The Anchorage Assembly approved the ban 7-4, one vote short of being able to override a veto.

Read the full, depressingly familiar story in the New York Times.

Sarah Palin stepped down as Alaska governor on Sunday with a fiery speech reminiscent of her days as running mate to Republican John McCain – when she frequently revved up crowds while attacking Democrats and the news media.

On Sunday, Palin took on old foes in the media, Hollywood and the Lower 48 states. As her audience shouted its approval, she scolded reporters for making things up, mocked Hollywood stars who have opposed wolf-control programs, and complained that “outside special interests still don’t get it.”

Palin, 45, said she was resigning with more than a year left in her first term to take her political battles to a larger if unspecified stage and avoid an unproductive, lame duck status.

“With this decision, now, I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right, and for truth. And I have never felt that you need a title to do that,” the former Republican vice presidential candidate said to raucous applause from about 5,000 people gathered Sunday at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks.

Palin called her 2 1/2-year tenure as governor a success, citing efforts to take on the state’s long-dominant oil industry and progress on development of a natural gas pipeline. She also cited ethics reform, but said “ironically, it needs additional reform” to stop partisan and frivolous complaints such as those that have dogged her in the past year.

Palin leaves office with her political future clouded by ethics probes, mounting legal bills and dwindling popularity. She has been targeted by nearly 20 ethics complaints filed by Alaska residents, most of which have been resolved in her favor. She did not refer directly to the ethics complaints in her 19-minute speech, but has repeatedly cited the financial and psychological toll of those investigations as a key reason she is stepping down.

Palin said Sunday her reasons for resigning “should be so obvious,” but listed them again for the benefit of a supportive crowd that repeatedly interrupted her speech with applause and shouts of support. She said her departure would spare Alaska an unproductive, “politics as usual” lame-duck session, adding that she would always work for Alaska.

“When I took the oath to serve you, I promised, remember what I promised? To steadfastly and doggedly guard the interests of this great state like that grizzly guards her cubs, as a mother naturally guards her own. And I will keep that vow wherever the road may lead,” she said.

Her first order of business as a private citizen is to speak Aug. 8 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. She also wants to campaign for political candidates from coast to coast, and continue to speak her mind on the social networking site Twitter, one of her favorite venues to reach out to supporters.

Free speech was a theme of her farewell speech at the crowded picnic in Fairbanks, as the outgoing governor scolded “some seemingly hell-bent on tearing down our nation” and warned Americans to “be wary of accepting government largesse.”

“It doesn’t come free,” she said.

Palin also took aim at the media, saying her replacement, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, “has a very nice family too, so leave his kids alone!”

And she told the media: “How about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin’ things up?”

She didn’t elaborate, but Palin said when she announced her resignation July 3 that she was tired of the media focus on her family and felt she had been treated unfairly by reporters and bloggers.

Friend and foe alike have speculated that Palin may host a radio or TV show, launch a lucrative speaking career or seek higher office in Washington, D.C.

Palin hasn’t ruled out any of those options, and her political action committee, SarahPAC, has raised more than $1 million, said Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman for the committee and the Palin family.

Palin’s surprise announcement she was stepping down 17 months before the end of her first term pushed her favorability rating down to 40 percent, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll. Fifty-three percent of those polled gave her an unfavorable rating.

Last summer, almost six in 10 Americans viewed her favorably. The latest poll was taken July 15-18.

Parnell, 46, of Anchorage, was sworn in Sunday as the state’s new governor.

“I’m firmly convinced that Alaska’s greatest days are ahead,” Parnell said in pledging to continue Palin’s policies, which he said “put Alaska first.”

Palin received a warm welcome Sunday, both during her speech and as she served food at the annual Governor’s Picnic.

Among those present was Donna Michaels, 57, of Fairbanks, who wore a red T-shirt that said: “Palintologist.”

The T-shirt defined a Palintologist as “someone who studies Palin and shares her conservative values, Maverick attitude and American style.”

Michaels also held a poster board sign showing the front page of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner when Palin announced she would resign. Michaels altered the banner headline “Palin steps down,” replacing the last word with “up.”

“She’s really not stepping down. She’s stepping up to do something bigger and better,” said Michaels, who attended the picnic with her daughter and two granddaughters, one of whom who wore Sarah Palin-style eyeglasses.

Larry Landry, 51, of Fairbanks held up a red, white and blue sign that that read, “Quitting: the new American value.” The other side read: “Thanks for the laughs.”

Landry, a registered independent, said he respected Palin when she ran for governor in 2006, but he felt she changed during last year’s presidential campaign.

“She descended into ugly, divisive politics,” he said.

1. I would say something about Sarah Palin and her drama but I’m scared of being sued. So let me say that Alaska never had a better governor, her speech on Friday was not the rambling, disjointed, cluster freak show as described by media elites, and she resigned because she is a good point guard.

2. Carrot cake is starting to beat my love for cherry pie.

3. How can you not love this country after listening to Marvin Gaye’s rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner”?

4. What’s the deal with Marion Barry?

5. Is there anyone out there going to the Michael Jackson memorial service tomorrow?

6. My future husband Beau Breedlove is now saying Portland Mayor Sam Adams kissed him twice when he was 17, a contradiction of what Adams has said. Beau. Beau. Beau. Give me a call if you want to talk baby. Like I said before, if we had a relationship I wouldn’t lie about it!

7. Chad Gibson is conscious now and saying Fort Worth police authorities are spinning tall tales about what happened at the Rainbow Lounge.

8. Surprised the coup in Honduras isn’t getting more news play.

9. Roger Federer proved this weekend why he is the king.

10. If only bacon could do what coffee does.

Sarah Palin will soon be the ex-governor of Alaska. Last year’s Republican nominee for VP is stepping down at the end of July and will not look for a second term. More later.

Nine Republicans and 26 Democrats rejected Anchorage attorney Wayne Anthony Ross in a 35-23 vote by a joint session of the House and Senate. Ross had been criticized for, among other things, refusing to disavow his past characterization of gays as “immoral” and “degenerate.”

“The governor honored me by choosing me and I would have done a good job, and I would have enjoyed representing the people of the state of Alaska,” Ross said following the vote. Ross, a current director of the National Rifle Association, said he planned to return to private practice.

Palin was traveling and was not present for the vote. She was the headliner at a Thursday fundraising dinner in Indiana for an anti-abortion group.

“I believed I knew what Alaskans wanted when I selected an individual who is a strong backer of Second Amendment rights, a staunch supporter of the state Constitution and a defender of life,” Palin said in a statement.

“I’m surprised that legislators in this case really did not seem to represent their constituents and allowed themselves to be swayed by side issues,” she said.

Ross, a former two-time candidate for governor, served as an honorary co-chairman of Palin’s successful 2006 gubernatorial bid.

He ran into trouble with some lawmakers when he waded into the ongoing fray between Palin and Senate Democrats over filling Juneau’s vacant state Senate seat. She must choose a Democrat to replace the incumbent, but she refused to pick the choice of local party leaders and Senate Democrats have rejected her first two selections.

Ross said Democrats should fill the seat without arguing about whether the process was legal or illegal, drawing criticism that he was advising legislators to ignore the law.

Ross refused to say at his confirmation hearings whether his earlier opinions about gays and lesbians have changed.

“My job is to represent all Alaskans. My personal opinions have no place,” he said to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Many Alaska Native groups also opposed him because he opposes the federal law granting a rural preference for subsistence hunting and fishing.

Palin was once praised for her ability to work with Alaska Democrats to push through major initiatives, but since the bruising presidential campaign she has clashed with legislative Democrats and some Republicans over issues including her stance on accepting federal stimulus funds. Polls show she remains popular among Alaska voters.

Oh you gotta love the Palin household. Sure Sarah Palin isn’t the vice-president, but her brood continues to make crazy gossipy drama.

Now before some conservative troll flips, I got nothing against household travails. Buy me a slice of cherry pie and I’ll regal you with tales of Withers’ hot mess (my personal favorite is my father and uncle knocking over the Thanksgiving table in a tussle); however, it’s a good idea to keep those family hijinks on the down-low. You would think hockey mom Palin would know that, but noooooo. She and her clan are keeping us all entertained with public charges, counter charges, and furious press releases.

First there was Levi Johnston, former fiance of Palin’s daughter Bristol, going on TV spilling all the beans. He spent nights in the Palin household, the Alaska governor probably knew the young couple were doing the nasty, he can’t get any alone time with his own son, etc., etc. Palin issued a press release calling Johnston out, which was odd. Why is a state governor letting some youngster get under her skin?

Now Sarah Palin’s father is getting his two cents in.

“I don’t agree with what he’s doing right now,” said Chuck Heath. “It’s not right. He’s broke, so he’s trying to capitalize on this. I wish he’d take some of this money he’s making and buy some diapers with it.”

Grandpa Heath? Why are you talking? And why isn’t your daughter telling her brood to keep family business on the hush-hush?

Dear Logo bosses: give the Palins their own reality show. Imagine the money baby! Think Bobby and Whitney times 3.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski has scheduled a hearing for Thursday in a lawsuit filed by five Republican lawmakers. They say the investigation has been tainted by partisan politics since Palin has been nominated as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate.

The legislators want to block the state Legislative Council’s investigation into whether Palin acted improperly when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan this summer. Palin denies that she pressured Monegan to fire a state trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce with her sister.

Yet, some of Palin’s previous political activities are a matter of dispute.

At issue are claims by members of the Alaskan Independence Party that Palin was once associated with it. The party, some of whose members have advocated secession from the United States, wants to place all federal lands in Alaska under state control.

The McCain campaign released voter registration documents Tuesday dating to 1990 in which Palin lists herself as a Republican. Campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said Palin has been a registered Republican since 1982, and has never been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

Palin addressed the Independence Party’s state convention by video earlier this year, welcoming the party to Fairbanks. She gave no indication of a current or past connection to the party.

“Your party plays an important role in our state’s politics,” she said in the video, which is posted on the party’s Web site. “I’ve always said that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well.”

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, told ABC News that Palin and her husband, Todd, belonged to the party in 1994. Mark Chryson, chairman of the Independence Party from 1995 to 2002, told the network that Palin attended the party’s convention in 1994. He said he was not certain if she was a party member, and party records do not date back that far.

Obama advisers and surrogates have also linked Palin to conservative former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan. An Associated Press story from Alaska, dated July 17, 1999, states that Palin, then the mayor of the small town of Wasilla, was wearing a Buchanan button during a Buchanan visit to Alaska.

The Miami Herald this week quoted an e-mail from Obama Florida spokesman Mark Bubriski that stated: “Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan, a right-winger or as many Jews call him: a Nazi sympathizer.”

The McCain campaign says Palin supported Steve Forbes’ campaign in 1999.

“Supporters of Barack Obama are engaged in an unfortunate and nasty smear campaign,” said Rogers, the McCain spokesman.

While Obama advisers and surrogates have drawn attention to Palin’s political associations, the campaign has strictly avoided any comment on issues related to Palin’s family, specifically anything focused on her 17-year-old daughter’s out-of wedlock pregnancy.

“I think people’s families are off limits and people’s children are especially off limits,” Obama said Monday.

The Democratic presidential candidate is putting money and manpower in all seven of these states – at levels unmatched by Republican rival John McCain.

For decades, these states have almost exclusively voted for Republican presidential candidates and have rarely seen any campaign action. Now, thanks in part to demographic and political shifts, they are emerging as new battlegrounds.

“We have the organizational ability and the financial ability to compete there,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said recently. “There is not a head fake among them.”

Undeterred, senior McCain strategist Steve Schmidt said: “We feel very confident about holding these states.” He also expressed optimism that McCain can win several Democratic-leaning perennial swing targets.

In the seven historically GOP bastions, Obama has run five weeks’ worth of TV ads and dispatched dozens of workers to sign up legions of unregistered voters that his campaign believes can be persuaded to support the Illinois senator in droves if courted aggressively. Among their targets are blacks and young people, two constituencies that favor Obama but historically have been unreliable voters.

McCain is largely absent from most of these states, trusting for now that right-leaning roots will prevail.

Unlike McCain, Obama had a presence in all seven during the protracted Democratic primaries and that could benefit him.

But Republicans – and even some skeptical Democrats – claim Obama simply is trying to lure McCain into spending money defending GOP turf so he has less to compete with elsewhere.

Indeed, cash flow is a major factor; Obama expects to be able to afford to compete most anywhere while McCain must be more careful with his money because he is accepting public financing and the spending limits that come with it.

Democrats see other dynamics in the states as opportunities, which Republicans say are just delusions.

Of the cluster, Virginia is most likely to go Democratic, so it’s the one where McCain is competing in earnest.

Obama is advertising statewide and has opened several offices. Putting Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine on the ticket could help.

McCain’s headquarters is in northern Virginia, and he has a full paid Virginia campaign staff. So far, he’s only on the air in the Washington, D.C., media market that serves the burgeoning Virginia suburbs.

That’s the moderate region that has helped Democrats retain the governor’s office and pick up one Senate seat.

Democrats say the growing numbers of young left-leaning professionals in the north and the state’s large percentage of blacks – one in five – as well as untapped pools of potential voters make Virginia a ripe target for them. More than 4 million people are eligible to vote, but roughly a third are not registered, including a half-million blacks and several hundred thousand people age 18-24.

The situation is similar in two other fast-growing Southern states.

North Carolina has seen an influx of Northern retirees settling along the coast and in the mountains, while upper-class and academic transplants from all over flock to the booming economies of the high-tech Research Triangle and the Charlotte banking hub.

“You’re definitely getting a new mix,” said Bill Peaslee, a former state GOP chief of staff. “Some of the old givens are no longer true. It’s not how it was 20 years ago or even 10 years ago.”

Voter registrations are up, blacks are signing up in record numbers and a Democrat leads the state.

Recognizing a potential problem, McCain is sending a full paid staff to North Carolina though running no ads for now.

Georgia saw GOP gains in recent decades as conservatives moved in during a population spurt. It now has a Republican governor and legislature, and a strong state party organization.

Even so, Democrats see an opening among blacks who now make up 30 percent of Georgia’s population. Even Republicans predict the first black major party presidential nominee will produce the largest black turnout ever.

Obama also is optimistic because the Libertarian Party candidate, former Republican Rep. Bob Barr, is from Georgia and could draw off conservative votes there.

In Indiana, Obama could benefit from his ties to the populous, heavily black northwest corner that’s within Chicago’s media market. He’s also counting on backers in liberal-leaning university towns like South Bend and Bloomington. Choosing Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a popular two-term governor, as his running mate would give Obama a boost.

“It can’t be understated that he is from our neighboring state,” said Dan Parker, the state Democratic Party chairman.

Since 1936, Democrats have won Indiana once in presidential elections, 1964. Still, they have had some success on the state level and ousted three GOP incumbent congressmen in 2006. Working-class Indiana whites pose hurdles for Obama as they did in his narrow primary loss to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Along the U.S.-Canada border, Democratic statewide victories have emboldened Obama to make plays for Montana and North Dakota. Republicans argue Democrats who win in those states are moderate and Obama is not. Obama’s campaign also is counting on residual goodwill from his primary wins in both.

In Montana, Bill Clinton showed it’s worth it for a Democrat to compete hard; he narrowly won it in 1992 but narrowly lost it four years later. President Bush, however, won by enormous margins in back-to-back elections.

Nevertheless, Democrats took the governor’s office back with Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s election in 2004 over a Republican, and booted a GOP senator facing corruption allegations two years later to take control of both Senate seats.

Democrats claim the electorate has become more moderate as new people settled in mountainous western Montana. Republicans argue the GOP foundation is strong and note that Montana has sent a Republican to the House since 1994.

North Dakota has a GOP governor but has had an all-Democratic congressional delegation for more than two decades. Still, no Democratic presidential candidate has won the state in more than 30 years.

Obama has opened offices in North Dakota’s four largest cities and has visited twice since wrapping up the nomination.

“Barack Obama coming up here and competing here is going to force John McCain to make a choice,” said Jamie Selzler, the state party director. “For everything that McCain does up here, that’s a little bit less that he can do in these big battleground states we always hear about.”

Even farther north in far-flung Alaska, it’s been three decades since a Democratic nominee won the state.

Republicans dominate the levers of power, but corruption has rocked the party, including the latest black eye: the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens this week.

All that turmoil emboldens Obama. So does the fact that Alaska is home to the nation’s third-youngest population. Voter registrations among Democrats are outpacing Republicans.

Said state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat: “There is a real sense of energy coming off that campaign that is completely lacking from the other side.”