Mitt Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state funds to replace computers in his office at the end of his term as governor of Massachusetts in 2007 as part of an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret, Reuters has learned.

The move during the final weeks of Romney's administration was legal but unusual for a departing governor, Massachusetts officials say.

The effort to purge the records was made a few months before Romney launched an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He is again competing for the party's nomination, this time to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012.

...

When Romney left the governorship of Massachusetts, 11 of his aides bought the hard drives of their state-issued computers to keep for themselves. Also before he left office, the governor's staff had emails and other electronic communications by Romney's administration wiped from state servers, state officials say.

Those actions erased much of the internal documentation of Romney's four-year tenure as governor, which ended in January 2007. Precisely what information was erased is unclear.

A 13-year-old boy who applied to a Hershey, Pa., boarding school told ABC News that it never crossed his mind he would be denied entry because he was HIV-positive.

"I thought I would get into the school, because of the type of student and person I am," he told ABC News in a written interview through his lawyer.

As a result of the school's decision, he added, "my life has turned into fear, anger, confusion and tears."

The school said today that its residential setting and the risk of sexual activity made the teen too much of a "threat."

The AIDS Law Project has filed suit on behalf of the boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, on Wednesday in Philadelphia District Court, alleging that the Milton Hershey School violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, which includes HIV in its scope.

It seems only yesterday Florida was considered the happiest place in America. A bounty of sun, no state income tax, 700 miles of beaches, Disney World and more new condominiums than speculators could flip. It’s no wonder that just five years ago, one thousand new residents arrived each day. But this week, Men’s Health magazine tells us the Sunshine State is arguably the saddest place in America.

Florida’s five largest cities landed among the magazine’s top 20 “Frown Towns” – and three of them, St. Petersburg (America’s saddest city, according to Men’s Health), Tampa (number four) and Miami (number eight) make the top 10. Jacksonville came in at number 13 and Orlando at number nineteen.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal Thursday for significantly increasing access to life-saving AIDS drugs for people in the U.S. and around the world, as he announced a renewed American commitment to ending a pandemic that has killed 30 million people.

"We can beat this disease," Obama declared during a World AIDS Day event in Washington. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also participated via satellite.

Obama pledged U.S. support to help 6 million people in countries hardest hit by the virus get access to antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2013, increasing the original U.S. goal by 2 million. And he announced plans to boost spending on HIV treatment in the U.S. by $50 million.

 "The rate of new infections may be going down elsewhere, but it's not going down here in America," he said. "There are communities in this country being devastated still by this disease. When new infections among young, black, gay men increase by nearly 50 percent in three years, we need to do more to show them that their lives matter."

Related Content

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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says schools should teach children about evolution and intelligent design because “the best thing to do is to allow all scientific facts on the table.”

During a question-and-answer session at the University of Northern Iowa Wednesday, Bachmann was asked if intelligent design should be taught as science in public schools.

“I think that all science should be on the table,” the candidate explained. “I think the one thing we do not want to have is censorship by government.”

“I do believe that God created the Earth,” she continued. “And I believe there are issues that need to be addressed — the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the issue of irreducible complexity, the dearth of fossil record.”

According to many scientists, all three issues Bachmann mentioned do not discount the theory of evolution.

A whopping 301,214 signatures to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had been collected as of last night, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has confirmed to Daily Kos. This is more than 55 percent of the 540,000 required to trigger a recall election.

Republican-leaning areas are providing some of the most energy to the recall campaign. For example, in Columbia County, which George W. Bush narrowly won in 2004, organizers have already exceeded 100 percent of their goal for the entire petition drive. They had 10,033 signatures in hand as of last night, after setting a 60-day target of 9,235.

The recall started big, and hasn't slowed down at all. With 50,000 signatures gathered in the first two days and 105,000 in the first four, after twelve days grassroots activists are still pulling in 25,000 every single day (excluding Thanksgiving, of course).

Colin Powell was a guest on Piers Morgan Tonight Thursday and, among other things, was asked what he thought of the Occupy Wall Street movement. He seemed to brilliantly walk a line between the pro-and-anti-OWS stance, saying that he doesn’t, “begrudge anyone who has earned a good salary as part of our capitalist system,” but also expressing an understanding of the frustration many of the protesters are feeling.

Morgan pressed him on his own upbringing — Powell grew up poor in Harlem and recounted that both of his parents had always worked for as long as he could remember, making no more than 50 or 60 dollars a week.

“They always worked; they always had work. People are concerned now that there isn’t that work source of income.”

There is nearly unanimous agreement in our nation that government has a fundamental responsibility to assist the most vulnerable among us.  Perhaps no group of Americans is more vulnerable than children who – through no fault of their own – are born into poverty.  Across the nation and here in Florida, we have a tradition of providing a safety net for children.

But financial assistance is only part of our society’s obligation. Another important part of our responsibility to kids is to ensure their safety and security in the home. With that in mind, Gov. Rick Scott and Florida Republicans have acted conscientiously by mandating drug testing of those adults who seek cash assistance for kids.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a state-managed program that gives struggling families cash to support their children while they are making efforts to improve their household. Literally, this is taxpayer money given to adults to care for their kids. Isn’t it reasonable for Florida to ensure that every penny of our money goes where it should–to the kids who need our help?

Scores of interviews with Iowa Republicans over the weekend turned up scant outrage over the sexual harassment allegations leveled against presidential candidate Herman Cain. That's partly because of the good will he's engendered among voters, and partly because of a widespread mistrust of the media, which has been extensively airing the allegations. 

But there's another reason Cain may escape condemnation. Twenty years after Anita Hill accused Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment at his confirmation hearings, searing the issue into the national consciousness and spawning an untold number of workplace seminars, the issue generates little shock value.

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.—Three members of Herman Cain’s campaign team apologized on Wednesday after a local police officer who said he was there to protect the Republican presidential candidate manhandled a reporter.

The incident happened when several journalists who have been covering Cain regularly tried to film the candidate as he was returning to his campaign bus after an event here. As the journalists trailed Cain, the officer, who was in plain clothes, blindsided National Journal/CBS News reporter Lindsey Boerma into the side of the campaign bus. Moments later, as journalists circled around the bus toward Cain, the same man stuck his arm out and clotheslined Boerma.

The man refused to identify himself. He implied he was a police officer when he suggested that one of his “buddies” in uniform could give the reporter a ride in the back of a police car. When other journalists began videotaping him, he pulled out his cell phone and started recording the press. “I’m an independent reporter,” he said.

Afterwards, Lt. Joe McHugh of the Coral Springs Police Department identified the man as one of his officers and defended his actions. “The reporter was running up along the side of the bus with no identification on identifying herself as a reporter,” McHugh said. “So the officer stuck his arm out to prevent her from getting to Mr. Cain and at which time he was successful.”

WASHINGTON — A prominent climate change skeptic told Congress on Monday he no longer doubts that global warming is real and caused by humans, and joined other scientists in urging action to stop it.

Physicist Richard Muller, director of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project, whose two-year research was funded in part by a foundation formed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, said he could find no bias in other studies.

"We confirm that over the last 50 years, temperature has risen 0.9 degrees Celsius, or 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the same number that the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) says."

Muller told the House Committee on Natural Resources that while he remains cautious about the extent to which humans have played a role, he now hopes other climate skeptics will come on board with his findings.

WASHINGTON — People with a certain gene trait are known to be more kind and caring than people without it, and strangers can quickly tell the difference, according to US research published on Monday.

The variation is linked to the body's receptor gene of oxytocin, sometimes called the "love hormone" because it often manifests during sex and promotes bonding, empathy and other social behaviors.

Scientists at Oregon State University devised an experiment in which 23 couples, whose genotypes were known to researchers but not observers, were filmed.

One member of the couple was asked to tell the other about a time of suffering in his or her life. Observers were asked to watch the listener for 20 seconds, with the sound turned off.

In most cases, the observers were able to tell which of the listeners had the "kindness gene" and which ones did not, said the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences edition of November 14.

Authorities are continuing to evaluate evidence in the alleged attack on a gay Ohio teen whose mother believes may have been targeted due to his sexual orientation.

Video of the incident that appears to show the attacker, who has not been named, waiting for the gay student inside a classroom was posted on Facebook. The grainy footage is believed to have been shot on the aggressor's cousin's cell phone. Still, as The Chillicothe Gazette reports, no one else has come forward who believes the fight may have been motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim, who has chosen to remain anonymous:

According to the initial report obtained Thursday by the Gazette, the two boys were on their way to a third-period class when they "bumped shoulders." The 15-year-old suspect told deputies he has a mental illness, that he "just zoned out," and didn't know why he punched Collins' son, according to the report.

[Rebecca] Collins' son sustained a black eye, a knot behind his ear, a chipped tooth and a possible concussion, Collins said.

Lowe's Cos Inc is closing 20 of its U.S. locations and eliminating nearly 2,000 jobs, and the home improvement retailer is slashing its store-opening plans to improve profitability.

Lowe's, which operates about 1,700 stores in the United States, said on Monday that it had closed 10 on Sunday and would close another 10 within a month.

Some 1,950 workers will be laid off. As of January, Lowe's had 161,000 full-time and 73,000 part-time employees.

The company also said it planned to open only 10 to 15 new North American stores per year starting in 2012, down from a previous goal of 30.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Opponents of a California law requiring that the contributions of gays and lesbians be taught in public schools failed Wednesday in their attempt to qualify a ballot referendum to repeal the law.

The groups wanted to force a vote on Senate Bill 48, the nation's first law requiring that public schools include gay rights milestones and gay and lesbian contributions in social studies lessons. It takes effect in January.

Groups that had been circulating signature petitions said they would not meet Wednesday's deadline.

Brad Dacus, a spokesman for the Pacific Justice Institute, said his organization and other opponents collected about two-thirds of the 505,000 petition signatures they needed.

Traditional Values Coalition spokesman Benjamin Lopez earlier said the groups had decided not to file regardless of whether they reached the threshold.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday that gays in the military don’t deserve to be integrated like blacks.

“That’s very, very different,” the candidate told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “We’re talking about people who are simply different because of the color of their skin, not because of activities that would cause problems for people living in those close quarters. It’s a very different thing — behavior versus an a act.”

“I know the whole gay community is trying to make this the new Civil Rights Act. It’s not the same. You are black by the color of your skin. You are not, you know, homosexual necessarily by — obviously — by the color of your skin.”

US President Barack Obama has done a good job in battling Islamist extremism, accomplishing more than predecessor George W. Bush in Pakistan's tribal areas, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

"I think so far the president's done just fine," Boehner, one of Obama's most fierce critics, said one day before Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney was expected to attack current US foreign policy in a speech.

"I think that when you look at the prosecution of the war effort against the enemy in the tribal areas, there's clearly more been done under President Obama than it was under President Bush, in terms of a more aggressive effort focused at them," Boehner said at a Washington conference.

maybe not literally (officially?), but...

Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times noticed Monday that Bachmann was passing around brochures asking recipients to pledge support for Bachmann in the Ames Straw Poll... [which] took place Aug. 13.

"The AP Stylebook counsels against using spellings like gonna or wanna -- or in this case, complainin' and cryin' -- 'in attempts to convey regional dialects or informal pronunciations, except to help a desired touch or to convey an emphasis by the speaker,'" Tom Kent, the AP deputy managing editor for standards and production, said in a statement to The Cutline. "In this case, our reporter, who was there in person, felt the spellings were appropriate to convey a particular touch that President Obama appeared to be intentionally making use of."

Conservative bloggers agree -- mainly because the story showed Obama pandering to a black base.

"The first job of a journalist is to report a story as accurately as possible," Howard Portnoy wrote on HotAir.com. "Part of the job of reporting Obama's speech last night was to highlight his obvious pandering, which is borne of desperation. The only element missing from the story is whether any of the listeners were offended by the president's 'blaccent.'"

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's story about a woman who claimed that her daughter suffered "mental retardation" after receiving a vaccine against HPV could fetch the woman's family thousands of dollars. But the family can only collect if Bachmann or the unnamed woman can prove the story is true.

Two bioethics professors have offered to pay more than $10,000 for medical records that prove the anecdote Bachmann told after Monday night's Republican presidential debate is true, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Right wingers have so worn out Nazi comparisons that such comparisons are now conclusively presumed to be unreasonable by most in the mainstream media.  So by howling unremittingly about how “Obama is a Nazi” (because he promotes universal healthcare), Teabaggers have unwittingly but fortuitously — for them — inoculated themselves from having to address the Nazi antecedents of the anti-gay propaganda that they use. 

It is now considered unacceptably impolitic to accuse anybody of acting like a Nazi without regard to whether such a charge is warranted.  That is unfortunate, especially at a time when Teabaggers from the [alleged] grass roots all the way up to the United States Supreme Court warrant the charge.

So I’m just going to go ahead and start saying it.  As long as right-wing religious agitators keep using Nazi propaganda against gays, I’m going to be accusing them of acting like Nazis, and I will keep explaining why.

Everyone complains about their job now and then, and members of Congress are no exception.

A few lawmakers have suggested in recent months that despite a $174,000 annual salary, generous health care and pensions, and perks for things like travel and mail, being one of the elite 435 ain't always what it's cracked up to be. And when you calculate the hours they put in, the pay isn't stellar either, they say.

My fellow citizens,

Like many of you, I have worked all of my life and am blessed that I have lived the American dream. My parents struggled financially, and I started school in public housing.

As do many similarly situated, I went to work at an early age. I was always proud of the jobs I had, and I learned valuable lessons from each one I was fortunate enough to hold.

A few weeks ago, someone shared with me former governor and U.S. senator Bob Graham's idea of "workdays," a truly inspirational initiative that should have been continued as a tradition in our state.

This week, I will resurrect that tradition with my "Let's Get to Work" Days initiative.

Beginning today, I will participate in at least one workday a month during my time as governor. The first business I started was a doughnut shop. It was run by my mom and my wife, Ann, and I got to work there with them. So my first workday will be in a family owned and operated doughnut shop in Tampa.

Following in Bob Graham's footsteps of experiencing "the lives of ordinary Floridians firsthand by working their jobs," I hope the experience is beneficial to all, and I know that I will learn a great deal during the process.

Please feel free to suggest jobs I might consider around the state. You can email ideas to Rick.Scott@eog.myflorida.com.

I look forward to hearing your suggestions for my workdays.

Now, let's get to work!

RICK SCOTT
Governor