentagon, May 9. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The wives of the senior enlisted leaders from the combatant commands and the service senior enlisted advisors met at the Pentagon in conjunction with their husbands' conference,...

AL ASAD, Iraq (April 25, 2006) -- Combat stress can consist of many more things than just combat, and when times get tough, while deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, service members turn to the chaplain's office for help. "Our services are critical for those service members who wish to participate," said Navy Cmdr. Craig G. Muehler, chaplain, Marine Wing Headquarters Squadron 3, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. "We offer services for all religions and denominations." By just touching the 'tip of the iceberg,' deployed service members go through problems such as marital difficulties, depression and overall loneliness which can take their...

WASHINGTON - The nation's largest labor organization on Tuesday criticized plans to expand guest worker programs for immigrants seeking to come to the United States, parting company with longtime Senate Democratic allies who pushed successfully to include them in broad-based immigration legislation. "Guest worker programs are a bad idea and harm all workers," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement released the day after the Senate Judiciary Committee cleared an immigration bill. "They cast workers into a perennial second-class status, and unfairly put their fates into their employers' hands." Sweeney's statement praised numerous provisions of the overall immigration legislation,...

WASHINGTON, March 1, 2006 – Cadets representing 11 National Guard Youth ChalleNGe programs from 10 states were on hand here today to accept awards for excellence in the their programs. Cadets from 11 National Guard Youth ChalleNGe programs from 10 states attended the 2006 National Guard ChalleNGe Program Award Luncheon. The awards program, presented by the United Service Organizations of Metropolitan Washington, recognized excellence in several key components of the ChalleNGe program. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Although the programs were being honored, Army Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2006 – In the old Star Wars movie "The Empire Strikes Back," Luke Skywalker gets a new, fully functional right hand after Darth Vader chops his off with a light saber. Today, thanks to work under way through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, servicemembers who have lost limbs in the line of duty could experience something almost as revolutionary in the years ahead. Among the cutting-edge technology DARPA is developing is a highly advanced, mechanical arm that works and looks just like a human one, Jan Walker, a DARPA spokesperson, told the American Forces Press Service....

WASHINGTON (AP) - A $40 billion budget-cutting bill nearing final House passage would badly hurt welfare and children's services programs in California, according to an analysis Friday by a group that advocates for low-income people. Among the bill's costs to California, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington: -$2 billion over the next five years to comply with new welfare rules requiring many more recipients to participate in work training and other programs. -$1 billion in child support payments that would go uncollected over the next five years because of cuts in funding for child support...

Following up on his Wall Street Journal article Tuesday defending the Iraq war, Sen. Joseph Lieberman is reminding Bush administration critics that it's wrong to claim that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. attacked in 2003. "The so-called Duelfer Report, which a lot of people read to say there were no weapons of mass destruction - concluded that Saddam continued to have very low level of chemical and biological programs," Lieberman told ABC Radio host Sean Hannity on Wednesday. "[Saddam] was trying to break out of the U.N. sanctions by going back into rapid redevelopment...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - An advocacy group on Wednesday gave the state mostly C and D grades - and no A's - for health, economic and education programs affecting children. Children Now said many California children live in poverty and lack adequate education and health care. The Oakland-based group issued a report card covering nine subjects: health insurance, dental insurance, childhood obesity, adolescent health, infant health, family economic security, early education, K-12 education and after-school programs. The group gave the state three B's, three C's and three D's. The state received a B-minus for children's health insurance programs, although the...

WASHINGTON -- In recent weeks, Air Force chapels raised thousands of dollars to provide comfort for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Chapel communities contributed more than $376,000 for Hurricane Katrina survivors since the storm hit three weeks ago, according to the Air Force Chief of Chaplains Office here. “The Air Force chapel communities are being very generous and making sure our fellow Airmen and families are being taken care of,” said Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Brett Oxman, who works budgeting issues for the chaplains office at the Pentagon. The donations came from around the world, ranging from Edwards Air Force Base,...

The achievement gap between minority and white students has long been a stain on the bright mosaic of culturally and racially diverse school districts.From North Jersey to Cleveland to San Diego, whites as a group generally score considerably better on standardized tests than their minority peers. Whites also tend to enroll in more honors classes, while minorities are more prevalent in remedial courses.Now, one Bergen County district is introducing a sweeping concept that it hopes will bridge its gap by addressing a wide range of possible roadblocks to academic success.The initiative includes dozens of ideas. Some are in the talking...

More than a third of the software installed on PCs worldwide during 2004 was pirated, with losses from unauthorized software increasing by $4 billion from 2003, according to a study released this week by the software trade group Business Software Alliance. Thirty-five percent of all software installed on PCs was pirated, down from 36 percent in 2003, according to the study, conducted by research firm IDC. Estimated losses from software piracy climbed, however, from $29 billion to $33 billion, as both the legal and unauthorized software markets grew from 2003 to 2004. IDC estimated that $90 billion worth of software...