President to skip NAACP convention

Pennsylvania

YORK -- President Bush will become the first sitting US president in eight decades not to attend at least one national convention of the NAACP, risking alienating some minority voters. Bush, 58, declined to speak at the Philadelphia convention, which runs through Thursday, because of ''scheduling commitments," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One. (Bloomberg)

Illinois

Antidrug official quits to explore run

SPRINGFIELD -- The deputy director of President Bush's drug-control office resigned yesterday to explore a run for the Senate in place of Jack Ryan, the Republican nominee who dropped out over sex-club allegations. Dr. Andrea Grubb Barthwell, a physician from Chicago, had been deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy since 2002. (AP)