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 Clinton offers child poverty plan
HANGING ROCK, Ohio (AP) -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is offering a plan to improve childhood nutrition and setting a goal to reduce by half the 12 million youngsters living in poverty over the next dozen years.
A package of proposals, to be unveiled Thursday, includes a "comprehensive" early education initiative that starts with nurse's visits for pregnant women, lets children begin the Head Start program earlier and calls for universal pre-kindergarten programs.
The New York senator also says she would deal with childhood hunger by putting in place a food safety net, and give children "greater access to healthy, fresh food."
She was to spell out her proposals in a speech at the child care development center on Ohio University's southern campus.
Clinton aides said the new programs would carry and annual pricetag of $5 billion to $6 billion. A significant portion of her plan comes by expanding existing programs. She would cover the cost by toughening enforcement to collect taxes currently owed but not paid.
Clinton also says she would launch an effort to get junk food out of schools. She would require schools that get federal funding through the school lunch or breakfast programs to offer only food that meets or surpasses USDA standards.
Background documents outlining her proposal were provided to The Associated Press.
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Clinton, Obama seek early voters in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Early voting in urban areas being targeted by Barack Obama has swelled to record numbers in Texas, outpacing the otherwise high turnout in areas of the state viewed as more favorable to Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy.
But a large percentage of Democrats in Clinton's targeted areas have cast early ballots, especially the heavily Hispanic areas along the Rio Grande in South Texas
-- indicating her strategy of wooing early voters also may be bearing fruit.
The early voting patterns are one just measure of what to expect in the state's pivotal March 4 contest. After losing 11 straight primaries and caucuses to Obama since Feb. 5, Clinton has pinned the future of her struggling candidacy on wins in Ohio and in Texas, delegate-rich, diverse states. Clinton is ahead in Ohio, but the contest in Texas is much tighter, polls indicate.
The latest early voting numbers suggest Obama is seeing great success in the big cities in Texas, which have large but limited delegate totals. Clinton's strategy is to accrue smaller delegate numbers over broader areas of the state, with the hope of topping Obama overall.
Both campaigns' efforts to have supporters vote early have produced startling images in a state that has not seen a competitive Democratic primary since 1988.
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Obama fights false links to Islam
WASHINGTON (AP) -- For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association.
Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet. And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions
-- during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland.
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 During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views, which have included numerous anti-Semitic comments. And, after being pressed, he rejected Farrakhan's support in the presidential race.
The Democratic candidate says repeatedly that he's a Christian who took the oath of office on a family Bible. Yet on the Internet and on talk radio
-- and in a campaign introduction for John McCain this week -- he is often depicted, falsely, as a Muslim with shadowy ties and his middle name, Hussein, is emphasized as a reminder of Iraq's former leader.
"If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim," he told the Jewish leaders in Cleveland, according to a transcript of the private session.
The photo of Obama wearing Kenyan tribal raiments -- taken by an Associated Press photographer during his visit in 2006 to the country where his father was born
-- resurfaced on the Internet amid unsubstantiated claims that it was being circulated by members of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. Clinton and her aides said they had nothing to do with it. The Obama campaign accused them of "shameful, offensive fear-mongering."
"Our campaign is vigilant in quickly responding to any information about Senator Obama that surfaces, be it on the Internet, in the media or from our opponents," spokesman Bill Burton said Wednesday.
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THE DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a town-hall style meeting in Ohio before heading to an event in Texas. Barack Obama campaigns in Texas.
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THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain and Mike Huckabee campaign in Texas.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"If anyone is still puzzled about the facts, in fact I have never been a Muslim."
-- Barack Obama in transcript of private session with Jewish leaders in Cleveland.
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STAT OF THE DAY:
About 12.7 million people were eligible to vote in the Texas primary as of Feb. 20, 2008, according to preliminary figures from the Texas Secretary of State's office.
[Associated
Press]
Compiled by Ann Sanner and Jerry Estill.
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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