Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Ethics Panel Delays Ruling on Cranston

A Senate Ethics Committee decision on whether to recommend censure of Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) for financial misconduct was delayed when newly appointed committee member Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) discovered he had a potential conflict of interest. There is now little chance of a decision before September in the case, which concerns intervention by Cranston and four other senators with federal regulators on behalf of savings and loan executive Charles H. Keating Jr. Bingaman said he had just learned that his wife’s law firm is still owed legal fees for representing several Cranston aides during the panel’s public hearings on the “Keating Five” case last winter.