Yesterday, the jury heard the from the former head of Veco Corp., Bill Allen.  The company and its executives have been instrumental players in a number of Alaska's public corruption cases.   Observers seem to view Allen as the government's key witness in the case against Senator Stevens.  The prosecution could rest its case as early as tomorrow:

The government’s star witness against Ted Stevens gave dramatic testimony Tuesday that he lavished the Republican senator with gifts and arranged widespread renovations to the senator’s chalet in a ski town in Alaska.

Bill Allen, in the first of two days of testimony that could determine the outcome of the case, described his close personal friendship with Stevens and how he, as head of the now-defunct Veco Corp. oil-services firm, played the main role in the gift-giving scandal that has landed the longest-serving Senate Republican in criminal court.

As we noted last night, Jim Clark, who served as Chief of Staff to former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski, entered a guilty plea to charges stemming from the on-going public corruption scandal in that state. But, Clark isn't finished.  He now has to cooperate with the authorities.  And, we still don't know where that will lead -- although the names of two members of Alaska's Congressional Delegation, Senator Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, are under federal investigation:

Clark is the first member of the executive branch to be charged in the wide-ranging FBI investigation that has resulted in convictions of three former Alaska legislators, pending charges against a fourth, and guilty pleas by a lobbyist and Veco's Allen and Smith.

In a document describing the facts that Clark was pleading to, the government said that it was "merely" summarizing some of Clark's illegal conduct, "but not all." Clark is required by his plea deal to join a growing list of cooperating government witnesses required to testify before grand juries and at trials. The government is seeking to delay his sentencing at least six months because of the complexity of the ongoing inquiry.

While the agreement protects Clark from additional related federal charges as long as he assists the government, it doesn't block the state from pursuing its own charges.

Additional legislators, Stevens and U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, are among those being investigated.

The charging documents said that even with his cooperation, Clark is facing more than three years in prison and a fine of up to $75,000.

From the Anchorage Daily News:

Jim Clark, former chief of staff to ex-Gov. Frank Murkowski, agreed to plead guilty Monday to a single felony charge of fraud in the latest case brought by the federal government in the Alaska corruption scandal. Clark admitted asking officials of the now-defunct oil-field service company Veco to illegally spend more than $68,000 on polls and political consultants for Murkowski's failed re-election bid in 2006.

Alaska, the state that has become ground-zero for public corruption, is considering ethics reform.   Legislators and the Governor are offering an array of proposals:

The Alaska Legislature, reeling from corruption convictions of three of its former members, isn't done arguing ethics.

Anchorage Republican Rep. Kevin Meyer said he plans to put in a bill meant to generate discussion about whether legislators should get to vote on something in which they have a potential conflict of interest. Currently, conflicts don't stop voting.

Meyer is also crafting a bill to forbid state legislators who are running for federal office from raising campaign money when the Legislature is in session. That takes a poke at Kodiak Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux's fundraising for her congressional race during this fall's special session on oil taxes.

Gov. Sarah Palin plans to get into the ethics mix as well with some bills of her own. Palin's legislative director, Russ Kelly, said the specifics are still being worked out.

You have to love this passage: 

Some Alaska legislators are weary of being reminded about the corruption that was in their midst. But it doesn't look as though it's going away as an issue anytime soon.

It's not going away soon.  Far from it.   

Another stiff sentence in the extensive Alaska corruption scandal:

In handing down the sentence this morning, U.S. District Judge John Sedwick said he found that Kott, a former House speaker who represented Eagle River until last year, committed perjury in his testimony during his trial in September.

Kott's sentence also includes three years' probation, and he was ordered to receive alcoholism treatment.

Kott's attorney had argued that he should receive 33 months in prison - a little less than three years - while prosecutors had requested 10 years.

A federal jury convicted Kott, 58, of bribery, conspiracy and extortion for his role in advocating an oil tax pushed by Veco Corp. executives and favored by North Slope oil producers. He received nearly $9,000, a political poll for his re-election campaign and the promise of a job, all from Veco executives, according to testimony.

A key witness in Kott's trial was former Veco CEO Bill Allen, who along with a company vice president, Rick Smith, has pleaded guilty to bribing Kott and other lawmakers.

And, yes, this was the case where Ted Stevens was linked to Veco Corp.'s corruption:

The case has wide implications because the FBI is investigating whether Ted Stevens, the U.S. Senate's longest-serving Republican, received illegal gifts from Veco.

Kott's two-week trial included testimony by Allen that he doled out more than $400,000 in bribes to various officials and had company workers remodel the home of Stevens.

Stevens has not been charged and has said he paid all bills he received for the remodeling project.

The focus of investigators in the Alaska public corruption scandal has been on state elected officials.  The question has been whether federal elected officials would be ensnared.  Seems to be heading that way.  The latest revelation is that a Veco Corp. Executive is providing evidence about Rep. Don Young who has spent almost $500,000 from campaign funds on legal fees this year.  The focus is on a scheme to funnel cash to the Congressman through golf tournaments.  Yes, golf tournaments:

The Justice Department is investigating whether an Alaska oil contractor used golf tournaments to funnel cash to Rep. Don Young, people close to the corruption investigation said.

The contractor, Rick Smith, told investigators that Young personally received cash at the events. Once an important ally who helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for Young's election committee, Smith has become a key government informant.

As part of his cooperation, Smith allowed FBI agents to record his telephone calls with the Republican congressman in a corruption sting. The former VECO Corp. vice president has pleaded guilty to bribing state lawmakers to support oil-friendly legislation.

Details of Smith's cooperation against Alaska's 18-term congressman were confirmed by people close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

With the holiday on Monday -- and the major news about the Temporary Restraining Order against the Bush administration, we almost overlooked a front page article in Monday's Washington Post examining the extensive public corruption in Alaska -- and it's potential impact on Alaska's Congressional Delegation. You may recall that all three members of Congress from Alaska -- Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young -- were included in CREW's report, Beyond DeLay, as among the most corrupt members of Congress.

The Post article looked back at where the corruption scandal began and where it may lead:

Since breaking into public view a year ago when federal agents raided lawmakers' offices and homes -- finding $32,200 neatly stacked in a closet of Kott's condo -- the federal probe has produced four indictments, three convictions, three guilty pleas and a rapt audience keen to see how high into Alaska's political hierarchy the rot reaches.

Officially, the scandal has remained confined to Juneau, where Alaska lawmakers had grown so accustomed to operating under the presumption of impropriety that several of them embroidered ball caps with the letters CBC, for "Corrupt Bastards Club." (An Anchorage coffeehouse now offers Corrupt Bastards Brew.) But with signs that the investigation is brushing against Alaska's lone congressman, Don Young (R), and its longtime and venerated senator Ted Stevens (R), residents of the Last Frontier are experiencing a rare spasm of soul-searching.

"These disclosures have come as a real shock, because of revelations of what was going on, and because Alaskans have always felt that they are special," said Vic Fisher, 83, one of four surviving members of the convention that only a half-century ago wrote Alaska's state constitution. "And that this thing is ruining our national reputation."

Young, who has represented the nation's largest state in the U.S. House for 34 years, has not been named in the proceedings -- yet he reports spending $450,000 on legal fees over the past six months. Veco, the oil-field services company that Allen owned, was Young's largest campaign contributor.

Stevens, an iconic figure who has dominated Alaska politics for decades, has said little publicly since agents swarmed over his mountainside home, the renovation of which was overseen by Allen.

BREAKING NEWS from what has become the center of public corruption cases, Anchorage Alaska:

Former state Rep. Vic Kohring was convicted this afternoon of three of four counts of corruption for selling influence to Veco Corp. executives.

A federal jury found him guilty of conspiracy, attempted extortion and bribery. He was found not guilty of extortion.

More riveting testimony at the latest public corruption trial in Alaska.  Former Veco Corp. executive Bill Allen described 1) how he was blackmailed over the work Veco did on the home of Ted Stevens and 2) how he cooperated with federal investigators about the work he did on the home of Ted Stevens:  

Allen's heated relationship with his nephew, Dave Anderson, first came into public view last month in the corruption trial of former House Speaker Pete Kott. In that trial, the defense pushed Allen on whether he had threatened to have Anderson killed because of the blackmail -- but never asked what the blackmail was all about.

On Monday, Kohring's defense lawyer, John Henry Browne of Seattle, brought up the blackmail anew.

"I was not going to kill him, no," Allen said, as he did in the earlier trial.

Allen, who suffered a head injury in a 2001 motorcycle crash and struggles with words, seemed less addled on the stand than he had been late Friday afternoon.

What was Anderson blackmailing him about? Browne asked.

"Ted Stevens' house," Allen answered.

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' official residence, a home in Girdwood, doubled in size during a renovation overseen by Veco in 2000. The Daily News reported in May that the remodel, and Veco's role in it, were part of the far-reaching, ongoing investigation into public corruption in Alaska. In July, FBI and IRS agents spent nearly 12 hours searching the house and documenting the addition. Stevens has denied wrongdoing and has said he paid the bills that were given to him.

Robert Williams, a Veco employee who supervised construction on the house, said in an interview last month that Anderson was a metal worker who helped construct the steel staircase for the Girdwood house.

In court on Monday, Browne asked Allen to confirm that Veco paid for the renovation. Allen said he didn't know what it cost.

Was it a gift to Sen. Stevens? Browne asked.

No, Allen said.

"I didn't know how much the house cost, and I still don't know," Allen said.

Browne asked Allen whether he had cooperated with the government in its investigation into Ted Stevens "and the money Veco gave to help with the house."

Yes, Allen answered.

Another former elected official is facing a jury in Alaska.  This trial also involves public corruption and Veco Corp.  And, the names of some very prominent Alaskans have been discussed during opening arguments:

Former state Rep. Vic Kohring's trial on federal public corruption charges opened in full gear Tuesday with surprises from both sides.

Kohring's lawyer, John Henry Browne of Seattle, reeled off a list of prominent Alaskans whom he said Veco executives claimed to "own," including U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, U.S. Rep. Don Young and Stevens' son, former state Senate President Ben Stevens.

"All these big names," Browne said, but in the defendant's chair is Kohring -- a man, the attorney noted, who slept on his office couch in Juneau and who lives in a trailer in Wasilla.

Neither Ted nor Ben Stevens nor Young has been charged.

Prosecutor Joe Bottini offered a twist of his own. He told jurors about an idea hatched by former Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen to kill an oil tax bill with Kohring's help. Legislators were closing in on a rate far above what the North Slope oil producers wanted, he said.