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BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) -- A congressman skeptical of the need for U.S. military action against Iraq says he is flying to Baghdad, hoping to answer questions about a possible invasion and seeking a meeting with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said he wants to reassure Iraqi citizens that Americans are ``not out to wage war for war's sake.'' ``I'm not going as a secretary of state,'' Rahall said Tuesday. ``I'm not going as a weapons inspector. And I'm not calling upon this administration to do one thing or another. I just have a lot of questions.'' Rahall,...

A top Missouri high school football team forfeited all wins from an undefeated 2019 season and the program's head coach was fired as part of self-imposed sanctions after it was discovered the squad was using an ineligible player wearing a different jersey. **SNIP** Cardinal Ritter self-reported the use of an ineligible player to the state’s high school sports governing body Tuesday, according to the Post-Dispatch. The issue stems from the school using a player who was supposed to be suspended for the first game of the season but played anyway using a different name. Junior Bill Jackson, who was ejected...

BOULDER—Congress may be unwilling to pass climate-change legislation, but EPA chief Gina McCarthy said Wednesday that’s not going to stop the Obama administration. In a speech at the University of Colorado Boulder, McCarthy said the administration intends to bypass Congress and use President Obama’s executive authority to advance its climate-change agenda. She cited the president’s June 25 address at Georgetown University, where he unveiled his Climate Action Plan, calling it “a most remarkable speech by a president of the United States.” “Essentially, he said that it is time to act,” McCarthy said. “And he said he wasn’t going to wait...

A huge story involving a key power broker in Colorado Democratic politics flew under the radar of the Colorado press last week – and ours too. Jim Martin, formerly the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8, which includes Colorado, resigned from his post last Friday. According to Fox News, his resignation comes just three weeks after Louisiana’s Republican Senator David Vitter questioned his use of a personal email address to conduct official business. An EPA spokesperson cited “personal reasons” for Martin’s resignation. Vitter noted Martin may face a congressional probe for using his personal email address to circumnavigate...

Former Republican Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel may no longer be President Obama’s favored pick to run the Defense Department, sources told the Free Beacon. Hagel immediately drew a frosty reception from observers who criticized him for advocating in favor of direct unconditional talks with Iran and for backing sizable cuts to the defense budget.

Several years ago, in the midst of our national nightmare of having the Clintons in the White House, there appeared to be a possible national hero emerging from inside our seemingly corrupt government: Scott Ritter. Ritter was then a U.N. weapons inspector who had been in and out of Iraq monitoring their suspected buildup of weapons of mass destruction. He said it all when he proclaimed one day, "Iraq presents a clear and present danger to international peace and security." Ritter then detailed the various gruesome weapons Saddam Hussein's scientists were developing: anthrax, botulism, sarin nerve gas, mustard gas –...

The former U.N. weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting has been sentenced to 1½ to 5½ years in state prison. Following his sentencing in Monroe County Court on Wednesday afternoon, Scott Ritter was led out in handcuffs and sent to Monroe County Correctional Facility, where he will remain until it is determined which state prison he will serve his sentence at.

The former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has been convicted of unlawful contact with a minor for exchanging explicit messages in an online chat room with someone he believed to be a 15-year-old girl. Ritter, 49, exchanged messages with a detective posing as an underage girl and masturbated, even after the undercover officer stressed during the chat that he was a minor, Pennsylvania prosecutors said. A jury found Ritter guilty of a total of six counts including indecent exposure and criminal attempt to corrupt a minor.

William Scott Ritter Jr., a former United Nations weapons inspector who gained renown for his criticism of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, contends his online sexual encounters with teenage girls were only fantasy. Nearly two years ago, Ritter, of Delmar, watched his computer screen reveal that an anonymous person who had been exchanging sexually charged messages with him for 80 minutes was not a 15-year-old girl. It was a cop from a small town in northeast Pennsylvania, alone in his station house and trolling the Internet for suspected child predators. Ryan Venneman, a detective for the Barrett Township...

His lawyers presented Monroe County Court Judge Jennifer Sibum with several motions: to dismiss the case or, failing that, change the venue for a trial that is set to begin next month. Sibum reserved decision. She is expected to make a ruling next week. Ritter is charged with contacting who he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an online chat room in February 2009 and starting a sexually based conversation. The “girl” turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer working undercover. Ritter served as the U.N. chief weapons inspector for seven years, was a harsh critic of the...

Whenever someone says “you know I am good for it,” or “I am going to pay you back really soon,” or “I am just a little short right now,” it is safe to conclude that you are not going to be paid and that the person to whom you foolishly lent money is broke. When companies have a ‘temporary cash shortage,’ even for a day or two, they go bankrupt. Frontier, a onetime independent airline had a profitable business, but due to a creditor refusing to renew an agreement, it went bankrupt. No matter how the mainstream media wants to...

In the race to be Colorado's next governor, Republicans continue trying to tie the Democrats' new candidate, Mayor John Hickenlooper, to Gov. Bill Ritter, whom both are trying to replace. While Hickenlooper has yet to directly respond to his likely GOP opponent, Scott McInnis, but, in his comments on the campaign trail, he has been increasingly critical of Ritter, who helped shepherd the mayor into the race upon his surprise exit in January. And don't think Ritter hasn't noticed. Friday, In an interview with FOX 31 anchor Ron Zappolo slated to air Sunday night on "Zappolo's People", Ritter fired back...

Gov. Bill Ritter suffered "multiple rib fractures" in a bicycle accident early today. Ritter was treated at Denver Health Medical Center. "He is OK and he is in good spirits," spokesman Evan Dreyer said. "He is joking and laughing." His wife, Jeannie, was with him at the hospital. Ritter rides two or three mornings a week with friends. They were out today when Ritter around 6 a.m. somehow collided with one of the other cyclists in the group near 23rd Avenue and High Street. Dreyer said he doesn't have details on how the crash occurred. The other cyclist had a...

Authorities need your help finding four former Colorado inmates. They were let out early as part of the Gov. Bill Ritter's cost saving early prisoner release program. 36 in all have violated their early parole, and four of them can't be found. some checking on the early release prisoner program. 264 inmates have been released so far. 36 have violated their parole. Having to go back in front of the parole board, 10 are back in prison. One early release prisoner, Terrance Weeks, 25, has been arrested for a new crime, felony menacing. When Tarkington, Johnson and Harris are found,...

It’s a True Crime Post. Remember Scott Ritter? He was a pervert then and he’s a pervert now. Also, Governor Paterson’s son arrested for stolen credit cards? I pay a visit to crimes and those who confess to crimes. Does anyone really ever confess to a crime they did not commit? I re-visit Texas’ infamous “yogurt shop murders” and a few other crimes that had confessions from folks who later swear their confessions were fake. Perverted Pediatricians? Folks, don’t leave your kids alone with anyone, not even beloved doctors you’ve always trusted. A cat gets called to jury duty and...

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s war chest in his bid to be governor has zero dollars. Meanwhile, the leading Republican candidate to be the Grand Old Party’s nominee topped $1 million, Scott McInnis’ campaign announced Friday. At the same time, Gov. Bill Ritter’s campaign contributions for the fourth quarter of 2009 swelled his coffers to more than $2.5 million. Unfortunately for Hickenlooper, though, state law bars the Democratic governor who dropped his re-election bid earlier this month from giving that money to his fellow party member. But that’s all right, Hickenlooper said in a telephone interview... “I’ve got a steep hill...

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers this morning said he will vote no on three of four state supreme court justices who are up for retention in November's elections and yes on Justice Nancy Rice. Suthers will vote against retaining Chief Judge Mary Mullarkey and judges Alex Martinez and Michael Bender... Most Republicans are supporting the effort to deny retention of all four justices who are up for retention. Mullarkey is widely despised by Colorado's Republicans because she and the other four justices are so blatantly partisan in deciding politically controversial cases. If Mullarkey is retained as chief justice this year,...

Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter was arrested in a Pennsylvania sex sting in November on a litany of charges involving a lewd Internet conversation with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter was arrested in a Pennsylvania sex sting in November on a litany of charges involving a lewd Internet conversation with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Ritter, 47, allegedly masturbated in front of a Web camera while he was engaged in conversation in an Internet chat room with an undercover cop posing as the teenage girl. The chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98, Ritter is accused of contacting the "girl" while using the handle "delmarm4fun" last February. Ritter, of Delmar, N.Y., allegedly told the girl, "Emily," that he...

A former chief United Nations weapons inspector is accused of contacting what he thought was a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, engaging in a sexual conversation and showing himself masturbating on a Web camera. Scott Ritter of Delmar, N.Y., who served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991-98 and who was an outspoken critic of the second Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq, is accused of contacting what turned out to be a Barrett Township police officer posing undercover as a teen girl.