For weeks, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been the Republican whom conservatives barely dared to hope could become John McCain's pick as his running mate. For Republicans angry at Washington's big-spending bonanza when Republicans controlled the White House and Congress, Palin, like McCain, is an antidote. She is the Alaskan who pulled state support for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere and bucked Alaska's congressional and state Republican leaders. For social conservatives, the mother of five has impeccable credentials. She's a member of Feminists for Life who walked the walk in April when she gave birth to a son, shown by genetic testing to have Down syndrome. "I'm looking at him right now, and I see perfection," she said of her son, Trig. "Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?" For conservatives who felt that McCain at times has been too cozy with the Washington left, Palin is a conservative's conservative - a moose hunter and co-owner of a commercial fishing operation. Read On

INDICTED -- U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent was indicted Thursday on charges of abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a female employee, making him the first federal judge to be charged with federal sex crimes and the first in Texas indicted in recent history. The federal criminal investigation was launched in November 2007 after Kent's former case manager, Cathy McBroom, complained that the judge physically touched her under her clothing twice and often made obscene suggestions during the six years she worked for him.In the indictment, he is accused of making unwanted sexual contact "with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass (and) degrade."The Chronicle does not normally identify sexual abuse victims, but McBroom, referred to as "Person A" in the indictment, previously authorized her attorney to speak about the allegations and on Thursday released her own written statement. "After a very difficult 17 months, I feel like I have finally been validated. I have listened and read with horror as Judge Kent's lawyer suggested that what happened to me was 'enthusiastically consensual,' " wrote McBroom, who remains a federal court employee.   Read On

MASOCHISTIC IMAGES  A former San Francisco radio talk show host and Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Thursday for distributing child pornography. Bernie Ward, 57, pleaded guilty in May to one count of distributing child pornography. Prosecutors said investigators found dozens of pornographic images of children as young as 3 on Ward's home computer, including masochistic images of children bound and gagged. "He traded in the currency of children's suffering," federal prosecutor Steve Grocki said. Ward, a father of four known for his staunchly liberal views, hosted a nightly radio show until the station fired him when the child pornography indictment was made public in December. A Stanislaus County woman who exchanged sexually explicit Internet messages with him called police after Ward sent her a photograph of two children engaged in a sex act. She also provided police with transcripts of a conversation where Ward said he was aroused when his daughter walked in the bathroom while he showered, according to court documents. "I find it extremely troublin that a parent would say the things he wrote in those messages," U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker said before sentencing him to seven years and three months. Ward's attorney, Doron Weinberg, had argued for five years, the mandatory minimum prison sentence. He   cited numerous letters of support Ward received after pleading guilty and Ward's volunteer work. Weinberg has said Ward downloaded the child porn for journalistic research. "It's clear that it ended in a dark place," Weinberg said. "Bernie Ward is a good man."

Like millions of motorists, Eric Hanson used a GPS unit in his Chevrolet TrailBlazer to find his way around. He probably didn't expect that prosecutors would eventually use it too — to help convict him of killing four family members. Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin GPS device to pinpoint where Hanson had been on the morning after his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings earlier this year and sentenced to death. Hanson's trial was among recent criminal cases around the country in which authorities used GPS navigation devices to help establish a defendant's whereabouts. Experts say such evidence will almost certainly become more common in court as GPS systems become more affordable and show up in more vehicles. "There's no real doubt," said Alan Brill, a Minnesota-based computer forensics expert who has worked with the FBI and Secret Service. "This follows every other technology that turns out to have information of forensic value. I think what we're seeing is evolutionary."  Using technology to track a person's location is nothing new. For years, police have been able to trace cell phone signals and use other dashboard devices such as automatic toll-collection systems to confirm a driver's whereabouts. Your GPS Device Could Send You to Prison

  Family Concerns

• Samuel B. Kent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Two-Headed Baby Dies, Parents Couldn't Afford Care
• Incomes Plunged in July as Spending Slowed
• PHOTOS: Republican Convention Preparations

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