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Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said his party is not complacent about the chances of hanging on to a key marginal seat in the North East, as the party begins its annual conference.

Lib Dems will be battling in Berwick-upon-Tweed at the next election, the only seat they currently hold in the North East.

Veteran MP Sir Alan Beith held the seat with a majority of 2,690 in 2010 but Sir Alan is retiring after representing the area since 1973.

Conservatives have named the seat one of their official targets for the general election due in May next year, and hope that the loss of Sir Alans loyal personal supporters might cost the Lib Dems the seat.

Mother-of-two Julie Prksen, a former international development worker, will be standing for the Lib Dems this time.

Mr Clegg said: The Liberal Democrats have never been complacent about any constituency and have never taken any vote for granted.

I know that Alans hopeful successor in Parliament, Julie Porksen, is campaigning extremely hard.

And shes doing it hand in glove with Alan. I find it remarkable that after his long years of public service Alan still has the appetite, even though hes not standing himself, to get out on the doorstep.

Hes hugely popular and Julie is quite rightly working hand in glove with him so that people know locally that everything they valued in Alan is what they would also get from Julie as their local MP.

Other than Berwick, the only Lib Dem seat near the North East region is Redcar, in North Yorkshire.

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Nick Clegg: We're not complacent about our North East seat

Graig Meyer Democrat ashamed of being white
A politician from North Carolina apparently wakes up with guilt every morning knowing that his skin pigmentation is white. You got to listen to what you wrot...

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Selfie Summit Dance - Mount Democrat, 14,148 #39;
A Selfie Dance on the summit of Mount Democrat, CO for the 2014 14er Dance Off Competition. Follow all of the action at: http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1 t=43712 Special Thanks to...

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Selfie Summit Dance - Mount Democrat, 14,148' - Video

By Chris Frates and Eric Bradner, CNN

updated 7:11 PM EDT, Thu October 2, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Years of budget cuts have made two key U.S. agencies' efforts to contain the threat of Ebola harder than it should be, Rep. Chris Van Hollen told CNN on Thursday.

The Maryland Democrat pointed to spending cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, which are both involved in the response to a Dallas man who this week became the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

"There's no doubt that the deep health care cuts that we've seen have made it more difficult to respond in a rapid and comprehensive way to the Ebola outbreak," Van Hollen said.

"They're doing everything they can with the resources they have now, but the cuts they've seen in past years, they were like eroding the foundation and it clearly meant that they were starting from behind," he said.

No 'Ebola czar' is forthcoming, White House says

The CDC saw its discretionary funding cut by $585 million from 2010 to 2014, while the NIH's budget was slashed by $446 million over the last four years.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, spelled out the impact of the cuts in dire terms during a recent hearing on Capitol Hill.

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Democrat: Budget cuts stymie Ebola response

A Florida State beat writer for the Tallahassee Democrat has resigned after she was found to have plagiarized from a freelancer's story last week. Natalie Pierre and the Democrat announced the resignation today, and both did so in ways that left some questions unanswered.

The Democrat published a very short and dry article about what happened.

Earlier this week, it came to our attention that a story in the Tallahassee Democrat and on Tallahassee.com by Florida State sports reporter Natalie Pierre appeared similar to a story written by freelance writer Tim Linafelt.

After investigating further, we concluded that it was too similar to be pure coincidence, that pieces at least of the story were plagiarized. Pierre resigned and no longer will report on behalf of our news organization.

Pierre gave her own statement on her website. In it, she profusely apologizes but also avoids specifics about the story in question.

After more than three years covering Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat I resigned from my role on Wednesday, Oct. 1, after I was informed that words that were not my own were published in the Democrat and on Tallahassee.com with my byline. While I did not intentionally plagiarize another journalist's work, I take full responsibility for some of freelance writer Tim Linafelt's words appearing in my story last week.

The plagiarism appears to have happened in a feature about defensive tackle Eddie Goldman. Linafelt wrote a story about Goldman for the Miami Herald that was published online Sept. 23. Pierre wrote a feature about Goldman that was published online the next day. Both stories have similar feels, occasionally making the same points at about the same time. Here are a few passages that probably were flagged as being too similar.

From Linafelt:

With the score tied at 17 and 1:40 remaining on the clock, Clemson was driving deep in FSU territory for a game-clinching score when Goldman descended on running back C.J. Davidson, felt his hand on the ball and yanked it loose.

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Florida State Beat Writer Resigns After Plagiarism Charges