Washington briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001

Clinton in-law helped win pardons

WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton's brother-in-law Tony Rodham helped obtain a presidential pardon for a Tennessee couple last March over the objections of the Justice Department, the New York Times reported, citing lawyers familiar with the pardon.

Clinton granted pardons last March to Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife, Vonna Jo. The Gregorys, operators of a carnival company, United Shows of America, were convicted of bank fraud in 1982 amid accusations that they had used the assets of a bank they owned to give loans to friends. The couple has made campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans, and they contributed to the Senate campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Tony Rodham's sister.

In an interview Wednesday night, Rodham acknowledged that he had asked Clinton to pardon the Gregorys, but he said he had received no payment for his efforts. But Rodham does have a financial tie to the Gregorys and has been a consultant for Edgar Gregory for about seven years, helping him buy radio stations and expand his carnival business.

Clinton pardoned the Gregorys on March 15, 2000. Although this was nearly a year before the controversial batch of pardons he approved on his last day in office, the pardons of the Gregorys attracted criticism inside the Clinton administration because lawyers at the Justice Department had strongly opposed it.

Sub skipper apologizes to families in letters

HONOLULU -- The commander of the nuclear submarine Greeneville, which sank a Japanese fishing trawler 19 days ago, has delivered letters of apology to the families of the nine people lost, the trawler's skipper and Japanese officials, Japanese and Navy officials said Wednesday.

The commander, Scott D. Waddle, visited the consulate here on Tuesday afternoon to apologize and to deliver the letters, which he had written himself.

In a meeting with Yoshio Mochizuki, a vice minister in the Foreign Ministry who was visiting from Tokyo, Waddle, who was dressed in a business suit and was alone, made a traditional deep bow and said a few words in Japanese.

"When Waddle handed the letters to me tears fell from his eyes," Mochizuki told Japanese reporters at the airport before his departure for Tokyo Wednesday. "He repeated over and over to me his words of apology." He added that Waddle had "used the word apology so I accepted it as an apology."

Mochizuki said he was carrying the letters with him to Japan.

Waddle's gesture may help allay anger in Japan, where the tradition of making amends with a formal bow and a teary apology is considered extremely important. Apologies from President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others were not enough.

In Tokyo Wednesday, Adm. William J. Fallon, vice chief of naval operations, met with the relatives of missing victims.

Bankruptcy overhaul bill passes Senate committee

A bill that would overhaul the nation's bankruptcy system and make it far more difficult for people to wipe out their debts passed an important hurdle Wednesday when it was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee 10-8 and sent to the full Senate.

A similar bill is expected to be adopted by the full House as early as today, and President Bush has signaled that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk. President Clinton vetoed similar legislation.

Consumer groups and other opponents of the bill have described it as potentially disastrous for workers who may be thrown out of their jobs if the economy continues to slow.

They say it would do nothing to stem the practices of banks and credit card companies that flood the mail with solicitations for easy, high-interest credit.

Corps of Engineers halts study of river projects

The Army Corps of Engineers has temporarily suspended its eight-year, $60-million study of Mississippi River construction projects, a response to an independent report released Wednesday detailing serious flaws with the agency's economic and environmental analyses.

The National Academy of Sciences report concludes that the study was marred by inaccurate projections and inappropriate methodologies. It urges the Corps to consider far less costly and damaging ways to ease barge traffic before considering billion-dollar lock expansions.

It comes just two months after an even tougher report by the Army inspector general.

Bill would ban drilling in Arctic wildlife refuge

Two days after Republicans unveiled an energy bill that would allow oil drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge, legislation was introduced Wednesday in both the House and Senate to permanently protect the area from oil rigs.

A bill by Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., would designate the 1.5-million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a wilderness area, barring future development. A similar bill was introduced in the House.

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