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Abramoff Gets 4 Years in Prison
A federal judge sentenced Jack Abramoff to four years in prison today for corrupting lawmakers and their staff, swindling Indian tribes and cheating on his taxes.
Abramoff has been serving time since November 2006 for defrauding investors in a casino boat venture, but today's sentence would not count that time, meaning that Abramoff could serve until 2012. That's more than even prosecutors asked for.
While a top lobbyist in the 90s and early 00s, Abramoff ran an elaborate favor system for Republican lawmakers and officials involving free meals at his restaurant, sports and event tickets, hundred-thousand-dollar junkets and sometimes cash. He pleaded guilty to a public corruption scheme, along with defrauding his tribal clients and tax evasion.
Breaking on the Web: September 4, P.M. Edition
Updated 4:25 pm EDT
- Terror Claims Against N.J. Muslim Leader Rejected - AP
- Ex-Alaska AG: Palin’s Legal Strategy is Bogus - Zachary Roth, TPMmuckraker
- Taxpayers Off the Hook for GOP Convention Lawsuits - Ryan J. Foley, AP
- Judge: Oracle CEO Withheld E-Mail Evidence - Ben Worthen, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Stevens Wants to Show Witnesses’ Convictions - Bart Jansen, CQ
- Judge: Gov’t Must Produce Waterboarding Memos - AP
- Britain to Disclose Iraq Intel Memos - AP
- Palin’s National Guard Faces a Crisis in Personnel - Richard Lardner, AP
- Environmentalists, Palin Clash on Polar Bears, Climate - Dina Cappiello, AP
- Prosecutors File More Motions Against Stevens - The Hill ($)
- 3,400 Ballots Missing in Fla. Election - Kim Zetter, Wired
- Ethics Commission Clears Nev. Gov - Brendan Riley, AP
- Watchdog: Wisc. Gov Softened Stance After Cash Influx from Power Co. - AP
- More Turmoil Roils Administration Office as Top Deputy is Fired - Robert Brodsky, Government Executive
- Labor Dept. Leaves Whistleblowers Dangling - Jennifer Levitz, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Poorly Maintained Power Lines Blamed for Wildfires - Randal C. Archibold, New York Times
- Fire Retardant Chemicals Found in Toddlers’ Blood - Liz Szabo, USA Today
- Bone Graft Product Linked to Surgery Problems - David Armstrong and Thomas M. Burton, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Study: Vaccine Not Linked to Autism - Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post
- Chemical in Plastic Is Connected to Health Problems in Monkeys - Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
- Breakthrough in DNA Testing Prompts Privacy Concerns - David Ewing Duncan, Portfolio
- Ex-Prof Guilty of Passing Military Data to China, Iran - Duncan Mansfield , AP
In the Eye of the Storm
Editor's note: This story was originally published Tuesday on Salon.
When residents of New Orleans began drowning three years ago, the city's director of Emergency Medical Services, Jullette Saussy, faced a devastating crisis. Radios failed. Ambulances were trapped. She needed boats and high-water vehicles to respond to the increasingly frantic 911 calls from people threatened by the rising waters.
Saussy and other city, state and federal officials vowed the next time would be different. So as Hurricane Gustav bore down on New Orleans this weekend, I went with Saussy to the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the city's designated evacuation point, to get a first-hand look at how much progress had been made.
At 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night, two hours after Gustav's first squall drenched New Orleans, she and other first responders had already spent days helping the city brace for a long, ugly fight with the storm.
The city's mandatory evacuation program had ended hours earlier, but Saussy was receiving reports that several dozen of the city's sick and elderly were still stranded in their homes. They and their families were calling 911, insisting they had registered for the city's special needs transport program, but that help had never arrived. The program was officially over, but Saussy and her EMS teams pledged to keep it going.
‘Troopergate’: E-mails Emerge, Palin Slow-Rolls Investigation
All eyes were focused last night on Gov. Sarah Palin's speech at the convention. But in the background -- page A27 to be exact -- details have continued to drip out about so-called Troopergate.
Palin, of course, has been accused of firing Alaska's top cop for refusing to do the governor's personal bidding and fire a trooper who was involved in a nasty divorce with Palin's sister. (For those looking to catch up, here's a backgrounder we've done.)
The governor has always denied that she pressured anybody or knew that anybody on her staff did. Today's Washington Post (on page A27) has some e-mails from Palin that complicate the governor's story.
Palin sent the e-mails in 2007 to Walter Monegan, Alaska's top law enforcement official whose firing set off the scandal. She wrote that Mike Wooten, her former brother-in-law, "continues to harass and intimidate his ex. -- even after being slapped with a restraining order that was lifted when his supervisors intervened."
Breaking on the Web: September 4, A.M. Edition
- Nearly 300 Protesters Arrested at GOP Convention - Martiga Lohn and Jon Krawczynski, AP
- GOP Convention Protesters Charged with Terrorism - P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
- Abramoff Admits Fault, but Says He’s ‘Not a Bad Man’ - Matt Apuzzo, AP
- Ex-Official Faults Politics for Rendition of Canadian to Syria - Ian Austen, New York Times
- Reuters Freelance Photographer Detained in Iraq - AP
- U.S. ‘Mistaken Fire’ Kills 6 in Iraqi Security Forces - Amit R. Paley, Washington Post
- GAO Report: Radiation Detector Plan Falls Short - Robert O’Harrow Jr., Washington Post
- $55.6 Million Awarded in Fatal Marine Helicopter Crash - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
- Former KBR Exec Pleads Guilty to Bribery - Clifford Krauss, New York Times
- Justice Asked to Weigh Charges in Utah Mine Deaths - AP
- Heavy Trucks Barred from Using Big Dig Bridge - AP
- Oil-Supply Data Probed for Manipulation - Ann Davis, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Gonzales’ Best Defense is Memory Lapse - Lara Jakes Jordan, AP
- Warning over Bassinet Safety Is Widened - Melanie Trottman, Wall Street Journal ($)
- Gov’t Report: HHS Secretary’s Office Doesn’t Use Discounted Airfares - Elizabeth Newell, Government Executive
- Scientists: Shrinking Arctic Ice Shelf is Sign of Global Warming - AP
- Study: Strongest Storms Grow Stronger - Kenneth Chang, New York Times
- Gas Prices Confine Sick People - Emily Bazar, USA Today
Breaking on the Web: Special Palin Edition
- Palin E-Mails Show Intense Interest in Trooper’s Penalty - James V. Grimaldi and Karl Vick, Washington Post
- Fired Alaskan Official: Palin Hasn’t Been Truthful - Brian Ross, Joseph Rhee and Len Tepper, ABC News
- Palin Aide Bails on Talking to Legislature - Lisa Demer, Anchorage Daily News
- Focus Turns to Palin Record - Wall Street Journal ($)
- Palin’s Record Shows Little Foreign Experience - Bryan Bender and Sasha Issenberg , Boston Globe
- Some of Palin’s Remarks Stretch the Truth - Anchorage Daily News
- Palin’s Record Tarnishes ‘Reformer’ Image - Kate Klonick and Zachary Roth, TPMmuckraker
- Official: Palin Never Issued an Order to Alaska Guard - George Bryson, Anchorage Daily News
- Palin Pressured Librarian on Book Ban - Rindi White, Anchorage Daily News
Report: Kilpatrick to Step Down, Plead Guilty, Serve 4 Months
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has struck a plea deal with prosecutors and will step down.
What's not exactly clear yet are the terms: Kilpatrick's case is complicated, involving the perjury and obstruction of justice case brought by city prosecutors and the assault case brought by state prosecutors. But from recent reports about the plea negotiations, it seems likely that Kilpatrick will in fact do jail time. We'll have more in a bit.
Update: Here’s the deal:
The deal calls for Kilpatrick to plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice by committing perjury, agreeing to serve four months in jail, pay up to $1 million in restitution, and serve five years' probation. He also agreed not to run for office during that five-year span.
The deal accounts for both the city and state case and calls for Kilpatrick to step down later this month.
Judge Refuses To Block Bank CEO’s Retirement Payout WYFF4.com, 11/20
Treasury Probes Bank Payout to Ex-CEO The Street, 11/20
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