Blue Radar

As I post each morning, here are some of the political stories thatmight not be worthy of their own posts, but are nonetheless newsworthy:

• FOREIGN Syria is pledging to attend the Mideast conference, which will take place in Maryland.
• IMMIGRATION The US government is rewriting rules that penalize employers for hiring illegal immigrants.
• CONGRESS Congresswoman Julia Carson (D-IN) has told a newspaper that she has terminal cancer.
• 2008 ELECTION/HOUSE According to CQ, the Northeast is trending heavily Democratic, and might cost the remaining Republicans, such as Chris Shays, his House seat in 2008: "The Northeast, which has long stood out as the nation’s leastconservative region, produced the biggest bonanza for the Democrats intheir surge to a House majority last year: 11 of the 30 seats the partytook from the GOP were in the area. Republicans say some of thosesetbacks were symptomatic of that particular election year, and predictsome 2008 take-backs. But Democrats say this 'reverse alignment' —counterbalancing the Southern shift to the GOP — rolls on."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL GOP candidate Fred Thompson is accusing FOX News of being biased against his campaign.  (Well that's definitely a new one.)
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL On the weekend, Barack Obama continued to slam Hillary Clinton's health care plan, which requires people to buy private health insurance.  "Their essential argument is the only way to get everybody covered isif the government forces you to buy health insurance. If you don't buyit, then you'll be penalized in some way," said Obama, a U.S. senatorfrom Illinois. "What I have said repeatedly is that the reason peopledon't have health insurance isn't because they don't want it, it'sbecause they can't afford it."
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL Barack Obama says he is open to the legalization of marijuana in some cases.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL In Iowa, Hillary Clinton is being pressed on her relationship with FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch.
• 2008 ELECTION/PRESIDENTIAL During a an appearance on CNN's Late Edition, Mike Huckabee stressed that America is addicted to foreign oil.  "Every time we put our credit card in the gas pump, we're paying sothat the Saudis get rich — filthy, obscenely rich, and that money thenends up going to funding madrassas," Huckabee said.

If we left something out, it's because we either wrote about ityesterday or are scheduled to do so in an individual post later today. Otherwise, feel free to add any stories to the commentbox.