Democratic National Party

Los Angeles has emerged as "the overwhelming favorite" to host the 2000 Democratic National Convention, party sources said, as Republican Party officials on Thursday picked Philadelphia as the site for its gathering. Philadelphia had been a leading contender for the Democratic convention, but that city's officials immediately withdrew their bid after becoming the GOP choice. This, in turn, boosted Los Angeles' prospects, which already were strong.

When Costa Ricans go to the polls today to choose a successor to President Oscar Arias, they will be among the most expensive voters in the world. The two major political parties, the incumbent social-democratic National Liberation Party (PLN) and the conservative Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) have spent a combined total of about $12 per voter to capture the presidency of Latin America's most stable democracy.

JOEL FLATOW'S life is all about connections. Over the past decade, he's used his political links and savvy to help the recording industry wage its fight against piracy. Now he's using the musical ones to help politicians and nonprofit organizations raise the funds for their causes. In the process, he's become the go-to guy for the events that promise to make both this summer's national political conventions memorable occasions: Want an A-list singer for your Democratic National Committee party?

Spring is at hand. The cherry blossoms are blooming. The Berlin Wall has fallen. The Sandinistas are on the way out. Inflation is down; campaign coffers are up. So why is Washington moping? The city that likes to think of itself as The Nerve Center of the Free World is in a funk, just as newer, more vigorous centers of power are emerging around the globe.

By now, most people have become accustomed to sharing their breakfasts with players' union representative Donald Fehr courtesy of "News At Sunrise" and cozying up with management negotiator Lee MacPhail on "Nightline." You've noticed, for instance, that beads of sweat accumulate on Fehr's brow during news conferences and that MacPhail's posture is such that he appears to be trying to eat the microphones.

Following news that more than $100,000 in donations raised from the White House by Vice President Al Gore was improperly diverted, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno on Wednesday acknowledged that she is formally evaluating whether to seek appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the matter. Earlier in the day, Democratic Party officials said that campaign donations not restricted by election law were shifted--without Gore's knowledge--to a separate party account subject to federal limits.

It took Hollis Watkins a quarter of a century--more than half his life--to get from Atlantic City to Atlanta. In 1964, as a young activist for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi, Watkins sat on the boardwalk in Atlantic City with Fannie Lou Hamer and other pioneers of the civil rights movement who had been rejected as delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Party officials had shut them out in favor of an all-white delegation.