Ex-attorney general dies

Ex-attorney general dies

ATLANTA — Griffin B. Bell, the shrewd Southern lawyer who grew up with Jimmy Carter and later became U.S. attorney general after Carter was elected president, died Monday. He was 90.

Bell died around 10 a.m. of kidney failure, said Diana Lewis, a spokeswoman for Piedmont Hospital. He was being treated at the Atlanta hospital for complications of pancreatic cancer and kidney disease, which he had fought for years, she said.

Carter said he was “deeply saddened” by Bell’s death and called him a “trusted and enduring public figure.”

Bell served just 21‚Ñ2 years at the Justice Department, leaving in mid-1979 — at his own request — to return to his Atlanta law firm, King & Spalding. But he called his tenure as attorney general “the best job I ever had,” and he remained close to the action in government by maintaining a law office in Washington. He also remained a key adviser to Carter.

Madoff scandal hearing

WASHINGTON — Republican and Democratic House members said Monday that the alleged $50 billion fraud involving Wall Street figure Bernard Madoff reflects deep, systemic problems at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Inspector General H. David Kotz said he is so concerned about the SEC’s failure to uncover Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme that the IG is expanding the inquiry called for last month by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Cox had pushed the blame squarely onto the SEC’s career staff for the failure to detect what Madoff was doing.

At the first congressional hearing on the scandal, Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., called for Congress to create a regulatory structure “for the 21st century.”

The House Financial Services Committee is trying to determine how, despite warnings back to at least 1999 to SEC staff members, Madoff continued to operate his alleged scheme.

Chinese crackdown on Web

BEIJING — China warned Google and other popular Web portals Monday that they must do more to block pornographic material from reaching Chinese users, the latest in a series of government crackdowns targeting Internet content.

The crackdown focused on pornography but is part of a larger Chinese effort to control freedom of expression and root out material it considers destabilizing, such as sites that criticize the Communist Party, promote democratic reform or advocate Taiwan independence.

Pornography is banned in China but remains widely available on and off the Internet.

Google asserted that it abides by Chinese law and does not generate pornographic content

Citgo halts oil giveaway

BOSTON — Citgo, the Venezuelan government’s Texas-based oil subsidiary, has suspended shipments of heating oil for poor families in the United States, citing falling oil prices and the world economic crisis, the nonprofit organization that distributes the fuel said Monday.

The controversial program gave fuel from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government to 400,000 households in 23 states through Citizens Energy, a charity organization run by Joseph Kennedy, the eldest son of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Started in 2005, the program sent 100 gallons of free oil a year to eligible households but drew fire from critics who said it was just a ploy by Chavez to undermine the Bush administration.

At a news conference at Citizens Energy’s Boston headquarters, Kennedy said Citgo officials told him of their decision and he was forced to go public so that households expecting the assistance will know what’s happening.

Innocent plea in drug case

PALMER, Alaska — The mother of Sarah Palin’s future son-in-law pleaded innocent to the drug charges against her Monday.

A Palmer grand jury on Friday indicted Sherry Johnston on six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance relating to possession and sale of the prescription painkiller OxyContin.

She admitted selling OxyContin pills to someone working with investigators, according to state troopers. They arrested her Dec. 18 at her Wasilla home, then released her on bail.

Johnston asked for and received a public defender, a lawyer paid for by the state. She told Palmer Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler that she is in the midst of a divorce and living on medical disability payments and child support.

Combined dispatches