Ethics panel investigates Rep. Richardson

U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said Thursday she has been targeted by the House Ethics Committee because she is a black woman.The committee is expected to announce Friday that it is investigating whether Richardson pressured members of her staff to work on her 2010 re-election campaign, the Los Angeles Times reported. Sources told the newspaper the panel voted on the probe Thursday.A Times source said some current or former Richardson staffers said equipment from her congressional office was used for the campaign. Eight told investigators they felt under pressure to do unpaid campaign work.The ethics committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. It voted to set up a four-member subcommittee for the Richardson investigation, which could take months.Richardson said she will "explore the issue of whether the ethics committee has engaged in discriminatory conduct in pursuing two investigations against me while simultaneously failing to apply the same standards to or take the same actions against other members -- of whom the overwhelming majority are white males."An earlier investigation involved a bank's cancellation of a foreclosure sale of a house Richardson owned in Sacramento. She was cleared.