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Kaine says he'll limit time spent as party leader

By BOB LEWIS

Published: Jan 05, 2009

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine says he decided to take the chairmanship of the Democratic Party after a strong push from President-elect Barack Obama, and only after Obama agreed to let him do it part time the first year.

Kaine told reporters in Richmond, Virginia, on Monday that he plans to do the work of the DNC chair largely by computer and phone in the early going. He says he sees the job as, in his words, an "electronic gig."

Kaine will serve as Obama's chief partisan voice and top party fundraiser at a time when Virginia is facing a fiscal crisis with a budget gap of at least $3 billion. He has one year left in his term as governor. More

Jan 05, 2009

• Ex-SC trooper caught kicking suspect pleads guilty

A former South Carolina trooper caught on video kicking a suspect in the head after a highway chase pleaded guilty Monday to violating the man's civil rights, according to federal court documents.

Jan 05, 2009

• FBI tapes might elude Illinois impeachment panel

State legislators weighing evidence against Gov. Rod Blagojevich may finish their work before getting any tapes of the governor's conversations that were made secretly by the FBI, attorneys indicated Monday.

Jan 05, 2009

• Carter Attorney General Griffin B. Bell dies at 90

Griffin B. Bell, the shrewd Southern lawyer who grew up with Jimmy Carter and later became U.S. attorney general after Carter was elected president, died Monday. He was 90.

Jan 05, 2009

• 5 homeless shelter residents killed in Texas fire

A fire fueled by donated clothes ripped through a homeless shelter in northeastern Texas early Monday, killing five residents as some tried dousing the blaze with pans of water.

Jan 05, 2009

• Former policeman, teen arrested after Ga. standoff

A 13-hour hostage standoff at a Georgia motel ended peacefully Monday when a former South Carolina police officer and a teenage girl surrendered, freeing his estranged wife and infant son.

Jan 05, 2009

• Manslaughter charges filed in NYC crane collapse

A contractor was charged with manslaughter Monday for allegedly using worn, fraying safety straps that broke apart and caused a crane to crash down on a Manhattan neighborhood, killing seven people in one of the city's worst construction accidents in decades.

Jan 05, 2009

• Prop. 8 backers blast Calif. Attorney General

Sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban accused Attorney General Jerry Brown on Monday of advancing a far-fetched legal theory to justify overturning it.

Jan 05, 2009

• Judge reinstates Islamic group's wiretapping suit

A federal judge on Monday reinstated an Islamic charity's lawsuit challenging a Bush administration surveillance program.

Jan 05, 2009

• Timber company drops road deal with Forest Service

The nation's largest owner of timberland disclosed Monday that it will no longer pursue changes in agreements governing its use of U.S. Forest Service roads - changes that critics complained could transform forests into housing subdivisions.

Jan 05, 2009

• Phone exec says Pa. senator listed $50M in demands

The former president of Verizon Pennsylvania testified Monday that a powerful state lawmaker gave him a list of demands worth $50 million during negotiations over phone-industry deregulation.

Jan 05, 2009

• Fabulous fib is named Wis. club's top lie of 2008

A whopper about a devious baby and his diapers is the top lie of 2008, an organization of champion fibbers declared Monday. The Burlington Liars Club bestowed its top award for this line: "My grandson is the most persuasive liar I have ever met. By the time he was 2 years old he could dirty his diaper and make his mother believe someone else had done it."

Jan 05, 2009

• US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 559

As of Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, at least 559 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Monday at 10 a.m. EST.

Jan 05, 2009

• Police: Angry Ohio boy, 4, shoots baby sitter

Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter.

Jan 05, 2009

• Records reveal anguish of anthrax suspect's wife

Anthrax mailing suspect Bruce Ivins tormented his wife with rudeness and behaved erratically in the weeks before the Army scientist took his own life by overdosing on Tylenol, according to documents released Monday.

Jan 05, 2009

• Lung Association's Northwest chapter is deflated

A judge essentially put the Northwest chapter of the American Lung Association out of business Monday after the national group challenged the chapter for giving its Seattle headquarters and $600,000 to a different, newly created charity.

Jan 05, 2009

• 7 hospitals in NY accused of $50M Medicaid fraud

Four hospitals in New York state paid kickbacks to get more patients into their drug treatment programs, which billed Medicaid for services that weren't standard or necessary and lacked state certification, lawsuits allege.

Jan 05, 2009

• NM gov. backed down over pay-to-play probe

Gov. Bill Richardson's gold-plated resume had never been tarnished as he moved up the political ladder from congressman and diplomat to governor.

Jan 05, 2009

• Ohio man admits to plotting wife's strangling

A 74-year-old southern Ohio man has pleaded guilty to hiring someone to kill his wife in their farmhouse last spring.

Jan 05, 2009

• Death certificate: Travolta son killed by seizure

Jett Travolta's body shows no sign of head trauma and his death certificate says he was killed by a seizure, an undertaker said Monday, as the 16-year-old's celebrity parents prepared to return his remains to the United States.

Jan 05, 2009

• Fewer reporters died in 2008; Iraq still deadliest

The Committee to Protect Journalists says Iraq remains the most lethal place for working media members despite a two-thirds decline in deaths there in 2008.

Jan 05, 2009

• Kaine says he'll limit time spent as party leader

Gov. Tim Kaine said Monday he will manage a Virginia budget crisis $3 billion and growing and head the Democratic National Committee in his spare time, largely as "an electronic gig."

Jan 05, 2009

• Search starts for Kansas boy now missing 10 years

The Kansas parents who failed to report their 11-year-old adopted son missing nearly a decade ago are "people of interest" as authorities search for him nationwide, a sheriff said Monday.

Jan 05, 2009

• Foundation won't disclose Bush library donors

Donors to President George W. Bush's presidential library probably will remain a mystery, said the foundation overseeing fundraising.

Jan 05, 2009

• Sheriff: Man arrested in Ohio mother's slaying

A man was arrested in the shooting death of a woman whose 4-year son was abducted and left unharmed at a highway rest area, authorities said Monday.

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