Government Misconduct

Senate Democrats assailed Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey on Wednesday for refusing to offer an opinion on the legality of waterboarding, an interrogation method that many consider a form of illegal torture. In often sharp exchanges, the lawmakers accused Mukasey of trying to protect the Bush administration, with one comparing him to a corporate lawyer trying to cover up the misdeeds of his client.

A former president of the Los Angeles Board of Building and Safety Commissioners has been charged with three criminal conflict-of-interest counts for voting to approve permits for an engineering firm that had hired his company, a prosecutor said Friday. The Los Angeles County district attorney filed the misdemeanor charges against Efren R. Abratique, who is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby acknowledged Friday that he spent campaign funds to pay for a one-week stay at a Fullerton hotel last August because of marital problems, an expense he labeled a "study of homeless and motel families" on financial disclosure forms. "I'm surprised it was on the campaign [account]; it should not have been," Norby said. "And I'm going to reimburse the campaign because I was there for personal stay."

After an acrimonious investigation that spanned four years, the Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to release a detailed critique of the Bush administration's claims in the buildup to war with Iraq, congressional officials said. The long-delayed document catalogs dozens of prewar assertions by President Bush and other administration officials that proved to be wildly inaccurate about Iraq's alleged stockpiles of banned weapons and pursuit of nuclear arms.

It was the way she stood there, enduring. Silda Wall Spitzer did not say a word as her husband, Gov. Eliot Spitzer, brusquely apologized to his family and the public after he was allegedly caught on a wiretap doing business with a high-priced prostitution ring. Her face was drawn. But she took her husband's hand as they left the room. This scandal has many salacious details, but it was the image of Silda Wall Spitzer at her man's side that dominated conversations across the country Tuesday.

Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila denied wrongdoing Thursday and gave no sign he would abandon his reelection effort after being charged with campaign finance violations that carry a penalty of 20 years in prison. Acevedo said that U.S. prosecutors' indictment -- which alleges that the governor and a dozen other people conspired to pay off his campaign debts illegally -- was politically motivated.

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, who earlier this month admitted using political contributions to pay for a hotel stay during a spat with his wife, spent nearly $8,000 from his campaign account in the last months of 2007 on unexplained charges, campaign finance records show.

Prosecutors considered trying to indict Eliot Spitzer for official misconduct for his role in the so-called Choppergate affair but decided not to after the former New York governor resigned in a prostitution scandal, according to a report released Friday by Albany Dist. Atty. David Soares. The highly anticipated report was an about-face from one Soares' office released in September clearing Spitzer of any wrongdoing.

House Democrats on Tuesday accused the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie L. Myers, of trying to cover up events related to a Halloween party last year where she gave a prize for "most original" costume to an employee in blackface and prison garb.

Minutes after routine surgery for acute appendicitis in October 2003, Staff Sgt. Dean Witt, 25, was being moved to a recovery room at a Northern California military hospital when he gasped and stopped breathing. A student nurse assisting an understaffed anesthesia team tried to resuscitate Witt and failed. Inexplicably, Witt's gurney was wheeled into a pediatric area. Lifesaving devices sized for children, not a 175-pound adult, proved useless, according to an internal report on the incident.