Ted Stevens

ANCHORAGE — Former senator Ted Stevens, an uncompromising advocate for Alaska for four decades who spearheaded scores of expensive projects for one of the nation’s most sparsely populated states, including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,’’ died Monday night in a plane crash. He was 86. Family spokesman Mitch Rose said yesterday that Mr. Stevens was among five people killed in the crash of a small aircraft outside Dillingham, about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage. Mr. Stevens began his career in the days before Alaska statehood and did not leave politics until...

An office that reports directly to the U.S. attorney general is looking into questions about the Justice Department's handling of an investigation into former Veco Corp. chairman Bill Allen. Allen was a key witness in an Alaska corruption investigation that ensnared then-Sen. Ted Stevens. Last year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said politics played no role in the department's decision not to charge Allen with allegedly having an affair with a 15-year-old girl. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska asked the department's inspector general and Office of Professional...

WASHINGTON - The special prosecutor who investigated the botched case against late senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is not recommending criminal charges against any of the Justice Department lawyers who tried him despite finding widespread misconduct beyond what has yet been publicly revealed. The findings in a 2 ½-year investigation by Washington lawyer Henry F. Schuelke III were revealed yesterday in an order from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the investigation found the Stevens prosecution was "permeated" by prosecutors' concealment of evidence that could have helped...

WASHINGTON - The special prosecutor who investigated the botched case against late senator Ted Stevens of Alaska is not recommending criminal charges against any of the Justice Department lawyers who tried him despite finding widespread misconduct beyond what has yet been publicly revealed. The findings in a 2 ½-year investigation by Washington lawyer Henry F. Schuelke III were revealed yesterday in an order from US District Judge Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan wrote the investigation found the Stevens prosecution was "permeated" by prosecutors' concealment of evidence that could have helped...

An office that reports directly to the U.S. attorney general is looking into questions about the Justice Department's handling of an investigation into former Veco Corp. chairman Bill Allen. Allen was a key witness in an Alaska corruption investigation that ensnared then-Sen. Ted Stevens. Last year, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said politics played no role in the department's decision not to charge Allen with allegedly having an affair with a 15-year-old girl. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska asked the department's inspector general and Office of Professional...

WASHINGTON - US Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday warned federal prosecutors of increased scrutiny in the wake of mistakes in the corruption case against former senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Holder told assistant US attorneys for the District of Columbia that they must respond to negative perceptions of federal prosecutors by doing "the right thing. " "Your job as assistant US attorneys is not to convict people," Holder said. "Your job is not to win cases. Your job is to do justice.

WASHINGTON - Since before statehood, Ted Stevens has believed in Alaska. In a Senate career has that spanned five decades, he has championed Alaska's oil and fishing industries and delivered billions of dollars to its cities and far-flung villages. Now, as he prepares to stand trial in the midst of a contentious reelection fight, "Uncle Ted" is asking Alaska to believe in him. "Alaskans work on the basis of faith. I have faith in them and they have faith in me," said Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican.

The TSA said yesterday that it would extend to Logan International Airport and 27 other major airports this year a new screening program that will allow some travelers to avoid removing their shoes and belts, speeding passage through security checkpoints. The agency already has put the PreCheck program in place at seven airports. The move reflects an attempt by TSA, first announced in May, to respond to consumer complaints about passenger screenings. This is the way it works: To participate in the program, travelers must be part of...

ANCHORAGE - The former head of an oil field service company admitted yesterday in court that he bribed three Alaska legislators, including the son of a US senator who is the target of a federal investigation. Former VECO Corp. CEO Bill Allen, 70, testified yesterday in the federal corruption trial of former state House speaker Pete Kott. Allen and a former company vice president, Rick Smith, have pleaded guilty to bribing lawmakers, and await sentencing. Allen said he bribed Kott, former state Senate president...

NEW YORK - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview yesterday that "we have trade missions back and forth. " Palin has never visited Russia, and until last year the 44-year-old first-term Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. She also had never met a foreign leader until her trip this week to New York. Palin's foreign policy experience came up when she gave her first major interview, on Sept.

ANCHORAGE — Former senator Ted Stevens, an uncompromising advocate for Alaska for four decades who spearheaded scores of expensive projects for one of the nation’s most sparsely populated states, including the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,’’ died Monday night in a plane crash. He was 86. Family spokesman Mitch Rose said yesterday that Mr. Stevens was among five people killed in the crash of a small aircraft outside Dillingham, about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage. Mr. Stevens began his career in the days before Alaska statehood and did not leave politics until...

WASHINGTON - US Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday warned federal prosecutors of increased scrutiny in the wake of mistakes in the corruption case against former senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Holder told assistant US attorneys for the District of Columbia that they must respond to negative perceptions of federal prosecutors by doing "the right thing. " "Your job as assistant US attorneys is not to convict people," Holder said. "Your job is not to win cases. Your job is to do justice.

WASHINGTON - Since before statehood, Ted Stevens has believed in Alaska. In a Senate career has that spanned five decades, he has championed Alaska's oil and fishing industries and delivered billions of dollars to its cities and far-flung villages. Now, as he prepares to stand trial in the midst of a contentious reelection fight, "Uncle Ted" is asking Alaska to believe in him. "Alaskans work on the basis of faith. I have faith in them and they have faith in me," said Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican.

WASHINGTON - Jurors were offered conflicting views of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska during a four-week corruption trial: a cantankerous but credible senator who didn't know he was being lavished with free gifts, or a sour-faced, scheming one who thought he knew how to quietly get undisclosed freebies. Stevens completed three days of testimony yesterday with lawyers still trying to convince jurors of their portrait of the longtime Republican lawmaker, who has been charged with lying on financial disclosure forms about $250,000 in renovations and other gifts he received from oil services...

WASHINGTON -- Congress debated legislation yesterday giving two committee chairmen and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said it was all a mistake and would be swiftly repealed. "This is a serious situation," said Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said he was unaware of the provision, inserted into a 3,300-page spending bill covering most federal agencies and programs.