ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Ethics complaints against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and top members of her administration have cost the state personnel board nearly $300,000 over the past year, almost two-thirds of which appear to be from the Troopergate investigation of the governor.

That’s according to new figures released by the personnel board, which described them as “independent counsel expenditures.” The board hires private lawyers to investigate the complaints. The expenditures were released after the personnel board expressed frustration at the costs of the complaints. Palin has said the state is wasting money trying to resolve “frivolous” complaints against her.

      Reaction to the story this week about the police board's purchase of cars worth almost $1 million has reignited an old but important debate over control of the Kansas City Missouri police department.

   (Click here for an argument for local control; here for one arguing for maintaining the current mostly state-appointed oversight board.)

OK, so it's not really the weekend quite yet. But tomorrow is the legal holiday for the Fourth of July. Let's celebrate our independence a bit early...

Today’s the day for Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson to announce a new round of budget cuts designed to shore up the state’s budget, now two days old and already under water to the tune of $160 million.

Parkinson is expected to announce his cuts at an 11 a.m. press conference here in the Statehouse in Topeka.

Virtually any group that relies on state funding is crossing their fingers and making their case that they should be left alone. Most have already endured funding reductions. Here’s what some had to say:

Inside the Jefferson City "birthers" meeting

Pit bulls and pit bull laws

Time to revisit the earnings tax

Gov. Jay Nixon continues to push for the bidding out of fee offices in Missouri, votes on cap-and-trade legislation seem to fall along political lines, and why the Democrats don't necessarily have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. 

   Gloria Squitiro, writes Tony Botello, is one "reason enough to keep control of the KCPD far away from Kansas City."

   Um...Squitiro's husband, Mark Funkhouser, is currently a member of the Board of Police Commissioners.

JEFFERSON CITY | There's never a dull day in the capital city.

Today's evidence: a visit from Orly Taitz , the California dentist/lawyer (and black belt in Tae Kwon Do!) who's filed lawsuits disputing President Barack Obama's citizenship.

Taitz spoke to a crowd of about 40 at a hotel here this afternoon, and in a little over an hour threw a kitchen sink's worth of accusations at the president.

To wit: Obama has failed to produce a true copy of his Hawaii birth certificate; the birth documentation he has produced may be a forgery; Obama may have forged his selective service documents; he may have as many as 25 social security numbers; one of those numbers may have originated in Connecticut and indicates he's over 100 years old; he may have enrolled at Occidental College as a foreign exchange student; he may be guilty of wire fraud, social security fraud, mail fraud and other unspecified fraudulent acts related to his presidential campaign and various charitable organizations; and he may have held closed-door meetings with the U.S. Supreme Court in which he intimidated them into rejecting any cases challenging his citizenship.

TOPEKA | The utility behind a controversial coal plant project in Western Kansas must reapply for a new state permit, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

The decision means another lengthy delay for Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s efforts to build an 895-megawatt coal-fired generator near Holcomb, Kan.

The state’s top regulator initially rejected the project in 2007, citing its carbon emissions. Lawmakers supportive of the plant tried for two years to overrule the regulator before Gov. Mark Parkinson inked a deal this spring to allow a smaller project to move forward.

   UPDATE 2:  Spokesman Rich Lockhart says the cars were approved at a March 11 meeting but the actual vote to approve the cash transfer came March 24.

    Minutes, video, and an agenda from the March 11 meeting are not available on the department's website.

   - -

    UPDATE:  In his post, Chief Jim Corwin says there was "nothing secretive" about the board's decision to spend almost $1 million on new cars at its March 24th meeting.

  Click here for a link to the video of that meeting.  At 1:53:52, discussion of the relevent agenda item begins.  (It's agenda item 14(b).)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Now that Al Franken is headed for the Senate, which Franken will show up in Washington?

 Will it be the passionate, sometimes angry liberal who hurled playground insults at Rush Limbaugh as an author and radio host? Or will it be the cautious, serious Franken who buttoned himself down the minute he hit the campaign trail?

 Bet on the latter.

from AP 

ANNANDALE, Va. - At an emotional forum in Virginia, President Barack Obama hugged a cancer patient Wednesday and vowed to bring greater efficiency and accessibility to the nation's health care system.

Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., fought tears as she told Obama of her kidney cancer and her inability to obtain health insurance or hold a job. The president embraced her and called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Puerto Rican civil rights organization advised by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor campaigned against seating conservative Robert Bork on the high court in the late 1980s, according to new documents that shed light on the group that’s become a key focus of Republicans questioning Sotomayor’s fitness to be a justice.

 The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund officially opposed GOP nominee Bork in 1987, “because of the threat he poses to the civil rights of the Latino community,” its president reported in one of several documents from the group that the Senate Judiciary Committee released Wednesday.

    She may be thinking about skipping the Republican Senate race, but former rival Sarah Steelman is still bugging Roy Blunt.

   Her past words are, anyway.

   Democrats have seized upon one of her earlier verbal jabs at the Missouri congressman – “Roy Blunt is another white guy in a suit, and I think the public wants change” - and are trying to have a little fun.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Pennsylvania law firm is to pay $155,000 to settle allegations that it illegally funneled money to the presidential campaign of former Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt.

 The Federal Election Commission had accused the Karoly Law Offices, of Allentown, Pa., and its president John Karoly Jr. of reimbursing employees for $13,000 of contributions to Gephardt’s campaign in 2003.

 Federal law bars corporate contributions to candidates and prohibits people from contributing money under another person’s name.