- President Bush signs an omnibus spending bill into law, legislation attacked by critics as a give-away to special interests and full of pork – it also contains controversial measures increasing media ownership concentration, ending overtime protections, and gutting a gun control law
- More charges of election irregularities in San Francisco – the same non-profit accused of coercing workers to vote and campaign for Mayor Gavin Newsom is said to have done the same for his predecessor Willie Brown
- Computer security experts warn that a new internet absentee voting system is vulnerable to hackers and terrorists and should be scrapped
- The Halliburton scandal grows – the company fires 2 employees for elledgedly taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor supplying oil to U.S. troops in Iraq
- The interior department with the go-ahead to open nearly 9 million acres of Alaska’s North Slope to oil and gas development
- State water regulators extend controversial waivers that let farms pollute waterways, but their decision will also require growers to monitor water quality