UPDATED: Catching Up On A Few Things

Update:

The Patrick Dowd campaign issued a statement this afternoon that claims a widening lead over Councilman Len Bodack. The news release says:

-"It was reported on Friday that six manually counted absentee ballots that had been incapable of being processed by optical scanning equipment resulted in an increased margin for Mr. Dowd of three additional votes. Of those absentee ballots, four votes were cast for Patrick Dowd, one vote cast was for Len Bodack, Jr., and one Republican ballot was cast that did not affect the Democratic primary result".

-"Today, it was announced that eight emergency ballots cast manually in voting district 11-10 due to an early morning machine malfunction had been counted this morning. All eight votes went to Patrick Dowd. Patrick Dowd's vote margin is currently calculated at 92 votes."

-"Dowd attorneys... remain confident that it is not mathematically possible for Councilman Bodack to change the course of the election by overcoming this deficit".

-"...the Dowd campaign sees Councilman Bodack's concession as inevitable."

The PG has more here.

(Below you'll find my original post, which includes an audio link to Bodack's refusal to concede.)

• Councilmen Len Bodack and Jeff Koch spoke with us briefly about the election results. These condensed sound clips are from interviews done after last Thursday's council meeting. The audio on the shortened questions are boosted for clarity.

The Bodack sound file runs under a minute.

The Koch sound file lasts just over two minutes.

I wouldn't call these podcasts, given their length. Dennis Roddy's latest Audio Journal does offer a podcast on his election day adventures.

• Bram of The Pittsburgh Comet and I crossed paths last Friday on Grant Street. He asked why I hadn't blogged about the city ethics board's first meeting.

Since I had to cover President Bush's visit on the day the board met, I didn't feel I had anything to add to the Trib and PG coverage.

The ethics board members are planning to use City Council Chambers for their meetings on the second Friday of every month. I do hope to be there for the June 8th meeting. The monthly sessions are scheduled for at 10 a.m. (We can watch their city web page for updates.)