Brownback Will Make 2008 Decision Next Month

WASHINGTON — Senator Brownback, who is considering a White House bid in 2008, said yesterday that the Republican field has room for a “full-scale Ronald Reagan conservative” and pledged to make a final decision next month. The Kansas senator said he was not discouraged from running by the Democrats’ strong gains in this month’s midterm elections, including majority control of the House and Senate. “It does not make it less likely,” he said in an interview. “I really believe that the basic conservative ideas and ideals were not repudiated. Our execution was.”

— Associated Press

Rangel Announces Tax Plans, Pledges To Work With Republicans

Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem, who has reignited a push for a military draft at the same time Democrats are promoting a domestic agenda aimed at helping the middle class, proposed his plans yesterday to work with Republicans on tax relief. During a forum sponsored by Baruch College, Mr. Rangel said, “I want to shatter that myth that Democrats just want to raise taxes.” Mr. Rangel, who will be the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said a top priority is the removal of the alternative minimum tax, which he said would provide $1 trillion in tax savings over 10 years. To make up for the lost revenue, Mr. Rangel said he wants to reform the tax code and close loopholes and tax shelters that allow individuals and corporations to pay less in taxes. — Staff Reporter of the Sun

Quintuple Kidney Transplant Is a First

BALTIMORE — It took 12 surgeons, six operating rooms, and five donors to pull it off, but five desperate strangers simultaneously received new organs in what hospital officials yesterday described as the first-ever quintuple kidney transplant. All five recipients — three men and two women — were doing fine, as were the five organ donors, all women, a spokesman at the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center said.

— Associated Press