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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon traded jeans and a light brown sweater for a khaki green prison uniform – and a once promising political career for a serial number on Tuesday. At his sentencing last month, his attorneys asked a federal judge to allow the felon to spend his birthday and the coming holidays with his wife and children in Charlotte. Instead, Cannon kicked off his 44-month sentence just before noon Tuesday. Cannon entered prison when he stepped out of a black SUV in front of Federal Correctional Institution Morgantown and checked in with the guards. He was...

**SNIP** While Cannon dodged jail for now, his appearance in court continued a 366-day free-fall for one of the city’s longest-serving officials, who first joined the City Council in 1993. On Nov. 6, 2013, Cannon was elected mayor, jubilantly thanking voters for helping him realize a “life goal.” He was arrested in March, charged with accepting more than $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents. He pleaded guilty in June to a corruption charge and was sentenced by Whitney on Oct. 14. At the time, Cannon’s attorneys asked that their client be admitted to a prison alcohol-treatment program.

Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was stripped of his right to vote in October when he was sentenced to 44 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to felony corruption charges. But just over two weeks later, Cannon cast a ballot in North Carolina's midterm elections. And the vote, a violation of Cannon's bond, has again landed the former mayor in hot water. "Let's cut to the chase: He shouldn't have done that, and we're going to talk to him tomorrow," Greg Forrest, chief of the U.S. Probation Office in Charlotte, told the Charlotte Observer on Tuesday.

Has Nancy Pelosi seen a newspaper lately? (Pro tip, hon: Like the Obamacare monstrosity, you have to read it to find out what's in it.) I'd love to see her face in the wake of the veritable epidemic of Democratic corruption now sweeping the country. Pelosi's blink count must be off the charts. I'm going to make it easy on Pelosi and put all of the latest cases in one handy rogue's gallery reference list. But let's not be naive. It's clear to me that the Barack Obama/Eric Holder DOJ is clearing the decks before the midterms. Prediction: The FBI's...

Three Democratic lawmakers were either arrested or had their office raided Wednesday by the FBI. Two of the Democrats, including Charlotte, N.C. Mayor Patrick Cannon, were charged in connection with FBI stings that caught them allegedly taking bribes from undercover agents. Coupled with an FBI raid that led to the resignation of a prominent Democratic lawmaker in Rhode Island this past weekend, four Democrats have recently come under the FBI’s radar. Here are the four: New York state assemblyman The FBI raided Democratic New York Assemblyman William Scarborough’s Albany office Wednesday morning and also took papers from his office in...

On April 1, Washington Mayor Vincent Gray was denied a second term, defeated in the primary by upstart city councilwoman Muriel Bowser. The beginning of the end came on March 10, when U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen struck a plea bargain with a wealthy businessman who confessed he'd spent $668,000 on an illegal "shadow campaign" to fund get-out-the-vote efforts that helped Gray win the mayoral office in 2010. So the corrupt mayor of America's most important city is thrown out. A political scandal? The same networks that were utterly breathless over the local story of Gov. Chris Christie's aides slowing traffic...

A major political scandal unraveled in Charlotte Wednesday as Patrick Cannon resigned as Charlotte’s mayor after federal investigators arrested him on bribery and corruption charges. Documents outline how agents said the mayor abused his power for years.

Less than six months on the job, the mayor of Charlotte was arrested Wednesday and accused of accepting more than $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen who wanted to do work with North Carolina's largest city. Mayor Patrick Cannon, a 47-year-old Democrat who rose from the city's public housing projects to become a successful businessman and politician, faces federal theft and bribery charges. Cannon accepted more than $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and the use of a luxury apartment as bribes and solicited more than $1 million more, according to a criminal complaint....

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Less than six months on the job, the mayor of Charlotte was arrested Wednesday and accused of accepting more than $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen who wanted to do work with North Carolina's largest city. Mayor Patrick Cannon, a 47-year-old Democrat who rose from the city's public housing projects to become a successful businessman and politician, faces federal theft and bribery charges. Cannon solicited and accepted more than $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and the use of a luxury apartment as bribes, according to a criminal complaint. If...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The mayor of North Carolina's largest city has been arrested on public corruption charges. U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said Wednesday that Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon is facing theft and bribery charges. Tompkins says Cannon solicited and accepted bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers who wanted to do business in Charlotte. According to the criminal complaint, Cannon is accused of accepting bribes from the agents on five separate occasions. On the most recent occasion, on February 21,2014, Cannon allegedly accepted $20,000 in cash in the mayor's office. He's also accused of accepting from the...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested Wednesday by FBI agents for alleged violations of federal public corruption laws, announced Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. The federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court charged Cannon, 47, with theft and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, honest services wire fraud and extortion under color of official right. [snip] The complaint and law enforcement affidavit allege that Cannon accepted the bribes from the undercover FBI agents on five separate occasions. On the last occasion, on Feb. 21 Cannon allegedly accepted $20,000 in...

Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested Wednesday on federal public corruption laws after a four-year investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte announced. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/03/26/4795861/charlotte-mayor-patrick-cannon.html#.UzMT-F4owY4#storylink=cpy