Speier Calls Congress 'Enablers of Sexual Assault'

Jackie Speier

Lawmakers came down hard today on military leaders, the morning after allegations emerged of another head of a military sexual assault prevention program engaging in the very behavior he was charged with stopping.

Late Tuesday the Army announced that the coordinator of a sexual assault prevention program at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation "for pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates." He has been suspended from all duties while his case is investigated by the Army's Criminal Investigative Command.

That report came a week after the lieutenant colonel in charge of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office was arrested for the alleged sexual battery of a woman in a parking lot near the Pentagon.

"Another sex scandal rocks the military," Rep. Jackie Speier said Wednesday. "Is Congress really going to stand by and let the military handle this? "Congress has been an enabler of sexual assault by not demanding that these cases be taken out of the chain of command."

Rep. Speier has a bill pending in Congress that would do precisely that, called the STOP Act. Staff for Speier said the U.S. Capitol Police are investigating threats against the congresswoman.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin said these reports were evidence of "a disgraceful culture of abuse" within the armed services.

"Reports of a soldier at Fort Hood, Texas, assigned to prevent and report sexual assaults, being accused of serious sexual misconduct, abuse, and maltreatment of soldiers is reprehensible," Sen. Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement released Wednesday. "Next week, the Army will be before my subcommittee and they will face tough questions about these accusations."

Other lawmakers on Twitter called the Fort Hood scandal " unacceptable," " horrific" and " v[ery] disturbing."

Tuesday Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered that all of the military's sexual assault prevention coordinators and military recruiters to be retrained, re-credentialed and rescreened.

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McCain calls for select committee to investigate Benghazi ‘cover-up’

McCain (ABC News)

Sen. John McCain continued his criticism of the White House's handling of the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, calling for a select committee to investigate what he called the Obama administration's "cover-up."

"Now, what you’ve got to look at this in the context of the times there," McCain told Martha Raddatz in an interview that aired on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We are in the midst of a presidential campaign. The narrative by the Obama campaign is that bin Laden is dead, that al Qaeda is on the run, not to worry about anything, and her comes this attack on Benghazi. And there are so many questions that are unanswered. We need a select committee."

"The president didn’t call it an act of terror," the Arizona Republican continued. "In fact, two weeks later, before the U.N., he was talking about hateful videos and spontaneous demonstrations. What he did say the day after was he condemned acts of terrorism, but then that night ... and throughout the next two weeks, he kept saying that it was caused by a spontaneous demonstration sparked by a hateful video. He kept saying that over and over again and condemning that."

McCain repeated his assertion that the administration is guilty of a "cover-up."

"I’d call it a cover-up," he said. "I would call it a cover-up to the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious."

[Related: McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi]

Last week, fellow Republican Sen. James Inhofe suggested President Obama could be impeached for his role in the case.

"Of all the great cover-ups in history—we’re talking about the Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra, Watergate and all the rest of them—this is going to go down as the most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history," Inhofe said.

In the interview that aired Sunday, McCain did not invoke the "i-word."

"With all due respect, I think this is a serious issue," he said. "I will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. [But] we need a select committee."

McCain said he'd like to see former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—who testified before Congress on Benghazi before leaving her post—testify again. Emails, uncovered last week, suggested the White House's talking points on Benghazi underwent 12 revisions.

"She had to have been in the in the loop some way, but we don’t know for sure," McCain said. "What I do know is that her response before the Foreign Relations Committee—'Who cares?' Remember when she said, 'Well, who cares how this happened?' in a rather emotional way? A lot of people care, I say with respect to the secretary of state."

Clinton, though, is not McCain's only target.

"We need a select committee that interviews everybody," McCain said. "I don’t know what level of 'scandal' this rises to, but I know it rises to the level where it requires a full and complete ventilation of these facts. Now, here we are, nine months later, and we’re still uncovering information which frankly contradicts the original line that the administration took. And so, we need the select committee and I hope we’ll get it. And the American people deserve it."

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McCain calls for select committee to investigate Benghazi ‘cover-up’

McCain (ABC News)

Sen. John McCain continued his criticism of the White House's handling of the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, calling for a select committee to investigate what he called the Obama administration's "cover-up."

"Now, what you’ve got to look at this in the context of the times there," McCain told Martha Raddatz in an interview that aired on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We are in the midst of a presidential campaign. The narrative by the Obama campaign is that bin Laden is dead, that al Qaeda is on the run, not to worry about anything, and her comes this attack on Benghazi. And there are so many questions that are unanswered. We need a select committee."

"The president didn’t call it an act of terror," the Arizona Republican continued. "In fact, two weeks later, before the U.N., he was talking about hateful videos and spontaneous demonstrations. What he did say the day after was he condemned acts of terrorism, but then that night ... and throughout the next two weeks, he kept saying that it was caused by a spontaneous demonstration sparked by a hateful video. He kept saying that over and over again and condemning that."

McCain repeated his assertion that the administration is guilty of a "cover-up."

"I’d call it a cover-up," he said. "I would call it a cover-up to the extent that there was willful removal of information, which was obvious."

[Related: McCain claims ‘massive cover-up’ on Benghazi]

Last week, fellow Republican Sen. James Inhofe suggested President Obama could be impeached for his role in the case.

"Of all the great cover-ups in history—we’re talking about the Pentagon Papers, the Iran-Contra, Watergate and all the rest of them—this is going to go down as the most serious, most egregious cover-up in American history," Inhofe said.

In the interview that aired Sunday, McCain did not invoke the "i-word."

"With all due respect, I think this is a serious issue," he said. "I will even give the president the benefit of the doubt on some of these things. [But] we need a select committee."

McCain said he'd like to see former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—who testified before Congress on Benghazi before leaving her post—testify again. Emails, uncovered last week, suggested the White House's talking points on Benghazi underwent 12 revisions.

"She had to have been in the in the loop some way, but we don’t know for sure," McCain said. "What I do know is that her response before the Foreign Relations Committee—'Who cares?' Remember when she said, 'Well, who cares how this happened?' in a rather emotional way? A lot of people care, I say with respect to the secretary of state."

Clinton, though, is not McCain's only target.

"We need a select committee that interviews everybody," McCain said. "I don’t know what level of 'scandal' this rises to, but I know it rises to the level where it requires a full and complete ventilation of these facts. Now, here we are, nine months later, and we’re still uncovering information which frankly contradicts the original line that the administration took. And so, we need the select committee and I hope we’ll get it. And the American people deserve it."

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Landlord mistakes tenant’s tomato plants for pot, calls cops

Does this tomato plant look like marijuana to you? (Reuters)You say “tomato”, I say, “illegal pot farm on a Brooklyn rooftop.”

A resident in a Brooklyn apartment building got an unexpected, and unmerited, visit from the police after his superintendent called the cops to report an illegal pot growing operation on the building’s roof.

There was just one small problem … the plant growing on the building’s roof were actually tomatoes.

“I don’t know much about plants. I’m not too good with that,” building superintendent Christian Delarosa told the New York Daily News. “When I saw them, the first thing I thought was ‘Oh, my God.’ Right there I looked it up on my phone and they looked close to marijuana plants, but I thought I should call someone who knew about plants, so I called police.”

After Delarosa put in the call, a lieutenant and two officers were sent to the scene to investigate the 15 Solo cups and the mysterious green seedlings contained within.

An unapologetic Delarosa, 34, says that while the plants turned out to be entirely legal, he wasn’t the only one fooled.

“When the police officer came he couldn't tell right away, either,” he said.

Obviously, tomato plants don't contain the psychoactive compound found in marijuana plants but they do contain nicotine.

As for the unnamed building resident? Well, he won’t be spending any time in jail. But Delarosa is still shutting down his rooftop grow operation. Even if the only thing being produced is perfectly healthy and legal produce.

“No one’s supposed to be there anyway,” Delarosa told the paper.

There are a number of plants that can be easily mistaken for cannabis, most commonly hemp, which is essentially the same plant minus the psychoactive chemicals. Other plants, like the Japanese Maple, or the false Aralia have similarly shaped leaves, minus the flowering bud.

But would someone really make the same mistake with a tomato plant? Delarosa says he looked at pictures of pot plants online before calling the police. The Daily News interviewed one plant expert who said that’s a little hard to believe.

“They’re not the same species; they’re not the same genus. I don’t even think they’re part of the same family,” said Mikeal Roose, chairman of Botany and Plant Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. “It’s very hard for me to see that somebody could (confuse the two). If you put the leaves side by side, you wouldn’t be able to mistake them.”

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US calls for NKorea amnesty for sentenced American

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state.

Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Analysts say Bae's sentencing could be an effort by Pyongyang to win diplomatic concessions in the ongoing standoff over its nuclear program. But there was no immediate sign a high-profile envoy was about to make a clemency mission to the isolated nation which has taken an increasingly confrontational stance under its young leader Kim Jong Un.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. was still seeking to learn the facts of Bae's case. He said the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular matters there for the U.S., did not attend Tuesday's Supreme Court trial and that there hasn't been transparency in the legal proceedings.

"There's no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad, and we urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," Ventrell told a news conference, referencing the socialist country's formal title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has faced increasing international criticism over its weapons development. Six-nation disarmament talks involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington. Tensions have escalated since it conducted its third nuclear test since 2006 in February.

Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage — annual U.S.-South Korean military drills — ended Tuesday.

Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, called Bae's conviction "a hasty gambit to force a direct dialogue with the United States."

"While Washington will do everything possible to spare an innocent American from years of hard labor, U.S. officials are aware that in all likelihood the North Korean regime wants a meeting to demonstrate that the United States in effect confers legitimacy on the North's nuclear-weapon-state status," Cronin said in an email.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Mexico that if North Korea is interested in discussion, they should live up to their obligations under the six-party talks.

"Thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric that brings them no closer to a situation where they can improve the lot of the North Korean people or re-enter the community of nations," Carney said.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency announcement of Bae's sentencing came just days after it reported Saturday that authorities would soon indict and try him. It referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name. The State Department had appealed Monday for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Bae, from Lynnwood, Wash., was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.

"Kenneth Bae had no access to a lawyer. It is not even known what he was charged with," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. "Kenneth Bae should be released, unless he is charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offense and retried by a competent, independent and impartial court."

Ventrell said the Swedish embassy's most recent access to Bae was last Friday. It has only had a handful of brief opportunities to see him since he was arrested in early November, according to U.S. officials.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.

There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.

They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.

In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.

On Thursday, Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congileo, said by email that the former president has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit.

Korean-American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, traveled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.

Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While the North Korean Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.

The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.

Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.

___

Kim reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Lou Kesten and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.

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At NYC May Day rally, calls for a more liberal immigration reform bill

Protesters hold up signs criticizing the current immigration reform bill on May 1, 2013 in New York City. (Goo …

One might imagine that activists at the pro-immigrant, pro-labor May Day rally in New York City would be happy about the bipartisan immigration reform bill currently in the Senate. But signs and activists at Wednesday's rally called the current draft bill an "unjust" plan that will leave out too many immigrants in its legalization scheme and focus too much on increased enforcement at the border.

One popular sign at the rally featured the face of Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, behind barbed wire. The words: "No to Schumer and the Gang of 8," in Spanish—referring to the eight senators who hashed out the plan.

Activists said the immigration compromise—which trades stricter enforcement of current laws for a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the nation's 11 million unauthorized immigrants—is unjust and unacceptable.

The rally was part of 85 May Day demonstrations taking place in Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix and other cities pushing for immigration reform and labor rights. They drew thousands of protesters, according to organizers.

"I speak for most immigrants when I say the gang of 8 is doing a bill that will give us almost nothing," said Carlos Canales, a community organizer from Freehold, N.J. "It's going to end up to be an elitist immigration reform."

Canales said he's organizing a hunger strike in front of Schumer's New York office in the coming weeks to urge him to change the bill to address criticisms from the left. Canales objects to the requirement that immigrants who want to be legalized must prove they've been employed since December of 2011 to qualify. He said many unauthorized immigrants will have trouble proving employment because they work in more transitory jobs that don't keep records.

A Schumer spokesman, Max Young, said the bill has drawn "wide support among prominent Latino and pro-immigration organizations." And an organizer of the May Day rallies, Ben Monterroso, stressed that "there's so many good things in the bill," even if activists have some concerns.

"Senator Schumer is working with the length and breadth of the Hispanic community to pass an immigration bill that accelerates family reunification and that sets a path to citizenship that gets all eligible 11 million people out of the shadows and into legal status as quickly as possible," said Young.

Other activists at the rally said they object to the way the bill will shift the legal immigration system to prioritize skill- and employment-based visas. Under the current proposal, visas for adult siblings of U.S. citizens will be eliminated, and a cut-off age for applying for green cards for adult children will be instituted.

Christina Chang, an advocacy associate for the Korean American group Minkwon Center for Community Action, said she does not believe the current bill is unjust, but that she hopes it changes substantially in the coming weeks. "It's a fundamental change from a family-based immigration system to one that's merit based," Chang said.

Her group also believes that immigrants could end up waiting 20 years or longer to become citizens under the bill, if lawmakers continue to make the process contingent on the U.S.-Mexico border meeting certain security standards.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the bill May 9. Advocates believe it will be introduced on the Senate floor by May 25.

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President Obama slams Personhood USA, calls personhood "absurd"

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Effectively stating that he does not believe that all human beings are people, President Obama called Personhood USA and Personhood Mississippi's personhood amendment "absurd" when speaking at a Planned Parenthood gala earlier today. 

"The personhood amendment only says that every human being is a person. Far from absurd, it is only reasonable to recognize every single human being as a person," commented Jennifer Mason, Personhood USA spokesperson.

President Obama did not mention the ongoing trial of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist who has been charged with murder and accused of severing the spinal cords of second- and third-trimester babies born alive at his abortion clinic. 

President Obama vigorously opposed Illinois' Born Alive Infant Protection act as an Illinois Senator in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Likewise, Planned Parenthood recently stated that if a baby is born alive after surviving an abortion, the decision of whether or not to kill the newborn "should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician," seemingly blessing Gosnell's post-birth violent killings.

According to CNN, Obama also stated that the 2011 Mississippi personhood amendment was an "assault on women's rights."

Mason concluded: "Particularly in light of recent tragedies our country has suffered, it seems grossly unnecessary for President Obama to raise funds for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood receives over $542 million of taxpayer dollars every year and has reported over one billion dollars in revenue for several years running. They are the largest and wealthiest abortion provider in our nation, and President Obama's appearance at the gala was sure to generate additional revenue. That seems truly absurd."

SOURCE Personhood USA

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Senate chairman calls for 'Do Not Track' bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Warning consumers that industry has failed to protect their privacy online, a top Senate Democrat said Wednesday that he will press legislation this year that would create a universal "Do Not Track" option for consumers and penalize companies that fail to honor it.

"The American people are smart," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. "They are going to figure this out. And as they figure this out, they better like what they see if the Internet is going to prosper."

Rockefeller's proposal could face an uphill battle in a divided Senate already consumed with immigration and the budget. But his comments put renewed pressure on an industry struggling desperately to escape regulation.

The online privacy debate has mostly stumped Congress and prompted a tempered reaction from the Obama administration, mindful of consumers' concerns but reluctant to crush a growing industry in a difficult economy. Last year, the White House unveiled a "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" calling on industry to give consumers more control over their personal information and suggesting Congress pass legislation to enforce it.

But while everyone agrees that people should be given a choice to opt out of data collection and online tracking, advertising businesses and privacy groups remain at odds over how to implement it. Much of the debate focuses on whether consumers should have to click an opt-out button, or if their browser should automatically do it for them.

Rockefeller said Wednesday that voluntary efforts by industry have fallen short because some online advertisers ignore consumer requests not to be tracked. His bill would subject businesses to penalties by the Federal Trade Commission if they do.

"I do not believe that companies with business models based on the collection and monetization of personal information will voluntarily stop those practices if it negatively impacts their profit margins," Rockefeller said.

Industry is pushing back. The Digital Advertising Alliance points to its Web-based icon program that links consumers to an opt-out site of participating advertisers. They say some 20 million people have visited their site and only 1 million of those consumers chose to opt out of all ad tracking. Testifying at the hearing, Mastria said he thinks the industry has "delivered basically in principle" what Rockefeller proposes through legislation.

"Consumers are very pragmatic people," Lou Mastria, managing director of the Digital Advertising Alliance, said in an interview this week. "They want free content. They understand there's a value exchange. And they're OK with it."

The Do Not Track proposal is part of a broader debate about online privacy that includes what sensitive data might be collected from a person's mobile device. Because a smartphone can divulge a person's location, the FTC warned in a recent report that detailed profiles of a person's movements can be collected over time and in surprising ways, revealing a person's habits and patterns and making them vulnerable to stalking or identity theft.

Some researchers also say they suspect retailers are engaging in "price discrimination" — the practice of setting a price based on personal data, such as the average home price in their area or a person's proximity to a competitor.

Another concern is that companies might determine a person's eligibility for certain products and services based on information collected online, potentially violating credit reporting and fair lending laws.

"I think there should be obligations for companies to tell you what information they have about you" and give you the opportunity to correct it, said Justin Brookman of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, told the Senate panel that he thinks many of the privacy concerns cited with data collection are worst-case scenarios that probably won't happen. In the end, he said, data collection is merely "creepy" and might not warrant legislation.

"I think a lot of my neighbors are creepy, but I don't think they're harmful," Thierer said.

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Texas Governor Perry calls for tax cuts for business

By Corrie MacLaggan

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas Governor Rick Perry on Monday called for nearly $1.6 billion in tax cuts for businesses over two years.

"This is about making Texas be more competitive," Perry said at a Tax Day press conference at the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

The proposal, which would require legislative action, would affect about 100,000 large and small businesses, the Republican governor said. It would be paid for from the state's general revenue fund or possibly the rainy-day fund, Perry's office said.

The plan calls for cutting the business franchise tax rate by 5 percent, providing a $1 million deduction for businesses with revenue up to $20 million, giving companies moving to Texas a one-time deduction for moving expenses and lowering the rate for businesses that file using an electronic system.

The governor had called for "tax relief" at the start of the legislative session that began in January and ends in May, but he did not offer specifics at that time.

"States that compete with us, our neighbors, they're not sitting on their laurels," Perry said on Monday.

He pointed out that Governor Bobby Jindal of neighboring Louisiana is seeking to remove personal income tax in his state.

But Jindal's proposal - which sought to make Louisiana more competitive with no-income-tax states such as Texas - appeared dead on Monday, after a key committee chairman declined to hold hearings on proposals aimed at accomplishing Jindal's goal.

Jindal, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, had bowed to widespread public discomfort and "parked" his proposal when the Legislature convened last week. Instead, he called on lawmakers to pass their own plan.

On Monday, Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Joel Robideaux, a Lafayette Republican, acknowledged that the support was not there, saying that unless the authors insist, "we should indefinitely defer consideration of these bills."

Jindal said afterward that he hoped lawmakers might still change their minds.

Also on Monday, Perry announced that he was buying ads in business publications in Chicago, urging companies there to relocate to Texas. The $38,450 ad buy will be paid for by TexasOne, the state's nonprofit economic development organization.

Earlier this year, Perry used radio ads to try to lure California businesses to Texas, prompting California Governor Jerry Brown to say that $24,000 effort was "barely a fart."

"Get Out While There's Still Time," says a Texas ad on the website of Crain's Chicago Business that features an emergency exit door.

Illinois is facing a financial crisis. The state legislature is considering proposals to cut pensions for retired state and local workers. The state has the lowest credit rating of any state analyzed by major debt rating agencies.

(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Additional reporting by Stephanie Grace; Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Cardinal Dolan Calls For Prayers For Victims Of Boston Marathon Bombings

Apr 15 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,137,920 3. Matt Kuchar $2,442,389 4. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 5. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 6. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 7. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 8. Jason Day $1,659,565 9. Hunter Mahan $1,553,965 10. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 11. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 12. John Merrick $1,375,757 13. Russell Henley $1,331,434 14. Michael Thompson $1,310,709 15. Kevin Streelman $1,310,343 16. Bill Haas $1,271,553 17. Billy Horschel $1,254,224 18. ...

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In SC House race, Bostic calls Sanford compromised

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The man running against former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in a GOP runoff for an open congressional seat says Sanford is a compromised candidate who would offer Democrats a chance to win the May 7 special election.

Former Charleston County Council member Curtis Bostic said during a televised debate Thursday night that "a compromised candidate is not what we need" in the race against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Bush, the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert.

The runoff is Tuesday.

Sanford disappeared from the state in 2009, telling his staff he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, only to return to reveal he was having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman to whom he is now engaged.

Sanford acknowledged he "failed very publically" but said he has done a lot of soul searching since then. He added, "Not since Jesus Christ was here has there been a perfect man or woman."

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