Don Young & CREW: That Coconut Road Investigation Is Going Nowhere

[L. Coyote]

Did the hen house decided the fox will investigate who stole the egg?
I think I understand everything except why they turned this over to DoJ?
Isn't DoJ still covering up Republican crimes?

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CREW: That Coconut Road Investigation Is Going Nowhere
By Paul Kiel - April 17, 2008, 5:56PM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/crew_that_coconut_road_investi.php


All that bother today will amount to a whole lot of nothing, says Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Executive Director Melanie Sloan:

"Clearly, something went seriously awry before the 2005 highway funding bill was sent to the president. The question now is the best way to find out how and why this occurred. It certainly appears as if Don Young (R-AK) snuck in the earmark in exchange for campaign contributions from Florida developer Daniel Aronoff. ......

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Senate Historian: Coconut Road Amendment Unprecedented
By Paul Kiel - April 17, 2008, 5:42PM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/senate_historian_coconut_road.php

So the Senate has voted to require the Justice Department to investigate how Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) earmark came to be changed after the bill passed both houses of Congress. .......

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Pelosi: Let's Get The House Ethics Committee on The Case!
By Paul Kiel - April 17, 2008, 4:50PM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/pelosi_lets_get_the_house_ethi.php

So now the Senate has agreed on an amendment that will require the Justice Department to investigate Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaking earlier today said that she thinks the House ethics committee ought to get on the case. ......

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Senate Votes to Call for Justice Department to Investigate Coconut Road Earmark
By Paul Kiel - April 17, 2008, 3:54PM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/senate_votes_to_call_for_justi.php

Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-CA) amendment just passed by a margin of 63 to 29. Virtually all Senate Democrats supported the measure, helped by a good number of Republicans.

The amendment requires a review by the Department of Justice into the allegations of impropriety regarding Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) Coconut Road earmark and an investigation into whether the change broke the law. .....

[L. Coyote]

1. Today's Must Read = It's like DON YOUNG Day at TPM =

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - April 16, 2008, 10:14AM - http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/todays_must_read_318.php

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) has spent more than one million dollars on criminal defense lawyers. And for some reason, reporters won't stop asking him questions about it.

Are the feds investigating whether Young took bribes from the corrupt executives at Veco (as The Wall Street Journal has reported)? What about his ties to Jack Abramoff? Anything else?

This February, he practically leaped out of his seat at a journo who had the temerity to press for details. "It's not my prerogative to answer to people who have nothing to do with it. That's you," he said ....

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http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/don_young/

[L. Coyote]

2. visibility kick because we should be partying on this political graveyard!!

[Blue_In_AK]

3. L. Coyote, did you see my post here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3175984



Local coverage has really been on this. Don is so done.

[L. Coyote]

4. This was a HUGE news day, and a BAD news day for Young

You just can't sell interchanges :rofl:

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Justice asked to probe Young earmark
COCONUT ROAD: Circumstances of $10 million change questioned.
By ERIKA BOLSTAD - April 18th, 2008 - http://www.adn.com/news/politics/fbi/young/story/379679.html

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday took the unusual step of asking the Justice Department to investigate Rep. Don Young's Coconut Road earmark.

The Senate's 64-28 vote calls on the Justice Department to look into the circumstances surrounding the 2005 earmark, which shifted $10 million from a road widening project in southwest Florida to a study of an interchange that promised to benefit one of Young's campaign donors.

.............

"If violations of federal criminal law occurred, it is the province of the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate and prosecute them," Reid said on the Senate floor. ....

Lobbying disclosure forms show that in 2005, the Landon Companies paid Alcalde $80,000 specifically to lobby on Young's highway bill.....

[L. Coyote]

5. Don Young, Representative for Florida?

Don Young, Representative for Florida?
Alaska Republican Facing Investigation for Earmark Was a Frequent Traveler on Special Interests' Dime

By Caitlin Ginley - WASHINGTON, April 18, 2008 — http://www.publicintegrity.org/Report.aspx?aid=973


Alaska Republican Don Young, currently under fire for possibly illegal earmarking for a project near Naples, Florida, was one of Congress's most frequent fliers, racking up more than $20,000 in special-interest sponsored travel to the Sunshine State over a five-and-a-half-year period.

.... Of these 21 trips, seven were to Florida, ranging in cost from $1,050 to about $5,863. Among the list of sponsors are several interest groups, including the Association of American Railroads, American Maritime Officers, and the American Federation of Labor - Council of Industrial Organizations. All totaled, these seven jaunts cost $20,388.60.

Young's office, including his staff, was one of only a few Congressional offices to accept more than 200 trips and more than $350,000 in travel during the January 2000 through June 2005 period covered by the study. ........