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Push-polling is alive and well in the Iowa Democratic Caucus. Voters have reported receiving anonymous phone calls criticizing all three of the top Democractic candidates. (AP)

In the deadliest attack in Baghdad in months, a suicide bomber killed 30 people yesterday. The bombing was one of a number of attacks to hit Iraq yesterday, leaving a total of no less than 40 people dead. (New York Times)

Last week was a busy week in the case of Cyril Wecht, a former Allegheny County Coroner who is facing trial for fraud (and whose lawyers, former attorney general Dick Thornburgh among them, say that he’s the victim of political prosecution). Last Friday prosecutors moved to dismiss 43 of the 84 charges against Wecht, claiming that this would “streamline the proof and timing of the trial.” That same day Wecht’s defense attorneys asked the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the judge, Arthur J. Schwab, claiming that he is biased against their client. And last Thursday three local media organizations challenged in appeals court Judge Schwab’s order to seat a nearly anonymous jury in the case, arguing that it violates the First Amendment. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Problems with electronic voting equipment have led California, Florida, and Ohio to readopt paper ballots for the upcoming elections. Colorado also decertified their electronic voting machines last month, but has not yet chosen a new system to replace them. (AP)

Tired of end of the year reviews? Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington takes a look forward at five ethics scandals from 2007 that will continue on into 2008. (CREW)

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