Free Republic

"OTAY MESA – Twenty-one illegal immigrants were injured yesterday when one of three vans being chased by the U.S. Border Patrol overturned on state Route 905, plummeting down a 30-foot embankment and scattering passengers over a wide area." ~snip "The chase started about 1:30 p.m. after Border Patrol agents received a tip that a large number of illegal immigrants were climbing into three 14-passenger vans at a warehouse at La Media and Siempre Viva roads. It was the same warehouse leading to the recently discovered 2,400-foot tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border."

"Every year, more than 8 million people walk past the old port of entry building at the San Ysidro border crossing on their way into the United States. But some recently agreed to pay $3,000 to be smuggled through the historic building, 10 feet north of the Mexican border, investigators said.

"U.S. agents had been investigating the possibility of an elaborate drug-smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego for more than a year, but couldn't find it despite using military equipment so advanced it's classified" ~snip "“This tunnel beats them all,” said Michael Unzueta, special agent in charge of the San Diego office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, " ~snip "“People are always going to find a way around us,” he said."

Investigators discovered a sophisticated cross-border tunnel yesterday extending about a half-mile and found about 2 tons of marijuana on the Mexican end.

U.S. and Mexican authorities are investigating a cross-border tunnel found Monday by U.S. Border Patrol agents just west of the San Ysidro port of entry. Border Patrol officials said the tunnel was about 35 feet long and went underneath an asphalt road on the U.S. side.

SACRAMENTO – Former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, who resigned under pressure in February, misspent or failed to document more than $3.8 million in federal election money, according to a federal audit released yesterday. ~snip~ Shelley, a Democrat, denied wrongdoing but resigned after he was accused of mishandling the money, bending state hiring rules to reward allies, and accepting questionable campaign contributions.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission acknowledged yesterday that the country mistreats many immigrants – mainly Central Americans – and uses some of the same methods on them that it opposes in the United States. ~SNIP~ The commission presented a report that found overcrowding, poor treatment and generally bad conditions at many of the country's 51 immigration detention centers and 68 other holding facilities.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico has pledged to block a U.S. proposal to extend walls along the U.S. border, promising yesterday to raise "a storm of criticism" and the condemnation of the international community against a bill that also would criminalize undocumented migrants.

FULLERTON – A woman who returned to her native Mexico against the advice of police to search for her kidnapped daughter was turned back at the U.S. border after the girl's rescue, authorities said.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - If Palm Beach County, Fla., prosecutors decide to charge Rush Limbaugh for his prescription drug use, they'll have to do it without questioning the conservative radio host's doctors about his medical condition, a judge ruled Monday.

SAN DIEGO -- Police in San Diego said the members of a roller-hockey team stopped a robbery at a tavern in Clairmont Mesa West on Tuesday. ~snip~ Authorities said one of the hockey players grabbed the boy with the gun, put him in a headlock and disarmed him. Other people in the bar, including some of the hockey player's teammates, fought with the other robbers and held them until officers arrived.

Tallies nearly identical, says a county official A partial recount yesterday to test the accuracy of scanners that read ballots and tallied votes in the San Diego mayor's race July 26 revealed results that were nearly identical to those of the machines. For example, a discrepancy of perhaps one vote occurred in a few precincts.

At a checkpoint leading to the U.S.-protected Green Zone, Gordy stands sentry. The affable Belgian Malinois has a nose finely tuned to detect the nitrates, plastic explosives, gunpowder and detonation cords that suicide bombers use to blow up people. On a barren stretch of road in northern Iraq, a dog rigged with explosives approaches a group of Iraqi police officers. Detonated by remote control, the bomb tears the dog apart but doesn't harm the cops.

..."There's declining support for terrorism in the Muslim countries and support for Osama bin Laden is declining. There's also less support for suicide bombings," said Pew Center director Andrew Kohut."

BRUSSELS (PDM staff with CTK) 12 July - The European Commission (EC) sent its last warning to the Czech Republic yesterday concerning the implementation of the EU regulation against noise, which was to be part of Czech legislation by 18 June, 2004. The EC threatened to file a complaint against the country at the European Court of Justice unless it satisfactorily answers its letter in two months. In addition to the Czech Republic, the regulation has not been adopted by Austria, Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.

The Schwarzenegger administration unleashed an aggressive new offensive yesterday against pending legislation that would restore the ability of undocumented immigrants to drive legally in California.

...A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE COASTAL AREAS FROM THE CALIFORNIA-MEXICO BORDER TO THE NORTH TIP OF VANCOUVER I.-BC. INCLUSIVE...

TORONTO – Canada's Supreme Court yesterday struck down a Quebec law banning private medical insurance in a decision that represents a blow to the nation's publicly financed health care system. .... Canada is the only industrialized country that outlaws privately financed purchases of core medical services.

A vintage blue taxicab converted into a seagoing vessel and carrying several Cuban immigrants was intercepted Tuesday off Key West by the Coast Guard, a television station reported.

"Yesterday, Sharpton contacted me to say he's eager to accept the sort-of offer to (as Limbaugh put it on his own show Friday) "let [Sharpton] guest-host the program for, like, 30 minutes at a time while I am sitting here critiquing him."