WASHINGTON (AP)—Retired Gen. Colin Powell, a moderate Republican who endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, says the president’s critics should be going after him on policy, not “nonsense.”

“Fringe” elements on the right are taking a low road when they label Obama a foreign-born Muslim and peddle other theories about non-American influences on the president’s character, Powell said Sunday. Obama was born in the U.S. and is Christian.

MEET THE PRESS—In this photo released by NBC, former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell speaks on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in Washington, Sept. 19.

The former secretary of state said he still sees Obama as a transformational figure, if one who has lost some of his ability to connect with people.

DETROIT (AP)—Former Detroit city councilwoman Monica Conyers has reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin a 37-month sentence for corruption.

The Bureau of Prisons says Conyers arrived Friday afternoon at the minimum-security camp in Alderson, W.Va., about 500 miles from Detroit.

INCARCERATED —In this Sept. 9, 2008 file photo, Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers attends a council meeting in Detroit.

It’s the same place Martha Stewart was sent after being convicted in a stock-trading case in 2004.

Conyers admitted taking bribes to support a sludge contract. She is the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

by Kathy Chaney

CHICAGO (REAL TIMES NEWS SERVICE)—Carol Moseley Braun may put her hat in the ring to succeed outgoing Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, sources said.

The former U.S. senator was flooded with calls on Sept. 7––the day Daley made the surprise announcement that he would not seek a seventh term in office––encouraging her to mull a run for the mayoral post.

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN

Braun, who made history in 1993 as the first African-American female U.S. senator, told the Chicago Defender on Friday she is “seriously considering it.”

CHICAGO (AP)—They shrieked, they gasped, they cried, they hugged— and that was before Oprah Winfrey’s studio audience got a trip to Australia.

Winfrey kicked off her 25th and final season of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday with promised surprises. After teasing the 300 audience members with a suggestion she might take them on a trip to New York, Philadelphia or Los Angeles, she said her last season merited something “bigger.”

SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT—In this photo taken Sept. 9, and provided by Harpo Productions, inc., Oprah Winfrey, top, stands with audience members after making the announcement she will take the studio audience on a trip to Australia during taping of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in Chicago. The premiere of the 25th and final season aired Sept. 13.