Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A late-night confession by Utah's House majority leader about sitting nude in a hot tub with a minor 25 years ago has shocked this conservative state's political establishment but has not prompted calls from party leaders for him to resign. Rep. Kevin Garn, 55, acknowledged the indiscretion late Thursday immediately after the Legislature adjourned for the session. He said he paid the woman, Cheryl Maher, now 40, $150,000 to keep quiet about the episode when he unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002.

Despite receiving an "outpouring" of "overwhelmingly negative" feedback from the public, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is asking President Bush to commute former Gov. George Ryan's sentence to time served.... Durbin said he isn't asking that George Ryan be pardoned for his crimes, but that he be freed from prison after serving just one year of a 6 1/2 year sentence.... Ryan was convicted in 2006 in a racketeering fraud scheme. "I would speak out for justice in any case brought to my attention," Durbin said. However, Durbin said he couldn't remember a time that he's written a president, asking him...