Controversy Over Car Donations Erupts

Forty trucks and sport-utility vehicles donated by the DaimlerChrysler company to help fire and police departments and other government agencies deal with damage from Hurricane Katrina were wrongly given to nonprofit groups, The Times-Picayune, in New Orleans, reports.

The company said it made clear that only government agencies were to receive the vehicles.

But a New Orleans City councilwoman, Renee Gill Pratt, and other officials who accepted delivery of the cars, gave some of the donated vehicles to nonprofit organizations to which the city officials, including Ms. Pratt, had ties. Although she declined to comment, the newspaper said Ms. Pratt defended her donations last week and called it a coincidence that she had driven one of the vehicles herself.

City-council members are calling for the nonprofit groups to return the cars, and the New Orleans branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced a criminal investigation into the matter.