IN THE HEADLINES

Trying to dispel tension ahead of convention, Obama and Clinton promote cooperation, unity ... McCain's campaign reviewing donations brought in by prominent Florida fundraiser ... McCain says Obama agenda includes forfeiting the war in Iraq, making big government bigger ... Hawaii and its multiracial society influenced Obama's view of the world and politics

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Obama rejects talk of trouble from Clinton backers

CHICAGO (AP) _ Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday dismissed suggestions that the nominating convention could be marred by tensions between his supporters and the die-hard backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Obama told reporters that their staffs were working out mutually agreeable convention logistics. At the same time, Clinton was assuring her supporters in an online chat that she and Obama were "working together to make sure it's a big success."

Neither directly answered questions about whether Clinton's name should be placed in nomination so that her backers could record their votes.

Obama clinched the nomination after a sometimes bitter primary contest with Clinton. Amid reports that some Clinton backers hope to raise her profile at the convention or even continue to push her candidacy, Clinton and Obama were publicly trying to ease the strained relations that exist between some of their supporters.

Flying home to Chicago, Obama told reporters on his campaign plane that he talked separately this week to Clinton and her husband, the former president, and that they were enthusiastic about having a smooth convention at the end of the month in Denver.

Clinton was expected to deliver a prime-time address to delegates on Aug. 26, the second night of the convention. With the delegate roll call planned for the next evening, Obama was set to accept the nomination with a speech on its fourth and final night.

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McCain campaign is reviewing bundler's donations

WASHINGTON (AP) _ John McCain's campaign began on Thursday to review donations brought in by a prominent Florida businessman following disclosures that his business partner, a foreign national, also may have engaged in fundraising.

The campaign is looking into hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to make sure that they are appropriate, a spokesman said.

The campaign sent a letter spelling out legal requirements to all donors who sent their contributions through Harry Sargeant III, the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

It's illegal for foreigners to contribute their own money to U.S. campaigns.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Sargeant allowed a longtime business partner, Mustafa Abu Naba'a, to bring in some $50,000 in donations since March from members of a single extended family, the Abdullahs, in California, along with several of their friends.

A House committee chairman is looking into Sargeant's defense contracts for shipping fuel to U.S. bases in Iraq as part of a probe into whether contractors are engaging in overcharging.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Mustafa Abu Naba'a is not a bundler for the campaign, although Sargeant is.

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McCain says Obama wants to forfeit war in Iraq

LIMA, Ohio (AP) _ Republican John McCain, who has contended that Barack Obama is willing to lose in Iraq to win the election, on Thursday said his rival would forfeit the war as part of an agenda that also promotes big government and high taxes.

McCain told those gathered for a town hall meeting that Obama is a talented orator with an agenda that could be boiled down to simple policies the Arizona Republican opposes.

"Government is too big, he wants to grow it. Taxes are to high, he wants to raise them," McCain said. "Congress spends too much and he proposes more. We need more energy and he's against producing it. We're finally winning in Iraq, and he wants to forfeit."

McCain's criticism came before he was to travel to Wilmington to discuss possible job losses, as many as 8,000, from the proposed closure of a DHL shipping site, the result of a corporate merger aided by his campaign manager during his work as a lobbyist.

In 2003, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis lobbied Congress to accept a proposal by German-owned DHL to buy Airborne Express, which kept its domestic hub in Wilmington in southwest Ohio.

In announcing a restructuring plan in May, DHL said it planned to hire United Parcel Service to move some of its air packages, sending them through an airport in Louisville, Ky., and putting the Wilmington Air Park out of business.

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Island life in multiracial Hawaii shaped Obama

HONOLULU (AP) _ The diverse culture of the nation's 50th state _ and the island nature of Hawaii itself _ shaped Barack Obama's view of the world and the politics he would practice.

Those who knew him as a child say that view and those politics click with the themes of his Democratic presidential campaign. For Obama, though, Hawaii is even more personal, the place where he picked up basketball and formed his racial identity.

"If you grow up here, where we have no majority and there's a complete ethnic mix, people have learned how to get along with others who look different and are from different places," said longtime family friend Georgia McCauley. Continued...