GERALD GARCIA

The Tucson Citizen: readable, likable, my friend, the intelligent choice. The Citizen was my first publisher’s position. It is where I got my feet wet – and my underwear and pants, too, the day the pressroom blew up.

It has been more than 20 years since I departed my beloved Citizen. It was a difficult decision: Stay at the Citizen and Tucson or return to College Station, Texas, to parents, grandparents, Texas A&M, Aggie football. To Texas we went.

I have missed the Citizen from that day.

I remember the heyday of great journalism at the Citizen, some of the best, if not the best, that I have been associated with.

A couple that stand out:

• From Guatemala to Madison, Wis., the so-called Underground Railroad, an undertaking of enormous proportions by dedicated Citizen staff members who chopped their way through the jungles of Guatemala, the jungle of streets in Mexico City, the treacherous mountains and jungle of back roads in northern Mexico, crossing the border undetected through a jungle of tunnels with guides and political refugees and reaching safe houses in Tucson, northern Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Illinois and Wisconsin.

• The New Pueblo, a moving account of life in Tucson.

In describing The New Pueblo to our readers, I wrote, “It explains life as life itself rather than a metaphor of life. . . . The New Pueblo tells us about Tucson’s early years, how we progressed to the present and about our future.”

The New Pueblo was mountains of research. It was sending reporters to San Jose, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and Phoenix. It was interviewing countless residents of Tucson, its leaders – elected or otherwise, discussing opportunities and formulating consensus about the future of our beloved “Old Pueblo.”

And, while the projects were important and something to behold and be proud of, it was the reporters, the people (the faces) of the Citizen that I ultimately remember.

Mark Kimble, Mr. Reliable; Chuck Bowden, he could make a subject and a predicate sing; Dale Walton, the managing editor for the ages; Judy Carlock, Miss Steady Hand; Carla McClain, if it was a medical issue, she had the cure.

Douglas Kreutz, a reporter’s reporter; Joel Rochon, he could take a drawing and bring it to life; P.K. Weis, the lens of his camera found the perfect image; Julie Szekely, she could dress you up and get it for you at the least cost.

Corky Simpson, who could take you from a screen pass to a bounce pass with a flick of the keyboard; Jeff Smith, talented, eccentric and way too out there for my taste; and the many other faces of the Citizen who made my job easier, my work pleasant and my life fulfilled.

Then, there is Tucson: majestic and magnificent. The memories: vivid, like yesterday.

The Tucson Mountains. The Valley. Some 320 days a year of crystal-clear, blue skies. The Dove of the Desert. Saguaros. The unrelenting heat of summer.

Skiing Mount Lemmon on a wintry Saturday morning and taking a swim in the backyard pool that afternoon. Brilliant sunsets, the most powerful anywhere. The desert, indescribable, fearful and fearless.

The Ball Busters, my Sunday morning golf group, which leads to the people – the faces – of Tucson:

Joel Valdez, a gentleman’s gentleman; Dick Moreno, fun-loving; Jim Click, wheel and deal, with a heart of gold; Warren Rustand, brilliant and savvy.

Mary Peachin, poised, glamorous and art to spare; Edith Auslander, compromising, negotiating, but always getting it right; and the many others who touched my life and influenced it forever.

I am saddened that the Citizen will be shuttered and a golden era of southern Arizona journalism will pass. I am saddened that Tucson is losing its friend, its intelligent choice.

To my friends in Tucson, I bid you a continued great adventure in the New Pueblo. To the Citizen, with tears in my eyes, I say “30.”

Gerald Garcia Jr. is president and CEO of AIMS Worldwide Inc., based in Fairfax, Va.

E-mail: ggarcia@aimsworldwide.com

Saddened that the Citizen will be shuttered and a golden era of southern Arizona journalism will pass.

MICHAEL A. CHIHAK

We are as ill-prepared for newspapering’s demise as we were for economic meltdown. An odd comparison, perhaps, because we will recover from economic arrhythmia in relatively short time. Replacing the role of newspapers will take longer, and that threatens democracy.

Newspapers are democracy’s bulwark: constitutionally protected watchdogs. The Founding Fathers knew a free press would sustain democracy so included it among the Constitution’s foremost rights.

The Tucson Citizen’s death and the demise of other newspapers shake the frame upon which democracy sits. Without free-flowing information, the experiment Lincoln defined as “of . . . by . . . for the people” will not endure.

We inherited the right to self-govern, and keeping a check on those who presume to act for us is how we do so. Newspapers are the best at shining light on government.

The Citizen did it for nearly 139 years. Its death and the casting of its fine staff members into the economic diaspora are heartbreaking.

Saying newspapers brought it upon themselves is largely true, but not for the reason you think. Slant – perceived or real – isn’t a factor; newspapers of all political stripe are failing. Business avarice and arrogant resistance to change lead the blame list.

Retrospection hardly seems worthwhile, but please permit a bit of it. In the latter half of my more than three decades in newspapering, we emphasized business rather than news, boastful of being the only business mentioned in the Constitution.

That missed the point, because while newspaper owners made money, their primacy was to inform, watchdog, nurture democratic ideals and drive stakes into the hearts of faulty notions.

We changed for business. Now newspapering’s breathing is shallow and rattling.

New technologies turned newspapering into a piece of glass, dropping it to the ground to shatter. Newspaper bosses tried putting the pieces back together rather than recognizing each piece as a new opportunity. Now it’s too late.

Mass migration to millions of other information forums and the economic implosion are sending newspapers to death row. Don’t count on midnight pardons.

This threatens us because other forums are not yet able to support democracy – that is, self-government – the way newspapers have.

What Tucson TV newsroom, radio station or blogger will consistently watchdog local institutions? Even at its lowest level of staffing, the Citizen had Tucson’s second-largest number of reporters poking into the goings-on of public entities, more than the combined reporting staffs at local TV and radio stations, weekly publications and news blogs.

The Citizen has been part of the framework supporting democracy. Its demise threatens democratic balance, because other media entities don’t have the resources to pick up the slack, at least not yet.

Some say bloggers, tweeters and easy-to-dislike radio and cable talkers already have replaced newspapers. Don’t be deluded. The information frontier is still like the Wild West. Having the loudest opinion is de rigueur; possessing the facts is passé. Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly compete for narcissist of the week; Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann claim the market on fatuousness. They all have local counterparts, peddling exaggerations and distortions without checks or filters.

Millions buy in, affirming another Lincolnism: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time . . . ”

The contract we inherited as free Americans requires us to live up to the rest of his observation: ” . . . but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

The only way we can avoid being fooled is with unfettered, vibrant, believable sources of information. We must insist on them and help rebuild them sooner rather than later.

Michael A. Chihak was editor and publisher of the Tucson Citizen from 2000 to 2008. He now works in San Francisco as a communications consultant to nonprofits.

We changed for business. Now newspapering’s breathing is shallow and rattling.

DON HATFIELD

In 1986, the Gannett Co., owner of the Tucson Citizen, asked me to come to Tucson as editor and publisher. I was then editor and publisher of the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch, also a Gannett paper.

I was eager to make the move even though my wife, Sandy, and I would be leaving family and coming to a city we had never seen and where we knew no one. I promised her we would return East to family in four years max.

We stayed for more than 21.

Fourteen of those years were spent with the Citizen, until my retirement in June 2000. And they were very special years.

The Citizen was not a newspaper that needed to be “fixed” when I arrived. It was an excellent paper with a solid reputation and, as the oldest newspaper in Arizona, an outstanding history.

It had won prizes, produced top-notch investigative stories and harbored many outstanding writers. Its staff possessed, I thought, a rare feeling for the culture of the community it served. It showed in their work.

Newsrooms are a strange conglomeration of diverse individuals of different backgrounds and contrasting views, some with huge egos, some quite unassuming.

They’re made up of talented and creative people who enjoy their work, though most won’t admit it, and they tend to be an irreverent bunch. Despite their differences, they have one wonderful thing in common: They want to find out what’s going on and tell readers about it.

That’s the kind of news staff I found at the Citizen.

We thought of ourselves as the local-emphasis newspaper, the paper that cared most about Tucson. Our motto was, “The Citizen IS Tucson,” and one of our promotions remarked “If you care about Tucson, you have to read the Citizen.”

We covered the local scene like no one else. We expanded our coverage of the arts, sports, business and of what were then referred to as “minorities.”

We held neighborhood meetings to find out what people were thinking and town meetings for teenagers.

We revealed to readers the problems of a cracking Hoover Dam and the crowded unregulated skies over the Grand Canyon. We followed the Arizona Wildcats.

We interviewed the known and the unknown. We met with legends and heroes – think Mo Udall and John McCain.

I cannot tell you what it was like to look up from my desk one of my first days on the job to see Udall, who had come by to welcome me to Arizona. And I enjoyed getting to know McCain as more than a senator and future presidential hopeful.

And Sen. Dennis DeConcini, with whose family my wife and I became close friends.

It was special to know many of those who contributed so much to the community in so many ways – people like Roy Drachman and Jim Click as well as Ray Clarke, Fred Acosta and Lorraine Lee, to name just a few.

I like to think we put out some very good newspapers, that we were strong but fair, respected even when criticized, and that we were a valuable part of people’s lives.

I also like to think we had fun doing it. I know I did.

Serving as the Citizen’s editor and publisher was an honor. And living in Tucson was truly a blessing. It was and is a special place.

And we made special friends. Allen Beigel. Joan Kaye Cauthorn. Drs. John and Helen Schaefer. Stanley and Norma Feldman. So many others. We cannot imagine never having known them.

I have thought a lot about the Citizen since my retirement: the challenges that were faced, the stories that were published – some tough, some touching – the good days and the bad. Now the Citizen’s final chapter is being written. And there is great sadness in its passing. Nobody wants to see a newspaper die, especially this one. For it signals the end of an era, and it creates a void in the community that will not be filled.

But I can tell you that all those who have worn the Citizen’s colors can look back with great pride.

Gracias, Citizen staffers throughout the years. Gracias, Tucson.

Don Hatfield is retired and lives in Huntington, W.Va.

E-mail: cdhatfield@comcast.net

We thought of ourselves as the local-emphasis newspaper . . . that cared most about Tucson. Our motto was, ‘The Citizen IS Tucson.’

The first day of my first story, then-City Editor Jim Wyckoff told me to go to the scene, every time. Do an interview over the telephone, he warned, and you’ll miss the bullet hole in the window, or the refrigerator magnet, or the family photo that could provide little nuggets of insight. If you want to chronicle human moments, he advised, be there to see the tears and anger and pain and beauty.

I learned about the power of words to nudge and inspire.

I did a piece on a crime victim who needed surgery to save her eyesight. Readers responded with donations to provide the medical care her insurance company wouldn’t.

In that moment of a community pulling together, any sense of victory was tempered by sobriety. What I wrote had the power to move people, to influence policy, to change lives.

I felt awe, then humility, that people trust me to tell their stories and to be an accurate filter of their experience.

RHONDA BODFIELD

Former staff member

Black Friday is my favorite shopping day of the year. I love the deals, the chaos and getting home at noon with all my Christmas and birthday shopping done. I hate getting up before dawn, but justify it with the thought that I’ll get to take a long afternoon nap.

For Black Friday 2007, I agreed to be the reporter out covering the chaos. It meant that I would have to be up at 3 a.m., and also meant dragging along my 14-month-old foster child, Bamm Bamm. I thought he would sleep in the stroller the whole time.

He ended up staying awake for most of the trip, but managed to be the easiest part of completing the story. After our first stop to interview the folks in line at Mervyn’s, I got back in my truck to head to Circuit City.

My truck wouldn’t start. I had four stores to hit in less than two hours and I had a dead battery. At each store, Citizen photographer Xavier Gallegos had to jump my battery. When it came time to file my story, I did it while sitting in my truck in the Tucson Citizen parking lot typing on my laptop with my engine running and my little boy finally sleeping.

HEIDI ROWLEY

Former staff member

On a whim, after spending the 1948 Fourth of July weekend in Tucson, I sought and landed my first post-Princeton job at the Citizen. Elated, I found my desk in the seven-reporter newsroom, sat down, and admitted: “I don’t know how to type.” To which the veteran newsman next to me offered wise counsel: “Fake it.”

I managed to hunt-and-peck my way through four enjoyable stints at the state’s oldest paper for a total of 20 years. Closing my initial stay as acting sports editor, I joined the FBI in 1951, only to return a year later as city editor, 1952-55. Alcoholism slowly had a grip on me, so I wandered far and often until the Citizen gave me another chance as day police reporter (1962-64).

My stories were generally good, my behavior wasn’t, so I disappeared again until finding recovery in AA (9/24/69). By 1971, I was welcomed home for one last fling – as political writer, columnist and editorial page editor – until 1983. Thanks for the memories.

ASA “ACE” BUSHNELL

Former staff member

Where Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain stand on a selection of issues as they go head-to-head for the presidency:
ABORTION
McCain: Opposes abortion rights. Has voted for abortion restrictions permissible under Roe v. Wade, and now says he would seek to overturn that guarantee of abortion rights. Would not seek constitutional amendment to ban abortion.
Obama: Favors abortion rights.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
McCain: The co-author of McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, he plans to run his general campaign with public money and within its spending limits. He has urged Obama to do the same. He turned down federal matching funds for primaries so he could spend more than the limits. Federal Election Commission letter said he needs FEC approval before withdrawing from the primary public financing system, but FEC has not had quorum to act. McCain says he needs no such approval. McCain accepts campaign contributions from lobbyists.
Obama: The presidential campaign’s fundraising champion has brought in nearly $265 million. Has signaled he will raise private money for his general election, despite his proposal last year to accept public financing and its spending limits if the Republican nominee does, too. Obama refuses to accept money from federal lobbyists and has instructed the Democratic National Committee to do the same for its joint victory fund, an account that would benefit the nominee. Obama does accept money from state lobbyists and from family members of federal lobbyists.
CUBA
McCain: Ease restrictions on Cuba once U.S. is “confident that the transition to a free and open democracy is being made.”
Obama: Ease restrictions on family-related travel and on money Cuban-Americans want to send to their families in Cuba. Open to meeting new Cuban leader Raul Castro without preconditions. Ease trade embargo if Havana “begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change.”
DEATH PENALTY
McCain: Has supported expansion of the federal death penalty and limits on appeals.
Obama: Supports death penalty for crimes for which the “community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage.” As Illinois lawmaker, wrote bill mandating videotaping of interrogations and confessions in capital cases and sought other changes in system that had produced wrongful convictions.
EDUCATION
McCain: Favors parental choice of schools, including vouchers for private schools when approved by local officials, and right of parents to choose home schooling. More money for community college education.
Obama: Encourage but not require universal pre-kindergarten programs, expand teacher mentoring programs and reward teachers with higher pay not tied to standardized test scores, in $18 billion plan to be paid for in part by delaying elements of moon and Mars missions. Change No Child Left Behind law “so that we’re not just teaching to a test and crowding out programs like art and music.” Tax credit to pay up to $4,000 of college expenses for students who perform 100 hours of community service a year.
GAY MARRIAGE
McCain: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and similar benefits.
Obama: Opposes constitutional amendment to ban it. Supports civil unions, says states should decide about marriage.
GLOBAL WARMING
McCain: Broke with President Bush on global warming. Led Senate effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions; favors tougher fuel efficiency. Favors plan that would see greenhouse gas emissions cut by 60 percent by 2050. Supports more nuclear power.
Obama: Ten-year, $150 billion program to produce “climate friendly” energy supplies that he’d pay for with a carbon auction requiring businesses to bid competitively for the right to pollute. Joined McCain in sponsoring earlier legislation that would set mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Supports tougher fuel efficiency standards.
GUN CONTROL
McCain: Voted against ban on assault-type weapons but in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows. Voted to shield gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. “I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved — which means no gun control.”
Obama: Voted to leave gun-makers and dealers open to suit. Also, as Illinois state lawmaker, supported ban on all forms of semiautomatic weapons and tighter state restrictions generally on firearms.
HEALTH CARE
McCain: $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. In gaining the tax credit, workers could not deduct the portion of their workplace health insurance paid by their employers.
Obama: Mandatory coverage for children, no mandate for adults. Aim for universal coverage by requiring employers to share costs of insuring workers and by offering coverage similar to that in plan for federal employees. Says package would cost up to $65 billion a year after unspecified savings from making system more efficient. Raise taxes on wealthier families to pay the cost.
HOUSING
McCain: Open to helping homeowners facing foreclosure if they are “legitimate borrowers” and not speculators.
Obama: Tax credit covering 10 percent of annual mortgage interest payments for “struggling homeowners,” scoring system for consumers to compare mortgages, a fund for mortgage fraud victims, new penalties for mortgage fraud, aid to state and local governments stung by housing crisis, in $20 billion plan geared to “responsible homeowners.”
IMMIGRATION
McCain: Sponsored 2006 bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S., work and apply to become legal residents after learning English, paying fines and back taxes and clearing a background check. Now says he would secure the border first. Supports border fence.
Obama: Voted for 2006 bill offering legal status to illegal immigrants subject to conditions, including English proficiency and payment of back taxes and fines. Voted for border fence.
IRAN
McCain: Favors tougher sanctions, opposes direct high-level talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Obama: Initially said he would meet Ahmadinejad without preconditions, now says he’s not sure “Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now.” But says direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders would give U.S. more credibility to press for tougher international sanctions.
IRAQ
McCain: Opposes scheduling a troop withdrawal, saying latest strategy is succeeding. Supported decision to go to war, but was early critic of the manner in which administration prosecuted it. Key backer of the troop increase. Willing to have permanent U.S. peacekeeping forces in Iraq.
Obama: Spoke against war at start, opposed troop increase. Now says his plan would complete withdrawal of combat troops by end of 2009, four months sooner than his previous commitment. Before that, had said a timetable for completing withdrawal would be irresponsible without knowing what facts he’d face in office.
SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain: Would consider “almost anything” as part of a compromise to save Social Security, yet rules out higher payroll taxes for now.
Obama: Proposes raising cap with an unspecified “small adjustment” that would subject a portion of higher incomes to Social Security taxes.
STEM CELL RESEARCH
McCain: Supports relaxing federal restrictions on financing of embryonic stem cell research.
Obama: Supports relaxing restrictions on federal financing of embryonic stem cell research.
TAXES
McCain: “No new taxes” if elected. Twice opposed Bush’s tax cuts, at first because he said they were tilted to the wealthiest and again because of the unknown costs of Iraq war. Now says those tax cuts, expiring in 2010, should be permanent. Proposes cutting corporate tax rate to 25 percent. Promises balance budget in first term, says that is unlikely in his first year.
Obama: Raise income taxes on wealthiest and their capital gains and dividends taxes. Raise corporate taxes. $80 billion in tax breaks mainly for poor workers and elderly, including tripling Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credit for larger families. Eliminate tax-filing requirement for older workers making under $50,000. A mortgage-interest credit could be used by lower-income homeowners who do not take the mortgage interest deduction because they do not itemize their taxes.
TRADE
McCain: Free trade advocate.
Obama: Seek to reopen North American Free Trade Agreement to strengthen enforcement of labor and environmental standards. In 2004 Senate campaign, called for “enforcing existing trade agreements,” not amending them.

NEDRA PICKLER

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton should savor the moment. Soon enough, she must face the reality of time and money running out on her once-invincible campaign.

Her win Tuesday in the important swing state of Pennsylvania was hard-fought and decisive. Barack Obama’s well-funded effort to shut her down did not come close to an upset.

But despite her victory, the dynamics of the race are the same as they’ve been for more than two months. Obama remains the front-runner, and that gets more important the closer the campaign comes to the end of the primary season.

“He’s content to essentially run out the clock with his narrow lead, while she needs something dramatic to happen,” said California-based Democratic consultant Dan Newman. “A one-run advantage in the first inning isn’t a big deal, but a one-run lead in the ninth looms large.”

Clinton faces a dwindling number of contests, and she’s at a steep financial disadvantage.

Obama already is spending twice as much on ads airing in North Carolina and Indiana, the two states that come up next, with primaries on May 6. He’s even advertising in Oregon, a state that he should win, where voting by mail begins in the first week of May.

Obama can afford to shower every contest with campaign dollars from the $42 million he had at the beginning of April, while Clinton is in debt. She’ll have to either persuade donors to give her more money to sustain her long-shot bid or float herself another multimillion- dollar loan.

Then she’ll face the uphill battle of convincing the party’s elected officials and leaders – the superdelegates – to reject the front-runner Obama in favor of her.

“She has to convince superdelegates that her survival as a candidate doesn’t come at the cost of jeopardizing the long-term survival of the party in the fall and in the future,” said Democratic consultant Jenny Backus. “And that is a tough argument to make.”

Underscoring the race’s excitement, more than 1 in 10 voters Tuesday had registered with the state Democratic Party since the beginning of the year. And about 6 in 10 of them were voting for Obama.

Some voters had a hard time making up their minds. About a quarter of the day’s voters reported having decided within the past week, and about 6 in 10 of them backed Clinton.

She found reason for optimism in the victory that came even though Obama outspent her 3-to-1 in the state.

“He broke every spending record in this state trying to knock us out of this race,” Clinton told her cheering supporters. “Well, the people of Pennsylvania had other ideas tonight.”

Clinton also went into Pennsylvania with a big advantage: The demographics matched her strengths and she started with a steep lead in the polls. She won’t have that kind of advantage in the coming contests.

Of the states left, the biggest prize is North Carolina, where both sides predicted Obama will win. Clinton dispatched one of her top state organizers, California and Texas veteran Ace Smith, to North Carolina in an effort to get every vote she can. Smith told reporters last week that getting the percentage spread within single digits would be a victory for Clinton. Obama’s also expected to win Oregon and South Dakota.

So where can she look for victory? West Virginia and Kentucky are likely Clinton wins, but they offer fewer than 100 delegates combined. She also has a chance in Guam, Puerto Rico, Montana and Indiana. But none of them is likely to give her a big enough margin to put her over Obama.

To win, she needs to convince voters that Obama is not electable in November even though he’s ahead in the delegate race.

She needs a big influx of cash.

She needs a stunning change of fortune.

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA – Hillary Rodham Clinton ground out a gritty victory in the Pennsylvania primary Tuesday night, defeating Barack Obama and staving off elimination in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Some counted me out and said to drop out,” the former first lady told supporters cheering her triumph in a state where she was outspent by more than 2-to-1. “But the American people don’t quit. And they deserve a president who doesn’t quit, either.”

Her victory, while comfortable, set up another critical test in two weeks time in Indiana. North Carolina votes the same day, and Obama already is the clear favorite in that Southern state with a large black population.

“Now it’s up to you, Indiana,” Obama said at a rally of his own in Evansville after Pennsylvania denied him a victory that might have made the nomination his.

Clinton was winning 55 percent of the vote to 45 percent for her rival with 94 percent counted in Pennsylvania.

A preliminary tabulation showed her gaining at least 52 convention delegates to 46 for Obama, with 60 still to be awarded.

That left Obama with 1,694.5 delegates, and Clinton with 1,561.5, according to the AP tally. It will take 2,025 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.

Clinton scored her victory by winning the votes of blue-collar workers, women and white men while Obama was favored by blacks, the affluent and voters who recently switched to the Democratic Party, according to surveys conducted by The Associated Press and TV networks.

VOTER TURNOUT HIGH

PHILADELPHIA – Election officials projected turnout among Pennsylvania’s 8.3 million registered voters at 40 percent to 50 percent for the presidential primary, double that of the state’s primary four years ago.

Secretary of State Pedro Cortes said Tuesday that for the 2004 primary 21 percent of Democrats, Republicans, independents and other registered voters turned out.

The Associated Press

The Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed the idea of being Hillary Rodham Clinton’s running mate Monday, saying voters must choose between the two for the top spot on the fall ticket.

The Illinois senator, speaking on the eve of Mississippi’s presidential primary, noted that he has won more states, votes and delegates than Clinton so far.

“I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is first place,” Obama said, drawing a standing ovation from about 1,700 people in Columbus, Miss.

“I am not running for vice president,” Obama said.

Obama aides said Clinton’s recent hints that she might welcome him as her vice presidential candidate appeared meant to diminish him and to attract undecided voters in the remaining primary states by suggesting they can have a “dream ticket.”

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had suggested recently that a Clinton-Obama ticket would be popular and formidable against Republican Sen. John McCain in November.

“A lot of Democrats like us both and have been very hopeful that they wouldn’t have to make a choice. But obviously Democrats have to make a choice and I’m looking forward to getting the nomination,” Clinton said Monday in Scranton, Pa.

“And it’s preliminary to talk about whoever might be on whose ticket.”

The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – In olden days, the deadly sins included lust, gluttony and greed. Now, the Catholic Church says pollution, mind-damaging drugs and genetic experiments are on its updated thou-shalt-not list.

In the Vatican’s latest update on how God’s law is being violated in today’s world, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, the head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, also cited the imbalance between the rich and the poor.

“If yesterday sin had a rather individualistic dimension, today it has a weight, a resonance, that’s especially social, rather than individual,” said Girotti, whose office deals with matters of conscience and grants absolution.

It’s not the first time the Vatican has sought to put a modern spin on sin. Last year, the Vatican took on the problem of highway accidents, issuing a kind of “Ten Commandments” for drivers against the sins of road rage, alcohol abuse and even rudeness behind the wheel.

Closer to home, Girotti was asked about the many “situations of scandal and sin within the church,” in what appeared to be a reference to allegations of sexual abuse by clergy.

The monsignor acknowledged the “objective gravity” of the allegations, but contended that the heavy coverage by media of the scandals must also be denounced because it “discredits the church.”

Los Angeles Times

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dueled to a Super Tuesday draw, capturing states big and small and padding their delegate counts in a Democratic contest that remains highly competitive after the biggest day of balloting in presidential primary history.

Clinton won the biggest state, California, capitalizing on support from Hispanic voters.

Clinton won big in the Northeast: her home state of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. She carried Oklahoma, Arizona, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she served as first lady alongside then-Gov. Bill Clinton.

Obama ran strongly in the Midwest, capturing his home state of Illinois along with Minnesota, North Dakota and Kansas. He also won Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Georgia and Utah.

Under Democratic Party rules that award nominating delegates on a proportional basis, both candidates boosted their totals enough to claim victory, and the race seemed no more settled that it had been 24 hours earlier. The Democrats move on to contests Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, and Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Beyond that, both sides foresee a protracted battle extending into March and perhaps much longer.

Speaking in soft, even tones – possibly to spare her strained vocal chords – Clinton acknowledged that the results were far from decisive.

“I want to congratulate Senator Obama for his victory tonight, and I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debates about how to leave this country better off for the next generation,” she said.

Obama returned the favor in Chicago, congratulating Clinton on her performance and praising her for “running an outstanding campaign.”

But, he went on, “We have to choose between change and more of the same. We have to choose between looking backward and looking forward. We have to choose between our future and our past.”

Clinton scored the advantage in delegates, bringing her total to 845 to Obama’s 765, by the latest accounting. It takes 2,025 delegates to claim their nomination.

The vote Tuesday showed Obama broadening his coalition while Clinton continued to show strength among Hispanics and voters worried about the economy.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.