Tharin Gartrell is due in Arapaho County Court on Thursday.

Authorities say police found scoped rifles, wigs, fake IDs and a bulletproof vest in the 28-year-old's rented truck after he was pulled over in the Denver area last weekend, ahead of the Democratic National Convention there. The resulting investigation led to the arrest of Gartrell and two other men who authorities say talked about killing Obama.

The U.S. Attorney's Office later said Gartrell and the other men were drug users making racists threats and had no firm assassination plot, and no capacity to carry out any attack.

Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday that they will soon ask a federal appeals court not to force the president's top advisers to comply with congressional subpoenas next month. President Bush argues Congress doesn't have the authority to demand information from his aides.

U.S. District Judge John Bates strongly rejected that stance last month, ordering former White House counsel Harriet Miers to testify and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten to turn over documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors.

It was a historic loss for the Bush administration, a stinging ruling in the first such case ever to make it to the courts.

The House Judiciary Committee responded swiftly, demanding Miers appear Sept. 11 as it investigates whether federal prosecutors were inappropriately fired as part of a White House effort to politicize the Justice Department.

The Bush administration had already indicated it would appeal but Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday that they will ask the court to step in quickly and temporarily put Miers' appearance on hold while the appeal plays out. It's a risky move for an administration that has spent years trying to strengthen the power of the presidency.

If the appeals court refuses to temporarily block the testimony, it would essentially be endorsing Bates' ruling against the Bush administration. Miers likely would have to comply with the subpoena, setting a precedent that would give Congress new teeth in its investigations and weaken future presidents.

On the other hand, if the appeals court temporarily blocks Miers' testimony, it could allow the Bush administration to run out the clock before a new Congress comes to Washington and the case becomes moot. In that situation, Bates' order will have been weakened and future presidents will have more wiggle room.

The Bush administration could have taken other steps to avoid a showdown at the appeals court. Even if it appealed Bates' ruling, it could have negotiated a deal with Congress in which Miers and Bolten provided some information voluntarily and lawmakers agreed to withdraw the lawsuit.

David Tuason apologized for his behavior in federal court, saying he never meant to hurt anybody. He said he sent the threatening letters because a black man "stole" the girlfriend he planned to marry.

Tuason had faced up to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in May to six counts of mailing threatening communications and two counts of threatening interstate communications.

Prosecutors said Tuason, who is of Filipino descent, sent more than 200 hateful letters or e-mails, many to black or mixed-race men seen with white women.

Tuason, who lived in the Cleveland suburbs with his parents, sent threatening communications to high school, college and professional athletes, coaches, celebrities, musicians, news anchors, hospitals, police departments and lawyers, according to his plea deal.

FBI agents arrested Tuason in March after tracking e-mails sent from a public library.

Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia entered the plea Monday in federal court in Brooklyn and was ordered held without bail.

U.S. prosecutors allege that Ramirez Abadia was a leader of a Colombian cartel that shipped cocaine worth $10 billion into the United States between 1990 and 2003.

They also say Ramirez Abadia, whose nickname is "Lollipop," played key roles in the killings of rivals.

He was captured last year in Brazil, where he was living in a luxurious home.

Attorneys for Jim Ellis and John Colyandro, who operated Texans for a Republican Majority during the 2002 campaign, argued that the 3rd Court of Appeals should toss out their indictments because the laws used against them were vague and too broad.

In arguments made to the appeals court two years ago, Travis County prosecutors disagreed, urging the court to let the prosecution continue.

In a lengthy opinion issued Friday, the court affirmed the finding of a lower court and declined to dismiss the indictments.

"The challenged statutes give constitutionally adequate notice of the conduct prohibited and sufficiently determinate guidelines for law enforcement," 3rd Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop writes in the opinion.

In 2002, Texans for a Republican Majority sent $190,000 in corporate checks to the Republican National Committee. The RNC, in turn, sent $190,000 of money collected from individuals to seven Texas candidates.

A Travis County grand jury indicted Ellis, Colyandro and DeLay on money-laundering charges in 2005.

Prosecutors argue that the transaction was an attempt to turn corporate money that is illegal in Texas elections into legal donations to GOP candidates. The defense argues that it was separate, legal transactions.

DeLay, who resigned from Congress in 2006, was not a party to the appeal.

"I've never stumped before, but I want to be a part of this," Bumgarner said. The retired insurance executive and devout Mormon said his late mother would "turn over in her grave" if she knew that gays and lesbians could marry.

With less than 11 weeks until Election Day, supporters of Proposition 8 are ramping up their field organization and refining their message as they seek to persuade California voters to shut the door on same-sex marriage. It's the first time voters will be asked to weigh in on the issue in either California or Massachusetts — the states where gays have won the right to wed.

An estimated 15,000 backers of the measure, most of them members of Mormon, Catholic and evangelical Christian churches, knocked on doors and distributed campaign literature to registered voters throughout the state this weekend and last, according to Jennifer Kerns, spokeswoman for the Yes on 8 campaign.

The initiative is a constitutional amendment, similar to ones already enacted in 26 other states, that would overturn the California Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage. It needs a simple majority of votes to pass.

Doug Baker of the Michigan attorney general's office made the disclosure during a routine arraignment for Kilpatrick on the charges in one of two criminal cases against him.

Kilpatrick attorney Juan Mateo told Circuit Court Judge David Groner he had just learned of the deal offer and wasn't prepared to respond. Another defense attorney, James Thomas, said after the hearing: "We're preparing for trial."

A not guilty plea on the assault charges was entered on the mayor's behalf. Kilpatrick didn't speak in court.

The mayor is accused of shoving a sheriff's detective into another investigator while they tried to serve a subpoena on one of his friends July 24.

Kilpatrick is a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver. Thomas said last week the mayor is interested in attending but conditions of his bond in the assault case prevent him from traveling outside the metro Detroit area.

A hearing was scheduled for Monday on Kilpatrick's bond conditions.

Separately, Kilpatrick and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, were charged in March with conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, mostly tied to their testimony in a civil trial. Sexually explicit text messages between the pair, published by the Detroit Free Press in January, contradict their sworn denials of an affair, a key point in the trial last year involving a former deputy police chief.

Meanwhile, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is scheduled on Sept. 3 to consider a request from the Detroit City Council to have Kilpatrick removed from office. Under Michigan law, a governor can remove an elected official for misconduct. That hearing could last several days.

Granholm declined Friday to discuss anything involving Kilpatrick.