Investigators from the Los Angeles Ethics Commission and the State Bar of California have launched separate inquiries related to City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's use of city resources for personal reasons, authorities and sources said Thursday.

The inquiries come amid growing criticism from community and city leaders about Delgadillo's conduct. In recent days, the city's top prosecutor has acknowledged letting his wife drive his city-owned vehicle without a license and enlisting staff members to run personal errands and baby-sit his children.

"There are certainly concerns about the misuse of public property for private benefit," said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause. "Particularly because we are talking about a position that must maintain a high level of public integrity … we would want an investigation to make sure that integrity is there."

Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for Delgadillo, said "the city attorney is fully prepared to cooperate with any investigation."

Because such investigations are confidential, authorities from the state bar and Ethics Commission declined to confirm them.

The state bar, however, confirmed its inquiry earlier this week in a letter to a Whittier attorney who lodged a complaint about Delgadillo's alleged unethical conduct after reading articles in The Times.

"I believe in ethics," said attorney Allen P. Wilkinson, who made the complaint. "Attorneys already have a bad reputation among the public as being dishonest and I don't think that type of conduct should be tolerated in the legal profession."

Meanwhile, on Thursday, two Ethics Commission investigators met for 20 minutes with the general manager and assistant general manager of the General Services Department, which is in charge of the city's fleet of vehicles, and asked for information on the agency's policies and procedures for providing city-owned automobiles to officials and various employees.

"They were looking for general information on what the rules are, and how people can arrange to use a vehicle," said one city official familiar with the afternoon meeting.

City Councilman Dennis P. Zine said he supported an investigation. "The Ethics Commission has a responsibility when allegations like these are brought forward to investigate," Zine said. "They should investigate this. It's very embarrassing for an elected official who is a prosecutor, who enforces laws, to be involved in something like this that defies common sense."

It has been a tough week for the Delgadillo family. On Monday, the city attorney admitted that his wife was driving with a suspended license when his city-owned GMC Yukon was damaged. Michelle Delgadillo was using the car to go to her doctor's office when she backed into a pole in a parking lot. The city attorney had initially let taxpayers pay for the $1,222 repair job, but after the matter became public he decided to reimburse the city.

Delgadillo also acknowledged Monday that — unbeknownst to him — he had driven without auto insurance for about a year and his wife had done so for about two years. Then, on Wednesday, The Times disclosed that Delgadillo had periodically called on his staff members to run personal errands and baby-sit his two young sons.

Delgadillo, who makes $205,977 annually as city attorney, said his employees had done those favors on their personal time, although several sources said the chores were performed during normal business hours.

One person who won't investigate Delgadillo is Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who has recused his office because of a potential conflict: Delgadillo has been rumored to be interested in challenging Cooley for the district attorney's job. On Thursday, Cooley's office sent a letter to state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown saying that he would refer any allegations of wrongdoing against Delgadillo to the state for consideration.

"We believe that because of our conflict situation, any criminal inquiry that may be warranted is properly referred to your office for your consideration and any action you deem appropriate," wrote Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. John K. Spillane.

Whenever the city Ethics Commission finds evidence of criminal wrongdoing, it normally refers the matter to either the district attorney or city attorney, depending on whether the suspected violation is a felony or misdemeanor.

The guidelines set rules for judges to calculate punishment and attempt to reduce wide disparities in sentences for the same crime.

But critics of the guidelines say they often impose overly harsh sentences and take away a judge's discretion to look at the facts of the case and fit an appropriate punishment for each individual.

The ruling involved Victor Rita, who received 33 months in prison for making false statements during an investigation of illegal trafficking in machine gun kits. His sentence was at the bottom of the guideline range of 33 to 41 months.

Rita had sought a sentence lower than 33 months, based on his physical condition -- he has diabetes and other illnesses -- his likely vulnerability in prison and his military service in Vietnam and in Operation Desert Storm.

The Supreme Court upheld a U.S. appeals court's ruling that found Rita's sentence to be reasonable.

Justice Stephen Breyer said in the majority opinion that the judge in the case properly analyzed the relevant factors and gave legally sufficient reasons for the sentence.

The ruling followed up on the Supreme Court's landmark decision in 2005 that federal judges no longer were bound by the sentencing guidelines that had been in effect for nearly 20 years, but must consult them and take them into account.

Justice David Souter dissented in Thursday's decision and said he would reject the presumption of reasonableness adopted in the case. He also urged Congress to revisit the issue of guidelines.

A federal court in Illinois had dismissed the lawsuit, concluding the allegations were too vague and did not raise a "strong inference" that the company intended to deceive shareholders.

The "strong inference" requirement was laid out in a law adopted by Congress in 1995 designed to discourage frivolous securities fraud suits by making it easier for companies to get them thrown out of court.

The Tellabs lawsuit was subsequently reinstated by a U.S. appeals court. The Supreme Court, by an 8-1 vote, ruled the appeals court was wrong, with the majority opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

She said that to qualify as strong, an inference must be more than merely plausible or reasonable. It must be cogent and at least as compelling as any opposing inference of nonfraudulent intent, Justice Ginsburg said.

Tellabs had argued that under the 1995 reform law, federal courts must consider any facts that suggest any possible "innocent" motives, and that courts have to dismiss securities fraud cases that don't raise a "strong inference" of intentional wrongdoing.

Tellabs was supported by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.

Lawyers for the investor plaintiffs had argued that their lawsuit laid out enough specific facts to show that Tellabs knew its best-selling product, a piece of networking equipment known as a cross-connect system, was in decline, but misled investors anyway.

Justice John Paul Stevens dissented, saying he thought it clear that the plaintiffs established probable cause to believe that Mr. Notebaert acted with the required intent.

Ice Miller LLP is pleased to announce that State Representative Bob Kuzman has joined the Firm as a partner in its Public Affairs Group. Kuzman will focus on state, local and federal government issues and public affairs management including legislative monitoring and representation, administrative law and government procurement, campaign finance and election law compliance, grassroots programming and political strategy.

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Kuzman is currently a State Representative for District 19 serving southern Lake, Porter and Newton counties. He is the Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and was a key negotiator on the State Budget bill. He is also the former Chairman of the House Public Policy Committee and a member of the Rules Committee. Kuzman has been a state representative since 1996. He is expected to resign his office later this summer.

"I believe that every citizen should have an open door to government and those with interests before the Statehouse should be heard," stated Kuzman. "I look forward to helping the Firm's clients manage their legislative issues at the local, state and federal levels."

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In a unanimous ruling, the court said that "hard-sell tactics directed at middle school students could lead to exploitation, distort competition between high school teams and foster an environment in which athletics are prized more highly than academics."

Games have rules, Justice John Paul Stevens said for the court. "It is only fair that Brentwood follow them," Stevens said.

Brentwood argued that the restriction violated its free-speech rights, even though it voluntarily joined the association.

The dispute arose from a letter that Brentwood's football coach sent to a dozen eighth-graders in 1997, inviting them to attend spring training at Brentwood. The students already had been accepted and signed enrollment contracts for the fall.

"It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in past," the appeals court said.

Steven Warshak, owner and president of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, brought the case against the government to stop investigators from searching his stored e-mails using the SCA. The district court ruled in favor of Warshak, and the government appealed the ruling to the 6th Circuit, where they were ultimately defeated.

Warshak is in the middle of a fraud investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he and his business defrauded customers and banks out of at least $100 million in a scheme where they billed credit cards without authorization.

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) delegation plans to visit Pyongyang next week to discuss procedures for shutting down the North's Yongbyon reactor, which produces the raw material for bomb-making plutonium.

But a North Korean official in Vienna, where the UN nuclear watchdog is based, said his country had not yet given the formal go-ahead for the visit.

"The visit date of the delegation is not confirmed because the release of the frozen funds of DPRK (North Korea) at Banco Delta Asia in Macau has not been completed," embassy spokesman Hyon Yong-Man told reporters.

"Our side already informed the IAEA that we have no objections for the agency to prepare the visit as planned, but we are not ready to give our official confirmation for the scheduled visit of the agency due to the only reason of unfinished remittance."

The comments cast a cloud over apparent swift progress since Pyongyang said last Saturday the unfreezing of the funds "has reached its final phase," and invited an IAEA team to visit at an unspecified date.

The US envoy, arriving at the airport in steady rain, said his aim was to get the six-party talks process moving. The forum grouping the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States reached a disarmament deal on February 13 but the cash row blocked any progress.

"We hope we can make up for some time we lost this spring," he said after being greeted by a smiling Ri Gun, director of the foreign ministry's America bureau.

China said its Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi would visit Pyongyang on July 2-4, with nuclear disarmament on the agenda. It described Hill's visit as positive.

"We hope it will be conducive to implementing the initial actions (of the February accord) and be of benefit to improving relations between North Korea and the US," said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Choson Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper published in Tokyo which often reflects official thinking, said the disarmament process may now speed up "if the US and the DPRK (North Korea) continue to build up mutual trust."

South Korea's foreign ministry said Hill would meet counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan, who extended the invitation, and vice foreign minister Kang Sok-Ju, who is close to reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il.

It said they would discuss a "road map" on implementing the February deal and the normalisation of bilateral relations.

The US State Department said Hill would leave Friday. He was to return to South Korea and go on to Tokyo on his way home.

In the February deal, the North agreed to disable its nuclear programmes in exchange for major aid and diplomatic benefits, including a possible normalisation of relations with Washington.

The pact followed a surge in tensions after the North carried out its first nuclear weapons test last October.

Four IAEA officials arrived in South Korea Thursday to discuss the mission scheduled for next week. A follow-up team will be sent to North Korea within weeks to verify the actual shutdown if it goes ahead.

It will be the inspectors' first visit since they were kicked out in late 2002.

Hill's trip is the first to North Korea by a top State Department official since October 2002, when his predecessor James Kelly confronted the North with alleged evidence of a secret nuclear programme using highly enriched uranium.

That accusation, and the North's denial, triggered off the latest nuclear crisis and the collapse of a 1994 bilateral denuclearisation accord.