WASHINGTON

REPUBLICAN SENATOR WANTS TO RAISE RETIREMENT AGE

A leading Republican senator is proposing to raise the Social Security retirement age from 67 to 68, while Democrats maintain their opposition to the president’s plan to overhaul the retirement program with private investment accounts.

The plan of Senator Hagel of Nebraska would raise the age that retirees could receive full benefits, beginning in 2023.”We are living longer,” Mr. Hagel said yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So when you look at the total universe of this, I think that makes some sense to extend the age.”

But some leading Democrats said they could not support Mr. Hagel’s plan because he would pay for private accounts by borrowing and increasing the nation’s deficit. Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts told ABC’s “This Week” that would be “a great threat to seniors” because it would raise interest rates.

President Bush plans to travel across the country this week as part of his 60-day push to persuade a skeptical public to support personal retirement accounts. The president’s plan would allow workers under age 55 to divert up to 4 percentage points of their Social Security taxes into private stock and bond investment accounts in exchange for lower guaranteed future benefits.

White House counselor Daniel Bartlett said that while polls show most Americans don’t like the idea, most of the opposition is coming from people over 55 who won’t be affected by it. He said on “Fox News Sunday” that Mr. Bush will try to reassure those older Americans that their benefits won’t change.

Mr. Bartlett said the White House wants to work with Democrats, but Democrats are vowing to fight unless the president is willing to change his plan to divert Social Security funds into private accounts.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

INTERNET INFLUENCE GREW SIXFOLD SINCE ’96 CAMPAIGNS Reliance on the Internet for political news during last year’s presidential campaign grew six fold from 1996, while the influence of newspapers dropped sharply, according to a study issued yesterday.

Eighteen percent of American adults cited the Internet as one of their two main sources of news about the presidential races, compared with 3% in 1996. The reliance on television grew slightly to 78%, up from 72%.

Meanwhile, the influence of newspapers dropped to 39% last year, from 60% in 1996, according to the joint telephone-based survey from the Pew Research Center for The People and the Press and the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Nonetheless, Americans who got campaign news over the Internet were more likely to visit sites of major news organizations rather than Internet-only resources such as candidate Web sites and Web journals, known as blogs (24%).

Twenty-eight percent said they primarily used news pages of America Online Inc., Yahoo Inc., and other online services, which carry dispatches from traditional news sources like the Associated Press and Reuters. The study also found the political news audience more mainstream – more women, minorities, older Americans, and lower-income users than before. Fifty-eight percent of political news users cited convenience as their main reason for using the Internet.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

ARKANSAS, IOWA GOVERNORS UNITE TO RUN MARATHON

LITTLE ROCK – Nearly two years after he embarked on a diet and fitness regimen that left him 110 pounds lighter and diabetes free, Governor Huckabee finished the Little Rock Marathon yesterday ahead of his new running mate – Governor Vilsack.

The crowd cheered as Mr. Huckabee turned the corner toward the finish line and started the last stretch of the 26.2-mile race. Mr. Huckabee finished in just over 4 1/2 hours and hugged his two sons and daughter.

Mr. Vilsack, a Democrat, had given an early concession speech the day before and finished about 40 minutes after Mr. Huckabee, who waited at the finish line and hugged his friend as he crossed, giving him his finisher’s medal. Mr. Huckabee said afterward that he watched the movie “Rocky” the night before the race to get pumped up. “I never felt I was going to quit,” he said.

Mr. Huckabee has championed healthy living in public talks nationwide and press interviews after losing more than 100 pounds from eating right and exercise. He invited the Iowa governor to join him in the race a few weeks ago at a Washington meeting.

– Associated Press

ANNIVERSARY OF VOTING RIGHTS MARCHES OBSERVED

SELMA, Ala. – Aging civil rights-era figures and a bipartisan congressional delegation walked across an Alabama bridge with a throng of thousands yesterday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Selma voting rights marches that opened ballot boxes to blacks across the South.

Among those participating was Coretta Scott King, whose husband, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., led a 1965 march to the state Capitol after participants in an earlier march were turned back by law enforcement.

“The freedom we won here in Selma and on the road to Montgomery was purchased with the precious blood of many,” said Mrs. King, who crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a car.

Police estimated the crowd at nearly 10,000.

– Associated Press