Foley resigned from Congress earlier today after inappropriate and potentially illegal contacts with an underaged male page

Pelosi leads House to pass resolution ordering immediate ethics probe over Foley | RAW STORY \ Published: Friday September 29, 2006

The US House of Representatives has approved a resolution ordering an immediate ethics probe into the behavior of Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), Roll Call is reporting. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) offered the resolution, which was passed 410-0 in a late Friday session.

Foley resigned from Congress earlier today after inappropriate and potentially illegal contacts with an underaged male page were revealed. ...
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Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who chairs the page board, ... released a detailed statement Friday night.

"Congressman Foley told the Clerk and me [in 2005?!] that he was simply acting as a mentor to this former House Page and that nothing inappropriate had occurred. Nevertheless, we ordered Congressman Foley to cease all contact with this former House Page to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. We also advised him to be especially mindful of his conduct with respect to current and former House Pages, and he assured us he would do so. I received no subsequent complaints about his behavior nor was I ever made aware of any additional emails.

"It has become clear to me today, based on information I only now have learned, that Congressman Foley was not honest about his conduct." ...

FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers

D.C. corruption eruption | Daily News Exclusive | FBI forced to triple fraud probe squads to keep up | BY JAMES GORDON MEEK | DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers, the Daily News has learned.

For decades, only one squad in Washington handled corruption cases because the crimes were seen as local offenses handled by FBI field offices in lawmakers' home districts.

But in recent years, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and other abuses of power and privilege have prompted the FBI to assign 37 agents full-time to three new squads in an office near Capitol Hill.

FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus told The News yesterday that he wants to detail even more agents to the Washington field office for a fourth corruption squad because so much wrongdoing is being uncovered.

"Traditionally, a congressional bribery case might be conducted on Main Street U.S.A., but a lot of the stuff we're finding these days is here in Washington," said Burrus, who heads the FBI's criminal division. ...

Noe gets 27 months in prison; ex-coin dealer says he was pressured by Bush campaign ... Bush "Pioneer"

Noe gets 27 months in prison; ex-coin dealer says he was pressured by Bush campaign | By MIKE WILKINSON and STEVE EDER | BLADE STAFF WRITERS

Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser at the heart of Ohio’s biggest political scandal in a generation, claimed that pressure from the Bush-Cheney campaign led him to commit the campaign-finance crimes for which he was sentenced yesterday to federal prison.
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Judge Katz allowed Noe to remain free on bail because he still faces an Oct. 10 trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on charges he embezzled more than $3 million from coin funds he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Yesterday, however, Noe was punished for using friends and associates — including several current and former local Republican elected officials — to back his candidate for President. He would later become a Bush “Pioneer,” someone who raised more than $100,000 for the President. ...

Despite Pledges, Congress Clings to Pet Projects ... “It has been a very pathetic showing,”

Despite Pledges, Congress Clings to Pet Projects

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK |

Published: September 14, 2006 | New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — Nine months after Congressional leaders vowed to respond to several bribery scandals with comprehensive reforms, their pledges have come to next to nothing.

On Wednesday, leaders of the House prepared to take up a rule requiring individual lawmakers to sign their names to some of the pet projects they tuck into major tax and spending bills. As an internal House rule, the requirement would be in effect only until the end of the session, just a few weeks away.

While reform advocates denounced the proposal as nearly toothless, its bite was still too sharp for many in Congress. By Wednesday night the resolution appeared to be bogged down in a three-way squabble among Republicans, Democrats and the powerful members of the House Appropriations Committee.

“It has been a very pathetic showing,” said Mary Boyle, a spokeswoman for the reform group Common Cause. Even with one congressman in jail, a well-known lobbyist on the way and several other members and staff members still under investigation, she said: “The response to this has been nothing. It has been silence.” ...

Interior Official Assails Agency for Ethics Slide

Interior Official Assails Agency for Ethics Slide

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — The Interior Department’s chief official responsible for investigating abuses and overseeing operations accused the top officials at the agency on Wednesday of tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence.

“Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior,” charged Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Department’s inspector general, at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy.

“I have observed one instance after another when the good work of my office has been disregarded by the department,” he continued. “Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials — taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias — have been routinely dismissed with a promise ‘not to do it again.’ ”

The blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on what he called the Interior Department’s “bureaucratic bungling” of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990’s, mistakes that are now expected to cost the government billions of dollars but were covered up for six years. ...

instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence

Inquiry Suggests Marines Excised Files on Killings - New York Times: "By DAVID S. CLOUD | Published: August 18, 2006

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case. ...

Nicotine Up Sharply In Many Cigarettes ... [is an free and open market always best?]

Nicotine Up Sharply In Many Cigarettes: "Some Brands More Than 30% Stronger | By David Brown | Washington Post Staff Writer | Thursday, August 31, 2006; Page A01

The amount of nicotine in most cigarettes rose an average of almost 10 percent from 1998 to 2004, with brands most popular with young people and minorities registering the biggest increases and highest nicotine content, according to a new study.

Nicotine is highly addictive, and while no one has studied the effect of the increases on smokers, the higher levels theoretically could make new smokers more easily addicted and make it harder for established smokers to quit. ...