The House Oversight Committee yesterday questioned Pentagon and KBR Inc. officials over delays in protecting U.S. forces in Iraq from faulty electrical wiring. Oversight Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) interrogated the Pentagon's inspector general about absolving KBR in the death of a soldier. The faulty wiring has killed at least 16 people. (AP)

A secret government document submitted at the military commission of Osama bin Laden's driver Salim Hamdan confirms that Hamdan was sexually humiliated by a female government agent. Hamdan's lawyers claim the document is proof that Hamdan was coerced into making a confession. (New York Times)

Some Army recruiters have been caught lying to recruits in order to keep them from dropping out. One high school student in Houston was threatened with jail time if he left the recruitment program, despite signing up for a non-binding program. (KVUE)

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The former mayor of Newark was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday for selling city land to a 39-year-old mistress who is close to half his age. Former mayor Sharpe James apologized to his family and admitted to making "a mistake" before going into custody. (AP)

General Norton Schwartz, the Bush administration's nominee to be the next Air Force Chief of Staff, will face an uncommon second round of classified questioning from the Senate today. Schwartz faces questions over testimony he gave after the initial invasion of Iraq and concerns that he withheld information. (LA Times)

Former Dallas district attorney Henry Wade's legacy is in shambles seven years after his death. Some 19 convictions for murder, rape, and robbery that Wade and two of his trained successors won have been overturned due to DNA exonerations. No other county in America has freed more innocent people in recent years than Dallas. (AP)

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A former CIA-backed Haitian death squad leader was convicted Friday of carrying out a mortgage fraud scheme in the U.S. Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, former leader of FRAPH, was convicted of organizing millions of dollars in fraudulent financing in Brooklyn. (CNN)

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) may support the Justice Department' investigation into Maryland's State Police undercover surveillance of activists for over a year. The program, which targeted nonviolent groups such as death penalty opponents and peace activists, was in place in 2005 and 2006. (Washington Post)

The FBI and IRS searched Cuyahoga County offices in Cleveland yesterday in part of a public corruption investigation. In addition, both the county auditor and commissioner were greeted by FBI vehicles at their homes. (AP)

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John McCain has received a significant up-tick in contributions from the oil industry after he decided to reverse his position on offshore drilling. Since McCain's decision to support offshore drilling in June, McCain has received over $1 million in donations compared to only having received $208,000 in June. (Washington Post)

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction plans to release a report today detailing the problems at a prison in Khan Bani Saad which has become a symbol of government waste. The report also faults Parsons construction group for poorly managing millions of dollars in contracts. (AP)

In more bad news for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the New York Times reveals today that he has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from Harlem's biggest real estate companies. This news comes after Rangel has decided to give up a highly criticized rent-stabilized apartment in Harlem. (New York Times)

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Four aides to former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer have been cited by the N.Y. State Commission on Public Integrity, with misusing the New York State Police. The citations stem from a highly contentious relationship between Spitzer and former New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and the manipulations of state police records for political gain. (Times Union)

Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's former driver and the first detainee to have a military commission at Guantanamo, claimed Thursday that the U.S. let bin Laden's bodyguard go free from Guantanamo after Hamdan identified him. This information was revealed by Hamdan on the fourth day of his war crimes trial. (McClatchy)

Dickie Scruggs and his son Zach have received their prison locations, and their hopes of being locked up together have been dashed. Dickie is heading to Kentucky for his 60 months, while his son Zach is heading to Florida for his 32. Both men pleaded guilty for their roles in a plot to bribe a circuit judge. (Daily Journal)

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Tom Delay's lawyers have ruled out asking President Bush for a pardon. Delay was indicted over two years ago on charges of money laundering, and is still in the middle of legal proceedings in Washington and Texas. Delay's lawyers insist he has not committed a crime, and therefore has no use for a pardon. (The Hill)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is asking for immunity from lawsuits filed by victims of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes who claim they were exposed to harmful fumes while living in FEMA trailers. A U.S. district judge is set to hear FEMA's request today. (AP)

A new Government Accountability Office report reveals that the Information Sharing Environment which is responsible for sharing information on terrorism has achieved limited success. The ISE is faulted in the report for putting too much emphasis on "activities accomplished rather than results achieved". (AP)

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The wife of the governor of North Carolina is catching heat recently for taking first-class trips to Europe at the expense of the state. She has also received a questionable 88 percent pay increase for her job at North Carolina State University. (McClatchy)

State legislators in Alaska are considering hiring a special investigator over Governor Sarah Palin's firing of Public Saftey Commissioner Walt Monegan. Palin faces accusations of pressuring Monegan to fire Palin's sister's ex-husband from a government job. (Alaska Daily News)

William Mercer, who infamously was simultaneously a senior adviser at the Justice Department and a U.S. attorney for Montana, is one of the few U.S. attorneys to make it through all eight years of the Bush DOJ. Mercer had to resign from his job at the Justice Department, and now is only the U.S. attorney for Montana. (LA Times)

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Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) is demanding that the American Psychiatric Association release an account of its financing. The request comes after investigations revealed that a large amount of the money the association receives comes from pharmaceutical companies, raising questions of a conflict of interest. (New York Times)

A survey by the Associated Press revealed that despite state laws granting public access to government e-mail, many states simply delete internal messages. In this practice, mirrored by the federal government, many state officials are given discretionary control over which emails are sent out under Freedom of Information requests and which are erased. (AP)

In response to allegations that he is getting a "special deal" on his rent, New York Representative Charlie Rangel (D-NY) came out with an angry defense on Friday. Rangel scoffed at the New York Times report that he was receiving unprecedented rent-stabilized apartments, saying that he "didn't see anything unfair about it." (AP)

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An Army general was accused by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) Wednesday of misleading Congress about problems with the defense contractor KBR. Sen. Dorgan claimed that General Jerome Johnson made false statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee about widespread problems with KBR supplied water. (New York Times)

Defense Secretary Gates announced Wednesday that the contract for a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. will be re-opened due to a flawed bidding process. This decision comes after last month's ruling by the GAO that the Air Force mishandled the bid by giving Northrop more credit than it deserved. The Air Force no longer has the authority to choose the plane. (LA Times)

The Justice Department plans to revise guidelines for white-collar criminal cases in an attempt to delay department opposed legislation. The proposition would result in changes to the McNulty Memorandum of 2006 which helps prosecutors determine when companies are deemed cooperative with an investigation. (Wall Street Journal)

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The Justice Department admitted error yesterday for failing to inform the Supreme Court that Congress had recently made the rape of a child a capital offense in the military. On June 25, the Court ruled that the death penalty was not appropriate punishment for the rape of an child. Admissions of error are highly unusual for the Justice Department. (New York Times)

After revelations from the House Oversight Committee that the Bush Administration was aware of the deal between Hunt Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government, the State Department released a statement insisting they had no prior knowledge of the arrangement. (Washington Post)

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday by an Islamic organization that accused the Bush administration of illegally wiretapping its telephones. The federal judge tossed out the suit because the call log was part of a top secret document. (AP)

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