LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “It’s actually pretty impressive: We’re seeing wind, hail, rain, tornadoes, pretty much the sky is the limit.” Travis Hartman, meteorologist for EarthSat Energy Weather, on the U.S. low-pressure weather system that spawned high winds, storms and tornado and blizzard warnings across the Midwest Article,this page
Obama discounts ‘shove it’ remarks
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - President Barack Obama on Tuesday said it’s “not a big deal” that Democratic candidate for governor Frank Caprio declared he could “shove it” for not endorsing him.
In his first comments about Caprio’s remarks, Obama said during an interview with American Urban Radio Networks that he understood Caprio was upset that he hadn’t endorsed him. But he said in politics you can’t worry about what other people are saying about you “as long as you know you’re focused on what’s right for people.”
Caprio told Rhode Island’s WPRO-AM on Monday that Obama could “take his endorsement and really shove it” after learning the president wouldn’t endorse anyone in the race. The White House says Obama declined to make an endorsement out of respect to independent candidate Lincoln Chafee, who endorsed Obama in 2008.
Caprio on Tuesday continued to maintain he never asked for Obama’s endorsement, even though the White House said otherwise.
Chafee and Caprio face Republican John Robitaille and Moderate Party candidate Ken Block in the race.
Pentagon, museum shot by same gun
WASHINGTON - The same gun was used to shoot at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps in northern Virginia earlier this month, the FBI said Tuesday.
A third military office - a Marine Corps recruiting station in Chantilly, Va., outside Washington - was shot at overnight Monday. Marines who work there discovered the shooting Tuesday morning, the FBI said. Investigators are conducting ballistics tests to determine whether the recruiting station shooting is related to the previous shootings.
No one was injured in any of the shootings.
Investigators haven’t determined a motive or identified a suspect, said Lindsay Godwin, spokesman for the FBI’s Washington field office.
Court voids Arizona demand on voters
SAN FRANCISCO - Arizona’s requirement that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote was struck down by a federal appeals court, which said it conflicts with the National Voter Registration Act.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday invalidated parts of Arizona’s Proposition 200, a 2004 voter-approved initiative on registration for state and federal elections. The court didn’t disturb a requirement that voters show identification at the polls.
A three-judge panel of the court said the proof-of-citizenship requirement conflicted with the intent of the federal law aiming to increase voter registration by streamlining the process with a single form and removing state-imposed obstacles to registration.
The federal law requires applicants to “attest to their citizenship under penalty of perjury” without requiring documentary proof, the panel said.
“Proposition 200 creates an additional state hurdle to registration,” the judges said.
The law was challenged by voting rights and Hispanic advocacy groups.
The panel included former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor sitting as a retired justice.
Jury chosen for trial of Tom DeLay
AUSTIN, Texas - A jury was chosen Tuesday in the trial of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a once powerful but polarizing politician accused of illegally financing Texas GOP legislative races in 2002.
The panel of six men and six women, along with two alternates, was selected after attorneys spent more than eight hours quizzing potential jurors about whether their political beliefs could interfere in their ability to make an impartial decision. Most said it wouldn’t affect them.
Jurors were to return to court Monday, on the eve of Election Day, to hear opening arguments in a trial expected to last three weeks. The jury was chosen from a group of about 90 people whittled from an initial pool of 320.
DeLay, 63, who has long denied wrongdoing, has been pressing for a trial since he was indicted five years ago, but his case was slowed by appeals of pretrial rulings.
DeLay is charged with money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted of money laundering, he faces from five years to life in prison. The conspiracy charge carries a prison term of two to 20 years.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/27/2010