CAUGHT IN THE REVOLVING DOOR

Former Interior Secretary James Watt pleaded guilty Tuesday to trying to influence a federal grand jury that investigated 1980s influence-peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He could serve as many as six months in jail pand pay a $5,000 fine. Watt previously had denied charges that he tried to cover up his efforts to win contracts from HUD after leaving the government in 1983. But faced with 18 felony counts for perjury, he acknowledged that he kept documents secret that had been relevant to the grand jury's investigation, and by so doing reduced his charges to one misdemeanor conviction of withholding information. "HUD has been a hotbed of scandal for some two decades," notes TIME's Anne Blackman. "A lot of federal dollars were being spent in some of the poorest areas, and some rather unsavory characters were able to profit by HUD. However, through vouchers and agency downsizing, Secretary Henry Cisneros has been quite successful at cleaning things up." Watt's sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 12.