Washington in 5 Minutes

TAXES

Cindy McCain pays levy, avoids default

SAN DIEGO | - Cindy McCain’s debts with the county tax collector appear to be settled.

Officials said Monday a trust controlled by the multimillionaire wife of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain had initiated payment on $1,743 owed in property taxes on a condominium in the tony La Jolla Shores area.

The payment, due in April, was scheduled to default Tuesday.

“You can reasonably assume that it is paid,” San Diego County Treasurer-Tax Collector Dan McAllister said Monday.

Additional bills totaling $6,744 for the years 2004 through 2007 were paid by the trust on Friday after Newsweek magazine questioned why the trust had fallen into arrears on the two-bedroom, two-bath oceanfront property, Mr. McAllister said.

Jeff Olson, division chief of assessment services for San Diego County, said the post office returned tax statements for those years sent to an incorrect mailing address in Phoenix, where Cindy McCain’s trusts are registered.

No address change was recorded after the condominium deed was transferred from another family trust in 2002, Mr. Olson said.

Brian Rogers, a spokesman for Mr. McCain’s campaign, said Monday there would be no comment beyond what Newsweek had reported.

ENERGY

Support surges for oil exploration

High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans’ views on energy and the environment, with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.

The poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed - or 47 percent - now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants as the top priority, compared with 35 percent who believed that five months ago.

The Pew poll, conducted in late June, showed the number of people who consider energy conservation as more important declined by 10 percentage points since February from a clear majority to 45 percent. People are now about evenly split on which is more important.

The number of people who said they considered increasing energy supplies more important than protecting the environment increased from 54 percent in February to 60 percent and the number of people who favor oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also increased.

FDA

Salmonella probe leapfrogs tomatoes

Adding to tomato confusion, the government is about to start testing numerous other types of fresh produce in the hunt for the source of the nation’s record salmonella outbreak - even as it insists tomatoes remain the leading suspect.

Investigators are mum on exactly what other vegetables are getting tracked.

Items commonly served with fresh tomatoes is the only hint Food and Drug Administration food-safety chief Dr. David Acheson would give, calling it “irresponsible” to point a finger until he has more evidence that some other food really deserves the extra scrutiny.

“Tomatoes aren’t off the hook,” he stressed. “It’s just that there is clearly a need to think beyond tomatoes.”

Still, Dr. Acheson widened FDA’s probe on Tuesday, activating an emergency network of food laboratories around the country in anticipation of lots of additional samples to test.

GAY RIGHTS

Obama opposes marriage-ban

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has announced his opposition to a November ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage in California, a move that puts gay rights front and center in the 2008 presidential campaign, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

In a letter to San Francisco’s Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club on Sunday, the presumptive presidential nominee said he opposed “the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution” and similar efforts in other states.

Earlier last week, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, the GOP standard-bearer in November, took the other side. He told officials of Protect Marriage, a coalition that gathered 1.1 million signatures for the California measure, that he backed their efforts “to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman.”

POLITICS

Hispanic vote rises, according to study

Voting by Hispanics surged in the last congressional elections, showing strength that could swing this year’s presidential vote in closely contested states such as Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

A government report released Tuesday shows that 5.6 million Hispanics voted in the 2006 general elction, an increase of 18 percent over 2002, the previous year for a federal election without a presidential race on the ballot. That compares with a 7 percent increase among white voters and a 5 percent increase for black voters.

“For years, they called the Latinos the sleeping giant. Well, they woke us up,” said Luis Vera, general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC.

RUNNING MATES

Traders wager against Clinton

Chances of a Democratic “dream team” with presidential candidateSen. Barack Obama picking former rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate are increasingly unlikely, traders on the prediction markets are betting.

Expectations that Mrs. Clinton will become Mr. Obama’s vice presidential running mate fell as low as 10 percent in trading on Dublin-based Intrade in June, down from more than 20 percent early in the month. Traders gave her a 14.5 percent chance on Tuesday after she campaigned with Mr. Obama last week.

Traders were betting Mr. Obama would defeat Republican presidential candidate John McCainin the November election, giving him a 65 percent chance versus nearly 31 percent for Mr. McCain. Those numbers were little changed from early June, when Mr. Obama was given a 61 percent chance of winning versus a 35 percent chance for McCain.

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb was seen as Mr. Obama’s most likely vice presidential pick, with Intrade traders giving him a 21 percent chance.

STATE DEPARTMENT

Tally of refugees from Iraq rises

The number of Iraqi refugees admitted into the United States continued to rise in June, crossing the halfway point on the Bush administration’s goal of 12,000 by the end of September.

The State Department said Tuesday that 1,721 Iraqi refugees entered the country last month, up from 1,141 in May, the first time since 2003 that the administration’s target of 1,000 per month mark had been surpassed. In April, 974 Iraqis were admitted.

The 12,000 target is far lower than other many countries, notably Sweden, which has admitted about 40,000 since 2003. And it’s only a small slice of the 2 million Iraqis who have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt.

CONGRESS

Democrats compile stimulus wish list

Democrats in Congress are gearing up to pass a second election-year economic-stimulus package, but unlike the $152 billion measure that passed in February, they are not counting on getting the support of President Bush.

Leaders in the House and Senate are discussing with key committee chairmen the shape of another emergency spending bill that would again aim to spur the economy and help those hurt by the economic slowdown, several congressional aides said Tuesday.

This comes on the heels of this week’s enactment of increased jobless benefits, another Democratic priority.

Infrastructure projects - road and bridge building and other government-funded construction - top the list, according to those aides. At least $8 billion in funds could be sought just for these projects, although aides said there were no firm cost estimates yet for any portion of the legislation.

From wire dispatches and staff reports