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• "People are not wedded to these parties, and they are as unhappy with the money-dominated political process as they are unhappy with the products of that process," Stein, 62, said in an interview the day before she was expected to accept the party's nomination at its convention on Saturday
• So far, the Green Party has only qualified for the ballot in 21 states, and the party has not yet qualified for the ballot in Maryland, where its convention is being held. The party has until Aug. 6 to submit 10,000 signatures in Maryland. Stein said she is hopeful the party will eventually qualify in at least 40 states.
• Stein noted that the Green Party has qualified for federal matching funds for the first time in its 11-year history.
• ___

• ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- The presidential motorcade, the cordon of Secret Service agents, the sight of a president campaigning on a small-town street. Heady stuff -- and new for Virginia during a presidential race.
• For decades, the commonwealth was one of the 40-something states whose politics were so predictable that they were virtually ignored during presidential contests. Virginia was a sure-fire Republican state -- it hadn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.

• The state that calls itself the Mother of Presidents -- eight have been born here -- became a presidential afterthought.
• No more.
• Virginia is one of the most fiercely contested states of this election. President Barack Obama won the state in 2008, the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson to gain victory here, reflecting its emergence as a state with delicately balanced politics.
• ___

• HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Legal experts say emails and other evidence from the Penn State sex abuse case suggest that Joe Paterno and other university officials put boys in danger with their failure to report sexual abuse allegations against

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