Vice President Dick Cheney Indicted

The current president of the United States, Dick Cheney, has been indicted in Texas on 7 charges, all involving federal prisons in South Texas. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who also served under president George W Bush has also been indicted on the same charges.

According to the Associated Press, the indictment returned Monday has not yet been signed by the presiding judge, and no action can be taken until that happens.

The seven indictments made public in Willacy County on Tuesday included one naming state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. and some targeting public officials connected to District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra's own legal battles.

Regarding the indictments targeting the public officials, Guerra said, "the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me."

Guerra himself was under indictment for more than a year and half until a judge dismissed the indictments last month. Guerra's tenure ends this year after nearly two decades in office. He lost convincingly in a Democratic primary in March.

Guerra said the prison-related charges against Cheney and Gonzales are a national issue and experts from across the country testified to the grand jury.

Cheney is charged with engaging in an organized criminal activity related to the vice president's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds financial interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees because of his link to the prison companies.

Megan Mitchell, a spokeswoman for Cheney, declined to comment on Tuesday, saying that the vice president had not yet received a copy of the indictment.

The indictment accuses Gonzales of using his position while in office to stop an investigation in 2006 into abuses at one of the privately-run prisons.

Gonzales' attorney, George Terwilliger III, said in a written statement, "This is obviously a bogus charge on its face, as any good prosecutor can recognize." He said he hoped Texas authorities would take steps to stop "this abuse of the criminal justice system."

Another indictment released Tuesday accuses Lucio of profiting from his public office by accepting honoraria from prison management companies. Guerra announced his intention to investigate Lucio's prison consulting early last year.

Lucio's attorney, Michael Cowen, released a scathing statement accusing Guerra of settling political scores in his final weeks in office.

"Senator Lucio is completely innocent and has done nothing wrong," Cowen said, adding that he would file a motion to quash the indictment this week.

Willacy County has become a prison hub with county, state and federal lockups. Guerra has gone after the prison-politician nexus before, extracting guilty pleas from three former Willacy and Webb county commissioners after investigating bribery related to federal prison contacts.
Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted The GEO Group, a Florida private prison company, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release. The three-count indictment alleged The GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened in 2001 at the Raymondville facility.

In 2006, a jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment makes reference to the de la Rosa case.

None of the indictments released Tuesday had been signed by Presiding Judge Manuel Banales of the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region.

Last month, Banales dismissed indictments that charged Guerra with extorting money from a bail bond company and using his office for personal business. An appeals court had earlier ruled that a special prosecutor was improperly appointed to investigate Guerra.

After Guerra's office was raided as part of the investigation early last year, he camped outside the courthouse in a borrowed camper with a horse, three goats and a rooster. He threatened to dismiss hundreds of cases because he believed local law enforcement had aided the investigation against him.

The indictments were first reported by KRGV-TV.

Recount For Franken Coleman In Minnesota

The race for Minnesota's U.S. Senate spot has got into an automatic recount. The race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken will require a recount - but the Senator does have appear to have a slim margin

The Senator declared himself the winner after Tuesday's election but Franken said he would let the recount play out, hoping it would erase the incumbent's 475-vote lead out of nearly 2.9 million ballots. State officials said the recount wouldn't start until mid-November and would probably take weeks.

"Yesterday the voters spoke. We prevailed," Coleman said Wednesday at a news conference. He noted Franken could opt to waive the recount.

"It's up to him whether such a step is worth the tax dollars it will take to conduct," Coleman said, telling reporters he would "step back" if he were in Franken's position. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said the recount would cost 3 cents per ballot, or almost $90,000.

As counties and Ritchie's office reconciled their unofficial vote totals Wednesday, Coleman's margin fluctuated but was at 475 votes Wednesday afternoon: Coleman had 1,211,642 votes, or 41.99 percent of the total votes cast, while Franken had 1,211,167 votes, or 41.98 percent.

Dean Barkley of the Independence Party was third with 15.16 percent.

Minnesota state law allows automatic recounts in races decided by a half-percentage point or less.

Al Franken is an Emmy Award–winning American comedian, writer and progressive political commentator. e gained fame as a writer and a performer for Saturday Night Live, eventually writing and appearing in several films. Since then, Franken has become more known for his political commentary, writing numerous bestselling books and hosting a nationally-syndicated radio show on Air America Radio.

On February 14, 2007, Franken announced his candidacy for the 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and was nominated by that party on June 7, 2008.[1] The seat is currently held by Norm Coleman.

California - Say YES To Proposition 2

Prop 2 will end the practice of "boxing" baby calfs for veal and breeding pigs and hens in "crammed" cages. A bonus to Propostion 2 is that it will put some teeth in the laws to combat farm waste and fecal matter that is running off into our streams, rivers and other bodies of water.

If you are a pet owner, love animals or just a normal human being, you need to vote Yes and protect these animals - because they can't protect themselves. If it's any consolidation, the Humane Society, is in full support of this bill. Your vote means a lot!

Here is what proposition 2 stands for ...

The American Public Health Association has called for a moratorium on new factory farms because of the devastating effects these operations can have on surrounding communities. Factory farms often spread waste on the ground untreated - contaminating our waterways, lakes, groundwater, soil, and air. Environmental leaders like Defenders of Wildlife, the Planning and Conservation League, Clean Water Action and the Sierra Club support Prop 2.
Improving our health and food safety.

We all witnessed the cruel treatment of sick and crippled cows exposed by a Chino slaughter plant investigation this year, prompting authorities to pull meat off school menus and initiate a nationwide recall. Factory farmers have put our health at risk by allowing these terrible abuses, and now are recklessly telling us it's okay to keep animals in overcrowded, inhumane conditions.

Proposition 2 is being opposed, as you would suspect, by big business and the businesses that run these slaughterhouses. And as you can image, they have their lobbyists and the funds to put up a good fight to the proposition.

Come on California, the rest of the country is watching. California has been known to blaze the trail on protecting humans - now it's time to take it to the next step!

Vote Proposition 2 and protect our animals and the environment.

Iverson To Be Traded To MOTOWN

The president of basketball operations of the Detroit Pistons, Joe Dumars, is looking to trade for Allen Iverson, currently a member of the Denver Nuggets.

The trade would sent Antonio McDyess and Chauncey Billups from the Detroit Pistons to the Colorado Nuggets in exchange for Mr. Iverson.

According to unconfirmed sources, the trade is very close. All players involved where not present at this morning's shoot-around.

It seems that Joe Dumars is insistent on breaking up his team since they lost to the eventual NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, in six games during the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

The Pistons did win 59 games last year under Flip Saunders, but Dumars feels he needs Iverson to solidify his team.

A former league MVP with Philadelphia in 2000-01 and nine-time All-Star, Iverson is without peer as an offensive player but off-the-court problems and maturity issues have plagued the diminutive one since he arrived in the City of Brotherly Love from Georgetown in 1996.

Iverson, who will become a free agent in the offseason, will arrive in the Motor City with plenty of defensive-minded players. In fact, Prince and Wallace can be torturous at that end of the floor. But, unlike Snow, Lynch and Hill, the Pistons' big time defenders aren't offensively challenged. Prince and Wallace, especially, need their touches.

Meanwhile, the Pistons already have Richard Hamilton, the game's best player at moving without the ball, at the two spot, meaning Iverson will be forced to take over Billups' role as the quarterback of the team.

A shoot-first guy, Iverson isn't likely to care about getting the ball to his new teammates in spots where they can succeed, something Billups excelled at.

Opus Is Dead: The Comic Strip

First it was King of the Hill and now it's Opus, the comic strip. It appeared for the last time today, but the final destiny of the beloved penguin's 'final paradise' had to wait for the Humane Society to update its website.

It is an interesting strategy for Berkeley Breathed, who started the Sunday Comic strip on paper, many years ago. I thought he would wind up with the Peanuts comic strip character "Snoopy", considering all the comic's references to Peanuts and a recent appearance at the Charles Schulz Museum.

For those who aren't familiar with Opus - Opus the Penguin (Opus T. Penguin) is a character in the comic strips and children's books of Berkeley Breathed, most notably the popular 1980s strip Bloom County. Breathed has described him as an "existentialist penguin" and the favorite of his many characters. Until November 2, 2008 he ran in the comic strip Opus.

Is Loretta Lynn In Contact With Johnny Cash?

Loretta Lynn, the legendary country performer, has spent here whole life with ghosts and is believed to be a true psychic. The story goes, that she first became aware of her special powers back when she was 14 years old and pregnant. While living away from home, she began to predict letters from her mom, and would predict the day they were delivered.

Over the years she has had many premonitions, including a vision of her dad in his coffin. She learned the following morning that her father had died of a stroke. On a return to her former home, she encountered his ghost, sitting on the front porch.

Kind of eerie, don't you think.

Back in 1967, as fate would have it, she and her husband got lost on a road in the Tennessee countryside. It is then when she discovered Hurricane Mills. And whether it was really fate or just coincidence, Hurricane Mills had it's own ghosts. The history of the estate goes back to the 1800s and the Civil War. 19 confederate soldiers are buried on the property. Her oldest son is said to have waken from his sleep to the sight of a soldier standing at the foot of his bed.

Other secrets of Hurricane Mills discovered included a "slave pit" which is a cramped, dark, cellar with iron bars that was located under the front porch. It is said that disobedient slaves were put in there for punishment. Strange sounds and footsteps are said to be heard coming from the slave pit. Loretta also repeatedly straightens pictures on her walls, only to have them mysteriously shifted

Fast forward to Halloween, 2008. the Globe magazine says Loretta Lynn is haunted by Johnny Cash.

Now, we all know the globe is a gossip tabloid, but could there be some truth to this story? A ghostly thought!

King of The Hill Dead After 13 Years

Oh Hank, say it ain't so!

It seems that after 13 seasons, Fox has decided to cancel it's King Of The Hill television program. But one more round of 13 episodes are still ahead, to be aired sometime during the 2009-2010 season.

King of the Hill is an American animated series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It centers around the Hills, a suburban Methodist family proud of its Texas heritage. Unlike many animated sitcoms of its type that generally tend to feature unusual or impossible events, King of the Hill attempts to retain a realistic approach, seeking humor in the otherwise conventional or sometimes even mundane.

Judge and Daniels conceived the series after a successful run with Judge's earlier Beavis and Butt-head on MTV, and the series debuted on the Fox Network on January 12, 1997, becoming an early hit. The series' popularity has also led to syndication by many local affiliates and the FX network as well as a number of international networks. The show has risen to become one of FOX's longest-running series, and the second longest-running American animated series, behind The Simpsons. In 2007, it was named by Time Magazine as one of the greatest television shows of all time.[1] The title theme was written and performed by The Refreshments. King of the Hill has won two Emmy Awards and has been nominated for seven since its inception.

The thirteenth season began airing on Sunday September 28, 2008. One month later Fox said its most recent 13-episode order would be its last; the final episodes are expected to air 2009-10 TV season.[3]

Hank Hill, the star of the animated series, is a propane salesman who just loves the Dallas Cowboys. His wife, Peggy, works as a substitute spanish teacher, a real estate agent, freelance writer and is also a Boggle champion. They have a son, Bobby, who is a chubby 13 year old with a wacky sense of humor. Peggy's niece, Luanne, was taken in by the Hills after her mom was sent to prison for "stabbing her husband [Luanne's father and Peggy's brother, with a fork.

King of the Hill uses the standard set-up of a situation comedy or "sitcom" as its premise, depicting a family and their lives in a typical American town. It documents the Hills' day-to-day-lives in the small Texas town of Arlen, exploring modern themes ranging from parent-child relationships, to friendship and loyalty, to justice, envy, and hubris. As an animated sitcom, however, King of the Hill's scope is generally larger than that of a regular sitcom.

It will be sad to see King of the Hill go after all these years.