A day after former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina offered to take a paternity test to prove he did not father a child out of wedlock, the woman with whom he admitted having an affair, Rielle Hunter, said Saturday that she would never agree to such a test.
In a statement issued through her attorney, Ms. Hunter said she wanted to maintain her privacy and that of her 5-month-old daughter, who has emerged at the center of a storm over an illicit romance between Mr. Edwards, a former Democratic presidential candidate, and his onetime campaign aide.
"Furthermore," the statement said, "Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future."
Ms. Hunter's refusal to take a paternity test added to the questions swirling around the situation, particularly whether she and a former fund-raiser for Mr. Edwards who has claimed to be the child's father were in essence paid to go away, and whether the former senator has been fully forthcoming about their relationship. ….continue reading
Rielle Hunter, the woman with whom John Edwards admitted having an affair, rejects idea of paternity test.
What Rielle Hunter Told Me
A seeker and a New Age spiritualist, Edwards' other woman believed she could help him make history.
By Jonathan Darman
The first time I laid eyes on Rielle Hunter, I could tell she was a story. She had frizzy blond hair with DARK roots, wore bright nail polish and moved like someone who knew how to work a room. She was on a cramped commuter flight and she was flirting with a candidate for president of the United States. It was July 7, 2006. I'd been sent to Iowa to write a piece on John Edwards. We were on our way to Des Moines, where I would be the only national reporter following him around the state for two days. From a few rows back, I tried to observe Edwards before the plane took off. Most of the other passengers seemed to have no idea who Edwards was. But this blond woman, putting away her bags, was visibly captivated by him. She tried repeatedly to engage him in conversation, but he seemed uninterested in talking. How the mighty have fallen, I thought. As John Kerry's running mate in 2004, Edwards had his own campaign bubble around him all the time; now he had to deal with strangers who flirt with him on planes. Of course, she wasn't a stranger. Edwards now admits that he had an extramarital affair with her. But at the time I had no reason to suspect there was anything between them.
She showed up at his first event that day in Des Moines with a video camera. She was trying to get as close to the candidate as she could. "Does she work for the campaign?" I asked Edwards's press secretary, Kim Rubey. "Oh, she's working on a documentary project," said Rubey. "We're not sure if it's going to work out." But it was soon clear that she was on Team Edwards. When it came time to drive to the next event, she rode in the car with the candidate. I drove behind in a rental car. ….continue reading
Georgia 'Pulls Out of S Ossetia'
TBILISI, Georgia (BBC) - Georgia says its forces have withdrawn from the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, and that Russian troops are now in control of the regional capital.
An interior ministry spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians from a "humanitarian catastrophe".
Georgia says Russia has brought an additional 10,000 soldiers across its frontiers, readying for a raid.
Earlier, Russian jets bombed a military airfield close to the Georgian capital.
Map of Georgia and Russia with disputed territories shaded.
There was no independent confirmation of the attack, although the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, who was in Tbilisi, said he had heard a loud explosion about the same time.
Georgian troops have pulled back to positions at or south of those held on 6 August, when the current hostilities began, said Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili. ...continue reading
Russia widens attacks as world pleads for peace in South Ossetia
By Peter Beaumont, Matthew Collin in Tbilisi and Helen Womack in Moscow
GORI, Georgia - Russian bombers and artillery yesterday widened their attack against Georgian forces with strikes against towns and military bases across the country in a dangerous escalation of the two-day-old war. Moscow appeared determined to dismantle Georgia's military capability in punishment for its rival's brutal attempt to regain control of the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia.
Russia's Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, last night insisted that its actions were 'legitimate' and called on Georgia to end its 'aggression' against the separatist province. ….continue reading
Demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia on August 8, 2008. (Photo by Hakan Henriksson)
Chelsea To
Introduce
Hillary At
Convention
In Loose Style, McCain Leads a Camp Divided
By Adam Nagourney and Jim Rutenberg
WASHINGTON -- Senator John McCain is so quick to pick up his gold-colored cellphone to solicit advice -- from senators, campaign consultants, even the stray former deputy press secretary -- that aides, concerned about his tendency to adopt the last opinion he has heard, have tried to cut back on the time he has to make calls.
Mr. McCain is known to sign off on big campaign decisions and then to march off his own reservation. Two weeks ago, he publicly disagreed with his own spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, after she used a line of attack against Senator Barack Obama that he had approved after careful strategizing within his campaign. Ms. Hazelbaker raced out of the Virginia campaign headquarters and refused to take Mr. McCain's calls of apology, aides said, and a plan to have Republican members of Congress use the same critical line about Mr. Obama's foreign trip fell apart. ….continue reading
By Thomas M. DeFrank
WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton wants to be introduced by her daughter Chelsea at the Democratic National Convention, and party insiders say Barack Obama has signed off on the idea, the Daily News has learned.
Some Clinton and Obama partisans had assumed Clinton would be introduced by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but Democratic sources say it was Hillary's idea to have Chelsea do the honors.
The New York senator will deliver the Denver convention's keynote address in primetime Aug. 26, a plum speaking slot that indicates just how much Obama wants to keep his vanquished primary opponent happy. ….continue reading
Alleged Medicaid Fraud Scheme Involved Homeless
By Solomon Moore
LOS ANGELES -- An investigation into what the authorities say was a scheme that used homeless people to bilk tens of millions of dollars from federal and state health insurance programs began four years ago with a tip from a rescue mission employee.
The employee, Scott Johnson, who works for the Union Rescue Mission in the heart of Skid Row, said he had noticed vans and cars loading up homeless people.
"Sometimes they were so full of people that they put people in the trunks of cars," Mr. Johnson said Thursday as he passed out bottles of water to the homeless. "I wondered what was going on, so I called the state authorities." ….continue reading
Power Shutoffs Soar As More Residents Can't Pay Bills
A homeless man in Los Angeles being wheeled on a gurney by Ambulance attendants.
By Richard Simon
WASHINGTON -- Utility shutoffs for customers behind on their energy bills are increasing around the United States, reaching 50 percent or more in some hard-hit areas, as the effects of rising prices and a sagging economy are beginning to drag down more vulnerable consumers.
Agencies that provide finan- cial assistance for energy costs report long waiting lists and significant jumps in first-time applicants. ….continue reading
New Hampshire Voters Seeing Blue
By Albert McKeon
NASHUA - Like any retail salesman worth his salt, a political party's true goal is to keep longtime customers happy while appealing to new ones.
And with November's election looming, statistics indicate Democrats have had many more new customers walk through their doors than Republicans.
Between the election of November 2006 and this July, the state Democratic Party gained 42,573 registered voters. In that same time, the state Republican Party picked up far fewer voters, with 12,766 newly declared, according to the most recent snapshot of voting rolls compiled by the office of Secretary of State Bill Gardner
The statistical shift in 2008 alone is even more favorable to Democrats and troubling for Republicans. From January to July, the GOP lost 2,101 voters from its rolls while Democrats welcomed 5,346, according to the secretary of state's office. ….continue reading
