Free Republic

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin remained in the dark while her husband repeatedly asked top state officials to help get his former brother-in-law kicked off the state police force, Palin's husband and top aides said in affidavits provided to The Associated Press. Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is the focus of a legislative investigation into whether she abused her authority by firing the state's public safety commissioner to settle a long-standing family dispute. The commissioner says he was fired after resisting pressure to fire Mike Wooten, a trooper involved in a bitter divorce with Palin's sister....

NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran New York City crane inspector has been arrested on charges of taking thousands in dollars of bribes and falsifying reports. James Delayo, an assistant chief inspector with the city's cranes and derricks division, is charged with collecting thousands of dollars in bribes from a crane company. The city's Department of Investigation said Friday that Delayo tampered with licensing exams by providing the answers for crane operator exams to a crane company. The city says Delayo's alleged conduct has nothing to do with the two crane collapses that killed nine people since March.

Nobody else did anything wrong so Lewis Libby is fall guy for Scooter.

In the aftermath of the public revelation of the presidential "teleconference" and mounting criticism of the performance of Michael Chertoff, Administration sources told HUMAN EVENTS today that the secretary of Homeland Security has "only a few days left" in the Bush Cabinet. As one source acquainted with the former federal prosecutor and U.S. Appellate Judge said under promise of anonymity, "They will give [Chertoff] a little time so it won't hurt his reputation too much, but he's probably got only a few days left." For weeks, Chertoff has been under fire from Capitol Hill and in the media for his...

WHAT HAPPENED IN TOLEDO? By Michelle Malkin · October 17, 2005 05:05 AM It was ugly in Toledo, Ohio, this weekend--and if you watched any of the cable news coverage or glanced at the national MSM headlines, as I did, you probably are still wondering what really went down.

U.S. Attorney's Office takes into custody ex-United Nations Procurement Official in Oil-for-food Investigation. - Just Breaking!

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...

The fallout from CBS's doomed story about President Bush's National Guard service most endangers a woman few viewers know but who played a key role in two of the biggest television stories of the year. Mary Mapes, a veteran producer at CBS News, reported most of the National Guard story, including obtaining the documents CBS now says it can't authenticate. She also passed on the phone number of her source, former Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett, to the Kerry campaign. ... CBS acknowledged Mapes passed on Burkett's number to Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart, and Lockhart called him. Spokeswoman Kelli...

LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - British police revealed on Saturday that a scientist at the center of a row over the government's justification for war in Iraq had died of a slit wrist, leaving little doubt he had taken his own life. A haggard Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the media on a visit to Tokyo to "set aside the speculation and the claims and the counter-claims" over the death of Dr David Kelly, a Defense Ministry weapons expert. Kelly was named as a possible "mole" for a news story saying aides to Blair -- who has staked his career on his...

(CBS) Publicly, not much at all has happened in the FBI's anthrax investigation since the search last winter of a small pond in upper Maryland. Divers went to the bottom but came up empty handed. Privately, however, agents say it would only have been icing on the cake because they believe they already have their man, even if they never get his indictment, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart. Bio-weapons researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill, sources confirm, remains the FBI's number one suspect in the attacks, even though round-the-clock surveillance and extensive searches have failed to develop more than what even Justice...