Did Key Air Give Gov. Freebies?

Did a Connecticut charter service give Governor John Rowland and his friends a free ride to Vegas in return for a sales tax exemption? That's the question and the FBI is asking.

Sources tell the Hartford Courant that the FBI is taking a very close look at the exemption, granted after the free ride in 2002. This, as the Connecticut Legislature looked at impeaching Rowland (right) for accepting gifts and favors while in office. Rowland dodged that bullet, however, resigning July 1st.

Records dug up by the impeachment committee, however, point to a trip Rowland and four friends made to Las Vegas in 2002 while traveling from Hartford to a GOP convention in Florida (guess he's not much of a navigator, either). Rowland and company stayed in Vegas for 36 hours. Not long afterwards, the Rowland administration won a tax exemption for Connecticut's air charter industry.

No one at Key Air is talking about the investigation. Neither is Rowland nor his lawyer. The US Attorneys office is mum as well.

Stay tuned...

FMI: www.fbi.gov