Lead Story
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In late May the West Virginia secretary of state ordered the town of Littleton (population 217) to hold its June 8 municipal election as scheduled, even though no one was running for any of the seven offices and the deadline for registering as a write-in candidate had come and gone. Voter turnout on polling day was zero (down from 19 in 2002), and the town has petitioned the county to dissolve its charter. And in a speech marking International Women’s Day (March 8), President Hamid Karzai made this appeal to the men of Afghanistan: “Please, my dear brothers, let your wives and sisters go to the voter registration process. Later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go.”
Government in Action
In May, William Basil Armstrong, 56, allegedly attempted to rob a Clark Mart in Akron, Ohio, at gunpoint, but the clerk, Imran Surani, noting Armstrong’s frail appearance and the bulletproof glass separating them, ignored his threats. When Armstrong fled, Surani ran after him and tackled him. After allegedly trying to shoot Surani, then dropping the gun, Armstrong asked if someone would go get his oxygen tank from his car. And in November 2003, 48-year-old Mark Shleifer, who is legally blind, pleaded guilty in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to possessing more than 1,000 images of child pornography.
