By Allan Lengel

One time baseball slugger Barry Bonds was sentenced Friday in San Francisco federal court to 30 days of house arrest, two years probation and a $4,000 fine for his obstruction of justice conviction in 2003 tied to his testimony to a grand jury probing illegal steroid use, CNN reported.

The network reported that Bond was to remain free pending his appeal.

CNN reported that fed prosecutors had recommended in a sentencing memo that Bonds, 47, serve 15 months in prison.

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By James V. Grimaldi

WASHINGTON –It is a curious case in the annals of the FBI: The bureau considered a sting operation against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich after sifting through allegations from a notorious arms dealer that a $10 million bribe might get Congress to lift the Iraqi arms embargo.

The FBI ended up calling off the operation in June 1997. It decided there was no evidence that Gingrich knew anything about the conversations the arms dealer was secretly recording with a man who said he was acting on behalf of Gingrich’s then-wife, Marianne, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.

But details of the case, which became public this week in an article and documents posted online by a nonprofit journalist, show how a series of second- and third-hand conversations alleging that the top man in Congress might be for sale caught the attention of federal investigators.

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Tom Brandon/atf photo

Thomas E. Brandon, the straight-shooting, well respected and extremely able veteran of ATF, who was sent around the country this year to try and mend some of the agencies pressing problems, has been named ticklethewire.com’s Fed Of The Year for 2011.

Brandon, an ex-Marine who is currently ATF’s number two person in Washington, started the year off as special agent in charge of ATF’s Detroit office, where he was very well respected.

In the spring, after the agency started coming under Congressional fire for Operation Fast and Furious, Brandon was sent off to Phoenix to head up that office and try and improve morale and straighten out matters.

Fast Furious was created in the Phoenix office. Under Fast and Furious, ATF encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell to straw purchasers, all with the hopes of tracing the weapons to the Mexican cartels.

Problem was, ATF lost track of many of the guns, some of which surfaced at crime scenes on both sides of the border. Some members of Congress like Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Ia) went on the attack, criticizing ATF. Some even suggested folding it into the FBI.

In late August, acting director  Ken Melson stepped down. In October, as part of a major shakeup at the agency,  Brandon was summoned from Phoenix to become the number two guy in Washington.

We think it speaks volumes that Brandon has been sent to the agency’s hotspots to help straighten out things at a time the agency has come under fire, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Waco.  To boot, it’s easy to find street agents who respect Brandon, who has been an agent since 1989.

Brandon is the fourth person to receive the Fed of the Year Award.  Previous recipients have included Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (2008),  Warren Bamford, who headed the Boston FBI (2009) and Joseph Evans, regional director for the DEA’s North and Central Americas Region in Mexico City (2010).

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan/dod photo

The FBI could be in for a big legal battle — and a costly one at that –  as more than 80 claimants seek damages of $750 million from the bureau, the US Army, the Justice Department and the Department of Defense for a 2009 incident at Ft. Hood  that left 13 dead, reports Safety BLR.com.

Beside the deaths, dozens were left wounded when Major Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, opened fire at Fort Hood in Texas in November of 2009 in the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center.

Despite “clear knowledge and warnings that Hasan posed a grave danger” to soldiers and civilians, claims the suit, government agencies did not respond accordingly. “On the contrary, bowing to ‘political correctness,’ the DOD, DOA, DOJ, and FBI in wanton disregard of the safety of military and civilian personnel, intentionally ignored the threat he presented,” says the suit.

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By Danny Fenster

The ATF’s Philadelphia Field Office is about to see some new leadership, reports PR Newswire.

Sheree L. Mixell was named the Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Field Division on Thursday.

The Indiana native began her career as a special agent with ATF in 1990 and has over 23 years of law enforcement experience. For three years,  she served as a member of the Baltimore Field Division Special Response Team, responding to high risk situations and apprehending some of the region’s most violent criminals, according to the report.

She most recently served  as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Baltimore Field Division, directing and providing oversight for daily investigations for Maryland and Delaware.

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By Danny Fenster

Is extremism on the rise in the Northwest part of the country? A  report from the Columbian newspaper out of Vancouver, Wash., seems to point to that.

One example: As a house in Washougal, Wash.,  burned to the ground recently a self-proclaimed white separatist shot at firefighters to keep them away, reports the Columbian, in one of several incidents in which “extremists of various kinds made news in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.”

A representative of the Montana Human Rights Network told the paper the reasons included a black president, growing distrust with the federal government, a bad economy and continuing growth among minority groups.

“All of this has created a perfect storm of anger, fear, and resentment that white supremacists are trying to tap into and capitalize upon,” Travis McAdam said.

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