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(WXYZ) From the Wayne County Prosecutor: A plea may be imminent in the Kilpatrick text scandal case. It is expected that Defendant Kwame Kilpatrick will plead guilty today at 5:15 p.m. The plea will be take place before Judge Edward Ewell in Frank Murphy Hall of Justice Courtroom 302. Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy will be making a brief statement and a press release will be sent out after the plea is entered on the record. On the date of sentencing she will hold a press conference.

The family of Joe Biden, who will be officially nominated as the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party's 'reform Washington' ticket with Barack Obama Thursday night, appears to be enmeshed in the same D.C. money game that Obama denounces. One of the senator's sons -- Hunter, a Washington lobbyist -- and the senator's brother, James --received a $1 million investment in their purchase of a hedge fund company from the senator's largest political donor, an Illinois law firm, SimmonsCooper. The brother and the son subsequently repaid the $1 million to the law firm, which specializes in representing asbestos victims....

Biden's son was paid by MBNA just in time to get the bankruptcy bill passed.

The L.A. Times is just popped a big story the Obama-Biden folks don't want to be reading the night the Delaware senator introduces himself to the nation: a potential conflict of interest involving Biden and one of the nation's biggest asbestos litigation law firms — which also happens to be his top contributor.

OAKLAND — A 61-year-old Orinda real estate executive and former Saint Mary's College professor pleaded guilty Friday morning to producing child pornography in a case in which he traveled to Costa Rica to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.Leonard Auerbach faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years.No family members or friends attended the hearing. Auerbach, dressed in a red Alameda County Jail jumpsuit, answered the judge's questions with simple "Yes, sir," responses.In April, Auerbach fled the country after charges were initially filed. After being named a "most wanted" fugitive by U.S. Immigration...

Milwaukee has discovered some more voter fraud with 10 more voter registration workers are being investigated by Wisconsin authorities. Fittingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the story in its paper on August 29. Unfittingly, the Journal Sentinel forgot one, tiny aspect of the story... that the voter fraud was perpetrated by Democrats. In fact, one of the organizations, ACORN, is intimately linked with Barack Obama. Milwaukee’s top election official said Thursday she plans to seek criminal investigations of 10 more voter registration workers, including two accused of offering gifts to sign up voters. So, what we have here is an...

WASHINGTON – John Edwards' political career is probably not coming back. But Fred Baron insists he is not going away. The Dallas trial lawyer, both celebrated and vilified as the King of Toxic Torts, made a handsome living confronting big companies on behalf of sick and some not-so-sick plaintiffs. He's a lightning rod again, after admitting he paid to move the presidential candidate's mistress away from prying tabloid reporters. He says political enemies will try to use the episode against his efforts to elect Democratic candidates in Texas....

John Edwards, the Democrats’ 2004 vice presidential nominee who unsuccessfully sought the top spot on the party’s ticket this year, is like the man who never was among party leaders gathered in Denver. Edwards, the one-term North Carolina senator whose 2008 candidacy ended in January, admitted in early August, after a lot of tabloid disclosures, that he had been carrying on an extramarital affair with a campaign aide even as his wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer. He also admitted that he had repeatedly lied about it. It still isn’t clear if he fathered an out of wedlock child during the...

Tania Hollander, 36, became the fourth and likely last person to plead guilty in the sex scandal that exposed Ashley Alexandra Dupré as former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s high-priced call girl. The scandal led to Spitzer’s resignation and launched Dupre to national prominence. Hollander's lawyer described her as a minor character in the scandal, but she could face up to five years in jail. Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y worked as a booker for the Emperors Club VIP, the high-priced New Jersey-based call girl ring that eventually hired Dupre. Hollander told the court she began looking for work early...

ExclusiveJohn Edwards calling former staffers asking for forgiveness By THOMAS M. DeFRANK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF Updated Tuesday, August 26th 2008, 12:07 AM   DENVER - John Edwards is burning up the phone lines, begging former aides and backers to forgive him for lying about his affair - but hearing their rage instead.As Democrats kick off their convention Monday, the onetime presidential contender is a man without a party - or a political future - trying to rebuild bridges through dozens of remorseful phone calls.It's proving a hard sell with onetime true believers. CLICK TO SEE A PHOTO...

JOSEPH CARI : 30-year friend of VP pick guilty in kickback scheme . No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won't give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front. Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who's pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing. When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden's Midwest field...

ROSENDALE, NY—Controversial upstate New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey has been ordered to town court to answer a charge that he struck a constituent during a July event. Democrat Hinchey, who represents Ithaca and much of the state’s Southern Tier, has been directed to appear in Rosendale Town Court on September 9 to answer a charge of Harassment Second Degree. According to the Kingston Daily Freeman the charge stems from an altercation between Hinchey and a local member of the National Rifle Association: Paul Lendvay, 46, of Rosendale, the chairman of the Catskill Regional Friends of the National Rifle Association, had...

In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," billionaire Warren Buffett suggested that donors to the John Edwards for President Campaign might consider filing a class action lawsuit. "I think if I had given him money I'd probably be asking him for it back now" quipped the investor icon in a half serious, half joking manner. "I think if I were Edwards I might give up a haircut or two and return some of the money....if they (donors of the smaller amnounts) had known the facts they woudn't have sent him the money." Buffett's main problem with Edwards was the fact...

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rezko’s lawyers asked for an extension from September 3rd to prepare for the sentencing hearing. "A federal judge has postponed the sentencing of convicted political fund-raiser Tony Rezko by nearly two months, pushing his sentencing hearing back to Oct. 28 — one week before the presidential election."Bringing Rezko back into the spotlight - what timing.

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Arnab Datta Report: The McCain campaign is responding to Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., "housing" attack with an ad that goes after the Illinois Democrat for his ties to convicted land developer Tony Rezko. "If you want to talk about a housing problem," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers tells ABC News, "Sen. Obama certainly has one when he bought his million dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon." "That's a house that he could not have bought without Mr. Rezko's actions," said Rogers. "It raises questions about his judgment. And you know it is an...

A federal judge in Chicago has delayed the sentencing of political fundraiser Tony Rezko for more than a month, moving it closer to the presidential election.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A federal grand jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, today returned an indictment against Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila, a senior aide and a former campaign director for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez announced. Today's indictment follows an earlier indictment, returned on March 24, 2008, which charged these same defendants and others with related crimes. The five-count indictment returned today in U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, charges Acevedo...

A prominent Hudson County architect today admitted he made payments to a Union City Board of Zoning Adjustment member -- including buying a $3,400 dog for the board member's girlfriend -- to win favorable consideration of building projects over several years. Jose A. Izquierdo, 52, an attorney for various West New York government agencies and owner of JAI Architects of West New York, faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to lying about the purchase of the dog during an interview with FBI agents in 2006. During those interviews, which are part of an ongoing U.S. Attorney's...

San Francisco FBI agents have begun a criminal investigation of Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard "Rocky" Delgadillo, a one-time rising star of California politics whose career stalled after a series of admitted ethical lapses. Sources familiar with the FBI investigation said agents recently went to Los Angeles to conduct interviews in what appears to be a wide-ranging probe of Delgadillo, 48, a moderate Democrat now in his second four-year term. The probe began after Delgadillo was criticized for allegedly using city resources for personal benefit. Delgadillo admitted last year that he had his city-owned SUV repaired at taxpayers' expense after...

REST ASSURED, Philadelphia. Come Election Day, there will be street money. According to U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, the local Democratic Party chairman, Sen. Barack Obama's general-election presidential campaign in Philadelphia will be run different from his primary operation, which relied more on volunteers than on Democratic ward leaders and did not provide street money on Election Day. "We're not going to pay for votes or pay for turnout," Obama said before the Pennsylvania primary.

Republicans called for a criminal probe of Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith for allegedly threatening lobbyists who fail to contribute to Democratic campaigns. "It borders on criminality," said Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. "You cannot threaten people to give contributions. That's thuggery. Quid pro quo is a crime - you go to jail." Senate Investigations Committee Chair George Winner said Smith, of Queens, "may have broken several laws - including coercion, official misconduct, attempted bribery and even conspiracy." Smith told a group of lobbyists at a fund-raiser for Senate Democrats in that their clients would be shut out of a...

This article is the first in a series that underscores Barack Obama’s serious deficiencies in character, ethics, and integrity. The links appear at “Barack Obama: Powered by Hate,” (http://www.stentorian.com/Obama/) a compilation of Obama’s questionable campaign financing practices, plus enablement and empowerment of racists, anti-Semites, and Catholic-hating bigots. In all cases, we provide links and references so the reader can verify for himself/herself the truth of the statements. This is very important because of the numerous smears and urban legends that are in circulation. Barack Obama’s unethical, dishonest, and possibly illegal campaign financing schemes include: 1. “Dinner with Barack” lotteries that...

COLLECT CALL: Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith allegedly said he would send Sen Jeff Klein as an "enforcer" against lobbyists who didn’t donate to Democrats. Smith, the married father of two fathered an out-of-wedlock child with a woman other than his wife three years ago. Smith told lobbyists that their clients would be shut out of a Democrat-controlled Senate in January if they didn't pony up large contributions now, a "shocked" longtime lobbyist has told The Post. "It was a shocking set of remarks and people were looking around the room in disbelief," said the well-known lobbyist, who has...

FBI probe targets father of embattled Detroit mayor Leftist link only...

snip-The revelations of ties among the lawyers emerged through public records and interviews with people close to Mr. Edwards and Ms. Hunter, which suggested that their affair went on longer than Mr. Edwards admitted and that the effort to conceal it by Mr. Edwards’s inner circle was much more extensive than has been reported. The review found that Mr. Edwards’s political action committee went to unusual lengths to make a final $14,000 payment to Ms. Hunter’s film company months after its contract with the committee had ended. The payment was issued while the committee was short on cash and could...

Democrats Won't Disavow Edwards Mailing In Letter to Donors, Now Admitted-Liar Edwards Railed Against Dishonesty By AVNI PATEL and JUSTIN ROOD August 15, 2008— Two weeks before he admitted to ABC News that he repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair, a Democratic campaign group mailed a fundraising appeal letter from former Senator John Edwards asking donors to "help America meet the great challenges left to us by eight years of gross incompetence and dishonesty." In the pitch, mailed July 21 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Edwards urges Democratic donors to give "$150, $200 or even...

UPDATE: (WXYZ) Mayor Kilpatrick has issued the following statement about the Convention situation. The nomination of Sen. Obama at the Democratic National Convention will be a historic event, however I'm focused on running the city and I don't want anything to distract from that extraordinary moment. The focus should remain on uniting the party and leading our great nation in a different direction.

DETROIT (AP) — Barack Obama doesn't want Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his legal troubles to be a distraction at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and he got his wish Thursday when a judge ordered the city executive to stay home. A Michigan spokesman for Obama, Brent Colburn, said in an e-mail Thursday that the focus of the convention in Denver this month should be on Obama and not on what Colburn called "the troubles of one individual," a reference to Kilpatrick and the two criminal cases he's facing. Kilpatrick, who would have gone to the convention as a superdelegate,...

John Edwards Proves He’s Human, Heavy Panting at 11Steve Stajich, Mirror Contributing Writer I can’t tell you what feelings you should have about so-called “adultery.” There are a few points one can make, such as the fact that a fellow who is not married and breaks any rules of monogamy stated or implied is simply a disappointment to a limited few. However, once the state enters your life by conferring the status of “marriage,” it’s no longer just a gnarly Sunday morning argument. Now it’s lawyers and property division and custody issues and money and property and… did we cite...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Ask the man assigned to combat corruption and bureaucracy in New Orleans how the fight is going and he will tell you about his telephone problems. "I started last September and they only switched my phone lines on two weeks ago," said Robert Cerasoli, New Orleans' first-ever Inspector General in a recent interview. "Everything has been a battle since, everything has been a fight." < > "This is Louisiana," Cerasoli said with a shrug. < >

Lake County prosecutors have announced grand jury indictments against two campaign workers for Democratic state Senator Terry Link of Waukegan on charges of forgery and perjury. The indictments announced against Jerry D. Knight, 40, of Zion and Kenneth Davison, 50, of Waukegan allege the men included the names of dead voters on Link's nominating petitions. Knight faces 11 perjury counts and one forgery count. Davison is indicted on nine perjury counts and two forgery counts. All are felonies.

Candidate for Jefferson seat still off ballot NEW ORLEANS -- A judge's order that New Orleans school boardmember Jimmy Fahrenholtz cannot run for Congress in the September 6 Democratic primary will stand for the time being. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal turned down requests to block the order as well as a request for a quick hearing. Thomas Robichaux, an attorney for Farhenholtz, said he plans an appeal this week to the U.S. Supreme Court to get Fahrenholtz on the ballot. **SNIP** But a judge disqualified him for falsely stating that he did not owe campaign finance fines...

When Democrats this spring sized up Al Franken's bid to win a Senate seat in his native Minnesota, they saw plenty of promising signs: an engaging and famously funny candidate familiar to voters, a stockpile of campaign cash, and a vulnerable incumbent Republican. Less than three months before Election Day, however, the Republican seat held by a former New Yorker, Norm Coleman, looks safer than ever, and Mr. Franken's hopes could be doomed by his own New York past. The former "Saturday Night Live" star, best-selling author, and talk show host is lagging far behind in the polls amid a...

I’m not sure which is more compelling in this news clip — the political tension between Barack Obama’s national and Michigan operations over what to do with Kwame Kilpatrick, or Jennifer Granholm’s resigned hypocrisy over tying a presidential candidate to their political allies. Hey, Governor, maybe you should read the news from time to time and learn more about the McSame Project at Team Obama:

Judge Leonard Townsend ruled Kilpatrick's tether can be removed and travel restrictions will be lifted, so the mayor can attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

DETROIT -- With a picture of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's face next to it, "No More” read the headline of the well-respected African American Detroit newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle. "If (Kilpatrick's) love of Detroit is as strong as he professes, he will make the right decision, which we believe, is to step down," the paper wrote in Wednesday's morning edition.

Detroit (WWJ) -- There are new calls for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign amid the scandal that has the mayor facing ten criminal charges. Congressman John Dingell issued a statement Wednesday calling for the mayor to resign.

The predictable reaction’s ensuing as we speak, in fact, as Politico presses Tennessee GOP spokesman Bill Hobbs for an explanation. Hobbs should have consulted his rulebook. Verdict: Racist. Sentence: A prominent mention in Peter Beinart’s next column.

TROY, Mich. (AP) -- A woman accused of having a paid sexual tryst with the husband of Michigan U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow has been sentenced to probation on a lesser charge. Alycia Martin was sentenced Tuesday to six months’ probation. The 21-year-old’s record will be expunged if she successfully completes her sentence. Prosecutors dropped a prostitution charge against the Westland woman in June. She pleaded guilty to trespassing. Investigators conducting surveillance Feb. 26 at a Troy hotel stopped then-46-year-old Thomas Athans. They say Stabenow’s husband acknowledged meeting Martin through the Internet and paying her $150 for sex. Authorities didn’t charge...

The Detroit City Council’s attorney William Goodman must provide the names of all witnesses he plans to call at the removal hearing of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick by August 15, according to an order Governor Jennifer Granholm issued today. Sharon McPhail, Kilpatrick’s General Counsel, must submit their list of witnesses on August 25.

Edwards Scandal Puts Texas Plaintiffs Lawyer on the DefensiveTuesday August 12, 3:02 am ET Zach Lowe, The American Lawyer Dallas-area Democrats defended Fred Baron on Monday, saying his loyalty to his friends and passion for Democratic politics were behind his payments to John Edwards' mistress and the Edwards campaign worker who has identified himself as the father of her child. Baron, a trial lawyer who became one of the kings of asbestos litigation, has admitted paying Rielle Hunter and former Edwards campaign staffer Andrew Young's relocation expenses when they moved out of North Carolina and into million-dollar homes in California...

You know there are some in the liberal media who have simply lost touch with reality when the headline reads "John Edwards Cheats on Wife With Cancer" and they ask with great detachment whether he'll be able to run for office again soon. These people's morality is so bizarre that they showed more outrage at John McCain featuring a picture of Paris Hilton in a commercial for two eye-blinks than for Edwards catting around on a dying spouse. ...

By now, just about everyone has heard former Sen. John Edwards' non-apology apology for his affair with a former campaign aide. It turns out that despite his repeated, emphatic denials, he's a bigger hypocrite than even we imagined. But in gaining entry to that growing, bipartisan fraternity of immoral politicos, he exhibited especially despicable behavior for which he and his enabling wife, Elizabeth, must be condemned. Simply put, they exploited her breast cancer to cultivate his phony family-values image and cash in on the public's sympathy to advance their political ambitions. Mrs. Edwards' battle against an incurable disease and his...

As most of you know, John Edwards is a lawyer. But that fact alone probably wouldn’t give us subject-matter jurisdiction over the bizarro story involving him and video producer Rielle Hunter (pictured, left). Fortunately, however, Fred Baron (pictured, below right) gives us the in we need. The dealio: In the midst of the weekend’s news that Edwards had had an affair with Hunter, news also broke that someone had paid not only for Hunter to move from Chapel Hill, N.C., to Santa Barbara, Calif., but for the man who claims to be the father of her child, Andrew Young, to...

RALEIGH, N.C. - There were few people closer to John Edwards during his presidential campaigns than Fred Baron, a renowned Texas trial lawyer who evolved into one of the Democratic Party’s key fund-raisers. Baron, who made his fortune as a celebrated litigator on asbestos-injury cases before turning his attention to Democratic presidential tickets, was part of Edwards’ inner circle of advisers. But when it came to one key financial decision, Baron said he chose to keep the former senator out of the loop. On Friday, after Edwards confessed to having an affair with Rielle Hunter, a video producer with whom...

More Than Just a Boneheaded Mistake Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com So you thought the problem of Barack and Michelle Obamas’ 2005 mansion purchase was dead and buried. Well, not any more. A reader of my website who is a tax accountant of many years, one who specializes in criminal matters, says he believes the Obamas have a tax problem.... ...Barack Obama once called the house purchase a boneheaded mistake, but my source believes it is worse than that. Much worse. If Barack Obama were to attain the White House, this problem could be devastating for the Democratic Party, says my source....

Yes, it's great to have one more example of hypocrisy and lack of virtue in the Democratic Party made public, but we shouldn't let this story devolve into just "another politician screws up, fathers illegitimate baby" meme. Yes, it's rather "con-veeeee-nient" that Edwards says, with a smug, self-assured smile, that he will gladly submit to a paternity test and Rielle Hunter says, "No way, no how," but is being named the father or not really what this latest cover-up is about?

ABC Radio news just announced Sen. John Edwards will admit to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview with the network, but insists the child is not his. We return you to your regularly-scheduled FReeping.

ohn Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extra-marital affair with a novice film-maker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

<p>The mayor of Detroit went to jail Thursday. August 08, 2008. DETROIT (AP) — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spent the night in a one-man jail cell with no TV and a phone only for collect calls, the consequence of violating his bond in a criminal case that has dogged him for months.</p>