Ohio's attorney general faces impeachment

Risking impeachment, Ohio's attorney general Monday refused demands from the governor and other fellow Democrats that he resign over a sexual-harassment scandal in his office and an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Ted Strickland said Democrats will begin drafting an impeachment resolution against Attorney General Marc Dann right away. Republican House Speaker Jon Husted said Monday his chamber — which takes the first step in any impeachment — was already reviewing the process.

A sexual-harassment investigation uncovered an atmosphere in Dann's office rife with inappropriate staff-subordinate relationships, heavy drinking, and harassing and threatening behavior by a supervisor. On Friday, Dann admitted to an extramarital affair.

Atlanta

Killer's clemency request denied

Barring a last-minute intervention by the courts, a Georgia man who killed his girlfriend is likely to become the first inmate put to death since a U.S. Supreme Court review halted executions last September.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied William Earl Lynd's appeal for clemency, rejecting his lawyer's argument that forensic evidence at his 1990 trial was flawed and clearing the way for his execution, scheduled for 7 p.m. today.

On Monday two other states — Texas and Mississippi — also scheduled executions that had been on hold.

Washington

Suicide note calls trial a "lynching"

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the Washington, D.C., escort-service operator who hanged herself last week, left behind two suicide notes, including one that described her recent racketeering trial as a "modern day lynching."

Palfrey, 52, who faced a likely prison term for running a call-girl ring, viewed suicide as her only "exit strategy," according to notes left at her mother's residence in Tarpon Springs, Fla., where her body was found Thursday. She had been free pending sentencing July 24 in U.S. District Court.

Philadelphia

Racial suit settled for $1.65 million

Conectiv Energy and three subcontractors will pay $1.65 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by four black workers who said they were subjected to racial slurs, Ku Klux Klan graffiti and a noose that was left hanging for more than a week.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement Monday. One of the men will receive $250,000 and the three others each will receive $166,666.67, according to court documents.

The men alleged the harassment took place in 2002 and 2003 on a construction site at the former Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Penn., where Conectiv was the general contractor and property owner on a project to build a gas-fired power plant.

Also

Less than two hours after prosecutors in Chicago rested their case Monday in political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko's fraud trial, defense attorneys did the same without calling a single witness.

Seattle Times news services