ANCHORAGE, Alaska — With his Troopergate report due Friday, legislative investigator Steve Branchflower appears to have the makings of a fairly complete account, despite weeks of resistance from the Palin family and administration.

Branchflower has, or soon will have, answers from nearly all the people he'd hoped to question regarding Gov. Sarah Palin's firing in July of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

Some of the final witnesses include seven state employees, including the governor's chief of staff, who lost a court fight to kill subpoenas Branchflower obtained through the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee to compel their testimony.

Another key witness, Todd Palin, the governor's husband, also is answering a list of questions in writing, and has a deadline of today to turn it in.

A legislative panel has scheduled a meeting for 9 a.m. Friday to receive Branchflower's report on Monegan's firing and whether Palin or members of her administration abused their powers in pushing for the dismissal of a state trooper involved in a child-custody fight with the governor's sister.

When they launched the Troopergate probe on July 28, legislators designated Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, an Anchorage Democrat and Judiciary Committee chairman, as director of the Branchflower investigation. French said yesterday that Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor, is working as fast as possible to finish his questioning and draft his report.

STATELESS DONORS GIVE OBAMA $3.3M

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has raised about $3.3 million from contributors who did not list a home state or who designated their state with an abbreviation that did not match one of the 50 states or U.S. territories, according to records provided by the Federal Election Commission.

Most of those contributors did identify themselves as living abroad in foreign cities. Under federal law, foreign citizens cannot make political contributions, but U.S. citizens living abroad can.

The Republican National Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Monday asking for an investigation of Obama's foreign contributions, among other things.

The FEC on Monday provided The Associated Press with a spread sheet of potential overseas donors that did not include contributors who left their state designation blank. As a result, the list was incomplete.

The $3.3 million total does not include donors who have given less than $200 and whose contributions do not have to be itemized. Some of that money could also have come from overseas. About half of Obama's $455 million in contributions so far are unitemized. The campaign does not identify those donors. Republican John McCain's campaign lists all his donors, even those who give less than $200, on his Web site.

The Obama campaign has begun to request passport numbers from donors to verify their citizenship.

'OBAMA NATION' AUTHOR DEPORTED

NAIROBI, Kenya — The American author of a controversial book accusing Barack Obama of seething with "black rage" and of being unfit for the U.S. presidency was kicked out of Kenya yesterday.

The deportation of Jerome Corsi came just hours before he was to launch his book in a country where the U.S. Democratic candidate for president is wildly popular.

Corsi, who wrote "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," was detained at immigration headquarters in Nairobi for not having a work permit before being ordered to leave Kenya, said Joseph Mumira, head of criminal investigations at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Corsi was scheduled to leave on an evening flight to London, Mumira said.

A spokesman for Obama said the campaign had no comment on the deportation.

In the past, the Obama campaign has called Corsi a bigot peddling rehashed lies to hurt Obama in the U.S. presidential race against Republican Sen. John McCain.

Obama's late father, whom he barely knew, was a Kenyan economist and the candidate is considered by many here as a "son of the soil."

POLITICAL FAMILIES GO BACK TO 1634

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are not the only political odd couple who share a family tree. Sarah Palin is linked in her lineage to Franklin Roosevelt. She also has a connection with Princess Diana.

Roosevelt, the Depression-era Democratic president, is a distant cousin of Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, according to genealogists at Ancestry.com.

Roosevelt is Palin's ninth cousin once removed. Their common ancestor is Rev. John Lothrop, who came to Massachusetts in 1634.

PALIN'S PER DIEM PAY UNDER REVIEW

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's practice of charging the state when she stays in her home must be reviewed to determine if she should pay taxes on the payments, state Finance Director Kim Garnero said yesterday.

Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, released two years' worth of tax returns last week that did not list the per diem payments she received since becoming Alaska governor in December 2006. She collected nearly $17,000 during that period for 312 nights spent in her Wasilla home about an hour's drive from Anchorage, according to state travel records.

Palin has relied on the state's calculation of her taxable income, reported in her annual income statements known as W-2s, said Roger Olsen, a Washington, D.C., tax lawyer asked by the Palins to review their tax returns.