More drenching rain and wind gusts are in the forecast Tuesday for the vacationing President Barack Obama.

A weather front that moved in Sunday has helped keep Obama and his family out of public view during the last few days on Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod.

Mostly, the Obamas have remained at their rented vacation farm complex. However, Monday night, braving a howling rainstorm, Obama and his wife, Michelle, finally managed to dine out.

The president did drive across the island Monday to play basketball with friends and aides at a local elementary school gym. Later, he and the first lady joined friends at a restaurant in Oak Bluffs.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) — More drenching rain and wind gusts are in the forecast Tuesday for the vacationing President Barack Obama.

A weather front that moved in Sunday has helped keep Obama and his family out of public view during the last few days on Martha's Vineyard off Cape Cod.

Mostly, the Obamas have remained at their rented vacation farm complex. However, Monday night, braving a howling rainstorm, Obama and his wife, Michelle, finally managed to dine out.

The president did drive across the island Monday to play basketball with friends and aides at a local elementary school gym. Later, he and the first lady joined friends at a restaurant in Oak Bluffs.

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Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department, will meet Tuesday morning with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss a job offer.

It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two since a controversial sequence of events last month culminated in her stepping down.

Sherrod, who was the Agriculture Department's Georgia Director of Rural Development, has said she is being offered the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

The position includes administration and outreach to improve the Agriculture Department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.

Sherrod was forced to resign in July after misleading and incomplete video footage of a speech she gave was posted on the internet and picked up in media reports. Vilsack apologized to her and offered her the promotion.

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a portion of a speech Sherrod gave in which she spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The original post by Breitbart indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department, and news outlets quickly picked up on the story.

However, the incident took place decades before she joined the department, and her speech in its unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race. In addition, the white farmer who Sherrod mentioned has told reporters that she helped him save his farm.

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Florida has long been fertile ground for interesting political stories, but even by its standards, today's primary provides a showcase worth noting.

The state presents a real conundrum for Democrats, who might benefit most if the person they'd least like to see in office wins their primary. And this election has served up some hard lessons for rich, self-financing candidates, who have dumped millions into their campaigns but still trail in the polls.

Most of the salacious story lines stem from Jeff Greene, the billionaire seeking the Democratic spot in the open race for Senate.

Greene brings a big personality into the race along with his close personal friendship with the former boxer Mike Tyson--the best man at Greene's wedding and a former roommate in Heidi Fleiss, notorious as the Hollywood Madame. Then there's his yacht called the "Summerwind," where there may or may not have been scandalous parties in far-flung and exotic locations.

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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) will call Tuesday for the mass firing of the Obama administration's economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House adviser Larry Summers, arguing that November's midterm elections are shaping up as a referendum on sustained unemployment across the nation and saying the "writing is on the wall."

Boehner, delivering what his aides billed as a major economic address, will say President Obama's team lacks "real-world, hands-on experience" in creating jobs, according to a draft version of his speech that was released in advance. The Republican lawmaker plans to cite reports that some senior aides complained of "exhaustion," including the recently departed budget chief Peter Orszag.

"President Obama should ask for - and accept - the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council," Boehner says in the prepared remarks, which are scheduled for delivery at the City Club of Cleveland shortly after 8 a.m. The mass dismissal, he adds, "is no substitute for a referendum on the president's job-killing agenda. That question will be put before the American people in due time. But we do not have the luxury of waiting months for the president to pick scapegoats for his failing 'stimulus' policies."

Boehner's demand for the ousters of Geithner and Summers is likely to be met with derision in the West Wing, and denounced as mere electioneering less than 75 days before the midterm election. Calls for cabinet officials to be fired is nothing new for the party out of power -- during the Bush administration many Democrats called for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a demand that was not met until Democrats swept the 2006 midterms.

Boehner is seeking to personalize mounting concerns among voters about Obama's handling of the economic recovery. In his speech, he argues that Obama's advisers unfairly highlight brief signs of marginal improvement to suggest a coming surge in job creation.

"The American people are asking, 'where are the jobs?' and all the president's economic team has to offer are promises of 'green shoots' that never seem to grow," Boehner says, according to the text. "The worse things get, the more they circle the wagons and defend the indefensible." After the speech, he is scheduled to participate in a question-and-answer session with business leaders in this economically distressed Rust Belt city.

In advance of the address, Democrats sharpened their fire on Boehner. Democratic National Committee officials organized a conference call Monday to critique what they consider a lack of new proposals from the GOP and unveiled a Web ad rehashing attack lines against the minority leader, including a 15-year-old story about handing out campaign checks from tobacco companies to Republicans on the House floor.

"It was John Boehner and Republicans who invented the ways of Washington," the narrator says in the ad.

House Republicans do not plan to unveil a detailed policy agenda until late September, and Boehner's speech does not expand the GOP's existing economic proposals in any significant way. The speech is part of a bus tour of battleground House districts, focusing on manufacturing-centric regions such as Indiana, Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Boehner will tell the City Club officials that the key to sparking job growth is to extend the tax cuts implemented by then-President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. Republicans want to extend the tax cuts across the board, while Democrats have argued for extensions to all but the top 2 percent of income earners. Both proposals would result in sharp increases in deficit spending -- more than $3 trillion under the Democratic plan and $3.7 trillion for the GOP plan -- but both sides argue that some extension of tax cuts would provide an additional stimulus to spur consumer purchasing power.

Boehner will tell the City Club officials the key to sparking new hiring was to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Republicans want to extend them across the board, while Democrats have argued for extensions to all but the top 2 percent of income earners. Both proposals would result in sharp increases in deficit spending -- more than $3 trillion under the Democratic plan and $3.7 trillion for the GOP plan -- but both sides argue that some extension of tax cuts would provide an additional stimulus to spur consumer purchasing power.

Boehner says that extending the tax cuts for all income brackets would help small business owners, who have been the toughest hit since the financial collapse of 2008. "Raising taxes on families and small businesses during a recession is a recipe for disaster - both for our economy and for the deficit. Period. End of story," he says. "That's why President Obama should work with Republicans to stop all of these job-killing tax hikes."

Boehner needs a net gain of 39 or more Republican seats to seize control of the House and fulfill his self-proclaimed campaign of "Boehner for Speaker." No issue will be more key to that effort than the economy. In Boehner's home state of Ohio -- a critical battleground in the last two presidential campaigns -- unemployment has remained higher than the national average, at 10.3 percent in July. Neighboring Indiana is barely better, at 10.2 percent.

Vulnerable House Democrats from Ohio have embraced Obama's stimulus legislation as something that has, at the least, helped mitigate the damage to the region. Rep. Zack Space (D), elected in 2006, last week hailed a $66 million grant from the Recovery Act to expand high-speed access to the Internet in his eastern Ohio district. Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio) trumpeted a $1.6 million grant to a local port authority for a project that would ultimately create 500 jobs in his district. Republicans, however, say Obama's Recovery Act has been a failure.

On Monday, Democrats predicted that Boehner will offer nothing more in his speech than opposition to Obama's agenda. "What you won't hear is actually what Republicans would do… John Boehner and the Republican leadership wouldn't know a new idea if they tripped over it," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said during the conference call with reporters. "I don't really expect to hear anything new. It's more of the same awful policies that got us into this mess in the first place."

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U.S. stock-index futures declined, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may retreat for a fourth straight day, before a home sales report that may cast further doubt on the viability of the economic recovery.

Oracle Corp., Schlumberger Ltd. and Citigroup Inc. lost more than 1.3 percent to lead declines in the largest U.S. companies. Pfizer Inc. dropped 0.8 percent after its cancer treatment Sutent failed to improve overall survival in patients with a form of lung cancer.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in September tumbled 1 percent to 1,055.2 as of 8:06 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures retreated 0.9 percent to 10,070, while Nasdaq-100 Index futures dropped 1 percent to 1,791.5.

“Data has been weaker than anticipated and it raises questions about the severity of a slowdown,” said Karim Bertoni, who helps manage $18.5 billion at Banque Syz & Co. in Geneva. “It could be that we are in a soft patch before a renewed improvement in the economy, but it is very difficult to anticipate.”

The S&P 500 has dropped 12 percent since April as reports on U.S. jobs and manufacturing pointed to a slowdown and the Federal Reserve said a recovery may take longer than expected. The decline has pushed the gauge’s valuation to 14 times its companies’ reported earnings, the lowest level in about six weeks.

‘Too Early’

“Valuations are relatively undemanding, and that’s a good thing, but people don’t want to be too early in the market,” Bertoni said.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes probably plunged in July to the lowest level since March 2009, evidence the market is restrained by foreclosures and limited job growth, economists said in a Bloomberg survey before a report from the National Association of Realtors due at 10 a.m. in Washington.

European stocks retreated today, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index declining 1.5 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.3 percent, entering what is commonly defined as a bear market after sliding 21 percent from this year’s high.

Sweetened Bid

Dell fell 1.2 percent to $11.80. The company is readying a sweetened offer for data-storage provider 3Par after its earlier bid was bested by a $1.6 billion proposal by Hewlett-Packard Co., according to a person familiar with the matter.

The offer may be sent in the coming days, said the person, who declined to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Last week, Dell had agreed to pay about $1.15 billion. It couldn’t be determined how much Dell planned to boost its price. HP said yesterday it’s willing to pay more than twice what 3Par’s shares were worth before Dell’s bid was announced.

Pfizer lost 1.3 percent to $15.89 in Germany. The world’s largest drugmaker said its cancer treatment Sutent failed in a large-scale study to improve overall survival in patients with a form of lung cancer.

The drug, when combined with Roche AG’s Tarceva, improved the length of time patients lived without their tumor progressing, though that didn’t translate into an overall benefit in survival when compared with Tarceva alone, the New York-based company said.

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Tiger Woods woke up a single man today, one day after finalizing his divorce from wife Elin Nordegren, but at least one of his former mistresses is reportedly ready to change his bachelor status.

Woods' divorce caps nine months of embarrassing details about his sex life and poor performances on the golf course. Most of the details of the divorce were kept private, including custody of their children and any financial agreements.

But court documents obtained by ABC News show that Nordegren hired eight attorneys from three cities and London while Woods employed just one. Nordegren has also formally returned to using her maiden name.

While Nordegren plunges into a new life as a single mother, Woods' sordid past keeps haunting him.

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A federal judge in Washington yesterday temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s efforts to expand stem cell research, ruling in a case brought by a former MIT scientist and others who oppose embryonic stem cell research.

Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, said in his 15-page decision that regulations designed to expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research violated a law prohibiting destruction of embryos for research purposes.

Additionally, the judge ruled that former MIT researcher Dr. James L. Sherley and other scientists who study less controversial adult stem cells would face “actual, imminent injury’’ because of the competition for federal dollars that would be stoked by expansion of research into embryonic stem cells.

The immediate implications of the preliminary injunction were unclear last night, said Kevin Casey, Harvard University’s associate vice president for governmental relations. Harvard has been a recipient of federal grants under the new regulations, and it was uncertain whether the judge’s decision would affect funds already awarded to scientists or only future funding, he said.

The university, Casey said, was “disappointed at this preliminary halting of this research, as it will slow progress that so many who suffer afflictions are relying on.’’ But, he added, the university remained optimistic that the courts will ultimately validate the use of federal money for expanded embryonic stem cell research.

Dr. Leonard Zon, director of the stem cell program at Children’s Hospital Boston, called yesterday’s ruling a “step backward.’’

“It throws things into a confused state,’’ he said.

The hospital receives federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. It also gets philanthropic grants that can be used for research not supported by the government.

Sherley did not respond to calls for comment, but one of his attorneys said he would not be commenting because of the ongoing litigation.

Sherley, now a senior scientist with Boston Biomedical Research Institute, made headlines in 2007 when he held a 12-day hunger strike protesting MIT’s decision to deny him tenure and accusing administrators of racism. Sherley, who is black and a proponent of controversial theories about stem cells, said at the time that he had not been given the freedom to challenge scientific orthodoxy that white professors are given.

“This is the case of an uppity Negro, and there is a group of faculty who would like to see me move on,’’ Sherley, the only black professor among what was then 40 members of the biological engineering department, said at the time.

Sherley and his research team at Boston Biomedical are studying adult stem cells that are involved in cancer initiation and contribute to aging, according to the lawsuit.

The other scientist who remains party to the lawsuit is Theresa Deisher of AVM Biotechnology, with headquarters in Seattle. The original suit included other plaintiffs, but the court had earlier found that they did not have legal standing to proceed.

One of the original plaintiffs, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which supports the adoption of embryos for implantation, had maintained that the research would reduce the availability of embryos.

Lamberth declared that it is in the public interest to stop use of the expanded guidelines because they would lead to the destruction of embryos.

Steven H. Aden — senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal alliance of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the suit — said yesterday that the alliance was encouraged by the “common sense’’ ruling.

“We believe that the court’s interpretation is consistent with Congress’s intent in keeping taxpayer money out of research that destroys human life,’’ Aden said.

In March 2009, President Obama revised limits on stem cell research imposed eight years earlier by the Bush administration. Those restrictions declared that scientists could use federal money only to work with existing embryonic cells lines.

Human embryonic stem cells have the capacity to develop into any tissue in the body, such as insulin-producing cells that might eventually treat diabetes or neurons that could replace those that perish as Lou Gehrig’s disease progresses.

But such research has provoked dissent from activists such as Sherley, who argue that it is immoral for scientists to work with cells derived from embryos because they have to be destroyed to extract stem cells.

The Obama administration attempted to walk a scientific and moral tightrope in its regulations, which allow scientists to work only with stem cells derived from donated embryos. The donors must give their explicit permission for scientific use of the embryos, typically stored at in vitro fertilization clinics.

Even then, federal dollars cannot be used in the process of harvesting the cells; federal funds are limited to studying the cells after they have been extracted.

Lamberth ruled, in essence, that is a distinction without merit under a 1996 law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment.

“Had Congress intended to limit the Dickey-Wicker to only those discrete acts that result in the destruction of an embryo, like the derivation of [embryonic stem cells], or to research on the embryo itself, Congress would have written the statute that way,’’ the judge concluded. “Congress, however, has not written the statute that way, and this court is bound to apply the law as it is written.’’

The irony, said George Annas, a medical ethics specialist at the Boston University School of Public Health, is that researchers generally believed that even the Obama administration’s interpretation of the statute was too narrow because it did not allow federal dollars to be spent creating embryos to study specific diseases.

Zon and his colleague, Dr. George Q. Daley, lamented that the ruling will force them once again to rely on philanthropy to underwrite their research.

“Our lab will have to return to the old mode of keeping human embryonic stem cell research separate from everything else, which means slower progress,’’ Daley said. “It’s a shame.’’

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