Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes  —  WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.  —  So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate …

Is This It?  Really?  —  The New York Times does the all-so predictable Sarah Palin bill of indictment for its Sunday front page.  It certainly sounds compelling in the paragraph called the “nut graf”: … But what is so remarkable is how little there is in the page after page of minutiae thrown against the wall by the Times.

First report from Alaska back to the NY Times Tom Smith  —  First report from Alaska back to the NY Times  —  You have to check this out.  It looks like the reporters the NY Times sent up to Alaska to dig up what they could on Palin have sent back their first missive.  I would say the great Klondike strike, it ain't.

Minnesota Poll: Obama, McCain are dead even in state  —  With 51 days before Election Day, Barack Obama and John McCain are tied with 45 percent support, raising the stakes in the campaign.  —  Minnesota has become a battleground in a presidential campaign that has dramatically tightened nationwide.