While she was Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin faced numerous allegations of ethics violations -- charges she called frivolous and cited as one of her reasons for resigning from office last year. Now the ethics reforms proposed by the state's attorney general are being criticized by those who filed ethics complaints against Palin.

These former critics of Palin say ethics reforms should be drafted and debated by legislators, not created by Attorney General Dan Sullivan without a vote.

One person testifying before a legislative committee raised concern that the state Personnel Board -- whose members are appointed by the governor -- is not sufficiently independent to ensure that state officials comply with ethics rules. A state legislator echoed this concern, saying that the Personnel Board and top state officials may have "too close of a relationship."

It has been more than two and a half years since VECO chief executive Bill Allen pleaded guilty in the Alaska corruption scandal. But a new thread or subplot seems to keep the VECO scandal in the news.

Here is the latest: ugly allegations that raise questions about the credibility of Allen's testimony, which was used to help convict Alaska's House speaker.

For several years, Alaska was a hotbed of public corruption. Several key state figures, including former Alaska House Speaker Peter Kott, were convicted of crimes associated with Veco. Corp.  But, the convictions are in danger for the same kinds of problems associated with the trial of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Kott wants the charges against him dismissed:

A Washington, D.C., jury found Stevens guilty on all counts in October, but the case began to unravel when an FBI agent said the investigation and trial were tainted by government misconduct. By April, with investigations into the allegations under way, the Justice Department admitted it failed to give Stevens favorable evidence he was entitled to, including information that might have discredited Allen before the jury.

Attorney General Eric Holder asked that all charges against Stevens be dismissed.

At the same time, the Justice Department began a review of the convictions of Kott and Kohring, then serving time in federal prisons, and in June said similar problems were found in their cases. At the government's request, Kott and Kohring were freed on their own recognizance pending resolution of the matter by U.S. District Judge John Sedwick, the Anchorage judge who presided over their trials.

Lawyers for the two men were originally supposed to file motions by Monday, with the government response due in October and oral arguments, if necessary, in November. But Kohring's lawyer won a one-month delay because of other trials the attorney has in the Seattle area.

Sedwick hasn't said when he'll make a ruling. He could dismiss the charges or order new trials. He also could rule the new evidence wasn't significant and send Kott and Kohring back to prison, but given the weight and questions posed by the material, that possibility appears to be receding.

Another public official in Alaska is going to plead guilty to federal corruption-related crimes, via the Anchorage Daily News:  

Former state Rep. Beverly Masek has agreed to plead guilty today to conspiring to receive a bribe, according to documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage.

Masek, a Republican from Willow who represented the Matanuska-Susitna area between 1995 and 2004, was accused by the Justice Department of accepting at least $4,000 from former Veco Corp. chief executive Bill Allen in 2003.

In return for the money, she killed an oil tax bill she herself had introduced. Allen told her that the bill was "harmful" to his oil industry clients, according to the charges.

C-SPAN will air a two-part report on the subject of Alaska's public corruption. There's been plenty associated with this scandal as the ADN noted: 

The guilty plea would be the sixth conviction of a lawmaker and the 11th overall obtained by the government in the FBI's massive investigation of corruption in Alaska. One former legislator, Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau, is awaiting trial. The events cited in the conspiracy charge against Masek took place in 2003, a year before the federal investigation began. The charge names Masek, Allen and Veco vice president Rick Smith as the conspirators.

[Veco's chief executive Bill] Allen and Smith have pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy and tax charges and are cooperating with authorities. They have not been sentenced.

Alaska's Attorney General, Talis Colberg, quit today.  He's been receiving intense criticism for the way he handled --or actually mishandled, the "Troopergate" scandal involving Governor Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd.  From the ADN:

Colberg has been at the center of controversy over his handling of the so-called "Troopergate" investigation. Two weeks ago, he was grilled and sharply criticized by legislators for trying to block legislative subpoenas to state officials during the inquiry into whether Palin abused power in complaints against a state trooper and her dismissal of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.

The state Senate on Friday found the governor's husband, Todd, and nine Palin aides in contempt for failing to show up when ordered by subpoena to testify in the Legislature's "Troopergate" investigation. Todd Palin and the rest did eventually submit written statements to the investigator, so the Senate said no punishment of them was warranted.

But Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, had left open the possibility of future action against the state attorney general.

Another guilty plea in the Veco-related corruption scandal.  Veco was Alaska's equivalent of the Abramoff scandal:

State Sen. John Cowdery, elected to six terms in the Alaska Legislature and the state's oldest active lawmaker, announced Thursday he intends to plead guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and extortion.

Cowdery was facing a two-count indictment and was scheduled to be tried on the federal charges in March.

Kevin Fitzgerald, Cowdery's attorney, said Thursday evening that the government would drop the second count, a bribery charge, in return for the guilty plea.

Cowdery will appear in court this morning to officially enter his change of plea.

The Anchorage Daily News has become a go-to source for the latest corruption in Alaska. The state's ethics woes made national news last week with the indictment of Senator Ted Stevens.  But, the scandal goes much deeper:

A broad federal investigation of public corruption has been under way in Alaska for more than four years, although it didn’t become widely known until Aug. 31, 2006. That’s when teams of federal agents executed search warrants at the offices of six state legislators, as well as others, in Anchorage, Juneau and elsewhere around the state.

(Find all ADN coverage of the investigation here.)

The government has brought indictments against five state legislators. Three have been convicted by juries and two are awaiting trial. Four others - two former top officials with Veco Corp., the former chief of staff of Gov. Frank Murkowski and a private-prison lobbyist - have entered guilty pleas and are cooperating with the government.

By far the most far-reaching charges came on July 29, 2008, when U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. on seven counts of filing false financial disclosure forms and hiding "things of value" he received from one of the Veco officials. Alaska's sole congressman, Don Young, is also under investigation and has reported spending more than $1.2 million on unspecified legal fees since early 2007.

It's never a dull moment in Alaska.  You may recall that all three members of Alaska's Congressional Delegation, Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young, made CREW's list of the most corrupt members of Congress, Beyond DeLay.

Now, the relatively new Governor, Sarah Palin, is in hot water and may be facing a legislative investigation.  Via the ever informative Anchorage Daily News:

Alaska Senate leaders want an investigation of whether Gov. Sarah Palin pressured and then fired the public safety commissioner because he wouldn't get rid of a state trooper who had gone through a bitter divorce with Palin's sister.

"I'm fairly confident at this point that what we're going to see is the appointment of an independent investigator," said Anchorage Democratic Sen. Hollis French, chairman of the judiciary committee.

Palin denied any wrongdoing Monday and said she welcomed an investigation.

"I've said all along, hold me accountable," Palin told reporters in Juneau. "And I'm telling the truth when I say that there was never pressure put on Commissioner Monegan."

The governor said she didn't think any conversations she, her husband, Todd, or members of her administration had with the commissioner about Mike Wooten should have been taken as pressure to get rid of the trooper.

There are still on-going federal investigations involving Senator Stevens and Rep. Young.

Another prominent Alaska public official was indicted yesterday.  Alaska has been a hot bed of corruption and federal investigations, which is why the Anchorage Daily News wonders who is next?

The indictment of state Sen. John Cowdery culminates another investigation of a public official targeted in federal raids, subpoenas and wiretaps in Alaska over the last two years.

But what of the far more powerful and prominent elected officials also in the sights of the FBI, IRS and other federal agencies, men like U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, his son Ben, and U.S. Rep. Don Young?

Ben Stevens, the former Alaska Senate president, was probably the best known among those whose legislative offices were searched in a series of raids on Aug. 31, 2006. Nearly a year later, the FBI and IRS searched Ted Stevens' home in Girdwood, in part to document an extensive addition built by Veco Corp. employees and contractors. Young is also under investigation for his ties to Veco and for an earmark he sponsored for a Florida highway interchange sought by a key campaign contributor.

Ben and Ted Stevens and Young say they have done nothing wrong, and federal prosecutors and agents won't say where their investigations are going or when they might get there.

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.