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Ohio governor faces ethics charges

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gov. Bob Taft was charged with four ethics violations Wednesday for allegedly failing to report dozens of gifts that included dinners, golf games and professional hockey tickets.

Taft, a Republican, becomes the first governor in Ohio history to be charged with a crime. The charges are also an embarrassment for a politician who has pushed for high ethical standards in his office.

Taft could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail on each count if convicted.

Taft will respond publicly today and is not planning to resign, spokesman Mark Rickel said.

CRAWFORD, Texas - War protesters camping in roadside ditches near President Bush's ranch have accepted a neighbor's offer to stay on his property, and they are scheduled to be joined this week by FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and by another woman whose son died in Iraq.

The neighbor, Army veteran Fred Mattlage, said he sympathizes with the vigil started Aug. 6 by Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq last year.

Former FBI special agent Rowley said she and Minnesota state Sen. Becky Lourey, whose son was killed in Iraq, will leave for Texas today.

"It puts a human face on this issue," said Rowley, who is now retired from the FBI and a Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota.She has criticized the agency for ignoring her pleas before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to investigate terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui more aggressively.

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 01:06:07]