FEC says Frist campaign broke law
The Federal Election Commission has determined that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s 2000 Senate campaign violated federal campaign finance laws.
The federal agency fined Frist 2000 Inc. $11,000, according to a lawyer representing Frist’s campaign and a watchdog group. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed a complaint last year against Frist’s 2000 campaign committee and received the FEC’s findings Thursday.
The FEC found that Frist 2000 Inc. failed to disclose a $1.44 million loan taken out jointly by the campaign and Frist’s 1994 campaign committee.
The Tennessee Republican, who was elected to the Senate in 1994, is not seeking another term and is weighing a possible bid for the presidency in 2008.
Federal law requires full disclosure of any loans taken out by campaign committees. Frist’s 1994 campaign committee did disclose the loan to the FEC in January 2001, but the 2000 campaign did not, according to the FEC.
McALESTER, Okla.
74-year-old inmate executed
A 74-year-old man was executed Thursday for nearly decapitating his stepson with a knife more than two decades ago.
John A. Boltz was the oldest death row inmate executed in Oklahoma and the third-oldest in the country since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.
Boltz was 52 when a jury convicted him of the 1984 killing. Doug Kirby, 22, had driven to Boltz’s home to discuss threats Boltz had made against his estranged wife, who had asked for a divorce, authorities said.
The medical examiner said Kirby was stabbed eight times in the chest and abdomen and suffered a cut in the neck that nearly decapitated him. Boltz claimed he acted in self-defense.
Earlier in the day, a federal judge issued a stay of execution after Boltz’s attorney argued that Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol violated his client’s rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
But a federal appeals court reversed that decision and the Supreme Court denied two requests for a stay shortly before the execution.
WASHINGTON
Commission urges tighter ATV rules
Three-wheeled all-terrain vehicles would be banned and four-wheelers intended for children wouldn’t go faster than 15 mph, under rules suggested Thursday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s staff.
The recommendations would also require ATV manufacturers to offer free training to families when they buy ATVs.
The commission said 18 people died in ATV accidents during the 2006 Memorial Day holiday. Last year, ATVs caused 4,400 injuries during the Friday-through-Monday Memorial Day period, the most recent for which the commission has injury data.
A patchwork of state regulations apply to the vehicles, but there are no federal laws governing ATVs. The commission does have voluntary agreements with big ATV manufacturers to discourage sales of ATVs intended for use by children.