Hillary Gets Big Bucks From A Bungalow
The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.
The Wall Street Journal smells something fishy emanating from a "tiny lime-green bungalow" in a working class suburb of San Francisco that's home to one of the biggest sources of political donations to Hillary Clinton.
After poring over the candidate's campaign filings, the paper reports that all six members of the Paw family who list the house as their home have contributed a total of $45,000 to the Democratic senator since 2005 and a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2000.
Considering that the head of the household is a mailman and his wife is a homemaker, the Journal notes "it isn't obvious how the Paw family is able afford such political largess."
The paper then notes with suspicion that the Paw family's substantial political donations "closely track" donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman who is one of the top contributors to Clinton's campaign.
Hsu once listed the Paw's house as his address. The Journal quotes a former Federal Election Commission official saying the circumstantial evidence is enough to merit investigation.
The newspaper then goes on to print the denials of everyone involved, including Clinton's campaign manager.
Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Lead To Ammo Shortage For U.S. Cops
All those who bemoaned the lack of character-building, World War II-style homefront rationing involved in the current U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can now take heart.
The Washington Post reports that local police forces have begun rationing bullets used in target practice because the wartime demand overseas has caused ammo shortages and delivery delays at home.
So far, none of the police forces contacted by the Post admit to running out of ammunition, but some did say they've been limiting for the amount of ammunition available to officers on the practice range for the past year. This solution has caused "concern that a prolonged shortage could eventually affect officers' competence as marksmen."
Where Did All The Guns Go?
That's the question at the heart of a "widening network" of federal criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons and supplies to Iraqi and American forces, the New York Times reports.
The investigations come from "serious discrepancies" in military records of where thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces actually ended up. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that he made a decision, in the face of soaring violence in 2004 and 2005, that providing arms to Iraqi security forces was "more important than keeping impeccable records."
The details are sketchy and complex, but the juiciest morsel of the scoop is that one of the federal fraud investigations names "a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005."
Considering that President Bush is hanging all his hopes for Iraq on the weight of Petraeus' word when he reports in September, don't expect this story - however mindbending - to be swept under the rug.
OMG! California Votes To Ban Cellphones, Texting For Teen Drivers
It's the kind of bill you've got to suspect was written by a parent having to ride alongside their yammering 16-year-old as she tooled around town gossiping with her friends. The Los Angeles Times reports that California's legislature voted to ban drivers under 18 from using a cellphone, pager, text-messaging device or laptop while driving. The bill now heads for the governor's desk.
The bill's supporters say the legislation is needed because car crashes are the number one killer of teens and all those distracting gizmos just increase their already substantial hormonally-induced spaceyness.
The few detractors - obviously terrified that approval would embolden the government to come after their highway Blackberry-chattering next -- said they used their hands-free device without problems and teens ought to be able to, too.
One teen, Arian Moreh, 19, agreed. In his view, the problem of distracted teen drivers wasn't bad driving skills so much as poor text messaging technique. "You've just got to be good at it," he said.
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