Committee continuing investigation of Jackson Jr.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it will continue its investigation into allegations Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. or someone acting on his behalf offered to raise campaign cash for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for a Senate appointment in 2008.

The committee also released an initial report from the Office of Congressional Ethics that said there was "probable cause" to believe that Jackson either directed a third party or had knowledge of a third party's effort to convince the since-convicted Blagojevich to appoint Jackson Jr. in exchange for campaign cash.

The report, originally compiled in August 2009, also said there is "substantial reason to believe" Jackson Jr. violated federal law by using his congressional staff to mount a "public campaign" to secure a Senate appointment.

The report had not been released previously and the ethics committee had delayed its investigation because the Justice Department was conducting a criminal investigation that led to Blagojevich's conviction on a series of corruption charges including efforts to sell a Senate appointment. The Justice Department recently withdrew its request for the committee to defer its investigation, indicating it is no longer actively investigating Jackson.

The ethics committee had previously said it would determine by Friday what course its investigation would take involving Jackson, a Democrat and son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

The younger Jackson responded to the committee's decision to extend the investigation with a statement pledging to cooperate and reiterating that his efforts to be appointed to the Senate were above-board.

"I have said from the beginning that I publicly and transparently sought to have the Governor of Illinois appoint me to fulfill the final two years of then-Senator Barack Obama's term in the U.S. Senate," he said. "I did nothing illegal, unethical or inappropriate in that pursuit and I believe that is what the Ethics Committee will conclude at the end of this process."

Jackson also released a letter from his attorneys, who wrote that there is no basis for the committee's investigation and urged the panel to "close its investigation of this matter."

"Although Congressman Jackson was interested in the appointment ... he was largely focused on his own re-election and Obama's campaign," Reid H. Weingarten and Brian M. Heberlig said in the letter.

Friday's announcement means the committee will continue looking into allegations involving Blagojevich and whether Jackson inappropriately used government resources to angle for an appointment. It voted unanimously to continue its inquiry and set no timetable for a conclusion.

The committee said in a statement that continuing the investigation "does not itself indicate that any violation occurred."

The detailed 2009 report from the Office of Congressional Ethics, released with the statement, indicates investigators have suspicions Jackson had knowledge of efforts to persuade Blagojevich to appoint him to the Senate. The report names a likely third party, Raghuveer Nayak.

"There is probable cause to believe that Representative Jackson either 1) directed a third party, most likely Mr. Raghuveer Nayak to offer to raise money ... or 2) had knowledge that Nayak would likely make such an offer once Rep. Jackson authorized him to advocate on his behalf with Gov. Blagojevich."

The report said investigating these claims was stymied by the fact that Blagojevich, Nayak and another fundraiser, Rajinder Bedi, have declined to cooperate with the investigation.

The report also concludes, after interviews with Jackson Jr. and his staff, that there is substantial reason to believe that his staff based in both Chicago and Washington was used inappropriately in attempts to secure a Senate appointment.

The Office of Congressional Ethics cannot discipline members of the House and does not determine whether they are guilty. That is left to the ethics committee. The Office of Congressional Ethics does preliminary investigative work for the ethics committee. Its board members are not members of Congress.

Publication of the report and the committee's decision to continue its investigation could have political consequences for Jackson beyond whatever action the committee might take.

He will stand for reelection in 2012 in a rejiggered congressional district that has attracted a viable primary opponent, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson. A Democrat, Halvorson represented the new terrain in Jackson's district both in Congress and in the Illinois Legislature. She pounced on Friday's announcement and has indicated she will make Jackson's ethical issues a focus of her race.

"There we go," Halvorson said. "Another day where he's got to deal with ethics, distractions and his lawyers instead of constituents and this has been going on for over three years"

The 46-year-old Jackson was first elected to office in 1995. He has twice considered runs for mayor of Chicago and was widely seen as interested in an appointment to the Senate seat vacated by Obama when he was elected president in 2008.

_______

Associated Press Writer Deanna Bellandi in Chicago contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Fla. man charged with killing couple with bat (Providence Journal)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Russia's ruling party wary as nation votes (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russians cast their ballots with muted enthusiasm in parliamentary elections Sunday, a vote opinion polls suggest could reduce the strength of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party. Rival parties and election monitors, which have suffered from government crackdowns, alleged significant violations at the polls.

Although Putin and his United Russia party have dominated Russian politics for more than a decade, popular discontent appears to be growing with Putin's strongman style, widespread official corruption and the gap between ordinary Russians and the country's floridly super-rich.

United Russia holds a two-thirds majority in the outgoing State Duma. But a survey last month by the independent Levada Center polling agency indicated the party could get only about 53 percent of the vote in this election, depriving it of the number of seats necessary to change the constitution unchallenged.

Putin wants United Russia ? which many critics now deride as the "party of crooks and thieves" ? to do well in the parliamentary election to help pave the way for his return to the presidency in a vote now three months away. He previously served as president in 2000-2008.

He has warned that a parliament with a wide array of parties would lead to political instability and claimed that Western governments want to undermine the election. A Western-funded election-monitoring group has come under strong official pressure and its Web site was incapacitated by hackers on Sunday.

Only seven parties have been allowed to field candidates for parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups have been denied registration and barred from campaigning.

Several parties complained Sunday of extensive election violations aimed at boosting United Russia's vote count, including party observers being hindered in their work.

Communist chief Gennady Zyuganov said his party monitors thwarted an attempt to stuff a ballot box at a Moscow polling station where they found 300 ballots already in the box before the start of the vote.

He said incidents of ballot-stuffing were reported at several other stations in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and other areas. In the southern city of Krasnodar, unidentified people posing as Communist monitors had shown up at polling stations and the real observers from the party weren't allowed in, Zyuganov said.

In Vladivostok, voters complained to police that United Russia was offering free food in exchange for promises to vote for the party. In St. Petersburg, an Associated Press photographer saw a United Russia emblem affixed to the curtains on a voting booth.

Golos, the country's only independent election-monitoring group, said that in the Volga River city of Samara observers and election commission members from opposition parties had been barred from verifying that the ballot boxes were properly sealed at all polling stations.

Many violations involve absentee ballots, Golos director Liliya Shibanova said. People with absentee certificates were being bused to cast ballots at multiple polling stations in so-called "cruise voting."

Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister during Putin's first presidential term, said he and other opposition activists who voted Sunday are under no illusion that their votes will be counted fairly.

"It is absolutely clear there will be no real count," he said. "The authorities created an imitation of a very important institution whose name is free election, that is not free and is not elections."

An interim report from an elections-monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe noted that "most parties have expressed a lack of trust in the fairness of the electoral process."

United Russia's dominance of politics has induced a grudging sense of impotence among many in the country of 143 million. In Vladivostok, voter Artysh Munzuk noted the contrast between the desire to do one's civic duty and the feeling that it doesn't matter.

"It's very important to come to the polling stations and vote, but many say that it's useless," said the 20-year-old university student.

There are around 110 million eligible voters in Russia and turnout in many areas was lower Sunday compared to the previous election. In several far eastern regions and in Siberia turnout varied between 40 to 48 percent with two hours to go until the polls closed.

A few dozen activists of the Left Front opposition group tried to stage an unsanctioned protest just outside Moscow's Red Square on Sunday, but were quickly dispersed by police, who detained about a dozen of them. Later in the evening, police said they arrested more than 100 other opposition demonstrators in the capital and about 70 in St. Petersburg when they attempted to hold an unauthorized rally.

The websites of Golos and Ekho Moskvy, a prominent, independent-minded radio station were down on Sunday. Both claimed the failures were due to denial-of-service hacker attacks.

"The attack on the site on election day is obviously connected to attempts to interfere with publication of information about violations," Ekho Moskvy editor Alexey Venediktov said in a Twitter post.

Golos, which is funded by U.S. and European grants, has come under massive official pressure in the past week after Putin accused Western governments of trying to influence the election and likened recipients of Western aid to Judas.

Shibanova, the Golos leader, said its hotline was flooded Sunday with autonomically made calls that effectively blocked it. Prior to the vote, many of the group's activists were visited by secret police, while Shibanova was held for 12 hours at an airport and forced to hand over her laptop.

On Friday, the group was fined the equivalent of $1,000 by a Moscow court for violating a law that prohibits publication of election opinion research for five days before a vote.

U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle said in his blog that he called the Golos head Saturday "to express my support for the work they have been doing, and convey the concern of the White House about the pressure they have been experiencing over the last week."

The group has compiled some 5,300 complaints of election-law violations ahead of the vote, most of which are linked to United Russia. Roughly a third of the complainants ? mostly government employees and students ? say employers and professors are pressuring them to vote for the party.

____

Lynn Berry, Nataliya Vasilyeva and Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111204/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_election

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Britney Spears' Changing Looks: Year by Year

As the pop tart turns 30 on Dec. 2, check out how her look has evolved during her rollercoaster life!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/britney-spears-photos-every-age/1-b-406934?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Abritney-spears-photos-every-age-406934

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George McGovern in stable condition after SD fall

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) ? Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was alert, comfortable and in stable condition at a South Dakota hospital Saturday after hitting his head during a fall, hospital officials said.

The 89-year-old former U.S. senator was taken by helicopter to a Sioux Falls hospital late Friday after falling outside Dakota Wesleyan University's McGovern Library in Mitchell. A school official said McGovern hit his head on the pavement about two hours before he was scheduled to appear on a live C-SPAN cable television interview at the library.

"Senator McGovern is alert and resting comfortably but, as with any head injury, it is important that we observe the situation closely," Dr. Michael Elliott, chief medical officer at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, said in a written statement Saturday.

The statement said McGovern was in stable condition, though no other details were released. The hospital said his family was asking for privacy.

The former South Dakota senator has lived in St. Augustine, Florida, since 2008 but also has a home in Mitchell.

Friends and faculty who had gathered at the library for the C-SPAN taping said McGovern fell at about 5:15 p.m. Friday. McGovern was "bleeding profusely" but was conscious and talking as he was taken from the university by ambulance, said Donald Simmons, dean of the College of Public Service.

McGovern's daughter, Ann, was with her father before he was taken to the Sioux Falls hospital. She said Friday that the injury was unrelated to her father's hospitalization in late October for exhaustion.

University President Robert Duffett said McGovern had been excited to take part in the C-SPAN program "The Contenders," which focuses on failed presidential candidates who changed the landscape of American politics. McGovern lost his 1972 presidential bid against President Richard Nixon, who eventually resigned amid the Watergate scandal.

Duffett said he had coffee with McGovern just hours before the fall and that McGovern was returning to the campus to grab dinner with faculty before the interview.

McGovern was entering a side door when he "tripped and fell and hit his head hard," Duffett said. "It's just one of those things. He's made that walk many times before."

McGovern has an office inside the library, which is named for him and his late wife, Eleanor.

C-SPAN went ahead and aired the segment on McGovern, with program host Amity Shlaes interviewing political experts and journalists to analyze McGovern's presidential campaign. Shlaes said on air that McGovern had taken "a spill" and wasn't able to be on the program as planned, but she said he was fine.

McGovern was elected to his first of three terms in the Senate in 1962. Though he later lost the presidential race to Nixon, he continued to distinguish himself during his political career and was a lifelong advocate for U.S. and world food programs.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-03-McGovern%20Hospitalized-Fall/id-c16e11407b8f423dbd34cb6e4aad32c6

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Senate clears way for passage of big defense bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Senate Democrats and Republicans are pushing for harsher sanctions against Iran's Central Bank as fears of Tehran developing a nuclear weapon outweigh concerns that any step would drive up oil prices and hit Americans at the gas pump.

The Senate on Wednesday weighed whether to add the sanctions measure to a massive, $662 billion defense bill that moved closer to passage. A vote on the sanctions was likely Thursday.

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted 88-12 to limit debate on the legislation, and looked to wrap up the bill by week's end.

The legislation would authorize funds for military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and national security programs in the Energy Department. The bill is $27 billion less than what President Barack Obama requested for the budget year beginning Oct. 1 and $43 billion less than what Congress provided to the Pentagon this year.

Tougher sanctions against Iran have widespread support in Congress, reflecting concerns not only for U.S. national security but ally Israel's as well. Last week, the Obama administration announced a new set of penalties against Iran, including identifying for the first time Iran's entire banking sector as a "primary money laundering concern." This requires increased monitoring by U.S. banks to ensure that they and their foreign affiliates avoid dealing with Iranian financial institutions.

But lawmakers pressed ahead with even tougher penalties despite reservations by the administration.

Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., offered an amendment to the defense bill that would target foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank of Iran, barring them from opening or maintaining correspondent operations in the United States. It would apply to foreign central banks only for transactions that involve the sale or purchase of petroleum or petroleum products.

The sanctions on petroleum would only apply if the president determines there is a sufficient alternative supply and if the country with jurisdiction over the financial institution has not significantly reduced its purchases of Iranian oil.

Lawmakers cited the recent International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran is suspected of clandestine work that is "specific to nuclear weapons," its alleged role in the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States and the attack on the British Embassy in Tehran.

"One of the greatest threats to our nation and our ally Israel is Iran," Menendez said, insisting that the United States must take steps to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

"We cannot, we must not and we will not let that happen," Menendez said, "but the clock is ticking."

Kirk said the amendment was clear: "If you do business with the Central Bank of Iran, you cannot do business with the United States."

The administration harbors concerns about the enforcement of the measure, which has more than 80 backers in the Senate. Denis McDonough, White House deputy national security adviser, held a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting with several senators on Tuesday, including Kirk and Menendez.

After the session, Kirk sought to allay concerns about rising gasoline prices.

"I've had detailed conversations with Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, who described a great willingness by Saudi Arabia to increase (oil) production," Kirk told reporters.

A vote on the amendment was expected on Thursday.

The Senate approved dozens of amendments by voice vote on Wednesday. Among them:

?Linking funds for the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Fund to a requirement that the Obama administration certify to Congress that Pakistan is trying to counter improvised explosive devices.

?Calling on the president to devise a plan, with input from the military and NATO, for accelerating the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

?Seeking an urgent intelligence assessment of Libya's stockpile of about 20,000 portable anti-aircraft missiles and the threat they pose to the United States and its allies.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-30-Congress-Defense%20Bill/id-2df164c7dbca424fa9f760024dc3d5e0

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13 federal agencies to boost research on the arts (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The National Endowment for the Arts is forming a task force of 13 federal agencies to foster more research on how the arts affect human development at all stages of life.

The task force being announced Wednesday includes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and others.

The arts endowment says there are major gaps in federally sponsored research on the arts, including how the arts affect the young and old and people with illnesses, injuries or disabilities.

The task force will identify joint research funding across the agencies and coordinate information about funding for researchers of the arts, health and education.

The NEA is announcing the task force Wednesday morning during a webinar.

___

http://www.arts.gov

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_en_ot/us_federal_arts_research

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