Jackson sets resignation date

Amid media speculation, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson today announced his decision to step down from his post. Mr. Jackson is currently under criminal investigation for awarding HUD contracts that his critics believe affected the agency's effectiveness in dealing with the subprime mortgage mess.

The close aide and longtime friend of the President Bush spent just over two minutes confirming his decision to leave his post on April 18. He took no questions and offered only the vaguest of explanations, saying that "there comes a time when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters."

Mr. Jackson's tenure as housing secretary has been dogged by controversy. Soon after being confirmed as housing secretary in 2004, Mr. Jackson told a house panel that he believed poverty "is a state of mind, not a condition." Two years later, he said in a speech that he had cancelled a contract for a company after its president told him that he did not like Mr. Bush. Jackson later retracted the story as being made up.

Deputy housing secretary, Roy Bernardi, who has served under Mr. Jackson throughout his time is expected to run the department until a permanent successor is named by Mr. Bush and confirmed by the Senate.