Hawaii Verifies Obama Birth Records Yet Again

We somehow doubt that this will finally put the birther brouhaha to bed, but: After what the AP describes as "a nearly three-month back and forth," Hawaii has verified President Obama's birth records to Arizona. Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett had threatened to remove Obama from the November ballot if he did not receive verification, but Hawaii—which has confirmed Obama's citizenship repeatedly since 2008—first wanted Bennett to prove that he required the records as part of ordinary business. Bennett did that, so Hawaii passed along the verification. It's not yet clear whether Bennett's office is satisfied.

Also yesterday in birther news, Arizona's Sheriff Joe Arpaio defended sending a deputy to Hawaii alongside a member of his volunteer "posse", which is investigating Obama's birth certificate. Arpaio had earlier said no taxpayer money would be spent on the investigation, and yesterday he insisted that remains true because the donation-funded posse will reimburse the sheriff's office for the cost of the deputy's trip. And anyway, he added, "Even if it was costing the taxpayers money, we are talking about a criminal investigation into possible fraud and forgery on government documents." (More Hawaii stories.)