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Thompson exit seen as Huckabee lift
2008-01-24 22:04:00
Fred Thompson 's quitting the Republican presidential contest will benefit former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee more than any of his principal rivals for the nomination, pollsters and pundits are telling The Washington Times. "Huckabee benefits the most," said Portland, Ore.-based Republican pollster Bob Moore. "Evangelical voters had fewer problems with Thompson. And evangelical leaders have problems with the background or views ? or both ? of John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani." Some evangelicals hold suspect Mr. McCain for his harsh words in 2000 about the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. They are dubious about Mr. Romney for his Mormonism and his come-lately conversion to a pro-life view, and they strongly oppose Mr. Giuliani for his strong pro-choice stand. Boston-based pollster David Paleologos suggests that if Mr. Thompson had stayed in the race he might have won as much as 16 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Florida primary. Of that projected Thompson vote, Mr...
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Super Tuesday Won't Decide Nominations
2008-01-24 21:57:00
Don't look to crown any presidential nominees on Super Tuesday . The race for delegates is so close in both parties that it is mathematically impossible for any candidate to lock up the nomination on Feb. 5, according to an Associated Press analysis of the states in play that day. "A lot of people were predicting that this presidential election on both sides was going to be this massive sprint that ended on Feb. 5," said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant who is not affiliated with any candidate. Now it's looking as if the primaries after Super Tuesday - including such big, delegate-rich states as Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania - could grow in importance. "Maybe some states were better off waiting," said Backus. That doesn't mean Super Tuesday won't be super after all. Voters in more than 20 states will go to the polls on the biggest day of the primary campaign, and thousands of delegates will be at stake. But it's possible Feb. 5 might not even produce clear front-runners....
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Rep. John Linder: Huckabee Presents the Best Choice for Reagan Democrats
2008-01-24 01:58:00
I was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives 34 years ago. I have watched this party change for a long time. Some changes have been better than others. Two years after that first election, I went to work on the Reagan campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. I was one of the leaders of that campaign in Georgia, and my friend, Paul Coverdell, led the establishment's efforts to nominate President Ford. It was the typical establishment-versus-interloper campaign. Most of the friends I had made in the party were in the establishment. Most of them thought the nomination of Ronald Reagan was not only impractical, but would destroy our party. Reagan had just served two terms as the governor of California. His record was not all that conservative. He signed the biggest tax increase in the history of the state. He got the best he could get with a Democrat-dominated general assembly. He signed a bill legalizing abortion. But governors have different challenges t...
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Giuliani in Free Fall in Florida
2008-01-24 01:46:00
Rudy Giuliani has hit the skids in a Florida freefall that could shatter his presidential campaign and leave a two-man Republican contest in the state between John McCain and Mitt Romney, a Miami Herald poll shows. Despite hovering over Florida voters for weeks, Giuliani is tied for third place with the scarcely visible Mike Huckabee in a statewide poll of 800 likely voters. With his poll numbers slipping back home in the Northeast, Giuliani's campaign will implode if he can't turn it around in the six days left before Florida's Jan. 29 vote, the final gateway before a blitz of primaries around the nation that could sew up the race. ''He may be running for president, but with these numbers he wouldn't be elected governor of Florida,'' said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, whose firm conducted the survey with Democratic pollsters Schroth, Eldon & Associates for The Herald, The St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9. Alluding to the timeworn song, Conway added: ``If he ca...
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Early Voting Important Factor in 2008
2008-01-23 03:21:00
For many people, the question this year isn't just which presidential candidate to vote for, it's when. States have done backflips to make it easier for people to vote in advance of election day. Presidential candidates are turning cartwheels to lock in early votes. But in a campaign as volatile as this one, people have to decide whether it makes sense to vote too far ahead. The race is so unsettled that today's champ can be tomorrow's chump. California, for example, is one of more than 20 states voting on Feb. 5. But people have been able to vote by mail since early January. That monthlong voting season is tantamount to a lifetime in this campaign. Other Feb. 5 states where voting is under way include Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee and Utah. Early voting in Florida, which holds its primary next Tuesday, began Jan. 14. As many as one-quarter of all ballots in the state typically are cast early. In all, at least 32 states allow some form of no-...
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US Moves to Avert Economic Meltdown
2008-01-23 03:15:00
Jolted by global recession fears, the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates Tuesday, and President Bush and leaders of Congress joined in a rare show of cooperation in promising urgent action to pump up the economy with upwards of $150 billion in tax cuts and government spending. Market meltdowns overnight around the globe and growing anxiety at home stirred lawmakers and the administration toward swift action, possibly within a few weeks. Wall Street plummeted as the day began, following Asian stocks, then warily eased its sell-off after the Fed ordered the biggest cut on record in a key interest rate. The Dow Jones industrials, down 465 points at one point, closed the day off 128. The Fed, announcing its action after an emergency video conference Monday night, indicated further rate reductions were likely, aimed at encouraging people and companies to start spending again. "The urgency that we feel at home is now even more urgent as we see the impact of our markets on others," ...
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Ghettoizing Barack
2008-01-23 03:13:00
"I guess this is how the West was won," Hillary Clinton exulted at her victory rally in Las Vegas after the Democratic caucuses. Well, not exactly, ma'am. Yet how the Clintons, by deftly playing the race and gender cards, turned back the greatest single challenge to a Clinton Restoration will be studied for a long time to come. It began in Iowa, where Barack Obama, the first African-American crossover candidate with broad appeal to all racial and ethnic groups, was on fire in a state that was overwhelmingly white. Came then Billy Shaheen, the Clinton New Hampshire co-chair, to suggest that, were Barack to be nominated, Republicans would ask when he had stopped using drugs and whether he ever bought or sold drugs. Mark Penn of the Clinton campaign denied on MSNBC's "Hardball" that his team was raising the "cocaine issue." Mission accomplished, Shaheen dutifully resigned. Bill Clinton drove the point home, telling an interviewer that to nominate Obama would be a "roll of the di...
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Republican Thompson Quits White House Race
2008-01-23 03:01:00
Screen star and former Republican senator Fred Thompson Tuesday quit the White House race after fizzling in the early nominating contests. "Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for president of the United States," the 65-year-old star of movies like "Hunt for Red October" and television drama "Law and Order" said in a brief statement. "I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort," he said, adding that he and his wife Jeri "will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people." Thompson came into the race in September, months after his rivals had started campaigning, and was seen by some conservatives as an inspirational figure in the mold of former president Ronald Reagan. But the former Tennessee senator came a distant third in Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina, sounding the death knell for his lackluster campaign after poor showings in other states. Some pundits had speculated that Thomp...
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Norris Says McCain Too Old for President
2008-01-21 17:48:00
Campaigning for Mike Huckabee, actor Chuck Norris said Sunday that Sen. John McCain is too old to handle the pressures of being president. "I didn't pick John to support because I'm just afraid that the vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency," said Norris, who was hosting a fundraiser for Huckabee at his Lone Wolf Ranch. "So we need to find someone that can handle it for four years or eight years ... that has the youth and vision and communication skills to make that work." Norris, 67, is four years younger than McCain, who will be 72 in August. Huckabee will be 52 in August. The former Arkansas governor, coming off a disappointing second-place finish in the South Carolina GOP primary to McCain, distanced himself from Norris' comments. "Only John McCain and his hairdresser know for sure," he quipped, at a ranch house on the sprawling East Texas estate. "It is a very stressful position. ... I'm not going to say he's too old. I think he...
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Obama Steps up Effor to Correct Misconception that He's a Muslim
2008-01-21 16:01:00
Barack Obama is stepping up his effort to correct the misconception that he's a Muslim now that the presidential campaign has hit the Bible Belt. At a rally to kick off a weeklong campaign for the South Carolina primary, Obama tried to set the record straight from an attack circulating widely on the Internet that is designed to play into prejudices against Muslims and fears of terrorism. "I've been to the same church - the same Christian church - for almost 20 years," Obama said, stressing the word Christian and drawing cheers from the faithful in reply. "I was sworn in with my hand on the family Bible. Whenever I'm in the United States Senate, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. So if you get some silly e-mail ... send it back to whoever sent it and tell them this is all crazy. Educate." Obama is referring to a debunked chain e-mail circulating widely on the Internet that suggests he is hiding his Islamic roots and may be a terrorist in disguise. ...
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Obama Fights Back Against Bill Clinton
2008-01-21 16:01:00
Presidential candidate Barack Obama accused former President Bill Clinton of distorting his words as the Democratic race in South Carolina heated up on Monday. Meanwhile, Republican presidential hopefuls kept their focus on economics as they began campaigning for the Jan. 29 primary in Florida. Obama, who was edged out by the ex-president's wife Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Saturday caucuses in Nevada, had harsh words for Bill Clinton, who is beloved in many Democratic circles - including among many blacks, who could be key to a win in South Carolina's weekend primary. The former president "has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling" by making statement that are not supported by facts, Obama said in an interview broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America." The Clinton campaign has suggested it would continue pointing out inconsistencies in Obama's record. Republicans are preparing for delegate-rich Florida, where the race ...
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C.I.A. Says Tribal Leader Behind Bhutto?s Death
2008-01-18 17:07:00
The CIA believes a Pakistani tribal leader's network was behind the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , according to U.S. intelligence officials. Baitullah Mehsud is an extremist with strong ties to al-Qaida and is based in the federally administered, lawless tribal area of Pakistan, along the Afghan border. He has been blamed for an organized campaign of assassinations of Pakistani officials and suicide bombings in the country. The CIA arrived at the conclusion that Mehsud was behind the Dec. 27 killing of Bhutto shortly after it occurred, according to an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The Washington Posts first reported the CIA's take on Friday, in an interview conducted with CIA director Michael Hayden. "This was done by that network around Baitullah Mehsud. We have no reason to question that," Hayden told the Post. The government of Pakastani President Pervez Musharraf has blam...
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Conservative Republicans shouldn't swing at McCain
2008-01-18 16:44:00
Why do establishment Republicans insist on whomping John McCain against a pole like some rabid cat? Especially the conservatives. They're whomping him and whomping him, metaphorically in South Carolina, pivoting, turning on their heels, shrieking with a mixture of hysteria, panic and glee. While they're whomping, they might want to answer this question: Don't they want to win the White House? Or would they feel better if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were commander in chief, dealing with the Islamofascists, filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court and turning the Justice Department over to a big city political machine? The last cat-whomper I wrote about was the elderly Mizz Blankenship, a Southern woman who starred in this column almost a year ago. She went out to get the paper one morning and a rabid cat that I called Mr. Scruffkins attacked her. She grabbed his tail and began whirling in her driveway, her housecoat swirling like Gandalf the Wizard in some desperate battle a...
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Huckabee Under Fire For Comments on Homosexuality
2008-01-18 16:41:00
Republican Mike Huckabee is taking heat from some members of the gay community over recent comments that appeared to equate gay marriage with bestiality. In an interview with the religious Web site beliefnet.com, Huckabee pushes back on recent critics who have called some of his positions "radical." "I think the radical view is to say that we're going to change the definition of marriage so that it can mean two men, two women, a man and three women, a man and a child, a man and animal," he said in the interview, published on the Web site Wednesday. "Again, once we change the definition, the door is open to change it again." David Smith of the Human Rights campaign told CNN Huckabee's comments make clear the former Arkansas governor stance is "out of the mainstream of American thought." "I think he's equating a loving marriage between two people of the same sex with some form of bestiality," he said. " I think that's really out of the mainstream of American thought, and most ...
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Clinton Holds Narrow Nevada Lead on Obama
2008-01-18 16:26:00
Democrat Hillary Clinton holds a narrow 5-point lead on rival Barack Obama in Nevada on the eve of the state's presidential nominating contest, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Friday. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, led Obama, an Illinois senator, by 42 percent to 37 percent in the rolling tracking poll. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was a distant third with 12 percent. In South Carolina, where Republicans vote on Saturday, Arizona Sen. John McCain maintained a steady 7-point edge on former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 29 percent to 22 percent, although rival and Mitt Romney gained three points overnight to climb into third place at 15 percent. Both polls had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. Nevada and South Carolina are the next battlegrounds in the race to choose candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush, with the winners in each state hoping to pick up some momentum as the calendar acc...
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Survival of the Fittest: McCain Needs S.C.
2008-01-16 15:53:00
In just eight days, Arizona Sen. John McCain has gone from having to win a primary to survive as the Republican front-runner, to having to win the next primary just to survive, period. Roller-coaster ride? It's been more like a pendulum. After finishing second Tuesday in the Michigan Republican primary to Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, McCain is in the precarious position of having to win in South Carolina to have any kind of realistic hope of becoming the GOP presidential nominee. There was a lot at stake in Michigan. A McCain victory would have kept alive his momentum coming off his win in New Hampshire and, just as important, could have effectively doomed Romney, his deep-pocketed rival. But independent voters and Democrat crossovers ? McCain's strength ? failed to come out in anywhere close to the numbers of 2000, when McCain won in Michigan. In 2000, just 48 percent of GOP primary voters were registered. The rest were independents and Democrats, with ...
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Romney's Michigan Win Scrambles Republican Race
2008-01-16 15:48:00
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney's victory in Michigan on Tuesday kept his presidential campaign alive, put the brakes on rival John McCain and left their party still with no clear White House favorite. After three big contests in the race to determine which Republican will face the Democrats' choice in the November election, there have been three winners: Mike Huckabee in Iowa, John McCain in New Hampshire and now, Romney in Michigan. Romney had built his campaign on a strategy of winning Iowa and New Hampshire. After losing both, the former Massachusetts governor had to win his birth state of Michigan to retain credibility as a candidate. Anything less than victory could have doomed him to irrelevance, despite his ability to spend millions of his own dollars to stay in the race. Now he can claim momentum heading into the South Carolina contest on Saturday and Florida on January 29. Most importantly, 22 states will vote on "Super Tuesday," February...
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Chuck Norris invites voters to Huckabee fundraiser
2008-01-15 18:12:00
Martial arts champion and television and movie star Chuck Norris is inviting voters to see a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on his Texas ranch. When Chuck Norris endorsed Huckabee in his WND column, support for the former Arkansas governor rocketed by 50 percent within days. A few more days, and a report came out that the endorsement sparked a 66 percent hike in Internet posts about Huckabee. Even other GOP candidates have noted the Chuck Norris endorsement. Now voters across the country are being invited to "attend" a fundraiser for Huckabee at WND columnist Chuck Norris' private ranch, via the Internet. Norris will act as host to an old-fashioned Texas-style barbecue fundraiser for Huckabee Jan. 20 at Lone Wolf Ranch. Voters across the country can join them by logging to the Chuck 4 Huck website, and following a link to the Huckabee campaign site, where for a donation they will be given a password that provides live online access to the event. Among t...
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Zogby: Today's Michigan GOP Race Down To The Wire
2008-01-15 18:09:00
This morning's Zogby tracking poll in Michigan puts today's primary at a dead heat. Here are the numbers, compared to the ones released yesterday: McCain 27% (+0) Romney 26% (+2) Huckabee 15% (+0) Paul 8% (+0) Thompson 5% (+0) Giuliani 3% (-3) Some commentary from John Zogby: "Okay, so who needs interesting? Our final track, to be exact, in Michigan is McCain 27.1% to Romney?s 25.6% and Huckabee at 14.9%. Our call center made 553 calls just on Monday to get as close a read on this as late as we could. Monday alone stood at Romney 26.7% to McCain?s 26.3%. I looked at the calls that were made before 5:30 PM and two candidates were also tied ? pretty much as they were after 5:30 PM. There just isn?t any momentum here."
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Racism, Sexism: Which is More Taboo?
2008-01-15 18:01:00
Expressions of sexism and racism emerging from the contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have been blatant, subtle and perhaps sometimes imagined, and they are renewing the national debate over what is and isn't acceptable to say in public. Clinton's camp has perceived sexism in comments about her appearance and emotions. Supporters of Obama have complained about racial overtones in remarks about his Muslim-sounding middle name, Hussein, and his acknowledged drug use as a young man. Beyond the back-and-forth between a white woman and a black man seeking the Democratic presidential nominaton, the situation has created a snapshot of the nation's sensitivity - or lack thereof - to certain kinds of comments. Is it more acceptable, for instance, to make a sexist remark than a racist remark? "It's always been easier," says Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, which encourages women's advancement in politics. "With women, you can get away with it. ...
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Kucinich OK'd for Debate, Appeal Planned
2008-01-15 17:46:00
NBC News said Monday it will appeal a judge's ruling rather than include Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich in a candidates' debate in Nevada. "We disagree with the judge's decision and are filing an appeal," said a statement provided by Jeremy Gaines, a vice president for MSNBC, sponsor of Tuesday night's debate. Gaines said the parent network would seek an immediate hearing before the Nevada Supreme Court. Hours earlier, Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson ruled that Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, must be allowed to participate. If he is excluded, Thompson said he would issue an injunction to stop the televised debate.
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Analysis: Will Race Matter to Dems?
2008-01-15 17:23:00
Barack Obama accuses Hillary Rodham Clinton of making an "unfortunate" remark about Martin Luther King Jr. She retorts that King's a hero to her - and no one should be thinking Obama is a new MLK. Racial politics, quietly simmering for months, have burst into the open in the Democratic nomination fight between the woman who would be the first female president and the man who would be the first black. Will it make a difference to voters, black or white? The first big test will be in the South Carolina primary a week from Saturday. It will be the first Democratic primary this year in a state with a substantial black population - as Michelle Obama declared over the weekend, "Ain't no black people in Iowa" - and the first in the South. Clinton spent part of Monday praising King, the civil rights leader who was killed in 1968. Speaking at a ceremony honoring him in New York, she said, "I remember hearing him speak when I went with my church to downtown Chicago to see and hear for my...
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McCain faces little incoming fire
2008-01-15 17:23:00
His opponents aren?t going after him. There isn?t a single third-party group hammering him in broadcast TV or radio ads. Even anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, a longtime adversary, is taking it easy on John McCain this time around. In short, McCain is getting a free pass, and it?s beginning to show. In campaign events across western Michigan, voters are once again being reminded of the qualities of character that have made him an admired figure on the national political scene, without the distraction of ads designed to muddy that image. Asked why she likes McCain, Tina Wolfis of Kalamazoo pointed to ?his honesty, his straight-forwardness.? Other voters, Republicans all, cited similar qualities. Pressed about issues, some mentioned federal spending or the war. ?He puts country ahead of politics,? added David Hassenger, a Republican official in St. Joseph County, just south of Kalamazoo. ?[Republicans] deserved to have their asses kicked in the last e...
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Drug-resistant staph found to be passed in gay sex
2008-01-15 09:37:00
A drug-resistant strain of potentially deadly bacteria has moved beyond the borders of U.S. hospitals and is being transmitted among gay men during sex, researchers said on Monday. They said methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is beginning to appear outside hospitals in San Francisco, Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Sexually active gay men in San Francisco are 13 times more likely to be infected than their heterosexual neighbors, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "Once this reaches the general population, it will be truly unstoppable," said Binh Diep, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. "That's why we're trying to spread the message of prevention." According to chemical analyses, bacteria are spreading among the gay communities of San Francisco and Boston, the researchers said. "We think that it's spread through sexual activity," Diep said. This superbug can cause life-threatening and ...
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Butler says royal family did not plot to kill Diana
2008-01-14 17:20:00
LONDON (Reuters) - Princess Diana 's former butler Paul Burrell said on Monday he was convinced Britain's Royal family did not plot to kill her, an accusation leveled at the House of Windsor by the father of Diana's lover. Burrell said Diana had been considering "a private marriage" to her lover, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, before they broke up and disputed claims she was getting engaged to Dodi al-Fayed when they died together in a Paris car crash in 1997. Dodi's father, Harrods luxury storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed, alleges that he and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband and Diana's former father-in-law. Fayed believes her killing was ordered because the royal family did not want the mother of the future king having a child with his son. He alleges that Diana's body was embalmed to cover up evidence she was expecting a baby. But in extensive testimony to the inquest into Dodi and Diana's deaths, the butler...
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Huckabee talks jobs, eyes better than third in Michigan
2008-01-14 17:16:00
Mike Huckabee stands third in the polls leading up to Tuesday's crucial Michigan primary, but said today he hopes to pull off a better finish, fueled by grassroots supporters who believe he is the "only candidate that gets it when it comes to understanding the real economic issues we do face in this country." Reublican rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney, who are first and second in the polls, have been sparring in recent days over who has the better prescription for what ails Michigan, whose 7.4 percent unemployment rate in November was the highest in the country. On CNN's "American Morning," Huckabee said from Kalamazoo that the country needs to help Michigan. "There was a time when this country, Franklin Roosevelt called it the arsenal of democracy," Huckabee said. "The heartland of that arsenal is Michigan. Michigan once saved the United States by being able to manufacture in a hurry our capacity to build up our army and win World War II. We owe Michigan something. They once ...
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McCain Heckled on Immigration
2008-01-14 16:58:00
LIVONIA, Mich. ? Republican White House hopeful John McCain may be riding high after his primary victory in New Hampshire, but he remains at odds with much of the Republican base when it comes to immigration. That was evident when an otherwise-enthusiastic crowd heckled the Arizona senator. Unlike some of his rivals, McCain does not advocate deporting all 12 million of those in the country illegally. ?Various things need to happen depending on how long they?ve been here, what their record has been,? McCain said during a question-and-answer session. He was cut off with cries of ?no, no? before he could elaborate. McCain was also booed when he called for a temporary-worker program. Finally, he gave up. ?Life?s too short my friend,? he said to an especially persistent questioner. ?But I?ll tell you this, ma?am: I?m not going to call up a soldier who?s fighting in Iraq today and tell him I?m going to deport his mother, I?m not going to do that, you can do it.? This was met with app...
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Drugs, race raised in Clinton-Obama fight
2008-01-14 16:58:00
Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson has waded into the Democratic presidential race on behalf of Sen. Hillary Clinton, leveling what appeared to be a criticism of Sen. Barack Obama 's admitted past drug use. Johnson, a prominent Clinton supporter, made the remarks during an appearance Sunday at a church in South Carolina, the scene of a January 26 primary with a large share of African-American voters. Clinton also accused Obama's presidential campaign of distorting remarks she and her husband have made recently, which touched off concerns among some African-American voters. Johnson said he has held previous fund-raisers for Obama but was unhappy with criticisms of the former first lady-turned-New York senator by Obama's campaign. "As an African American, I'm frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Bill and Hillary Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was ...
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New Driver's License Rules Are Issued
2008-01-12 20:46:00
The Department of Homeland Security released regulations Friday that may mute the states' opposition to driver's-license security requirements under the Real ID law but aren't likely to satisfy civil-liberties groups and others that see the license as a first step toward a national identification card. The new regulations give the states until 2014 to issue tamper-proof licenses to drivers born after 1964, and the rules give them until 2017 -- a nine-year extension -- for drivers born before 1964. That longer phase-in will cut states' costs to $3.9 billion, or $8 per license, from an earlier $14 billion, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in an interview. The licenses will include a digital photograph and a filament or some other security device that counterfeiters can't reproduce, but not a controversial radio-controlled computer chip, Mr. Chertoff said. States will be required to verify each applicant's personal information, including his or her legal status...
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Marion Jones gets six months in prison
2008-01-12 20:46:00
WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - Disgraced U.S. sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison on Friday for lying to federal prosecutors about her steroid use, a stunning downfall for the five-time Olympic medalist. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the sentence after Jones, 32, pleaded guilty to two charges last October, when she retired from athletics and tearfully confessed to betraying the trust of her fans after years of denying she used performance-enhancing drugs. "Your honor, I absolutely realize the gravity of these offenses and I am deeply sorry," Jones told the judge, crying as she begged not to be separated from her two young sons. "I pray that you be as merciful as a human being can be."
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