Friday, Oct 31st
Last update07:49:12 AM GMT
Domestic Glance
Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.
Pima County (Tucson), Arizona's Election Integrity advocate and expert, John Brakey was arrested last night while performing his job as an election supervisor, on behalf of both the Democratic and Libertarian parties, during a post-election hand-count audit of ballots.
The problem erupted after Brakey had noticed a number of ballot bags being counted in the post-election audit were missing their proper security seals. He began to ask questions about those bags, which eventually led to his arrest at the demand of Pima County's Brad "Election Director Gone Wild" Nelson, a man with whom Brakey has had a number of unfortunate (for Nelson) run-ins over the years.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison's College Library has a coffee house, a cafe and expansive views of Lake Mendota.
What it's missing is more books.
The College Library, housed in Helen C. White Hall, holds about 30,000 fewer volumes than it did five years ago.
Meanwhile, there are only about 100 paper journals and magazines left in the library, where previously there were a thousand. Most of them are less academic and more focused on popular culture or current events, such as Bicycling or Time.
TVNL Comment: America. home of the progressively stupid!
The top elections official in the Colorado secretary of state's office has resigned less than two months before the critical Nov. 4 election.
Director of Elections Holly Lowder resigned Thursday. Secretary of state spokesman Richard Coolidge declined to say why, and Lowder had no listed phone number.
Colorado's vote could be enough to swing a close presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain.
TVNL Comment: Here we go again. Keep your eye on this one!
Jack A. Abramoff, the once-powerful Republican super-lobbyist, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that rocked Congress and the Bush administration.
The sentence was far below the 121 months that Abramoff could have received under federal sentencing guidelines but more than either the Justice Department or his lawyers had requested.
TVNL Comment: Watch for the Presidential Pardon. Crime Pays!
In a statement released this afternoon, the NAHJ called on "police and local and federal officials to respect the First Amendment right to free speech and free press of journalists doing their job, especially as it relates to coverage of recent political conventions and the surrounding public protests. Reporters have a duty and a constitutional right to be present at sometimes volatile events and situations, and to inform the public."
"In this era of new technology and broader participation in citizen and independent journalism, it may become increasingly difficult for police to tell journalists from those who are not," the NAHJ statement continued. "But police must be aware it is their duty to try, and to respect the role of the press in a democracy.
A retired professor of electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee was convicted on Wednesday of violating U.S. arms export controls and passing sensitive data to a Chinese national, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The professor, Reese Roth, is a plasma scientist who was hired to work on a U.S. Air Force research contract by privately held firm, Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc, of Knoxville, Tennessee.
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