Dean Skelos, “the once powerful Republican majority leader of the New York State Senate who was convicted with his son in December on federal corruption charges, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday,” the New York Times reports.
“The sentencing of Mr. Skelos is the second instance in 10 days in which a former senior New York lawmaker was sent to prison for abusing his office. It concludes an extraordinary chapter during which two trials held a block apart at almost the same time last year exposed a culture of kickbacks, secret deals and nepotism in the State Capital in Albany.”