Text message from prez ... Dumping Electoral College ... More

WASHINGTON -- One day in the not-too-distant future, your cell phone may bring you a text message from the president. And if it does, odds are it will be bearing very dire news.This week, the feds announced a plan to set up a nationwide emergency alert system that would instantaneously transmit a head's up to anyone with a cell phone or other wireless device that something bad has happened or is coming.Slated to debut in 2010, the Commercial Mobile Alert System would have three tiers of warnings. The highest would be a "presidential alert," which would be reserved for the worst situations, such as a terror attack or other mega-calamity.The next-highest -- "imminent threat alerts" -- would warn of tornadoes, hurricanes or other such disasters. The third would bring "Amber alert" messages about missing children.Already, though, the idea is drawing bureaucratic blood. In announcing the plans Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission took a public shot at the Federal Emergency Management Agency -- which the FCC said is the logical entity to manage the alert system -- for belatedly declining to take on the job for legal reasons.So, for now, no one is in charge of setting the plan in motion. Which, given FEMA's management record, may not be all that bad.X...X...XThe Coast Guard is on guard against an influx of Haitian refugees fleeing the food crisis and violence wracking their desperately poor Caribbean country. Inflation has pushed food prices beyond the reach of average Haitians, who, in the best of times, subsist on less than $2 a dayProtests in recent days, fueled by drug gangs and political opponents of the U.S.-backed president, are reminders of what happened in 1994, when similarly dire circumstances raised the specter of flotillas of rickety boats packed with Haitians heading for Southern Florida. More than 20,000 U.S. troops were dispatched to Haiti then, partially to head off such a boatlift and help restore order.X...X...XAlthough his fifth run for the White House hasn't drawn much serious attention, Ralph Nader has managed to raise nearly $322,000 for his decidedly long-shot quest. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, that amount includes about $43,000 of his own money. So far, he's spent a bit more than $57,000 in his bid as an independent candidate.These totals pale compared to the $8 million he raised as the Green Party candidate in 2000. This time, he has drawn campaign bucks mostly from retirees, Californians and the Ann Taylor Corp., a women's clothing retailer.X...X...XThe effort to dump the anachronistic Electoral College and let the president instead be chosen by the nation's popular vote alone has gained another supporter.On Monday, Illinois became the third state to embrace the reform. Maryland and New Jersey have also signed on, and a handful of other states -- Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Washington state -- are now weighing the idea.The change to a popular-vote system could occur only when states possessing a majority -- 270 of 538 -- of Electoral College votes sign on. With Illinois' 21 electoral votes, the total now stands at 46.X...X...XQuotable:"We haul ours to save yours." -- Motto of the Air Force's 586th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, which moves Army supplies, soldiers and equipment in truck convoys along Iraq's perilous roads. Its airmen so far have been awarded 10 Purple Hearts, 110 Bronze stars and a host of other medals.(E-mail Lisa Hoffman at hoffmanl(at)shns.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)