Secret Service U S

Vice President Dick Cheney does not have to testify as an eyewitness in a civil lawsuit filed against Secret Service agents by a man who says he was wrongfully arrested for criticizing the vice president -- at least not yet, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ruled Tuesday.

A day after President Bush was nearly struck in the head by flying footwear at a Baghdad news conference, U.S. Secret Service officials faced questions Monday about how an Iraqi television reporter was able to hurl not one but two shoes at the president without the agents responsible for protecting him being able to move into the line of fire.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said Tuesday that he expected to spend $85.2 million next year for bodyguards and bomb-sniffing dogs to protect the 2008 presidential candidates. That's on top of this year's $21.4 million, bringing the total for this election cycle to $106.6 million -- up from about $73 million spent in 2004.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday was placed under Secret Service protection, authorities said. The Illinois senator is the second candidate in the 2008 race for the White House to get a Secret Service detail. The first, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), has had the protection as a former first lady.

The Secret Service expects to borrow more than 2,000 immigration officers and federal airport screeners next year to help guard an ever-expanding field of presidential candidates. It also expects to shift 250 of its own agents from investigations to security details. The agency has a $110-million budget for campaign protection. It spent a record $65 million for the 2004 election.

It was a three-hour lap dance and a stripper with a nose for money that finally led to the counterfeiters' undoing. Fifteen people have been indicted in the ongoing investigation. And Secret Service agents have discovered that Southern California street gangs teamed with a Mexican counterfeit ring and a drug cartel to bring phony $100 bills into the United States -- $7.5 million worth since last January alone.

An unexpected phone call from the Secret Service is usually an unwanted phone call. Are agents calling about that $100 bill you spent that turned out to be phony? Was there something in your snide remark about presidential politics that someone somehow terribly misinterpreted? It turned out that when the Secret Service phoned Lesa Glucroft, they were calling about hand lotion. Officials wanted to know if the Calabasas businesswoman was interested in sticking the U.S.

The Secret Service sent agents to investigate a college art gallery exhibit of mock postage stamps, one depicting President Bush with a gun pointed at his head. The exhibit, called "Axis of Evil: The Secret History of Sin," opened last week at Columbia College in Chicago. It features stamps designed by 47 artists addressing issues such as the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal, racism and the war in Iraq. None of the artists is tied to the college.

The U.S. Secret Service has asked for the race of guests attending a media reception with President Bush before the annual White House Correspondents' Assn. dinner Saturday. Some senior correspondents who cover Bush regularly and have attended the reception in past years said they had not been asked for race information previously and were shocked at the request.

Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about antiwar drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush's head on a stick. Another drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading "End the war -- on terrorism." The 15-year-old boy's art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators. They notified police, who called the Secret Service.