Alaska to decide if Palin should pay taxes on per diem payments

Sarah Palin collected nearly $17,000.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin's practice of charging the state when she stays in her home must be reviewed to determine whether she should pay taxes on the payments, state Finance Director Kim Garnero said yesterday.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, released two years' worth of tax returns last week that did not list the per diem payments she received since becoming Alaska governor in December 2006. She collected nearly $17,000 during that period for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home about an hour's drive from Anchorage, according to state travel records.

Palin listed 157 days spent in Anchorage during 2007 on her travel forms. Garnero said Palin's workplace as governor is considered to be Juneau, so she filed for the per diem payments when she stayed at her home in Wasilla.

But state officials consider changing an employee's work station when they spend most of their time in another area, Garnero said. That review will occur for Palin, Garnero said, which may require the governor to report future per diem payments as income.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GOP playing both sides on Red Sox-Rays
The Republican ticket might want to get on the same page before the American League Championship Series starts on Friday.

Last week, John McCain called the Red Sox his "sentimental favorite" to win the World Series, since his hometown Diamondbacks failed to make the playoffs.

But yesterday in Florida, his running mate, Sarah Palin, gushed about Boston's next playoff foe and increasingly bitter rival.

"How about those Tampa Bay Rays?" Palin said in Jacksonville.

"You know what that tells me, it tells me that the people in this area know a little something about turning an underdog into a victor," she said. "And we're counting on you to help us do that Nov. 4th."

McCain is closely contesting both Florida and New Hampshire, a key outpost of Red Sox Nation, with Democrat Barack Obama.

FOON RHEE

Obama leading on policies, McCain on experience
Barack Obama gets higher marks from voters on compassion and policies, but John McCain is still ahead on experience and leadership, according to a new poll released yesterday.

Asked which characteristic applies more to a candidate, 55 percent of registered voters said Obama "cares about people" like them, compared with 35 percent who picked McCain - a gap that is double what it was a month ago, the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey found.

The poll found that 48 percent said Obama has a "clear plan for solving the country's problems," as opposed to 33 percent for McCain. Obama also leads by a wide margin on displaying good judgment in an economic crisis, and has closed the gap into a virtual tie on displaying good judgment in an international crisis.

McCain continues to lead Obama on being a "strong and decisive leader" and on having the "right experience."

FOON RHEE

Anti-Obama author deported from Kenya
NAIROBI - The American author of a best-selling book attacking Barack Obama as unfit for the presidency was being deported from Kenya yesterday, a criminal investigations official said.

Jerome Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was picked up by police for not having a work permit, said Carlos Maluta, a senior immigration official in charge of investigations. Corsi had been scheduled to launch his book yesterday in Kenya, where the Democratic presidential candidate is wildly popular. Obama's late father was a Kenyan economist.

Corsi's book claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendoes and false rumors - such as that he was raised a Muslim. In 2004, Corsi wrote a book, "Unfit for Command," that attacked Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's record during the Vietnam War.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Obama outspending McCain as vote nears
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama is outspending John McCain at a nearly 3-to-1 clip on television time in the final weeks of the campaign, an edge contributing to the Democrat's momentum in key battleground states.

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 6, Obama spent more than $20 million on television ads in 17 states, including more than $3 million in Pennsylvania and more than $2 million each in Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

McCain over that same time period spent just $7.2 million in 14 states.

WASHINGTON POST