Jerry Lewis

When the list was finished, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) came out on top, ahead of all his House peers. But this was one triumph no one in his office was celebrating. Lewis, according to an analysis released Wednesday, got more campaign cash from lobbyists than any of his colleagues did. The lawmaker is under federal scrutiny over his ties to lobbyists whose clients have received millions of dollars in earmarks from the appropriations committee.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), the House Appropriations Committee chairman whose ties to lobbyists have come under scrutiny, has spent more than $750,000 from his campaign fund for defense lawyers, according to his latest spending report. Federal investigators are examining Lewis' association with lobbyists who have secured millions of dollars in congressional earmarks for their clients. Lobbyists and their clients have contributed heavily to Lewis' political war chests, records show.

The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared a longtime aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of any breach of rules for accepting a nearly $2-million payout from his former lobbying firm. The aide, Jeffrey Shockey, received $1.96 million in severance payments when he left Washington-based Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White to return to work for Lewis (R-Redlands) as deputy staff director of the Appropriations Committee.

Jerry Lewis' annual Labor Day telethon in Las Vegas raised a record $61 million for muscular dystrophy, helped by $23.5 million from the International Assn. of Fire Fighters. Last year, $54.9 million was raised. "We did good," said Lewis, 80, as the final tally of $61,013,855 flashed across the board. "I can only thank you from the bottom of my heart for so many little people that can't thank you, can't show their appreciation in any way."

Actor Jerry Lewis sued Walt Disney Co.'s Hollywood Pictures unit, saying he is owed $1.05 million under an agreement to remake or produce a sequel to the 1961 comedy "The Errand Boy." Hollywood Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment Group, which acquired the 1996 agreement from Hollywood Pictures, have paid Lewis only $50,000 out of the $1.

Comedian Jerry Lewis is back working the phones for his annual Labor Day telethon as he recuperates on his boat in San Diego after heart surgery, his manager said Monday. "He's recovering and already working on the telethon," his longtime manager, Claudia Marghilano, said about Lewis' benefit for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. Lewis was released from a hospital Saturday after having surgery to insert a stent in an artery after a June 11 heart attack, she said.

Growing up in the Inland Empire, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) was such a star at San Bernardino High School that he captained the swimming team and his basketball jersey was later retired. He went on to build an insurance business, raise seven children, serve on a school board and enter the state Legislature before going on to Congress.

The lobbying firm enmeshed in a federal investigation of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is breaking up because of publicity surrounding the probe, the company said. The firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, has been a major player in Washington, particularly in winning narrow appropriations, known as "earmarks," for military contractors, municipalities and others.

A top aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) reported Wednesday that he received more money than he previously disclosed from a lobbying firm that has come under scrutiny for its ties to Lewis. The aide, Jeffrey Shockey, corrected his financial disclosure reports to reveal that his salary in 2004 from Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White totaled about $500,000 more than he had reported.

A senior aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) received nearly $2 million in departure payments from a Washington lobbying firm when he returned to Capitol Hill to work for Lewis, who is now under federal investigation for ties to that firm. The payments to the aide, Jeffrey Shockey, were detailed in a financial disclosure report released Friday by Shockey's lawyers.