Free Republic

CHICAGO - A former high-ranking aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley was sentenced Monday to nearly four years in prison for covering up illegal patronage hiring at City Hall. "The offense is corruption — corruption with a capital C," U.S. District Judge David H. Coar told 43-year-old Robert Sorich. "For people to owe their jobs to political advancement rather than performance on the job stinks." The judge added: "I don't give a hoot whether this has been going on for 200 years — it still stinks." Sorich and two other men were convicted July 6 in a scheme to make...

WASHINGTON - A former congressional chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, pleaded guilty Monday in the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal, admitting he participated in a conspiracy to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress with trips, free tickets and meals. Neil Volz, 35, admitted that he engaged in the conspiracy for more than four years, both while he was Ney's chief of staff and after he left to go to work for Abramoff. Volz's admissions during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle are part of a widening influence...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Patricia Clarey, who resigned as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff last month, was appointed Thursday to the State Personnel Board. Clarey, who served former Gov. Pete Wilson and worked in President Reagan's administration, was Schwarzenegger's chief of staff since he took office in 2003. She was replaced with Susan Kennedy, a Democratic activist whose appointment sparked an angry backlash from some Republicans. The personnel board arbitrates disputes between state workers and managers. It also is charged with ensuring that the state's employment system is free from political patronage pressures. Clarey's appointment is subject to confirmation by...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge dismissed a criminal charge against the former finance director of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 election campaign who is charged with filing false campaign statements. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dropped one of four charges in an indictment against David Rosen, ruling Wednesday that prosecutors used an invoice from a Hollywood gala as the basis for two counts. In January, Rosen pleaded innocent to charges of filing fictitious campaign reports with the Federal Election Commission that understated contributions for an August 2000 fund-raiser that honored then-President Bill Clinton. Prosecutors said the event...

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A former aide to U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing more than $400,000 in campaign funds partly to buy gifts for men he met through the Internet. Roger Blevins III, 34, a former assistant campaign treasurer for Biden, was sentenced in federal court Thursday after pleading guilty last year to two charges, including interstate transportation of stolen property. Assistant U.S. Attorney April Byrd said Blevins wanted to play "sugar daddy" to three Florida men he met online. Prosecutors alleged he made almost two dozen improper transfers or withdrawals...