Uphill Battle

As President Obama presents his first budget today, the most daunting goal he has set may not be the ambitious proposals for economic recovery, healthcare reform or revamping the nation's energy policy. Big as those challenges are, they may be child's play compared with his promise to slash the federal budget deficit in half by the end of his first term. Two problems already are apparent if Obama is to cut the $1.3-trillion deficit to $533 billion.

The House will convene next week to vote on a plan to provide emergency cash to the nation's battered automobile industry, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Tuesday, but a federal bailout for Detroit faces an uphill battle in the Senate and an uncertain fate at the White House.

The good news: After a winter of multiple blizzards created hardships for residents and killed thousands of livestock in Eastern Colorado, the region is experiencing a record wheat harvest with high market value. The bad news: There's no way to get it all to market. "It's the right kind of problem to have," said state Agriculture Commissioner John R. Stulp, a farmer himself with excess wheat sitting in bins on his property.

Re "80 is the new 65," Opinion, March 13 During the first half of the 20th century, most workers who retired at age 65 had a life expectancy of less than five years. Those who qualified for retirement benefits in advanced countries imposed little cost on government or business. Since 1950, average life expectancy not only rose 10 years from 68 to 78 years, but more significantly, a revolution of rising expectations transformed the concept of retirement from a brief hiatus between work and death to a prolonged consumerist experience of fulfilling travel, leisure, entertainment and recreation.

Viktor Pokhmelkin has what can seem like a radical idea in Russia: He believes everyone should be treated equally before the law. To that end, the independent lawmaker in the parliament is seeking to rid the nation of one of the most widely despised symbols of Russia's government and business elite: a blue light and siren atop vehicles that effectively make road rules optional.

After nearly a decade of trying, Congress appears ready to deal with Internet gambling, a phenomenon that has grown dramatically in recent years as millions of people from college students to retirees log on to play poker or wager on sporting events. The House is set to vote today on a measure -- part of the Republican leadership's election-year "values" agenda -- designed to choke off the flow of U.S.

Re "Mazanar redux?" Opinion, June 1 David Cole really struck a chord with me. I am a Latino male married to a Japanese American lady. I don't need a house to fall on me to know about the evils of discrimination, especially nowadays. As history has shown, even the United States Supreme Court can get it wrong. The fight to preserve what's left of our Constitution and Bill of Rights is going to be an uphill battle, what with the constant chipping away at the very reason for its creation.

For the second time in a row, the Republican primary in the 37th Assembly District is shaping up as battle for the soul of the GOP. On the right is the incumbent, Assemblywoman Audra Strickland, 31, who has used her first term to push such issues as repealing the gas tax, providing tax credits to offset private school tuition and getting rid of much of public education's bureaucracy.

Despite the fact that they are led by an extremely popular governor, hold a strong legislative majority and have a friend in the White House, there is little joy among Florida Republicans heading into this fall's midterm elections. With Republican candidates nationwide campaigning under the burden of slumping support for President Bush and the Iraq war, some here concede they have an uphill fight to retain the political high-water mark they've enjoyed for almost a decade.

Mayor Beverly O'Neill on Thursday endorsed Councilman Frank Colonna in his uphill battle to replace her in the June 6 runoff to lead the state's fifth largest city. O'Neill, a thrice-elected incumbent, said Colonna would build on a "dynamic future we have worked for together." Colonna, a real estate broker, was outspent by former Southern California Edison President Bob Foster, who earned 48.5% of the vote, shy of the 50% required to win outright.