Informant pleads guilty to arson

The informant who helped convict many of the 10 radical environmentalists known as "the Family" pleaded guilty in federal court in Eugene to arson and attempted arson.

Jacob Ferguson, 35, admitted setting fire to the U.S. Forest Service Ranger Station in Detroit, Ore., and a government pickup truck in 1996.

Ferguson turned informant three years ago as investigators were closing in on the group that had set 20 fires across the West from 1996 to 2001, causing more than $40 million in damage.