Former President Bill Clinton will disclose the names of over 200,000 donors to the William J. Clinton Foundation, which supports efforts to combat poverty, disease, and global warming, according to Democratic sources. Clinton has agreed to publicly reveal the names so that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, will be able to serve as Secretary of State. President-Elect Barack Obama insisted on this disclosure to avoid charges of conflict of interest due to foreign donations to the foundation. (New York Times)
Despite Barack Obama’s vows to avoid ties between his White House and the lobbying industry, Tom Daschle, his expected pick for Health and Human Services secretary, serves as a policy adviser for the lobbying firm, Alston & Bird, which represents interests in the health industry. Daschle has advised clients for the firm on health care issues, as the New York Times has also reported. The Obama team said Daschle’s prior work would not present a conflict of interest. (Politico)
Christine Beatty, who had been accused of having an affair with Detroit’s ex-mayor, pleaded guilty Monday to obstruction of justice during the investigation of their sex scandal. Beatty, who had served as chief of staff to Kwame Kilpatrick, now in jail, made a deal with prosecutors and will receive four months in prison. (AP)
Thirty members of the California state legislature have second jobs that sometimes influence their voting. California lawmakers, who are the highest paid in the country, sometimes vote to benefit their other line of work and in doing so their own finances. One example of that is State Sen. Dave Cox (R) who chairs the Senate Health Committee while also being the owner and president of an insurance company that deals with healthcare groups. Cox has voted repeatedly against a bill that would establish a state-run health insurance system. (LA Times)
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether two unnamed employees improperly reported investments or based personal securities trading on confidential information. The probe was prompted by an allegation of high volume trading on the part of one employee and will examine e-mails to determine if there was any misconduct. The investigation was revealed Friday in the SEC inspector’s semi-annual report.(Bloomberg News)
The Spanish government plans to investigate whether the previous government, run by the conservative Jose Maria Aznar, a close Bush ally, allowed the CIA to use Spanish air space or runways to transport captured terrorism suspects to Guantanamo Bay. Spain has been previously named by the Council of Europe as one of 14 European countries that were alleged to have helped the CIA transport suspects. (AP)
