Foley Resigns Over Sexually Explicit Messages to Minors
Saying he was “deeply sorry,” Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts. . .
WASHINGTON — The Senate set the stage Thursday for a vote by week’s end on a bill to wall off 700 miles of the U.S. border from Mexico, but a lastminute push by senators concerned about the severe shortage of agricultural workers could derail the measure’s progress.
Senators agreed, by a vote of 71-28, to limit debate on the House-passed measure — a tally that many see as an indicator of the outcome of a final vote, which could come as early as today.
But a surprise move by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) to add a guest worker program for agricultural workers has complicated matters. . .
Demonstrators close Century Blvd.
A publicity stunt to unionize hotel employees working near LAX drew about 1,500 demonstrators to Century Boulevard, which was shut down during rush hour.
Organized by Unite Here – a union that represents more than 450,000 workers in hotels, casinos and restaurants nationwide – protesters wore T-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “I am a human being” and chanted for higher hourly wages.
Union officials have tied immigration to their struggle, saying they want to boost their own ranks by organizing nonunion workers at hotels near Los Angeles International Airport. They say the largely immigrant work force earns about $10 less an hour than union workers doing the same jobs in other big cities.
“Immigrants work in several industries that pay at poverty levels. We don’t want anybody at poverty levels. That’s our motivation,” said Maria Elena Durazo, secretary and treasurer of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, which oversees all unions in Los Angeles County, totaling some 845,000 workers. . .
Suit seeks grilled chicken warning
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI)—A Washington group filed suit against seven national restaurant chains, saying their California stores must warn that their grilled chicken has carcinogens.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit preventive medicine and research group, said Thursday it filed the suit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles against the chains, claiming they violated the state’s requirement that businesses post a warning if they expose patrons to carcinogens. The group wants such a warning included on the restaurants’ menus.
The group said grilled chicken sold by the chains contains “PhIP,” a carcinogenic compound included on California’s list of cancer-causing substances. The group said it sent chicken samples to a lab for testing and they were found to contain the carcinogen. . .
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
The Board of Police Commissioners serves as the head of the Los Angeles Police Department, functioning like a corporate board of directors, setting policies for the department and overseeing its operations. Contact them and ask them why they 
approved the Illegal Alien Rally near LAX !
Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners
150 N. Los Angeles Street,
Room #150
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-485-3531
213-485-8861 Fax
GOP blocks defense, homeland bills
Two must-pass defense and homeland security bills are being blocked in a fight between Republican lawmakers about border and immigration security measures.
The homeland security appropriation bill and the defense authorization bill are among the handful of pieces of legislation that lawmakers had hoped to complete this week before heading home for the November elections. Now both are stalled because Republican House leaders want to include a series of measures passed in their chamber designed to strengthen border security and toughen immigration enforcement.
Democrats charged the Republicans were playing politics with vital legislation and accused House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, of “Soviet”-style tactics. . .
Congressman Brian Bilbray will be on the show at 3:30 to discuss
A Plan for Very Civil Disobedience
Four hundred people will be arrested early this evening for blocking Century Boulevard near Los Angeles International Airport, in what could prove to be one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the city’s history.
At least that’s how the script reads.
For much of this year, the national hotel workers union, labor leaders and immigrant groups have been planning today’s protest. Marchers are supporting a drive to organize the mostly immigrant, nonunion workers employed at 13 hotels near the airport.
If the event goes as envisioned, organizers say, it will be a highly choreographed episode of street theater, timed for news broadcasts and peaceful enough to persuade but not enrage the public. . .
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
State’s Greenhouse Gas Bill Signed
California moved to the front of local government efforts to fight global warming today when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation calling for a reduction of greenhouse gases.
The bill commits the state to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 25% by 2020. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and cause global warming.
At an elaborate signing ceremony at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, Schwarzenegger put pen to paper, a scene he will repeat later today at a second ceremony scheduled for Pepperdine University.
“We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late,” Schwarzenegger said. . .
Three Orange County men and a Los Angeles lawyer have sued dozens of local businesses, alleging violations of state and federal disabled-access laws and getting settlements for tens of thousands of dollars.
The men, who were in wheelchairs when they visited the establishments, say in their lawsuits that they couldn’t find disabled parking, couldn’t sit at tables comfortably, needed help opening bathroom doors and couldn’t “preen” themselves in restroom mirrors that were too high.
They say that these conditions caused them humiliation, anger, frustration, distress, embarrassment and disgust. . .
Congressmen who visit the U.S.-Mexico border unannounced are being monitored by the Department of Homeland Security, and at least one U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent has been suspended for speaking to a congressman without first getting supervisory clearance, according to documents obtained by the Daily Bulletin.
Congressional representatives interviewed by the Daily Bulletin said they were unaware until recently that Border Patrol agents were required to file Significant Incident Reports—normally used for shootings and other serious border incidents—when congressional representatives made unannounced visits this summer along the U.S.-Mexico border.
A second document obtained by the paper reveals that one agent was suspended for 10 days without pay for speaking with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who made an unannounced visit to the border in May. . .
Gonzales asked to probe prosecution of agents
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher yesterday asked Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to investigate what he called “the exceedingly harsh prosecution” of two U.S. Border Patrol agents now facing 20 years in prison for shooting a suspected drug smuggler in the buttocks.
“This proceeding has garnered national attention calling into question the administration’s commitment to secure our borders,” said Mr. Rohrabacher, adding that the two agents—Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean—“were simply doing their jobs to guard our homeland by attempting to apprehend an illegal drug smuggler.”
The California Republican’s letter also called for the agents’ sentencing next month to be postponed “due to significant concerns over the circumstances surrounding” their prosecution.
Mr. Rohrabacher joins a growing list of Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill who have asked for congressional hearings and reviews by the White House and Justice Department into the prosecution. . .
Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
WASHINGTON — In a setback to Republican-led efforts to promote an enforcement-only approach to overhauling immigration law, a congressional negotiating committee on Monday shunted aside several measures the House passed last week.
With Congress rushing to tie up loose ends by week’s end so lawmakers can recess to campaign for the November elections, the committee balked at attaching the provisions to a “must-pass” bill to fund the Homeland Security Department next fiscal year. The tactic would have deprived the full Senate and House of a vote on separate items, some of which are controversial.
The measures included one that would increase the number of federal prosecutors assigned to help crack down on smugglers of illegal immigrants. . .
USC Student Faces Trial in Newborn’s Death
A USC student will stand trial on suspicion of murder and child endangerment for allegedly abandoning her newborn son in a trash bin last year, a judge ruled Monday.
Holly Ashcraft, 22, was arrested and charged in October after her baby was found in a trash bin outside her apartment near campus.
At a hearing to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to bring her to trial, Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Ronald Rose held that the law “requires parents to provide treatment and care” to a newborn, and failure to do so can be the basis for a murder trial.Rose rejected arguments by Ashcraft’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, that his client could not be charged with murder because the baby’s death was not an intentional act. . .
Despite their outspoken support for landmark legislation to fight global warming, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of the leading Democratic lawmakers who voted for the measure still use gas-guzzling vehicles for official state business.
Schwarzenegger, who is expected to sign the legislation on Wednesday at a ceremony in San Francisco, typically is escorted by the California Highway Patrol’s security detail in a massive 2005 Ford Excursion that gets less than 11 miles per gallon, according to an evaluation by Consumerguide.com.
The global warming bill’s co-author, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, travels in a state-leased 2003 Ford Explorer that gets about 14 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway. Two other lawmakers who voted for the legislation, Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Glendale, and Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, D-Saratoga, drive Jeep Grand Cherokees, which the U.S. Department of Energy has noted is the least fuel-efficient SUV in its class at 16 mpg in the city and 21 mpg on the highway. . .
Corsi, Gilchrist at book signings in L.A., San Diego
Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist and WND columnist Jerome R. Corsi will sign copies of their new book “Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America’s Borders” at Los Angeles-area and San Diego Borders bookstores this week.
Tonight, at 7 p.m, they will be at the Thousand Oaks Borders, tomorrow at Mission Viejo and Wednesday at the Carmel Mountain Borders in San Diego.
Corsi and Gilchrist are fresh from speaking at a rally at the Mexican border to kick off a new campaign by the Minuteman Project called “Operation Sovereignty. . .
Jerome Corsi and Jim Gilchrist will be live in the studio at 4:30 p.m.
Monday, September 25th, 2006
Bill Clinton Defends bin Laden Handling
In a combative interview on “Fox News Sunday,” former President Clinton defended his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, saying he tried to have bin Laden killed and was attacked for his efforts by the same people who now criticize him for not doing enough.
“That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now,” Clinton said in the interview. “They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try.”
Clinton accused host Chris Wallace of a “conservative hit job” and asked: “I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked, ‘Why didn’t you do anything about the Cole?’ I want to know how many people you asked, ‘Why did you fire Dick Clarke . . .
Report: Iraq War Made Terror ‘Worse’
(CBS/AP) The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has increased the number of terrorist groups worldwide and “made the overall terrorism problem worse,” a U.S. intelligence official said in a secret study.
The assessment of the war’s impact on terrorism came in a National Intelligence Estimate that represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, CBS News learned Sunday. . .
Border Bills Come Down to Last Minute
WASHINGTON — The Senate will begin considering a series of House bills this week aimed at strengthening border security and toughening enforcement of immigration laws, but given the cool reception the measures are getting from many senators, it appears unlikely that much of the legislation will pass.
The bills, which include proposals to fence a third of the U.S.-Mexico border and allow state and local police to enforce immigration law, have raised hackles in the Senate for both political and policy reasons, and senior Republicans, as well as Democrats, have indicated they are not likely to support them.
With one week left before Congress adjourns, time is short to pass any immigration bills. The outcome will rest in part on closed-door decisions that committee chairs and Senate leaders make early this week. The fate of some of the legislation could be decided as early as today. . .
Friday, September 22nd, 2006
On Saturday’s Show:
Are terrorist cells forming in U.S. prisons? According to Daveed Gartenstein Ross, the answer is yes.
How much do you tip your waiter? Not enough says Fairtip.org
A Texas gunshop owner urges Houstonians take up arms against the Katricians.
All this and more on a fresh loaf of John and Ken. Saturdays 3-5 p.m.
