2nd threat reportedly directed at Obama

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service is looking into a second allegation that someone shouted "kill him," referring to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, during a rally Tuesday in Scranton, Pa., for GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The Scranton Times-Tribune reported the remarks were made after Obama's name was mentioned.

The Washington Post last week reported a similar incident during a Palin rally in Clearwater, Fla.

Ohio voters may be blocked at polls

More than 200,000 registered Ohio voters may be blocked from casting regular ballots on Election Day because of a federal appeals-court decision Tuesday requiring the disclosure of lists of voters whose names did not match those on government databases, state election officials and voting experts said.

The decision requires Jennifer Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state, to provide the names to local election officials by Friday. Once the local officials have the names, they may require these voters to cast provisional ballots rather than regular ones, and they may ask partisan poll workers to challenge these voters on Election Day. Both possibilities could cause widespread problems at the polls.

The Ohio attorney general has appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Palin staff ordered to preserve e-mails

ANCHORAGE — A state judge reaffirmed Wednesday that government-related e-mails Gov. Sarah Palin and her staff sent from private accounts must be preserved and ordered further arguments over the use of such accounts for state business.

Superior Court Judge Craig Stowers refused to order Palin and her staff to quit using private e-mail accounts for state work and instead told attorneys to present written arguments on the propriety of the practice and on which e-mails were public records.

Stowers made the decision in a lawsuit brought by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod against Palin, the GOP vice-presidential nominee. McLeod contends public records could be lost if the e-mails are not archived in the state system.

GOP pulls ads in Wisconsin, Maine

WASHINGTON — The Republican National Committee (RNC) is halting presidential ads in Wisconsin and Maine, turning much of its attention to usually Republican states where GOP nominee John McCain shows signs of faltering.

The party's independent ad operation is doubling its budget to $10 million and focusing on crucial states such as Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Virginia where Democrat Barack Obama has established a foothold, according to a Republican strategist.

Florida and North Carolina also have been in the RNC ad mix. Pennsylvania is the only Democratic-leaning swing state apparently left in the party's ad campaign.

Site pulls material on bin Laden

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County Republican leaders Tuesday took down offensive material on their official party Web site that sought to link Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden and encouraged people to "Waterboard Barack Obama" — material that even offended state GOP leaders.

Hector Barajas, a California Republican Party spokesman, said the local party went too far in this instance.

By Tuesday night, much of the material — which ranged from depicting Obama in a turban to attacking Michelle Obama — had been removed, replaced with political cartoons attacking Obama.

World Series to get game delay for ad

LOS ANGELES — Major League Baseball (MLB) agreed Wednesday to delay the start of a potential World Series game by 15 minutes to make room for a television ad Sen. Barack Obama plans to run Oct. 29.

That would be the date for Game 6 of the best-of-seven series, if necessary.

Obama's campaign earlier this month negotiated to buy the same half-hour of prime time — 8 to 8:30 p.m. that night — on CBS and NBC.

The campaign also approached ABC and Fox, but Fox already had reserved that time period for a pregame show and Game 6. Fox asked MLB to push the start time to at least 8:35 p.m. so Fox could accommodate Obama's buy.

The league agreed to make the switch, and Fox sold the half-hour to Obama's campaign for almost $1 million.

Seattle Times news services