Jack Johnson

EVEN BLIND people can have 20/20 vision with hindsight. If we can agree on that can we agree that there was something quintessentially and infuriatingly American about Jack Johnson? Notice I didn't say "black American" or "African-American," which Johnson surely was. I said American: as in the kind of grass-roots, working-class, hell-raising rebel with a fierce and dogged determination we've come to cherish regardless of race and ethnicity, or gender for that matter. When I interviewed Ken Burns, he didn't say Johnson was "quintessentially American."

Though his tenure as the special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore field office wasn't long - just under three years - Richard A. McFeely helped oversee investigations that took out high-profile targets that had been on the radar of law enforcement long before he arrived.  As he moves on to FBI headquarters to become assistant director of criminal and cyber operations, McFeely agreed to discuss some of those cases with The Sun, including the...

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in federal prison after admitting to a wide-ranging pattern of corruption that permeated virtually every level of county government from health to housing and law enforcement to liquor laws. Johnson, a 62-year-old Democrat, was arrested on extortion, bribery and evidence tampering charges in November 2010 while serving out the final weeks of his eight years as the leader of Maryland's second-most populous county.

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in federal prison after admitting to a wide-ranging pattern of corruption that permeated virtually every level of county government from health to housing and law enforcement to liquor laws. Johnson, a 62-year-old Democrat, was arrested on extortion, bribery and evidence tampering charges in November 2010 while serving out the final weeks of his eight years as the leader of Maryland's second-most populous county.

Jack Johnson ESSENTIALS: The soft-voiced surfer shared his smooth Hawaiian sound with the rest of the world. The college crowd embraced Johnson's easy-going grooves, catchy melodies and laid-back style. WHAT TO EXPECT: A breezy performance that's prime for summertime. WHEN AND WHERE: North Stage, 8:45 p.m.-10 p.m. Saturday

G. Love and Special Sauce G. Love, most recently featured on the Curious George soundtrack with Jack Johnson, will play Rams Head Live, 20 Market Place, tonight with his band Special Sauce. The band has been around since 1994, when its first album was released. The show is at 9 p.m., and doors open at 8 p.m. Show is 18 and older. Tickets are $22.75 and can be purchased at the box office, at ramsheadlive.com or by calling 410-244-1131.

I read that Gov. Martin O' Malley deemed the arrest of Jack Johnson and his wife a "sad day" for them and the county. What is he talking about? I think it is a great day for the public when a corrupt politician is found out and duly charged. Maybe the citizens of Prince George's will now get honest services for their tax dollars instead of patronage and cronyism. Jim Tabeling, Baltimore

Music Monthly party / The Funk Box The Funk Box, 10 E. Cross St., will help Music Monthly celebrate 20 years of styles -- funk, jazz, blues, R&B, and more -- Sunday starting at 1 p.m. Acts include Voodoo Blue, All Mighty Senators, the Kelly Bell Band and others. For more information, visit www.the funkbox.com or call 410-625-2001. Heart / Pier Six Heart was one of the most successful rock-pop outfits to emerge in the '70s. Although the unit watered down the formula a bit in the '80s, the band still sold a truckload of records.

On his spare second album, Jack Johnson, the Hawaii-based surfer whose 2001 debut, Brushfire Fairytales, came out of nowhere to sell more than a million copies, uses an easygoing islander's attitude and an old-school respect for simplicity to build the foundation for a musical back-to-nature movement. It's as if the agile Johnson, who sings in a perpetually "whatever, dude" style, is determined to provide a human alternative to the spotlessly clean music being made on computers. His latest album, On and On, opens with a prayer, "Times Like These," that centers on acoustic guitar and conga.

Jack Johnson was a turn-of-the-century Muhammad Ali - a black man who could stylishly frustrate, taunt and dominate his white ring opponents with unparalleled boxing skills and an equally unrivaled gift of gab. All this while racial epithets were being hurled at him by angry crowds - and by the sporting press. To the sportswriters of the day, Johnson was "The Dinge," "The Ethiopian" or "The Big Smoke." "Jack Jeffries resembled a Greek god," the Los Angeles Times assured its readers before his meeting with Johnson in 1902, "while Johnson was just a good-natured, black animal - a long, lean, bullet-headed, flat-chested coon."

The case of former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in May, was back in the news this week after it was revealed that he is continuing to collect his $39,468 state pension, despite having admitted to taking more than $200,000 in bribes from developers. The disgraced former official reportedly has been collecting the money since January, thanks to a loophole in Maryland law that allows the state to deny public officials' pension benefits only if they are convicted of a crime while serving in office.

The guilty plea by former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson revives an all-too-familiar story in Maryland: the corrupt county executive shaking developers down for kickbacks. In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Mr. Johnson on Tuesday admitted to receiving more than $400,000 in bribes, as well as to extortion and witness and evidence tampering. This is indeed, as current County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said, a sad day for Prince George's County, which has struggled to shed a reputation for corruption and a "pay-to-play" culture that compels companies wanting to do business with the county to pay off local officials.

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson accepted more than $200,000 in bribes and played a central role in a broad corruption conspiracy that involved other county officials, candidates for public office and at least three developers or business leaders, federal officials alleged in new charges filed Monday. A 31-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt for the first time charges Johnson with soliciting and accepting bribes. It comes three months after Johnson and his wife, Leslie Johnson, were arrested at their home after they allegedly conspired to hide $79,600 in cash in Leslie Johnson's bra and flush a $100,000 check from a developer down the toilet.

I read that Gov. Martin O' Malley deemed the arrest of Jack Johnson and his wife a "sad day" for them and the county. What is he talking about? I think it is a great day for the public when a corrupt politician is found out and duly charged. Maybe the citizens of Prince George's will now get honest services for their tax dollars instead of patronage and cronyism. Jim Tabeling, Baltimore

If, as federal prosecutors assert, the arrests Friday of Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife on charges of evidence tampering and destruction of evidence are just the "tip of the iceberg" in a wider corruption probe, the case could make former Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon's perjury and theft ordeal look like child's play. The investigation has already produced nine more arrests this week, including three Prince George's County police officers on charges involving drugs, guns and black-market alcohol and cigarettes.

The arrests Friday of Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife suggest that a federal investigation of corruption in county government, long a subject of rumor and speculation, is reaching critical mass. Law enforcement officials familiar with the probe, which is being overseen by the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said more arrests are expected, possibly this week. Johnson, a Democrat whose term ends next month, and his wife, Leslie Johnson, also a Democrat and newly elected to the County Council, were charged with destroying and tampering with evidence.

Jack Johnson rose to prominence in an era when white heavyweight champions drew the color line and refused to fight black challengers. That practice did not deter him from doggedly pursuing heavyweight champion Tommy Burns across the globe and finally cornering him in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 26, 1908, and beating him senseless to become the first black heavyweight champion of the world.Having broken one color barrier, Johnson then proceeded to break another. He challenged a tenet of Jim Crow, one that some say was indeed the raison d'etre of Jim Crow laws: He openly pursued white women as sexual companions.

The narration hums like poetry. The pictures seductively pull one toward the screen and into their world - even the still photographs seem to shimmer with the hidden energy of the moments they captured decades ago. The music is organically sublime - driving everything, from rhythm to tone. It's the heartbeat of the film. Those elements form the template for a Ken Burns' documentary, and all are present in Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a four-hour, two-night PBS film premiering tomorrow night.

Just after 10:12 a.m. Friday, Leslie Johnson frantically phoned her husband, Jack B. Johnson, the Prince George's county executive. Two FBI agents were at the front door of their two-story brick colonial in Mitchellville. "Don't answer it," the county executive said, unaware that more agents were listening in. According to an FBI affidavit, Johnson ordered his wife to find and destroy a $100,000 check from a real estate developer that was hidden in a box of liquor. "Do you want me to put it down the toilet?"

• SOCCER: U.S. forward Landon Donovan is in talks about a loan move to Everton that would give him experience in the English Premier League in the run up to the World Cup. The loan would put the Galaxy star on the same team as U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard and allow him to play against many of the England players he will face in South Africa next June. ... AC Milan's Ronaldinho has been selected soccer player of the decade by World Soccer magazine. Ronaldinho finished ahead of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting.