Political Scene

PENNSYLVANIA

Biden son stable after mild stroke

PHILADELPHIA | Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s elder son, Delaware’s attorney general, made progress Wednesday as he recovers from a mild stroke and hopes to return to work in the near future, his office said.

Beau Biden, 41, was being treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, a renowned neuroscience hospital in Philadelphia, a day after the stroke.

“He will continue to follow standard protocol and receive medical therapy over the coming days, as is typical for any patient recovering from an event like this,” the Delaware Department of Justice said in a statement. “He looks forward to returning to his duties as attorney general in the near future.”

The vice president and his wife, Jill Biden, were in Philadelphia on Wednesday, but he returned to Washington to host a dinner for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday night. Mr. Biden is one of the Obama administration’s major voices in setting Afghanistan policy. He said his son was doing well.

“He’s doing great, thank God,” Mr. Biden told reporters before heading into the dinner at his official residence in Washington.

COMMERCE

Trade deficit rises to $40.4 billion

The U.S. trade deficit rose to a 15-month high as rising oil prices pushed crude oil imports to the highest level since the fall of 2008, offsetting another strong gain in exports. The larger deficit is evidence of a rebounding U.S. economy.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the trade deficit rose 2.5 percent to $40.4 billion in March. It was close to the $40.1 billion deficit economists had expected and the biggest monthly trade deficit since December 2008. Exports of goods and services rose 3.2 percent to $147.87 billion, the highest level since October 2008. Imports were up 3.1 percent to $188.3 billion.

HAWAII

New law shuns document requests

HONOLULU | It’s now law in Hawaii that the government can ignore repetitive requests for President Obama’s birth certificate.

Republican Gov. Linda Lingle signed into law Wednesday a bill allowing state government agencies not to respond to followup requests for information if they determine that the subsequent request is duplicative or substantially similar to a previous request.

The law is aimed at so-called “birthers,” who claim Obama is ineligible to be president. They contend he was born outside the United States.

The governor didn’t elaborate on her reasons for signing the bill, but Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino previously has issued statements saying that she’s seen vital records that prove Mr. Obama is a natural-born American citizen.

NASA

Former astronauts unhappy with plan

The first man to walk on the moon said Wednesday that President Obama’s plans to revamp the human space program would cede America’s longtime leadership in space to other nations.

Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan, the last astronaut on the moon, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing that the Obama plan was short on ambition, including the decision to alter the George W. Bush administration’s goal of establishing a permanent presence on the moon.

Mr. Cernan said in his written testimony that he, Mr. Armstrong and Apollo 13 commander James Lovell agreed that the administration’s budget for human space exploration “presents no challenges, has no focus, and in fact is a blueprint for a mission to ’nowhere.’ ” Mr. Lovell, while not present at the hearing, issued a statement opposing Mr. Obama’s NASA budget.

Last month, Mr. Obama told NASA workers in Cape Canaveral that he was committed to manned space flight and foresaw sending astronauts to an asteroid and, by the mid-2030s, sending humans to orbit Mars.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports