Free Republic

MEMPHIS — Federal court jurors watched a video Wednesday showing a state senator picking up a stack of $100 bills put before him by an aide and an FBI informant. The video clip was played at the trial of former state Sen. Roscoe Dixon’s trial on bribery and extortion charges stemming from the Tennessee Waltz corruption investigation. On the video secretly recorded in February 2004, Dixon aide Barry Myers lays out $6,000 from informant Tim Willis in stacks of $1,000 each on a coffee table. Dixon, sitting on a sofa beside the table, makes small talk with Myers and Willis...

Alexandria, Va. -- A former aide to Rep. William Jefferson was sentenced Friday to eight years in federal prison for his role in a bribery scandal. Brett Pfeffer, 37, is cooperating in an ongoing probe and may be eligible for a sentence reduction afterward, a prosecutor said. He pleaded guilty in January to helping broker deals between the Louisiana Democrat and a northern Virginia investment executive for whom Pfeffer worked. That executive has not been identified in court documents. "I've gone over in my head 10 million times why I didn't look him in the eye and say no," Pfeffer...

Senate hopeful says his style of politics is about progress, responsibility - Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful Harold Ford Jr. was in Knoxville Saturday night to energize the party faithful - and to urge all voters to consider what he calls a new approach to politics. That approach, he said in an interview before delivering the keynote address at the annual Truman Day Dinner, is to move the country forward while leaving behind old political labels of "left" and "right." "There is no Republican or Democratic way to pay $2.90 for a gallon of gasoline, or to turn on the news...

MEMPHIS — The fight over Ophelia Ford's removal from the state Senate isn't over, even though a majority of senators voted for it, a federal judge said Tuesday. In granting a request from Ford to block appointment of an interim replacement by the Shelby County Commission, Judge Bernice Donald said she must decide if the Senate's decision to remove Ford was proper. "There may be no vacancy for the county to fill," Donald said. Ford won a special election to the Senate by 13 votes last year, but senators decided in April to overturn those results, citing evidence of two...

The latest television advertising by U.S. Senate candidates Bob Corker and Harold Ford Jr. have prompted critics to charge that one is a "hypocrite" and the other a "copycat." U.S. Rep. Ford's 30-second spot, which has been airing statewide, focuses on high gas prices at a time when "big oil made $100 billion in profits." "No more tax breaks for oil companies when drivers need the break. Let's invest in alternative fuels that help Tennessee. If you're fed up every time you fill up, send a new generation to the Senate," says Ford, a Democrat, in the ad. Dan Ronayne...

Chicago -- Federal prosecutors say a newly discovered witness admits that on orders from Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief, he deleted a computer index suspected of containing politically sensitive hiring records. The witness, an unnamed city computer operator, claims that patronage chief Robert Sorich and another man joked about throwing a hard drive into Lake Michigan, prosecutors said Tuesday. Prosecutors portrayed the alleged incident as an example of how Sorich and other city officials sought to thwart attempts by federal agents to investigate illegal patronage hiring. The story was outlined in court papers filed Tuesday by the government...

On Tuesday, Ford's attorney filed a lawsuit in federal court. Ford and several District 29 voters are asking for a judge to give Ford her district 29 Senate seat back. They're going after everyone from the Lieutenant Governor to the entire Shelby County Commission. The lawsuit says in a nutshell that the senate broke the law when it threw out the District 29 election. Last week, 26 state senators said Ford should be removed from office because there were too many lingering questions about the special election that put her in her seat. Today, a new lawsuit was filed saying...

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Senate voted 26-6 on Wednesday to unseat Sen. Ophelia Ford, accepting the recommendation of a committee that found her election "incurably uncertain." The Senate, led by its GOP majority, voided the Memphis Democrat’s 13-vote victory over Republican Terry Roland in a September special election after a federal judge on Tuesday declined to intervene. An investigative committee, which has been at work since late last year, recommended Ford be ousted after finding the election results were "incurably uncertain" because of 12 improper ballots. Two were cast in the names of voters and others came from felons and...

The remainder of the top four U.S. Senate candidates disclosed their first quarter donations and showed today that Democratic U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. collected about the same amount as the three leading Republicans combined. The last Democrat to win a Tennessee U.S. Senate race was Al Gore Jr. in 1990. Ford raised $1.46 million in the first quarter. The three Republicans together had $1.54 million: Bob Corker, $772,000; Van Hilleary, $412,000, and Ed Bryant, $355,000. Ford's finance chairman, Charles Robert Bone, today credited Ford's strong quarter to momentum and talking about the most important U.S. concerns where most Americans...

NASHVILLE — The Senate should void a special election that put a Memphis Democrat into office, a committee looking into claims of voting irregularities recommended Thursday. Sen. Ophelia Ford was certified the 13-vote winner of the September election, but it was immediately challenged by the Republican candidate. A special Senate committee looking into the case voted 4-1 Thursday that there was enough evidence to conclude her margin of victory was in doubt because of ballots cast in the names of dead voters, felons and people who didn’t live in the district. The matter now goes to the full Senate, which...

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. told a crowd of about 150 supporters in Knoxville Tuesday that the country's long-term security depends on reducing dependency on foreign oil. On the second day of a four-day statewide bus tour to formally announce his bid for the U.S. Senate, Ford said the United States should invest in new technology, hybrid vehicles and alternative fuels. Ford, a Democrat speaking to the party faithful at the Foundry in World's Fair Park, said party affiliation means less to voters than the ability to "get things done." "Running for the senate isn't about left and right anymore,...

CHATTANOOGA -- A federal fraud case against a real estate appraiser shows state Sen. Jerry Cooper used political connections in a borrowing scheme that included inflating the value of the lawmaker's struggling lumber mill, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble said in an opening statement that the appraisal helped the buyers of Cooper's lumber mill get a $1.7 million bank loan and later an equipment loan of more than $400,000 from the state. Humble said the indicted appraiser, James B. Passons of McMinnville, had a "limited role" in a scheme where Cooper asked Lt. Gov. John...

acramento -- Lawmakers are poised to vote on a bill that would allow financial information in divorce proceedings to be kept secret, legislation that opponents say is tailored to help Ron Burkle, a Los Angeles billionaire and political contributor who has fought to keep information about his divorce under wraps. Burkle and the bill's author say the measure has nothing to do with the high-profile split but is intended to help prevent identity theft and protect sensitive financial information. Opponents -- who include First Amendment advocates, judges and Burkle's ex-wife -- say the bill is unconstitutional and mirrors what Burkle...

Lt. Governor and Democrat Insurance Commissioner candidate, Cruz Bustamante is accepting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the industry he'll be expected, if elected, to regulate. This is in sharp contrast to both his Republican opponent, Steve Poizner and current Democratic Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, neither of whom accept contributions from the industry. Accepting insurance company money shows a coziness that is considered not consumer friendly and risky at the least, and potentially unethical for one pursuing an office that's supposed to be advocating for consumers. As previously reported by Workers' Comp Executive, Bustamante has accepted contributions...

TOKYO - Japan's opposition party suffered a fresh humiliation Friday when its leadership resigned en masse over a fake e-mail scandal, handing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi an uncontested grip on power in his last six months in office. The shakeup at the Democratic Party of Japan marks a new low for a party that was trounced in last September's elections. Party leader Seiji Maehara and his lieutenants stepped down after the party's credibility was torpedoed by one of its own lawmakers, who used a fraudulent e-mail in an apparent attempt to discredit Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. "I am sorry...

Sacramento -- Film director Rob Reiner resigned Wednesday as chairman of the state children's commission he helped create, and a Democratic lawmaker said he would ask state auditors to broaden an investigation to look at what he called "a potential pattern of coordination between a political agenda and the commission's work.'' Reiner and the First 5 California Children and Families Commission are under scrutiny for a publicly funded advertising campaign last year touting the benefits of preschool that partially coincided with Reiner's effort to gather signatures for a June ballot measure that would provide free preschool to all 4-year-olds. Lawmakers...

Democratic fund-raiser Harold Eugene Grooms of Cocke County has imported more than 400 kilograms of cocaine into East Tennessee and moved as much as $500,000 in cash at a time through one of his car lots in Newport, according to federal court records. Those stories - and more - from as many as seven confidential informants working with state and federal authorities helped trigger a recent string of search warrants that led to the identification of Grooms as a target in a long-running corruption probe centered in Cocke County, according to records made public in federal court. Grooms, 58, is...

SAN DIEGO -- Prosecutors hoped to secure the longest prison term ever for a congressman Friday at the sentencing of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress. Cunningham, a Republican who resigned last year in disgrace, accepted $2.4 million from defense contractors and others in exchange for steering government contracts their way. Prosecutors asked for the maximum — 10 years behind bars. The longest term ever meted out to a congressman was the eight years former Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, received in 2002 for taking payoffs. Cunningham's...

SAN DIEGO -- A defense attorney argued Friday that former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who was convicted of corruption on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, should be spared the maximum 10-year prison term sought by the prosecution. Cunningham, who resigned last year in disgrace after pleading guilty, was to be sentenced for accepting $2.4 million from defense contractors and others in exchange for steering government contracts their way. His bribes included a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, homes, travel, meals, Persian rugs valued at $40,000 each and various antique furnishings. "We submit that a six-year prison term cannot be...

L.A. Dem denies work for Anschutz's company improper. Sacramento -- One of the nation's largest owners of professional sports and entertainment properties paid $20,000 in consulting fees to a state senator while the lawmaker pushed legislation aimed at providing more public assistance in financing such venues, records show. Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, said the December payment from Anschutz Entertainment Group was for legal services unrelated to his bill. A spokesman for the company, which owns the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Examiner, said that Murray, who is an attorney, helped prepare a bid on a...