Just in from the Los Angeles Times: Sen. Barack Obama's campaign sent emails out today indicating he's very close to announcng his Vice-Presidential candidate and he may make the announcement by text-message and e-mail:

An e-mail just sent out says Obama "is about to choose a running mate." And when word comes, it will come by text message, e-mail and on the campaign website. An interesting twist that could mean the word might be released this week even during Obama's family vacation.

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The Democratic National Convention Committee today released the final keynote speaker's list for the four nights of the convention:

Monday: Michelle Obama
Tuesday: Hillary Clinton
Wednesday: the Vice Presidential Candidate
Thursday: Barack Obama

Former President Bill Clinton will also speak on Wednesday night.

The Olympics have started. Here's an open thread for them.

Isaac Hayes, Academy and Grammy Award winner, died this afternoon at the age of 65.

His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White. And in his spoken-word introductions and interludes, Hayes was essentially rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes -- the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it."

The video above is the wonderful Isaac Hayes version of "Walk On By," the Burt Bacharach song made famous by Dionne Warwick. You can go here if you prefer to remember Hayes by listening to his award-winning "Theme From Shaft."

This is an open thread.

John Edwards has been much in the news recently, but a different Edwards -- Darrell -- is going through his own version of hell.

Edwards was convicted of the 1995 execution-style shooting of a drug dealer in Newark. It took three years for the case to go to trial. The first two ended in mistrials, and the third ended with a hung jury that acquitted a co-defendant. At his fourth trial, Edwards was convicted, due in large part to dubious eyewitness testimony.

An editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer explains why Darrell Edwards deserves a new trial. [more ...]

Microbiologist Gerry Andrews points to additional weaknesses in the publicly disclosed evidence against Bruce Ivins:

Dr. Ivins, for instance, was asked to analyze the anthrax envelope that was sent to Mr. Daschle’s office on Oct. 9, 2001. When his team analyzed the powder, they found it to be a startlingly refined weapons-grade anthrax spore preparation, the likes of which had never been seen before by personnel at Fort Detrick. It is extremely improbable that this type of preparation could ever have been produced at Fort Detrick, certainly not of the grade and quality found in that envelope.

Does the FBI have a credible theory to explain where and how Ivins weaponized the anthrax? Could he have done it on his own? Some scientists think not. [more ...]

Couldn't resist. Here's John Edward's birth chart. And yes, I used to be one too, although I was always taught it's the wise man who rules his stars and the fool who obeys them.

Here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome.

As TChris wrote last night, retired Georgia Judge Hilton Fuller, who once presided over the death penalty trial of accused Atlanta courthouse shooter Brian Nichols, spoke at an American Bar Association conference yesterday and said the prosecution in that case was responsible for driving the costs up.

The Nichols trial should be used to shine a light on how the prosecution's case affects the cost of an adequate defense in death penalty cases, Fuller told an American Bar Association panel on capital cases.

''There's a relationship between what the prosecution spends and what the defense needs,'' Fuller said.

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With each new detail, the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter saga continues to raise more questions than it answers.

First, there's Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman's new article about his relationship and many meetings with Rielle Hunter. She's very new age -- astrology, auras, energy fields, etc. He was covering Edwards in Iowa in 2006 when he met Rielle and they stayed in touch and met several times. Very strange story.

Then, there's the real mystery man in all this: Bob McGovern. He's the guy who separately drove both Rielle and Edwards to the Beverly Hilton for their meet-up. Edwards told Nightline that McGovern was the one who called him that afternoon and asked for the meeting. Edwards also told Nightline that he only agreed to the meeting if McGovern would be there too.

Edwards' never said how he knew Bob McGovern. So who is Bob McGovern? Apparently, a new age healer from Santa Barbara. [More...]

Prosecutorial overkill is a factor in the high cost of death penalty trials, a point made by retired Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, commenting upon the upcoming death penalty trial of Brian Nichols, the defendant in the Atlanta courthouse killings.

Prosecutors presented a 54-count indictment, including four murders, for crimes that took place at 13 separate crime scenes, and they identified 487 witnesses, Fuller said.

As Fuller pointed out, prosecutors could prove their case with ten witnesses. So whose fault is it that defense attorneys needed to interview 474 unnecessary witnesses to defend their client? Fuller suspended the trial when defense funds were cut off, and was later removed from the case. Unsurprisingly, the State of Georgia learned exactly the wrong lesson from the $1.8 million bill submitted by the defense:

State lawmakers approved new measures this year to ban senior judges such as Fuller — who do not face re-election — from hearing death penalty cases. They also tightened the public defender system's budget.

These are the costs of being labeled a suspect, or, almost as bad, a person of interest by the FBI:

When Perry Mikesell, a microbiologist in Ohio, came under suspicion as the anthrax attacker, he began drinking heavily, family members say, and soon died. After a doctor in New York drew the interest of the F.B.I., his marriage fell apart and his practice suffered, his lawyer says. And after two Pakistani brothers in Pennsylvania were briefly under scrutiny, they eventually had to leave the country to find work.

Not to mention Steven Hatfill. Maybe Bruce Ivins had something to do with the mailing of anthrax, although the lack of evidence that he was in Princeton when the letters were mailed is a glaring hole in the FBI's theory. [more ...]

Are you watching the Olympics? What events impressed you the most?

If you're not watching and want to talk about the news or what you had for dinner, that's fine too.

This is an open thread.