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Nation in brief
DeLay legal team seeks grand jury testimony
By wire services
Published December 16, 2005
AUSTIN - Rep. Tom DeLay's attorneys filed a subpoena Thursday seeking the testimony of grand jurors, including those who indicted the former House majority leader and those who rejected charges.
DeLay's legal team wants to prove prosecutorial misconduct by District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who they say "shopped around" the campaign finance case against DeLay to three different grand juries before finding one that would indict DeLay on money laundering and conspiracy charges.
State law prohibits prosecutors from attending grand jury deliberations, but the defense alleges that Earle unlawfully participated in the second grand jury's deliberations and tried to force those grand jurors to indict DeLay.
Grand jury testimony is secret and Earle does not have to release transcripts unless he's ordered to by a court.
Sharpton agrees to pay elections board $100,000
WASHINGTON - Former presidential candidate Al Sharpton has agreed to repay $100,000 plus interest to the government for taxpayer funds he received as part of his failed 2004 bid.
Sharpton, an activist minister from New York, has been at odds with the Federal Election Commission for more than a year over his personal loans to his campaign.
Repayment of the money was a deal with the FEC that was announced Thursday.
To qualify for federal matching funds, a candidate must not spend more than $50,000 of his own money on the campaign. An investigation found Sharpton spent more than $110,000 of his own money.
Reservoir's breached wall composed of "rubble'
ST. LOUIS - Inspectors said they were shocked to discover that the collapsed portion of a mountaintop reservoir was made of rocky "fill" instead of the granite thought for decades to be the main material, the state's chief reservoir inspector said Thursday.
James Alexander said the broken portion of retaining wall - 70 to 80 feet high and about two football fields wide - appeared to consist of soil and smaller rock.
"We were shocked," he said, to see the "rubble material."
When the 50-acre upper reservoir breached, the water tore from its foundation the home of a park superintendent, his wife and their three young children. All five survived, but the children were being treated at a St. Louis hospital for hypothermia.
[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:55:10]
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