David Drake

A freeway bridge fell, and the state still can't find a way to invest more in transportation, laments [Democrat St. Paul State Representative Alice Hausman].

"We just moved through this time of crisis," Hausman said (referring to the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis on August 1 - Drake), "and we didn't do a thing...People are fed up with us."

Property taxes are spiking - especially in her St. Paul district - and there's no boost in state aid for cities.

Hausman heads the House Capitol Investment Finance Division - the bonding panel. That should give her a lot of say about broken bridges, stalled traffic, polluted water and the like.

[...]

"We will not let gridlock between three leaders be the defining point of government in Minnesota. We all represent our constituents. We don't represent our leaders," [said Hausman].

Nevada authorities said Friday a registered sex offender may have been the one who raped a young girl in a horrific homemade videotape, and said they want to talk to him in hopes he can lead them to the child.

Chester Arthur Stiles, 37, was being called a "person of interest" in the search for a girl with haunting eyes who authorities believe was 4 or 5 years old when she was raped and sexually assaulted in the video, Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said.

The girl is called "Madison" on the tape, and it is "possible" that the man seen assaulting her is Stiles, DeMeo said.

[...]

He said investigators were led to Stiles by tips after photos drawn from the videotape of the girl and her attacker were distributed widely.

"This is breaking our hearts," DeMeo said. "She shows no emotion during the brutal assault — no crying, no emotion, nothing. You look in her eyes, her spirit is missing. That's the emotional part of this."

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 "baby bond" from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

Clinton, her party's front-runner in the 2008 race, made the suggestion during a forum hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus.

"I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time, so that when that young person turns 18 if they have finished high school they will be able to access it to go to college or maybe they will be able to make that downpayment on their first home," she said.

The New York senator did not offer any estimate of the total cost of such a program or how she would pay for it.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards criticized Rush Limbaugh on Friday for referring to some members of the military as "phony soldiers."

Edwards and the campaign of fellow Democrat Chris Dodd took issue with the radio talk show host's characterization of Iraq war veterans who have spoken out against the war. Limbaugh was responding to a caller who argued that anti-war groups "never talk to real soldiers."

"They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media," the caller said.

"The phony soldiers," Limbaugh responded.

[...]

"All these Republicans went running to the mic and the TV cameras when MoveOn ran their ad about General Petraeus. Now let's see if they really mean it," [John] Edwards said. "Let's see if they'll speak out against Rush Limbaugh."

"Let 'em die." ("'Em" being the Men and Women serving in the U.S. Military)

"Let 'em bleed."

"Let 'em come home without limbs. So disfigured and gross you won't want to kiss your son, daughter, father or brother."

"Keep putting metallic ribbons on your vans and SUVs."

"Let 'em bleed. Let 'em bleed."

An Anoka resident who told police that someone burned the shape of a cross into his lawn is now accused of burning the image himself.

De'Andre June told police he woke up Wednesday morning to find the charred outline of a cross in his lawn.

But the 47-year-old Anoka man is charged with falsely reporting a crime.

June has a prior record. Police say that inmates in the Anoka County Jail saw the news story about the cross and recognized June.

The inmates told police that when June was in jail with them, he said he would do something like this to get sympathy from the community, from the church, and collect donations.

June is charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing the legal process stemming from an altercation when police arrested him. He was arrested on a warrant connected to a financial fraud case.

The Guinness Book of Records says the heaviest baby ever was born in the US in 1879. It weighed 23.12 pounds but died 11 hours after birth.

"There is a real intolerancy [sic] to homosexuality in a lot of these organizations," said Peter Cobb, an organizer with Not In Our Name.

Seeking to turn the tables on the scare tactic of "San Francisco values" that conservatives used during last year's midterm elections, organizers of Sunday's 24th annual Folsom Street Fair have decided to dedicate the leather and fetish event to what they say represents those values – community, diversity, and sex-positive self-expression.

Organizers of San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair -- sponsored by Miller Brewing Co. -- have portrayed Christ and his disciples as half-naked homosexual sadomasochists in the event's promotional advertisement, and the conservative group Concerned Women for America is complaining about the hypocrisy of it.

"The bread and wine representing Christ's broken body and lifegiving blood are replaced with sadomasochistic sex toys in this twisted version of Da Vinci's The Last Supper," CWA said on its Web site.

"'Gay' activists disingenuously call Christians 'haters' and 'homophobes' for honoring the Bible, but then lash out in this hateful manner toward the very people they accuse," said said Matt Barber, CWA's policy director for cultural issues.

"In their version of The Last Supper, Christ, Who gave His life for our sins, is despicably replaced by sin itself as the object of worship."

CWA is calling on California politicians -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sens. Feinstein and Boxer among them -- to "publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers.

"Daddies and Dykes," erotic photography by Midori, Julie Simone, and Lee Harrington. The gallery is located at 2199 Market Street and Sanchez. Doors open at 7 p.m. for a reception featuring "food, booze, and boot polishing served up by hot slave boys" until 10.

[...]

"Perverts Put Out for the Folsom Street Fair!," an event described as a "spoken word smut salon,"

[...]

"This Shit Will Fuck U Up: Venus' Playground After-Party" at 1277 Mission Street at 9th hosted by Ms. Cat and Dusty Kitten.

[...]

"Beginner Bondage: Quick Tips for Your Toy Bag with Rope," "Japanese Rope Bondage with Madame Butterfly". (1)

The chacma baboons, which live wild in the Cape peninsula, have been raiding people's homes for food and causing thousands of pounds in damage.

[...]

"They get into the kitchens, they know where the fridge is, they open it and take everything, and then they defecate everywhere."

"I believe that we lost critical time in dealing with Iran because the White House chose to downplay the threats and to outsource the negotiations," Ms. Clinton said, according to a transcript of the speech published by The Daily Princetonian. "I don't believe you face threats like Iran or North Korea by outsourcing it to others and standing on the sidelines."

Since 2002 Britain, France and Germany have led talks meant to assure that Tehran's nuclear program would not give it the capacity to build weapons. The three countries last week declared that Iran's decision to resume nuclear research had brought the talks to an end, and, with the United States in support, asked that the matter be sent to the United Nations Security Council for possible action.

Apple has admitted that a "small number" of the screens on its new iPod Touch have trouble displaying dark images. Now let's see if Cupertino takes the next step and replaces the glitchy Touches free of charge.

In his review of the Touch, Wall Street Journal tech guru Walt Mossberg notes that some "early" units of the Touch (although not his pair of review units, apparently) suffered from faulty screens; indeed, I could barely make out the dark scenes in "The Hunt for Red October" on my test Touch, and several other reviewers have pointed out the problem as well. Mossberg reports that Apple has admitted to the problems, adding that only a "small number of units" were affected and that the issue is "being remedied."

I recently bought two "week 37" iPod Touches and both exhibit this problem. When I went to the Apple Store where I bought them to get an exchange, I was told by the "genius" (said with sarcasm, since the guy was no more a genius than the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds) that the screen looked fine to him. I was told I could exchange it if I paid the 10% restocking fee. Apple Stores have definitely lost a customer. If Apple doesn't fix this problem, then Apple has lost a customer of their products forever.

For example, dark scenes in the classic Roman Polanski film, Chinatown, were really dark – lacking detail that the iPhone nicely detailed. The display also had a yellower cast than the iPhone. Dark images in photo albums similarly lacked detail," said Macworld’s Christopher Breen.

It wasn't long ago that California public health officials distributed 350,000 Chinese-made canvas lunchboxes to promote healthy eating by school children.

Now the state is asking parents to discard the lunchboxes after tests found "significant" levels of lead in some of the canvas bags. The lead was found in only three of the bags tested but officials said they didn't want to take any chances.

State bureaucrats are also dealing with charges that they waited too long to notify parents of the hazard.

Press reports said that state health officials learned in July that the Sacramento County Public Health Department had found lead in the lunchboxes through a swab test.

"It certainly is unfortunate that an item we're using to promote healthy behavior is discovered to be in itself a health hazard," said Mark Horton, director of the Department of Public Health. "We will be reassessing our policy on the distribution of our promotional products."

Horton insisted he had acted properly. He said the department stopped ordering the lunchboxes in July and notified local agencies.

But Horton's department didn't notify parents until this week.

"It wasn't until we got more confirmation tests," Horton told the San Jose Mercury-News, "that we decided to take more aggressive action."

"The kind of material we were dealing with required sophisticated testing to determine if there was lead" and if it was a dangerous level, he said. "It took several weeks to conduct the testing."

The lunchboxes carry a logo saying "eat fruits and vegetables and be active." They were given out at health fairs and similar events.

The lunchboxes were imported from China by T-A Creations, a Los Angeles company. They were then sold to a second company, You Name It Promotions of Oakland, which sold them to the state.

It's hardly a sedcret [sic] that vinyl and canvas lunchboxes contain lead. New York City and the state of Connecticut have ordered recalls of similar items in recent years and Target and Wal-Mart have pulled some lunchboxes from their shelves.

[...]

"It's their mission to prevent illness in children," said Manju Kulkarni, staff attorney for the National Health Law, which works with the California Health Consumer Alliance, "but, instead, they're potentially poisoning them by distributing these lunch bags," the Mercury-News reported.

About 200 demonstrators sang and heard speeches Thursday at a protest against Halliburton Co. recruiters at the University of Wisconsin [at Madison] before departing peacefully — unlike a bloody event 40 years ago to which some compared it.

The Campus Antiwar Network has accused Halliburton, whose former subsidiary had large contracts to aid the U.S. military in Iraq, of profiting from war and other unethical practices.

[...]

The group rallied at noon on a hill at the heart of campus, then marched to the Engineering Centers Building, where the career fair was held. Activists tried to discourage students from meeting with the oil services company.

[...]

The protesters sat in front of the Halliburton booth, virtually blocking access to the four recruiters. University officials worked to clear a path so those attending the fair could walk by and even meet with company representatives — if they could withstand heckling.

"How can you justify this?" David Hammond, a 37-year-old freelance writer who joined the protest, asked a Halliburton recruiter. "On a personal level, how do you live with yourself?" The recruiter did not respond.

Josh Kossel, 22, a senior studying mechanical engineering, passed the crowd to meet with Halliburton recruiters and said he would have no problem working for the company.

"I don't let this crap affect me," he said. "I think protesting in general is pretty stupid."

[...]

Nearly 300 companies are taking part in the three-day fair, university officials said. Halliburton was there only Thursday, and further protests are not planned.

Houston-based Halliburton is looking for entry-level employees as part of its plan to add 13,000 workers this year. Halliburton recruiters on campus declined to comment and referred questions to the company's spokeswoman.

Spokeswoman Melissa Norcross has called its critics uninformed since Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR, separated earlier this year. KBR has won billions of dollars in contracts from the U.S. government to help the military in war zones.

The Senate voted Thursday to condemn an advertisement by the liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org that accused the top military commander in Iraq of betrayal.

The 72-25 vote condemned the full-page ad that appeared in The New York Times last week as Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, testified on Capitol Hill. The ad was headlined: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us? Cooking the books for the White House."

The ad became a life raft for the Republican party as the war debate kicked into high gear. With several Republicans opposed to President Bush's war strategy, GOP members were able to put aside their differences and rally around their disapproval of the ad.

Sen. Gordon Smith, one of the few Republican senators who supports legislation ordering troop withdrawals, told reporters Thursday he thought Petraeus' testimony and the MoveOn.org ad were the two biggest factors in keeping Republicans from breaking ranks with the president: Petraeus' testimony because it was persuasive and the MoveOn add because it went too far by attacking a popular uniformed officer.

"It was stupid on their part and disgraceful," said Smith, R-Ore.

"Well, we didn't make it today, but we are going to keep trying," [Michigan Democrat Carl] Levin said Friday during a news conference.

In a private e-mail obtained by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.

"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote.

"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"

Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu was charged on Thursday with fraud and campaign finance violations in a case that has prompted presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton to return $850,000 in contributions.

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia unsealed a criminal complaint in New York charging Hsu, 56, with perpetrating a $60 million "pyramid" fraud scheme between 2003 and 2006 and committing related federal campaign finance crimes in 2006.

[...]

Hsu used a small portion of the $60 million to reimburse investors who made contributions on his behalf to presidential campaigns, including Clinton's, Garcia told reporters at a news conference.

[...]

He was charged on one count of mail fraud and wire fraud and one count of violating the Federal Election Campaign Act, which limits individual campaign contributions. If convicted he could face 20 years in prison for each of the fraud charges, and five years on the campaign finance charge.

After wavering Republican Senators came under fierce political pressure, the bill garnered 56 votes in the 100-member chamber, but in a stinging defeat for Democrats, fell four votes short of the required 60-vote supermajority.

The measure, framed by Democratic Senator James Webb, and co-sponsored by Republican war critic Senator Chuck Hagel, would have mandated rest periods for troops equal to the length of time they spent on combat tours.

Its failure was the latest bitter disappointment for Democrats who grabbed control of Congress last year, but have repeatedly failed to change the course of US strategy in the unpopular war.

[...]

But critics branded the bill a "back-door" attempt to enforce a drawdown of US troops from Iraq. Supporters did not dispute the fact it would limit troop levels, but said it was vital to ease the strain on the US military.

[...]

Republicans celebrated the defeat of the bill, which they said would have amounted to a legislated surrender in Iraq, a week after Bush declared his troop surge strategy a success.

Senator and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain branded the bill "dangerous," adding it would have "the effect of changing policy on the war."

Republican Senator Jim Bunning issued an outspoken attack on the bill.

"I will not support this slow bleed strategy in Iraq, it ties the hands of our commanders," he said.

Republican Senator John Warner, an expert on the military, who has expressed disquiet about war strategy, had considered voting for the measure, but was swayed by top military brass in a meeting on Wednesday.

AL GORE has a story he wants to tell the world. But it will cost you a thousand dollars to hear it.

In a passionate attack on the climate policies of Prime Minister John Howard and US President George Bush, the former US vice-president, addressing a very expensive lunch in Sydney yesterday, called Australia and the US "the Bonnie and Clyde" outlaws of the global environment for their failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

[...]

Mr Gore made his comments after reporters were asked to leave the lunch venue. Despite the cost, lunch in the 700-seat room at the Sydney Convention Centre was a sell-out, as is tomorrow's event in Melbourne. VIP packages, which included a spot close to Mr Gore and a meet-and-greet with him, cost $25,000.

The New York authorities have rejected a request from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit the site of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The Iranian president will arrive in New York on Sunday to address the United Nations General Assembly.

A New York police spokesman said the World Trade Center site was closed to visitors because of construction work.

He said requests by Mr Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero would be opposed on security grounds.

New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the Iranian leader had asked the permission of the police department, the US Secret Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to visit the site.

President Hugo Chavez wants Venezuelan clocks turned back half an hour and he wants it done in record time – next Monday.

"I don't care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead, let them call me whatever they want," Chavez said on his weekly TV show. "I'm not to blame. I received a recommendation and said I liked the idea."

The shift will allow children to wake up for school in daylight instead of before sunrise, Chavez said.

That may seem reasonable to many Venezuelans but ordering the change with little notice and scant public education has raised questions over how much thought was given to the plan.

It also highlights how the anti-US president's governing style can sometimes be eccentric, improvised and rushed in his self-styled revolution to turn one of the world's biggest oil exporters into a socialist state.

Chavez himself has not had time to get to grips with the practicalities of the clock shift.

In his live show, he called on his brother, the education minister, so that the two men could explain the measure. But they mistakenly told Venezuelans to move their clocks forward at midnight on Sunday, when the policy is to move them back.

Chavez dismissed criticism that moving the time only a half hour was quirky, questioning why the world had to follow a scheme of hourly divisions that he said was dictated by the imperial United States.

The change will put Venezuela on its own time zone, shared by no other country. Several countries have adopted times that put them half an hour ahead or behind neighbours, and Nepal's official time is just 15 minutes ahead of that of India.

Venezuelan businesses are now scrambling to call in technicians to re-program their computers for the time change.

Most countries advertise in the media any planned changes in clock times for months before the implementation date.

But Chavez's government has only aired slots promoting the idea in principle without educating people on how to do it.

"I'd like them to explain it to me so that I can understand what the new time is. I don't get it at all," said Esperanza Alcala, a 46-year-old office cleaning worker.

Since first announcing last month that Venezuela would shift from four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time to four and a half hours, Chavez, his brother and other senior officials have given varying dates for the change.

This week, Chavez plumped for Monday, but his science and technology minister then said co-ordination with international organisation might postpone the move until January.

A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance.

Iran's president - a Holocaust denier, accused terrorist and proud member of the Axis of Evil - requested to visit Ground Zero but was promptly rejected by the NYPD, authorities said today.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and has called the Holocaust a "myth," made the request through the Iranian mission in New York about two weeks ago, authorities said.

Ahmadinejad asked to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site during the opening of the United Nations General Assembly next week. The NYPD denied his request citing security concerns, authorities said.

Ahmadinejad had visited New York twice before, but had never before asked to visit the site of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The Iranian president is a hard-liner who has denied claims by several Americans that he was one of the extremists who took them hostage in 1979. He has stated recently that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, carried out with help of intelligence agents.

"Under no circumstances should the NYPD or any other American authority assist President Ahmadinejad in visiting Ground Zero," said former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring Bin Laden's son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. Assisting Ahmadinejad in touring Ground Zero - hallowed ground for all Americans - is outrageous."

"Ahmadinejad's shockingly audacious request should be met with a vehement no," Romney said in a statement. "It's inconceivable that any consideration would be given to the idea of entertaining the leader of a state sponsor of terror at Ground Zero. This would deeply offend the sensibilities of Americans from all corners of our nation."

"This is a matter for the City of New York resolve," a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, Gordon Johndroe, said. He added pointedly: "It seems odd that the president of a country that is a state sponsor of terror would visit ground zero."