Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Friday that she owes more than $500,000 in legal fees to her Anchorage-based lawyer Thomas van Flein for work defending her on ten lawsuits, which she did not name. But Palin specified that the lawsuits start with “the politically motivated Troopergate probe,” in which Palin was accused of pressuring a state official to fire a state trooper embroiled in a personal dispute with the Palin family. Palin also said that she could not use public funds to pay her lawyer because “to do so could itself violate state law,” but she might establish a legal fund to help pay the debt. (Anchorage Daily News)
JP Morgan Chase will spend $138 million to buy two luxury jets and an aircraft hanger, even after receiving $25 billion in TARP funds, ABC News reports. The Gulfstream 650 jets are described by their manufacturer as the “fastest,” “widest,” and “most comfortable” aircraft ever designed. Though JP Morgan says that no TARP funds will be used, corporate watchdog Nell Minnow called this a “remarkably boneheaded decision” and “completely tone deaf.” (ABC News)
The civilian trial of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the alleged “enemy combatant” who was held by the Bush administration for five years without charge, will begin today in Peoria, Illinois. Due to the high-profile and controversial nature of the trial, the U.S. District courthouse has heightened security measures and increased law enforcement on site. The security precautions include banning cell phones and laptop computers and setting up overflow seats in a separate room hooked up to a closed circuit television. Al-Marri has been charged as an al-Qaeda operative who came to the United States to help foreign terrorists. (Peoria Journal Star)
A report by the an independent watch group indicated that the IRS significantly decreased the number of audits performed for individuals with incomes exceeding $1 million between 2007 and 2008. The IRS acknowledged that the number of audited individuals in this income bracket dropped 19 percent during that period but the TRAC report said that the correct number could be as much as 36 percent. This auditing decline occurred in the midst of the real estate boom, as the number of individuals who made more than $1 million increased sharply. The agency had previously vowed to crack down on the very wealthy. (Newsday)
Federal investigators react too slowly to whistleblowers reporting improper government activity, a report by the Project on Government Oversight found. Compiling the input from 64 federal federal investigative offices, POGO specifically criticized the accessibility and design of inspector general websites. Telephone services, said POGO, are also insufficiently staffed by college students who must also handle the telephones of private companies. (Washington Post)
