Free Republic

A North Side man discovered the hard way that taunting and threatening a police officer's K-9 dog is a felony offense in Pennsylvania. Kenneth King, 23, of 106 Sherman Ave., has been in the Allegheny County Jail since Sunday because he has been unable to come up with the $100,000 bond set by District Judge Eugene Ricciardi.

Election Year Hypocrisy From Byrd On School Prayer WASHINGTON-Senator Robert Byrd opened himself up to charges of election year hypocrisy yesterday as he pushed for a school prayer amendment despite the fact his re-election campaign's largest financial backer is the anti-school prayer group MoveOn. "To those who have doubts that Senator Byrd has lost touch with the common sense values of West Virginia, I recommend they look at who is bankrolling his campaign. $800,000 is a lot of money from a group dedicated to stopping the very type of school prayer amendment Senator Byrd was praising. This is called hypocrisy,"...

Our system of counting and casting votes is a lot sloppier than we thought. I'm not talking about the fun we're going to have on Nov. 2 trying to figure out how to work the new voting systems that 25 percent of U.S.election jurisdictions have installed since the electoral nightmare of 2000.

FRIDAY, AUG. 6 8:00 p.m. ET In a Tom Brokaw Reports: "Critical Condition," Brokaw looks at America's current healthcare system through the eyes of ordinary Americans who needed help, doctors and experts. As NBC News follows the personal stories of people coping with healthcare crisis, two themes emerge: the enormous strides the country has made in healthcare and the enormous burden the costs have become to hospitals, patients, employers and the tax-payer.