VIDEO: Today's Headline News from Associated Press

In this Feb. 6, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama points towards REI CEO Sally Jewell as he announces that he is nominating her as the next interior secretary replacing outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- She doesn't wear a cowboy hat favored by traditional picks for interior secretary. Sally Jewell prefers fleece and Gore-Tex jackets and wears a safety helmet when she needs it for scaling cliffs, skiing or kayaking.
 
Jewell, the 57-year-old chief of Recreational Equipment Inc., represents a new face for a cabinet post more often associated with ranching or oil, gas and mining development. The fact that a mountain-climbing CEO of an outdoors company is President Barack Obama's nominee underscores a new reality in Washington and beyond: the growing influence of outdoor recreation as a political and economic force.
 
"It's a total game-changer - a recognition of changes in how public lands are used," said Peter Metcalf, president and CEO of Salt Lake City-based Black Diamond Inc., a maker of ski and climbing gear and apparel. "Politics in Washington have finally caught up with reality."
 
SENATORS HUSH-HUSH AS THEY CRAFT IMMIGRATION BILL
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The eight senators meet in private several times a week, alternating between Sen. John McCain's and Sen. Charles Schumer's offices. They sit in arm chairs arranged in a circle and sip water or soft drinks as they debate temporary workers and border security. In a capital riven by partisanship and gridlock, they are determined to be the exception and actually get something done.
 
This is immigration reform's "Gang of Eight." With them lies the best hope in years for overhauling the nation's byzantine immigration laws - and they know it. That's partly why they are, by all accounts, working amazingly well together as a self-imposed deadline approaches for their sweeping legislation to be released. The progress is happening even though the group includes some of the Senate's most outsized personalities, failed and prospective presidential candidates, one lawmaker dogged by scandal and another facing a potential re-election challenge that could be complicated by his stance on immigration.
 
In addition to McCain, R-Ariz., Schumer, D-N.Y., and Graham, the gang includes Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential 2016 presidential candidate; Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who's battling allegations related to prostitution and his ties to one of his donors.
 
SURVEY: MANY CONFLICTED ON GOV'T SPENDING CUTS
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Barack Obama and lawmakers spar over huge federal deficits, they're confronted by a classic contradiction: Most Americans want government austerity, a survey shows, but they also want increased spending on a host of popular programs: education, crime fighting, health care, Social Security, the environment and more. Less for defense, space and foreign aid.
 
The newly released General Social Survey asked people whether they believe spending in specific categories is "too much," "too little" or "about right." It covers the public's shifting priorities from 1973, when Richard Nixon was president, through 2012 with Obama in the White House.
 
"Despite a dislike of taxes, more people have always favored increases in spending than cuts," wrote the survey's director, Tom W. Smith, of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
 
While people's priorities shift over the years, they've not changed on one category. Foreign aid has been stuck firmly in last place since the survey began. Last year, 65 percent of those surveyed thought there was "too much," 25 percent checked "about right" and a slim 11 percent said "too little." The numbers are not much changed from 1973 - when 73 percent said too much on foreign aid, 22 percent just right and 5 percent too little.
 
Various polls have consistently shown the public believes foreign aid is a far bigger slice of the spending pie than it actually is.
 
SET CLOCKS AHEAD FOR DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
 
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Spring must be around the corner. It's time to set the clocks forward for daylight saving time.
 
At 2 a.m. local time Sunday, daylight saving time arrives with the promise of many months ahead with an extra hour of evening light.
 
You lose an hour of sleep, but make sure to turn the clock ahead - spring forward - before heading to bed Saturday night to avoid the panic of a late rise.
 
It's also a good time to put new batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors and hazard warning radios.
 
Some places don't observe daylight saving time. Those include Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas.
 
Daylight saving time ends Nov. 3.
 
 
 
 

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