Quitman 10: African-American voters targeted in GBI probe

County clerk: Signatures for recall are official - Miami-Dade Breaking News - MiamiHerald.com
Setting the stage for a recall election of Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin announced Tuesday that the necessary signatures have been legally collected to require a vote. Under the county charter, the declaration by Ruvin means that County Commissioners must hold a recall election between 45 and 90 days from Tuesday to decide Alvarez's fate. Precisely when commissioners will schedule the vote within that window is unclear, as is whether Alvarez will attempt ...

JEFFERSON CITY > State certifies Lamping win
Republican John Lamping has officially won a seat in the state Senate after a recount confirmed his victory. The secretary of state's office certified election results Wednesday that gave Lamping a narrow victory over Democrat Barbara Fraser. From the recount, Fraser narrowed her defeat from 133 votes to 126 votes. There were more than 61,000 votes cast in the race for state Senate District 24, which stretches from Maplewood to Creve Coeur. Missouri law allows losing candidates to request a reco...

The new GOP House understands that DC residents have no right to any voice in government
Would you believe that Speaker-apparent Boehner is in no rush to return DC House Delegate Norton's phone calls? by Ken I don't know, maybe it's not such a Big Deal, especially since it's hardly unexpected. Such Voting Rights as the District of Columbia's congressional "representative" (officially a mere "delegate") have have been granted at the pleasure of the speaker of the House, and that has happened only when the speaker is a Democrat. As Ben Pershing reports in today's Washington Post, Wh...

RomneyCare makes rivals smile
The photo to the right is my Christmas gift to all the Republican Candidates for president in 2012 — everyone except the one named Mitt Romney, of course. It’s from April 12, 2006, the day Gov. Mitt Romney signed our universal-health nightmare, RomneyCare, into law. From a contemporary account: “As he ascended a lofty platform to a podium, Romney gazed out at the spectacle with almost incredulous delight.” Incredulous delight? As you look at the photo of Mitt now, you as...

Court Rejects Miller's Appeal in Alaska
(The Wall Street Journal) - The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected U.S. Senate Candidate Joe Miller's claims that the state conducted the Midterm Election improperly, effectively affirming the victory of Incumbent Lisa Murkowski and paving the way for her to begin her term in January. Murkowski, who like Miller is a Republican, had launched a write-in campaign for Alaska's Senate seat in August after Miller beat her in the Republican primary. By the state's count, she won the general ele...

Court Rejects Miller's Appeal in Alaska
(The Wall Street Journal) - The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected U.S. Senate Candidate Joe Miller's claims that the state conducted the Midterm Election improperly, effectively affirming the victory of Incumbent Lisa Murkowski and paving the way for her to begin her term in January. Murkowski, who like Miller is a Republican, had launched a write-in campaign for Alaska's Senate seat in August after Miller beat her in the Republican primary. By the state's count, she won the general ele...

Texas Tea
Last month, Texas primary voters started receiving Robocalls urging them to jettison the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives, Joe Straus, who is Jewish, in favor of a “true Christian.” Ray Myers, chairman of the Kaufman County Tea Party, sent out a widely circulated email supporting one of Straus’ opponents and saying, “[W]e finally found a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.” Another viral email p...

Transit Stipend for Staffers Won't Be Cut
The tax bill signed Friday by President Barack Obama included an early Christmas Present for House Staffers: an extension of the monthly transit stipend. Not a Subscriber? To continue reading, sign up for a free trial. Heard on the Hill: Who’s the Flake-Out? Caden Baker, 7, of Neon, Ky., listens to a band April 17 at the Hillbilly Days festival in Pikeville, Ky. Featuring more than 80 pages of analysis, this essential issue provides Election Results and detailed profiles of the new Membe...

Belarus defiant as West threatens to review ties (AFP)
MINSK (AFP) – Belarus on Thursday rejected Western criticism of its harsh crackdown after the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko as the European Union and the United States threatened to review ties with his authoritarian regime. Belarus arrested more than 600 people on the night of December 19 after a massive rally gathered in central Minsk to Protest presidential Elections that Western observers said fell well short of democratic norms. About 100 people have been set free si...

uggabugga
Why it was always hard to be enthusiastic about Clinton (Bill and, to an extent, Hillary): They had people like Lanny Davis in their entourage:As the United States continued to push for President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast to step down, two former Clinton Administration officials were trying to present Mr. Gbagbo, who has clung to power despite international condemnation, in a more sympathetic light. Michael Espy, the former agriculture secretary who is now a Lobbyist, has appeared on Ivori...

R.I. House leaders deny politics in staff shakeup
PROVIDENCE — Since the November election, House Speaker Gordon D. Fox has let go a dozen Staffers and hired one new worker in an effort, he says, to free up space on the House Payroll to eventually bolster the lower chamber’s policy and constituent services offices. Fox, a Providence Democrat, and House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello, a Cranston Democrat, deny that the staff shakeup has anything to do with settling political scores, though at least two of the Staffers -...

Emanuel gets green light to run for Chicago mayor
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel got a victory in his run for Chicago mayor on Thursday, with a decision by an election board that he meets the residency requirement to be on the February ballot. Emanuel told reporters at a downtown restaurant that he was "obviously very pleased" with the board vote. "It reminds I think everybody what the priorities are facing the city, which is about safer streets, strong schools and stable city finances," Emanuel said. The Chi...

Emanuel gets green light to run for Chicago mayor
By Mary Wisniewski Chicago | Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:05pm EST Chicago (Reuters) - Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel got a victory in his run for Chicago mayor on Thursday, with a decision by an election board that he meets the residency requirement to be on the February ballot. Emanuel told reporters at a downtown restaurant that he was "obviously very pleased" with the board vote. "It reminds I think everybody what the priorities are facing the city, which is about safer streets, str...

Emanuel gets green light to run for Chicago mayor
By Mary Wisniewski Chicago | Thu Dec 23, 2010 8:05pm EST Chicago (Reuters) - Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel got a victory in his run for Chicago mayor on Thursday, with a decision by an election board that he meets the residency requirement to be on the February ballot. Emanuel told reporters at a downtown restaurant that he was "obviously very pleased" with the board vote. "It reminds I think everybody what the priorities are facing the city, which is about safer streets, str...

Bump On The Chris Christie Bandwagon
The Chris Christie bandwagon may have hit a speed bump - at least a small one - based on results from two new polls released today. The polls, from Quinnipiac and Rutgers-Eagleton, show Christie's Approval Rating in New Jersey slipping a bit, with significant majorities skeptical that he'd make a good president or vice-president. The polling shows that Christie is one of the most polarizing Governors in recent New Jersey history, with more voters holding both a very favorable view of him and an ...

New water district labor deal 'sends bad message,' county official says
Las Vegas Valley Water District chief Pat Mulroy said Tuesday that the utility's new Collective Bargaining agreements are filled with concessions that will save more than $5 million. Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak offered a different take, slamming the new labor contracts as a distasteful giveaway to Public Employees in the midst of record private-sector Unemployment. ...

Alvarez Recall Signatures Certified
The effort to recall Miami-Dade mMayor Carlos Alvarez got another boost Tuesday, when the county clerk confirmed there are enough signatures for the recall to proceed. Billionaire Norman Braman launched the recall effort in September after County Commissioners passed the $7.3 billion Budget. Nearly 120,000 signatures were collected, and Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin said about 95,500 were valid well over the 52,000 needed for a recall. County commissioners now have 90 days to hold a recall vote t...

Commissioners put final touches on changes to inquest process
Clark County Commissioners on Tuesday moved toward restricting ombudsmen, the attorneys who will represent at coroner's inquests the families of those killed by police. Neither they nor their firms could be involved in Lawsuits impugning how police used force against a suspect, either five years before or five years after an inquest hearing, according to a proposed rule that most commissioners supported. ...

Draft Chesco budget has no tax increase
The Chester County Commissioners unanimously approved Tuesday a 2011 Budget that does not impose a Tax Increase but does slash the allocation for open-space acquisitions. The commissioners said that during the last several months, they were urged repeatedly by residents without jobs or on fixed incomes to hold the line on spending. "The message was sent by the people we serve, and we heeded that message," Chairwoman Carol Aichele said. The $501,548,745 Budget includes a freeze in wages...

Gems bill dies as Congress gives up on land legislation
The U.S. Congress will not pass an omnibus land bill before the 2010 Lame Duck legislative session ends, meaning that Rep. Jared Polis’s bill calling for new wilderness designations from the Hidden Gems proposal will expire. Will Rousch, the Gems campaign outreach coordinator, said they are confident Polis will re-introduce the bill — which he called the Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act —this spring, in the next session of congress. “He seems pretty com...

Montgomery County commissioners approve $403 million budget
Montgomery County's battling Board of Commissioners approved a 2011 Budget of $403 million on Wednesday, averting a looming stalemate over how to balance the books. The Compromise holds the line on property taxes, cuts spending for the third year in a row, and could eliminate up to 15 jobs. It also dips drastically into reserve funds already receiving scrutiny from municipal bond-rating agencies. "I'm not as proud of the resulting government-service ability as I could be," Commissioner...

Coming To Their Consensus
Blacks labored in vain to unite behind a single Mayoral Candidate. Meanwhile, all but one of the top white contenders have bowed out. It was a dubious proposition from the start, the idea that African-Americans could unite behind a single black Candidate to better their odds in the mayor's race. They gave it their best try. Soon after Mayor Daley announced on September 7th that he wouldn't run again, black aldermen, legislators, county officials, ministers, and business and community leaders for...

Boulder, county agree to drop opposition to Jefferson Parkway toll road
"Section 16," a 640-acre piece of land just north of Coal Creek Canyon Drive and east of Colo. 93, sits in Jefferson County. Jeffco officials have pledged $5 million toward the purchase and preservation of the land, as long as the city of Boulder and Boulder County drop their opposition to the proposed Jefferson Parkway toll road. (Mark Leffingwell) A $5 million land deal dangled by Jefferson County officials has convinced the Boulder City Council and Boulder County Commissioners to drop their l...

The Conduit Bond Piggy Bank
- It’s interesting to see the Star-Telegram get some insight into the issue from outgoing Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. Tarrant County isn’t the only one doing this line of work. As the sidebar article points out, Harris County has even gone somewhat out of the norm of financing assisted living centers and helping to expand the NASA space center. One of the reasons I suspect that Commissioner Garcia was approached was due to one of the Tarrant County projects being one th...

Reid has routine end to not-so-routine career as county commissioner
It was a rather anti-climactic finale to eight years of service on a powerful political body. Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid guided the board through mostly routine zoning matters Wednesday. ...