Committee questions conduct of Tom DeLay
It is the second time the House majority leader's
political actions have been criticized this week
BY LARRY MARGASAK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The House ethics
committee Wednesday criticized
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for
conduct that appeared to link political
donations to legislation and for im
properly contacting U.S. aviation au
thorities for political purposes, House
sources said Wednesday.
The committee’s findings were an
extraordinary second rebuke of the
Texas Republican’s ethical conduct in
just six days.
The committee of five Democrats
and five Republicans deferred to Texas
authorities allegations that DeLay vio
lated state campaign finance rules.
The committee’s findings — a re
port admonishing his conduct —
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nonetheless spared him a lengthy in
vestigation by the ethics panel. By
concluding the case with no more
than a report on DeLay’s conduct, the
investigation is unlikely to affect his
ability to push the Republican agen
da through the House if the GOP re
tains its majority.
Last Thursday the same committee,
in an investigative report, admonished
DeLay for offering to support the
House candidacy of a Michigan law
maker’s son, in return for the lawmak
er’s vote for a Medicare prescription
drug benefit.
The committee acted on a three
part complaint from Rep. Chris Bell,
D-Texas. The allegations accused
DeLay of soliciting political contri
butions from Westar Energy, a
Kansas company, in return for leg
islative favors; violating Texas laws
prohibiting corporate political dona
tions; and improperly contacting
aviation authorities to track down a
plane carrying Texas Democratic leg
islators who were trying to defeat a
DeLay-engineered congressional re
districting plan.
Westar executives made a $25,000
donation to an organization affiliated
with DeLay just before attending a
two-day get-together at a Virginia
resort with the House GOP leader.
The committee said there was a
“significant gap” between the Westar
allegations — accusing DeLay of ac
tually soliciting contributions in re
turn for legislative favors — and the
panel’s findings.
“The information we obtained indi
cates that neither Representative De
Lay nor anyone acting on his behalf
improperly solicited contributions
from Westar, and Representative De
Lay took no action with regard to Wes
tar that would constitute an impermis
sible special favor,” the report said.
Japan relatively unscathed after
5.8-magnitude earthquake
There were no reports of major damage
in Tokyo, but four people were injured
BY KENJI HALL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — An earthquake struck
eastern Japan late Wednesday, shaking
buildings in Tokyo and injuring four
people. There were no reports of ma
jor damage.
The 5.8-magnitude quake hit at
11:40 p.m. and was centered some 40
miles beneath the earth's surface in
Ibaraki state, northeast of the capital,
the Meteorological Agency said.
A magnitude-5 earthquake can
cause damage to homes if it occurs in a
residential area. But the depth of the
temblor dampened much of its poten
tially destructive power.
The temblor, which lasted more
than 30 seconds, was most strongly
felt in Tsukuba city, in Ibaraki state,
and Miyashiro town, in Saitama state,
the agency said. Office buildings and
homes in Tokyo swayed for about 10
seconds. It also shook cities in Tochigi,
Chiba, Gunma, Kanagawa, Shizuoka
and Nagano prefectures.
The National Police Agency said
four people suffered minor injuries.
Tsukuba city police spokesman Nobuo
Abe said there were no reports of
quake-related damage. He said the
temblor wasn't strong enough to dis
lodge items from shelves.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. official
Katsuya Uchino said power plants and
electricity services across the region
were unaffected.
However, the quake triggered an au
tomatic safety device on trains, tem
porarily bringing railway transport in
Tokyo and other areas to a halt, ac
cording to Japanese media. Service
was resumed minutes later, the reports
said.
There was no danger of tsunami —
or huge waves triggered by seismic ac
tivity — the agency said.
Japan, which rests atop several tec
tonic plates, is among the rpost earth
quake-prone countries in the world.
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