SACRAMENTO - California lawmakers today will consider what is believed to be the nation's most far-reaching smoking ban in state parks as a way to get unsightly cigarette butts off the beach, eliminate second-hand smoke and reduce the threat of wildfires.

Maine banned smoking at its state beaches last year, but groups that track such legislation say no state prohibits lighting up throughout its entire park system, as the California bill proposes.

Sarah Palin is expected to head to Knoxville, Tenn.next month to testify in U.S. District Court against a University of Tennessee student who allegedly hacked the former Alaska governor's personal Yahoo! e-mail account.

David C. Kernall, whose father is Democratic state Rep. Michael Kernell of Memphis, admits he correctly answered personal security questions to gain access to the account in September 2008 after Palin was named Arizona Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

Latino legislators urge delayed action on NY gov.

ALBANY, N.Y. — A Latino Democratic state senator is urging black leaders to delay any action to push embattled New York Gov. David Paterson to resign.

State Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx says he wants the Rev. Al Sharpton and others attending Thursday night's meeting in Harlem to wait to act until the end of a state investigation into a domestic violence scandal surrounding a governor's aide. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating whether Paterson illegally contacted a woman who had accused the aide of roughing her up on Halloween.

Reporting from Sacramento - Saying the antidote to California's problems is "someone with an insider's knowledge but an outsider's mind," Jerry Brown, the Democratic state attorney general, announced his candidacy for governor Tuesday in a video on his website.

"Our state is in serious trouble, and the next governor must have the preparation and the knowledge and the know-how to get California working again," Brown, 71, said in the taped message. "That's what I offer."

PROVIDENCE, R.I.-Rep. Patrick Kennedy's announcement that he will not seek reelection has set off a mad scramble among Rhode Island politicians eager for a chance at an open seat in Congress.

The jockeying was especially intense since Kennedy's political power and fundraising allowed him to trounce challengers and discourage competitors.

The candidates already include Republican state Rep. John Loughlin. Democratic state Rep. Jon Brien, a conservative, said Friday he would also mount a challenge. Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis said he's considering running.

ALBANY, N.Y - A Democratic state senator who betrayed his colleagues by joining Republicans in a brief coup and was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge for dragging his girlfriend around during an argument at his apartment says he'll go back to court to fight his expulsion from the Senate.

The New York Senate voted 53-8 on Tuesday night to oust Sen. Hiram Monserrate, a move the lawmaker called an injustice to the people who elected him.

A swearing-in ceremony was set for 5 p.m. Thursday for the little-known Massachusetts state senator who shocked the nation with his upset victory last month over a favored Democrat and put the 2010 midterm elections in play for a possible GOP takeover of Congress. Originally, Brown had said he did not want to be sworn in until Feb. 11.

But in response to criticism from conservative radio hosts and newspaper columnists, he pressed Massachusetts officials on Wednesday to certify his election for the hurry-up swearing-in to fill the last two years of Kennedy's term.

CHICAGO -- Not a good week for the Democrats here trying to hang on to President Obama's old Senate seat.

The party's leading contender -- state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias -- has spent these last precious days before Tuesday's primary scrambling to explain why regulators have targeted his struggling family bank for greater oversight. Giannoulias, once a senior lending officer at Broadway Bank, is being pressed relentlessly by his Democratic rivals and the media about his role in the bank's woes.

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Ukraine's two rival presidential candidates made their cases Friday at Davos, but they were upstaged by the two candidates who finished behind them in the first-round vote and whose support may be key to victory in the upcoming runoff.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych spoke by video link from separate locations in Ukraine, their long answers occasionally broken off by technical problems.

If Martha Coakley's defeat in Massachusetts was a political earthquake, most journalists were slow to hear the tremors.

Her chances of beating an obscure Republican in the race for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat seemed so overwhelming that national news organizations largely ignored the contest until the stretch run. The mainstream media were lulled into complacency by Coakley's big lead in the polls and Massachusetts's reputation as the bluest of blue states.

Washington (CNN) -- Two days after his stunning victory in Massachusetts, Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown heads to the nation's capitol on Thursday.

Brown is a state senator who defeated Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley on Tuesday to became the first Massachusetts Republican to win a U.S. Senate election since 1972.

Brown's first meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday is with Sen. John McCain of Arizona. McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, endorsed Brown's bid to fill the last three years of the term of the late Sen.

The crisp cadence of a fife-and-drum corps reverberated through the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday morning, the august room packed with nearly 500 people craning their necks to see the remarkable tableau arranged on a stage before them.

There sat Edward William Brooke, who grew up in a segregated neighborhood not far from the Capitol, fought in a segregated Army in World War II and returned to Washington in 1967, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote -- and on this day, the recipient of the highest honor Congress can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal.

As Election Day nears, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine has taken a five-percentage point lead over his GOP challenger Chris Christie, 43% to 38% among likely voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll out today. Independent candidate Christopher Daggett has 13%, with 5% undecided.

"You could see it coming. Gov. Jon Corzine's numbers crept steadily up and Christopher Christie's steadily shrank and now, for the first time, we have Corzine ahead," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick set Jan. 19, 2010, as the date for the state's special election to fill the seat of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. The primary -- almost certain to determine who replaces Kennedy in the heavily Democratic state -- will be held Dec. 8.

The race to succeed Kennedy has been effectively frozen in place as a handful of ambitious Democrats wait to see what Kennedy's family members might do.

What was intended to be a town hall discussion on President Barack Obama's health care reform proposal dissolved into a shouting match with shoving and scuffles in Ybor City tonight.

The event brought home to Tampa the recent phenomenon of angry opponents of Obama's proposal disrupting town hall meetings by Democratic members of Congress during the August recess.

This meeting was organized by Democratic state Rep. Betty Reed but was to include comments on the proposal by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a strong supporter.

It was supposed to be the unwinnable war. For almost three decades, Sri Lanka was held up as an example of how a small democratic state with a conventional army could never defeat a well-funded and disciplined guerrilla organisation.

It has proved that to be untrue. But how Sri Lanka won its victory — and whether it should be condoned or copied — is the subject of an international debate that touches on the War on Terror, the UN and the new geopolitical world order.

President Obama's meeting with Shimon Peres this afternoon will mark a first step in the new administration's relationship with Israel. But it comes at a time when the two governments disagree sharply over what constitutes the biggest long-term threat to the Jewish state and how best to achieve peace in the region.

Peres, Israel's president, is serving mostly as a scout on this trip to Washington on behalf of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who took office at the end of March and will meet with Obama for the first time on May 18.

ALBANY - Long Island's Democratic state senators last night threw their support behind an MTA bailout that includes a controversial payroll tax on employers, removing another hurdle to the plan's adoption.

Craig Johnson of Port Washington and Brian X. Foley of Blue Point made the announcement after a three-hour private meeting with Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans).

Johnson and Foley, together with two colleagues from Westchester County, had balked at the payroll tax because it affects school districts and would likely raise property taxes.

AUSTIN, Texas — A group of Texas Democrats says Republican Gov. Rick Perry was reckless when he suggested at an anti-tax rally that fed-up Americans may one day want to secede from the United States. They said Thursday that he should disavow such talk. Democratic state Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco says talk of secession is anti-American and that some people associate it with racial division and the Civil War.

BBC West Africa correspondent

Following the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira and the murder of the head of the army, General Tagme Na Waie, it is not surprising that foreign ministers from the region are heading to Guinea-Bissau. Guinea-Bissau's army has called the shots since independence