U.S.-trained forces reportedly helping Mexican cartels
WASHINGTON — As many as 200 U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have defected to drug cartels to carry out killings on both sides of the border and as far north as Dallas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, told Congress on Wednesday.
The renegade members of Mexico’s elite counter-narcotics teams trained at Fort Benning, Ga., have switched sides, contributing to a wave of violence that has claimed some 6,000 victims over the past 30 months, including prominent law enforcement leaders, the Houston-area Republican told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The slaughter has gained urgency amid high-profile assassinations of law officers in Mexico since May 1, claiming six senior officers, five of them with the federal police. . .
CARSON CITY —A proposal to allow for privatized toll lanes in Las Vegas as a way to help reduce a huge funding shortfall for Nevada highway projects was endorsed Thursday by the Nevada Transportation Board.
Gov. Jim Gibbons, the board chairman, joined with other panel members at the meeting to back the 19-mile demonstration project. Gibbons opposes higher taxes, but a spokesman said after the meeting that the voluntary freeway toll doesn’t clash with his anti-tax philosophy.
The pilot project, which requires approval from the 2009 Legislature, would be on Nevada’s busiest stretches of road: U.S. Highway 95 to Interstate 15, and I-15 south to Interstate 215. . .
Roughly four out of 10 California voters are unaware that jury duty in the state requires them to serve as little as one day in court a year, according to a recent poll.
The survey of 600 Californians also revealed that more than 10 percent of the respondents acknowledged they have ignored a jury summons.
The poll was released this week by the nonprofit Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, which describes itself as an educational and advocacy group trying to stop frivolous and costly litigation. . .
More cities cracking down on parents allowing teen boozing
Late one night, a brick flew through Simone Booth’s bedroom window, shattering the quiet in her family-oriented Mission Viejo neighborhood.
Stephanie Moreau was beaten in the head with a baseball bat just outside her Laguna Hills home. The 21-year-old was assaulted when teens were thrown out of a party down the street and suffered severe injuries.
In both cases, underage teens partying at nearby homes are suspected. With the prom season under way and neighborhoods under seige with drunken teens, public urination and violence, city officials in two South County cities hope a new law could crash these out-of-control parties. . .
