No Aldermen publicly using R word (Rat) yet like in the 1990s

Wearing a wire around your colleagues is not a great way to ingratiate yourself. It is, however,  a good way to get a cut on your time when you cooperate with the FBI. It looks like indicted Chicago Alderman Isaac Carothers will be eating lunch alone.

By Dan Mihalopoulos and Dan P. Blake
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO — If there is one thing that bothers Chicago’s aldermen more than FBI agents and investigative reporters, it’s a colleague who cooperates with the feds against fellow City Council members.

On Monday, nobody openly used the three-letter R-word — rat — like they did when an alderman wore a wire in the 1990s. But more than a few aldermen admitted they were not thrilled to see newly indicted Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) back at work.

When Carothers was charged with bribery along with a real estate developer last week, federal court records indicated he wore a wire to secretly record discussions with other city officials and developers.

Carothers came to City Hall on Monday for his first official appearance since his indictment. Although often eager to bluntly give his opinion, Carothers did not say a word into the microphone on his desk during two committee meetings. He also declined to discuss the allegations with reporters.

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Had a few extra donuts on that vacation?  Hoping no one will notice if you wear that baggy shirt? Well, the new body scanners being used on an experimental basis at some U.S. airports apparently can see right through the clothing. Good for security. Not so good for privacy. And so much for hiding. Some legislators think the scanners are too much and are trying to ban them.  Until a decision comes, hold off on the extra donut.

By Chris Strohm
CongressDaily
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers expect to take up legislation Wednesday that would prohibit government security officials from using controversial whole-body imaging machines to screen airplane passengers at primary airport checkpoints.

The machines are being tested at 19 airports by the Transportation Security Administration, with six airports allowing passengers to voluntarily go through them at primary security checkpoints and the rest using scanners at secondary checkpoints.

The machines use millimeter-wave technology that shows a three-dimensional image of a passenger without clothes. The images allow security officials to determine whether somebody is hiding threatening objects under their clothes.

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Thanks to a judge’s ruling in the case, Barry Bonds is likely to avoid playing baseball in some prison yard. Bad for the inmates who could have picked up some pointers on hitting the long ball. Good for Bonds. But the U.S. Attorney’s office still would like to see Bonds behind bars and is fighting to make that happen. Here’s the latest.

By Lance Williams
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge abused her discretion when she made alleged positive steroid tests and other key evidence off-limits in Barry Bonds’ perjury trial, prosecutors said Monday.

Bonds’ prosecutors asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the evidence, which Judge Susan Illston banned from the case Feb. 19, on the grounds that there was no proof the tests had anything to do with the former Giants star.

Bonds, 44, holder of baseball’s career home run record, had been scheduled to go to trial in March, accused of lying under oath about his use of steroids to the grand jury that investigated the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroids scandal. The judge’s ruling gutted the government’s case, and prosecutors took the unusual step of delaying the trial indefinitely while pursing an appeal.

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Read Government’s Appeal

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Bernie Madoff Hires Baltimore Firm to Try and Help Reduce Sentence (New York Post)
• U.S. Atty Office Still Trying to Keep Cooperation Agreements Secret (Southern District of Florida Blog)
• Ex-Saudi Spy Chief: Kill Bin Laden, Then Leave Afghanistan (Spy Talk)
• Former Enron Exec Could Get Home Confinement After Plea (Wall Street Journal)
• Man Jailed for Stealing Dinosaur Bone (AP)
• Ex-Illinois Police Chief Convicted of Extortion (Chicago Tribune)
• Federal Trial Begins for Indianapolis Narcotics Detectives Accused of Stealing Drugs and Money (Indianapolis Star)

One of the great checks and balances of local power involves the FBI’s ability to investigate local police departments. Down in Cajun country, the FBI has its hands full.

By Laura Maggi
New Orleans Times-Picayune
NEW ORLEANS — The FBI is looking into at least three cases involving New Orleans police officers, a fact pointed out last week in a Fraternal Order of Police e-mail reminding officers of their right to consult attorneys before they are interviewed by agents.

Two of the cases stem from the days following Hurricane Katrina, including a recently begun FBI probe into possible police involvement in the case of a charred body found inside a burned car on an Algiers levee.

The FBI is looking into whether police committed a civil rights violation against the 31-year-old man whose remains were pulled out of the car in the weeks after the storm.

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