Brendan J. Lyons is reporting for the Times Union more than five years after being charged with bribery and corruption, former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is reporting to a federal prison Wed., Aug. 26, to begin serving a term of more than six years. Silver's legal battle with the U.S. Justice Department ended on July 23 when a federal judge sentenced him to 78 months in prison and fined him $1 million. Silver, 76, a resident of lower Manhattan, used the state's financial disclosure rules to enrich himself in an complicated money laundering and bribery scheme using the power of his office and the notoriety of his position as one of New York's three most powerful men. Prosecutors, in a sentencing memorandum, cited a probation report that concluded Silver was simply motivated by greed. He appealed both of his convictions to the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. That court vacated three of the seven counts on which he was convicted. The trial jury found Silver accepted almost $4 million in fees in exchange for taking actions as a legislator that benefited a cancer researcher and real estate developers. Read the full story in the Times Union.