Sen. Rick Santorum, the conservative from Pennsylvania who ranks third in the Senate Republican leadership, said yesterday that he was willing to discuss increasing the Social Security tax rate as a way of helping to assure the program's solvency.

Santorum said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that raising the Social Security payroll tax might be the price Republicans have to pay for Democratic support for diverting some of the tax revenue to private retirement accounts, as President Bush has proposed.

Santorum's comments on raising the Social Security payroll tax rate come at a time that the public appeared to be reacting negatively to Bush's private accounts.

In holding out an olive branch to Democrats, Santorum went one step further than the president.

Bush last month said he would consider raising the cap on annual wages subject to the tax, but he has repeatedly ruled out an increase in the tax rate.

Social Security is supported by a 12.4 percent tax, shared equally by employer and employee, on the first $90,000 of annual wages.

New York

Ex-editor who helped reposition Time dies

Henry Grunwald, a Time magazine editor who led the publication's shift from conservatism to a more centrist view before becoming a U.S. ambassador to Austria, died Saturday. He was 82.

During his tenure as managing editor at Time, Mr. Grunwald began to give writers bylines and introduced new departments including Behavior, Energy, the Sexes, Economy and Dance.

He ordered up Time's cover asking the question "Is God Dead?" and personally wrote Time's editorial during the Watergate scandal asking President Richard Nixon to resign.

Before being named to the position in 1968, Mr. Grunwald had been a writer, senior editor and foreign editor at the magazine. After serving 11 years as managing editor, Mr. Grunwald served as editor-in-chief of all Time Inc. publications — including Fortune, Sports Illustrated, People and Money — until retirement in 1987.

He was appointed U.S. ambassador to Austria, the country of his birth, by President Reagan and served in that post from 1988 to 1990.

Orlando, Fla.

Smoke in plane causes emergency landing

An American Airlines plane made an emergency landing yesterday at Orlando International Airport after smoke appeared in the cabin, officials said.

No injuries were reported, and there was no fire.

"They declared the emergency as a normal precaution," said American Airlines spokesman Sonja Whitemon.

"Aside from the fact there was a haze in the cabin, it was a normal landing."

The Boeing 757 was carrying 187 passengers and six crew members on a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles.

Also

Jackson trial: More than a year after stunned fans watched authorities arrest Michael Jackson and charge him with molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland Ranch, prosecution and defense lawyers today finally get to outline their cases to a jury. The opening statements in a Santa Maria, Calif., courtroom will preview the essence of the trial: whether Jackson gave wine to the young cancer patient and then touched him inappropriately.