Incumbent Jennifer Robinson came just a few votes shy of retaining her seat back in October’s municipal election.

She won Tuesday’s runoff with more than 53 percent of the vote, holding off challenger Lori Bush.

Wednesday, though, a political action committee supporting Bush filed a complaint with the North Carolina Board of Elections.

Steering committee members for the political action committee say DavisandHighHouse.com looks a lot like DavisandHighHouse.org.

“It’s just sort of disrespectful to the whole democratic process of voting,” said Karl Thor with DavisandHighHouse.org.

The unidentified person who runs the dot-com imposter made it look a lot like the original, except the new one criticizes the original dot-org.

And here’s where it gets a little more confusing: earlier this week, the two competing DavisandHighHouse sites sent out identical looking emails, with the dot-org asking people to vote for Lori Bush, and the dot-com endorsing Jennifer Robinson.

Wednesday, the dot-org PAC filed a formal complaint with the state BOE, saying whoever is behind the dot-com has “not followed North Carolina campaign finance laws.”

“We want the officials to look into it and say, ‘Hey, here’s how the game should be played,’ and whatever they decide on, both sides can have an understanding of what’s expected from them,” Thor said.

The dot-org folks say they have no reason to believe the imposter Web site and e-mail came from the Jennifer Robinson camp itself.

“I’m guessing it’s just a very exuberant supporter went out on their own and acted a little bit sophomoric,” Thor said.

Robinson declined an interview request saying nobody from her campaign was behind the copycat, and she’s proud of the way her committee handled the election.

She added that she wants to move past campaign bickering and focus on her duties on town council.

State Board of Elections officials said they received the complaint, but have not had a chance to review it.

WASHINGTON  – Gay rights groups are welcoming the decision by the Obama administration to call for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

The administration is formally endorsing a U.N. statement outlining that goal — a statement that President George W. Bush had refused to sign. When it came up at the U.N. General Assembly in December, the United States was the only Western nation not to sign it.

A State Department spokesman says the U.S. is an “outspoken defender of human rights,” and that it will urge other countries to respect the rights “of all people.”

The Council for Global Equality, which promotes equal rights for gays, says the Obama administration’s position will be a “powerful rebuke” of the stand taken by the Bush White House.

HOUSTON- Former first lady Barbara Bush has been released from a Houston hospital eight days after undergoing heart surgery.

Doctors at The Methodist Hospital discharged the 83-year-old former first lady Friday after her aortic valve was replaced on March 4. A hospital statement said she left with her husband, former President George H.W. Bush.

In the statement, her heart surgeon said Mrs. Bush will have to restrict her activities for at least another three weeks. Dr. Gerald Lawrie of the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center said she could then resume normal activities.

Lawrie called Mrs. Bush “a remarkable patient” and said her recovery “was very quick for this type of procedure.”

The journalist who threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush in December was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday by an Iraqi court.

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama wants agencies, at least for now, to resume full scientific reviews of projects that might harm endangered wildlife and plants.

Officials said Tuesday that the president will sign a presidential memorandum to put on hold a last-minute Bush regulation until the Interior and Commerce departments complete a review of the rule.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to get ahead of the president’s announcement during a visit to the Interior Department.

The Bush-era regulation made optional the consultations federal scientists have performed for 35 years on endangered species decisions. The rule allowed federal agencies to decide for themselves whether projects such as dams and power plants posed risks to endangered species or the places they live.

The existing rule also prohibits a project’s contribution to global warming from being part of the evaluation of any threat to endangered species.

The changes, completed in just four months, were described at the time by the Bush administration as minor. But Democrats and environmentalists have argued that the regulations modified long-standing policy.

Democratic leaders in Congress who are attempting to reverse the rule applauded the president’s decision.

“I wholeheartedly support the president’s proposal to restore the protections for endangered species that the Bush administration spent so many years trying to undermine,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee.

Rahall is pushing to overturn the rule through a congressional resolution. There is also a provision tucked into the $410 billion spending bill the House passed last week that would allow the Interior and Commerce secretaries to withdraw regulations.

Since the Bush rule took effect before Obama was sworn in, a rule overturning it would have to go through a lengthy review process before taking effect.

WASHINGTON- The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year’s overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms.

The findings added to the frustrations of lawmakers already wary of the $700 billion rescue plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Congress approved the plan last fall, but members of both parties criticized spending decisions by the Bush administration and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Financially ailing insurance giant American International Group, which the Treasury Department deemed to be too big to be allowed to fail, received $40 billion from the Treasury for assets valued at $14.8 billion, the oversight panel found.

In December, in response to questions from the oversight panel, Paulson wrote that the value of preferred stock purchased by the government was “at or near par,” meaning Treasury paid $1 for every $1 dollar of asset.

“The way the Treasury secretary described it does not fit with the numbers that were produced in our much more extensive valuation analysis,” panel chairwoman Elizabeth Warren told reporters Friday. “The secretary of the Treasury described it in December that these were par transaction and that is not supported by the numbers.”
 
The continued scrutiny comes as new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner prepares to place the Obama administration’s imprint on the program with a sweeping new framework for helping banks, loosening credit and helping reduce foreclosures. Geithner plans to unveil the changes Monday.

And while Paulson is gone and Geithner is in charge, the program itself remains in the hands of Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush administration.

In December, Kashkari defended the Treasury purchasing strategy as bank stock prices dropped.

“We’re not day traders, and we’re not looking for a return tomorrow,” he said. “Over time, we believe the taxpayers will be protected and have a return on their investment.”

In a bright spot for the rescue program, the same banks that received capital infusions from Treasury have already paid $271 million in dividends to the federal government and are expected to pay $1.5 billion more in dividends by the end of this month. Wells Fargo, which received a $25 billion infusion, has already announced it would pay Treasury $371 million in dividends this month.

The oversight panel examined 10 transactions, including eight made under a capital purchase program designed to put liquidity into the banks in hopes of easing credit. That money went to banks considered “healthy” financially but in need of capital to make loans.

Two other transactions went to AIG and to Citigroup Inc. under programs designed to help companies that were facing serious financial difficulties.

Overall, the panel and the analysts it retained to conduct the valuation study found that the Treasury used taxpayers’ money to pay $62.5 billion more than the value of assets in the 10 transactions it examined. By extrapolating to the more than 300 institutions that received money, the panel concluded that the government in effect paid $78 billion more than the actual value of the assets at the time.

“Treasury chose to offer ‘one size fits all’ pricing in order to encourage all institutions to participate, and in so doing disregarded apparent differences in their financial condition,” the report states. “A consequence is that Treasury effectively offered weaker participants greater subsidies than it offered to stronger participants.”

Reacting to the panel’s conclusions, Treasury spokesman Isaac Baker said in a statement: “Treasury’s efforts since the fall prevented a systemwide collapse, but more needs to be done to stabilize the financial sector, increase lending and protect taxpayer dollars.”

He said the plan Geithner will announce Monday aims to free up credit, “while strengthening transparency and accountability measures so that taxpayers know where and how their money is being spent and whether it’s achieving real results.”

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said the overpayment was sure to “raise eyebrows.”

“I can understand some gap,” he said. “No one is expecting perfection between the price you pay and what you think you’re getting. But that’s a pretty large disparity.”

WASHINGTON — With one last handshake with President Barack Obama, George W. Bush boarded a helicopter on Tuesday at the Capitol and began his post-presidential life, closing a two-term administration marked by war, recession and the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Vice President Joe Biden gave Bush a brief salute as the chopper left the Capitol grounds and headed to Andrews Air Force Base, flying over the throngs of supporters who came to Washington for the historic inauguration of the 44th president.

The unpopular incumbent and Obama, who has ascended to rock-star status even as he faces daunting and international challenges, stood with their wives on the Capitol steps smiling and laughing. If there were any hard feelings between the incoming Democrat and outgoing Republican, they weren’t apparent in the Bush send-off at the base of the helicopter. The two men hugged and clasped hands one final time, sealing the transfer of power.

Bush actually began the first few minutes as an ex-president listening to a musical prelude at the swearing-in ceremony. Obama had not yet taken the oath of office, but while the musicians played, he became president at 12 noon EST, according to the Constitution.

Some in the crowd, weary of Bush’s eight years in office, booed the president when the large viewing screens near the World War II Memorial flashed an image of the exiting president arriving at the swearing-in. Moments later, rounds of cheers welled up as the same screens showed the incoming first lady, Michelle Obama, and her two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Unfazed by his unpopularity, Bush smiled and waved throughout the day’s activities. He blew a kiss out the window of his limousine as he left the White House with Obama.

After the inauguration ceremony, some in the crowd waved at the aircraft in the sky. Others, however, cheered when they heard a television broadcaster announce, “George Bush is no longer president of the United States.” Still others in the crowd, broke into chants of “Na-na-na-nah, hey, hey, hey, goodbye.”

Earlier in the day, a cheerful Bush and his wife, Laura, hosted Obama and his wife, Biden and his wife, Jill, and lawmakers for coffee in the Blue Room of the White House.

Keeping with a White House ritual, Bush left a note for Obama in his desk in the Oval Office, wishing him well as he takes the reins of power.

“I won’t provide any details, but the theme is similar to what he’s said since election night about the fabulous new chapter President-elect Obama is about to start, and that he wishes him the very best,” outgoing White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

She said the two-term Republican incumbent wrote the message to his Democratic successor on Monday and left it in the top drawer of his desk, which was crafted from timbers from the H.M.S. Resolute and given to the U.S. by Great Britain in 1879.

Bush was in the office before 7 a.m. EST. He spoke on the phone with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, former White House chief of staff Andy Card and T.D. Jakes, the pastor of a megachurch in Dallas who will preach at a private church service that Obama is attending before the Inauguration. Bush took one last stroll around the south grounds of the White House.

Perino said the president’s mood was upbeat. “He’s the president of the United States, the way he always is. He hasn’t changed. He gave me a big kiss on the forehead,” she said.

At Andrews, Bush quickly disappeared into a hangar for a private farewell speech to scores of former White House aides and supporters. Among them were former political adviser Karl Rove, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Bush emerged about a half-hour later and boarded the familiar blue-and-white presidential aircraft, which was called Special Air Mission 28000 instead of Air Force One since he no longer was president.

The plane took off about 2 p.m. EST for Midland, Texas, where thousands of well-wishers are expected to greet Bush and his family at Centennial Plaza. It’s the same place that Bush stopped on his way to the nation’s capital for his own inauguration in 2001. While Bush was born in New Haven, Conn., he spent his childhood in Midland. He returned there as an adult in the 1970s and met the future first lady.

After the Midland rally, the Bushes are flying to Waco, Texas, on their way to their 1,600-acre ranch in nearby Crawford.

—
Associated Press writers Liz Sidoti, Pam Hess, Matt Barakat, Jennifer Kerr and Mark Sherman contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON– The Bush administration is aggressively pushing back against a federal court order instructing the most important offices in the White House to preserve all of their e-mail.
     
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The White House says President George W. Bushwill deliver a farewell address to the nation on Thursday night.
     
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