It once appeared that despite his unseemly role in the bribery scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Todd Boulanger had weathered the proverbial storm.

Politico noted this year that Boulanger, the former vice president of Cassidy & Associates, a Washington lobbying firm, "has proven his nattily attired, outside-the-box staying power."

But the November guilty plea of a former associate quickly changed all of that.

Boulanger, a former aide to former Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) and a longtime Abramoff associate, was charged yesterday with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors say Boulanger, while working for Abramoff, plied government officials with gifts, including sporting and concert tickets, meals and all-expense paid trips, in exchange for political favors.

It was a startling fall for a man once described as one of Washington's most fashionable and one of the nation's top 50 lobbyists to watch.

Boulanger was a close friend of a fellow congressional aide, 34-year-old Trevor Blackann, who pleaded guilty in November to filing a false tax return that was missing $4,100 in illegal gifts from lobbyists. Blackann, an aide to Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), accepted gifts from Abramoff, including a trip to New York to see a World Series baseball game and "admission to and entertainment at" a strip club, according to court documents.

In Blackann's guilty plea, Boulanger was referenced as "Lobbyist D," a friend who worked with Blackann and attended some of the illegal outings. Another former congressional aide-turned-lobbyist, James Hirni, admitted that he and Boulanger sought an amendment encouraging state public works agencies to rent, rather than purchase, construction equipment only from companies that had "large dollar amounts of liability insurance coverage." The pair wanted to have the amendment inserted into the federal highway-funding bill.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich

Updated at 5:52 p.m. Jan 29

It's official.

After an all-day affair that saw embattled former Gov. Rod Blagojevich give an impassioned speech in his own defense, the Illinois Senate voted unanimously 59-0 to immediately remove the two-term governor from office. Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn assumes the governorship.

Senators will now likely bar Blagojevich from holding any future statewide office.

Updated at 2:15 p.m. Jan. 29

In a final argument before lawmakers, Illinois House Prosecutor David Ellis said Blagojevich could have offered up a defense but instead "spent more time talking to Barbara Walters at 'The View.'"

Still, Ellis noted that the "governor can give a pretty good speech" but said he couldn't reconcile the public Blagojevich with the governor portrayed on the FBI wiretaps.

"When the cameras are off, what does he say?" Ellis asked, reading through an oftentimes expletive-laden transcript of the federal affidavit against the governor.

"That's Rod Blagojevich when he's not on camera," he said. (Roughly 82 percent of readers on the Chicago Sun-Times' live blog of the impeachment trial thought Ellis gave a better argument than Blagojevich)

Senators will return to vote on Blagojevich's impeachment at 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time. All 59 senators will be allowed five minutes to make public comments about the vote.

* * * * * *

Offering up his last-ditch defense on why he should stay in office, embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told lawmakers today before an impeachment vote that he "never, ever intended to violate the law."

The Democratic, two-term governor was charged in a federal corruption case in December, accused of offering to sell President Barack Obama's Senate seat for political favors, among other things. During the speech today at the Illinois Senate, Blagojevich said he had "done absolutely nothing wrong. I've followed every law."

Any thought that Blagojevich, 52, would announce his resignation at the impromptu speech went out the window as he began his sometimes-dramatic appearance. The speech, clocked in at 47 minutes, may come too late. Blagojevich had boycotted the impeachment trial for days, instead embarking on an East Coast media tour to state his case. That move angered some lawmakers who felt the governor was skirting the political process.

Blagojevich said throwing him out of office would set a "dangerous and chilling precedent for the future" of impeaching someone who has not yet been convicted of a crime.

A roll call vote to impeach Blagojevich, and possibly bar him from ever holding statewide office in Illinois, was slated for 2 p.m. Eastern Time.

Inspection reports of a Georgia peanut processing plant at the center of a massive, nationwide salmonella outbreak indicate that the company operated in unsanitary conditions and knowingly shipped products contaminated with strains of salmonella.

So far, more than 500 people in 43 states have become ill because of the outbreak. In response, the Food and Drug Administration has ordered one of the largest food recalls in history, asking the public to throw out every product made by the Peanut Corporation of America over the past two years. The Lynchburg, Va.-based company knowingly shipped out salmonella-laced products at least a dozen times in 2007 and 2008, authorities say; at least one congressman has asked for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Among the highlights of the reports released yesterday:

• A sink in one of the peanut butter rooms was used interchangeably to clean hands and utensils and to wash out mops.
• The "wash room" was found to be a veritable horror show of problems: a "slimy, black-brown residue," identified as mold, was found on a conveyor and on the walls; a live cockroach and several of his dead compatriots were also discovered.
• The company's cooler room also had mold on the ceiling and walls. Inspectors spotted water stains leading down to where finished product was stored.
• An ingredient staging area was found "dirty with a heavy build-up of different powdery ingredients on all exposed surfaces.''
• The lack of a ventilation system at the facility allowed for contamination to occur and officials did not check the effectiveness of temperature, volume and belt speed during the peanut roasting process.
• Bacteria-laden raw peanuts were stored next to roasted peanuts, increasing the risk of contamination, and peanut products were stored next to salmonella-contaminated floors and cracks.

More Investigations Documents

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Peanut Products from Plant Recalled» In one of the largest food recalls in history, the Food and Drug Administration asked retailers, manufacturers and consumers yesterday to throw out every product made in the past two years from peanuts processed by a Georgia plant at the heart of a deadly nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness. — Washington Post

New Rules Proposed For News Helicopters» The National Transportation Safety Board yesterday called for new limits on helicopter pilots who report for television, following an investigation into the cause of a deadly collision between two Arizona news helicopters in July 2007. — Washington Post

SEC Chief Discloses Wealth» The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Schapiro, has hundreds of thousands of dollars in money-market and mutual funds, large holdings in stocks, and is receiving $675,000 in deferred compensation from a company on whose board she sat for about 10 years. — Associated Press

CIA Station Chief In Algeria Accused In Two Sex Assaults» The CIA's station chief in Algeria was accused this fall by two Muslim women of sexually assaulting them using a date-rape drug. The case presents the Obama administration's new intelligence team with an unexpected legal and diplomatic crisis. — ABC News, Washington Post

Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses» Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year. — New York Times

Blagojevich to End Boycott of His Own Trial» After boycotting his impeachment trial for three days, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced yesterday that he wanted to address the State Senate before legislators begin deliberations on whether to remove him from office. — New York Times

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Ken Salazar

Calling for a thorough review of past ethical problems at the Interior Department, new secretary Ken Salazar pledged today a "long term-effort to enact comprehensive, top-to-bottom reforms."

Salazar, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, told a group of reporters at the White House that the agency "has been tarnished by ethical lapses and criminal behavior that has extended to the very highest levels of government."

He specifically referred to two scandals: the conviction of J. Steven Griles, the former deputy Interior secretary who pleaded guilty in 2007 to lying about his connections to disgraced uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff; and the sex-and-drugs scandal that surfaced this summer involving more than a dozen employees at the Minerals Management Service, which handles domestic drilling revenues.

The new Interior chief also said he wants his own review of the scandals that have plagued the department in recent years, including what's been done to fix them.

Salazar plans to meet tomorrow with some of the Interior Department's 67,000 employees, at the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) headquarters in Lakewood, Colo.

Timothy F. Geithner

Updated at 5:42 p.m. Jan. 28

As the government prepares to pump out hundreds of billions of dollars to stimulate the U.S. economy, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is moving to make changes to the way federal officials are handling the other big pot of money aimed at bailing out the financial industry.

Geithner yesterday took steps to restrict contact between lobbyists and the officials reviewing applications under the $700 billion financial bailout program. Using similar tax matters as a model, the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Stability will have to sign off on each investment being "based solely on objective criteria."

As he revamps the plan for spending what remains of the $700 billion, Geithner is confronting a menu of less-than appetizing choices for fixing the banking industry. He is meeting today with members of a congressional oversight panel that has been especially critical of the process.

[Meeting with Geithner is chairwoman Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor; Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the program; and Gene Dodaro, acting comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office.] Congressional oversight panelists Damon Silvers, associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO; Richard H. Neiman, New York's superintendent of banks; Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) also met with Geithner.

The push for transparency comes after oversight pledges from the Bush administration and former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. were largely criticized by the bipartisan oversight panel.

Earlier this month, the group released a scathing report, accusing the Treasury Department of failing to live up to its obligations to taxpayers about disclosure and how it proposes to fix the foreclosure crisis.

In the 45-page report, panelists said the Treasury Department hadn't helped borrowers refinance or deal with inflated mortgages.

"The panel's initial concerns about the (program) have only grown, exacerbated by the shifting explanations of its purposes and the tools used by Treasury," the report said, faulting the Treasury Department on a variety of things, including its approach to the foreclosure crisis.

Last week, Barofsky, the special inspector general, also announced plans to ask for a detailed accounting of how the money is being spent by banks and other financial institutions.

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Peanut Plant Aware of Salmonella » The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened 500 more across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said yesterday. — Washington Post

Blago Tapes: 'I'm Good for It' » Audiotapes played at Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment trial included a conversation with his brother, Robert Blagojevich, allegedly regarding a $100,000 bribe from a racetrack operator. Meanwhile, Blagojevich continues to boycott his impeachment, which he has dubbed a "political witch hunt." — Washington Post

Geithner's Two-Step » Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner picked a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist as a top aide Tuesday, the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in agency decisions. Mark Patterson will serve as Geithner's chief of staff at Treasury, which oversees the government's $700 billion financial bailout program. — USA Today, Washington Post

Interior Under Fire in Grand Canyon Case » Interior Department officials engaged in a legal battle with a conservation advocacy group ignored key scientific findings when they limited water flows in the Grand Canyon to optimize electricity generation, risking damage to the ecology of the national landmark, according to documents obtained by The Post. — Washington Post

Dissidents at FDA Complain of Inquiry » Nine dissident scientists at the Food and Drug Administration who say they were forced to approve high-risk medical devices sent a letter to President Obama on Monday stating that agency officials might have made them the targets of a criminal investigation into their complaints of wrongdoing. — New York Times

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