Beverly L. Masek, a former elected member of the Alaska House of Representatives, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit bribery.  Masek pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline in Anchorage to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

The United States has filed a civil complaint against BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. (BPXA) alleging that the company violated federal clean air and water laws.

Timothy Smith, a resident of Cullman, Ala., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Birmingham to one count of tax evasion, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced.

Alaska Gold Co. (Alaska Gold), and NovaGold Resources Inc. (NovaGold), the owners and operators of the Rock Creek Mine near Nome, Alaska, have agreed to pay a $883,628 civil penalty to resolve violations of a storm water discharge permit.

Georgia-Pacific, a manufacturing company headquartered in Atlanta, has agreed to perform remedial work at an estimated cost of nearly $13 million to contain two former disposal areas within the Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Allegan and Kalamazoo Counties, Mich.

The Department of Justice today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to remand the cases of former Alaska State Representatives Victor Kohring and Peter Kott, who were convicted on corruption charges in 2007, to the District Court.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with the city of Marion, Ala., that, if approved by the U.S. District Court in Mobile, Ala., will resolve the Department’s lawsuit filed against Marion on behalf of Cynthia Y. Davis, a member of the state’s Army National Guard.

Sims Lawson Jr., a resident of Killen, Ala., pleaded guilty yesterday to filing false tax returns for years 2002 through 2004. Lawson appeared before Judge R. David Proctor in Birmingham, Ala., and admitted that he failed to pay federal income taxes of $369,038 and state income taxes of $50,938.

The Department filed a lawsuit against the owner and employees of Rolling Oaks Apartments, a 72-unit complex in Clanton, Ala., for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating on the basis of race or color in the rental of apartments. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, alleges that the employees, Kenneth R. Scott and Frankie L. Roberson, told white testers that a selling point of Rolling Oaks Apartments was the lack of African American tenants and that they had adopted rental policies intended to discourage African American rental applicants.

Five members of an extended family were sentenced to federal prison late yesterday, all receiving lengthy sentences for their roles in an international sex trafficking ring that lured young Guatemalan women and girls to the Los Angeles area and forced them into prostitution.

The Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today jointly announced an agreement with the owners and managers of Pina’s Mobile Home Park in Daphne, Ala., to settle allegations of discrimination against families with children. Under the consent decree, approved today in federal court in Mobile, Ala., the defendants must pay up to $104,130 to victims of discrimination and an additional $30,000 to the government as a civil penalty.

Beverly Masek was sentenced today to six months in prison.

The Bank will invest more than $600,000, open a new branch in an African-American neighborhood in west central Alabama and take other steps as part of a settlement.

Timothy Smith, a resident of Cullman, Ala., was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for tax evasion.

Sims Lawson Jr., a resident of Killen, Ala., was sentenced to 70 months in prison by Judge R. David Proctor.

Bill J. Allen and Richard L. Smith were each sentenced in separate hearings today for their participation in a corruption scheme in which they provided approximately $395,000 in corrupt payments to public officials from the state of Alaska.

A Mobile, Ala., grand jury has indicted a waste disposal company, its president and top manager for offenses involving the illegal disposal of waste into the sewage treatment systems of Mobile and of neighboring municipalities.

Six detainees who are Chinese nationals of Uighur ethnicity have been transferred from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the control of the Republic of Palau.

Under the settlement, which must still be approved by the court, 11 defendants will pay all costs related to making the complexes for which they were responsible accessible to persons with disabilities.

“Over the past thirteen years, the parties have tried to settle this case many, many times, each time unsuccessfully,” said Attorney General Holder.

"Thank you Secretary Salazar. Today marks another significant step forward in the government’s work to fulfill our trust obligation for hundreds of thousands of individual Native Americans. Cobell v. Salazar is one of the largest class actions ever brought against the U.S. government."

"Thank you to the Attorney General, and thank you to Secretary Salazar and Deputy Secretary Hayes for the extraordinary commitment of their Department of the Interior to bring this case to a resolution."

The Department announced the settlement of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) discrimination lawsuit against Wales West LLC, owner and operator of Wales West RV Resort and Train and Garden Lovers Family Park in Silverhill, Ala.

The Department has reached a settlement agreement with the Alameda County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office, under which it will provide sign language interpreters and other auxiliary aids and services to arrestees, detainees, suspects, victims, witnesses, complainants and visitors who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind at two jails.

The settlement, which will require legislative and judicial approval to become effective, is fair to the plaintiffs, is responsible for the United States, and provides a path forward for the future.

Christian Rodney Ice, of Mobile, Ala., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Mobile to one count of violating the Church Arson Act by placing threatening graffitti and neo-Nazi markings on a synagogue in Mobile.

Westward Seafoods Inc., the operator of a seafood processing plant in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, will pay a $570,000 civil penalty as part of a settlement agreement to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with Troy University of Montgomery, Ala., to resolve the department’s complaint alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

A U.S. Army contracting official pleaded guilty today to bribery and unlawful salary supplementation in connection with two schemes to solicit more than $17,000 in bribes and other payments from an Egyptian businessman in Kuwait.

The focus of the workshop will be consolidation and contracting practices of the poultry sector.

A former Guatemalan special forces soldier was arrested today in Palm Beach County, Fla., for lying on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

– The Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the schedule and panelists for the second joint public workshop on competition and regulatory issues in agriculture, which will be held on May 21, 2010, in Normal, Ala., at the Ernest L. Knight Reception Center at Alabama A & M University.

A former Guatemalan special forces soldier was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Palm Beach County, Fla., for lying on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

"The discussion we’ve gathered to begin reflects an historic collaboration between the Departments of Justice and Agriculture and leaders from across our nation’s agriculture industry," said Attorney General Holder.

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Clean Water Act at numerous sites in Alaska

A federal grand jury in Mobile, Ala., has returned a three-count indictment charging Thomas Hayward Lewis, 24, of Mobile, with violating and conspiring to violate the civil rights of congregants of the Congregation Tree of Life Messianic Synagogue in Mobile, as well as possession of an unregistered firearm.

Gilberto Jordan, 54, a former Guatemalan special forces soldier, pleaded guilty today in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to a federal charge of unlawfully procuring his U.S. citizenship, admitting that he lied on his naturalization application about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor the primary runoff elections on July 13, 2010, in Barbour, Lee and Russell Counties, Ala., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

A former U.S. Army contracting official was sentenced today to 42 months in prison in connection with two schemes to solicit more than $30,000 in bribes and other payments from an Egyptian businessman in Kuwait.

A U.S. District Court in Montgomery, Ala., granted judgment in favor of the United States yesterday in a lawsuit brought to enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act against the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

The United States has asked a federal court to permanently bar a Birmingham, Ala., man from preparing federal tax returns for customers, the Justice Department announced today. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, alleges that Douglas E. Dent fabricates large tax withholdings that result in large bogus refund claims on customers’ tax returns.

The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with Alaska officials to help ensure that military service members and other U.S. citizens living overseas have an opportunity to participate fully in the Nov. 2, 2010, federal general election. The agreement was necessary to ensure Alaska’s compliance with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act)

Gilberto Jordan, a former Guatemalan special forces soldier, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch in the Southern District of Florida to 10 years in prison for unlawfully procuring his U.S. citizenship by lying about his participation in a 1982 massacre at a Guatemalan village known as Dos Erres.

The Justice Department today announced that a scientist and his wife, who both previously worked as contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela, among other violations.

The Justice Department today settled a lawsuit against the city of Satsuma, Ala., and the city’s Board of Adjustment, alleging housing discrimination against individuals with disabilities.

Eleven individuals, including four current Alabama state legislators, three lobbyists, two business owners and one of their employees, and an employee of the Alabama legislature have been charged for their roles in a conspiracy to offer to and to bribe legislators for their votes and influence on proposed legislation.

"This morning, federal agents began arresting 11 individuals on charges that they conspired over an approximately 19-month period to corrupt the legislative process in Alabama," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.

"I’m enormously pleased that we at the Justice Department are supporting your important work through the Office of Justice Programs and are thereby helping you expand the reach of the holistic community oriented model to defender agencies across the country through the Center for Holistic Defense."

Sharon D. Thurman, who owned and operated “Sharon’s Tax Services,” was charged with 14 counts of making false claims for tax refunds, two counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of theft of government money.

Richard Chu, a former "VIP host" at Pure Nightclub located in Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of filing a false federal income tax return for the 2006 tax year.