RUMSFELD ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR MEMOIR

Donald Rumsfeld, the powerful defense secretary and architect of the Iraq war who left office two years ago, is working on a memoir to be published by Penguin Group (USA) in 2010.

Books by former Bush administration officials, such as the Treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, and the CIA director, George Tenet, have come out, but Mr. Rumsfeld’s take is closer. A longtime friend and close ally of Vice President Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld was among the most influential defense secretaries ever and the most visible and controversial since Robert McNamara in the 1960s.

Mr. Rumsfeld decided to accept no advance for the book, only money for expenses. Any profits will be donated to a foundation he established recently to fund such projects as grants for “promising young individuals” interested in public service.

The memoir will be released by Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin. The deal was negotiated by Washington attorney Robert Barnett. Mr. Barnett has handled multimillion-dollar contracts for President Clinton, Senator Clinton, and many others.

Associated Press

ETHICS RESIGNATION AT SMITHSONIAN

The head of the Smithsonian Latino Center resigned in February after an internal investigation found that she violated a variety of rules and ethics policies by abusing her expense account, trying to steer a contract to a friend, and soliciting free tickets for fashion shows, concerts, and music awards ceremonies, according to records released by the Smithsonian yesterday.

Pilar O’Leary, who was hired in 2005 by the then-secretary, Lawrence Small, to be the institution’s key representative on Latino affairs, billed the Smithsonian “extravagant” and “lavish travel expenses,” and repeatedly abused her expense account on outings to a spa and visits to hotel gift shops, the Smithsonian inspector general found.

In a report released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the inspector general said Ms. O’Leary violated more than 11 ethical and conflict-of-interest policies.

Ms. O’Leary, 39, could not be reached for comment, but she said in statements attached to the report that she had relied upon authorizations and guidance from the office of the then-deputy secretary, Sheila Burke. In an interview with investigators made public with the report, Ms. O’Leary said she had never been questioned by superiors regarding her travel expenditures.

Prominent on the Washington social scene, Ms. O’Leary appeared on the cover of Washington Life magazine as a winner of the magazine’s annual Substance and Style Awards, along with Senator Obama and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau.

The Washington Post

ROWLING TESTIFIES

J.K. Rowling testified before a packed courtroom in a lawsuit to block publication of a “Harry Potter” lexicon, telling a judge that the book amounts to a “wholesale theft” of nearly 20 years of her hard work.

“We all know I’ve made enough money. That’s absolutely not why I’m here,” Ms. Rowling told the judge in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The British author sued last year to stop publication of Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon,” claiming copyright infringement. Mr. Vander Ark runs the popular Harry Potter Lexicon Web site, and hopes to publish a print version of the site.

Ms. Rowling claims the book is nothing more than a rearrangement of her own material and told the judge it copied so much of her work that it amounted to plagiarism.

“I think it’s atrocious. I think it’s sloppy. I think there’s very little research,” she testified yesterday.

Associated Press

SOTHEBY’S BETS ON RUSSIAN ART

A Fabergé icon in a silver frame studded with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds and a gigantic tsarist-era porcelain centerpiece are among the Russian treasures headed for auction at Sotheby’s in New York this week.

Spurred by Russia’s economic growth and a new class of ultra-rich art collectors, Sotheby’s annual Russian sales surged to $190.9 million in 2007 from $6.03 million in 2000. But this week’s sales come amid jitters about the art market’s ability to withstand losses in the financial sector.

Most of the buyers of Russian art — between 70% and 80% — are Russian, said the head of Sotheby’s Russian paintings department in New York Sonya Bekkerman said. “Luckily, they are not tied to the subprime mortgage crisis,” she said.

Bloomberg News