Robert Gorence has agreed to gather and present evidence for the panel and provide legal advice.

Gorence worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1986 to 2000. During the last six years of his time there, from 1994 to 2000, he was first assistant U.S. attorney.

“We are fortunate to have someone of Mr. Gorence’s caliber serve as our special counsel. This is an important undertaking and the subcommittee will be well served by Mr. Gorence’s assistance,” Reps Joe Cervantes and Zach Cook, co-chairmen of the panel, said in a joint statement.

Block faces a series of allegations beginning with apparent misuse of a state-issued gas card. Records show he spent $5,000 in six weeks on the state-issued card before it was canceled, often with multiple fill-ups within minutes of each other and sometimes for vehicles that were not his own. He also drove his state-issued vehicle on a suspended license for 11 months before voluntarily giving up his driving privileges. He also faces criminal charges related to his 2008 publicly-financed campaign.

He has admitted an addiction to oxycodone, also known by its brand name OxyContin. He has refused to resign his post, which pays $90,000 per year, despite calls from Governor Martinez, fellow Democratic party officials and the other PRC Commissioners.

Jerome Block, Jr.

Block has faced a series of allegations beginning with apparent misuse of a state-issued gas card. Records show he spent $5,000 in six weeks on the state-issued card before it was canceled, often with multiple fill-ups within minutes of each other and sometimes for vehicles that were not his own. He also drove his state-issued vehicle on a suspended license for 11 months before voluntarily giving up his driving privileges. He also faces criminal charges related to his 2008 publicly financed campaign.

He has admitted to an addiction to oxycodone, more commonly known by its brand name, OxyContin. He has refused to resign despite calls from the PRC, Gov. Martinez, and state Democrats to do so.

No public official has ever been successfully impeached, but the legislature began a similar process against former State Treasurer Robert Virgil, who ended up resigning.

House Speaker Ben Luján sent a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders Tuesday outlining plans to form a subcommittee during the special session to investigate allegations against PRC Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr., which would ultimately decide whether to recommend impeachment for the full House.

The process of impeachment is just like it is at the federal level: It requires a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Democrat Brad Gallegos announced his candidacy for Block’s seat on the PRC, bringing the total number of announced Democratic challengers against Block to five.

This dire warning comes from a new report that shows “offices throughout the state routinely report the attorneys have twice their recommended maximum workloads.” The study, by the Spangenberg Group and the Center for Justice, Law and Society at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., noted that Missouri ranks 49th out of 50 states in per-capita spending on indigent defense. Public defenders represent those unable to afford their own attorneys. Earlier this year, the AP reports, the chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court warned that “vast numbers” of inmates may have to be released from jail because public defenders can’t try their cases soon enough.

Meanwhile in the nation’s capital, U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that he will include a public health care option in legislation that will go to the Senate floor within a few weeks, the New York Times reports.

The paper reports, however, that states that want to can opt out of such a public option:

His (Reid’s) proposal came with an escape hatch: A state could refuse to participate in the public insurance plan by adopting a law to opt out. Even so, the announcement was a turning point in the debate over how much of a role government should play in an overhauled health care system, and it set the stage for a test of Democratic party unity.

A few hundred miles south of Washington, Florida parents are in sticker shock over the steep increases that have recently added to the cost pre-paid college plans, the St. Petersburg Times reports.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, Mark Sanford, the disgraced, hangdog and for-all-practical-purposes batching-it-alone governor, can’t escape his troubles. The first impeachment bill will be introduced today in the House, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The legislation comes months after Sanford admitted to an affair with an Argentinian woman, which brought extra scrutiny to his tenure as governor. Several news reports since then have shown how Sanford used state resources for personal use. The impeachment bill will be referred to the House Judiciary Committee and await action after January. “Before considering impeachment, state legislators have said they want to wait for a report from the state’s ethics commission on the governor’s use of state funds. The commission is focused on his use of state aircraft, private travel expenditures, and campaign funds,” the paper reports.

About 1.5 million New Yorkers left the state from 2000 to 2008, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Roughly a third of those leaving moved to Florida and another third moved to neighboring New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Despite the emigration wave, New York still grew by 2.7 percent from 2000 to 2008.

The paper went on to explain:

The report said the primary reason was an influx of 876,969 immigrants, who made up 22 percent of the state’s population in 2008, compared with 17 percent in 1995.

Still, New York’s population growth rate was slower than most of the nation, ranking it 41 out of 50 states from 2000 to 2008.

Included on the impeachment committee is New Mexico’s junior senator, Tom Udall, a Santa Fe Democrat.

The impeachment committee is “tasked with gathering evidence for an eventual trial” according to Roll Call. If convicted by the Senate, Kent would be removed from office.

Despite being in prison, Kent is still receiving his $447-a-day paychecks.

According to MSNBC’s First Read, Kent said he would resign from the bench in June of 2010, but the Senate felt that Kent should not continue receiving paychecks while in prison.

The process won’t be fast, however. Roll Call wrote that U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) “said the panel will attempt to complete its review in time to have a trial and possible conviction by the August recess.”

The last impeachment hearings in the Senate focused on then-President Bill Clinton in 1999.