Bloglander

Headlines

With a third of ballots left to count, David Condon leads Mary Verner in the race for Spokane mayor. (KHQ)

Washington Initiative 1183 to privatize the sale of liquor appears to have passed. The Liquor Control Board will now be required to close 164 state stores by next June. (KREM)

Unsurprisingly, McEuen Field discontent has been the deciding factor in Coeur d'Alene City Council seat elections. With 51 of 73 Kootenai County precincts counted, the race is favoring Ron Edinger and two others outspoken against the plan. (SR)

Health officials in North Idaho are concerned about the outbreak of whooping cough. Dozens of cases are popping up across the Panhandle and especially in Kootenai County. (KREM)

Out There

The most severe Bering Sea storm on record began bearing down on Alaska yesterday and will continue for most of the day. The storm has hurricane-force winds, storm surges of eight to ten feet along the coat, and offshore waves of over 40 feet. (SR, Washington Post)

Nationwide Election Highlights: Ohio voters have overturned Republican-backed legislation that limited the ability of public employee unions to collectively bargain and Mississippi has reject a "personhood" law that would have defined a fertilized egg as a person, challenging not only abortion but in vitro fertilization and birth control use as well. (Washington Post)

Head Coach Joe Paterno announced that he will retire at the end of Penn State's football season as the Penn State community struggles with child molestation accusations against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Coverage of the scandal has also proved difficult for Gerry Sandusky, sports director for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, who shares the name but no relation. (ESPN, Baltimore Sun)

Concerns about Italian debt increase as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirms that he will resign after budget reforms are passed. (BBC)

Poland, a traditionally socially conservative country, has sworn in its first transsexual and openly gay members of Parliament. This comes days after Member of Scottish Parliament Ruth Davidson was elected as the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives, making her the first openly gay party leader in the UK. (BBC, SheWired)

Video of the Morning

Since Russia's Phobos-Grunt probe may not make it to Mars after all, console yourself with this amusing montage of astronaunts falling down.