BELLEVILLE — While the committee set up to come up with an alternative to the wheel tax hasn’t yet made an official recommendation, the option with the strongest support at the committee’s Wednesday night meeting appeared to be the proposed sales tax increase of .25 percent.

The tax would amount to an extra 25 cents for every $100 purchase, and it wouldn’t apply to gasoline, groceries, or prescriptions. Mayor Mark Eckert has said it could raise $1.1 million in a year.

The committee, made up of 15 elected leaders, business owners and residents, plans to have its last meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday and will send a recommendation to the mayor’s office after that.

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All Americans deserve to be protected from environmental health hazards. That is why last week, the Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House Council on Environmental Quality announced an agreement and signed a “Memorandum of Understanding on Environmental Justice and Executive Order 12898” (EJ MOU). As part of this agreement, federal agencies will develop environmental justice strategies and provide the public with annual progress reports on their efforts. The

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann is attending church and then visiting with GOP activists as she wraps up a three-day campaign swing through Florida.

Bachmann planned to greet worshipers after services at Idlewild Baptist Church Sunday before taking her campaign bus to Sarasota, where she will address Republicans from area counties.

The Minnesota congresswoman says she plans many trips to Florida as she seeks the nomination to challenge President Barack Obama. Florida officials want the state to have a significant role in the nomination process.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Whites and women are a re-election problem for President Barack Obama. Younger voters and liberals, too, but to a lesser extent.

All are important Democratic constituencies that helped him win the White House in 2008 and whose support he’ll need to keep it next year.

An analysis of Associated Press-GfK polls, including the latest survey released last week, shows that Obama has lost ground among all those groups since he took office. T

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