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A Toledo city hall prank at the expense of Mayor Carty Finkbeiner created a downtown whodunit yesterday. For several hours during the day, the telephone voice mail greeting for the city's purchasing hot line was, "Carty Finkbeiner is a complete moron." Katerina Bekyarska, a spokesman for Mr. Finkbeiner, said the outgoing message was changed immediately after it was brought to her attention. "Someone obviously went in and - trying to do a joke, not a very good one - went in and recorded the message," Ms. Bekyarska said.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim McDermott has had the luxury of winning big and cheaply in recent elections, facing only token opposition But that fortunate history could pose a problem for McDermott if the Seattle Democrat is forced to pay more than $1 million in legal fees and penalties to settle his long-running legal battle with House Minority Leader John Boehner. Unlike colleagues who have been able to tap into campaign funds for legal costs, McDermott doesn't have enough cash in his coffers to cover his bills. The prospect that McDermott soon will be liable for a huge payout became a...

<p>President Clinton's defenders keep making their case that his private life has no bearing on how he does his job.</p> <p>They prattle on about his job approval ratings, which actually track how fat our wallets have become, not whether he can lead this country in a serious crisis.</p>

McDermott: Public had right to know By MATTHEW DALY The Associated Press WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott says his eight-year dispute with House Majority Leader John Boehner over an intercepted phone call is not personal, but involves a crucial right of voters to know what their leaders are doing. "Unfortunately, it's portrayed in the paper as Boehner v. McDermott. It really is the government versus the people," McDermott, D-Seattle, said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. In a 2-1 opinion Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower-court ruling that McDermott...

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin called U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday to discuss Russia's talks with the radical Palestinian movement Hamas and negotiations on Iran's disputed nuclear program, the Kremlin said. "Putin and Bush agreed to continue co-ordination on this and other vital issues on the international agenda including the forthcoming visit of the Russian foreign minister to Washington," the Kremlin press service said in a brief statement. It said that Putin had initiated the call. Moscow hosted both the top Iranian nuclear negotiator and a high-level delegation from Hamas this past week, saying it was...

<p>There are about 100 motorcycles with riders in town today, Bush Supporters all. The town is thrilled at the attention and is filled with visitors and locals.</p> <p>I just got off the phone with Mrs. Kaye Bregan whose husband Bill is a woodcarver. He was too busy to talk to me as he is in front of his house having his picture taken with the wooden Eagle he carved and placed in front of his house on 5th street in Downtown Crawford.</p>

The Beltway Beat has confirmed that an "incident" is under investigation at the Alexandria Detention Center involving accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui and his reported use of a personal cell phone belonging to a jail employee. A source close to the Alexandria Sheriff's Department tells this column that he was told yesterday that the phone belongs to a sheriff's deputy who has guarded Moussaoui, the so-called "20th hijacker" being held under otherwise-tight security. "He (the deputy) is accused of allowing Moussaoui to use his cell phone to make personal calls," says our source, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "The guard...

ESPN should hire this guy, if they need someone to do play-by-play on car wrecks. Six years ago, or so the story goes, Mike Childs left a hilarious commentary on a co-worker's voice mail about witnessing four little old ladies beat the tar out of a guy who hit their car and then tried to blame it on them. But only within the past few weeks has the magic of the Internet, where the recording is now posted, clued in tens of thousands to Childs' infectious laugh and his wonderful eye for detail, all told with his Louisiana drawl. His...

During the day or when you get home at night, use your free minutes to reach out across the country, or across town; call fifteen voters, and remind them to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 2. Everything you need to be the difference in this election is available online. www.GeorgeWBush.com/Call

The President's campaign has a great idea, particularly for those of you with cell phones. You can call registered voters in swing states, reminding them to come out and vote for President Bush. I'll be calling 15 Floridians today on my lunch break and 15 more voters in Swing States tomorrow. Sign up as a volunteer and do something to move this campaign forward.

Kerry claims he received a 'long' voice mail from Reeve the same day he went into cardiac arrest, fell into a coma and subsequently died the next day. I find this incredible!! Who among us believes Kerry was possibly Reeves last phone call of his life? I think Kerry has some splainin' to do. "Kerry, who knew the "Superman" actor for about 15 years through family and dedication to the same causes, said Reeve left him a long voice mail on Saturday thanking him for campaigning on the possibilities of a cure for conditions like his." http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2461635,00.html "The star of...

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Military officials and the FBI are investigating a series of suspicious phone calls to families of recently-activated Tennessee Army National Guard soldiers possibly bound for Iraq. The wife of a soldier in the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment told WVLT-TV this week her daughter had taken strange calls from a man with an accent who questioned her about the unit's deployment itinerary. R. Joe Clark, special agent in charge of the FBI's Knoxville office, said he was not aware of similar phone calls reported elsewhere in the country. "It's not as much an investigation as it is a...

Listen to Prank Phone Call Made To CNN.

McClintock did not identify Burton by name, but he said in an interview later that day that he had talked to a congressman about the campaign. After summarizing for the lawmaker Schwarzenegger's positions on various issues, McClintock said, he had won a convert. "You're doing the right thing," he quoted the congressman as saying. But Burton, an Indiana Republican, came forward Thursday to say he had placed the call — and to dispute any suggestion that he had told McClintock that he should remain a candidate. Burton said he had been unwavering in urging McClintock to step aside so that...

The brother and sister of missing Modesto woman Laci Peterson appeared on the "Today Show" Monday to talk about the continuing search and their feelings toward Laci's husband. Brent Rocha and Amy Rocha (pictured, right) said that they continue to struggle for answers as to what happened to Laci. "I think it has been a difficult process," Brent Rocha said. "We've taken it in phases. In the beginning, when she first went missing, I think friends and family just really focused on getting the word out. And then as time went by, I think that reality set in that the...

Pro-Life Group to Identify Senate's 'Catholic' Supporters of Abortion (AgapePress) - The largest pro-life group in America is preparing to "out" a contingent of pro-abortion Catholic U.S. senators it says comprise "the deadly dozen." Many of the leading abortion advocates in Congress are Catholics. That has caused the Vatican to issue a letter of guidelines for Catholic office-holders, re-emphasizing the church's stance on abortion. Catholic activist Judie Brown of American Life League (ALL) has been calling for such action by the church leaders for years. "There are far too many people in politics right now who call themselves Catholic who...

A CARELESS telephone call appears to have sealed the fate of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. Ramzi Binalshibh, who boasted in an interview published last week in The Sunday Times how he had masterminded the September 11 attacks, was tracked to a shabby fourth-floor apartment in Karachi by a trace on his satellite phone. Binalshibh, a 30-year-old Yemeni who visited London while planning the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, was seized in a raid in the Pakistani port after a gun battle with local police, who were assisted by FBI and CIA agents. Up...