Daily Report: 2004 Presidential Watch: Republican conservative news on the Democrat caucus, primary candidates national campaigns.

THE CLINTON COMEDIES:

Hillary keeps saying “no” to ’04 bid, but playful discussions seem to leave door open. Coverage yesterday by the New York Times’ Jim Dwyer: “When the guests descended on the Clinton family home in Chappaqua on Sunday evening, most of them had already heard that the answer to the question was, roughly speaking, no, a thousand times no, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would not make a run for the presidency next year. By the end of the night, ‘no’ was not quite the word ringing in every ear as the guests — about 150 major campaign donors to the former president or to the senator — left the gathering. During cocktails in the back yard, one group heard former President Bill Clinton say that the national Democratic Party had ‘two stars’: his wife, the junior senator from New York, and a retired general, Wesley K. Clark, who is said to be considering a run for the presidential nomination. And during the dinner, according to a dozen people who were at the event, they heard Mrs. Clinton say how important their support would be ‘for my next campaign, whatever that may be.’ Later, Mr. Clinton, in discussing the presidential field, said, We might have another candidate or two jumping into the race.’ To John Catsimatidis, the chief executive officer of the Gristede's supermarket chain, those remarks shifted his own views of whether Mrs. Clinton had definitively ruled out the presidential race. ‘I was sitting next to her last night, and I didn't get the impression that she had pulled the trigger in her mind’ for or against a national campaign, Mr. Catsimatidis said. ‘Some people might have been left with the impression that there's always a possibility. I was.’ To others at the party, Mrs. Clinton, in alluding pointedly to an unspecified campaign, was merely having mild fun about a candidacy that not only has never been announced but whose existence has repeatedly been denied. ‘She clearly laughed after that — she was totally making a joke,’ said Lisa Perry, one of many guests who contacted The New York Times at the request of Mrs. Clinton's staff to douse whatever heat may have risen from the senator's words. ‘She was playing with the notion that everyone thinks she may.’ Any other interpretation, say Senator Clinton and her aides, was a matter of wishful listening among eager political supporters. While they did not deny the remarks attributed to either of the Clintons, they said that these were casual comments, made about the need to raise funds for Mrs. Clinton's race for the Senate in 2006 — not about a run for president next year. In a telephone interview, Mrs. Clinton said the entire focus of the evening was how to marshal forces against the as-yet unformed and anonymous opposition she will face when her Senate term expires in 2006.”

More Jewish voters turning to Republicans. Under the subhead “A new bloc,” Jennifer Harper reported in yesterday’s “Inside Politics” column in the Washington Times: “There is growing Jewish support for Republican candidates, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition, which bases its conclusions on newly released data from the November 2002 midterm elections. ‘This data simply confirms what we have been saying all along,’ said spokesman Matthew Brooks yesterday. ‘Jewish voters are increasing their support for the Republican Party. Like other minorities, they resent being taken for granted and ignored by the Democrats.’ Between 2000 and 2002, the number of Jews voting Republican increased to 35 percent from the 21 percent to 26 percent of Jews who voted for Republicans during previous midterm elections, according to exit polls conducted by Voter News Service. More voters also identified themselves as Republican and fewer as independent than in 1994 and 1998. Women leaned more Republican than usual, and twice as many respondents said their House vote was meant to support President Bush, not oppose him. ‘We are seeing a major shift in American political party alliances,’ Mr. Brooks said. ‘And we expect these realignment trends to continue.’”

Des Moines Register, top front-page headline: “Returns delayed for Iowa troops… Operation Iraqi Freedom forces learn their service has been extended to 12 months.”

Main online heads, Quad-City Times: “Judge: 9/11 suits can proceed” & “Boston church will pay $85 million to settle sex abuse cases”

Nation/world reports, Omaha World-Herald online: “One American killed, seven hurt in Iraq attacks” & “Edward Teller, father of the ‘H-Bomb,’ dies at 95”

New York Times online, featured stories: “In 2 Bombings, Arab Attackers Kill 13 in Israel” & “Employees Paying Ever-Bigger Share for Health Care”

Top heads, Sioux City Journal online: “Gateway cuts 850 more jobs; North Sioux loses 100” & “Human remains found this week likely from trade center attack”

Chicago Tribune online, main reports: “Are Americans safer now?” Two years after 9/11 terrorist attacks budget cuts have eaten into police and fire protection across the Midwest and around the country. & “Hamas leader survives air strike”

KCCI-TV (Des Moines) reported that David England – the former president of Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny – has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. England resigned from his DMACC post after he, his wife, their adult daughter and teenage son were arrested on drug charges in March

Creative pot growing in Coralville: Eastern IA newscasts reported that construction workers at the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville found a small marijuana farm in a space above the ceiling. Police said they found grow lights, fertilizer, plant containers and marijuana seeds, but the pot plants had been harvested

KMNS Radio (Sioux City) reported that one of the men – Kyle Heck, 22 -- injured in an 8/29 explosion at a Salix soybean plant has died. He died at University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where 45-year-old Mark Corghan remained in critical condition in the burn unit

Farm broadcasters continue to report dry conditions in most sections of the state. Iowa Ag Secretary Judge reported this week topsoil moisture rated 70% “very short” with only 3% of the state’s topsoil moisture “adequate.”

The Nuclear Concern that Won’t Go Away – and it’s not North Korea. Headline from yesterday’s Chicago Tribune: “Iran urged to uncloak atomic program” Coverage – an excerpt – from Vienna, Austria: “America and its allies lobbied a key UN atomic agency conference on Monday to join them in calling on Iran to disprove it is running a nuclear weapons program. At unofficial evening meetings, allies Canada and Britain were sounding out other nations on a resolution that would call on Iran to provide full disclosure of its programs. But Iran's chief delegate, Ali Akbar Salehi, cautioned that too much pressure could backfire. Iran has hinted it may sign a protocol opening its nuclear programs to full and unfettered inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. However, Salehi said that hinges on the outcome of the meeting in Vienna of the IAEA's board of governors. Earlier he warned of ‘unexpected or surprising consequences’ if board members demanded too much from Iran. Opening the conference of the 35-nation board, IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran has been showing increased cooperation. He also said his experts still don't have enough information to determine the nature of Tehran's nuclear activities…The U.S. suspects Iran of working on a secret nuclear weapons program. A recent IAEA report to the board said traces of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium were found at an Iranian nuclear facility. The report also said Iran was conducting tests that experts say make little sense unless the country is pursuing nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its programs are for generating electricity. It also has said its equipment was ‘contaminated’ with enriched uranium by a previous owner.”

Iowa – “Powering up the economy…MidAmerican’s new plant will help Iowa grow, but burning coal poses problems…Conservation remains the best, the cheapest and cleanest alternative to generating more electricity.” & “Iowa’s poor deserve legal aid”

DSM 8 a. m. 65, overcast with haze. Temperatures at 8 a. m. ranged from 61 in Independence and Muscatine and 63 in Cedar Rapids, Clinton and Decorah to 70 in Clarinda and Red Oak. Today’s high 88, breezy. Tonight’s low 64, chance T-storms. Thursday’s high 85, chance T-storms. Thursday night’s low 63, chance T-storms.