Hazel O Leary

Re your editorial, "When Frugality Is Saintliness," June 26: A Cabinet member who spent $335 per night for a hotel room and upgraded to first class for air travel on government money was engaging in a flagrant misuse of taxpayers' money. For Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary to get away with this practice for over a year was inexcusable gross mismanagement by her superiors. Who approved her expense reports? Was anyone in charge of minding the budget? Well-run businesses have expense policies which dictate how much can be spent on travel and entertainment.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary was named president of Fisk University on Tuesday, becoming the fifth person to head the financially struggling black institution in almost a decade. "I'm excited to be back," said O'Leary, a 1959 Fisk graduate. "I'm looking forward to meeting these wonderful students and working with an exemplary faculty that has hung on for so long."

President-elect Bill Clinton has chosen utility executive Hazel O'Leary to be his energy secretary and former South Carolina Gov. Richard W. Riley to head the Education Department, sources said Sunday. The selections will be announced at a noon PST press conference today and will bring Clinton closer to his goal of choosing his top 25 Administration officials before Christmas. More announcements are due Tuesday and Wednesday.

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that Energy Department officials may have covered up links between a $25,000 donation to the favorite charity of then-Secretary Hazel O'Leary and a meeting she agreed to have with a Chinese delegation, The Times has learned.

The United States has had globe-trotting presidents and secretaries of state, but never a globe-trotting Energy secretary. Until now. In her three years running an agency traditionally preoccupied with the nation's domestic energy programs, Hazel O'Leary has begun to distinguish herself for her ventures abroad--and for the sheer scale of them. Most heads of Cabinet departments such as Energy spend their time in Washington and on periodic trips to field operations around the country.

I'm getting a bit leery about the travels of Hazel O'Leary and frankly, isn't she getting a bit weary? LYLE TALBOT Lancaster

A House panel investigating campaign fund-raising abuses will review allegations that an aide to then-Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary sought a donation to O'Leary's favorite charity from a Democratic donor. The donor, Johnny Chien Chuen Chung, alleged that he was asked to make the donation while seeking to set up a meeting between a Chinese businessman and O'Leary.

Former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said Thursday that the Justice Department has decided to launch a preliminary investigation into allegations by Democratic donor Johnny Chien Chuen Chung that O'Leary met a Chinese executive after Chung contributed to her favorite charity.

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary cited the former Rocky Flats nuclear plant Monday as a prime example of why she needs to travel abroad on trips that have drawn fire from the Republican-controlled Congress. The plant's Building 889--which produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years--is being closed and demolished at a cost of $1.7 million.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary was named president of Fisk University on Tuesday, becoming the fifth person to head the financially struggling black institution in almost a decade. "I'm excited to be back," said O'Leary, a 1959 Fisk graduate. "I'm looking forward to meeting these wonderful students and working with an exemplary faculty that has hung on for so long."

Former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary said Thursday that the Justice Department has decided to launch a preliminary investigation into allegations by Democratic donor Johnny Chien Chuen Chung that O'Leary met a Chinese executive after Chung contributed to her favorite charity.

A House panel investigating campaign fund-raising abuses will review allegations that an aide to then-Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary sought a donation to O'Leary's favorite charity from a Democratic donor. The donor, Johnny Chien Chuen Chung, alleged that he was asked to make the donation while seeking to set up a meeting between a Chinese businessman and O'Leary.

A victorious President Clinton flew back to Washington on Wednesday, as an exodus of Cabinet officials began and the White House moved swiftly to assemble a new team. Mindful of the lengthy and awkward start-up that hurt Clinton's first term, the White House wants a smooth transition to a second term. But the scope of the task became clear Wednesday, even before Air Force One touched down at Andrews Air Force Base to end its flight from Little Rock, Ark.

An extensive independent probe into Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's foreign travel missions blames sloppy planning and inefficient management for exorbitant costs and other difficulties associated with the trips but stops short of holding any individual Department of Energy official accountable.

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary cited the former Rocky Flats nuclear plant Monday as a prime example of why she needs to travel abroad on trips that have drawn fire from the Republican-controlled Congress. The plant's Building 889--which produced plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons for 40 years--is being closed and demolished at a cost of $1.7 million.

By turns contrite and combative, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary repeatedly apologized Thursday for mismanagement and wasteful spending on four costly foreign trade missions that she led but insisted that the trips advanced important national interests. "I will always regret that we fell short . . .

An extensive independent probe into Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's foreign travel missions blames sloppy planning and inefficient management for exorbitant costs and other difficulties associated with the trips but stops short of holding any individual Department of Energy official accountable.

A move to lift a ban on oil exports from Alaska got tentative support from the secretary of energy Tuesday, but an aide to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray said the ban would stand if challenged on the Senate floor. Murray (D-Wash.) is fighting to make the ban permanent. Under current law, oil from Alaska's North Slope must be sold in the United States, a condition imposed when the trans-Alaskan pipeline was approved by Congress in the 1970s.

Four large-scale trade missions led by Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary were replete with mismanagement and wasteful spending, according to a draft report by the department's inspector general that was released Wednesday. The 182-page report, based on a six-month investigation of O'Leary's foreign travel, also said that in justifying the trips, the Energy Department greatly overstated the economic benefits that they brought to participating U.S. businesses.

Faced with continuing criticism of her expensive foreign travel as well as an ongoing investigation, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary has agreed not to undertake any new international trade missions until her department resolves well-documented problems in arranging overseas trips.