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Kerry courts black, Hispanic audiences at two conventions

PHOENIX - John Kerry reached out to African American and Latino audiences Tuesday, asking them to help him defeat President Bush while outlining proposals to raise college graduation rates, boost math and science education among women and minorities, and provide a path to citizenship for legal immigrants.

Courting two of the most important constituencies in the Democratic Party, Kerry began the day in Chicago at the annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition convention. He then flew to Phoenix, where he addressed the National Council of La Raza's annual convention.

He took a prepared text in Chicago replete with detailed ideas for preparing Americans for the high-skills economy of the future and embellished it liberally with campaign rhetoric in an effort to stir greater enthusiasm among minorities for his candidacy.

Kerry sought to rebut charges by the Bush campaign that he offers a pessimistic vision, repeatedly challenging the incumbent's record and saying, "We can do better, and we will."

WASHINGTON - U.S. counties that are home to nearly 100-million people appear to flunk federal air standards because of microscopic soot from diesel-burning trucks, power plants and other sources, the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday.

The EPA said a preliminary analysis showed that 243 counties in 22 states - almost all in the eastern third of the nation and in California - may have to take additional measures to curb pollution to meet the standards by 2010.

The designations made public Tuesday were characterized as the initial agency step to putting states on notice as to which ones likely will have to submit additional pollution control plans.

The largest concentrations of counties in noncompliance were along the urban corridor from New York City to Washington, D.C., eastern Tennessee, in the Ohio River Valley region and counties surrounding the urban centers of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta.

WASHINGTON - Federal investigators said Tuesday that drug companies had repeatedly overcharged public hospitals and clinics for low-income patients, making them pay more than the maximum prices allowed by federal law.

Such taxpayer-supported hospitals, community health centers and clinics for people with AIDS are supposed to have access to the government's best prices for outpatient drugs.

The investigators, at the inspector general's office in the Health and Human Services Department, found that prices charged to those agencies frequently exceeded the limits set by the Public Health Service Act. In one month, the investigators said, the overcharges totaled $41.1-million, raising the cost of prescription drugs to public hospitals and clinics 18 percent, to $269-million, from $227.9-million.

LOS ANGELES - Even as he calls for shared sacrifice to solve the state's financial crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is spending more than his predecessor on salaries for his official staff, an Associated Press investigation found.

Schwarzenegger has fewer employees than Gov. Gray Davis did toward the end of his term, but is spending nearly 8 percent more on salaries. He is also paying more six-figure incomes within his inner circle than Davis did.

"For a governor who came to office saying he would cut the government, he seems to have really pumped it up, at least salaries for his inner circle," said Jamie Court, a consumer activist with the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.

The governor's office payroll has grown from $3.37 million annually at the end of Davis' tenure to $3.63 million as of last month, a 7.7 percent increase.

GAY PRESBYTERIANS: Gays and lesbians moved a step closer to ordination in the Presbyterian church after a legislative committee approved a measure Tuesday that would partly lift the church's ban on gay ministers. The proposal will go before the national legislative assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA for a full vote later this week.

JETS GROUNDED: Fighter jets based at the Marine Corps air station here have been grounded after two pilots died in jet crashes less than 48 hours apart. A Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Don Caetano, said Tuesday the seven fighter squadrons based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort have been grounded while officials examine base procedures. Both incidents involved FA-18 fighters.

MAD COW: The Agriculture Department late Tuesday received an "inconclusive" preliminary screening on a second animal indicating possible mad cow disease, but officials cautioned the test is so sensitive it does not mean another case has been found. It's the second such discovery in five days as part of a rapid screening program.