Don't let the beauty of Richard Misrach's photographs fool you. His handsomely composed desert landscapes strike a deliberately refined classical note, but what lies beneath the surface is more to the point.

For 30 years, Mr. Misrach's frequent forays into the American West have been motivated by seemingly contradictory impulses: one is love for the desert, and a desire to render that landscape with documentary precision; the other is disgust, about the use of the land by government and industry. "For me the desert is remarkably powerful and beautiful," he told an interviewer for Art Papers magazine several years ago. "I hope that gives it a reason to be saved."

The influence peddling scandal surrounding the indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is at a critical point. Noel Hillman, the respected Justice Department public integrity chief who bird-dogged the inquiry for two years, has been nominated for a federal judgeship by the White House. The timing is curious; the nomination came only weeks after the investigation advanced significantly with Mr. Abramoff's plea-bargain agreement to talk about his dealings with capital politicians.

It is imperative that the departure of Mr. Hillman not signal a letup in the inquiry, particularly as reports grow of Mr. Abramoff's dealings with the White House. The lobbyist, who raised at least $100,000 for the Bush campaign, attended some "staff level" meetings, the White House says, but no details have been offered about this nor about Mr. Abramoff's relationship with Karl Rove, the president's political guru. Mr. Rove hired an Abramoff assistant as his White House aide but describes the lobbyist as only a "casual acquaintance." A red flag already is up over Mr. Abramoff's dealings with David Safavian, the White House's former top procurement official, who was charged with lying to investigators about an Abramoff golf junket to Scotland.

A difficult task awaits Andrew Lourie, the career prosecutor who has been named acting chief of the public integrity section. His boss, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the former White House counsel deeply enmeshed in Bush policy and politics, must show he is absolutely removed from the Abramoff investigation. Otherwise, the pressure will only grow from critics and the public that the investigation be handed over to a special counsel free to pursue the scandal wherever it leads in the Capitol or the administration.

ST. REGIS MOHAWK RESERVATION, N.Y. — He had eluded the authorities for years. Witnesses against him had mysteriously disappeared. Shots were fired from his highly secured compound here last year when the state police tried to close in.

The man, John V. Oakes, like a fast-rising number of American Indian drug traffickers across the country, saw himself as "untouchable," as one senior investigator put it, protected by armed enforcers and a code of silence that ruled the reservation.