The legal troubles of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) began last February, when an Arizona grand jury charged the congressman with using his post to influence a federal land deal benefiting a former business partner, and indicted him on 35 counts including conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. Yesterday, it slapped eight more charges on him, alleging that he had led a criminal insurance enterprise and lied on his tax returns. Renzi, who steps down from Congress in January, pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in March. (Congressional Quarterly)
Guantanamo detainees are held in conditions that have led to war crimes charges elsewhere, and they continue to have psychological problems even when returned to their home country, charges a report issued this week by two human rights organizations. The U.S. has released 520 people from the prison, many of whom say they were mistakenly rounded up after being sold to American forces. 250 detainees remain. The report urges the incoming Obama administration to investigate the camp’s activities. (Reuters/McClatchy)
Drilling for natural gas, a policy being touted as a means of reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, may contaminate water supplies with unsafe levels of chemicals like benzene, a compound that can cause leukemia, according to an investigation by Pro Publica. The drilling process, pioneered by Dick Cheney’s former company Haliburton, uses water pressure and chemicals to break rocks and release the gas. It was exempted by Congress from the Safe Water Act after a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency study declared it safe. (ProPublica)
The anticipated changeover in Washington has “touched off a mini-boom on K Street,” reports the Washington Post, as lobbyists scramble to cultivate relationships with the capitol’s new Democratic power brokers. As a result, Democratic lobbyists are now in high demand, and GOPers are on the outs. And according to one observer, the Obama transition team’s rules for lobbyists could make it easier for non-profits to be heard. (Washington Post/CNN)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has hired another accountant to order his personal finances for a coming ethics committee investigation. Rangel, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee which writes our tax laws, has been accused of failing to pay taxes on rent from a Dominican Republic vacation home, and owning several rent-controlled apartments in the same Harlem building, in violation of state law. In September, a forensic accountant, asked by Rangel to prepare a report on his finances found additional discrepancies. Rangel maintains the errors were honest mistakes. (AP)
A dramatic expansion of the Air Marshal Service after 9/11 resulted in the hiring of unreliable — and sometimes criminal — agents, a ProPublica investigation has found. Dozens of marshals have been charged with crimes that include drug smuggling, helping human traffickers, and sexual abuse of a young boy. Between 2001 and 2008, the number of officers, who are supposed to enforce air safety, jumped from 33 to about 4,000. (ProPublica)
The Federal Aviation Administration repeatedly hid safety errors at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, says a Transportation Department report, the second one in three years to come to that conclusion. FAA managers misclassified mistakes to shift blame from air traffic controllers onto pilots. (ABC News)
