Obituaries

Ex-congressman and ex-con Dan Rostenkowski, 82, has died. No cause of death was given although the article notes he was treated for prostate cancer in the 1990s.

He did a lot of good until he plunged into scandal in 1992:

But Mr. Rostenkowski’s esteem and power on Capitol Hill eroded and then collapsed, starting in 1992, when a federal grand jury began investigating reports of wrongdoing in the House post office. Mr. Rostenkowski was pushed to the center of the scandal after investigators asserted that he had bought $22,000 in stamps from the House post office with public money and may have converted them to cash.

The federal inquiry lasted two years, during which Republicans, led by the Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich, accused Democrats of corruption and held up the accusations against Mr. Rostenkowski as symptomatic.

In 1994, Mr. Rostenkowski was formally charged with 17 counts of abusing his Congressional payroll by paying at least 14 people who did little or no official work; trading stamp vouchers for at least $50,000 in cash; misusing his office’s expense accounts to charge Congress for $40,000 in furniture and fine china and crystal; misusing personal vehicles and paying for them with $70,000 in House funds; and obstruction of justice.

Mr. Rostenkowski fought back. “I did not commit any crimes,” he told reporters. “My conscience is clear, and my 42-year record as an elected official is one I am proud to once again run on.”

He later went to prison for 15 months, paid a fine, and was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000.
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Noted producer David Wolper, 82, who produced many fine documentaries for television and the landmark miniseries Roots, has
died.

Wolper died Tuesday at his Beverly Hills home of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson’s disease, said Dale Olson, his longtime publicist.

During his long career, Wolper oversaw the production of more than 700 films that have won more than 150 awards, including two Oscars, 50 Emmys, seven Golden Globes and five Peabody Awards.

Recognized by TV Guide in 1998 as one of the "45 People Who Made a Difference" in shaping the medium of television — and one of TV’s top eight creative forces — Wolper was described as a producer whose "many contributions to broadcast history have embedded themselves in the American psyche."

So many of the people who were important in the first couple of decades of television have died in recent months.
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