Poor Mojo's Newswire

It has been discovered by Anonymous that several high level managers within the Church of Scientology are currently working in the United Kingdom without the appropriate work permits. They are effectively working and living in the country as illegal immigrants. This information has been passed to the UK Border Agency, which is now mounting an investigation.

ONTARIO, Ore. (AP) — Police say there's been an alarming rise in urine-filled plastic containers found along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon. A litter crew for the Oregon Department of Transportation picked up an estimated 200-300 urine filled plastic bottles, along the highway, about half of which were found in a short stretch dubbed "Three Mile Hill." Police say that drivers — particularly commercial trucks — are typically driving very slowly through the area. Police think the price of fuel may be causing drivers to travel slower than normal to save fuel while at the same time passing rest areas or truck stops.

DETROIT — A judge ordered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail Thursday for violating the terms of his bond in his perjury case, a decision the judge said he would have made for any "John Six-Pack" defendant. The mayor made an unauthorized trip to Canada last month, leading the county prosecutor's office to request Kilpatrick be punished. Only minutes earlier, the mayor offered an apology, telling District Court Judge Ronald Giles that for seven months, "I've been living in an incredible state of pressure and scrutiny." But Giles sent the mayor to jail anyway, telling him he would have given any defendant the same treatment.

Montreal might not be a good memory for American punk icon Iggy Pop and his band The Stooges after their instruments and gear were stolen following a weekend performance. According to the band's road manager, Eric Fischer, the gear and instruments were worth tens of thousands of dollars. The truck holding the equipment was stolen from outside the hotel where the band was staying on Monday following a concert the night before. The missing items include "priceless" vintage instruments, Fischer told the Detroit Free Press. He singled out bassist Mike Watt's Gibson guitar, which he has used since he played with the Minutemen in the early 1980s. "That bass would go in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some day if we could find it," Fischer said. "We're all just gutted."

1. The 2002 Georgia Senate and Governor Races — Senator Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in Vietnam, was defeated for re-election and Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, was unseated. Polls had suggested that both men would win.

The votes were cast on Diebold A.T.M.-style machines. A whistle-blower who helped prepare the machines reported that secret “patches” — software intended to fix glitches — were installed late in the process without being certified by the state, as the law required.

The unexpected outcomes were likely because of heavy turnout by rural whites, prompted by a Confederate flag dispute, not faulty voting machines. Still, skeptics wonder if the patches contained malicious software that changed votes. Because the Diebold machines did not produce paper records, there is no way to put those doubts to rest.

Lesson: Electronic voting makes large-scale vote theft easy. A patch slipped onto voting machines or centralized vote tabulators can change an election’s outcome. Every piece of software must be scrutinized by neutral experts. If there is not enough time, election officials need a backup plan, such as conducting voting entirely on paper ballots.