Federal Bureau Of Investigation

A day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, a federal official in her home state dismissed one potential explanation for her sudden and unexpected resignation: a rumored FBI investigation into the former Wasilla mayor on public corruption charges.

The FBI and Justice Department plan to significantly expand their role in global counter-terrorism operations, part of a U.S. policy shift that will replace a CIA-dominated system of clandestine detentions and interrogations with one built around transparent investigations and prosecutions. Under the "global justice" initiative, which has been in the works for several months, FBI agents will have a central role in overseas counter-terrorism cases.

FBI officials confirmed Wednesday that they are investigating possible civil rights violations alleged by officers at the Burbank Police Department. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller would not comment on specifics of the probe by the agency's civil rights division or how long the probe would last. At least seven lawsuits alleging a pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation, as well as unlawful demotions or firings, have been filed by officers against the department. Burbank Mayor Gary Bric said he was confident that the investigations into the department, which also includes an independent probe by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, would be thorough and complete.

The chief of the Burbank Police Department announced Monday that he is stepping down, a month after the FBI revealed it was investigating several current and former officers at the agency. Tim Stehr, 51, who became chief in 2007, made his announcement in a statement released by the city. He did not give a reason for his resignation. "It has been my absolute privilege to serve as chief in the city of Burbank," Stehr said in the statement. "Our department is facing challenging times.

The FBI has hit a major hang-up in its wiretapping surveillance program: failing to pay its phone bills on time. Facing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills, telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals, a Justice Department audit released Thursday shows. In one office, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.

The FBI is conducting 14 criminal investigations of mortgage lenders and the firms that turned their high-risk loans into complex securities that have left investors worldwide with huge losses, a top official at the federal agency said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- The FBI opened an investigation Thursday into whether Roger Clemens lied before Congress, the first step toward a possible perjury trial in which the government would face the burden of proving Clemens not only failed to tell the truth under oath but did so intentionally. The announcement came one day after Congress asked the Justice Department to examine whether the seven-time Cy Young Award winner lied when he testified he had never used steroids or human growth hormone.

The FBI is submitting nearly 40% fewer criminal investigations to the Justice Department for prosecution than it did two decades ago, a study indicated Thursday. The bureau has focused on terrorism investigations in recent years. Other federal agencies also heavily engaged in white-collar criminal investigations are showing similar changes, said the study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a private group at Syracuse University.

After a search that has lasted more than 36 years, all of the evidence in the case of the legendary outlaw known as D.B. Cooper fits easily into an inconspicuous box, carried comfortably under the arm of FBI agent Larry Carr. He is the newest in a line of about a dozen agents assigned to the case since 1971, when Cooper hijacked a passenger jet and bailed out over Clark County, Wash., with $200,000 in $20 bills. When the last agent moved on six months ago, Carr requested to take the case.

Police found the naked body of Diana Sylvester near her Christmas tree. The 22-year-old San Francisco nurse had been sexually assaulted and stabbed in the heart. She lay on her back, her neck laced with scratches and her mouth open as if frozen in a scream. For more than three decades, Sylvester's slaying went unsolved.