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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - The coordinator for Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential campaign in Virginia pleaded guilty Tuesday to election fraud. James P. Polk, 47, will serve 30 days of home detention and was fined $2,500. Polk was accused of illegally certifying petitions to get Nader, an independent candidate, on the ballot. He was indicted on 10 counts of election fraud in October, but prosecutors withdrew nine of those counts. Nader's name was not placed on the ballot in Virginia. His campaign needed to collect 10,000 signatures of registered voters, but fell well short.

A U.S. commitment to providing $674 million for famine relief in Africa may take some bite out of the Left's constant attacks on the Bush Administration. It is always a cry of what have you done for the poor in the world (although they don't count the poor that have been liberated). Now this massive out pouring of famine relief will answer their cries. President Bush joins Britain's Tony Blair, chairman of the G8, in this commitment. The joint initiative for famine relief comes in response to a Blair proposal for doubling aid to Africa. The amount of Britain's contribution...

Hillary Clinton's ex-aide no criminal, attorney says By Laura Wides, Associated Press The former national finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton may have made a mistake underreporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for a Hollywood fundraiser, but he committed no crime, his attorneys told jurors in closing remarks Wednesday. But prosecutors said David Rosen "was no babe in the woods" and willfully deflated the cost of the fundraiser for Clinton's 2000 New York Senate campaign to skirt federal election laws so the campaign would have more money to spend. Prosecutors have said Clinton was unaware of any...

Ex-Clinton aide's fate in jury's hands Rosen denies wrongdoing in reporting cost of gala to FEC Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Posted: 11:53 PM EDT (0353 GMT) LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Jurors in the federal trial of David Rosen, former finance director of Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate campaign, will begin deliberating his fate Thursday. **SNIP** Defense and prosecuting attorneys finished their closing arguments Wednesday. The jury was to convene Thursday at 8:30 a.m. (11:30 a.m. ET). Rosen's attorney, Paul Sandler, described his client as "courageous and truthful," adding that Rosen "has suffered for years with this sword of Damocles over...

Planner says ex-Hillary Clinton aide hid costs of fundraiser LOS ANGELES The trial of Hillary Clinton's former national finance director continued today in Los Angeles with an event planner testifying she was ordered by David Rosen to obtain a fake invoice connected to a Hollywood fundraising gala. Bretta Nock told jurors that Rosen told her to get a 200-thousand dollar invoice for the concert portion of the celebrity bash, when the actual costs were much higher. Rosen has pleaded not guilty to three charges of filing false financial statements connected with Clinton's 2000 Senate run. He's accused of under-reporting donations...

HILL AIDE'S FUND TRIAL DEBUGGED By KENNETH LOVETT May 18, 2005 -- LOS ANGELES — In a courthouse shocker, Sen. Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law won't be asked about a conversation he secretly recorded for the FBI when he testifies today against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former chief fund-raiser, a prosecutor revealed yesterday. "The government does not intend to introduce the tape or elicit any testimony about that conversation," federal prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg told a judge before the trial of ex-Clinton fund-raiser David Rosen resumed yesterday after a four-day break. While Zeidenberg did not mention Kennedy's brother-in-law, Ray Reggie, by name, he...

Sen. Clinton's former aide could be used against her By Kenneth R. Bazinet New York Daily News WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton isn't on trial in Los Angeles on Tuesday - but as far as her political adversaries are concerned, she may as well be. Her former finance director David Rosen has been charged with concealing the real cost of a star-studded Hollywood fund-raiser for Clinton in August 2000 - and if he's convicted, her enemies plan to exploit it to the maximum. ''If it was any other senator, it might not be an issue, but with her past it will...

SOUTH BEND — A former aide at Greene Intermediate Center is in jail after her arrest Tuesday on nine felony charges related to inappropriate sexual activities with special education students she supervised. Schmeca White, 27, of the 800 block of Huey Street, was taken into custody at her home shortly before noon Tuesday. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ken Cotter said White is accused of performing various sexual acts or causing students to perform sex acts in a classroom during their lunch period. The reported incidents occurred during November and December while the teacher with whom White worked was away from the...

SACRAMENTO - The chief architect of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's unfulfilled plan to ``blow up'' bureaucratic boxes is leaving the administration as Team Arnold gears up for a critical battle. Paul Miner, one of the Republican governor's earliest political advisers, will leave next week to launch a new West Coast government affairs operation for General Electric. His departure comes at a decisive point for the governor, whose popularity is in decline as he prepares for a special election showdown that could define Schwarzenegger's historic impact on California. ``Now is the time,'' Miner said Monday. ``Arnold is an intellectual, energetic machine and...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Beleaguered U.N. chief Kofi Annan (news - web sites) will serve out his final two years in office, and his early departure would be widely viewed as a "political assassination," his new chief of staff said on Thursday. Mark Malloch Brown, himself under fire from staff for a wave of top personnel changes and some botched early moves, also defended his own performance since moving into Annan's office from the U.N. Development Program in early January. "Inevitably we are just in the phase where people have seen trees coming down. But they haven't seen new trees...

U.S. Defends Sealing Charges Against Former Clinton Aide By IAN URBINA Published: March 2, 2005 Correction Appended Federal prosecutors are battling attempts to dismiss their criminal case against Hillary Rodham Clinton's former fund-raising director, claiming in a court motion that they kept the indictment of him secret for more than a year to protect the identity of a witness cooperating in a separate investigation. The defendant, David Rosen, is charged with failing to report in-kind contributions and producing a false invoice in connection with an Aug. 12, 2000, fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, according to an indictment unsealed in January. He...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's former fiscal officer was sentenced to three months in jail for embezzling more than $65,000 in state money he spent partly for trips to Hawaii and a down payment on a Nissan 350Z sports car. Michael Keolanui, 34, also will make restitution and serve an additional three months of home confinement. He had faced up to a year in prison under a plea bargain with federal prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in September to forging two checks totaling $53,700, felonies that could have carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. He...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)'s new chief of staff heads to Washington on Wednesday to meet with critics and supporters of the United Nations (news - web sites) following a critical report of U.N. actions in the oil-for-food program in Iraq (news - web sites). Mark Malloch Brown's high-profile trip is aimed at informing U.S. lawmakers about ongoing U.N. management and administrative reforms and appears to be the opening salvo in a new offensive by Annan to present the world body in a more positive light. One of the U.S. lawmakers Malloch Brown is scheduled...

There are over six billion people living on our planet. Of that six billion, almost two billion are Muslims. That's roughly a third of the total population of the earth. The earthquake that triggered the killer tsunami was centered just off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country. It was also the most severely devastated by the wave. Nearly 100,000 of the victims of the December 26 catastrophe were Indonesian Muslims. The vast majority of the victims were either Muslims, Buddhists or Hindu. Got all that? Good. Now, to the United...

SACRAMENTO - A series of e-mails and telephone calls related to two high-profile environmental decisions in California has prompted criticism that business interests may be gaining too much influence over the U.S. Interior Department. According to court records, Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Julie MacDonald tried to change scientific recommendations related to protecting wetland species and endangered fish. In the first instance, the correspondence was between MacDonald, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managers and the California Farm Bureau Federation in April. A month later, the federation used the information to back a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., seeking to overturn the...

Mayor Bill White spoke Wednesday about city integrity following the bribery indictment of a one-time aide to former Mayor Lee Brown. Oliver Spellman, who until last Friday also worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, has been charged with criminal conspiracy to obtain bribes as a public official. It stems from allegations he helped a consultant in Cleveland, Ohio win City of Houston contracts. Mayor White says all contracts handled by Spellman are under review, and corruption will not be tolerated. "I've said in public microphones for two years, public contracting should be clean and transparent, no...

Oliver Spellman, the Cleveland parks director under former Mayor Michael R. White, was charged Tuesday with accepting bribes from Beachwood consultant Nate Gray in exchange for political favors in Houston, where Spellman was the mayor's chief of staff. The charges, along with interviews and court documents, show that a sweeping public corruption investigation focusing on Gray has spread beyond the borders of Cuyahoga County to Texas and Louisiana. In Houston, Gray paid Spellman $2,000 and gave him a free hotel stay in Las Vegas and other gifts to land a contract for Gray's business, Etna Parking, to provide shuttle-bus service...

Ex-Brown aide faces Ohio bribery charge Oliver Spellman is accused of aiding a consultant trying to get city contracts ----- A chief of staff to former Mayor Lee Brown was charged Tuesday in Ohio with accepting bribes in exchange for helping a Cleveland consultant who was trying to win city of Houston contracts. The charge against Oliver Spellman, who more recently worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, is part of a continuing investigation that already has resulted in the bribery indictment of a Cleveland city councilman. Garcia said Spellman resigned suddenly Friday as her chief of...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A top aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described the administration's plans to reduce California's oil dependence, calling Thursday for more conservation, fuel-efficient vehicles, and hydrogen power. Terry Tamminen, the governor's newly appointed Cabinet secretary, delivered the speech by videotape at a conference on transportation. It was sponsored by Calstart, a consortium of government agencies and private companies, including automakers. Tamminen said drivers should try to conserve fuel in the near-term, with the midterm goal of buying more fuel-efficient cars and the long-term goal of finding cleaner fuels than petroleum, including hydrogen. "Proper tire inflation, using your...

SACRAMENTO - Frustrated by the slow pace of a legislative investigation, an aide to Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn has filed a harassment complaint against her with state and federal officials. Cohn's press secretary, Erika Weaver-Taylor, alleges that the Campbell Democrat created a ``hostile working environment'' and that Cohn subjected her to ``verbal, physical and visual'' harassment. After Weaver-Taylor reported her concerns to a key Assembly committee last December, ``privileges and job duties were taken away,'' according to the complaint, filed Friday with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in San Jose and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The...