CQ Politics' Web Picks

BBC: Big Shoe Taken Down

A sculpture of a shoe erected in Iraq to honour a journalist who threw his footwear at George W Bush has been dismantled, reports say. Foreign media say the bronze-coloured fibre-glass shoe was removed from its site in the city of Tikrit on the orders of the local authorities.

Miami Herald: House Speaker Ray Sansom Steps Aside

House Speaker Ray Sansom relinquished his leadership position Friday in an unprecedented retreat from power that was choreographed to instill calm but gave way to confusion.

Los Angeles Times: California Told to Furlough Employees

California officials must immediately implement Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order that state employees take two days off without pay each month, a judge ruled Thursday, denying claims by unions and the controller that the governor's directive is illegal. The decision clears the way for the biggest rollback of the state payroll in decades.

New York Times: Supreme Court Steps Closer to Repeal of Evidence Ruling

Taking aim at one of the towering legacies of the Warren Court, its landmark 1961 decision applying the exclusionary rule to the states, Chief Justice John G. Robert Jr.'s majority opinion established for the first time that unlawful police conduct should not require the suppression of evidence if all that was involved was isolated carelessness. That was a significant step in itself. More important yet, it suggested that the exclusionary rule itself might be at risk.

Chicago Tribune: Crews Remove Blagojevich's Name from Tollway Signs

"Operation Cover-up" is likely to be over by Monday, when motorists will no longer see the name of their disgraced ex-governor on those big blue overhead signs at Illinois tollway plazas. Officials said they planned to have crews out all weekend covering over Rod Blagojevich's name.

AFP: Schools, Streets renamed for Barack Obama

Good morning, Barack Obama Elementary School!" That is what children attending the former Ludlum Elementary in Hempstead, New York have been hearing ever since the local school district board voted unanimously to change the name to honor the United States' first black president.

Politico: Obama's Lawyer Consolidates Power

President Barack Obama has installed his personal and political attorney, Bob Bauer, as the Democratic Party's new lawyer, a move that gives Bauer unmatched power in Democratic legal circles and marks him as a top behind-the-scenes player in the president's inner circle.

Wall Street Journal: Crisis Fuels Backlash on Trade

A "Buy American" drive in the U.S., spreading protests against foreign workers in Britain and various countries' efforts to prop up their own beleaguered industries are fanning fears of a rise in economic nationalism that could deepen the global recession.