UPDATE: SEN. TED STEVENS DEAD Former Sen. Ted Stevens Missing And Feared Dead In Alaska Plane Crash

UPDATE: CNN confirms that Sen. Ted Stevens was killed.

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens is feared to be among eight missing persons aboard a plane that went down near Dillingham, Alaska last night. Severe weather is restricting the search for survivors.

The Alaska Air National Guard was called to the area about 20 miles north of Dillingham at about 7 p.m. after a passing aircraft saw the wreckage, spokesman Maj. Guy Hayes said. Eight people were reported to be on board the aircraft, though their status wasn't immediately known, he said. There were possible fatalities, he said. National Transportation Safety Board reported that it will send a "Go Team" from Washington, D.C., to Dillingham to investigate the crash. The teams can consist of up to a dozen or more specialists from the board's headquarters staff and are responsible for investigating major cases -- they are the arm that responds to "catastrophic airline crash sites" -- for the board, according to the NTSB.

Steven lost his seat in 2008 days after being convicted for failing to report gifts from supporters.

Feds To Drop Charges Against Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens

Oh, Alaska. If only this were an April Fool's joke.

The Justice Department plans to drop all charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens, the 85-year old Alaska Republican convicted last year of lying on Senate financial disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and home renovations from a businessman, according to a news report this morning.

Attorney General Eric Holder has concluded that the conviction of Stevens cannot be supported because of problems with the government's prosecution, which had been openly criticized by the trial judge, National Public Radio first reported. The Justice Department would not comment on the report this morning. Justice will withdraw its opposition to a defense motion for a new trial and will dismiss the indictment against Stevens, NPR reported, but that will require a court filing and none had been filed yet.

Prosecutorial misconduct. Sigh. Stevens lost reelection in October to the mayor of Anchorage, Democrat Mark Begich.

It's Official: Ted Stevens Has Lost

Seven-time felon Sen. Ted Stevens was officially declared the loser in his reelection bid yesterday. This brings the Democratic count in the Senate to 58 seats, with Al Franken's contest still to be called. And it also means that Caribou Barbie is staying in Juneau.

Ted Stevens Appears To Have Lost

Is this election STILL going on?

Sen. Ted Stevens' hold on the U.S. Senate seat he's held for 40 years is looking increasingly shaky in the face of more votes for Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. Begich now holds an 814-vote lead he took after nearly 60,000 votes were counted Wednesday. Thursday, the Elections Division provided additional detail on where the more than 40,000 votes yet to be counted come from.

With many arriving from Democratic strongholds that favored Begich on Election Day, the challenger looks to be in a strong position to unseat Stevens, the longest serving Republican ever in the U.S. Senate. "Given where we expect the remaining votes are located, this looks very good for Begich," said polling analyst Nate Silver on the Web site Fivethirtyeight.com, a national polling site that has been looking at Alaska. The district with the most absentee votes left to be counted, 2,116, is Sitka, which Begich won 54 percent to 41 percent. "The remaining full districts ... those are good districts for us," Begich said Thursday.

Looks like Caribou Barbie is gonna be stuck as governor.

Convict Holds Slim Lead In Alaska

The people of Alaska must have been smoking something.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was leading challenger Mark Begich with most of the election returns in hand Tuesday night, despite being found guilty of seven felonies and polls showing him in deep trouble. With more than 80 percent of the precincts reporting, Stevens held a 2-percentage point advantage over Democrat Begich.

About 4,000 votes separated the candidates. The razor-thin margin means the Senate race might not be decided for two weeks. Still to be counted are roughly 40,000 absentee ballots, with more expected to arrive in the mail, as well as 9,000 uncounted early votes and thousands of questioned ballots. The state Elections Division has up to 15 days after the election to tally all the remaining ballots before finalizing the count.

If the lead holds, Stevens will shock the nation and be the first person ever re-elected to the U.S. Senate after being found guilty on criminal charges. Polls had shown the Republican down by at least 8 percentage points on the day before the election.

Most expect the Senate to expel Stevens if he wins, which will open his seat for a special Palin-friendly election. Sen. Sarah Palin. Get ready for it.

McCain & Palin Call For Stevens To Quit

Today John McCain and Sarah Palin issued separate calls for convicted Alaska Senator Ted Stevens to resign.

Sarah Palin has told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that she believes Stevens "needs to step aside and allow our state to elect someone who will be supportive of those ideals of America." On Tuesday morning, John McCain called for Sen. Ted Stevens to step down after the Alaska lawmaker was found guilty on seven counts of corruption charges, while a campaign aide suggested on television that Sarah Palin would not vote for the embattled legislator in his tight reelection race.

"Yesterday, Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation's capital," McCain said, adding: "It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all."

Stevens has vowed to appeal his corruption conviction and stay in the race. If he wins, he may be expelled by his fellow Senators for misconduct. If that happens or if he resigns, Palin can appoint an interim Senator until a special election is called. In 2004 Alaska changed the rules on replacing members of Congress. The new rule:

When a vacancy occurs in the office of United States senator or United States representative, the governor shall, by proclamation, call a special election to be held on a date not less than 60, nor more than 90, days after the date the vacancy occurs. However, if the vacancy occurs on a date that is less than 60 days before or is on or after the date of the primary election in the general election year during which a candidate to fill the office is regularly elected, the governor may not call a special election.

The new replacement rule may face a constitutional challenge in Alaska.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) Found Guilty On All Seven Counts Of Corruption

Via Politico:

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was convicted today on seven counts of failing to report more than $250,000 in improper gifts he received from 1999 to 2006, a stunning blow to a political career that has lasted more than 40 years and marked Alaska’s entire history as a part of the United States.

Stevens, 84, now faces a question over whether he will resign, and if he does not, whether he can win reelection Nov. 4 in an already tough race. At first, Stevens showed no emotion, holding his stomach as verdict was read. But a few minutes later, it seemed to sink in as Stevens sat quietly, hunched over with his hands covering his face.

Stevens could also be sentenced to as much as five years in federal prison, although considering his age and lack of previous convictions, is unlikely to receive anywhere near the maximum sentence. Stevens’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25, and Stevens' attorneys have already told Judge Emmet Sullivan they would file motions to overturn the verdict by early December.

I bet he doesn't even have the dignity to resign. But on the other hand: Sarah Palin has been pallin' around with a convict!

Homophobe Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) Indicted For Corruption

Squeeee! Sen. Ted "The Internet Is A Series Of Tubes" Stevens (R-AK), the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, has been charged with seven felony counts of corruption.

A federal grand jury in Washington has handed up the indictment against Stevens -- which the Justice Department is set to announce very shortly. Stevens, 84, faces seven counts of false statements involving VECO, the oil services company in Alaska, and the renovations done on his home.

All seven false statement counts relate to the statements he made on financial disclosure forms from 1999 to the 2006 form. The indictment says Stevens "knowingly and intentionally sought to conceal and cover up his receipt of things of value by filing Financial Disclosure Forms that contained false statements and omissions."

The press release says Stevens received $250,000 in things of value during "the eight year scheme." The gifts included new and used furniture, a new stationary tool storage cabinet with new tools, and a new professional Viking gas grill. Stevens used these things at his home in Girdwood, Alaska. The former CEO of VECO, Bill Allen, cooperated in the case against Stevens.

Stevens has a 0% rating from the Human Rights Campaign and has always voted the party line to thwart the advance of LGBT rights.

During his six term career in the Senate, Stevens has been no friend to the GLBT community; he received a 0% on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard in the last Congress, voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006 and even opposed the Matthew Shepard Act in 2007.

Trivia: noted LGBT blogger John Aravosis (AmericaBLOG) once worked as a staffer for Stevens. Aravosis says that he resigned once he accepted his homosexuality.