In what turned out to be a busy day for FBI agents and an embarrassing day for Democrats across the US, three politicians in three different states were tangled up in separate corruption investigations on Wednesday.  A major arms trafficking scheme aside, these investigations – two of which involved arrests, one just a raid – stemmed from local and state politics and allegedly involved cash-for-favors swaps, the kind of enticements that some politicians apparently never learn to avoid.  Republicans are not without their own issues – former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife are facing a federal indictment of their own, for starters – but on Wednesday, it was all about Democrats.  Below, a look at the three politicians who had such bad days on Wednesday.  In San Franscisco, agents woke California state senator Leland Yee in the early morning and hauled one of two dozen alleged accomplices, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, out of bed across town. San Fransciscans and feds alike have long been familiar with Chow, whose extensive criminal history is public knowledge, though he's said that he went straight after he was released from prison in 2003. But Yee's alleged involvement in an arms trafficking scheme has been met with surprise. A vocal anti-gun-violence-advocate, Yee has been charged with trafficking in firearms after, prosecutors say, he promised undercover FBI agents he could deliver connections to international gun runners. California state senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg has called news of the charges "surreal" and, just looking at Yee's Twitter feed, it's easy to see why:  Thank you @PiersMorgan for your commitment and passion to ending gun violence. We must never forget Sandy Hook.  A year after Sandy Hook, let us recommit ourselves to working towards a safer society for all of us.  Yee, 65, is also charged with public corruption for allegedly accepting money in exchange for political favors. "Do I think we can make some money? I think we can make some money," Yee said, according to an FBI affidavit. Each of the six counts of scheming to defraud citizens of honest services with which he's been charged can carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.  Yee's arrest follows a recent trend in California politics: state senator Ronald S Calderon took a paid leave last week, not long after he was hit with federal corruption charges over allegations that he accepted nearly $100,000 in bribes and helped plan a major health carescam. And, in January, state senator Roderick Wright was convicted of eight felony counts of voter fraud and perjury. The actions of both Calderon and Wright have temporary lost Democrats their supermajority status in California's senate.  North Carolina mayor Patrick Cannon, 49, was arrested for allegedly accepting thousands of dollars in bribes in what prosecutors say were schemes that touched several parts of city politics, including a hotly contested $126m streetcar line and a major city real estate development site.  Cannon, who'd been in office just months, resigned, a rare move for politicians in his situation.  William Scarborough, who represents Queens in New York's state assembly, was swarmed by agents outside of his hotel room in Albany on Wednesday. He's being investigated for gaming the New York legislature's travel voucher system. Lawmakers can file for a $172 per diem payment for hotels and food when they're in Albany on business. In 2012, Scarborough received more per diem payments than anyone in the assembly, getting $33,986 on top of his yearly $79,500 salary. In 2013, he claimed $28,438, and he's filed for $10,349 so far in 2014, according to the Albany Times Union. Agents have confiscated documents and Scarborough's phone in the probe. Scarborough says the FBI won't find anything.  Whatever happens, this isn't a banner year for New York Democrats. The Scarborough incident comes three weeks after a jury found Brooklyn assemblyman William Boyland Jr guilty on bribery charges – he was acquitted on similar charges in 2011. And two New York state senators, John Sampson and Malcolm Smith, are under federal indictment on corruption charges.
On one day, police charged politicians in New York, North Carolina and California, for firearm trafficking, bribes and fraud