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LEEDS, AL (WBRC) - Voters in parts of Jefferson and St. Clair Counties head to the polls today. It is for a special election to fill the District 45 seat in the Alabama House of Representatives. The election was necessary after the death of Republican Representative Owen Drake of Leeds. The Republican nominee is Drake's brother, 65-year-old Dickie Drake of Leeds. The Democratic nominee is 49-year-old Paige Parnell of Leeds. Parnell was Miss Alabama in 1980 and the first runner-up for Miss America in 1981. The polls close at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - A former senior executive at the National Security Agency was charged Thursday with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper. Federal prosecutors said Thomas Drake, 52, served as a source for many articles about the NSA in an unidentified newspaper, including articles that contained classified information.</p>

In a major blow to the Justice Department, one of its biggest leak prosecutions in years all but collapsed late Thursday when federal prosecutors withdrew all their felony charges against a former National Security Agency official accused of providing classified information to a journalist. Instead, under a plea deal reached with prosecutors, former NSA official Thomas Drake has agreed to plead guilty in federal court on Friday to a single misdemeanor count of "exceeding authorized use of a computer" -- a minor charge for which he will receive no jail time, a senior administration official told NBC. “This is close...

The fallen fortunes of the Democrats as the Republicans take control of the House and start the Senate session in a strengthened position is underlined by Gallup poll numbers that find the percentage of Americans who identify with the party has fallen to its lowest point in the 22 years. Gallup says that in 2010 an average of 31 percent of Americans said they were Democrats, a number the party last hit in 1991. That's a five point drop from 2008 when Democrats notched their 22-year high of 36 percent.

The Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks to the press has snared a high-profile conviction of an FBI linguist, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to giving classified information to a blogger. The sentence for Shamai Leibowitz is likely to become the longest ever served by a government employee accused of passing national security secrets to a member of the media. His case represents only the third known conviction in U.S. history for a government official or contractor providing classified information to the press. And it reflects a surprising development: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department...

We’re not sure it’s exactly newsworthy anymore when a lawsuit challenging President Obama’s election on the grounds that he wasn’t born in the U.S. gets dismissed. (Though rest assured, we’ll be all over it if and when one gains significant traction.) But an opinion issued on Thursday dismissing one of these suits (this one, like others, brought by Orange County lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz) caught our attention. The opinion issued on Thursday, by Santa Ana, Calif., federal judge David O. Carter (a Clinton appointee), delved deeply into standing problems he felt many plaintiffs in the suit suffered. But in the suit...

A man who had long been vocal in his opposition to abortion was shot to death Friday morning while staging an anti-abortion protest outside a Michigan high school, authorities said. The man, James Pouillon, 63, was shot at 7:20 a.m. as he stood outside Owosso High School in Owosso, a city of fewer than 15,000 people 90 miles northwest of Detroit, the authorities said. By Friday afternoon, the police said they had in custody a suspect in the shooting, and in a second fatal shooting nearby, not far from the school. Officials are investigating whether Mr. Pouillon, who had been...

Inarguably, hip hop (rap) is one of the leading pop music genres; at least, it is one of the loudest. I did not know which hip hop singer to choose (I do not know any), so I queried Billboard magazine and found, at the time of this writing, a man named “Drake” to hold the top spot in that category, indicating his popularity, at least currently. I searched for “Drake lyrics” and was directed to this site (it was first in the listings), where I navigated to the album that came up first on a YouTube search. Feel free to...

NEW YORK (ABP) -- A former Southern Baptist Convention officer who on June 2 called the death of abortion provider George Tiller an answer to prayer said later in the day he is also praying "imprecatory prayer" against President Obama. Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., and former running mate of American Independent Party presidential candidate Alan Keyes, said June 2 on Fox News Radio he didn't understand why people were upset with his comments quoted by Associated Baptist Press from a webcast of his daily radio talk show. "Imprecatory prayer is agreeing with...

Her re-election chances resting on uncounted absentee ballots, Rep. Thelma Drake, R-2nd, has joined the McCain-Palin campaign in a lawsuit seeking to count absentee ballots by military personnel serving overseas. Drake, a Republican, trails Democrat Glenn C. Nye III by 7,916 votes in the district in and around Virginia Beach. Nye has claimed victory, but Drake has not conceded because she says the count of the district's 28,000 absentee ballots continued yesterday. Meanwhile in the 5th Congressional District, Democrat Tom S.P. Perriello, who started the day leading Republican Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. by 31 votes, had a 639-vote lead...

I wasn't sure HOW to do this, but this was too funny and I wanted to share. Thelma Drake is a republican representative in Virginia's 2nd district. She's been targeted by MoveOn.org and other liberal groups. Her Democratic Candidate is Phil Kellum. He set up a web site. On that web site, he has a list of issues, although they aren't linked to his home page. Funny thing though. His district is in Virginia Beach, Virginia. But his issues are about Pennsylvania's 17th state district. Check it out before he gets wise and cleans it up. I've pasted a snippet...

Paula Miller scored a major victory for the Democratic Party and the moderate wing of the Republican Party Tuesday, besting conservative Michael Ball in a tight special election for the 87th district in the House of Delegates. According to unofficial results, Miller, a former WTKR-TV reporter, defeated Ball, a Regent University official, by 92 votes out of 7623 cast in the 87th, which includes Ocean View, Bayview and neighborhoods adjacent to East Little Creek Road. Miller ran as a Democrat but received $50,000 in campaign contributions from a new political action committee formed to support Republicans who have split with...

Scientists recently decoded the first confirmed alien transmission from outer space. It said: "Please send 5x10 (to the 50th power) atoms of hydrogen to each of the five star systems listed below. Then, add your system to the top of the list and delete the system at the bottom. Transmit copies of this message to 100 different solar systems. If you follow these instructions, you are guaranteed that within 0.25 degrees of a galactic rotation you will receive in return sufficient hydrogen stores to power your own civilization until the universe reaches inevitable maximum entropy. This really works!" OK, it's...

The Press Democrat: Print a Story http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/14drake_b1.html © The Press Democrat. For copyright information visit our User Agreement page at http://www.pressdemocrat.com/services/agreement.html Historians find source of Drake hoax Team dedicates 11 years of research into uncovering identities of brass plate creators February 14, 2003By BOB NORBERG THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Researchers say they have solved the mystery surrounding a phony brass plate found in Greenbrae and attributed to Sir Francis Drake, an enduring hoax that added to the debate over where the 16th-century explorer really landed. "We knew from testing that the plate is a forgery," said Ed Von der Porten...