Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal judge in Ohio has ruled that counties must allow homeless voters to list park benches and other locations that aren't buildings as their addresses. U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus also ruled that provisional ballots can't be invalidated because of poll worker errors. Monday's ruling resolved the final two pieces of a settlement between the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The coalition agreed to drop a constitutional challenge to Ohio's voter identification law until after the Nov. 4 election. In return, Brunner and the coalition agreed on procedures...

A former finance director in Orange Cove is suing Mayor Victor Lopez and the city, alleging he was fired from his job for investigating financial irregularities involving Lopez's sons. Odilon Ortiz filed suit Friday in Fresno County Superior Court seeking about $1.5 million in past and future income, benefits and damages. The suit alleges the mayor didn't report his compensation correctly. Ortiz also claims his sons pocketed money they received from a vendor for returning materials they bought with public funds. David and Victor Lopez Jr. work for the city. Lopez says the allegations are false and records will show...

It looks like Teresa Heinz Kerry is rubbing off on her husband. And on Sen. Hillary Clinton. For the Republican Party, this is a very good thing. You'll recall that last month, Mrs. Heinz Kerry put on her shiniest tinfoil hat and blamed the Democrats' loss in November on rigged voting machines. As reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mrs. Heinz Kerry openly questioned the election results and fixated on areas of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes. "Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Mrs. Heinz Kerry intoned, and it...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - State officials improperly handled bid documents concerning the award of a multimillion dollar purchasing contract that eventually went to a Virginia company with no experience in the field, according to testimony Wednesday before a Senate panel. Officials also said they changed scores from pass to fail for the company's only rival for the work, which caused the competitor's disqualification. That led Sen. Joe Dunn, a Garden Grove Democrat leading the investigation into the state's "strategic sourcing" contract, to say "there's something more than meets the eye with the bidding" and call for more hearings. At issue is...

Blogger Alek Boyd keeps a close eye on Venezuela's pro-Chavez propaganda groups actively operating in the U.S. He asks questions about their many claims and does his research. Today he's got a scoop on one of them, the loathesome Eva Golinger group called 'Venezuela Solidarity Committee' which, along with her 'VenezuelaFOIA' cooks up information about the CIA just doing its job into hysterical claims about its omnipotence. Naturally, the Associated Press and New York Times buy into this tabloid-quality tripe, but most responsible news organizations, including even Reuters, steer clear of this crew. Alek has learned that Eva Golinger's Venezuela...

I’d love to have a talk about the current situation in the Ukraine with my left-wing friends, but I don’t think they would be interested, and probably not even capable of an intelligent discussion. Not only is the Ukraine so far off and seemingly unimportant to them, the intricacies of its politics defy the usual “left” vs. “right” stereotypes. I truly believe that many long-time lefties pine for the days of the Soviet Union. It gave them a glimmer of hope for world-wide socialism in their otherwise very comfortable, cushy, American lives. Too much guilt about living in the midst...

ATLANTA - A national voting rights group said Friday it documented hundreds of voting irregularities affecting poor and minority voters in seven Southern states - from long lines and faulty equipment to deliberate voter intimidation. "While the United States of America is a strong democracy, it is also a flawed democracy," said Keith Jennings, director of Count Every Vote 2004, formed after the 2000 election to assure voting rights for "underrepresented and marginalized sectors of the population." The group sent monitors Tuesday to 700 precincts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. Their goal was to...

BRIT HUME, HOST: It is an article of faith among Democrats that the 2000 election was stolen from them by the deliberate disenfranchisement of hundred of thousands, if not millions of voters in Florida alone. After the election, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (search), not noted for having Republican sympathy, conducted an investigation. And what did it find? Peter Kirsanow (search) is a Republican member of the commission. He joins me now from Cleveland. Mr. Kirsanow, welcome and thank you for joining us. PETER KIRSANOW, CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION: Thank you. HUME: Tell me about the Civil Rights Commission's inquiries into...

Yesterday, somebody wondered why the IEM graph suddenly showed a 50-50 race, even speculating if Soros was playing there to create a Kerry bias... http://128.255.244.60/graphs/graph_Pres04_WTA.cfm This is based on the midnight closing price. I e-mailed them and got the following response "Thank you for your recent inquiry about the Tuesday, August 31, IEM price graphs. We've checked those graphs and the prices that generated them. We think you might be interested in the following information. -- The graphs accurately represent the closing prices on Tuesday, August 31. -- The prices were not caused by just a few trades or just...

Red Hat announced Tuesday it is restating earnings going back to 2002, as the company changes the way it accounts for subscription revenue. The Linux company, which recently reported the resignation of its chief financial officer, said it made the decision to change its revenue recognition after discussions last month with its independent auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

As Voters Head to Polls, Montgomery Sees Glitches Technical Problem with New Voting Machines Plague Some Precincts Christina Pino-Marina and Jeffrey Marcus Washington Post Tuesday, November 5, 2002; 1:15 PM As residents of Maryland, Virginia and the District cast their votes in several closely watched races, technical problems plagued some precincts in Montgomery County, Md. Montgomery residents using the new electronic touch-screen voting machines at all 30 precincts in legislative District 19 saw the word "Democratic" in the header of the ballots... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6241-2002Nov5.html