Welcome to Wednesday's Daily Read. Obama's fundraising techniques are again garnering the headlines. Meanwhile, federal regulators are looking into baby crib safety regulations and investigators are subpoenaing securities firms in their investigation of Lehman Bros. Please send us your comments and any stories we may have missed.

Election Coverage » With alleged death threats, suspicious mail and a surfeit of lawyers, the battle over Ohio voting procedures has reached a new level of ugliness... the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit against the state's chief elections official over the handling of voter registration verifications... meanwhile, the Nevada GOP is challenging some registrations while Nevada Democrats allege that Hispanic voters have received misleading phone calls saying they could vote over the phone and not have to go to the polls... after voicing support for protecting Alaska's Bristol Bay, it appears that Sarah Palin helped ease the way for a proposed copper and gold mine at the bay's headwaters. — The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Las-Vegas Review Journal, The New York Times

Agencies Counted Big Firms As Small » U.S. government agencies mistakenly categorized at least $5 billion in contracts as going to small businesses, even though many of the companies long ago outgrew the designation or never qualified in the first place. — The Washington Post

Regulators to Issue Crib Durability Standards » After two infant deaths triggered the recall of 1.6 million cribs Monday, federal safety regulators are moving to address a longstanding gap in crib safety regulations: durability standards. — The Washington Post

Federal Bailout » Several major U.S. banks are leaning toward spending a portion of their federal rescue money on acquiring other financial firms rather than for issuing new loans... the Federal Reserve yesterday created a program to provide cash to money-market mutual funds, the latest step in a vast expansion of the government's safety net for the financial system... meanwhile, federal prosecutors probing the collapse of Lehman Bros. have subpoenaed other Wall Street securities firms, seeking information about whether their analysts were misled by Lehman about its financial health... the marketplace for personal financial data of millions of Americans has been a crucial factor in powering unrivaled lending. — The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times

Stevens Trial » A federal jury today will begin deliberating two conflicting views of Sen. Ted Stevens: an honest public servant or a miser who went to extraordinary lengths to hide free remodeling work financed by Veco. — The Washington Post

IMF Scandal » The IMF, onetime firefighter for the global economy, is suddenly being called back into action, even as its director Dominique Strauss-Kahn stumbles on his way to the rescue... meanwhile Strauss-Kahn was cleared of an allegation that he improperly influenced the hiring of a family friend for a temporary internship at the lending institution. — The New York Times, The Associated Press

Tax Payers Bailout Iraq Contractor » The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is challenging money recouped from the U.S. government by a contractor that abandoned $185,481 in Baghdad as its employees fled fighting. — The Associated Press

Ex-Officer Linked to Brutality Is Arrested » A former Chicago police officer is being charged in a police brutality scandal that contributed to the emptying of Illinois' death row and that continues to resonate as one of the most racially charged chapters in Chicago's history. — The New York Times

Report: Biological Drugs Need Regulation » Nearly one in four recently approved products in a relatively new class of medicines needed some type of regulatory action because of safety issues that arose after they came on the market, researchers reported yesterday.— USA Today

Powder Mailings Probed » The FBI is investigating letters containing suspicious powder that were sent to more than two dozen J.P. Morgan Chase banks and other financial institutions this week. — The Washington Post

Study Faults Intel on Canadians » The information passed from Canadian police and intelligence officials to the United States contributed to the jailing and torture of three Canadian citizens by Syria, according to a report of a Canadian inquiry released Tuesday.— The New York Times