Palin's lawyer has already questioned 2 witnesses

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - So far, the lawyer for Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, has done a masterful job of handling a controversy known as "Troopergate."

With the country's attention focused on Palin the candidate, lawyer Thomas Van Flein has moved aggressively to undermine an Alaskan legislative inquiry and has started questioning potentially damaging witnesses against the governor.

The legislature launched a probe of Palin in July after former safety commissioner Walt Monegan said he felt pressured by the governor's office to fire a state trooper involved in a messy divorce with Palin's sister.

In 2005, before Palin ran for office, she and her husband, Todd, claimed the trooper, Mike Wooten, threatened to kill Sarah Palin's father. Wooten was suspended over the allegations for five days in 2006 but still has his job. The Palin family also accused Wooten of drinking beer in his patrol car, illegally shooting a moose and firing a Taser at his 11-year-old stepson.

Van Flein wants the state personnel board to conduct the probe, not the legislature. The board members are gubernatorial appointees. Van Flein said he has already provided the board the depositions of two witnesses he has questioned, leaving the legislature in the dark.

The legal tactic of pre-emptive questioning gives the governor a distinct advantage in the controversy because it means that she already knows at the outset the detailed accounts of potential witnesses against her. The procedure also locks important witnesses into the accounts they give. If the witnesses provide statements now that are favorable to Palin, the witnesses' credibility could be called into question if they make statements in the future that are unfavorable to her.

The questioning by Van Flein of two witnesses took place on Aug. 26 and Aug. 28.

In one of the depositions, Van Flein questioned gubernatorial aide Frank Bailey, who on Tuesday refused to testify to the legislative investigation of the governor.

Van Flein released the depositions of Bailey and Michael Monagle, a state manager with the workers' compensation division, to The Associated Press on Thursday night.

In them, Bailey says that the governor never asked him to do anything regarding Wooten. Palin and her husband, said Bailey, expressed "serious genuine concern about not only their safety but the safety of their family, their kids, their nieces, nephews, her father, regarding trooper Wooten." Bailey's answers to Van Flein's questions were consistent with the account Bailey told The AP last month.

Monagle said that in regard to the controversy, there were rumors on the Internet that the governor or her office had requested Wooten's workers' compensation file.

"Absolutely not" true, said Monagle, who said that the file is "in my office in a locked file cabinet" for safekeeping.

Bailey's actions are among the most controversial aspects of the investigation.

Early this year, Bailey was caught on tape questioning an Alaska State Trooper official why Wooten was still employed, given his conduct in regard to the divorce.

In the recorded conversation, Bailey said: "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, why on earth hasn't, why is this guy still representing the department? He's a horrible recruiting tool. ... You know, I mean from their perspective, everyone's protecting him."

In the Aug. 26 deposition, Van Flein asked why Bailey was saying such things.

Van Flein told Bailey, "You weren't doing it because the governor asked you to, correct?"

"Correct," Bailey responded.

After providing the depositions to the AP, Van Flein said Bailey and Monagle "have no reason to lie; they have been consistent in their statements. Why would they jeopardize themselves over something as inconsequential as this?"

Rangel paid no mortgage interest on beach house

By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. Charles Rangel paid no mortgage interest on a beach resort property for about 15 years, a lawyer for the powerful House committee chairman says.

The New York congressman's lawyer, Lanny Davis, tells The Associated Press that Rangel's no-interest deal for the villa in the Dominican Republic was due to the fact that he was an original investor in the resort development project.

The Democratic chairman of the powerful Ways and Means tax-writing committee has come under scrutiny for his vacation property and apartments he rents in his home of Harlem.

Davis says it is unlikely the congressman owes any back taxes under the federal tax code, but may owe a small amount to New York, on unreported rental income of about $75,000.

Abramoff gets 4 years prison in corruption scandal

By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Jack Abramoff, the once powerful lobbyist at the heart of a far-reaching political corruption scandal, was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday by a judge who said the case had shattered the public's confidence in government.

Abramoff, who fought back tears as he declared himself a broken man, appeared crestfallen as the judge handed down a sentence lengthier than prosecutors had sought.

Over the past three years, Abramoff has come to symbolize corruption and the secret deals cut between lobbyists and politicians in back rooms or on golf courses or private jets. The scandal shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill and contributed to the Republicans' loss of Congress in 2006.

"I come before you as a broken man," Abramoff said at his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. "I'm not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption."

He added later that, "My name is the butt of a joke, the source of a laugh and the title of a scandal."

Already two years into a prison term from a separate case in Florida, Abramoff, 49, will have spent about six years in prison by the time he is released, far longer than he and his attorneys expected for a man who became the key FBI witness in his own corruption case.

With Abramoff's help, the Justice Department has won corruption convictions against former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several top Capitol Hill aides.

Because of that cooperation, prosecutors were reserved in their comments to the court. Rather than regaling the court with a summary of the misdeeds and the seriousness of the corruption, the Justice Department said little in court while urging leniency.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell portrayed Abramoff as a conflicted man. Yes, he corrupted politicians with golf junkets, expensive meals and luxury seats at sporting events. But he also donated millions of dollars to charity, and his good deeds were catalogued in hundreds of letters from friends.

"How can we be talking about the same person?" Lowell said. "But that's the record: A modern-day 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'"

Although Abramoff expressed remorse Thursday, he also has spent his time in prison cooperating with a book that portrays him much differently: as a victim of Washington politics.

The book, set for publication later this month and obtained by The Associated Press, says Abramoff was pressured to plead guilty. The book blames The Washington Post and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee whose Senate committee investigated Abramoff, for making him the fall guy.

"I never expected that I would have to go to prison," Abramoff says in the book, "until it became clear that the media could not allow this play to close without the hanging of the villain."

In "The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff," Boston journalist Gary Chafetz portrays Abramoff as an innocent man who excelled in an already corrupt system and was undone by biased prosecutors, reporters and political enemies.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

That theory was nowhere to be found in court Thursday. Wearing green prison pants and a brown T-shirt, Abramoff wept as his attorney discussed his family's suffering. He seemed shocked when Huvelle handed down her sentence, looking at his wife and children and shaking his head.

Huvelle could have sent Abramoff to prison for 11 years for conspiring to defraud the U.S., corrupting public officials and defrauding his clients, but she but showed leniency because of his work with the FBI. She rejected, however, proposals to reduce the sentence even further by giving Abramoff credit for the time he already has spent in prison on a fraudulent casino deal in Florida.

Abramoff could appeal the sentence because Justice Department infighting is partly responsible for the lengthy prison term. Prosecutors in Washington had hoped to combine the casino case and the corruption case into one plea deal. But Florida prosecutors refused to give up their piece, as did Washington prosecutors, so the deal was split in two.

Huvelle seemed perplexed by that decision, even as prosecutor Mary Butler asked her to treat the two cases as one. Neither Lowell nor the Justice Department spoke after court.

---

Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Jesse J. Holland contributed to this report.

Man whose lawsuit scuttled DC gun ban gets permit

WASHINGTON (AP) - The man whose lawsuit overturned Washington's handgun ban has successfully registered his revolver, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home.

Dick Heller walked out of D.C. police headquarters Monday, clutching a yellow firearms registration certificate stamped "approved." He gave the thumbs-up sign, grinned and said, "Victory!"

Heller was among the first people to seek a gun permit under new rules adopted after the Supreme Court struck down the city's 32-year-old handgun ban in June. Heller was the plaintiff in that case.

He won approval to keep a .22-caliber revolver at home after coming to police headquarters in July to be fingerprinted and take a firearms proficiency test. Police approved the weapon after completing a background check.

Texas UPS driver goes 1 million miles, no crashes

PALESTINE, Texas (AP) - A routine package delivery turned into a milestone for a UPS driver in East Texas.

Brent Boyd on Thursday surpassed 1 million miles on his UPS delivery van, the same vehicle he's driven for 22 years with the company.

The odometer on Boyd's 1987 GMC truck rolled over to all zeros as he began his delivery route near Palestine (PAL'-uh-steen).

The 51-year-old says he's never had an accident with his company vehicle.

Boyd told The Associated Press that his truck has gone through at least three engines and been repainted almost as many times.

But he's resisted offers for a new van. Boyd says the truck is "like home" and feels like "sitting in the recliner in your house."

Gunman's rampage shows pitfalls for mentally ill

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) - Isaac Zamora's mother begged him to get help when he was released from jail a month ago. State and federal laws prevented her from doing much more for the man who has now been arrested after a shooting spree in rural northwest Washington that left six people dead and four wounded.

The Tuesday afternoon rampage began close to the home of Zamora's mother, Dennise Zamora, near Alger, about 70 miles north of Seattle. It continued amid a high-speed police pursuit on Interstate 5 and ended in Mount Vernon, about 20 miles south of Alger, when Zamora surrendered at a sheriff's office.

In the wake of the shootings, Dennise Zamora has said she wants people to know that "my son was desperately mentally ill and we've been trying to get him help."

If someone resists help in Washington, a family member must demonstrate he is a danger to society or himself or is "gravely disabled" before he can be involuntarily admitted to a mental hospital.

Washington's laws offer more options for involuntary commitment than most other states, said Ron Honberg, legal director of the Arlington, Va.-based National Alliance on Mental Illness. But Washington families still can't petition in court for their adult relatives to get treatment.

The laws were designed to protect the rights of the individual, explains David Weston, chief of mental health services with the mental health division of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services.

Many states, including Washington, also struggle to pay for mental health services.

That might be part of the explanation why Zamora, who was ordered by a judge to seek a mental health evaluation as soon as he was released from jail in August, had not yet seen a counselor. He served six months for cocaine possession.

His evaluation was delayed while his parole officer tried to find money to pay for it, said Chad Lewis, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections, which was supervising Zamora after his release.

Zamora, 28, is being held on $5 million bail for investigation of murder and attempted murder.

According to friends and family, the gunman had been in and out of hospitals over the years, seeking help for mental illness.

In Zamora's case, the treatment was mostly involuntary, but Weston said the majority of mental health services are provided to people who ask for help.

Fewer than one-third of adults with a diagnosable mental disorder receive any mental health services in a given year, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report on mental health.

Honberg called it a sad irony that in most cases, the 8.1 million adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in the United States are being cared for by their families, who have no legal standing.

Friends of Zamora said he had been diagnosed with both mental illnesses, but state officials would not say if such a diagnosis was part of his file.

Forcing an adult to get mental health services requires a complicated legal process in every state, and an appeal by a family member is not usually the most effective way to get that help.

"It's not unusual at all for the initial contact to be with law enforcement," Weston said. "911 is often the right place to start."

Family members may be more successful at getting their loved ones help for a mental disorder if they try an approach other than pleading or badgering, said Dr. Xavier Amador, author of a guide for getting treatment for a family member. Half of the people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in this country don't understand they are ill, Amador said.

Instead of trying to change the person's mind about treatment, family and friends can listen to the person's concerns and find a common area of agreement that can lead to the same result.

For example, the person may agree to treatment to keep the police away from their front door or may be willing to take medications as a way to avoid going to the hospital.

Amador, who said the method has been taught to families, health care providers and law enforcement officials around the world and helped get his own brother, who suffers from mental illness, into treatment.

"It's really pretty simple if you think about it," he said.

FDA posts list of potential problem drugs

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - In an effort to improve communication with doctors and patients on prescription drug safety, the government Friday began posting a list of medications under investigation for potential problems.

The first list is a bare-bones compilation naming 20 medications and the potential safety issue for each drug. But it provides no indication of how widespread or serious the problems might be. The listings will be updated for each calendar quarter.

"What's new here is that we are telling the public really at the earliest stage what we are working on," said Dr. Gerald Dal Pan, head of the Food and Drug Administration's drug safety office. "I think the public told us, 'We want to know what you are working on.' And we are responding to that."

Drugs will be placed on the list based on reports the FDA receives regularly from hospitals, doctors and patients. If FDA safety reviewers determine that a reported problem with a particular drug deserves a closer look, that medication will be on the list.

"Our hope is that this list will serve not only as a means of communication to the public, but that it will also serve to encourage (medical) providers to provide us with additional reports should they see similar kinds of adverse events with the drugs that are on the list," said Dr. Paul Seligman, who is responsible for the FDA's safety communications.

Consumer advocates called the move a positive step, but there was no immediate reaction from the pharmaceutical industry.

Congress ordered the FDA to post the information under a drug safety bill that passed last year.

-

On the Web: http://tinyurl.com/5bu2om