Monday Links

• Despite the fact that its citizens pay taxes and fight in this country's wars, Bush has declared his opposition to a bill that would give the District of Columbia its first full seat in the House of Representatives, saying (without merit) that it is unconstitutional.

• Newly -elected Democratic Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado signed a law requiring hospitals to tell rape victims about the availability of emergency contraception.

• Another newly elected Democratic Governor, Ted Strickland of Ohio, unveiled plans to expand Ohio’s early-education effort.

• Wyoming's Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal signed a bill Thursday that will set aside $4 million in state matching funds for an endowment program to benefit 16 rural and critical-access hospitals across the state.

• In a bipartisan confrontation with the White House over executive branch secrecy, the House ignored a stern veto threat and overwhelmingly passed a package of open-government bills yesterday that would roll back administration efforts to shield its workings from public view.

• Congratulations to Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, who overruled his GOP administration's Labor Department and ordered that it declare that tipped workers are covered by the state's new minimum wage law.

• The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation to implement many of the remaining reforms suggested by the Sept. 11 commission, forcing a fresh national security confrontation with President Bush, who has threatened to veto the bill over a provision to expand the labor rights of 45,000 airport screeners (i.e., because he does not believe in workers' rights).

• Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome evangelical Christians to the world of reality. The National Association of Evangelicals has endorsed an anti-torture statement saying the United States has crossed "boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible" in its treatment of detainees and war prisoners in the fight against terror.

• The Kroger Co. has promised to always offer Plan-B emergency contraception.