The former number-two official at the Interior Department under Gale Norton pleaded guilty today to lying to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff; a tie with a romantic knot. The link between the former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, J. Steven Griles, 59, and Abramoff was Italia Federici, the head of a 
conservative nonprofit called the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, or CREA.
Abramoff is said to have funneled around $500,000 to her organization in exchange for access to Norton, a co-founder of CREA, and Griles, Federici’s then paramour.
Salon has a story about Italia here.
Washington Post story here.
Courtroom sketching is a form of visual journalism or reportage drawing that is slowly dying out. Where once upon a time news organization each had their own artist covering a story, today a “pool” artist often sketches for all. It is a demanding and stressful discipline where the drawing is often done directly and under tight deadline.
After forty-five years of news sketching in courtrooms and congress I’m calling it quits. It’s been sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, almost always interesting. I’ve been lucky to work with some really great people. Don’t think I’ll miss it, but a little scared of not having a deadline.
While I won’t be sketching in court anymore, I may continue to post to this blog from time to time. Not sure what that might be. I’m about to start a new assignment documenting infrastructure and construction. Could be interesting.
