Source: Miami Herald

Federal judge strikes down part of state election law

In a much-anticipated decision, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle on Thursday struck down some provisions of a Florida elections law that imposed new restrictions on third-party groups that register new voters.

Hinkle's order said that a 48-hour deadline for groups to turn in new voter registration forms is "harsh and impractical." But he said most of the other provisions of the law can stand.

At issue are key elements of House Bill 1355, the elections code rewrite that passed the Legislature in the 2011 session. Following the restrictions on third-party voter registration, the League of Women Voters suspended all voter registration activity in Florida.

-- Steve Bousquet


Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/05/federal-judge-strikes-down-part-of-state-election-law-.html

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http://brennan.3cdn.net/27b7dc85758f8a5fdd_a1m6b5aiy.pdf



Brennan Center for Justice
Suppressive Voting Laws Take Hit, Federal Judge Blocks Florida Law
PRESS RELEASES



More:
http://www.brennancenter.org/...http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/suppressive_voting_laws_take_hit_federal_judge_blocks_florida_law/

Former Democratic presidential candidiate John Edwards was found not guilty on one count in his campaign finance trial on Thursday, while a mistrial was declared on five other counts against the former Democratic presidential candidate.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/john_edwards_not_guilty_on_one_count_deadlocked_on_5_counts.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TPMmuckraker+%28TPMmuckraker%29

Source: Bloomberg

JPMorgan CIO Swaps Pricing Said To Differ From Bank

The JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) unit responsible for at least $2 billion in losses on credit derivatives was valuing some of its trades at prices that differed from those of its investment bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

The discrepancy between prices used by the chief investment office and JPMorgan’s credit-swaps dealer, the biggest in the U.S., may have obscured by hundreds of millions of dollars the magnitude of the loss before it was disclosed May 10, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

“I’ve never run into anything like that,” said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.’s Brad Hintz in New York, ranked by Institutional Investor magazine as the top analyst covering brokerage firms. “That’s why you have a centralized accounting group that’s comparing marks” between different parts of the bank “to make sure you don’t have any outliers,” said the former chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-30/jpmorgan-cio-swaps-pricing-said-to-differ-from-investment-bank.html

http://underthemountainbunker.com/2012/05/31/here-is-the-best-most-honest-symbol-for-the-republican-party-youll-ever-see/

Source: Think Progress

EXCLUSIVE: Palm Beach Elections Supervisor Rejects Florida’s Voter Purge List, Says Effort Is ‘Not Credible’
By Josh Israel posted from ThinkProgress Justice on May 31, 2012 at 10:15 am

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Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher, a former Democratic state representative, told ThinkProgress in an interview that while the state of Florida sent her county 115 names of voters it considered “sure matches” with a list of non-citizens, her office determined the list’s documentation to be “not credible” and has not sent out letters asking for verification of citizens to any of those voters.
Bucher said:



We need to make sure we have reliable and credible information, by a preponderance of evidence. We could prove that the information was not credible before sending letters and even the Division of Elections has admitted substantial flaws. I did not feel we had credible information and told them I wouldn’t send (any letters) until they could give me a better list.

This thing is not working out so well, we know the information (on which the state relied to flag these names) is very old. They (listed the voter's) last transaction date with (the Florida Department of) Highway Safety — in many cases, (the was 2000, 2002). By now they probably have become citizens – I questioned immediately.



Bucher says that given the documented inaccuracies around the state, the purge effort should be stopped. “We just want to have accurate data—why disturb voters and ask for extraordinary information? What if they get a letter and they’re on vacation, think it’s just mail, ignore it? We hope the state cleans it up very quickly.”


Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/492632/exclusive-palm-beach-elections-supervisor-rejects-floridas-voter-purge-list-says-effort-is-not-credible/

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(05-31) 07:19 PDT BOSTON (AP) --

An appeals court ruled Thursday that a law that denies a host of federal benefits to gay married couples is unconstitutional.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, discriminates against gay couples.

The law was passed in 1996 at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004.

The appeals court agreed with a lower court judge who ruled in 2010 that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns.





Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/31/national/a071419D60.DTL

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BREAKING: TWO REPUBLICAN JUDGES DECLARE DOMA UNCONSTITUTIONAL | A three judge panel of The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit just handed down a decision declaring the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Notably, the panel included Judges Juan Torruella and Michael Boudin, both of whom are Republican appointees. Judge Boudin, who authored the opinion, is one of the most highly regarded judges in the country; he frequently sends his former law clerks to clerk for Supreme Court justices. More analysis of his opinion will follow shortly.
http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/10-2204P-01A.pdf
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/31/492859/breaking-two-republican-judges-declare-doma-unconstitutional/

another link:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/155926735.html

Stephen Colbert on Wednesday said Mitt Romney’s misspelled iPhone app isn’t a problem, it’s a “brilliant strategy.” The app, which allows users to inset pro-Mitt photo frames on cell phone pictures, features a misspelled “A Better Amercia” frame.

“Now Mitt Romney can become the president of America or Amercia,” Colbert said. “He’s just doubled the odds.” And it’s sure to please Donald Trump and his reinvigorated birther pals. “There is no proof (Obama) was born in Amercia,” Colbert said.

To declare that he’s “with Mitt,” Colbert sang a rousing rendition of “Amercia the Beautiful.”

Watch (segment starts at 3:45):
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/colbert-mitt-romney-iphone-app.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

I’m Mitt Romney, bitches, and I’m all you got left.

So, on the night I sewed it up, I went and hung with Trump. So what? You got a problem with that? Here, let me lay a couple hundred thou’ on you and make that problem go away. You think it’s going to matter in a week? A month? Or, as we figure things in the campaign, 9000 commercials from now? Give me a freaking break. George F. Will is puzzled by why I’m hanging out with Trump? What do I “hope to gain”? Let me clear it up for you, George. Right now, I could go to California tomorrow, hang out with Charlie Manson at Corcoran for a few hours, and come away with the buck-and-a-half a week he makes folding sheets in the prison laundry. We could both carve X’s in our foreheads and call in the AP for a photo op. Watch this: “HELLLLLTER SKELLLLTER! SHE COMIN’ DOWN FAST!” You think it’s more than a one-day story, a bunch of people I wouldn’t hire to clean out the dressage barns mouthing off on TV about what I “hoped to gain” from associating with crazy-ass mass murderers? You keep worrying about LaRussa’s bullpen, or that 36-ounce Mizuno you’ve had stuck up your ass since the Carter Administration, and you let me worry about what I hope to gain from things. I remember guys like you from prep school, hanging back while guys like me did the real work of bullying the people who didn’t look like me. Back up on the roof rack, George. We’ll be in Ontario in no time…
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mitt-romney-clinches-nomination-9284848