FBI searches lawmaker’s office

FBI agents searched the congressional office of Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana Saturday in connection with a public corruption investigation that has already netted two guilty pleas by two associates, authorities said.

The search began at 7:15 p.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building, where Jefferson’s office is located, said Debra Weierman, an FBI spokeswoman.

It was not clear what agents were looking for and Weierman said she could provide no additional details because the affidavit supporting the search warrant was sealed.

FBI agents searched Jefferson’s homes in Washington and New Orleans last August, hauling away boxes and bags from one of the residences.

Jefferson, a Democrat in his eighth congressional term, declared his innocence Monday during news conference outside the federal building in New Orleans and said he will not resign in the face of the investigation that has resulted in guilty pleas from two people who implicated him in a bribery scheme.

Milford Township, Mich.

Landowners doubt Hoffa tip

As the FBI tries to locate the suspected grave of Jimmy Hoffa at a horse farm in suburban Detroit, people whose families have owned the land in the years since the former Teamsters leader disappeared say they believe it is unlikely the body will turn up.

The farm was owned by former Hoffa associate Rolland McMaster when the labor leader disappeared in summer 1975. A government investigator said Friday that Donovan Wells, who lived on the land at the time, was the one who gave the FBI the tip that has sparked an intense effort to solve a legendary mystery.

But Sturges Ducoing, a horse trainer who bought the farm from McMaster, called the search “ludicrous” and said in all the years he knew McMaster, he never heard him mention Hoffa.

“I think it’s just a big waste of money,” said Ducoing, who now lives in Metairie, La. “Who knows why all of the sudden this came up?”

County records show Ducoing purchased the farm in January 1977.

Rouses Point, N.Y.

In the market for Civil War-era fort?

A Civil War-era fort is for sale on eBay.

Fort Montgomery, built in 1844, was manned during the war but never saw any action.

“This is the first time it’s been formally for sale,” said Victor Podd of Boca Raton, Fla., whose family has owned the fort for 23 years.

The limestone fort sits on a Lake Champlain island in northern New York and is connected to the mainland by a 700-foot causeway. The full package offered on the auction Web site includes 6,900 feet of lake frontage and 279 acres on the adjacent mainland.

As of Saturday, the top bid for the property was $1 million. The online auction ends June 5.