 VECO
Scandal
|
 Donald
Edwin 'Don' Young
DON YOUNG News:
20080501
-
Don
Young -
 Connie
Mack -  Money
-  Investigation
-  Road
-  Construction
-  Florida
-  Alaska
-  Federal
-  Law
- "‘Liar’
comment cranks up Coconut Road earmark controversy."
... "Two U.S. [United States] congressmen who spent a day touring Southwest
Florida roads three years ago — sharing the same car for a drive up Interstate
75, attending the same town hall meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University
and going to the same fund raising party in Estero [Florida] — are now
trading insults." ... "At issue is who deserves the blame for how and why
$10 million in a 2005 federal highway bill got assigned to a Coconut Road
[Fort Myers, Florida] interchange study after the $286.4 billion bill passed
Congress, but before the president signed it into law." ... "There’s now
a dispute over who’s telling the truth and who’s ducking between [Florida
Republican Representative] Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, the congressman
who had invited a more senior house colleague to visit Lee County in February
of 2005, and [Alaska Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska,
who took the floor of the House on Wednesday to defend his support for
the Coconut Road interchange study." ... "Young said he backed the project
because it was what people from the area told him they wanted, and those
were views he heard at Mack’s invitation." ... "“It was supported by the
congressman from that district,” Young said of the $10 million earmark
to study a new place to access the interstate. “And there’s letters to
back that up.”" -By Elizabeth Wright
-NaplesNews.com
20080430
-
Don
Young - Connie
Mack - Money
-
 Politics
- Law
- Alaska
-  Michigan
- Florida
- Road
-  Real
Estate - "Young
blasts Mack over Coconut Rd.." ... "[Alaska Republican
Representative] Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on Wednesday defended changes
his staffers made to the notorious Coconut Road [in Florida] earmark, the
third time in a year he took to the House floor in an attempt to justify
one of his suspect pet projects." ... "Young also accused his GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican] colleague, [Florida Republican Representative] Rep.
Connie Mack (Fla.[Florida]), of first supporting the earmark in 2005, and
then distancing himself from it once watchdogs and the media began raising
concerns." ... "Ethics watchdogs have raised red flags over the Lee County,
Fla., road project, the language of which was changed after that measure
passed the House and the Senate but before it reached the president’s desk.
Such a change may have violated House rules, which prohibit substantive
alterations to bills during the enrollment process, the formal procedure
in which a measure is recorded before it moves on to be signed by the president."
... "The earmark has been tainted by controversy. Lobbyist Rick Alcalde
represented both FGSU [Florida Gulf State University] as well as the company
owned by Daniel Aronoff, a real estate developer who owned 4,000 acres
along Coconut Road and helped organize a fundraiser for Young during one
of his visits to the area in 2005. Both entities requested the Coconut
Road earmark." ... "Young flew to FGSU for a town hall meeting in 2005
on a chartered plane owned by a Michigan company; the owner told the Naples
Daily News that the Aronoffs were among his biggest clients." ... "After
the town hall, Young went directly to a fundraiser at the Hyatt Coconut
Point, which Aronoff helped organize." ... "Young said Mack invited him
to the town hall meeting." ... "Young also posted documents and photos
on his website in an effort to demonstrate that Mack was deeply involved
in the earmark. In one letter in March 2006 to FGSU’s president, Mack supported
it." -By Susan Crabtree
-TheHill.com
20080421
-
Don
Young - Connie
Mack - Money
- Politics
- Real
Estate - Transportation
- Construction
- Florida
- Alaska
-
 History
- Federal
- Law
- Investigation
- "Q&A:
Don Young and the Coconut Road controversy: EARMARK:
$10 million put in 2005 highway spending bill is coming back to haunt him."
... "Last week, the U.S. [United States] Senate voted to ask the Justice
Department to look into what happened in 2005 when Alaska's sole congressman
earmarked $10 million in unasked-for money to study a highway interchange
in southwest Florida." ... "The 64 to 28 vote was an unprecedented request
on the part of the Senate for a federal inquiry into the actions of a member
of the House of Representatives." ... "At the center of it all: Alaska
[Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young, who acknowledged responsibility
last week for the 2005 earmark, which shifted $10 million pledged to help
widen Interstate 75 to the interchange study. If built, the interchange
promised to benefit one of Young's campaign donors, a family friend whose
real estate company owned property nearby. The earmark was one of thousands
overseen by Young when he was responsible for pushing a multiyear highway
spending bill through Congress." ... "Young has maintained that there was
nothing wrong with what he did, and that the earmark was requested by the
community." ... "But Young is already the subject of a federal investigation,
and many questions remain about how the earmark showed up in the spending
bill -- after the House and Senate had already voted on an alternative
proposal." ... "The obscure Coconut Road earmark first came to the attention
of transportation planners in Lee County, Fla. [Florida], in 2006, when
they tried to figure out why they had received $10 million in federal money
for a study of an intersection that wasn't on their list of transportation
priorities." ... "The transportation board thought it was getting a $10
million earmark to go toward widening of Interstate 75. Instead, the money
was earmarked to the study of an interchange that improves freeway access
to land owned by real estate developer Daniel Aronoff." ... "In 2005, the
Alaska Republican oversaw the multiyear transportation bill, a $286.4 billion
spending plan for some of the biggest infrastructure projects across the
U.S. (The bill also included $452 million for the Gravina Island and Knik
Arm spans that came to be known as the bridges-to-nowhere.)" ... "Local
newspapers, including the Naples Daily News, picked up on the controversy,
and posed the question to Young, at the time the chairman of the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. In 2005, the Alaska Republican
oversaw the multiyear transportation bill, a $286.4 billion spending plan
for some of the biggest infrastructure projects across the U.S. (The bill
also included $452 million for the Gravina Island and Knik Arm spans that
came to be known as the bridges-to-nowhere.)" ... "Young refused to address
the issue. The story failed to draw national attention until The New York
Times wrote about it last spring. The article elaborated on the connections
between the developers seeking the earmark and a 2005 campaign fundraiser
Young attended in Bonita Springs, Fla., at the invitation of a local congressman,
[Florida Republican Representative] Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla[Republican-Florida].
(The article also reported that when a Times reporter approached Young
to speak to him about it, the congressman "responded with an obscene gesture.")"
... "Those donating money -- about $40,000 total -- to Young included Aronoff,
whose family has long been friendly with Young. The earmark for the interchange
study showed up not long after the fundraiser." -By
Erika
Bolstad -McClatchy
via -ADN.com
20080420
-
Don
Young -
 Abramoff
-  Bob
Schaffer - Money
- Politics
-  Mariana
Islands
-  Chinese
-  Garment
-  Factory
- Industry
-  Labor
-  Women
- Abortion
- Human
Rights - Investigations
- Government
- Immigration
- Law- History
-  US
-  Colorado
- Alaska
- "Records
expose Young-Abramoff ties: MARIANA ISLANDS." ...
"[Alaska Republican Represenative] Rep. Don Young has said he never allowed
convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to be an influential force over him in
Congress." ... "But now a trove of old billing records from two of Abramoff's
firms show that his team of lobbyists had more than 120 contacts with Young's
personal and committee staffs over 25 months, including at least 10 with
Young himself." ... "The available records cover a single Abramoff client,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. [United States]
territory in the Pacific that Young oversaw when he chaired the House Resources
Committee from 1995 to 2001." ... "The records show that one of the looming
concerns of Abramoff and his fellow lobbyists at the time was a bill introduced
by Young's fellow Alaskan, [Republican Senator] Sen. Frank Murkowski, to
reform labor and immigration practices feeding the island's notorious Chinese-owned
sweatshops. In 2000, Murkowski's bill passed the Senate unanimously, but
Young stopped it cold in his committee, refusing to hold even a hearing."
... "Investigations by the government, media and human rights groups uncovered
widespread abuses in the garment industry and among sex workers there starting
in the mid-1990s, but Young asserted those investigations were bogus."
... "As a member of Young's Resources Committee, [Colorado Republican Representative
and 2008 Election Colorado Senator Candidate Bob] Schaffer took a free
trip to the Mariana Islands arranged by Abramoff's law firm, then played
a central role in a 1989 committee hearing investigating Interior department
officials in the [Democratic President Bill] Clinton administration who
were trying to rein in the Saipan government [Saipan is the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands' capital]." ... "A growing number of reports
spoke of near slave-labor conditions, with workers kept in sealed compounds,
required to work seven days a week without overtime, and sometimes getting
no paycheck at all. There were widespread reports of women coerced into
getting abortions to keep their jobs. Some women hired abroad found themselves
working not in garment factories at all, but sex clubs." -By
Richard Mauer -ADN.com
20071111
-
Don
Young - Criminal
- Transportation
- Construction
- Real
Estate -
 Jet
- Travel
- Money
- Politics
- Alaska
-  New
York
- Florida
- "Alaska
lawmaker promoted earmarks, raked in cash." ... "As
chairman of the House transportation committee, Alaska Congressman Don
Young flew at least three times to upstate New York aboard a sleek jet
owned by Robert Congel, an ambitious shopping mall developer seeking federal
highway dollars." ... "With Young’s help, Congel got millions of dollars
to boost his dream of building the largest mall in North America. The veteran
Republican congressman got something, too: more than $33,000 in political
donations from Congel, his family and his associates." ... "For Young,
the Congel story was hardly unusual. Time after time, Young approved millions
of dollars for highway projects for people who in turn fattened his campaign
coffers." ... "With money pouring in from transportation interests, Young
amassed $6.5 million in political contributions from 2001 to 2005. Facing
weak political opposition at home, he didn’t need much for his campaign.
Instead, Young tapped his campaign fund to travel the country, often lavishly
and in corporate jets, to meet with more developers and view their proposed
highway projects." ... "Now, though, Young’s campaign donations are going
for another purpose. He’s spent nearly $450,000 on criminal defense lawyers
after he learned of an FBI investigation into his relationships with political
donors, who include a Florida real estate developer seeking a highway ramp
near his undeveloped land." -By
Greg
Gordon and Erika Bolstad-McClatchyDC.com
20070807
-
 Minnesota
- Political
- Transportation
- Construction
-  Gas
- Legislation
- I-35W
Bridge Collapse - Disaster
- Don
Young - Alaska
- Government
- "Bridge
Collapse Revives Issue of Road Spending." ... "In
the past two years, [Minnesota Republican Governor] Gov. Tim Pawlenty of
Minnesota twice vetoed legislation to raise the state’s gas tax to pay
for transportation needs." ... "Now, with at least five people dead in
the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge here, Mr. Pawlenty, a Republican,
appears to have had a change of heart." ... "Even as the cause of the bridge
disaster here remains under investigation, the collapse is changing a lot
of minds about spending priorities. It has focused national attention on
the crumbling condition of America’s roadways and bridges — and on the
financial and political neglect they have received in Washington and many
state capitals." ... "Despite historic highs in transportation spending,
the political muscle of lawmakers, rather than dire need, has typically
driven where much of the money goes. That has often meant construction
of new, politically popular roads and transit projects rather than the
mundane work of maintaining the worn-out ones." ... "The $286 billion federal
transportation legislation passed by Congress in 2005 included more than
6,000 earmarks, which amounted to blatant gifts to chosen districts, including
the [Alaska Republican Representative Don Young's] so-called Bridge to
Nowhere in rural Alaska (that earmark was later removed after a political
uproar)." ... "A study released in May by the Urban Land Institute and
Ernst & Young found that 83 percent of the nation’s transportation
infrastructure was not capable of meeting the country’s needs over the
next 10 years. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its latest national
report card, gave transportation infrastructure a D." (1, 2)
-By Susan Saulny and Jennifer Steinhauer
-NYTimes
20070801
-
 Lisa
Murkowski
-  Ted
Stevens - Don
Young - Alaska
- Real
Estate - Money
- Politics
- "Ethics
Questions Plague Other Alaska Senator." ... "Senator
Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, has been drawn into a swirl of ethics
accusations that have already brought F.B.I. scrutiny to the two other
members of the state’s Congressional delegation and resulted in a raid
this week on the home of [Alaska Republican] Senator Ted Stevens." ...
"There is no evidence that Ms. Murkowski faces a criminal investigation,
unlike Mr. Stevens and the state’s sole member of the House, Representative
Don Young, both Republicans." ... "But she has been forced to defend herself
publicly against conflict-of-interest accusations and announced last week
that she would sell back 1.27 acres of riverfront land that she had bought
for $179,500 from a local real estate developer who is tied to the investigation
of Mr. Stevens." ... "Local real estate agents in Alaska said the property,
on the banks of the Kenai River, had a value of up to $350,000." -By
Philip Shenon and David M. Herszenhorn -NYTimes
20070725
-
Don
Young - Jack
Abramoff
- Ted
Stevens -
 Ben
Stevens - Alaska
- VECO
- Oil
- Construction
- Money
- Politics
- Colorado
- "Alaska's
Young and Stevens Face Criminal Inquiry." ... "[Alaska
Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the former chairman
of the House Transportation Committee, now is the subject of a continuing
criminal inquiry involving possible political favors for a company in Alaska,
people close to the case said. [Alaska Senator Representative] Sen. Ted
Stevens of Alaska, the powerful former chairman of the Appropriations Committee
and the longest-serving Senate Republican, is also under criminal investigation."
... "Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. Young or Sen. Stevens
accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corp.,
Alaska's largest oil-field engineering firm, people close to the case said."
... "Mr. Young has also faced questions about campaign donations received
from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff." ... "VECO was acquired in June
by CH2M Hill, a closely held Colorado engineering firm, after Mr. Allen,
VECO's former CEO, agreed in May to plead guilty to charges of bribery,
conspiracy and extortion." ... "Mr. Stevens has publicly said that he was
asked to retain documents related to the federal investigation of his son,
[former Alaska State Republican Senator] Ben Stevens, and other members
of the state legislature, and related to VECO's role in the remodeling
of a family home in Alaska in 2000." -By John R. Wilke
-WSJ.com
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