CONDIT PROBE

CONDIT PROBE
A Modesto, Calif., grand jury has decided it has no jurisdiction to investigate a claim that Rep. Gary Condit tried to obstruct justice when he asked a flight attendant to sign an affidavit stating they didn't have an affair.
Anne Marie Smith claimed Condit, his chief of staff, Mike Lynch, and Don Thornton, an investigator who worked for one of Condit's lawyers, conspired to encourage her to commit perjury by denying the affair.
In a letter made public Monday, the Stanislaus County civil grand jury -- usually charged with overseeing governmental abuses -- decided the criminal complaint wasn't in its jurisdiction.
The grand jury reached its secret decision Thursday night and mailed it to Anne Marie Smith's lawyer, James Robinson, who disclosed the letter's contents.
TAX CUT POLL
A majority of Americans say they are prepared to roll back President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut to help deal with the shrinking federal budget surplus and say Bush more than congressional Democrats bears responsibility for a problem that has suddenly put him on the defensive, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News national survey.
The poll also offered a clear warning to Bush and Congress as they move toward dipping into the Social Security surplus to fund other programs this year and next, despite earlier promises not to do so.
An overwhelming 92 percent of those surveyed said they opposed using Social Security funds for other purposes -- with 81 percent saying they are strongly opposed.
A total of 1,009 randomly selected adults were interviewed Thursday-Sunday. The margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
POW REPARATIONS
Congress appears poised to send the president a bill that would assist former World War II prisoners seeking reparations from Japanese companies for their forced labor.
The Senate approved an amendment Monday that would bar the Justice and State departments from spending funds to oppose the former POWs' slave-labor lawsuits against the Japanese firms. The House approved a similar measure in July.
The White House had no immediate reaction to the Senate vote. But during a San Francisco ceremony Saturday marking the anniversary of the treaty signing that officially ended the war, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the treaty "dealt with this matter 50 years ago."
Source: Associated Press