Why Some Vermont Inmates Aren't Too Happy With Their Dinner
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Coming Clean
The confessions of New York Governor David Paterson continue. Paterson has admitted that he used cocaine and smoked marijuana as a young man. He told a New York TV station that he tried cocaine, "a couple of times. And marijuana probably when I was about 20."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And despite owning a home just 20 minutes from the state capitol, records show that Paterson used taxpayer money to stay at nearby hotels while lieutenant governor. Since January 2007 Paterson charged the state for 13 Albany hotel stays totaling more than $2,500.
And a report in the Times Union of Albany says that after the governor ended his affair with a state employee he traveled with her to South Carolina in 2007 while working on Senator Clinton's presidential campaign.
The report says Paterson billed the state for the trip, but his spokesman, however, says the trip was in 2008 and that the Clinton camp covered the cost.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Israeli Intentions
Saddam Hussein's intelligence service collected information on a number of Israeli targets including airports and religious centers.
The release of thousands of documents captured by American forces during the invasion of Iraq is part of a West Point program to evaluate the lessons of the Iraq war.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The files detail a 2001 plan to free Iraqis jailed for up to 20 years if they agreed to carry out attacks on Israel.
And in a video of a 1990 meeting between Saddam and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Saddam says he wants to launch ballistic missiles against Tel Aviv and would not hesitate to use chemical weapons.
Hero Halt
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A national tour featuring veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars won't be stopping at a Minnesota high school as planned. The event was supposed to be a classroom discussion about military service.
But Forest Lake Area High School Principal Steve Massey decided to cancel Tuesday's visit over concerns the event was becoming too political which he said, "would be inappropriate in a public setting."
But the event's organizer Pete Hegseth — who graduated from the school in 1999 and served in Iraq — responded saying, "I think it's extremely unfortunate that a school would bow to the political pressure of outside groups and not bring in a veterans organization. Are we saying that patriotism and duty and honor have no place in our public schools?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chewy Charge
And finally, the Vermont Supreme Court has a new case to chew on — whether a special meal provided to prisoners amounts to punishment without due process.
When inmates act up they are given "nutraloaf" — something officials call a complete meal. But inmates say the dish is so vile they would rather go hungry.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The loaf is a mixture of cubed bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, raisins, beans, spinach, potato flakes and powdered milk. Vermont corrections commissioner Rob Hoffman says it's, "a way of providing nutrition in a mechanism that dissuades inmates from throwing feces, urine, trays and silverware."
But Seth Lipshutz, an attorney with Vermont’s prisoner rights office says, "It's wrong and it's sad. If it's punishment, you've got to follow the rules. Even in prison you get a little bit of due process."
— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.