Nation in brief: Obama to order cuts for Cabinet

President Barack Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

While the budget cuts would amount to a minuscule portion of federal spending, they are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.

Obama’s order comes as he is under increasing pressure to show momentum toward his goal of eventually reducing the federal deficit, even as he goes about increasing spending in the short run to prop up the economy and support his priorities.

Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget outline for 2010, which includes unprecedented new investments in health care, education and energy. But the huge budget, which contemplates a $1.2 trillion deficit, has drawn the ire of small-government conservatives who say that such high deficits jeopardize the nation’s economic future.

PLUMERVILLE, Ark.

Car goes into lake; three children die

Three children died early Sunday morning when the car they were in drove straight into a man-made lake, authorities said.

Arkansas State Police investigators and sheriff’s deputies questioned the children’s mother about what happened just after 3:30 a.m., when she apparently drove down an old state highway that dead-ends into Brewer Lake.

Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith declined to immediately identify the children, ages 2, 7 and 8, or their 26-year-old mother.

Smith declined to offer any specifics about the drownings, saying deputies wanted to verify the mother’s account of what happened. The Morrilton, Ark., woman had not been arrested or charged Sunday afternoon, the sheriff said.

LOS ANGELES

SAG leaders recommend deal

The Screen Actors Guild’s board of directors has voted to recommend that members approve a deal reached with Hollywood studios on movie and prime-time TV show productions.

The Guild says in a statement that the plan approved by board members Sunday would give members a 3 percent wage increase upon ratification and a 3.5 percent increase in the two-year agreement’s second year. Members would also get a 0.5 percent pension and health contribution increase.

The new deal follows the Internet provisions earlier agreed to by writers, directors and another actors union. The Guild had waged a yearlong battle for better Internet compensation.

The Guild’s interim national executive director David White says in the statement that the union is eager to get members back to work.

From wire reports