A new rule adopted by the Board of Executive Clemency, chaired by Republican Governor Charlie Crist, will restore voting rights to more than 115,000 former felons, according to the AP.

Before the new rule, Florida was one of the few states that didn't automatically restore voting rights to felons who had completed their sentences.

There is also a push to restore voting rights to ex-felons in Virginia underway, according to the Washington Post. Democratic Governor Tim Kaine is working with social and civic groups including NAACP and the ACLU to try to add non-violent offenders to the voting rolls by this November.

Donna Edwards won the special election to be the US Representative of Maryland's 4th district. She won in a landslide to defeat Republican Peter James.

Edwards will carry out the remainder of fellow Democrat Albert R. Wynn's term before she runs again for her seat in the November election.

Wynn left congress in May to become a lobbyist after he was defeated by Edwards in the Democratic primary in February.

Edwards victory makes her the state's first African American woman to be elected to congress.

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Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama announced that Patti Solis Doyle, the former campaign manager of Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, will be the new chief of staff to the not yet named running mate, according to USA Today.

Senator Obama also chose Jim Messina, the former chief of staff to Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), to be his chief of staff and Stephanie Cutter, the communications director for Senator John Kerry's 2004 presidential run, to be Michelle Obama's chief of staff.

Related Link: CNN:Obama campaign rounds out general election staff

Meet the Press Host and NBC News’ Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, died suddenly Friday afternoon from an apparent heart attack. He was 58 years old.

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