Oh, Charlie! CCNY Puts Off Opening Fete Amid Rangel Probe

An opening reception for an academic center named for New York Rep. Charles Rangel has been postponed indefinitely amid an ethics investigation of its namesake.

City College of New York vice president Mary Lou Edmondson said Friday that the college and the Democratic congressman's office both agreed to put off the celebration for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service. The event was scheduled for Tuesday.

A Rangel spokesman didn't immediately return a telephone call Friday night.

The House ethics committee has launched a wide-ranging probe of Rangel, who chairs the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Questions include whether he did a political favor in exchange for a major gift to the CCNY center, which he has said he did not.

The 38-year congressman has said any errors he has made were honest mistakes.