Mexico: US extradition request came too late
TUCSON, ARIZ. (AP) - The United States did not ask Mexico to arrange for a suspect’s extradition in the death of a Border Patrol agent until the man had been freed, a Mexican government spokesman said Thursday.
U.S. officials presented Mexican authorities “with a provisional arrest request for extradition purposes” for Jesus Navarro Montes in late June, said Ricardo Alday, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
But the request came more than a week after a Mexican judge cleared Navarro of an unrelated migrant smuggling charge and released him from a prison in Mexicali, Alday said. . .
Congressman Brian Bilbray will be on the show at 4:00
Sen. Barack Obama played stand-up comedian Thursday on the serious issue of which White House hopeful is a better steward of the economy, by ridiculing his rival’s economic adviser for describing Americans as “a nation of whiners.”
In an analysis rejected by the McCain campaign, Sen. Barack Obama frames former Sen. Phil Gramm’s comments as extensions of Sen. John McCain’s views.
Sen. John McCain distanced himself from former Sen. Phil Gramm’s suggestion in an interview with The Washington Times that the media have hyped the state of the nation’s economic slowdown and helped create a “mental recession” magnified by a penchant to complain. . .
Speier seeks national speed limit to save gas
Congress is searching for ways to address rising gas prices, and one Bay Area lawmaker thinks she’s found one: Lower the speed limit on highways.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, in her first bill as a member of Congress, is proposing a national speed limit of 60 mph for freeways in urban areas and 65 mph in less populated areas.
It’s a throwback to the 1970s, when Congress and President Richard Nixon imposed a 55 mph national speed limit in response to the Arab oil embargo. While supporters say the law saved lives and fuel, it was unpopular with many drivers and some states balked at enforcing it. Congress repealed it in 1995. . .
Cops fear Calif. isle is turning gangster paradise
It seems even 22 miles of open ocean might not be keeping gangs off Catalina Island, a mist-shrouded outpost of Los Angeles County best known for its Hollywood history and crystal-clear harbors.
Deputies on the isle say a fledgling gang called the Brown Pride Locos has gotten a foothold among the beaches, coves and tourist shops. A stabbing, burglaries and graffiti are being blamed on the gang, and deputies last month surprised teenagers practicing moves with knives on a dark bluff above Avalon’s crescent-shaped bay.
A swift crackdown has netted at least six arrests and led to a pair of police raids - but it has also caused an uproar in the tiny community, where residents leave their doors unlocked and putt around in golf carts. . .
