Burris Probes Begin, Texas Firm Accused of $8B Fraud, Lending by Bailout Recipients Drops

POSTED: 10:03 AM ET, 02/18/2009 by Amanda Zamora

TAGS: Rod Blagojevich, Roland Burris, bailout, immigration, insurance

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Burris Probes Begin » The United States Senate Ethics Committee and a local Illinois prosecutor have begun investigations into Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.), who admitted yesterday to attempting to raise money for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the same time he was asking Blagojevich to appoint him to the Senate. — New York Times, Washington Post

Texas Firm Accused of $8B Fraud » The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday charged R. Allen Stanford, a prominent Texas businessman, and three companies under his control with carrying out a "massive, ongoing fraud" involving the sale of $8 billion in certificates of deposit. — Washington Post

Lending by Bailout Recipients Drops » The largest U.S. banks reduced the availability of money for consumers and businesses during the final months of 2008 even as the government invested tens of billions of dollars to help them make new loans, according to data released yesterday by the Treasury Department. — Washington Post

Conflicting Accounts of an ICE Raid » The Jan. 23, 2007, raid of a 7-Eleven in Baltimore, Md., offers a glimpse into how Washington's directives on arrest targets might have spurred Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to stray from their mission and stage a random sweep for illegal immigrants, possibly in violation of ICE's stated practice.— Washington Post

Cigna to Drop Faulty Data » The Cigna Corporation has agreed to stop using a faulty database to calculate reimbursement rates for patients who see doctors outside of their insurance networks, and it will contribute $10 million to a new independent payment database, the New York attorney general said Tuesday. — New York Times