Bombshell: "Pyro" Brown used clout to lower fine

Newspapers across the state today ran a story that claimed U.S. Rep. Henry "Pyro" Brown used his clout to reduce a federal fine by about $1,000 after starting a fire that ended up burning 20 acres of national forest in Berkeley County. From the story:

"A senior federal official, fearful of incurring a congressman’s wrath, sent subordinates on a mad dash earlier this year to retrieve a certified letter demanding payment of $5,773 for starting a fire that burned 20 acres of a national forest.

"Mark Rey, undersecretary of agriculture for natural resources, said he didn’t want U.S. Rep. Henry Brown to receive the March 12 letter before he testified before a U.S. House committee on which the South Carolina Republican sits.

“I’d just as soon have him not take a chunk of hide out of me,” Rey said Wednesday.

"Rey confirmed the actions of Forest Service collections agents as outlined in internal agency documents McClatchy obtained.

"The disclosures flesh out Brown’s four-year protest of a criminal citation and civil damages collection for a controlled burn he started March 4, 2004, on his Berkeley County property that spread to the adjoining Francis Marion National Forest."

Stay tuned. Brown should be squealing pretty quickly.