The Daily MuckRep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) admitted yesterday to seeking donations to his academic center namesake with personal entreaties to foundations and corporations. This comes after several ethics violation accusations and Rangel’s multiple declarations that he did nothing wrong. (Washington Post)
A former U.S. counter-narcotics official claimed Wednesday that Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, is standing in the way of the fight against the country’s drug trade. The former top official, Thomas Schwich, claimed that Karzai’s government is corrupt and protecting drug lords for political reasons. (AP)
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles is set to probe Countrywide, IndyMac, and New Century Financial Corp. The investigation will examine whether fraud and other crimes have contributed to the current mortgage crisis. (LA Times)
Attorney General Michael Mukasey rejected Wednesday a demand from Congress that an outside special counsel investigate the circumstances of the Canadian citizen Maher Arar’s U.S. capture. Arar claims he was taken off a plane in New York and moved to Syria where he was tortured for a year. (Reuters)
The Department of Homeland Security is planning to cut money for federal anti-terror programs in dozens of cities. The allocation of anti-terror money has been widely debated due to accusations that too much federal money has gone to cities that are not at great risk. (AP)
The fiscal 2009 Defense authorization bill could send billions of dollars in earmarks to federal contractors. The House version of the bill gives almost $8 billion to defense contractors. Members of Congress defended these earmarks as an appropriate use of federal money. (Government Executive)