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U.S. To Dodge Many NATO Expansion Costs

Idaho Rejects Rattler As State Reptile

Lott Swipes At Broadcasters' 'Bias'

I Want My MTV, uh, C-SPAN!

Klug To Retire, Pass On Senate Race

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U.S. To Dodge Many NATO Expansion Costs

nato

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 25) -- The United States will pick up only a small slice of the cost of expanding NATO over the next decade -- only about 10 percent, or $200 million a year, say U.S. officials. The rest will be paid by current and incoming members. A report released today by the State Department puts the total costs of adding such countries as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the military alliance from $27 billion to $35 billion, much lower than the $125 billion the Congressional Budget Office estimated last March.

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Idaho Rejects Rattler As State Reptile

State Seal

BOISE, Idaho (AllPolitics, Feb. 25) -- Dashing the hopes of fourth-graders at Summerwind Elementary School, the Idaho state House of Representatives on Monday rejected a proposal to make the Western Rattlesnake the state reptile. GOP state Rep. Max Black had filed the bill on behalf of the students. Lawmakers, while praising the children's initiative, decided that the state was better off identifying with potatoes. "I hope that you don't hear that there is any venom in my voice," said GOP Rep. Jeff Alltus, "but I am coiled and ready to strike at this bill."

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Lott Swipes At Broadcasters' 'Bias'

Lott

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 25) -- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott says the nation's broadcasters, while fair to him personally, have an unacceptable level of bias. "I still think they are prejudiced. I still think they are biased toward the liberal side and a number of other areas," he told a National Association of Broadcasters conference Monday. Lott also held his brethren responsible for some of their treatment from the media. "I blame a lot of what we don't get on conservatives and on Republicans because we are not accessible and available and aggressive in using the medium to get our message across," he said.

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I Want My MTV, Uh, C-SPAN!

C-Span

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 25) -- Across the country, political junkies are starting to rebel against cable systems that are dropping C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2. The public affairs networks, which broadcast gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Congress, are losing ground as cable companies hit the limit on what their systems can handle and begin dropping channels to add new ones. Since 1993, 67 systems representing 9.1 million of C-SPAN's total audience of 70.2 million, have either dropped the network or cut it back. Some 3.2 million have been added back, often after viewer protests. The cable systems were started by the cable industry itself in an effort to curry favor with Congress.

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Klug To Retire, Pass On Senate Race

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 25) -- Four-term GOP Rep. Scott Klug of Wisconsin said he would retire at the end of the 105th Congress. "It's an absolutely wonderful job, but I don't think of it as a career," he told the Wisconsin State Journal on Sunday. Klug also said he would not run for the seat of Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold in 1998. Klug, a former television broadcaster, won his seat in 1990 in an upset over 32-year veteran Democrat Robert Kastenmeier in what was thought to be a safe Democratic seat. He said he's announcing his retirement early to give the GOP a chance to find someone who could keep the seat.

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