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| Report urges replacing Capital Plaza tower Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:50 EDT FRANKFORT . The 26-story Capital Plaza Office tower that dominates the skyline of Kentucky's capital city might come down. A Lexington architectural firm is recommending demolition of the office tower and construction of a new five-story building nearby. The recommendations are contained in the .Facility Assessment Report and Recommendations. document that Sherman-Carter-Barnhart Associates prepared for the state involving the Capital Plaza Complex in downtown Frankfort. The complex, built in the late 1960s and known for its extensive use of concrete, includes the tower, plaza, garage, Fountain Place Shops and Frankfort Convention Center. |
| Incumbent Tenn. congressman loses primary Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:20 EDT A freshman U.S. representative on Thursday became the first Tennessee congressman to lose a primary since 1966 after a bruising campaign in which he was accused of selling out to "Big Oil." Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe beat freshman U.S. Rep. David Davis by a 500-vote margin in the solidly Republican 1st District in the northeastern corner of the state. Davis left his campaign party Thursday night without conceding the race, but Roe declared victory in a speech to supporters. "I will try to serve you with dignity and honesty, just like we ran this campaign," Roe said. "Ain't it fun to win one?" With all precincts reporting, Roe had 25,916 votes, or 50 percent of the vote, to Davis' 25,416 votes, or 49 percent. |
| Gates endorses big expansion of Afghan army Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:40 EDT Defense Secretary Robert Gates has endorsed an Afghanistan government proposal to increase the size of the Afghan army by more than 50,000 troops. The new plan will cost well over $10 billion. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday officials are currently looking at ways to finance it. Options would include seeking money from NATO allies. Morrell said the proposal would increase the size of the Afghan army from a planned 80,000 troops to roughly 122,000, plus 13,000 in support staff. In addition, Gates is poised to approve a plan that would give Army Gen. David McKiernan broader control over U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Currently, McKiernan commands the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, which includes about 15,000 U.S. forces. Under the new proposal, McKiernan also would control the additional U.S. forces in Afghanistan who are training the Afghan army and police. There are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the highest since the war began. All told, the five-year plan could cost about $20 billion, according to The New York Times, which first reported the proposal on it Web site late Thursday. |
| Despite demons, Ivins stayed at high-security lab Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:00 EDT What took so long? Army scientist Bruce Ivins had a history of paranoia, obsession and delusional thinking. And newly unsealed court documents show he didn't keep them to himself. Therapists knew. Doctors knew. Co-workers suspected. One complained he was a "manic basket case." Another recalled him openly weeping at his desk inside one of the military's top biological warfare facilities. The Justice Department, too, had long focused on Ivins. Investigators discovered years ago that he worked late nights just before the 2001 anthrax attacks. And by 2005, government scientists had genetically linked anthrax in his lab to the toxin that killed five people. Yet Ivins stayed on the job at the military lab at Fort Detrick. As the FBI closed in on its top suspect, Ivins grew more unstable. He killed himself last week, more than a year after the FBI had gathered the primary evidence held up Wednesday as proof of his guilt. |
| One-time anthrax subjects glad to move on Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:00 EDT For a few long hours in 2001, things looked impossibly grim for Dr. Irshad Shaikh and his brother, Masood. Not long after dawn on Nov. 13, armed FBI agents hunting for the anthrax killer crashed through the door of his Pennsylvania home and spent the next 13 hours searching the place in moon suits. Another team raided the apartment of a colleague, a few blocks away. Even as TV cameras broadcast the spectacle live, Shaikh, a respected public health official, assured friends and reporters that everything was OK. Vindication finally came this week, when authorities declared that Dr. Bruce Ivins, an Army biologist who killed himself last week, was responsible for the anthrax mailings. The proclamation was welcome but slow in coming for Shaikh and other individuals mistakenly singled out in the anthrax investigation, the most prominent example being scientist Steven A. Hatfill. The government recently paid Hatfill $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit in which he claimed that the probe and related media coverage ruined his reputation. Hatfill's story is well known, but he wasn't the only person whose life was upended. Others were discarded almost immediately as suspects and forgotten by the public, but spent years on terrorist watch lists or trying to repair damaged reputations. |
| Island life in multiracial Hawaii shaped Obama Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:15 EDT The diverse culture of the nation's 50th state - and the island nature of Hawaii itself - shaped Barack Obama's view of the world and the politics he would practice. Those who knew him as a child say that view and those politics click with the themes of his Democratic presidential campaign. For Obama, though, Hawaii is even more personal, the place where he picked up basketball and formed his racial identity. "If you grow up here, where we have no majority and there's a complete ethnic mix, people have learned how to get along with others who look different and are from different places," said longtime family friend Georgia McCauley. "In Hawaii, because we have a confined space in terms of being an island state, we perhaps have to learn how to cooperate and compromise more," McCauley said. "We learn how to listen to each other and work on things in a positive manner." Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a white mother and a black father who had met in Russian class at the University of Hawaii. He was an island boy most of his first 18 years, a pudgy kid called Barry who lived in a modest apartment with his grandparents. |
| Man held in Fla. on charge of threatening Obama Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:30 EDT A man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in court Thursday on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was arrested by the Secret Service on Saturday in Miami and was ordered held at Miami's downtown detention center without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate. A Secret Service affidavit charges that Geisel made the threat during a training class for bail bondsmen in Miami in late July. According to someone else in the 48-member class, Geisel allegedly referred to Obama with a racial epithet and continued, "If he gets elected, I'll assassinate him myself." Obama was most recently in Florida on Aug. 1-2 but did not visit the South Florida area. Another person in the class quoted Geisel as saying that "he hated George W. Bush and that he wanted to put a bullet in the president's head," according to the Secret Service. |
| McCain calls for probe of company he once aided Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:30 EDT Republican John McCain called Thursday for a federal investigation into plans by the DHL shipping company that could cost 10,000 jobs here, as he and his campaign manager took criticism for helping DHL complete a key corporate merger in 2003. With Democrats and labor groups blaming McCain and his campaign manager Rick Davis for their role in the threat to local jobs, McCain moved to demonstrate his concern about possible job losses in this critical swing state that gave President Bush the electoral votes needed for re-election in 2004. The Republican presidential candidate called on the Justice Department to begin an antitrust investigation into DHL's plans to puts its packages aboard the planes of a rival, United Parcel Service, before delivering them in DHL trucks. Because UPS flies out of Louisville, Ky., the plans call for shutting the DHL shipping hub here that uses the Wilmington airport and eliminating up to 10,000 jobs. McCain met with elected officials and residents of the southwest Ohio city to discuss the DHL plans. "I can't assure you that this train wreck isn't going to happen, but I will do everything in my power to see that we avert it," McCain told the group. "Should this happen, DHL will cede significant elements of cost and quality to one of its chief competitors. Consumers all over America would suffer," McCain told reporters later. |
| McCain campaign to return 50K in donations Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:55 EDT John McCain's campaign said Thursday it is returning $50,000 in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen. The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a business partner of prominent Florida Republican Harry Sargeant III, who has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for McCain. The New York Times reported Thursday that Sargeant allowed a longtime business partner, Mustafa Abu Naba'a, to bring in some $50,000 in donations in March from members of a single extended family in California, the Abdullahs, along with several of their friends. The Abdullahs and other Arab-Americans in California also contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Rudolph Giuliani and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a longtime friend of Sargeant. According to the Times, Abu Naba'a is a dual citizen of Jordan and the Dominican Republic. It is illegal for foreigners to contribute their own money to U.S. political campaigns, and McCain's campaign said Abu Naba'a did not do so. |
| Democrats see gains in voter registration Thu, 07 Aug 2008 02:55 EDT Democrats are poised to increase their share of registered voters in Kentucky for the first time in two decades, thanks to a surge in sign-ups and the first slowdown in Republican registrants in years. Democrats had seen a gradual decline among their ranks for 15 consecutive general elections since a peak in 1989, when 67.6 percent of Kentucky voters were card-carrying Democrats. That proportion shrank to an all-time low of 56.9 percent last fall. Since then, Democrats have jumped nearly a half a percentage point to 57.3 percent, as they signed up 30,554 new voters between November 2007 and July 15. Republicans, in that same span, had a net gain of 5,470 registrants and lost voters in some counties, including Fayette. Election officials and observers attribute the Democratic Party's gain to a combination of buzz over that party's presidential primary and the Democrats taking back the governor's office last fall. |
| Officials say Bill Clinton to address Democrats Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:25 EDT Former President Clinton will have a role at the Democratic convention in Denver later this month. Democratic officials said Thursday that Clinton will give a speech on the third night of the convention, before an address by the as-yet-to-be-named running mate for Barack Obama, the party's likely presidential nominee. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity before the details were formally announced. Exactly what role the former president would play at the gathering Aug. 25-28 has been the subject of speculation since his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, ended her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in early June and endorsed Obama. Obama clinched the nomination after a sometimes bitter primary contest with Clinton. Sen. Clinton is expected to speak on the convention's second night. |
| Democrats nominate Flood to replace Stein Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:25 EDT Democratic Executive Committee members in Fayette County nominated Kelly Flood to fill the 75th District House vacancy left by Democrat Kathy Stein, who is running for the 13th District Senate seat. Flood was nominated during a public meeting. She is vice president for advancement at the Starr King School for the Ministry, which is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist church. The school is in Berkley, Calif. Flood received a bachelor's degree in American studies from Florida State University and a master's of divinity from Starr King. She lives in Lexington with her husband and son. |
| Edwards admits having affair, says he's ashamed Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:40 EDT John Edwards says he made a serious error in judgment when he had an affair and is ashamed of his conduct. In a statement, the former Democratic presidential candidate also said he informed his wife about his affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter in 2006 and has asked her forgiveness. Edwards said he is not the father of the woman's daughter and is willing to take a test to determine the 5-month-old baby's paternity. He said the affair lasted for a short time in 2006. Until Friday, Edwards had denied reports in the National Enquirer that he had an affair while his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. He admitted to the affair in an interview with ABC News, then released a statement. |
| Clinton says she wants Obama to win White House Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:15 EDT Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams - and she wants her supporters to vote that way, too. "Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain," Clinton told her cheering audience in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign." Though she has endorsed her former rival, the speech was Clinton's first appearance at a rally for Obama since the two appeared together in Unity, N.H., in June. In another sign of growing detente between the House of Clinton and the House of Obama, Democrats said Bill Clinton would speak on the third night of this month's national convention in Denver. The Clintons' efforts on Obama's behalf may ease worries within the party that bad feelings from the long primary battle might erupt at the convention. |
| US weighs stepped-up military forays into Pakistan Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:30 EDT Top Bush administration officials are pressing the president to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy, The Associated Press has learned. Senior intelligence and military aides want President Bush to give American soldiers greater flexibility to operate against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters who cross the border from Pakistan's lawless tribal border area to conduct attacks inside Afghanistan, officials say. The plan could include sending U.S. special forces teams, temporarily assigned to the CIA, into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets, according to an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the plan. Such a move would be controversial, in part because of Pakistani opposition to U.S. incursions into its territory, and the proposal is not universally supported in Washington. It comes amid growing political instability in Pakistan and concerns that elements of Pakistan's security forces are collaborating with extremists. Senior members of Bush's national security team met last week at the White House to discuss the recommendations and are now weighing how to proceed, the officials said. |
| US tells Russia to halt attacks in South Ossetia Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:20 EDT The United States urged Russia on Friday to halt aircraft and missile attacks in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia and withdraw its combat forces from Georgian territory as the situation in the former Soviet state verged on full-scale war. The White House said President Bush discussed the situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while both leaders were in Beijing for the start of the Olympics. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the parties involved in hopes of ending the fighting, and made plans to send a U.S. envoy to the region. "The United States calls for an immediate ceasefire to the armed conflict in Georgia's region of South Ossetia," Rice said in a statement. "We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil." Rice also said Russia should respect Georgian sovereignty and agree to international mediation to end the crisis that threatens to engulf the volatile region. "We urgently seek Russia's support of these efforts," she said. Rice said she and other senior U.S. officials had been in touch with "the parties" to the conflict but did not identify to whom they had spoken. In Moscow, Russia's foreign ministry said Rice had talked to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov told her that Georgia must be convinced to withdraw its forces from South Ossetia, it said. |
| McCain, Obama urge halt to fighting in Georgia Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:00 EDT The major candidates for president on Friday called on Russia and Georgia to end their military action and appealed for more diplomatic efforts aimed at avoiding a full-scale war. Republican John McCain said Russia should withdraw its forces. Democrat Barack Obama condemned the violence and urged the two sides to show restraint. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has long pledged to take back control of South Ossetia, which battled Georgia for de facto independence in fighting that ended in 1992. On Friday, Moscow sent tanks into the region when Georgia launched a major military offensive to retake the breakaway province. Campaigning in Iowa, McCain told reporters that the U.S. should convene an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to resolve the crisis. "What's most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces," McCain said. |
| In corn country, McCain says no to ethanol support Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:00 EDT Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world. "My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that's healthy," McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation's premier farming showcases. "I believe in renewable fuels. I don't believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels." McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in farm country, though that stand helped to make him unpopular enough in Iowa that he skipped participating in its leadoff presidential caucuses in 2000 and again in 2008. In a brief speech at the fairgrounds - where he viewed a 1,253-pound boar named Freight Train and looked for pork chop on a stick, a fair delicacy - McCain pledged to negotiate trade deals favorable to farm commodities. "My mission and my job as president of the United States will be to make sure every market in the world is open to your products," he said. |
| Cheney to speak at GOP convention on opening night Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:10 EDT Vice President Dick Cheney, a conservative favorite but a divisive national figure, will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said Friday. There had been doubts about a speech by Cheney, who remains unpopular with most Americans. When asked earlier this week about the vice president's plans to attend the convention, spokeswoman Megan Mitchell left the question open by saying his schedule for September had not been set. Cheney plans to speak the same Monday night that Bush will address delegates in St. Paul, Minn., Mitchell said Friday. The convention is scheduled for Sept. 1-4, ending with John McCain's nomination. In a statement, the White House said, "The vice president looks forward to participating in the Republican National Convention and continuing to work for the election of Sen. McCain and other Republican candidates in the coming months." Democratic candidate Barack Obama has tried to link McCain to Cheney as well as Bush in an effort to portray a McCain administration as a continuation of Bush's. Only 31 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released this week. In June, an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll showed Cheney viewed positively by just 23 percent. |
| McCain seeks to define himself and Obama Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:00 EDT John McCain's efforts to define Barack Obama have been well cataloged in recent days, from the substantive (calling Obama a tax raiser slow to offer an energy plan) to the silly (comparing the Illinois senator to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.) What's less apparent are McCain's efforts to define himself. The GOP presidential hopeful has adopted a new campaign slogan, "Country First," a paean to his years in the military and decades in Congress. He's begun speaking more openly about his years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. And despite his wealth and elite legacy as the scion of admirals, McCain has tried to cast himself the embodiment of middle-class, middle-American values. The new effort was in full swing Thursday, when he spoke at a town hall meeting in northwestern Ohio. "This is the heartland of America!" McCain proclaimed repeatedly, saying there is no more patriotic part of the country. |
| Chandler says "it's time' to withdraw from Iraq Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:48 EDT After making his first whirlwind trip through Iraq over the weekend, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler said the United States should begin to withdraw troops now and force the Iraqi government to stand on its own. .As long as we continue to fund this thing and as long as we continue to provide security, there is less incentive for the Iraqi government to do the things they need to do to control the country,. Chandler told the Herald-Leader. .I think we need to leave them with as stable a situation as we can but we need to lift off from the country as soon as possible. .I think it's time to start withdrawing,. he added, although he acknowledged that any such shift in policy isn't likely to occur until the next president takes office in January. He also said he's increasingly concerned with the mounting cost of U.S. occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, which works out to roughly $330 million per day. |
| Lunsford airs second campaign ad Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:48 EDT Democrat Bruce Lunsford's campaign for the U.S. Senate rolled out his second television ad Thursday, saying Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell is .the master. of turning campaign contributions from special interests such as oil companies into legislative favors. McConnell's campaign responded by bringing up problems Lunsford had with his nursing-home business. In his new 30-second ad titled How It Works , Lunsford is shown standing near a split-rail fence in a rural setting. .Here's how it works in Washington,. says Lunsford. .The politicians get millions in campaign cash. The special interests get what they want. And we get the short end of the stick. |
| Beshear moves CPE out of Education Cabinet Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:48 EDT FRANKFORT . Reversing an action by his predecessor, Gov. Steve Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to move administration of the Council on Postsecondary Education from the Education Cabinet to his office. Beshear said the move .more clearly demonstrates the importance of higher education to my administration while removing an unnecessary layer of government bureaucracy.. Interim CPE President Richard Crofts and other higher education leaders, including University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. and Eastern Kentucky University President Doug Whitlock, applauded the move. Beshear said his order also shows potential candidates for the CPE presidency that the governor wants that person to be one of his top advisers. |
| Statement from Edwards on his affair Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:40 EDT Here is the text of John Edwards' statement: --- In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public. When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99 percent honest is no longer enough. I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices, and I had hoped that it would never become public. With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006 and today I take full responsibility publicly. But that misconduct took place for a short period in 2006. It ended then. I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established. I only know that the apparent father has said publicly that he is the father of the baby. I also have not been engaged in any activity of any description that requested, agreed to or supported payments of any kind to the woman or to the apparent father of the baby. It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry. In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up - feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help. |
| Chandler returns from Iraq saying soldiers do .outstanding job' Fri, 08 Aug 2008 02:58 EDT When he found out that one of his Democratic congressional colleagues was planning a visit to Baghdad, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, jumped at the chance to go. .I had been looking for a trip to get over there,. said Chandler, a member of the House appropriations committee's panel on the State Department and foreign operations. .I feel it was something I had to do.. And in the course of the visit, which lasted little over 24 hours, the delegation stayed in Saddam Hussein's former hunting lodge, rode on a helicopter that threw out decoy flares and met with two top U.S. generals. Democratic Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas organized the trip. He brought Chandler, Rep. Tim Bishop, D-New York, and three other Arkansans: Republican Rep. Mike Boozman, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor and Democratic Rep. Marion Berry. |
| Denver wants delegates to see the old and the new Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:02 EDT This frontier town turned modern city wants to put its best foot forward for the Democratic National Convention - just not necessarily one wearing a cowboy boot. Western duds - like a shiny pair of boots, a finely shaped Stetson and a pearl-snap Western cut shirt - would've been appropriate for the rodeo Rep. Diana DeGette suggested for the party welcoming delegates and news media. That venue didn't sit well with some of the organizers and sponsors, she said, and they opted for an amusement park setting. "They didn't want to look like a cow town," DeGette, D-Colo., said, declining to name anyone. "I thought it would have been a great nod to our Western heritage and we could talk about Western values as we move forward." Conflicting feelings about Denver's Wild West image are nothing new. A century ago, when Denver was preparing to host its first Democratic National Convention, organizers were eager to present a modern, contemporary image. "We're really stuck with the idea that we want to look progressive and modern and cosmopolitan, but we also want to play up our romantic past," state historian Bill Convery said. "In 1908, Denver was trying to have it both ways." |
| U.S. has few options to deter Russia Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:47 EDT Even as it accuses Russia of using "disproportionate" force in the conflict over Georgia's rebel South Ossetia province, the United States find itself with few diplomatic or military options to deter Moscow's ferocious air and ground assault. In fact, most of the key cards, including the power to veto any United Nations, were held by Russia, which appeared to be using the crisis to ram home to the United State and its allies that it will not accept further expansion of NATO. Both Georgia and the former Soviet republic of Ukraine are seeking to join the alliance. The Russian invasion "sends a message to all of the countries in the former Soviet space that Russia is resurgent and is willing to flex its muscles," said David Philips, an expert with the Atlantic Council. "This is Russia's assertion of power," said retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a former top NATO commander. Jim Jeffrey, a national security official at the White House, said from Beijing Sunday that the United States has "made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations." |
| Paulson: Bush right on Wall Street `hangover' quip Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:42 EDT Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former investment firm executive, says "absolutely there's a lot of truth" to President Bush's comment that Wall Street "got drunk and now it's got a hangover," in understanding the current economic climate. Paulson also is taking a wait-and-see approach on a possible second round of economic aid, an idea that congressional Democrats are pushing to a vote. The $168 billion program of tax rebate checks that Bush signed into law in February was the right size to help the struggling economy this year, Paulson said. He wants to see how it ends up helping the economy in the July through September period and worries about driving the budget deficit higher with a second plan. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to have the House vote on additional aid when lawmakers return in September from their summer vacation. She believes more is needed to counter higher gasoline prices and other costs. The economy is struggling to emerge from crises in the housing, financial and credit markets and cope with rising prices at the pump and grocery store. Paulson, in a television interview broadcast Sunday, asserted that the country's economic fundamentals are sound. But asked about Bush's remark, the former Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive acknowledged Wall Street has played a role in the current downtown, particularly in its borrowing and lending practices. |
| Reduce partisan fight over judges, lawyers urge Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:52 EDT The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations. The incoming president of the lawyers' group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts. At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group's annual meeting in New York. The bipartisan panels would help "avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process," Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press. Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, "almost never have bitter confirmation fights." |
| Rockmount shirts set the fashion in the West Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:22 EDT Its Western shirts have been worn by everyone from Elvis Presley in "Love Me Tender" to Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain." Actor Clark Gable and singer Bob Dylan also sported Rockmount Ranch Wear shirts, and when the Democratic National Convention rolls around, each member of Colorado's House delegation will have his or her own custom-made shirt. "The bottom line is, we are unique," said Steve Weil, Rockmount's president and the grandson of 107-year-old Jack A. Weil, the company's founder, fondly known as "Papa Jack." "We are the last domestic manufacturer of our type of product," Steve Weil said. Rockmount is a family-owned business that has stayed competitive in the global market. |
| Bush urges religious and political freedoms in meeting with Chinese leaders Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:10 EDT President Bush continued to urge Chinese leaders Sunday to allow their citizens more political and religious freedoms as he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese officials on the opening weekend of the Summer Olympic Games. Since the beginning of his six-day Asian tour, Bush has repeatedly brought up human rights issues, to the irritation of his hosts in Beijing, while at the same time praising Chinese reforms that have opened up this economy of 1.3 billion people to record development. On Sunday, Bush attended church services at the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church with much of his family, a provocative act in a country where Christians are limited by law to worshiping at state-approved churches. The Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities detained a worshipper, Hua Huqui, on his way to the service attended by Bush Sunday. After the service, Bush alluded to Chinese religious restrictions, saying, "You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion." Bush pressed the matter hours later with Hu, telling him the church service gave him "a spirit-filled, good feeling." He added, "As you know, I feel very strongly about religion, and I am so appreciative of the chance to go to church here in your society." |
| Local corruption probe clouds Ohio for Obama Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT CLEVELAND . A federal investigation of Democratic Party leaders in Cuyahoga County could pose problems for Barack Obama's campaign in Ohio, party insiders and political analysts say. If the party's local campaign operation suffers, some Democrats said, it could cost Obama votes in a Democratic area where he must win overwhelmingly to offset Republican strength elsewhere in the state. .There's no question that this is not helpful,. said Peter Lawson Jones, a Democrat who serves on the three-member Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners with Jimmy Dimora, the chairman of the county Democratic Party, who is at the center of a federal inquiry. But representatives of Obama's campaign in Ohio dismiss the idea that the events in Cuyahoga County will have any effect on the November election. They argue that Obama has built an effective organization in Ohio that does not need the county party's help. |
| Another politician finds TV can't redeem him Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT It's not impossible to understand why John Edwards had an affair. It's not so hard to imagine why he thought he could get away with it. What is baffling is why he thought talking about it on television would help. The answer was not in the solemn, carefully worded interview he gave on Nightline on Friday. It is buried in the campaign .Webisodes. taped in 2006 by his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, just before he formally declared his candidacy in the Democratic race for president. Sprawled on a private jet in faded jeans and open-collar blue shirt, Edwards is glowing with confidence, laughing and flirting a little, but earnestly convinced that it was necessary and wise to have the filmmaker and her crew recording his every movement and offstage thought. .I have come to the personal conclusion that I actually want the country to see who I really am,. he says in the slow, emphatic tone of a man under the spell of his own centrality. Those Webisodes, which were removed from the Internet when rumors about the affair surfaced, are back up and also flashing furiously on television, another widening ripple in the scandal he stirred up by telling his version of the story to ABC News. |
| Energy problems ahead for whoever is next president Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT WASHINGTON . No matter who moves into the White House in January, energy problems will hit him with the punch of a winter storm. Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, agree that the era of cheap energy and abundant supplies is over. Both have called for breaking away from the nation's overwhelming oil dependency. Obama would take a decade to wean the nation off its reliance on foreign oil. Mc.Cain, dubbing his energy agenda the .Lexington Project. . after the Massachusetts town where America's war for independence began 233 years ago . says his goal is to achieve .energy independence. by 2025. Last week Obama said he's ready to turn to the federal Strategic Petroleum Reserve and make available as much as 70 million barrels of the government's emergency oil. |
| Running on enmity Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT WASHINGTON . Sen. John McCain is so quick to pick up his gold-colored cell phone to solicit advice . from senators, campaign consultants, even the stray former deputy press secretary . that aides, concerned about his tendency to adopt the last opinion he has heard, have tried to cut back on the time he has to make calls. McCain is known to sign off on big campaign decisions and then to march off his own reservation. Two weeks ago, he publicly disagreed with his own spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, after she used a line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama that he had approved after careful strategizing within his campaign. Hazelbaker raced out of the Virginia campaign headquarters and refused to take McCain's calls of apology, aides said, and a plan to have Republican members of Congress use the same critical line about Obama's foreign trip fell apart. Out of his hearing, McCain is called the White Tornado by some people who have worked for him over the years. Throughout his presidential campaign, he has been the overseer of a kingdom of dissenting camps, unclear lines of command and an unsettled atmosphere that keeps aides constantly on edge. Even now, after a shake-up that aides said had brought an unusual degree of order to McCain's disorderly world in the last month, two of his pollsters are at odds over parts of the campaign's message, while past and current aides have been trading snippy exchanges debating the wisdom of attack advertisements he has aimed at Obama. |
| Vote for Obama, Clinton says:.We are on one journey now' Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT LAS VEGAS . Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams . and she wants her supporters to vote for him, too. .Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain,. Clinton said in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. .Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign.. Although she has endorsed her former rival, the speech was Clinton's first appearance at a rally for the Illinois Democrat since the two appeared together in Unity, N.H., in June. In another sign of growing d.tente between the House of Clinton and the House of Obama, Democrats said Bill Clinton would speak on the third night of this month's national convention in Denver. |
| Clinton to headline second night of convention Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:27 EDT Hillary Rodham Clinton will headline her own night at the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama's campaign announced Sunday in a nod to her strong second-place showing in the party's presidential primary. The former first lady will speak on the second night, Tuesday, Aug. 26 - the 88th anniversary of the women's right to vote. The campaign and convention committee in a statement called her "a champion for working families and one of the most effective and empathetic voices in the country today." The Obama campaign is trying to avoid hard feelings among Clinton's supporters at their carefully orchestrated convention. But they still haven't reached a deal on whether Clinton will be included in the roll call vote for the nomination, which could make the party appear divided heading into the final stretch of the White House race. The campaign said Obama's wife, Michelle, is slated to headline the opening night on Aug. 25. The high-profile appearance at the kickoff is a chance for the potential first lady, who has been attacked by critics, to get more positive exposure. Even more importantly, she can help explain her husband to voters in the most personal terms. The yet-to-be-named vice presidential pick will speak on the third night, as is the tradition. Democratic officials say Bill Clinton is also scheduled to speak that night, but only the headliners were listed in Sunday's official announcement, made while Obama was vacationing in his native state of Hawaii. |
| McCain: Obama seeks to 'legislate failure' in Iraq Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:37 EDT Republican John McCain on Saturday issued a scathing critique of Barack Obama's judgment and readiness to be commander in chief, telling a veterans' group his Democratic rival had tried to "legislate failure" in Iraq and placed his own ambition ahead of military success there. Addressing the Disabled American Veterans convention here, McCain mocked what he called Obama's varying positions on the Bush administration's decision to send an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq last year. The GOP hopeful supported the so-called "surge" strategy, even as polls showed most voters opposed sending more troops into combat at the time. Obama spoke out against the original invasion as an Illinois state senator and strongly opposed the subsequent troop increase in the U.S. Senate and on the campaign trail. Since then, the surge has been credited with helping stabilize Iraq and reduce violence there. Obama has argued that it has not brought about the political reconciliation between rival Sunni and Shia factions needed to create lasting peace in the country. But in a tacit acknowledgment that his original assessment of the troop increase may have proven incorrect, Obama's campaign removed criticisms of the strategy from its Web site last month. |
| Edwards' ex-mistress nixes paternity test Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:22 EDT The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter. Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who is not running for public office and that she wishes to maintain the privacy of her and her daughter. "Rielle is therefore making no statement now or in the future," Gordon said in a statement. "Furthermore, Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future." On Friday, Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair with Hunter in 2006 but denied that he was the father of Hunter's 5-month-old daughter. Edwards offered to take a paternity test to prove he is not the father. Hunter's decision means that the issue of who the father is remains an open question. |
| On the road to power: A profile of Leonard Lawson Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:38 EDT Editors Note: This story was first published in the Lexington Herald-Leader on Aug. 21, 2005. Many of Leonard Lawson's business holdings have since changed, but he remains one of the state's top road contractors. Leonard Lawson grew up poor in southeastern Kentucky, plowing his neighbors' fields for $1 a day, plus feed for his horse. Today, as Kentucky's top road builder, he is one of the wealthiest and most politically influential men in the state.Of $3.5 billion awarded for state road projects since 2000, nearly one-fourth have gone to companies Lawson owns or has an interest in. And that's just part of his business. When Lawson wants a road, governors try to fund it. Kentucky ranked last among the states in school spending in a recent survey, but it placed 14th in highway spending. When Lawson wants a law, legislators labor mightily to comply. The overweight gravel truck bill in this year's General Assembly -- which would have authorized 60-ton loads, up 50 percent from the current limit -- was backed by Lawson and hotly opposed by nearly everyone else. It almost passed. |
| Vacancy filled on high court Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT A former circuit and district court judge has been appointed to the state's highest court. Gov. Steve Beshear appointed Daniel J. Venters of Somerset to a Kentucky Supreme Court seat vacated by former Chief Justice Joseph E. Lambert of Rockcastle County. Lambert retired June 27. Venters will represent the 3rd Supreme Court District, which comprises 27 counties. The Judicial Nominating Commission, led by Chief Justice Don Minton Jr., recommended Venters, Robert W. Dyche III of London and Eddie C. Lovelace of Albany for the open spot Tuesday. Venters is currently in private practice and received his law degree from the University of Kentucky. He will serve until the Nov. 4 general election. |
| Adult education has few audit problems Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT A state audit of more than $11.6 million in adult education programs found $10,540 in questionable costs. State Auditor Crit Luallen, in an audit of 31 adult education programs released Friday, said the $10,540 in questioned costs were mostly due to lack of documentation. The Council on Postsecondary Education oversees the grants to local counties. Luallen's office has done an audit of the adult education program, which includes an assortment of classes, each of the past four years. Auditors examined 31 adult education programs in 29 counties. Auditors found some of problems with lack of oversight regarding student eligibility and failure to keep accurate records on staff development, according to a press release from Luallen's office. .The overall management and administration of the CPE grants by the local adult education programs seems to be in good standing based on our audits,. Luallen said. |
| McConnell ad compares views on energy Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell's latest TV commercial about energy policy compares his views on drilling and oil company profit taxes with those of his Democratic challenger, Bruce Lunsford. .Billions of barrels of oil are off America's coasts but 85 percent is off limits. McConnell is leading the fight for more exploration. Lunsford wouldn't open a single new acre for offshore drilling,. says the announcer of the 30-second ad. The ad cites as its source an Aug. 4 opinion piece by Lunsford that ran in the Herald-Leader. In that column, however, Lunsford never says he opposes off-shore drilling . he just doesn't mention lifting current moratoriums as part of his eight-point energy plan. Earlier this summer, Lunsford told the Herald-Leader that he would support allowing companies to drill new off-shore leases as part of a broader energy plan. |
| Vencor ties surface in Senate race Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:58 EDT The re-election campaign of U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has settled on a quick response to criticism by Democratic challenger Bruce Lunsford: .Vencor.. But challenging Lunsford about past troubles at the national health care company he founded is an argument that cuts both ways. Lunsford and McConnell both hold Vencor ties. The Louisville-based company made national headlines in 1998 for evicting Medicaid patients from nursing homes to make room for more lucrative private-pay patients. Lunsford apologized, and the company paid a $270,000 fine. In 1999, Vencor filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganized. Asked about a new Luns.ford commercial tying McConnell to Washington's moneyed special interests, McConnell spokesman Justin Brasell on Thursday said, .Here is how it works in Lunsford's world: You run a nursing home business that takes millions from the federal government, and then you are forced to pay record fines for treatment of senior citizens. Then you bankrupt the business but make sure that you walk away with millions.. |
| AmEx questions law passed after deadline Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:18 EDT American Express is asking a federal judge to throw out a new law because it was passed after the General Assembly's constitutional deadline of April 15. A lawsuit filed by the New York-based financial services company challenges a law meant to help bolster the state's bottom line by changing the time period after which travelers checks are presumed abandoned. The suit was filed just days before a state judge in Frankfort ruled last week that lawmakers cannot .stop the clock. so that their 60-day session can continue into the early-morning hours of April 16. Travelers checks that are not cashed are considered abandoned after 15 years in every state. But the General Assembly made Kentucky the only state that considers the checks abandoned after seven years, said Molly Faust, a spokeswoman for American Express. |
| Clinton supporterstry to ban caucuses Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT PITTSBURGH . Hillary Clinton supporters urged the Democratic Party on Saturday to end caucuses, the town hall meetings in states such as Iowa, where Clinton's presidential campaign first stumbled and Barack Obama launched his march to the nomination. They didn't prevail . the Democratic National Committee's platform committee Saturday ruled that such an idea doesn't belong in the party platform. But their complaint about the caucuses as unfair could be the start of a long-term quest to change the way the Democrats pick their presidential nominees. .We need to get rid of caucuses,. said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Pa., who lobbied the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform. .Caucuses are inherently unfair,. she said. .I can't take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?. |
| Lawson accused of buying bid info Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:03 EDT A sworn statement from an FBI agent accuses a politically influential road contractor in Kentucky of paying $20,000 to a state highway engineer in exchange for confidential bid information on state contracts. The FBI affidavit says investigators are exploring whether former Transportation Cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert facilitated the release of secret bid estimates to the contractor, Leonard Lawson. Details of the affidavit, filed in U.S. District Court in London, were first reported Saturday by The Times-Tribune of Corbin and The Courier-Journal of Louisville. Attorneys for Nighbert and Lawson questioned Saturday how FBI Special Agent Clay Mason's statement became public. The affidavit was used to obtain a warrant last week to search two Eastern Kentucky businesses for evidence of a financial link between Nighbert and Lawson. |
| Edwards' ally explains $14,000 payment to mistress Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:33 EDT John Edwards' political action committee paid his mistress $14,000 after she stopped working for it to obtain 100 hours of unused videotape she had shot for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, an associate told The Associated Press on Thursday. The woman, Rielle Hunter, already had been paid $100,000 for the programs. The explanation - which Edwards' advisers declined to discuss on the record - is the first effort to justify the payment in April 2007 to Hunter. That payment came months before Edwards' chief fundraiser quietly began sending money himself to the pregnant woman. Edwards last week acknowledged he had an affair with Hunter in 2006. The former Democratic presidential contender and senator from North Carolina has denied any knowledge of those payments to Hunter from Fred Baron, Edwards' national finance chairman and a wealthy Dallas-based trial attorney. Baron also has described his payments to Hunter as a private transaction. But the $14,000 payment to Hunter is significant because its source was Edwards' OneAmerica political action committee, whose expenditures are governed by U.S. election laws. Willfully converting money from a political action committee for personal use would have been a federal criminal violation. |
| Clinton to get roll call at Democratic convention Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:14 EDT Turns out Democratic primary loser Hillary Rodham Clinton will get time to shine at the party's national convention after all - and quite a bit of it. Democrats officially will choose Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall. But in an emblematic move meant to heal divisive primary wounds, the vanquished Clinton name also will be placed in nomination alongside his during the traditional state-by-state delegation roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. And, she gets her own plum speaking slot. So does her husband, former President Bill Clinton. All that high-profile Clinton action, spread over at least half of the convention's four prime-time speaking nights, ensures an enormous presence for the couple who have been national fixtures in the Democratic Party since 1992 - and whose latest White House bid, hers, split the party into for-them or against-them camps. |
| Obama campaign issues rebuttal to book's claims Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:07 EDT Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hit back Thursday with a 40-page rebuttal to the best-selling book "The Obama Nation," arguing the author is a fringe bigot peddling rehashed lies. Jerome Corsi's anti-Obama book, "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president. The book is a compilation of all the innuendo and false rumors against Obama - that he was raised a Muslim, attended a radical, black church and secretly has a "black rage" hidden beneath the surface. In fact, Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The Obama campaign picked apart the book's claims in a rebuttal titled "Unfit For Publication," to be posted on the Obama campaign's rumor-fighting Web site, FightTheSmears.com. The title is a play on the book Corsi co-authored against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military service called "Unfit For Command." "Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor. "His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal." |
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