Free Republic

Immigration loophole leads to spread of fake-ID mills By Leslie Berestein STAFF WRITER February 19, 2006 In the pre-dawn hours one late-November morning, federal agents with search warrants raided the Oceanside and Riverside offices of Golden State Fence Co., carting out boxes filled with payroll documents. It was the second time in a year and a half that the Riverside-based fencing company was busted for hiring undocumented workers. During that period, federal investigators auditing the company's payroll records had found that 157 of its employees – close to one-third of the workers at the Oceanside and Riverside locations – were...

ANALYSIS Democrats' reform push disappoints Some fear party unwilling to risk access to lobbyists By George E. Condon Jr. COPLEY NEWS SERVICE January 21, 2006 WASHINGTON – The Republican scandals rocking Capitol Hill present Democrats with their best chance in a decade of regaining Congress. But the proposals put forward so far by Democratic leaders have disappointed both outsiders hoping for reform and some elected members who fear a rare political opportunity is being squandered. The ethics package presented by 70 Democratic members of Congress Wednesday immediately was branded as tepid and inadequate by outside analysts, and stopped far short...

BLACK MESA, Ariz. – The gigantic earthmoving crane sits idle, stilled by a legal, cultural and environmental dispute playing out far from the rich vein of coal beneath the desert of remote northeastern Arizona. Some welcome the idling of the crane, calling it a symbol of the rape of the land and precious water below. Others, mostly American Indians who have come to depend on the high-paying jobs at the mine, are furious. For 35 years, the Black Mesa Mine has produced coal for a power plant in southern Nevada. But the plant suspended operations at the end of December,...

A federal judge has thrown out what could be the last legal challenge to the completion of a 14-mile stretch of secondary border fence south of San Diego, parts of which had been delayed for environmental reasons. Judge Larry A. Burns decided yesterday that a waiver of environmental and other laws blocking completion of the fence is not unconstitutional, as alleged by several environmental groups that sued the federal government last year. A written decision confirming the dismissal of the case is expected tomorrow. Javier Saldana, left, and Hector Guevara, look over the U.S.-Mexico border fence into the United States,...

Murder trial opens in death of officer By Jose Luis Jiménez STAFF WRITER October 18, 2005 VISTA – Standing in the ATM line outside the Navy Federal Credit Union in Oceanside, Matthew McClure figured the loud noises from the parking lot were firecrackers or a car backfiring. CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Prosecutor David Rubin showed the jury the pistol used in the killing of Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella in his opening statement in the trial of Adrian Camacho. "I saw everybody scrambling, and it clued me in that I should hide because it was gunfire," said McClure, who served...

When technology attacks From 'BlackBerry thumb' to computer-vision syndrome, today's gadgets produce a host of painful side effects By Jonathan Sidener STAFF WRITER October 17, 2005 Grandma never knew how good she had it. Her telephone was attached to the wall. She never had to worry about dropping it in the toilet. Growing up stitching needlepoint, she didn't suffer from stress injuries inflicted by a video-game controller. She kept her photos in a shoe box. There was no chance of the Anna Kournikova virus wiping out her record of little Billy's first birthday party. She didn't have a "crackberry," as...

On September 23, 2005, a small, select group of U.S. Navy officers is scheduled to have an opportunity to help make a very important decision that will potentially affect the good order and discipline in the ranks of all our military Services. Specifically, these officers will recommend the type of administrative discharge to be given to a sailor who has claimed to be a conscientious objector to our ongoing global war on terrorism, and specifically our combat operations in Iraq. I On December 6, 2004, Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes showed up at the San Diego pier where his amphibious...

Two wounded in weekend incidents By Leslie Berestein and Anna Cearley UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS July 27, 2005 A Tijuana man who last weekend said he was shot shortly after crossing the border illegally into the United States is sticking to his story, despite some reports that he may have been shot in Mexico. Carlos Alfonso Estrada Martinez, 38, was one of two Mexican citizens shot in separate incidents during the early hours of Saturday in the border region between Tecate and Campo. In statements he made to officials, Estrada had said he was about 200 yards inside the U.S. when...

As the maroon Kia Optima crept toward the United States in a lane designed to speed people through the San Ysidro port of entry, the world's busiest border crossing, two weeks ago, an inspector noticed trouble. The government's computerized Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection system, or SENTRI, didn't recognize the transponder, a device the size of a cigarette pack used to identify the car, on Jhuliana Aramis Cohen's windshield. The inspector sent Cohen to secondary, a covered area where other inspectors open car trunks, look under the seats and use trained dogs to sniff for drugs, among other...

SAN DIEGO – Five people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed Thursday night when a Chrysler minivan crammed with 11 people on board crashed head-on into a large pickup truck on a winding rural highway west of Jamul. The crash occurred shortly before 10 p.m. on state Route 94, about six miles east of the Border Patrol checkpoint. The east-west highway runs close to the U.S.-Mexico border and has long been a popular route for both drug and migrant smugglers. The minivan driver, believed by authorities to be a migrant smuggler, evaded the checkpoint by driving the wrong way on...

This is how wacky the immigration debate has become: The mayor of Fresno suggests the United States impose a moratorium on immigrants. I know Fresno. I grew up in a small town nearby. We're talking about one of the farming capitals of the world and home to legions of immigrants – many of them illegal. In fact, the leader of an Asian-American growers association in Central California estimates that nearly 100 percent of today's agricultural work force is illegal. Without immigrants, the local economy would shrivel up like a raisin in the sun. So the mayor of Fresno asking for...

Migrants exploiting border law for non-Mexicans CUTLINE: Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico often gather at the bus station in Harlingen, Texas, call friends and relatives and catch a bus out of town. David Fahleson / Copley News Service By Jerry Kammer COPLEY NEWS SERVICE June 4, 2005 McALLEN, Texas; In the silvery-blue light of dusk, 20 Brazilians glided across the Rio Grande in rubber rafts propelled by Mexican smugglers who leaned forward and breast-stroked through the gentle current. DAVID FAHLESON / Copley News Service Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico often gather at the bus station in...

NASSCO launches a new breed of Navy ship By Michael Stetz UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER May 22, 2005 JOHN GASTALDO / Union-TribuneThe Lewis and Clark slid into the water last night at a ceremony attended by thousands. The Navy combat cargo ship is longer than two football fields. It is the first of its type to be built. With much pomp and circumstance and lots of grease to help the big thing slide down the sled and not, heaven forbid, get stuck; the Navy ship Lewis and Clark was launched last night. It had been four years since National Steel and...

New buzz in the immigration debateLegislation and media raise the temperature By Leslie Berestein STAFF WRITER May 13, 2005 Legislators tout immigration plan, border security In a Tijuana shelter, recently repatriated migrants ponder how they will get back across the border to their jobs in the United States. In East County, residents whose homes and ranches abut illegal border-crossing routes matter-of-factly give water to migrants who limp onto their property seeking help, then promptly dial the Border Patrol. This has been part of daily life along Southern California's border with Mexico for years. Undocumented migrants try to come in,...

<p>When legendary Bears middle linebacker Dick Butkus planted an opposing running back into the turf, he never extended a hand to lift the poor soul out.</p> <p>That image came to mind last week when Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda told businessmen in Japan that he's worried about the fiscal health of General Motors and Ford.</p>

Government-funded project to study roots of terrorism By Caroline Drees REUTERS February 9, 2005 WASHINGTON – What turns a person into a terrorist? What makes a doctor like al-Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahri swap healing for killing, or a Palestinian mother of two blow herself up at an army checkpoint? A new U.S. government-funded center at the University of Maryland aims to find out. Scholars involved in the project, funded with a $12 million three-year U.S. grant, hope their research will explain what makes people adopt terrorist tactics and thus help stop attacks before they occur. The center, which is due to...

CHULA VISTA – The Chula Vista Police Department has become one of the first in the nation to test hand-held devices developed for the U.S. military that can instantaneously translate simple police commands into Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages. Police say the device could be vital in communicating with an increasingly diverse populace. The department currently contracts with Modesto-based Language Line Services for interpretation and translation services over the telephone. Although Language Line can offer translations for 150 languages, it is not as immediate as some officers would like. Immediacy is not an issue with the hand-held device. The contraption...

  Tsunami Destroys Lhoknga, Indonesia  High-resolution images:Detail December 29, 2004 (580 kB JPEG)Detail January 10, 2003 (550 kB JPEG)Overview December 29, 2004 (190 kB JPEG)Overview January 10, 2003 (120 kB JPEG) The Indonesian province of Aceh was hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26, 2004. Aceh is located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Early Western media attention was focused on Sri Lanka and Thailand, even though the earthquake epicenter was closer to Aceh, and the largest waves struck the northwestern coast of Sumatra. On Decemebr 29, estimates of the death toll in...

The word from a soldier just back from IraqI have been in the Army for the last seven years. I have gone through the good and bad times in the military. It is a lifestyle that if you do not live every day, you cannot even come close to understanding. I have been to Bosnia, Kosovo, and have just returned from Iraq. I can tell you that no one feels the loss of soldiers more than we do. Even the families do not deal with the emotional pain and stress that we do when we have to pick up the...

A new Gallup survey is rather disquieting for those of us in the media. It finds that not even a quarter of Americans perceive either television or newspaper reporters to have "very high" or "high" standards of ethics and honesty. There are various explanations for that perception in the eyes of the public. But the belief here is that one major contributing factor is the public's perception that some of what they read on the front pages of the major dailies or watch on the evening news is politically slanted. Indeed, the public need look no further than coverage of...