AP - Mayor Lou Barletta, whose bid to unseat a 12-term congressman is based largely on his reputation as an anti-illegal immigration crusader, is trying to keep his signature issue alive even as voters turn their attention to the troubled economy and sky-high gas prices.

Politico - The Republican reformer is back.

AP - Advocates for gay and lesbian parents are denouncing Sen. John McCain, an adoptive father himself, for opposing adoptions by gays, which prompted his presidential campaign to clarify Tuesday that he does not seek a federal ban on the practice.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday that the New Yorker magazine's satirical cover depicting him and his wife as flag-burning, fist-bumping radicals doesn't bother him but that it was an insult to Muslim Americans.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama wants to prove he's ready to be a wartime commander in chief. Republican John McCain hopes to sell the idea that his rival is not.

AFP - The United States vowed Monday not to abandon its efforts to press Zimbabwe to stop attacking political foes after the United Nations failed to secure fresh sanctions.

AP - Obama says he's running for president to lead the country out of Iraq ... McCain says Iraq-style troop increase would work in Afghanistan, calls Obama plans misguided ... DNC chief to embark on Southern bus tour, hoping to register voters to turn Dixie Democratic

AP - Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura halted his political comeback before it began, using a national TV platform to announce that he won't launch a third-party bid for the U.S. Senate "at this moment."

AP - Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is embarking on a voter registration bus tour he hopes will help push Dixie to the Democrats.