Actress Lori Petty Charged with DUI

Lori Petty, an actress who obviously reached her peak in the '90 with roles in Tank Girl and Point Break, was arrested for DUI last weekend in Venice, CA.

What caught my eye about this story was the $100,000 bond she had to post before getting out of jail. The initial news account did not have any details, but did mention the bond. A subsequent story included the information that she was arrested for felony DUI after allegedly hitting a 14-year-old skate boarder.

Now the high bond makes sense.

Most recently she has had guest roles on television shows House and Prison Break.

Alaska Volcano Erupts

This from Yahoo! News:

WILLOW, Alaska – Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20 years. Residents in the state's largest city were spared from falling ash, though fine gray dust was falling Monday morning on small communities north of Anchorage. The ash began falling around daybreak and continued into midmorning. They were supposed to end by noon.

"It's coming down," Rita Jackson, 56, said early Monday morning at a 24-hour grocery store in Willow, about 50 miles north of Anchorage. She slid her fingers across the hood of her car, through a dusting of ash.

Ash from Alaska's volcanos is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems. Ash can also cause damage engines in planes, cars and other vehicles.

Alaska Airlines on Monday canceled 19 flights in and out of the Anchorage international airport because of the ash.

North Korea Threatens South Over Leaflets

North Korea has said unless South Korea takes steps to stop the distribution of leaflets criticizing their government, they will launch a pre-emptive strike.

"We clarify our stand that should the South Korean puppet authorities continue scattering leaflets and conducting a smear campaign with sheer fabrications, our army will take a resolute practical action as we have already warned," the official KCNA news agency quoted the military spokesman as saying.

At a rare round of military talks on Monday, North Korea complained about the leaflets while South Korean activists sent a new batch of 100,000, despite warnings from Seoul not to do so.

"The puppet authorities had better bear in mind that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris, not just setting them on fire," the spokesman said.

South Korean groups have been sending the leaflets into the North for years. Analysts said the recent wave appeared to have touched a nerve because they mentioned a taboo subject in the North -- the health of leader Kim Jong-il.

Georgia Must Allow Voting

Any citizen "flagged" by Georgia's new voter ID law must be allowed to vote, federal judges have ruled:

The state of Georgia must allow persons whose citizenship has been questioned in a new voter verification system the opportunity to cast a ballot in the Nov. 4 elections, a three-judge court ruled Monday.

The court also ordered Secretary of State Karen Handel to “make diligent and immediate efforts to notify, in a uniform manner, every person whose voter registration presently remains flagged.” Those voters must be told that they can vote by a “challenged ballot,” if necessary, and that there is a discrepancy in the voters’ registration information, the court said.

Squandering Taxpayers' Money

Think progress has this to say about the Bush Administration's massive taxpayer funding of the bailout of Wall Street fat cats:

This weekend, President Bush proposed a massive, $700 billion buyout of troubled financial institutions, in a plan that "would place no restrictions on the administration" and stipulates that actions by the Treasury Secretary "are non-reviewable...and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency." The proposal also would grant the Treasury the power to hire outside firms "to help manage its purchases." Given Bush's history of fiscal mismanagement -- particularly when it comes to hiring contractors -- Americans should be skeptical of his new plan. In Iraq, $142 million was wasted on projects that were either terminated or canceled, a "significant" amount of U.S. funds have been funneled to Sunni and Shiite militia groups, $5.1 billion in expenses has been charged without proper documentation, and another $10 billion has been wasted or poorly tracked, to name just a few examples. Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina was equally mismanaged. An estimated $2 billion was spent in fraud and waste, nearly 11 percent of the total spent by FEMA in the first year following the hurricane. In the area of defense spending, the Pentagon reported $1 trillion it could not account for in 2003. It also paid $1.7 billion in excessive fees to the Interior Department, and another $50 million Air Force contract was awarded in a process "fraught with improper influence, irregular procedures, and glaring conflicts of interest." It's no wonder that Princeton economist Paul Krugman called the Treasury's demand for "dictatorial authority" "an unacceptable proposal."

Voice your opposition at VoteNoBailout.org.

Who is Sarah Palin?

John McCain stunned the political world when he picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. But who is she?

An authenticated email from someone who has known Sarah Palin for years provides some insight.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren't enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn't even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later--to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

There is much more in the email. Check it out.

If it walks like a duck . . .

The author of Oklahoma's draconian anti-immigration laws reports that some of his campaign signs have been defaced with the words "bigot" and "racist."

Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, said Monday that dozens of his campaign signs were defaced, primarily in the Norman area.

"It is unfortunate," Terrill said. "It is childish. It is a criminal act. And it is an affront to our electoral process."

Last year, Terrill authored House Bill 1804, legislation that cracks down on illegal immigrants in the state that was signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry.

The bill includes this tidbit:

Section 3 replicates the federal provision that makes it a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 1 year or a fine of $1000.00, for any person to transport, harbor, or shelter an alien in reckless disregard for their illegal immigration status. State and local prosecutors now have the tools to stop illegal aliens from "residing" in Oklahoma, or traveling instate in search of unlawful employment.

Just what is "reckless disregard?" That is left up to interpretation.