Today's Top News

Kucinich Faces Fight in Ohio District

03.03.08 -- 6:43 AM

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN - AP

Two failed White House campaigns have left Dennis Kucinich fighting for his political life against the toughest, best-financed challenge in his 12-year congressional career.

City Councilman Joe Cimperman, once a Kucinich admirer, has raised nearly $500,000 and landed high-profile endorsements from the mayor and the city's daily newspaper in a feisty campaign heading into Tuesday's Democratic primary.

"Mr. Kucinich is not a congressman, he's a showman," said Cimperman, 37, who has belittled Kucinich's Hollywood ties and criticized congressional votes Kucinich missed during his presidential campaigns.

Kucinich, 61, a liberal with a political resume stretching over four decades, sensed early that the Cimperman challenge was real. He abandoned his presidential campaign on Jan. 25, months earlier in the race than he did in 2004 when he also was polling in low one-digit numbers.

Report: 1 In Every 99 Americans Now Behind Bars

02.28.08 -- 10:49 AM

By CBS/AP

Don't ask the U.S. prison system if this is indeed "the land of the free."

For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population.

The report, released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

Bloomberg: I'm Not Running for President

02.28.08 -- 10:27 AM

By SARA KUGLER - AP

NEW YORK (AP) - Mayor Michael Bloomberg has squashed the notion of running for president this year, declaring that he will not seek the White House but might put his support behind another candidate who embraces bipartisan governing.

Apparently ending a dance of presidential speculation that began more than two years ago, the 66-year-old billionaire businessman said in an op-ed piece in Thursday's New York Times that he will not launch his own bid but will work to "steer the national conversation away from partisanship and toward unity; away from ideology and toward common sense; away from sound bites and toward substance."

"I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not - and will not be - a candidate for president," he wrote. "I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership."

William Buckley, founder of modern conservatism dead

02.27.08 -- 8:11 AM

By Douglas Martin - New York Times

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

Mr Buckley, 82, suffered from diabetes and emphysema, his son Christopher said, although the exact cause of death was not immediately known. He was found at his desk in the study of his home, his son said. “He might have been working on a column,” Mr. Buckley said.

Mr. Buckley’s winningly capricious personality, replete with ten-dollar words and a darting tongue writers loved to compare with an anteater’s, hosted one of television’s longest-running programs, “Firing Line,” and founded and shepherded the influential conservative magazine, “National Review.”

Huckabee endorses CO measure, rights to fertilized eggs

02.27.08 -- 7:43 AM

By AP

A proposed ballot measure that would define personhood as a fertilized egg picked up the endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister.

In a statement Monday, Huckabee said the amendment proposed by 20-year-old Kristi Burton and her group, Colorado for Equal Rights, would send a clear message that every human life has value.

Burton called Huckabee's endorsement "an amazing boost" to their petition gathering efforts. Supporters must collect signatures of about 76,000 registered voters for the measure to appear on the ballot in November.

If passed, the measure would lay the legal foundation for making abortion illegal in the state.

Clinton stumbles over new Russian leader's name

02.27.08 -- 6:58 AM

By Jeff Mason - Reuters

U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who has argued she would be stronger on foreign policy than rival Barack Obama, stumbled over the name of the likely new Russian president on Tuesday while predicting he would not be an independent leader.

When asked at a debate whether she knew the name of the certain successor to President Vladimir Putin -- Dmitry Medvedev -- Clinton struggled to get it out.

"Medvedev -- whatever," she finally said.

Poll: Clinton Fades in Ohio

02.26.08 -- 8:07 AM

By Rasmussen Reports

With just a week to go until the crucial March 4 Democratic Presidential Primaries, Barack Obama continues to gain ground on Hillary Clinton in Ohio.

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows Clinton earning 48% of the Ohio Democratic Presidential Primary vote. That’s unchanged from a week ago. Barack Obama’s support has grown to 43%. That’s up from 40% last week and 38% the week before.

Overall, Clinton’s lead is now just five percentage points in Ohio, down from an eight-point advantage last week and fourteen points two weeks ago.

Sarkozy "get lost" video becomes Internet hit

02.26.08 -- 6:41 AM

By Astrid Wendlandt - Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - A video of French President Nicolas Sarkozy telling a bystander to "get lost" has become a hit on the Internet.

Sarkozy was filmed by a journalist from the daily Le Parisien on a walkabout at the annual farm fair in Paris on Saturday.

Sarkozy offered his hand to a man who said: "Don't touch me, you are soiling me." In reply, Sarkozy said, without dropping his smile: "Get lost, dumb ass."

Study finds immigrants commit less California crime

02.26.08 -- 6:18 AM

By Reuters

Immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S.-born citizen to commit crime in California, the most populous state in the United States, according to a report issued late on Monday.

People born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California's adult population but account for about 17 percent of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California showed.

According to the report's authors the findings suggest that long-standing fears of immigration as a threat to public safety are unjustified. The report also noted that U.S.-born adult men are incarcerated at a rate more than 2 1/2 times greater than that of foreign-born men.

Bush Predicts GOP Will Hold White House

02.25.08 -- 7:29 PM

By Ben Feller - AP

President Bush predicted Monday that voters will replace him with a Republican president who will "keep up the fight" in Iraq. "I'm confident we'll hold the White House in 2008," Bush told donors at the Republican Governors Association annual dinner, which raised a record $10.6 million for GOP gubernatorial candidates.

"And I don't want the next Republican president to be lonely," Bush said. "And that is why we got to take the House, retake the Senate, and make sure our states are governed by Republican governors."

The pep talk came in the midst of a presidential campaign that largely has overshadowed Bush's final year in office. Bush has promised to be an active fundraiser, and he had no trouble slipping into enthusiastic campaign mode Monday evening.

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