Walker subpoenaed in aide’s trial
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was subpoenaed Friday to testify in the criminal trial of a former aide, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday. The aide, Kelly M. Rindfleisch, worked as Walker’s deputy chief of staff in 2010 while Walker was Milwaukee County executive and the Republican candidate for governor.
She is accused of four felony misconduct charges for doing campaign work while being employed for the county. State law says public employees cannot do campaign work in public buildings or while at a government job.
Her trial is scheduled to start Oct. 15.
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No clear lead in presidential race
Polls are just as undecided as voters regarding who will win the presidential election in November.
A Gallup poll released Monday has President Barack Obama winning the race with 49 percent of likely voters if the election was held today, while 46 percent would vote for Republican candidate Mitt Romney — within the 3-percent margin of error. Results of the poll are based on telephone interviews with 1,387 registered voters, 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states between Oct. 4 and 6.
However, a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center released yesterday shows Romney leading the president. According to this poll, if the election was held today, 49 percent of likely voters said they would support Romney while 45 percent said they would support Obama. The Pew poll interviewed 1,511 voters over the telephone living in all 50 U.S. states between Oct. 4 and 7 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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Retired Marquette staffer dies at 79
Alice Miller, who worked as an administrative assistant at Marquette for 17 years, died Sept. 29 after a five-year battle with ovarian cancer at age 78. Miller retired from the university in 1999. She worked in the office of the president, the school of dentistry and the law school.
After retirement, Miller joined the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a choreographed dance/pompom parade group, and traveled the state. In 2007, Miller made the Milwaukee Bucks Seniorgee, a dance team for women and men at least 60 years old.
Miller is survived by her husband, seven children and 15 grandchildren.
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Report labels two Chinese companies security threats
After a yearlong investigation, the House Intelligence Committee recommended Monday that American companies should be blocked from pursuing mergers and acquisitions with two Chinese telecommunications firms because it believes their equipment could be used for spying within the U.S.
A report on the inquiry labeled the two companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE Inc., “national security threats,” noting that the committee had obtained internal documents from former employees of Huawei showing their supply of services to a cyberwarfare unit in China’s People’s Liberation Army.
At a news conference in Beijing on Monday before the release of the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the two telecommunications companies conducted themselves “in accordance with the principles of a market economy,” adding that he hopes “the United States will respect the facts, abandon prejudice and do more things conducive to China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, rather than the opposite.”
The report was presented by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), the top Democrat on the committee.
Both President Barack Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney have taken tough stances on China during the current presidential campaign. The Obama administration filed a case this month at the World Trade Organization accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of automobiles and auto parts.
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Facebook hits a billion users
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday morning that the social media giant has more than one billion people using the site actively each month.
Zuckerberg said in a statement posted on the site, “helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”
According to Facebook, there have been 140.3 billion friend connections since the site launched in February 2004.
“I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too,” Zuckerberg said.