AP investigation: Palin got zoning aid, gifts

[Enrique]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijvcK8P0ztXwMgir7NnkIy4rcI0AD93FQIA81

AP Investigation: Palin got zoning aid, gifts

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE – 2 hours ago

WASILLA, Alaska (AP) — Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception — and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

She also stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings. She asked the City Council to add a friend to the list of speakers at a 2002 meeting — and then the friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.

(...)

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. good find

[samsingh]

2. more repub corruption

[cui bono]

3. And she just got 2 free cheesesteaks the other day. n/t