To the Point

White House Integrity Challenged

New York Times reporter Judith Miller's release from jail puts Karl Rove and the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame back on the front page. This at a time when the White House is under fire for Mike Brown's fumbling performance at FEMA, amid claims that other powerful appointees got their jobs through connections, rather than competence and when leaders in Congress are under a cloud of alleged corruption. This week's Time magazine reports that President "Bush has gone further than most Presidents to put political stalwarts in some of the most important government jobs you've never heard of." What happened to Republican promises to clean up Washington? How does the Clinton Administration look now? Making News: Judith Miller Out of Jail After 12 weeks in a northern Virginia jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released yesterday. Today, after testifying before the grand jury that's investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, she told reporters she'd been waiting for a personal waiver from her source and a narrowing of testimony. Jim VanderHei is reporting the story for the Washington Post. Reporter's Notebook: Rebuilding Mississippi Casinos Thirteen Mississippi casinos were wiped out by Katrina. Almost $200 million, about 5% of the state's budget, comes from taxes on those casinos. Gambling interests want state help to rebuild, not floating on water, as required by previous law, but on solid ground. Conservative church groups are dead set against that. Kate Magandy, City Editor at the Sun Herald in Biloxi, has more on the high-stakes battle over jobs and religion.