Obama bows to Boehner on speech

Obama bows to Boehner on speech

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama has acceded to House Speaker John Boehner’s wishes to deliver an address on jobs and the economy to a joint session of Congress next Thursday. The president had requested Wednesday for the long-anticipated speech.

In agreeing to Boehner’s schedule, Obama’s address will compete with the opening game of the National Football League season — a conflict the White House wanted to avoid.

But the change now will allow a planned Republican presidential debate to proceed Wednesday without Obama’s upstaging it.

Sons’ remarks show split in Gadhafi camp

TRIPOLI, Libya

Two men claiming to be Moammar Gadhafi’s sons made conflicting appeals from hiding Wednesday night, with one of them calling for talks with rebel leaders and the other urging the regime’s loyalists to fight to the death.

The dueling messages reflected the growing turmoil in Gadhafi’s inner circle on the eve of the 42nd anniversary of his rise to power. This year, the dictator is a fugitive from opposition fighters who have seized most of the country in a six-month civil war. Now, they say they’re hot on his trail.

Petraeus: Budget cuts imperil military

WASHINGTON

David Petraeus, the general widely credited with rescuing a failing U.S. war in Iraq, retired from the Army on Wednesday with a word of warning: Coming budget cuts must not impair the U.S. military’s ability to fight a full range of conflicts, from major land wars to Iraq-like insurgencies.

Petraeus, 58, used his farewell speech to thank those who have mentored and supported him in 37 years of service. But he also made clear his concern that political pressures to lighten the nation’s debt burden could force the military to retrench in ways that hurt U.S. security and U.S. troops.

Suspicious package sickens 3 at air base

MASCOUTAH, Ill.

Three people fell sick and were treated at a hospital Wednesday after a suspicious package was found at the mail center of an Air Force base in southern Illinois, prompting the evacuation of parts of the facility.

Two workers for the U.S. Postal Service and an Air Force serviceman at Scott Air Force Base developed respiratory or skin reactions around 9 a.m. Wednesday in reaction to something in the mail room, according to base commander Col. Michael Hornitschek.

Sea lions behind pelican maulings

LOS ANGELES

Game wardens say nature — not man — is to blame for nearly a dozen brown pelicans that have surfaced along California’s Central Coast with huge puncture wounds in their chest.

Sea lions and pelicans have been competing for baitfish, which are coming in unusually close to shore this year prompting feeding frenzies in the Port San Luis Harbor and Avila Beach areas, said State Fish and Game spokesman Andrew Hughan on Wednesday. Tests showed that the unsettling wounds found in some injured pelicans were actually caused by sea lions.

J.C. Penney pulls ‘too pretty’ T-shirt

LOS ANGELES

J.C. Penney has stopped selling a shirt after shoppers expressed outrage over what they called an inappropriate and sexist message.

“I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me,” says the white long-sleeve shirt, which was intended for girls age 7 to 16.

Many people quickly attacked the company for promoting girls’ looks over their brains. It didn’t help that the shirt also said a boy could handle the task.

Combined dispatches