GINGRICH TO CANCEL DAILY PRESS SESSIONS

TIME has learned thatHouse Speaker Newt Gingrich, who in January had promised an unprecedented spirit of opennesson Capitol Hill, will cancel his daily press briefings. TIME congressional correspondent Karen Tumulty reports that Tony Blankley, Gingrich's press secretary, today conceded that "excessively flamboyant questions" at the televised Q & A sessions contributed to the decision -- and that it "may not be purely coincidential" that the problem came after Gingrich permitted TV cameras at the traditional briefings for the first time in history. Instead of its usual daily access to the Speaker, the media may now have to settle for a surrogate. Tumulty says Gingrich is considering using Rep. John Boehner (R-Oh.), chairman of the House GOP Caucus, as his briefing spokesman.