Legislative Hearings

His boss is James T. Riady, the elusive billionaire who refuses to answer Senate investigators' questions about his relationship with President Clinton. Another of his longtime superiors was John Huang, the fallen Democratic fund-raiser who also is refusing to talk. In fact, James E. Per Lee, president and chief executive officer of LippoBank California, has spent more time with Riady and Huang than any federal agent or congressional staffer assigned to the campaign finance investigations.

Brent Boyd was a 23-year-old rookie scrambling to stick with the Minnesota Vikings when he suffered his first concussion as a professional football player. Nearly three decades later, the preseason-game collision that left Boyd temporarily blind in one eye continues to haunt. "I couldn't tell you how many [concussions] I had," said Boyd, who was born in Downey, graduated with honors from UCLA and spent six years as an NFL offensive lineman. "We didn't count them.

The Senate on Monday opened long-sealed transcripts of closed-door hearings conducted by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, removing a last layer of secrecy surrounding the tactics he employed during his infamous hunt for communists in the government 50 years ago. The newly released documents are replete with examples of the abrasive style McCarthy and his aides, especially chief counsel Roy M.

Federal programs aimed at modifying loans to stem foreclosures aren't working, witnesses told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, and some lawmakers called on Congress again to pass a bill allowing bankruptcy judges to modify home loans -- a procedure known as mortgage cram-downs. Separately, the Federal Reserve took steps to make lending terms more understandable as part of its efforts to avoid another mortgage meltdown, which triggered the deep recession worldwide.

Even before anyone testified Wednesday, it was clear that Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) wanted his "investigative" hearing on race and gender preferences to be unlike any other. For starters, the first witness, Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson, was sworn to tell the truth--a formality rarely employed in legislative hearings. Then, in a stunning departure from the norm, Wilson was asked whether she was on drugs.

A day of explosive developments in the Chuck Quackenbush case included an arrest warrant, revelations of shredded documents and testimony that the insurance commissioner personally directed employees to collect millions from title companies for TV commercials that would feature him.

Besieged House Speaker Newt Gingrich managed to quell an uprising by his closest lieutenants last week, but his troubles are expected to build in the days ahead as Senate investigators set their sights on foreign contributions to the Republican Party.

As the Internal Revenue Service has expanded its role in the federal war on drugs, it has begun subjecting ordinary American taxpayers to the same heavy-handed enforcement techniques used on drug lords and money launderers, a Senate committee was told. Several taxpayers described how they became the targets of raids by dozens of armed IRS agents--searches that ultimately failed to result in prosecutions for tax fraud but did manage to financially devastate the taxpayers.

Police officers told Congress on Monday they fear the radar guns they use to catch speeders are giving them cancer, but scientists differed on whether there is any evidence of a link. The officers complained the government isn't doing enough to warn troopers or to investigate the medical effects of microwave radiation emitted by the traffic radar guns. "Hand-held police radar guns should be restricted or banned," said Thomas Malcolm, a police officer in Windsor Locks, Conn.

After a murderous campaign, Wo Hop To, a Hong Kong-based "triad"--a centuries-old criminal society--has taken command of burgeoning and volatile Asian organized crime in the San Francisco Bay Area. In contrast, Asian syndicate crime in Southern California appears to be "in a state of turmoil," with no one organization dominant, Senate investigators have concluded.