On Jul 9, 5:04 pm, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

From The Associated Press, 7/9/07:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288712,00.html

Alaska Sen.TedStevensUnder Investigation for Renovation Project

WASHINGTON -

TedStevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and once the chief
power broker for dispensing federal dollars, says he's worried that a
corruption investigation "could cause me some trouble" in running for
re-election next year.

The 83-year-old Alaska Republican has drawn Justice Department
scrutiny over a renovation project in 2000 that more than doubled the
size of his home in a resort town surrounded by glaciers.

The remodeling was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has
pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators.

Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and
engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in
federal contracts.

Allen is cooperating with the FBI, and investigators appear to be
looking at whether VECO got anything in return for the home
improvement help.

Sen.Stevens, who has served since 1968, has been caught up in a
larger probe that included FBI raids last summer at offices of six
Alaska legislators - includingStevens' son, Ben, who was then the
president of the state Senate.

"The worst thing about this investigation is that it does change your
life in terms of employment potential,"Stevenssaid in an interview
with The Associated Press.

"It doesn't matter what anyone says, it does shake you up. If this is
still hanging around a year from November, it could cause me some
trouble.

"I'm working to get this concept out of my mind that someone is trying
to make something illegal out of all this, That's what's really
disturbing."

Stevensis a powerful insider in the clubby U.S. Senate.

Prior to the Democratic takeover this year,Stevens' longevity made
him president pro tempore, a mostly symbolic title but one that made
him third in line for the presidency after the vice president and
speaker of the House.

He's known for wearing cartoon ties with characters that signify his
mighty image, like the Incredible Hulk.

The senator who once described himself as "a mean, miserable SOB" was
chairman of the of the Appropriations Committee from 1997 to 2005,
except for 18 months when Democrats controlled the Senate.

That meant every senator was beholden to him for federal funding of
projects in his or her state, andStevenswas known for the money he
sent back home.

It's hard to find a major Alaska business that he hasn't helped and
that hasn't donated to his campaigns and political committees.

Over the past six years, VECO executives and the company itself
contributed more than $119,000 toStevens' political organizations,
according to tracking by Political Money Line, an Internet database.

Of that amount, Allen contributed $20,000.

Stevensand Allen also are longtime friends and partners in a race
horse investment.

The remodeling job atStevens' home was fraught with problems at the
start.

He estimated it would cost about $85,000 and told city building
officials he would be his own contractor.

The plan was to raiseStevens' single-level home and, beneath it,
construct a new first floor with two bedrooms, a game room and sauna.

Complete with a wraparound porch, the completed project would be twice
the size of the original, modest house in the town of Girdwood.

Building records don't indicate how things went wrong, but somehow the
framing was botched and help was called in to fix it.

Carpenter Augie Paone has said he was hired by an employee of VECO.

Rather than submit his bills toStevens, Paone said he submitted them
to VECO founder Allen.

Paone told a federal grand jury that he didn't find anything unusual
about the project, people close to the case said.

Once Allen approved the work,Stevenspaid for it with a series of
checks, according to two people close to the investigation.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because grand jury matters are
secret by law.

Stevenswould not discuss the details of the investigation, including
why the checks were drawn on an apparently new account and where the
money came from.

The carpentry bill alone exceeded $100,000, and contractor Tony Hannah
saidStevenspaid an additional $3,720 to have the house jacked up.

The FBI has those records, and agents recently examinedStevens'
building permits, which do not mention VECO or any of the contractors
who worked on the job.

They also have begun questioningStevens' former Capitol Hill aides.

Nestled at the base of the Chugach Mountains, Girdwood is a haven for
skiers who love the wide-open trails and colossal snowfalls.

It also attracts some of Alaska's well-heeled professionals.

For his first three decades as a senator,Stevenswas poor by Senate
standards.

In 1997, his largest assets were his savings in the Senate Credit
Union, worth between $100,001 and $250,000 and three $50,001-$100,000
investments.

One was in JLS Properties, which owned two properties in Alaska.

But after 1997, the year thatStevensbecame chairman of the
Appropriations Committee, he began to leave the Senate's poorhouse.

Stevens' business partners in JLS were Alaska developers Jonathan
Rubini and Leonard Hyde.

The partnership initially invested in an office park near the
Anchorage airport and a two-story office building.

Late in 2000, the year of the home renovations,Stevensshowed he was
willing to intervene for a business partner.

He helped Rubini keep a $450 million contract with the Defense
Department for housing on Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

Stevenssaid he got involved only when the project stalled because of
the military's concerns about the contractor's financial backing by
local lenders.

"It was a competitive bid and I don't get involved in competitive
bids, that's for sure,"Stevenssaid.

"But I did get involved in raising a question of whether (the lenders
had) a sufficient surety for a bid by an Alaska contractor on a
federal contract."

WhileStevenssays he was a passive investor in JLS, his assets -
including high-rise office buildings - soared.

In 2004,Stevensmade a change that hid many of his assets.

He sold JLS investments and other assets, and placed most of them in a
blind trust worth between $1 million and $5 million.

The senator was granted an extension to file his disclosure report for
2006. It will be made public in mid-July.

VECO has been a powerhouse in Alaska for years.

It was the primary cleanup contractor following the Exxon Valdez oil
spill in 1989 and won lucrative federal airport construction
contracts.

After a lull in federal business in the early- to mid-1990s, VECO
landed several major government contracts at the end of the decade.

That growth corresponded withStevens' ascension to chairman of
Appropriations Committee.

Since 1997, whenStevenstook the helm of the committee, VECO won more
than $65 million in federal contracts - more than three times what it
earned in the prior nine years.

VECO won Navy engineering contracts, oil industry maintenance deals
and office repair agreements and became the National Science
Foundation's exclusive provider of logistical support for Arctic
researchers.
_______________________________________________

Time to get this corrupt Repug's ***** outa the Senate and into jail
where it belongs.

Harry

Why does the senator from Alaska live in New Hampshire I believe it
is? I always thought you elected someone from your own state.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -