Free Republic

NORFOLK The FBI has joined a growing list of law enforcers trying to figure out how a woman who didn't show up for work at a community services organization for 12 years continued to be paid and to what extent others might be involved. City Attorney Bernard Pishko said the employee is no longer on the payroll and that others in the organization are being questioned to see whether they had any involvement in a scheme to funnel money. As of Tuesday, no one else with the Norfolk Community Services Board had been suspended or fired. "These are people that...

LAREDO, TX—Former Border Patrol agent Leonel Morales, 30, of Zapata County, has been sentenced to prison for bribery, acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Morales accepted $9,000 in exchange for using his position as a federal officer to ensure the safe passage of a 20-kilogram load of cocaine through Zapata County, Texas, during the summer of 2008. Morales was sentenced by United States District Judge Michaela Alvarez this afternoon to 168 months in federal prison without parole, fined $11,000 and ordered to serve a three-year-term of supervised release. The investigation leading to the charges against Morales included audio...

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped up his attack on the Democrat-controlled state Legislature Wednesday, chiding lawmakers for getting a pay raise despite the state's ongoing fiscal problems. "Isn't that interesting?" Schwarzenegger said in a speech to the California Chamber of Commerce. "Instead of giving the people that really need the money -- like education, health care, healthy families, the poor people, the blind people -- instead of giving them more money, the legislators decided they need the money first. So they're taking the money first." On Monday, an independent state commission granted legislators a 12 percent pay increase,...