Iowa

WASHINGTON -- The Republican Party's nine declared presidential candidates eyed each other warily as much as they sparred during a muted televised debate yesterday in Iowa that featured some careful distancing from President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and jabs at Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and other Democratic hopefuls. The 90-minute session at Drake University in Des Moines, hosted by ABC's George Stephanopoulos, began with a withering exchange between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, then settled into a tame discussion that rarely drifted from party orthodoxy.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- AT&T Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. say several Web companies and Iowa telephone carriers have bilked them of millions in a scheme that lets people throughout the United States call other countries for free. Web sites offering free chat rooms, podcasts and adult content also are involved, instructing consumers to dial Iowa phone numbers that let them access the services, Qwest said in a complaint filed Feb. 20 against 13 companies. That followed a Jan. 29 complaint from AT&T against eight of the companies.

Hunt-Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. rejected yesterday binding arbitration to resolve an impasse with a cable provider over how much airing its stations is worth, the latest sign that thousands of customers in the Midwest and South will remain without major network affiliates this weekend. Sinclair's decision came a day after Iowa's congressional delegation urged the company and Mediacom Communications Corp. to enter arbitration to resolve their financial dispute. More than 250,000 of the viewers who have had programming blocked on their cable systems live in Des Moines, Iowa, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

SPENCER, Iowa -- Pigs outnumber people by more than 11-1 in Clay County, but make no mistake: People cause all the trouble here, and trouble is increasingly finding its way to the doorstep of Sheriff Randy Krukow . It's not that this generally table-flat county in northwestern Iowa is on the road to perdition. Far from it. There hasn't been a murder here in a couple of years, and many folks, out of generational trust and custom, still leave their doors at home unlocked. But in ways that reflect growing demands on sheriffs around the country to respond to problems they often are not prepared to handle, Krukow, 56, is facing a flood of challenges big and small, all of them time-consuming and many going beyond the immediate realm of crime.

MASON CITY, Iowa -- Listen to any politician for long, and you can expect to catch him in a fib. But at a stop in Algona, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. opened with a whopper that no voter familiar with the Delaware Democrat would ever believe. "I'll be brief," he promised - and then talked for half an hour. Mr. Biden has often been ridiculed for needless verbosity. Critics lamented that during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., he needed 13 minutes to ask one question.

Gonzales faced a relentlessly hostile grilling from Senate Republicans and Democrats Thursday as he attempted to explain inconsistencies in his previous statements about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. ?Why is your story changing?? Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa ?At the end of the day I know I did not do anything improper.? Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Vinton, Iowa -- Mike Huckabee, who plays bass guitar in a rock band called Capitol Offense, jokes that he wants to become president so he'll finally get to perform at the White House. I the next breath, turning serious, he says he is running to repay a debt he owes to a country that has given him so much. Launching into the story of growing up in a working-class family, he tells an audience of 100 rural Iowans that his humble upbringing gave him a steady moral compass. "The prophet Isaiah said it this way: `Look to the quarry from which you were dug,'" said Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, who likes to talk in parables and sprinkle references to God, the Bible and prayer into campaign speeches.

MILWAUKEE -- Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson said yesterday that he is dropping out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination after finishing sixth in an Iowa straw poll. "I have no regrets about running," he said in a statement released yesterday evening by his campaign. "I felt my record as governor of Wisconsin and secretary of health and human services gave me the experience I needed to serve as president, but I respect the decision of the voters," said Thompson, 65. "I am leaving the campaign trail today, but I will not leave the challenges of improving health care and welfare in America."

AMES, Iowa -- Gov. George W. Bush was back home in Texas yesterday, his claim on the 2000 Republican presidential nomination strengthened by his clear victory in Saturday's Iowa GOP straw vote, despite the efforts of runner-up Steve Forbes to take the luster off it.The time may have come for others in the field who fared poorly to consider whether they should continue in the race, Bush hinted. "I think everybody's going to have to reassess their positions and find out whether or not they can stay competitive," he said.

A SMALL number of voters, some paid by candidates, trooped to Ames, Iowa, over the weekend to vote in a nearly meaningless first step toward selecting a Republican presidential nominee for the year 2000.The so-called straw poll proved a number of well-accepted truths: Political reporters need something to occupy them during the summer of nonelection years.Texas Gov. George W. Bush is the party's front-runner.Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander is a slow learner, having finished sixth after campaigning in Iowa for six years.

1 Gimme a B ...: Gimme a C ...: Remember, Mack Brown, you have to vote the winner of Oklahoma-Florida (8:15 p.m., chs. 45, 5) as the national champion. 2 Theme song: Telecasts of the Mercedes-Benz Championship tournament (6 p.m., Golf Channel) should open with Janis Joplin's song about the car. Oh, Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz. ... 3 Solid gold: Tubby Smith's Golden Gophers are ranked No. 22, and Minnesota has a Big Ten game with Iowa (7 p.m., ESPN2). If his team stays ranked, Smith will be golden himself.

Ex-Oriole Cabrera signs 1-year deal with Nats baseball Daniel Cabrera is no longer an Oriole, but he's not leaving the area. Cabrera, who wasn't tendered a contract by the Orioles last week, has signed a one-year, $2.6 million deal with the Washington Nationals, pending a physical, according to an industry source. The Orioles would probably have had to pay him between $3 million and $4 million in 2009 had they offered him arbitration. Cabrera, 27, has spent his entire career in the Orioles' organization.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who aggressively campaigned for Sen. Hillary Clinton before his state's precinct caucuses in January, will be named agriculture secretary by President-elect Barack Obama, three Democratic officials confirmed yesterday. The formal announcement was expected this morning at a news conference in Chicago. Vilsack, 58, declined to comment on the report. "Those questions should be answered by the transition office and the president-elect," he said via cell phone.

Angels made 8-year offer to free agent Teixeira baseball The Los Angeles Angels made an eight-year offer to first baseman Mark Teixeira during the winter meetings last week in Las Vegas. Angels spokesman Tim Mead told the Associated Press late Friday that no financial details were being revealed about the offer to the free agent, who is being sought by several teams, including the Orioles. The Baltimore Sun has reported that the Orioles are one of four teams believed to be bidding on Teixeira and have a seven-year offer on the table worth between $140 million and $150 million, according to an industry source.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sophomore Katie O'Donnell scored on a penalty corner in the 89th minute, giving the top-seeded Maryland field hockey team a 2-1 double-overtime victory over Iowa in a national semifinal game yesterday. The victory earned the Terps a berth in their third national championship game in four years. Maryland, which won national titles in 2005 and 2006, will play the winner of last night's Syracuse-Wake Forest matchup at 1 p.m. tomorrow at the University of Louisville. The game will air on CBS College Sports Network.

Democrat Barack Obama returned yesterday morning to Iowa, where his victory in the presidential caucuses gave his drive for the White House a major boost, while Republican John McCain headed into the final weekend of the election season with a call to supporters to prove the polls wrong. Four days before Election Day, McCain was in Ohio - a must-win Republican state. "We're a few points down, but we're coming back, and we're coming back strong," he said at a rally yesterday morning. "We're closing, my friends, and we're gonna win in Ohio."

Congolese rebels declare cease-fire NAIROBI, Kenya: Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo announced yesterday a unilateral cease-fire that should stem violence that has displaced 200,000 people since August. Earlier in the day, false reports about advancing rebels sent thousands of panicked families fleeing a displacement camp and storming into the city of Goma, where they jammed streets, rioted and attacked U.N. vehicles. A spokesman for rebel leader Gen. Laurent Nkunda confirmed the cease-fire agreement but provided no further details.

DES MOINES, Iowa - It would hardly be a shock if John Perkins had beefs with MidAmerican Energy Co. After all, he is Iowa's consumer advocate. His job is to look out for the utility's 630,000 electric customers and 550,000 natural gas users statewide. Maybe the real surprise is this: Perkins has high praise for the Warren Buffett-led utility, a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which on Friday signed a $4.7 billion agreement to buy Constellation Energy Group. "They play very tough.

Filled with the blush of youth, Marshal Yanda took the dare, stepped into the middle of the group and got tasered with a stun gun. Not once, not twice, but three times. And he stayed upright. "I took it for three, four seconds, just stepped out and said, 'Yeah, it hurts a little bit, but it ain't that bad,' " the Ravens guard recalled. "I let them do it to me a couple more times just to make it worth the money." It happened a year ago at the end of training camp. In what passes as humor behind closed doors for a football team, players anted up a $600 payoff for any player willing to take the taser treatment.

Howard County is sending four building inspectors to the Midwest to help evaluate structures damaged by flooding in Louisa County, Iowa. State officials in Iowa had appealed for help to the Maryland Emergency Management Agency through a state compact. Sean Kelly, chief of the Inspections and Enforcement Division of the county's Department of Licensing and Permits, will lead the team, which consists of Ed Ackerman, Kenneth Brown and Dave Baer, according to a news release this week from County Executive Ken Ulman.