TB patient’s name released; father-in-law works at CDC
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)—The man infected with potentially fatal tuberculosis is receiving treatment at a Denver, Colorado, hospital as federal health officials continue to track down airline passengers who may have been exposed to the illness.
The man has been identified by multiple medical and law enforcement sources as Andrew Speaker, 31, a lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia. Hospital officials have not disclosed his name.
Speaker’s father-in-law works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, an agency spokesman said Thursday. . .
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Teresa Bailey and her four children are in Washington to honor her husband, John, a California Highway Patrol officer who was killed last year.
It is National Police Week and John Bailey’s name has been added to the Peace Officers Memorial in Judiciary Square along with 144 other names of of ficers who
died in the line of duty in 2006.
John was hit by a car driven by Domingo Esqueda, an illegal immigrant who was intoxicated. He was actually off duty when it happened in February 2006, said Teresa Bailey. But if he was on his way home and saw someone breaking the law, he would pull them over. . .
Teresa Bailey will be on the show at 4:00
Rampage against Anaheim family tied to breakup?
She was a college freshman whose Hindu family didn’t believe in dating before marriage. He was a Muslim, which troubled her parents, and they convinced her that he wasn’t the one.
Their breakup, investigators said, might have played a role in a string of vicious crimes that unfolded in Orange County last week: Her Anaheim Hills home was set ablaze, her mother savagely beaten and her father and sister killed. The victims had been strangled, bludgeoned, burned and stabbed, according to court records.
The young man, Iftekhar Murtaza, 22, of Van Nuys, was arrested last weekend at the Phoenix airport in connection with the slayings. He had left Southern California after investigators questioned him and was carrying a one-way ticket to Bangladesh. . .
Worker: Kidnap report not true
RANCHO CUCAMONGA - A day laborer who claimed he and two other men were kidnapped from a street corner and taken in handcuffs to Tijuana has admitted he made up the story.
When San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators talked to Jose Feliz Gutierrez by phone, he said the kidnapping story he told to his sister was a lie.
“Jose stated he had left on his own accord,” said Detective Jesse Venegas in a statement released Wednesday. “The entire event was a fabrication. . .
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Report confirms terror dry run
A newly released inspector general report backs eyewitness accounts of suspicious behavior by 13 Middle Eastern men on a Northwest Airlines flight in 2004 and reveals several missteps by government officials, including failure to file an incident report until a month after the matter became public.
According to the Homeland Security report, the “suspicious passengers,” 12 Syrians and their Lebanese-born promoter, were traveling on Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on expired visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services extended the visas one week after the June 29, 2004, incident.
The report also says that a background check in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, which was performed June 18 as part of a visa-extension application, produced “positive hits” for past criminal records or suspicious behavior for eight of the 12 Syrians, who were traveling in the U.S. as a musical group. . .
Spay, neuter law divides pet lovers
SACRAMENTO – Orange County may be home to an author of the California Healthy Pets Act, but dog and cat lovers here are as bitterly divided over proposal as they are across the state.
The act, formally known as Assembly Bill 1634, would require most dogs and cats in California to be spayed or neutered by the time they’re 4 months old. It was developed largely by Orange County resident Judie Mancuso and Los Angeles Animal Services general manager Ed Boks.
A well-organized network of supporters, which includes shelters and veterinarians across the state as well as government officials such as Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, say the proposal will reduce the number and cost of animals euthanized in California. . .
Spector defense targets evidence handling mistakes
LOS ANGELES – Unlike the picture-perfect work of criminalists on TV’s “CSI,” there were mistakes in evidence collection and handling in actress Lana Clarkson’s shooting death including the loss of a piece of one of her teeth, a defense attorney pointed out Wednesday in music producer Phil Spector’s murder trial.
Dr. Louis Pena, a deputy medical examiner, acknowledged in cross-examination by defense attorney Christopher Plourd that the mistakes also included movement of Clarkson’s body which caused blood to flow out of her mouth, compromising evaluation of her dress for blood spatter. . .
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Republican Kyl’s immigration stance splits Arizona
PHOENIX (Reuters) – Hard-liners in the immigration debate stood behind Sen. Jon Kyl for his tough stance on immigration last year, while undocumented immigrants thrashed a pinata bearing his image.
Now the Arizona Republican’s surprise support for a bipartisan Senate bill seeking to legalize some 12 million illegal immigrants and create a guest-worker program has bewildered friends and foes alike in the desert state.
The measure, which would tie tough border security and workplace enforcement measures to a guest-worker program and a plan to offer the millions of illegal immigrants a path to legal status, is under fire from the right and the left. . .
Bush Takes on Opponents of Immigration Deal
GLYNCO, Ga. (AP)—President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they ‘’don’t want to do what’s right for America.’’
‘’The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place,’’ Bush said against a backdrop of a huge American flag.
He described his proposal—which has been agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators—as one that ‘’makes it more likely we can enforce our border—and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America. . .
Mexican studio audience booed Miss USA
MEXICO CITY - Many here south of the border reveled in her disastrous evening: First Miss USA Rachel Smith slipped and fell on her bottom during the Miss Universe evening gown competition. Then she was booed by hundreds in the Mexican audience.
The treatment of the Tennessee beauty queen was nothing personal. It had more to do with Mexico’s sometimes tense relationship with its powerful northern neighbor.
U.S. athletes have sparked a similar response. In 2005, when the U.S. played Mexico during a World Cup soccer qualifier, the crowd booed the U.S. national anthem and a smattering of fans chanted “Osama! Osama!” during the game. . .
Coroner insists Clarkson died at the hands of another
Lana Clarkson was the victim of a homicide, the coroner who examined her body today told the jury that will decide whether music producer Phil Spector killed the actress.
Dr. Louis Pena took the stand this morning as the murder trial of the music legend resumed after the holiday break. Cross-examination, which began just before lunch, will continue this afternoon.
After more than a month of witnesses testifying about Spector’s lifestyle and the events of the night Clarkson died, the trial has moved into the crucial area of scientific evidence. . .
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Senate keeps immigrant legalization proposal intact
WASHINGTON —Senators Thursday overwhelmingly endorsed a plan to allow more than 12 million undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States legally and rejected major challenges to legislation that President Bush called the ‘’best opportunity’’ to repair the nation’s immigration system.
Senators voted 66-29 to reject an amendment that would have killed the legalization plan, preserving the most controversial component of the White House-backed immigration bill. Florida’s senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Martinez, voted with the majority. The amendment was co-sponsored by Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and Jim DeMint of South Carolina. . .
Americans support immigration overhaul: poll
NEW YORK (AFP) – A majority of Americans support proposed changes in US immigration laws that would allow illegal immigrants to gain legal status, according to a survey published by the New York Times on Friday.
The controversial immigration overhaul, which is currently going through the US Congress, includes a guest worker program designed to provide low-skilled foreign labor. Two-thirds of respondents said they supported the measure. . .
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Immigration backers beat key challenges
WASHINGTON – Proponents of a broad immigration measure narrowly beat back potentially fatal challenges Thursday, including an effort to phase out the temporary worker program.
The Senate rejected, 49-48, a proposal by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., to end the temporary worker program after five years. Earlier, by the same margin, senators voted down a proposal by Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn., to allow government authorities to question someone about his immigration status if they had probable cause to suspect the person was in the U.S. illegally.
The razor-thin votes illustrated the tenuous nature of the immigration measure, which would grant an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants legal status while improving border security and workplace enforcement. But the defeats also showed the durability of the unlikely coalition that cut the deal and is fiercely lobbying rank-and-file senators to preserve it. . .
Public alerts Senate on immigration bill
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the public emotion surging around efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policy is the greatest she has seen since her 1992 election.
The Democrat said the topic hasn’t translated into the 30,000-plus phone calls to her office that would mean “something is really going on” in the nation´s most populous state, but the enthusiasm of opinion is fervent.
“We’re dealing with an issue about which people have very strong, very deeply set views,” Mrs. Feinstein said. . .
Students remember soldier killed in Iraq
The war in Iraq hit home in Southern California today with the news that a Torrance man’s body had been found floating in the Euphrates River after he and two comrades were abducted two weeks ago. Residents notified Iraq police that the body was found after soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, together with Iraqi soldiers and police, combed the area.
Here’s the AP’s report from Torrance, and here’s a photo report on the search for the missing soldiers.
Schoolmates held a moment of silence Thursday at the high school where slain Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. was remembered as a gentle jock—a “pumped up” athlete who made his friends laugh and comforted them when they were sad. . .
Living Large
How state Senator Don Perata uses campaign cash to finance his lavish lifestyle. First of two parts.
State Senate boss Don Perata throws impressive parties, and this one was a doozy. The guests, some of Perata’s best donors among them, feasted on buttery Dungeness crab and sipped California Chardonnay. Then they settled into their plush luxury box seats to watch the Oakland Raiders play the New York Jets in a game with playoff implications.
It was mid-December 2000, and the state senator had just dropped $43,600 on an oversize luxury suite at the Oakland Coliseum for a single afternoon of festivities. At the time he said he was trying to convince East Bay business leaders to buy suites of their own. But like his other ideas involving the Raiders, this one misfired. Team officials later said the bash produced zero luxury box sales.
Perata paid for the box, and the bash, from the treasury of one of his political campaigns. Since the state senator often transfers cash from one campaign to another, it is difficult to determine its exact origin, but public records suggest that most of it came from the Three Rs, a fund-raising committee Perata formed with then-Mayor Jerry Brown a year earlier to improve Oakland schools. The same month as the Raiders party, Perata transferred the remaining $32,668 from the Three Rs into his main Senate account and paid for the luxury box. In other words, money raised to help Oakland schoolchildren likely was spent on crab, wine, and football for a bunch of rich people. . .
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Senate Slashes Guest Worker Program
The Senate voted Wednesday to slash the number of foreign workers who could come to the U.S. on temporary visas as part of a broad bipartisan immigration bill.
A new guest worker program would be capped at 200,000 a year under the proposal, which passed 74-24 over strong opposition by the Bush administration.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the change, proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., would interfere with a “central component” of the White House-backed immigration measure. That plan provided for 400,000 worker visas annually, plus an option to increase that number to 600,000 if market conditions demand it. . .
Judge in Spector trial rules defense expert Dr. Henry Lee hid or destroyed evidence
LOS ANGELES — The judge in the Phil Spector murder trial said Wednesday that he had concluded Dr. Henry Lee, a defense expert and one of the country’s most famous forensic scientists, hid or destroyed a piece of evidence from the scene of an actress’s shooting.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler said Spector’s defense can still call Lee as a witness, but prosecutors will be permitted to present evidence to the jury that Lee found potentially important evidence and failed to turn it over to the prosecution as the law requires. . .
Migden reveals decade-long battle with leukemia
Medical condition may have been factor in accident
State Sen. Carole Migden, whom the CHP now says may have been involved in as many as three traffic accidents last Friday, today revealed publicly for the first time that she has been battling leukemia for the past decade and that medication she takes may have caused her to become disoriented while driving.
“My only explanation is that it is medically related in some way,” Migden, 56, said in an interview with The Chronicle.
The Democratic lawmaker who represents San Francisco and Marin County said she plans to underdo neurological tests to try to determine what may have happened. . .
Rewarding Illegal Aliens: Senate Bill Undermines The Rule of Law
The most controversial component of the Senate’s Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007 is Title VI, euphemistically entitled “Nonimmigrants in the United States Previously in Unlawful Status.” It would create a new “Z” visa exclusively for illegal aliens. This title would change the status of those who are here illegally to legal, essentially granting amnesty to those “previously in unlawful status.” This seriously flawed proposal would undermine the rule of law by granting massive benefits to those who have willfully violated U.S. laws, while denying those benefits to those who have played by the rules and sometimes even to U.S. citizens. . .
Kris Kobach will be on the show at 5:00
Councilman Weiss is target of recall effort
Touting the issue of snarled Westside traffic, a small group of homeowners on Tuesday tried to serve Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss with a notice they intend to recall him from office, alleging that he is too welcoming of development.
Although the recall campaign is still in its early stages — and the city clerk is not sure Weiss was properly served — the effort has the potential to be a bellwether of public attitudes about the building boom on the city’s Westside and in neighboring Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Critics are concerned that the development will worsen the area’s notorious traffic congestion. . .
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Only in the second grade, he already was falling behind.
His teacher, a Catholic nun, summoned his parents and gave them an ultimatum: “You either teach this boy English or go back to Mexico.”
It worked, says Ernesto Caravantes. “My parents (born in Mexico) were bilingual, and they had recognized the importance of learning English.”
That very afternoon, they began speaking to their American-born son only in English. And they never stopped. . .
Click here to order Ernesto’s book
Spector murder jury sees grisly picture of dead actress
This is the gruesome image shown to the Phil Spector murder jury of actress Lana Clarkson slumped dead in a chair.
The jury were shown the picture of the crime scene by defence attorney Bradley Brunson.
Mr Brunson has claimed that Spector’s Brazilian chauffeur was so shocked someone had been killed that he wrongly implicated the legendary music producer. . .
License To Breed May Soon Be Required For Certain Pets
May 16 – BCN - The California Healthy Pets Act, which would require all mixed-breed dog and cat owners to spay and neuter their pets, passed an appropriations committee hearing today with a nine to seven vote, according to the Santa Cruz Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“Four hundred thousand homeless animals are killed every year in our state alone. This is simply unacceptable. Today’s vote brings us one step closer to saving these lives and becoming a no-kill society,” said Lisa Carter, director of the Santa Cruz SPCA.
While the bill may not kill, some say it does discriminate. The bill allows purebred dogs and cats to procreate based purely on their lineage, provided their owners get a breeders license. The bill also exempts guide dogs, service dogs, signal dogs or dogs used by law enforcement agencies, as well as dogs or cats whose health might be compromised by a spay or neuter procedure. . .
