In the Nation

WASHINGTON - A war-funding bill headed to the Senate floor next week would provide the $50 million sought by the Pentagon to relocate prisoners from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said.

The administration would be denied the money until it produced a detailed plan on how to close Guantanamo and deal with its 240 or so detainees, Reid said.

He said Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D., Hawaii) had told him the measure would not let money be spent to bring terror suspects to the United States before the Oct. 1 end of this budget year.

Some Senate Democrats have spoken strongly against bringing Guantanamo detainees to the United States. Republicans have attacked the idea of closing the prison and criticized the administration for moving ahead without a plan. - AP

WASHINGTON - President Obama intends to use $5 billion to prod local officials to close failing schools and reopen them with new teachers and principals.

The goal is to turn around 5,000 failing schools in the next five years, by beefing up funding for the federal school-turnaround program created by the No Child Left Behind law, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said yesterday.

Obama has no authority to close and reopen schools himself; that power rests with school districts and states. But he has an incentive in the stimulus law, which requires states to help failing schools improve.

Duncan said that might mean firing an entire staff and bringing in a new one, replacing a principal, or turning a school over to a charter-school operator. The point, he said in a speech to the Brookings Institution, is to take bold action in persistently low-achieving schools. - AP

NEW YORK - New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted yesterday to raise transit fares and tolls by 10 percent after the state Legislature approved a $2.26 billion bailout to avert higher fare increases and deep service cuts.

But advocates warned that because the bailout neglects long-term planning, the MTA will have to go back to lawmakers for more cash to keep the system running smoothly.

Under the plan adopted 11-2 by the MTA's board, the base subway fare will go up June 28 from $2 to $2.25, and monthly subway and bus passes will rise from $81 to $89. Fares on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad will go up June 17 between 9.75 percent and 10.75 percent, and tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels will rise July 12 by about 10 percent. No routes will be cut and no layoffs are anticipated. - AP

The FAA turned down a Navy request to fly a patrol aircraft past Manhattan yesterday, two weeks after an Air Force photo shoot over the Statue of Liberty caused a brief panic. The Federal Aviation Administration said it refused clearance for the flight down the Hudson River because the Navy had given it only a few hours' notice of its plans.