NATION IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Guilty Plea Entered in Inquiry at HUD

A longtime friend of former Housing Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. entered the first guilty plea in the influence-peddling probe in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Samuel P. Singletary of Pleasantville, N.Y., pleaded guilty to a felony tax-evasion charge in U.S. District Court in Washington, admitting that he gave the Internal Revenue Service a false 1985 return that said he and his wife earned $37,762 that year, when he knew that they had earned “substantially in excess of that.” The plea agreement says Singletary will cooperate in the investigation of influence-peddling at HUD during the Ronald Reagan Administration.