UPDATE: This version was modified with a correctionat 9 p.m. Reading the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch yesterday, we were stunned to learn that the new Speaker of the House, Steve Tilley, may decide to “refuse to seat a new representative from Kansas City” over allegations of voter fraud . That representative, John J. Rizzo, is a Democrat. And Daily RFT was shocked to find out later    .. more …

Voters yesterday overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100. The change in the law means someone found carrying dozens of joints will no longer be reported to the state’s criminal history board.With about 90 percent of the state’s precincts reporting    .. more …

This is the time of the year when more of the elderly require hands on assistance typically from a long-term care facility like Keiro. With the monthly cost of care at $6,000 or more, an option that many families choose to help pay for some of the costs is Medi-Cal.But, as with many government programs the amount of paperwork to fill out can be overwhelming. Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks    .. more …

WASHINGTON — Florida will have two more members of Congress in 2012, with 2010 Census figures showing a surge in the state’s population, boosting its influence in Washington and giving it more clout in the race for the White House. The two new seats, announced Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, will bring Florida’s representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives to 27 — the same number of    .. more …

The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to press northerners and southerners in Sudan to reach a deal on an oil-rich province, warning that a failure to do so will lead to instability.The push comes with a little more than two weeks to go before Sudanese vote in a referendum expected to result in the birth of a new nation in North Africa.Southern Sudanese voters will decide in a weeklong    .. more …

It’s not on a par with how Chicagoans used to keep voting after they died. Or with the curious case of the man in the 1980s whose signature wound up on a local ballot application – twice- even though he had no fingers or thumbs.But the race for Chicago mayor is providing fresh evidence that the city’s storied history for election shenanigans lives on. With Mayor Richard M. Daley’s retirement    .. more …

The ongoing registration of ad-hoc staff for the voter’sregistration exercise of the Independent National Electoral Commission hassuffered a temporary setback as part of the online form has been disabled,making it impossible for people to conclude their application.NEXT investigation showed that some of the coding has beendisabled, such that applicants find it difficult to complete the    .. more …