Two federal officials have been reassigned and a third has resigned in the wake of controversy over "Operation Fast and Furious," the controversial sting that is also known as the "Gunwalking Scandal." Kenneth Melson, acting director for the past 28 months of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will become senior advisor on forensic science in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Programs, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday. U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke, who approved the flawed operation that allowed weapons to be delivered to drug gangs, submitted his resignation to President Obama effective immediately. Emory Hurley, a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix who worked on the Fast and Furious investigation, has been reassigned from criminal cases to civil casework. The reassignments appear to be an ongoing shakeup at ATF, where two assistant Special Agents in Charge of the operation, George Gillett and Jim Needles have previously been reassigned to other positions, CBS News reported. "Fast and Furious" was reportedly designed to gather intelligence on gun sales as ATF agents observed sales of thousands of high-caliber weapons to alleged middlemen for drug cartels operating on both sides of the Mexican border.

Despite accusations by some that Ron Paul is being ignored by the mainstream media, there has been an uptick in coverage of the good doctor’s campaign. Scan the channels and you're likely to see Ron Paul's face more than once. The fact remains, however, that many subsidized media outlets dismiss Ron Paul’s candidacy as a chimera is indisputable, though. Even a cursory review of the headlines in scores of newspapers and magazines reveals the prevailing wisdom that Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, and Mitt Romney are all more viable choices then the congressman from Texas. Evidence of such relegation to second banana status on the part of the traditional sources of news is everywhere. Take for example the fact that CNN spotlighted a Sarah Palin appearance instead of covering a speech by Ron Paul, a declared candidate for president. As the U.K.’s Telegraph put it:  

The decision of local union bosses to ban Republican politicians from this year’s labor-day parade in Wausau, Wisconsin, is sparking nationwide attention and criticism, adding even more fuel to the political turmoil in the state following months of partisan battles over the power of government-sector unions. In addition to the national outcry from activists on both sides, locals are fighting back as well. Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple, who is not affiliated with either party, said the union organizers would have to foot the bill for the parade themselves if their decision to bar the GOP stands. “The banning of a political party from participation at any event co-sponsored by the City is against public policy and not in the best interest of all the citizens of the City of Wausau. And therefore, we encourage the event organizer to invite all interested parties, or reimburse the city for other costs,” the Mayor said in a statement.

On September 11, 2011, a solemn memorial service will take place at Ground Zero on the tenth anniversary of that fateful day when 3,000 innocent Americans were killed by an attack on the United States by radical Islamists. It will remind us that although Osama bin Laden was killed by American Navy Seals, the war against radical Islam continues. Indeed, it has simply entered a new phase, the nature of which will be determined by the outcome of the Arab Spring. As in memorial services in previous years, the names of the dead will be read by their relatives, who still suffer their losses. And it is important that we should be reminded of that day, which destroyed our delusion that the fall of the Berlin Wall would usher in a new era of world peace and happiness. Instead, we now face, for the indefinite future, a global war declared by radical Islam. Several years ago, a PBS Frontline film showed, for the first time, people leaping out of the windows of the World Trade Center, hurtling their bodies to sudden death.  

First there were this summer’s “Slut Walks” featuring young, scantily-clad female exhibitionists bearing signs such as “I’m a slut. Don’t assault me!” The ostensible message was that aggressive sexuality is not a provocation. Then, there were the colorful, size 28AA padded bras for 8-year-old girls. Initially marketed by Abercrombie & Fitch as kiddie bikini tops, the idea had, by late summer, morphed into must-have underwear sold in department stores for Back-to-School — alongside 4-inch high heels, extreme-low-rise jeans and transparent tops (the bra absolutely must show through to be “fashionable”).  

In the wake of criticism over privacy issues on Facebook, the social network has responded by indicating it will make significant changes to its site in order to protect individual privacy. In fact, Facebook officials went so far as to pay hackers — whom they call “independent researchers” — $40,000 to find holes in the site’s security system to assure that they have addressed all issues. According to Facebook’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, the social network has launched a “Bounty Bug Program” in order to discover any flaws in the system’s software due to “software complexity, programming errors, changes in requirements, errors in bug tracking, limited documentation or bugs in software development tools.” Facebook posted the following explanation of the program:

President Obama has nominated Princeton University’s Alan Krueger for Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), and if approved by the Senate, Krueger, a labor economist and the Treasury Department’s former chief economist, will replace Austan Goolsbee. "I am very pleased to appoint Alan and I look forward to working with him," Obama stated, shifting his eyes between two flat-screen teleprompters during a statement on Monday. "I have nothing but confidence in Alan as he takes on this important role as one of the leaders of my economic team."  

Not surprisingly, reports that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is running out of money have surfaced. The fund’s capacity has been maximized by the most recent natural disaster, Hurricane Irene, which is estimated to cost billions of dollars. Chron.com reports: With less than $800 million in its disaster aid coffers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been forced to freeze rebuilding projects from disasters dating to Hurricane Katrina to conserve money for emergency needs in the wake of Irene. Lawmakers from states ravaged by tornadoes this spring, like Missouri and Alabama, are especially furious.

Not long after Rick Perry became Governor of Texas, according to an Associated Press release on May 12, 2001 he signed the James Byrd Hate Crimes Act (HB 587) named for a black man in Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death behind a pickup in 1998. In a bill-signing ceremony on May 11, 2001 Perry said: As the Governor of our diverse state, in all matters it is my desire to seek common ground for the common good. In the end, we are all Texans and we must be united as we walk together into the future. That’s why today I have signed House Bill 587 into law. Texas has always been a tough-on-crime state. With my signature today, Texas now has stronger criminal penalties against crime motivated by hate. President Obama signed a similar law, and the Texas statute signed by Perry does effectively establish a special “protected class” status including enhanced sentencing for crimes allegedly motivated by bias against it.

A federal district judge has blocked Alabama’s tough new immigration law from going into effect and says she will decide whether it is constitutional. Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, chief judge for the Northern District of Alabama (a post for which she was nominated by the elder President Bush), acted on behalf of a coalition of Hispanic activists and leftist lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Obama administration, and various leftist churches. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that Blackburn's ruling will last in until September 29 "or until she issues an order on the specific injunction requests, whichever comes first. That order would come no later than Sept. 28." The law was scheduled to go into effect on September 1.