By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Under a scorching sun, hundreds of people lined up recently in a parking lot here to pick up free back-to-school supplies being distributed by a local radio station. Bobbing among the shade umbrellas were a handful of workers for Senator Barack Obama, carrying clipboards and voter registration forms. On Monday night, others fanned out at a movie screening for surfers in Wrightsville Beach. They descended on a street festival in Asheville. When oil companies posted record profits, Obama supporters showed up at gas stations here with registration forms. Despite the relentless heat, and midsummer lull, the Obama campaign is mobilizing in North Carolina. The state is one of half a dozen once-solid Republican bastions, including Georgia, Indiana and Virginia, where Democrats now sniff opportunity to expand the electoral map.

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By NEDRA PICKLER

Senate candidate and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is scheduled to deliver the Tuesday night keynote address at this year's Democratic National Convention - the same role that launched Barack Obama to national prominence four years ago..."Mark Warner is not afraid to challenge the status quo to bring people together and get things moving," Plouffe's statement read. "It's that kind of spirit and innovation that resulted in his selection as keynote speaker on a night when the convention program will focus on renewing America's economy." The focus on Warner could help boost his prospects in Virginia, where he is trying to win an open Senate seat and Obama is also campaigning hard. Virginia went to George W. Bush in the last two elections, and the Obama campaign considers it one of its best opportunities to turn a red state blue.

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By Staff

Democrats announced the nightly themes for their Denver convention today, stressing unity, security and change. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, co-chair of the convention, said the theme for the August 25th opening night will be "One Nation," with a speech by Michelle Obama...On August 27th, the theme is "Securing America's Future" with an acceptance speech by Obama's still-unannounced vice presidential candidate. Party officials also said elected leaders, policy experts and convention speakers will respond to voter questions during an "America's Town Hall" segment on each of the convention's first three nights.

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By Josh Weinhold

Sen. Barack Obama outlined his energy and economic policy in response to an audience question about tough economic times in the Elkhart area. In the short-term, Obama said an additional round of economic stimulus checks are needed. He also said the government should invest in "fast-track" infrastructure, including roads, schools, sewer lines and bridges. "That would put people back to work right away," Obama said. "But it would also spur on economic activity for people who supply contractors. In the long-term, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said the country needs an entirely new economic engine. That includes investing in development of electric and hybrid cars, as well as wind turbines and solar panels.

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By JIM PROVANCE

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama Tuesday vowed to break America’s “addiction’’ to foreign oil over the next 10 years, but in the meantime he wants a $1,000-per-person tax rebate to help consumers feed their habit. As his Republican opponent, John McCain, toured the Fermi 2 plant near Monroe to call attention to his plan to construct as many as 45 new power plants by 2030, Mr. Obama used a pair of northeastern events to voice support for his tax credit and characterize the Arizona senator’s plan to increase offshore drilling as just an extension of President Bush’s policies. “His plan will not lower prices today,’’ Mr. Obama told a crowd of about 2,500 at Austintown Fitch High School. “You won’t see a drop of oil from John McCain’s plan for the next seven years. Increased domestic oil production certainly has its place as we make our economy more fuel efficient.

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By Colette M. Jenkins

Sen. Barack Obama continued presenting his proposal for the nation's energy crisis this morning at the Austintown Fitch High School gymnasium. A day after unveiling his ''New Energy for America'' plan in Lansing, Mich., the Democratic presidential hopeful told an Ohio crowd of more than 2,500 that the United States got to the point of $4-a-gallon gasoline because of our dependence on foreign oil. He said we need to increase fuel efficiency and increase renewable sources.Obama spent the first half of his hourlong campaign stop speaking about his energy plan before shifting to a town-hall format in which he took questions about education, the war in Iraq, treatment of veterans and infrastructure for interstate, high-speed, lightweight rail travel.

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By Staff

The crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as he stepped to the Lansing Center stage for a campaign event. The Illinois senator was in Michigan on Monday to talk about energy and the economy, two issues he knows are resonating nationally and in this critical industrial swing state. After he was serenaded, Obama said, "There is no place I would rather be on my birthday than Lansing, Michigan." Obama turned 47 on Monday. He then began telling the audience the details of his plan to deal with high energy prices. Obama wants to tax the windfall profits of oil companies and use some of that money to help motorists pay the rising price of gas, help develop more fuel-efficient cars, among other solutions.

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By Ed Tibbetts

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama touted his energy policies here today, arguing that drilling offshore won’t produce any oil for at least 10 years. He also accused rival John McCain of doing the bidding of oil companies that are making record profits. Obama held a town hall meeting here and also visited victims of the June flooding as he set about refocusing his campaign on domestic issues in the wake of a much-publicized tour of Europe. Before a packed gymnasium on the Coe College campus here, Obama called for greater fuel-efficiency standards for cars, pushed a rebate to help consumers deal with high gas prices and said oil companies ought to drill on land they’ve already leased.

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By Chad Livengood

Barack Obama laid out his opposition to opening up American land and waterways to more drilling for oil at a rally in Springfield on Wednesday. The presumed Democratic nominee said authorizing oil companies to drill for more domestic oil and gas in Alaska and off coastal shores will not solve the country's energy crisis. "The oil companies right now have 68 million acres of leases that they are not using," Obama told an energized crowd of 1,550 packed into the Glendale High School gymnasium. "They are holding land that they're not drilling and now they want to get some more (land). And we've got no guarantee they're going to use it." "There's no law that says the oil is only to be used by Americans," Obama added. Instead, Obama says the country needs a national energy independence initiative similar to the 1940s Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb and the 1960s Apollo mission to get a man on the moon.

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By MIKE GLOVER

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is set to meet with the chairman of the Federal Reserve as part of a day of private talks devoted to the troubled economy. Obama was to meet with Fed chief Ben Bernanke in Washington on Tuesday, according to the Obama campaign. Obama also planned to speak by phone to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

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By Ed O'Keefe

Ahead of a week of campaign appearances focused on the economy, Sen. Barack Obama suggested Sunday that there is a domestic economic benefit to improved U.S. relations with the rest of the world."When you think about the big problems we face here at home, they're connected to the problems we face abroad," Obama said before an audience of several hundred here at the quadrennial "Unity: Journalists of Color" conference. A broader international effort in Afghanistan and a drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq, he added, have the potential to "free up money to keep folks in their homes" and provide funds for other domestic concerns.

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By Elaine Ganley

Democrat Barack Obama said Friday that Iran should promptly accept an international call to freeze its uranium enrichment program, which some nations see as a potential step toward obtaining nuclear weapons. The presidential candidate met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris, where they discussed Iran, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, climate change and other issues. Speaking later at a news conference, Obama said Iran should accept the proposals made by Sarkozy and other Western leaders. He urged Iran's leaders not to wait for the next U.S. president to pressure them "because the pressure, I think, is only going to build." The United States and other Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and demand that it freeze its uranium enrichment program. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

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By JEFF ZELENY

With a fanfare typically orchestrated for a visiting head of state, Senator Barack Obama dashed through a series of meetings with leaders on both sides of the Middle East conflict on Wednesday, pledging to protect Israel and prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama, who said he hoped his appearance here would open the door to a stronger bond with Jewish voters at home, pledged that if elected president he would not pressure Israel to accept concessions with Palestinians that would compromise security for Israelis. He also sought to allay concerns over his proposal to negotiate with Iran. “A nuclear Iran would be a game-changing situation not just in the Middle East but around the world,” Mr. Obama told reporters here.

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By Dan Balz and Griff Witte

Sen. Barack Obama stepped gingerly through the intractable politics of the Middle East on Wednesday, offering resolute support for Israel's security, warning that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a "game-changing" event for the world, and pledging to make peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians one of his highest priorities if he becomes president. By motorcade and helicopter, in private meetings and public appearances, the Democratic candidate moved from the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah to the southern Israeli town of Sderot just outside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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By Kathy Kiely

Barack Obama arrived here Tuesday night emphasizing his solidarity with Israel and vowing as president to bring "sustained energy and focus" on ending the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict — the solution to which could hold the key to peace throughout the Middle East. Upon arrival on a late night flight from Jordan, the Democratic presidential candidate delivered a statement at the airport condemning an attack near the hotel where he was to stay. A Palestinian rammed a construction truck early Tuesday afternoon into three cars and a bus, injuring five people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed the attacker. Obama called the incident "a terrible tragedy" and "one more reminder of why we have to work diligently, urgently and in a unified way to defeat terrorism."

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