Senator’s Ties to Real Estate Draw Criticism: He has made millions as a title insurance executive, landlord and real estate developer in this college town, where the economy, despite trouble nationwide, is still growing nicely. Now, as a United States senator, with the mortgage mess fueling a national economic slowdown, Richard C. Shelby has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress. (New York Times)

Oil Lobby Reaches Out to Citizens Peeved at the Pump: Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image. (Washington Post)

Lawmakers Accused of Flouting Rules on Use of Staff: Democratic Reps. Jane Harman and Neil Abercrombie spent more than $2 million on their 2006 reelection campaigns but paid only $5,000 to campaign workers, according to campaign finance reports. (Washington Post)

NAM discloses member list: The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) disclosed certain member companies on Thursday after failing to win a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court. (The Hill)

Clinton introduces bill to post contractor violations on the Web: Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has introduced a bill that would force contractors to self-report criminal actions or government overpayments to agency inspectors general under the threat of potential disbarment or suspension. The misconduct would then be made publicly available on a searchable Web site. (GovExec)

Rep. Abercrombie questions ethics of ethics bill handling: Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) is challenging actions by his Democratic leaders and plans to ask the ethics committee to determine whether House rules were broken during a recent ethics vote. (The Hill)

A futile walk down Coconut Road?: The House agreed Wednesday to ask the Justice Department to investigate the now infamous Coconut Road earmark, but don’t hold your breath waiting for indictments. (Politico)

Young, Jefferson quiet as Coconut Road earmark nears vote in House: Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska) and William Jefferson (D-La.) are keeping mum on whether they will vote for a bill that includes language calling on the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate the notorious Coconut Road earmark when that measure comes to the House floor Wednesday. (The Hill)

Ethics Complaints Sheathed: Even though both Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently called for the ethics committee to investigate members of the other’s party — fighting words by any standard — neither took the next step of triggering an investigation, effectively pulling their punches. (Roll Call)

New disclosure reports lack clarity: The much-touted new lobbying disclosure reports are now available. But beware: They do little to make it easier to track the nation’s influence class. (Politico)

Lawmakers Want Hearing on Ties Between Sect, Defense Contracts: The Defense Department has contracted with three companies that are closely tied to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and some lawmakers want to know if money from those deals supported the sect, whose ranch was raided this month after allegations of child abuse. (Washington Post)

Pearce Made Millions on Sale: On Aug. 18, 2003, an executive from Key Energy Services testified during a House natural gas task force field hearing co-chaired by Reps. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) and Heather Wilson (R-N.M.). Six weeks later, Key Energy closed a deal to buy the assets of Pearce’s oil services company, apparently for $12 million, more than double the value of the company that Pearce had claimed on his financial disclosure forms. (Roll Call)

Friends of the Earmark Make Themselves Heard: The hottest document on Capitol Hill is an anonymous six-page white paper that defends, of all things, earmarks -- those much-maligned home-state projects that lawmakers shoehorn into spending bills. (Washington Post)

House Set to Consider Coconut Road Bill on Suspension Calendar: The controversial Coconut Road earmark investigation is set for a vote in the House this week, but there likely won’t be anything contentious about it. (Roll Call)

Young Cries Foul After Senate Calls for Investigation: Rep. Don Young says the Senate overstepped its authority when it voted to seek a federal investigation of an altered earmark. (Congressional Quarterly)

Party Time: Convention ethics rules have made party-going lobbyists even more skittish than usual. And while many have said they plan to eschew the conventions completely, the C2 Group is taking a stand: The party must go on. (Roll Call)

Ethics Panel Admonishes Domenici: The Senate Ethics Committee admonished Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, on Thursday for creating an “appearance of impropriety” by telephoning the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico at home shortly before the 2006 midterm elections to ask whether an indictment was imminent in a politically sensitive case. (New York Times)

A Calming Edit at LegiStorm: Personal signatures and home addresses have been removed from Member and House staff financial-disclosure forms posted on the Web site LegiStorm — with the House picking up the tab to make the changes. (Roll Call)

House passes three bills on contracting: The House passed three contracting reform bills today by voice vote. (Federal Computer Week)

Manufacturers’ group to comply with lobbying law while case is under appeal: The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) said Tuesday it would comply with the new ethics and lobbying law and provide a list of all of its members, despite continuing to fight the requirement in federal court. (The Hill)

Breaux-Lott’s Fat 1st Quarter: Less than four months after he left office, former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has already scored a major payday downtown. The firm he founded with former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) earned at least $945,000 during its first quarter in business, according to House filings. (Roll Call)

Former Justice official pleads guilty in Abramoff probe: A former high-ranking Justice Department official is the latest to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. (AP)

House leaders don’t force Young ethics probe: House Democratic and Republican leaders are declining to take action to compel the ethics committee to investigate the notorious Coconut Road earmark. (The Hill)

No slowdown on K Street: Much changed and much stayed the same Monday when all of K Street scrambled to file the first-ever quarterly accounting of lobbying firm revenues. (The Hill)

Making Time: The National Association of Manufacturers on Monday angled for borrowed time in its effort to resist complying with a new lobbying disclosure requirement it says would violate its constitutional rights. (Roll Call)

Former Justice official charged in Abramoff lobbying probe: A former high-ranking Justice Department official is being accused of criminal conflict of interest in the latest case stemming from the investigation of disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (AP)

Lobby Industry Set to Open Itself Up To Greater Scrutiny Under New Rules: Barring a last-minute reprieve by the courts, corporations, lobbyists and big trade associations will have to file Monday the most extensive public disclosures ever of their efforts to influence Congress, representing the first overhaul of Washington's influence industry in the wake of the jailing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Wall Street Journal)

Ethics Law Isn’t Without Its Loopholes: The optimistically named Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 was supposed to prevent lobbyists from securing undue influence by taking members of Congress to intimate dinners at fancy restaurants. (New York Times)

Dodd Courts Lobbyist: As lawmakers struggle to contain the fallout from the widening housing crisis, a lobbyist for mortgage brokers is in talks to leave his K Street perch to become a top staffer to Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). (Roll Call)

Pentagon, FBI Probing Air Force Contracts: Federal authorities have begun investigating a contracting arrangement between the Air Force and an intelligence firm called Commonwealth Research Institute, according to documents and people familiar with the case. (Washington Post)

Senate calls for Justice probe: The Senate voted 63-29 Thursday to recommend that the Justice Department investigate the role a staff member for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) played in changing legislation after it passed both houses of Congress but before it was sent to the White House for the president’s signature. (Politico)

Gillibrand returns contributions: The $2,250 refund check that arrived in the mail at his home on Monday took David Kruczlnicki by surprise. The check came with a letter informing Kruczlnicki, president and chief executive officer of Glens Falls Hospital, that U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, was refunding his campaign contribution as part of a new policy to no longer accept contributions from executives or leaders of companies or organizations that have requested congressional earmarks. (The Post-Star)

Congress May Seek Criminal Probe of Altered Earmark: The Senate moved yesterday toward asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of a $10 million legislative earmark whose provisions were mysteriously altered after Congress gave final approval to a huge 2005 highway funding bill. (Washington Post)

Members Offered New Video Platform: A private company is hoping Members will pony up cash for their own YouTube-like program — one that has the franking commission’s approval. (Roll Call)

Reid wants DOJ probe of Coconut Rd.: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called for a Justice Department investigation into a notorious earmark in the 2005 highway bill that was changed to build the Coconut Road interchange after Congress approved the measure but before it reached President Bush’s desk for his signature. (The Hill)

Baucus staffers in lobbyist pipeline: Since 1996, one-fifth of U.S. Sen. Max Baucus' highest-paid staff members have left their jobs to become lobbyists, usually for industries regulated by the powerful committee that Baucus heads, a Missoulian State Bureau analysis shows. (Missoulian)

Lobbyists contract out reporting obligations: Congressional efforts to rein in lobbyists are helping to create a cottage industry in Washington: businesses that help them comply with a raft of new regulations. (Washington Times)

Coburn pushes Coconut Road probe: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) plans to pursue an investigation into the notorious $10 million Coconut Road earmark by offering an amendment next week to a massive bill making technical corrections to the 2005 transportation bill. (The Hill)

Judge dismisses challenge to lobbying disclosure law: The National Association of Manufacturers suffered a major blow Friday in its legal battle against the new ethics and lobbying law. (The Hill)

House May Create Link to YouTube: Web-savvy Members may eventually be able to post videos to a YouTube page of their own — one that is scrubbed clean of outside advertisements and political leanings. (Roll Call)

FBI taped lawmaker calls: FBI wiretaps picked up the voices of several members of Congress in their conversations with Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.). (The Hill)

Profits on Sales Go Unreported: Dozens of financial disclosure forms filed by Members of Congress last year were apparently inaccurate, failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from stock sales and other transactions, but the Members believed their forms were correct because the House ethics committee approved them. (Roll Call)

Pork Barrel Remains Hidden in U.S. Budget: Sometimes on Capitol Hill, lawmakers find that it pays to ask nicely instead of just ordering the bureaucrats around. With great fanfare, Congress adopted strict ethics rules last year requiring members to disclose when they steered federal money to pet projects. But it turns out lawmakers can still secretly direct billions of dollars to favored organizations by making vague requests rather than issuing explicit instructions to government agencies in committee reports and spending bills. (New York Times)

Companies get millions from Congress in earmarks: Most of the earmarks sought last year by members of Congress from Missouri and Illinois directed the money to public or non-profit groups, but area lawmakers also snagged more than $200 million for private companies, a Post-Dispatch analysis found. (St. Louis Post Dispatch)

Study finds lawmakers invested $165m in defense: Members of Congress have as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies that do business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war, according to a study by a nonpartisan research group. (AP)

A Bungled Start For Bundling Rule: Last year, wrangling over disclosure of bundled campaign checks nearly derailed the Democratic effort to overhaul lobbying and ethics rules. The provision survived, helping earn the broader package praise from government reform advocates who called it the most significant in a generation. It appears they spoke too soon. (Roll Call)

Congress pushes to make more information public: Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, are pushing legislation to make Congress' activities more transparent after winning support last year to set a deadline for federal agencies to respond to requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act. (GovExec)

Rep. Murtha aide used campaign cash for rifle: Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) top aide spent more than $2,000 of campaign money to buy a rifle and other items for himself at a National Rifle Association (NRA) charity auction, raising questions about whether the transaction violated House ethics rules and campaign finance law. (The Hill)

House, DOJ Discuss Raids: The House of Representatives and the Justice Department are in negotiations over new protocols and procedures for law enforcement searches of Congressional offices — talks that began in the wake of the controversial May 2006 raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) Capitol Hill office. (Roll Call)

Supreme Court Won't Intervene in Jefferson Raid Case: The Supreme Court today turned down a government request to reverse a lower court finding that an FBI raid on Rep. William J. Jefferson's congressional office violated the Constitution. (Washington Post)

Senator pushes alternative to full CRS report access: A bill urging the Senate to make Congressional Research Service reports publically available is stalled in the Senate Rules Committee and may be the latest of a series of such efforts to fail. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and eight co-sponsors last fall introduced a resolution that would allow the CRS reports available to lawmakers and their aides to be posted on a public Web site. (GovExec)

No Disclosure on Departing Lawmakers’ Job Search: Democrats promised an unprecedented era of transparency and openness when they imposed new rules on colleagues who shop for their next jobs while still in Congress. But those new requirements are delivering little, if any, disclosure about who might be voting on an issue of interest to an employer-in-waiting. (CQ Politics)

Renzi Trial Won’t Start Soon: Despite a tentative trial date of April 29, Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) is likely to be out of Congress long before the case actually goes before a jury, several legal experts said last week. (Roll Call)

Ex-congressman's role in water project blasted: Opponents of a proposed $1.7 million water project in Cohasset are crying foul because the family of an out-of-state former congressman who helped secure taxpayer funds for the project owns property that would benefit from the work. (Boston Globe)

Feinstein grills Mukasey about closed corruption unit: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Wednesday called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to explain the decision to eliminate the public corruption unit in Los Angeles that has been investigating Rep. Jerry Lewis's (R-Calif.) ties to a lobbying firm. (The Hill)

Library of Congress tests Web 2.0 photo archive: The Library of Congress has turned to the popular online picture-sharing community of Flickr for help with tagging the library's voluminous photo archives. (Federal Computer Week)

Ex-CIA official in bribery case might face additional charges: A federal prosecutor from San Diego signaled yesterday that the government is considering bringing new charges, including an additional conspiracy allegation, against Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the CIA who became ensnared in the bribery scandal involving Randy “Duke” Cunningham. (San Diego Union Tribune)

Shine the Light: Democratic Reps. Brian Baird (Wash.) and Louise Slaughter (N.Y.) are retooling their effort to impose some rules on the booming but shadowy political intelligence industry. The pair have had little luck pushing a proposal aimed at banning what some call the last legal form of insider trading: buying and selling stocks based on nonpublic Congressional information that has the power to move the markets. (Roll Call)

Study Finds Record Education Earmarks: Congress set aside a record $2.3 billion in pet projects for colleges and universities last year for research on subjects like berries and reducing odors from swine and poultry, according to an analysis by The Chronicle of Higher Education to be published on Monday. (New York Times)

Failure to File Discloses Weakness in Law: The Sheridan Group has earned more than $3.3 million over the past three years lobbying for a handful of disease and anti-poverty groups. By law, all of that work should have been disclosed in semiannual reports to the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House. (Roll Call)

Illinois Aide Claims Earmarks Credit: A top aide to Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) has used his employment with the House to help win local races, repeatedly claiming in campaign literature and public meetings that he is responsible for securing millions in federal earmarks for the village of Oak Lawn, while also racking up thousands in campaign contributions from companies with business before Lipinski’s Congressional committees. (Roll Call)

Public satisfaction with e-government hits lowest level since 2005: The public's affection for federal government Web sites waned for the third straight quarter during the first quarter of 2008. The score of 72.4 (out of 100) for the e-government portion of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index was a half point lower than last quarter and the lowest reading since 2005. (GovExec)

Supreme Court to decide soon whether to hear DOJ appeal on Jefferson raid: The Supreme Court will consider this Friday whether to take up a Justice Department request to overturn an appeals court ruling finding the May 2006 raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) unconstitutional. (Politico)

Treasury tops worst FOIA responders: The Treasury Department has won the 2008 Rosemary Award, an annual citation that an open-government group gives to the federal agency it says responds most poorly to Freedom of Information Act requests. (Federal Computer Week)

Pork Overloads Approps Panel’s Web Site; Earmark Request Deadline Extended: In a sure sign that earmarks remain as popular as ever, an overload of pork requests clogged the House Appropriations Committee’s Web site Wednesday, forcing an extension to the request deadline to next week. (Roll Call)

Coburn plans counterpunch on pet projects: Earmark foes are preparing to force a vote that would oblige senators to disclose all campaign contributions connected to their pet projects. (The Hill)

Sanchez, Abramoff, law firm named in second superseding indictment: The Office of the Guam Attorney General has filed new charges not only against a former government official, but the former powerhouse lobbyist and his former law firm. (KUAM News)

House Creates a Panel to Watch Over Lawmakers’ Behavior: In the wake of a string of Congressional misconduct and corruption cases, the House on Tuesday created an independent panel to investigate suspected wrongdoing by lawmakers, despite deep reservations from rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties. (New York Times)

Pro-Life Groups Hit by GOP Lawmaker's Alleged Fraud: Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., allegedly defrauded dozens of pro-life organizations for hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund his first congressional bid, according to an analysis of the recent indictment against him, a state insurance claim and an interview with an insurance lawyer involved in the case. (ABC News)

House Dems consider forcing vote on earmarks: House Democratic leaders have grown irritated at what they consider hypocritical calls for earmark reform by Republicans, and are contemplating calling their bluff with a moratorium on pet spending projects. (The Hill)

Dem division forces second delay on ethics: House Democratic leaders failed to convince enough of their colleagues to support a leadership plan to impose a new layer of ethics scrutiny on lawmakers, forcing leaders late Wednesday to cancel a vote on the measure for the second time in as many weeks. (The Hill)

Choose reform or panel post, Putnam warns: House GOP conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.) is threatening that Republicans who refuse to comply with new earmark standards could lose their committee assignments. (The Hill)

A Jammin’ Fundraiser and Convention Ethics: At the 2004 Democratic convention, F/S Capitol Consulting lobbyist Tom Hogan helped plan each detail of his firm’s shindig at Prezza restaurant in Boston’s North End. But this year, with a brand-new and sometimes ambiguous ethics regime in place, Hogan will leave the specifics to someone else. (Roll Call)

Tough cop role taken by Senate on ethics issue: The Senate Ethics Committee has emerged as the tougher policeman of congressional behavior than its House counterpart, the Standards of Official Conduct Committee, which has become embroiled in a fracas over ethics enforcement in the lower chamber. (The Hill)

Renzi pleads not guilty: Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 35 federal charges, including extortion, conspiracy, money laundering and wire fraud. (The Hill)

Former Murkowski aide admits conspiracy guilt: The federal corruption investigation reached into the office of former Gov. Frank Murkowski on Monday when his chief of staff, Jim Clark, agreed to plead guilty to a felony conspiracy charge involving the defunct oil-field company Veco. (Alaska Daily News)

Pelosi plots ethics course: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) worked to salvage plans for an independent ethics office Monday, seeking to win over a Democratic Caucus that has shown itself to be cool to the idea of more scrutiny of members’ activities. (The Hill)

Alaska delegation promises to publicize every earmark: Citing a new era of "sunlight and transparency," Alaska's congressional delegation will begin disclosing every request from the state for specially earmarked federal money. A $20 million earmark sought by the Mat-Su Borough for a ferry project? A $15 million allocation for dredging in the Port of Anchorage? $1.6 million for National Weather Service data buoys in Alaska? (McClatchy)

Earmark Season Arrives: A dozen protesters carrying signs with anti-earmark slogans and pig-shaped balloons were huddled against the cold across the street from the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City last Wednesday night when a dark sedan bearing Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) pulled up to the hotel. (Roll Call)

After Threat Failed, Renzi Offered Bill: In a May 2005 meeting with Resolution Copper Mining, a company trying to engineer a federal land swap near Superior, Ariz., Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) allegedly told company officials that he would not support the deal unless they bought his former business partner’s property. (Roll Call)

Government watchdogs decry links between campaign donations, government money: The executives of a small engineering firm gathered in a Davis County home to toast Rep. Rob Bishop five days after the House passed a budget bill that included a million-plus dollar earmark intended for the company. (Salt Lake City Tribune)

House Ethics Panel to Review Renzi Case: The House ethics committee voted Thursday to empanel an investigative subcommittee to review whether Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) violated the chamber’s code of conduct or other rules in connection to his recent indictment on 35 counts of extortion, money laundering and conspiracy. (Roll Call)

Contractors, administration officials voice concerns about contracting bills: Representatives of federal contractors and a Bush administration official raised concerns Wednesday over what they characterized as potential unintended consequences of pending contracting reform legislation. (GovExec)

Rules revolt, ethics fiasco: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) efforts to bring about a new day on House ethics appeared to collapse Wednesday, with Democrats on a key committee openly rebelling against an ethics measure backed by leadership. (The Hill)

Ortiz Bet on China Deal: Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) and his chief of staff each invested thousands of dollars in a Chinese telecommunications project in 2005 with a Texas businessman whose company paid nearly $20,000 to fly them to China the year before and later became a donor to Ortiz’s campaigns. (Roll Call)

Vote on outside ethics office expected Thursday: The House will likely vote on a bill imposing a new layer of ethical scrutiny on member activity this Thursday, according to the lawmaker leading the effort. (The Hill)

Concrete legislative favors unclear in Rep. Renzi case: Throughout the 26-page indictment of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) and his business associates, federal prosecutors allege that the lawmaker made a series of legislative promises in exchange for proposed land deals. (The Hill)

Earmark Fight Heads To Senate: Hoping to bring the House fight over earmark reform to the Senate, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) will propose a full one-year moratorium on considering bills with earmarks as part of the fiscal 2009 budget resolution, the lawmaker said Monday. (Roll Call)

Staffer Financial Disclosures to Go Online: The Web site that puts the salaries of Congressional aides online is set to launch a feature today that exposes even more information about staffers’ money matters: PDF downloads of their financial disclosure forms. (Roll Call)

Senators Diverting Campaign Funds to Kin: Under long-standing congressional ethics rules, corporations, unions and other large organizations cannot directly pay senators stipends. But their contributions to senators' election campaigns can be paid without limit to the children, spouses, in-laws and other relatives of the lawmakers, in a practice that has aroused controversy but is fully legal. (Washington Post)

Blogger, Sans Pajamas, Rakes Muck and a Prize: Of the many landmarks along a journalist’s career, two are among those that stand out: winning an award and making the government back down. Last week, Joshua Micah Marshall achieved both. (New York Times)

Ethics commission bill could return to House floor: Ethics issues could return to the House floor next week with a debate on a plan, months in the making, to create an independent ethics commission. (The Hill)

Democratic majority good for K Street’s bottom line: New limits on the access lobbyists have to lawmakers have not hurt K Street’s bottom line as several top lobbying shops reported strong revenue growth in 2007. (The Hill)

Boehner Defies Order to Remove Earmark Site: House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is refusing to take down a Web site promoting the GOP’s earmark reform efforts, defying a directive from Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard to move the site to a new domain name. (Roll Call)

Defiant Young refuses to talk about legal bills: Alaska Congressman Don Young said Wednesday he's cooperating with the Justice Department but refused to give details or answer questions about his huge legal bills. "I have a right to spend my money as I wish to spend it, and we are going to continue to do what I think we have to do to get this issue behind us," he said. (Alaska Daily News)

U.S. Investigates Whether Lott Had Role in Mississippi Judge Case: Federal agents are investigating whether former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott knowingly played a role in an alleged conspiracy in 2006 to influence a Mississippi judge presiding over a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against famed plaintiff attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, according to people familiar with the situation. (Wall Street Journal)

For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk: Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers. (New York Times)

McCain's Ties To Lobbyist Worried Aides: Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain's longest-serving political strategists. (Washington Post)

Army Blocks Public's Access to Documents in Web-Based Library: The Army has shut down public access to the largest online collection of its doctrinal publications, a move criticized by open-government advocates as unnecessary secrecy by a runaway bureaucracy. (Washington Post)

Defense Contractor Sentenced to 12 Years for Bribery: Brent R. Wilkes, a California defense contractor and prominent GOP campaign contributor, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison yesterday for lavishing a Republican congressman with money, prostitutes and other bribes in exchange for nearly $90 million in work from the Pentagon. (Washington Post)

Corruption case against Foggo moved to Virginia; Wilkes charges dropped: Federal prosecutors agreed Thursday to move the corruption case of former Central Intelligence Agency official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo to Virginia and hinted he will face more charges in the future. In addition, prosecutors said they will drop charges in that case against Foggo's lifelong friend and co-defendant, former Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes. (San Diego Union Tribune)

House chairman calls for ban on earmarks in fiscal 2009 spending bills: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called for the suspension of all earmarks in fiscal 2009 appropriations bills and said Tuesday he would not make such requests this year. (CongressDaily)

Lawmakers Put Out New Call for Earmarks: The window for Congressional earmarks is open once again. Lawmakers from both parties are inviting constituents and lobbyists to recommend pet projects that could be financed by the federal government as the 2008 earmark season gets under way. (New York Times)

Candidates' Earmarks Worth Millions: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure more than $340 million worth of home-state projects in last year's spending bills, placing her among the top 10 Senate recipients of what are commonly known as earmarks, according to a new study by a nonpartisan budget watchdog group. (Washington Post)

Quantifying the Earmark Scene: Every club has its benefits. For members of the Appropriations committees, the benefits include the ability to dole out to themselves vastly larger sums of money for earmarked projects than to their rank-and-file brethren. (Roll Call)

SeaLife was good deal for ex-aide to Stevens: New documents have emerged in Seward showing that a $1.6 million earmark in 2005 by Sen. Ted Stevens was engineered so it would lead to the purchase of property owned by his former aide, Trevor McCabe, an Anchorage fisheries lobbyist. (Alaska Daily News)

Watchdogs press Pelosi to change ethics rules: Six watchdog groups are calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to withdraw the official House ethics guidelines on lobbyist-sponsored convention parties and rewrite them to comport with a new, stricter Senate interpretation. (The Hill)

Manufacturing group sues over ethics law: The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is suing the federal government over the new lobbying and ethics law, saying the measure infringes on their constitutional rights for freedom of association. (The Hill)

Meeks to pay $63,000 in FEC fines for financial improprieties: Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) has agreed to pay $63,000 to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for using funds from his campaign committee for personal expenses, misstating its finances and accepting contributions above federal limits during the 2004 election cycle. (The Hill)

Earmarks Still Pose Challenge: Despite the passage of new earmark rules in the House and Senate last year, the definition of what an earmark is and what disclosure is required remains a moving target. (Roll Call)

The party’s (not quite) over: The Senate Ethics Committee said Monday that lobbyists or lobbying organizations cannot pay for parties honoring senators at national party conventions. (The Hill)

Lobbyists find more ways to bond with lawmakers: Most of the thousands of lobbyists work across the city, in and around K Street. In the past decade, 18 lobbying firms, corporations and labor unions have purchased town houses or leased office space near the Capitol, joining more than a dozen others that had operated there for years, according to real estate records. (USA Today)

GOP Rep. denies quid pro quo with lobbyist: Former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-Calif.), whose relationship with Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) helped trigger a federal probe of the veteran lawmaker, continues to donate money to Lewis’ leadership PAC despite the ongoing investigation. (Politico)

Congress Far Behind on E-mail Archives: While Congress has been sharply critical of the executive branch for large gaps in its e-mail archives, both the House and the Senate would fare much worse if their own e-mail preservation systems were to come under the same scrutiny. (Roll Call)

Don Young opens a legal defense fund: Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who is under FBI investigation and faces a tough reelection fight, opened a legal defense fund earlier this month, according to House filings. (The Hill)

Study Finds Government Ethics Lapses: A new study, released yesterday by the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center, found that nearly 60 percent of government employees at all levels -- federal, state and local -- had witnessed violations of ethical standards, policy or laws in their workplaces within the last year. (Washington Post)

Attorneys probe deepens: The federal investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys could jolt the political landscape ahead of the November elections, according to several people close to the inquiry. (The Hill)

Loophole on event tickets splits panels: The Senate and House ethics committees have split over whether to allow lobbyists to take advantage of a longstanding loophole in the congressional gift ban in the wake of sweeping ethics reform passed last year. (The Hill)

Obama surfaces in Rekzo's federal corruption case: For the first time, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama has surfaced in the federal corrupton case against his longtime campaign fund-raiser, Tony Rezko, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. (Chicago Sun-Times)

More Lawmakers Give Up Earmarks: A growing number of lawmakers in Congress are voluntarily giving up one of the biggest perks of office — at the risk of alienating their constituents. (AP)

Feds call for 60-year sentence for Wilkes: Federal probation officials are recommending that Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, should be sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to court records. (San Diego Union Tribune)

Wicker's Earmark Elicits Criticism: Sen. Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican congressman appointed to replace Trent Lott in December, last year obtained a $6 million earmark for a defense contractor whose executives were among his top campaign contributors and were represented in the matter by Wicker's former congressional chief of staff, according to federal records. (Washington Post)

Hill Web Sites Lauded and Criticized: The Congressional Management Foundation officially releases its “Gold Mouse Report” today, recognizing Member, committee and leadership offices that best use their Web sites as constituent communication tools. About 17 percent of the Web sites earned an A in 2007, garnering a gold, silver or bronze mouse award from the nonprofit, nonpartisan group. (Roll Call)

Landrieu fights back against bribery charge: Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a top target for national Republicans in November, is battling with a government watchdog group that is alleging the senator may have violated federal bribery laws by earmarking funds to a campaign contributor. (The Hill)

Clash brews on ethics: A handful of reform-minded freshman Democrats emboldened by a sense that 2008 voters want change and an end to the power of Washington special interests plan to press their case for stronger ethics enforcement when Congress returns later this month. (The Hill)

Congressional Crackdown on Lobbying Is Already Showing Cracks: The party sponsored by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States to celebrate the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, at the New York Yacht Club was one of the more over-the-top events of the Republican National Convention in 2004, featuring 10 bars and more than a half-dozen special vintage Scotches. The group held a similar soiree that year for Senator Tom Daschle, the minority leader, at the Democratic Convention in Boston. (New York Times)

Federal investigation of Burns-Abramoff connection is over: Former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is no longer under investigation by the Justice Department for his connections to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Billings Gazette)

House May Add Outside Watchdog For Ethics: A House task force yesterday recommended creating an independent Office of Congressional Ethics that would have the power to initiate reviews of lawmakers' behavior. (Washington Post)

Congress Is Still Pursuing Earmarks: It has a been a difficult few years for earmarks, the pet spending projects that lawmakers pursue in Congress. They have been linked to felony cases, blamed for the national debt, stripped from the budget, exposed to public scrutiny and subjected to ridicule. Yet earmarks and the lawmakers who love them will not be denied. (New York Times)

Congress Eases Access to Gov't Records: Congress on Tuesday struck back at the Bush administration's trend toward secrecy since the 2001 terrorist attacks, passing legislation to toughen the Freedom of Information Act and increasing penalties on agencies that don't comply. (AP)

Senator wants probe of Young's Florida earmark: An Oklahoma senator who has long been critical of pork-barrel spending in Congress asked today for an investigation into money that was earmarked for a study of a highway interchange abutting environmentally sensitive land in Florida. (Alaska Daily News)

Lobbyists are turning away from approps.: Earmarks survived the changeover in Congress and Democratic pledges of reform, but several lobbying firms are starting to turn away from appropriations work in favor of new sources of revenue. Lobbyists say a variety of factors have them rethinking business models built on what critics call pork-barrel spending. (The Hill)

Lawmakers still getting free trips overseas: The new congressional ethics rules have curbed corporate-sponsored travel for lawmakers — but that doesn’t mean they’ve been grounded. (Politico)

An earmark Christmas: Congressional negotiators have added scores of new earmarks to a massive 3,565-page spending bill that lawmakers had only a few hours to review before an expected vote Monday evening. Democratic leaders did not make the bill available for public viewing until late on Sunday night. (The Hill)

Stevens Adds Millions in Earmarks to Omnibus: Despite scrutiny from investigators representing at least five federal departments and agencies, a midsummer raid of his home by law enforcement officials and a home-state governor increasingly hostile to earmarks, GOP Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is showing no signs of abandoning earmarks and directed spending, netting interests in the state more than $88 million in this year’s omnibus, according to a review by Roll Call. (Roll Call)

Republican With Links to Abramoff Is Sentenced: Italia Federici, who served as lobbyist Jack Abramoff's conduit to the top ranks of the Interior Department, was sentenced yesterday to two months in a halfway house during a day in court that touched on her romantic liaisons, tax evasion and conduct before the Senate. (Washington Post)

Senate Passes FOIA Bill: Reversing a trend toward secrecy, federal agencies would have to be more responsive to Freedom of Information Act requests under legislation approved by the Senate Friday. (AP)

Ethics Clears Way for Convention Parties: The party will go on. That was the call that lobbyists and ethics experts sounded after the House ethics committee put out its advisory memo Tuesday on the new rules for soirees at the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions. (Roll Call)

OMB Offers an Easy Way to Follow the Money: Robert Shea is a Republican insider with a head for business and a yen for federal program performance standards. Gary Bass is a government watchdog with a mean bite who wants openness and knows how to get it. (Washington Post)

Prosecutor subpoenas signal confidence in Jefferson court date: Subpoenas requested this week by government attorneys suggest prosecutors expect Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) trial to go forward on schedule, despite his push to delay it. (The Hill)

'Earmark' analysis shows money follows power: Money follows power. Political action committees and executives of at least 20 companies that received defense contracts through earmarks shifted their political donations this year from defeated Republican incumbents to their Democratic replacements, a USA TODAY analysis found. (USA Today)

Obey earmark proposal stirs opposition from both parties: A proposal to eliminate all congressional earmarks to meet the White House’s steep demands on domestic spending ran into deeply skeptical senators from both parties Tuesday, signaling that many lawmakers will fight to keep their pet projects as Democrats struggle to finalize their year-end budget plans. (The Hill)

Ethics plan to take heat from all sides: Caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between watchdog groups and House colleagues, Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) has been struggling to put the finishing touches on a proposal for a new House ethics office. (The Hill)

GOP Plans a ‘Butcher Shop’ to Chop Earmarks: With House Democratic leaders poised to introduce and pass a massive appropriations bill today covering funding for nearly every federal agency, Republican staffers and outside interest groups prepared for a frenetic race to figure out what is in the bill before it gets to the president’s desk. (Roll Call)

Hoyer Is Proof of Earmarks' Endurance: Even as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has joined in steps to clean up pork-barrel spending, the Maryland congressman has tucked $96 million worth of pet projects into next year's federal budget, including $450,000 for a campaign donor's foundation. (Wall Street Journal)

Congressional earmarks lose luster for Alaska: The Palin administration, citing a need to improve the state's credibility, plans to ask Alaska's congressional delegation for far fewer earmarks in the coming year. (Alaska Daily News)

McCaskill turns a deaf ear to earmarks: Until now, Sen. Claire McCaskill’s unwavering stand on earmarks — pet projects funded by individual members of Congress — has amounted to little more than a curiosity. But curiosity has begun to morph into outright frustration from fellow Democratic lawmakers back home. They say her principled position is costing Missouri millions. (Kansas City Star)

House GOP blasts outside ethics office proposal: House Republicans are lambasting a new Democratic proposal for an outside ethics office even before it is officially released. (The Hill)

Rep. Jefferson wants trial delayed: Rep. William Jefferson’s lawyers, citing the mountain of evidence and documents prosecutors have amassed against the Louisiana Democrat, are asking the presiding judge for a two- to four-month delay of his trial, which is set to begin Jan. 16. (The Hill)

‘Wicked Witch’ targeted over a dinner in Waikiki: Jack Abramoff called her the Wicked Witch of the West. “WWW” for short in his e-mails. And he wanted to burn her. Joan Plaisted, a career foreign service officer, was ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) in 1998, when the island nation hired Abramoff and his firm to battle the United States on a multibillion-dollar aid agreement. (The Hill)