SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- As new details emerge about the Justice Department's unsettling encroachment on the freedom of the press, which involved secret searches of electronic records belonging to Associated Press (A.P.) employees, the more dubious and overblown the government's rationale appears. In fact, The A.P. and the Obama administration had discussed the piece in question prior to its publication, although The A.P. broke the story a day before the White House planned an official announcement. "Any details about potential disasters, terrorism or government operations that make their way to the American people before proper scrutiny and validation are considered potential risks to life and limb," Attorney General Eric Holder said. On Wednesday, after what administration insiders described as an acute panic attack, an increasingly paranoid Holder seized all the records from Wikipedia, Britannica Online, countless personal blogs and three publishing houses that sell the writings of Nostradamus.

Photo funded by state of Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- In a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released Monday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry formally rejected two key provisions in President Obama's healthcare overhaul measure. The proposals in question, struck down by a recent Supreme Court ruling, involved the expansion of Medicaid coverage and the establishment of online healthcare exchanges. As part of the court's decision, the federal government cannot withhold a state's Medicaid allocation if it fails to expand the program for the poor. And if a state chooses not to create an online healthcare exchange, the federal government can develop one for it. Perry joins a chorus of outraged Republican governors who refuse to support these measures. "I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state," Perry asserted. In the first two years alone, based on state figures, nearly two million people would be added to Texas’ Medicaid rolls. By Perry's calculations, that expansion could cost $27 billion over 10 years. "When you consider how much money taxpayers are already dumping into benefits packages for state officials and government workers, Texas simply can't afford to include two million more people."

TUPELO, Miss. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- In a landmark decision Tuesday, a regional German court ruled that the Jewish ritual of circumcision, or brit milah, amounts to grievous bodily harm. In rendering its decision, the court found the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents." Legal experts in the country expect the judgment to set a controversial precedent, with members of the Jewish community claiming that Germans once again have trampled their rights. The procedure is typically administered by mohels who are not licensed physicians with proper medical training. Because the practice leads to a permanent change in anatomy and is not performed in the same sterile environment as a hospital, the court in Cologne deemed it illegal. As news reached North America, where some U.S. states could be inclined to follow suit, representatives from Mississippi lashed out, saying that no government possesses the right to dictate the choices a person makes about his body.