The NYT is reporting:

ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He scheduled an announcement for 2:15 after inquiries from the Times.

Mr. Spitzer, a first term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform an end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.

Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved.

But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.

More here.

For continuous updates and comprehensive information (with lots of links) on this situation check here.

Video of Spitzer’s news conference:

The only comment I will add here is that if the Governor believes this is really just a private matter then he is sadly mistaken. By his alleged actions he has thrust himself, but more imnportantly his family into the very public spotlight.

This post is not offered to presume guilt or innocence on the part of the Governor, just to pass on the news.

Have you hand written a letter lately? How about using a phone which has a cord attached that limits you to walking 20 or so feet while chatting?

The world moves at a fast pace these days and technology (for better or worse) sets the pace to a great degree.

“YOU hardly ever hear the phone ring any more,” the publicity director at my publishing company said last summer. “I walk down the hall now, and it’s just so quiet.”

We were discussing the prospects for my coming book, and I thought she was warning me that business was down. But that wasn’t it. Her concern was exactly as she’d described it: the phones rarely rang. Everyone sat at desks silently reading and typing e-mail messages instead. People still had conversations, but the background din had sharply diminished.

The waning of the office phone call is one of those cultural declines that few people are likely to lament. It’s true that the changing mechanics of the telephone itself have prompted some sentimental outbursts; a page on www.wikihow.com gives step-by-step instructions for using an old rotary phone. (Step 1. Remove the handset from the cradle with your hand.)

HT: Instapundit

The latest suggested solution to being able to hold a do-over primary or caucus or whatever in Florida and Michigan so those delegates can be seated at the convention is to do mail-in ballots.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson is all for it and wants the state Democratic committee to raise the necessary $6 million for the cause, but Senator Carl Levin of Michigan is only lukewarm to the prospect.

Levin claims it is illegal to do a do-over and may have a point. It doesn’t matter to me how or if they get their delegates seated except it seems unfair to two large states to be ignored because they broke artificial dates of holding their primaries.

If I got a mail-in ballot I would probably toss it in the trash as junk mail. I guess others would vote, but how do you know who is actually doing the voting? Beats the heck out of me.

I had to be out of town yesterday and Sue was busy until after 6pm so we didn’t know our server was down (again) until then. I put in a trouble ticket and apparently a lot of blogs are having the same problem. If this continues we will search for a more reliable server.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience it may have caused you. It also explains why we have no posts for Sunday.