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WASHINGTON - School budgets have seemed to defy gravity in recent years — going up steadily without ever coming down. But school board members from across the country say that's likely to change soon, and they're bracing for leaner times forced by the nation's economic downturn. Board members in Washington last week for an annual conference said shortfalls in state budgets coupled with pessimistic predictions about local revenues are forcing them to look for ways to trim next year's budgets, which they are working on now. About half of the states are facing projected budget shortfalls, according to the Center...

TIJUANA – With cross-border visits showing marked declines, business and Baja California tourism officials are going into full-scale damage control in hopes of regaining ground lost over the past year. “The image of the security problem has hit the state very badly,” said Baja California's tourism secretary, Oscar Escobedo Carignan. At a news conference Wednesday at state government offices in Tijuana, Escobedo described a new program aimed at luring visitors back to the region's tourist spots. The program, called “Get Your Passport,” offers discounts at hotels, restaurants bars and shops to those holding a U.S. passport. On the promotional posters...

CAMP TAJI — A senior leader of the Iraqi Army (IA) along with Government of Iraq officials from eight ministries; Sunni and Shia tribal sheiks and other leaders met with the people of Sab Al Bor recently to discuss and highlight resettlement initiatives and progress as a result of sustained security throughout the city. IA Lt. Gen. Abud Qanbar, commander, Baghdad operations command; Dr. Ahmed Challabi, Operation Fahrd Al Qanoon (OFAQ) Services Committee chairman; Saabar Nabact Al Asaway, deputy governor of Baghdad; Ahmed Abdul Ameer Abd, the deputy Minister of Oil; Maeen Al Kathamy, head of the Provincial Council; and...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi government officials, Iraqi national police leadership and concerned citizens from the Mada’in Qada met at the 1st National Police Headquarters at Forward Operating Base Volunteer in the International Zone, Oct. 9, to discuss coordinating their efforts to bring more security to the qada. “Today was a great day to see the Iraqi government, Iraqi security forces and concerned citizens come together to secure the future of the Mada’in Qada,” said Lt. Col. Ryan J. Kuhn from Clarks, Neb., the deputy commander of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 3rd Infantry Division. Maj. Gen. Riadh, the 9th National...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A suspected senior commander of the Fatah Islam militant group was captured by Palestinian refugees and turned over to the Lebanese military Monday after he spent weeks in hiding, an official said. Nasser Ismail was among a number of militant leaders who fled the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared before Lebanese troops overran it earlier this month, ending a fierce three-month battle with Fatah Islam fighters barricaded inside. Ismail appeared to be suffering from exhaustion from weeks of hiding in nearby forests when he was overpowered by Palestinian refugees as he tried to sneak into the...

WASHINGTON - President Bush will tell the nation this week he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by about 30,000 by next summer, but will condition those and further cuts on continued progress, The Associated Press has learned. In a prime-time television address, probably Thursday, Bush will endorse the recommendations of his top general and top diplomat in Iraq, following their appearance at two days of hearings in Congress, administration officials said. The White House plans to issue a written status report on the so-called "surge" on Friday, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity...

WASHINGTON – Immigration officials sharpened their message a day after being coy about whether they would agree to halt enforcement raids during the 2010 census. “We won't entertain any request to scale back our efforts,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Kelly Nantel said Friday. Census officials had planned to speak with immigration agents about curbing enforcement during the population count, the Census Bureau's second-ranking official said in an interview earlier this week. Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them in the headcount,...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger portrays himself as a global environmental leader, but that image was tarnished Friday as two former state air pollution officials testified about an administration they said is working to weaken global warming initiatives. Schwarzenegger's top aides have meddled in the day-to-day affairs of the state Air Resources Board, compromising its independence and integrity even as the Republican governor was traveling the world promoting the state's landmark global warming law, according to its former chairman, Robert Sawyer, and past executive director Catherine Witherspoon. "To say it was schizophrenic is to be kind. It was absolutely appalling,"...

Customs and border patrol officers said they discovered 20 suspected illegal immigrants stuffed into a recreational vehicle in San Ysidro. According to officials, they were hidden in various areas of a California-plated RV that entered the United States Tuesday morning through the San Ysidro border station. Officials said they arrested a 54-year-old man who was driving the RV. He was a U.S. citizen with a California driver's license who lives in Tijuana, according to border officials. A canine was used to screen the 1978 Dodge motor home, and the dog alerted agents to conduct a further search. Inside, officers said...

By the time Andrew Speaker and his wife returned from Europe late last month, government officials and news reports had already branded him as a runaway tuberculosis patient who had deliberately evaded health officials and knowingly put other people at risk by traveling on crowded airplanes. “This is what we’re hearing on the news when we land,” Mr. Speaker said on Thursday from his hospital room in Denver. He called The New York Times in response to repeated requests for an interview. “My wife and I look at each other, and I said, ‘They’re going for our throats here.’ ”...

Al-ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister, the U.S. commander and the American ambassador flew to the blistering western Iraqi desert Saturday in a rare joint outing to highlight progress in the fight against insurgents in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province. Once the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the country, Anbar — which includes the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi — has grown calmer in recent months with the flowering of a new alliance among Sunni tribal leaders, the Iraqi government and U.S. led forces. However, al-Qaida in Iraq is still active in the province and continues...

Not every harassment against Muslims comes out of Islamophobia. Secular, nationalistic, but not religious are the Quebecers. The founder of CAIR-CAN reflects on how the nature, culture, and history of Quebec make it hard for Muslims to live normally in the province.The latest high-profile incident involved the expulsion of five Muslim girls, aged 10 to 14, from a Tae kwon do tournament, by Quebec sports officials who ruled their hijab to be against regulations of the sport, in spite of the fact that hijab-clad Muslim women have competed worldwide in this martial art without any incident. In the neighboring province...

Outrage over luxury junket by public auditors May 16, 2007 As anger quickly grew over news that a group of government-appointed auditors are en route to South America using funds received from the state-run corporations they audit, the Ministry of Planning and Budget yesterday launched an investigation into the junket. “We confirmed that a total of 21 auditors went on a trip to South American countries using corporate funds,” said Yoo Sung-kull, a public policy official at the Ministry of Planning and Budget. “We are going to look into this trip to see whether there is any violation of the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Joined by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines, business leaders from the newly formed Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR) today called for passage of market-based healthcare reforms to fix California and the nation's broken healthcare system. The group of business leaders said now is the time to bring all stakeholders together to achieve meaningful results that not only solve the cost and coverage problem, but build a healthier California. Launched at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier this week, CAHR...

NEW YORK - The backlash has built up even before the official release of former CIA Director George Tenet's memoir, with criticism about his version of the run-up to the Iraq war, interrogation techniques and other events. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday disputed Tenet's claim that the Bush administration, before the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, never had a serious debate about whether Iraq posed an imminent threat or whether to tighten existing sanctions. "The president started a discussion practically on the day that he took power about how to enhance sanctions against Iraq," she said. "You may...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Government officials and lawmakers say they are fed up with what they feel are unnecessary searches by American troops and private security contractors in the Green Zone and persuaded President Jalal Talabani to take action, his office said Tuesday. The president, a Kurd, set up a committee to develop new security rules and then meet with U.S. officials to agree on a new relationship between American-led coalition forces and all Iraqis, not just government officials and lawmakers. The statement gave no other details, but Shiite legislator, Bassem Sharif, who attended the session at which the committee was...

WASHINGTON - The Energy Department unveiled legislation Tuesday to spur construction of a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada and increase its capacity. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., immediately vowed to block the bill. That could spell more problems for the troubled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump, already years behind schedule. The Energy Department official who heads the project warned that without new funding that's part of the bill, a 2017 goal for opening the dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas could not be met. "If we don't have that we are certainly not...

The California Highway Patrol has a higher average suicide rate than other police agencies, a newspaper reported. Fifteen workers have taken their lives since September 2003, including 13 men and two women. The suicides ranged from the North Coast to the Inland Empire and included five in the Sacramento area, according to a report in The Sacramento Bee. Last month an officer was found dead in his Folsom home. Experts say police suicides often are related to job pressures and the availability of guns. "We ask our people to work very odd and unusual shifts," CHP Commissioner Mike Brown said....

NORTH COUNTY ---- Offering a first glimpse at how state transportation bond money might be spent, the California Transportation Commission's staff on Friday recommended that the powerful panel award $304 million for road projects in San Diego County and $38 million for a project in Southwest Riverside County. The recommended San Diego County projects include the proposed retrofit of the Interstate 15 express lanes in the Miramar area to match the expansion under way to the north, as well as car-pool lane extensions on Interstates 5 and 805. The Southwest Riverside County project is the planned widening of Interstate 215...

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After the latest widely-publicized stories in national newspapers about weapons from Iran allegedly killing Americans in Iraq -- based completely on unnamed sources -- at least one smaller news outlet has had enough of it. The news director of the public radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has directed his staff to "ignore national stories quoting unnamed sources." He also called on other news outlets to join this policy. Bill Dupuy sent the following to his news staff. * Effectively immediately and until further notice, it is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any...

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. -- A 47-year-old data processing supervisor in the state comptroller's office this week denied charges that he was naked and masturbating inside a glass-enclosed ski lift car at a Vermont ski area. William N. Barret III of Oliver Street, Albany, was charged with felony lewd and lascivious conduct at Stratton Mountain Resort in December. He also was charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession. He entered his plea Tuesday in Brattleboro District Court. On Dec. 15, according to police in the town of Winhall, a 26-year-old man riding a gondola down the hill passed Barret's gondola, which was on its...

Not allowed to post articles from the El Paso Times... All I can do is give you the link.

Officials Transfer Authority of Base Iraqi Security Forces assume control of Forward Operating Base Duke. By Maj. Anna Friederich 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Oct. 3, 2006 -- Iraqi officials and Multi-National Division - Baghdad leaders transferred responsibility of Forward Operating Base Duke to Iraqi Security Forces during a press conference Oct. 1. Col. John Tully, commander, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, officially signed documents to sign the FOB to the Ministry of Interior, which was represented by Maj. Gen. Hussein Aooyiz Al Ghazali, commander, 5th Department of Border Enforcement,...

NASA officials to make historic trip to China 21:05 22 September 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kelly Young A group of NASA officials is about to begin a historic trip to China in an effort to establish preliminary ties between the Chinese and US space programmes. "No NASA administrator has been to China," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said after the recent launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. "We have never had any significant discussions with China about space." China joined the space elite when it became the third nation to launch its own crewed rocket in 2003 (see Confident China joins...

MEXICO CITY - Electoral officials said Tuesday that they will burn the ballots from the disputed presidential election despite calls from both candidates to spare them. Luis Carlos Ugalde, chairman of the Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, said in a letter to President-elect Felipe Calderon that a 1990 law clearly called for the burning of the ballots from the July 2 election. "The IFE is obliged to destroy electoral documentation once the electoral process is concluded," Ugalde wrote. No date was set for the burning. Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had asked that the ballots be saved, claiming fraud...

WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 – Citing media reports suggesting a possible connection between three U.S. soldiers killed in June and the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and murder of the girl and her family in March, military officials in Iraq today issued a statement saying “no evidence” connects the dead soldiers to the incident. “Past articles could be read to imply that the three deceased soldiers were somehow involved in the alleged crimes,” Multinational Corps Iraq officials said in the statement. Spc. David Babineau, Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca – all assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion,...

Turkmenistan Officials Recognize Coalition Rescue, Recovery TeamBy Sgt. Stephanie van Geete, USASpecial to American Forces Press Service BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, Aug. 16, 2006 – Nine Task Force Centaur aviators were among 21 U.S. soldiers and airmen recognized yesterday by the government of Turkmenistan for efforts in recovering a Turkmenistan Red Cross helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan earlier this year. Task Force Centaur Commander Army Lt. Col. William Metheny (left) accepts a plaque of appreciation Aug. 15 from Turkmenistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Aman Yaranov. Nine Centaur soldiers were recognized for their part in the recovery of a Turkmen...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2006 – The Iraqi people will need to carry forward positive trends in Baghdad, a coalition spokesman said there today. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, of Multinational Force Iraq, said operations in and around Baghdad are designed to reduce murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in the capital. Operations are pinpointed at the Doura, Shula and Ameriyah neighborhoods -- all areas threatened by sectarian violence. All three areas have both Sunni and Shiite populations. Iraqi soldiers and police are carrying out most operational missions, while coalition forces provide security cordons and quick-reaction forces. Operations look beyond...

SAN DIEGO ---- County officials testified during a congressional hearing Monday in San Diego that illegal immigrants extract a heavy toll on local governments and law enforcement agencies, especially in North County. But they said they did not know precisely how much. Officials said illegal immigrants have strained local education, health care and prison resources. Many of the panelists blamed the federal government for failing to secure the nation's borders. "San Diego County may be the gateway to Mexico, but my taxpayers in the County of San Diego are the doormat," said Supervisor Bill Horn, whose district includes most of...

US officials find birds infected with harmless bird flu strain WASHINGTON (AFP) - US officials announced that two wild swans have been found carrying a strain of the avian flu virus, although not the potentially lethal type that has caused human death and illness in Asia, Africa and Europe. "Test results thus far indicate this is low pathogenicity avian influenza, which poses no threat to human health," the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement. Testing has been done on the two wild mute swans, who were found in the northeastern US state of Michigan, as part of an...

There is no evidence that Pentagon officials intentionally misled the Sept. 11 commission when they gave inaccurate accounts about actions at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks, a Defense Department spokesman said. A forthcoming report from the Pentagon's inspector general will address the question of whether military commanders intentionally misled the commission, said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Brian Maka. But "there is nothing that indicates the information provided to the commission was knowingly false," Maka said. The inspector general's report is the result of a compromise among commissioners, some of whom concluded that the Pentagon may have been deliberately...

WASHINGTON, August 2, 2006 – The Army is taking significant steps to ensure soldiers and families of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team are taken care of now that the unit’s deployment to Iraq has been extended four months. U.S. Army, Alaska leaders are working with higher headquarters to ensure support programs, including financial compensation and personnel support, are available to the soldiers, Army and Defense Department officials said. “We are responding rapidly to provide all the appropriate support and services to these outstanding patriotic professionals and their families, who continue to inspire us all with their unwavering commitment to...

WASHINGTON - Officials in the federal agency that oversees American Indian trust assets had an improper social relationship with an accounting firm and pressured subordinates to give the firm preferential treatment, a government investigation found. Senior managers in the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians based in Albuquerque, N.M., golfed, drank and partied with the executives of the New Mexico accounting firm Chavarria, Dunne & Lamey, which won $6.6 million in contract work over eight years, according to the report by the Interior Department's inspector general. The investigation, first reported this week by U.S. News & World Report,...

A record-setting thirst for power during the heat wave that has scorched the state this month caught Department of Water and Power officials by surprise, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Before this week, the utility's highest peak energy use was recorded at 5,661 megawatts. A stretch of 100-plus temperatures this week, however, created a demand that set a new all-time high of 6,165 megawatts - shocking DWP officials who predicted power usage wouldn't top 6,100 megawatts for four years. "They didn't even believe our customers could ever put such a load on our system - that we could even...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration on Saturday defended his proposal requiring drug companies to give discounts to up to five million uninsured, low-income residents within five years or face state sanctions. California Health and Human Services Secretary Kim Belshe said the Republican governor's election-year plan was better than Democratic bills he has vetoed the last two years. Schwarzenegger has unsuccessfully pushed a voluntary plan since taking office, and the one he formally announced Saturday gives drug companies five years to comply on their own terms - with a stick at the end if they don't, Belshe said at a Capitol news...

YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. - Firefighters battling a massive wildfire burning on the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest were preparing for the possibility that the blaze could join another wildfire and become even more difficult to control. By late Thursday, a 48,000-acre fire had destroyed more than 150 homes and buildings. While containment was at 20 percent, it was on course to possibly merge with the 8,200-acre fire in the national forest, where it could feed on vast stands of dead trees. Officials have not estimated when the fires might merge, but early Friday they were about two miles...

Police are investigating whether Maywood's deputy city clerk sent hate mail and tried to have a councilman killed after the town embraced illegal immigrants earlier this year. Not long after the City Council approved a symbolic resolution opposing a proposed federal law to make local police enforce immigration law, Councilman Felipe Aguirre and Mayor Thomas Martin began receiving threats in the mail. Last week, Hector Duarte, 29, was arrested on suspicion of soliciting to commit murder, said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokeswoman Kerri Webb. The target was Aguirre, police said. Bail was initially set at $1 million, but Duarte was...

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2006 – U.S. officials are condemning a terrorist video reported to show the mutilated corpses of American soldiers. The terrorists say the video is of two American soldiers captured near Yusifiyah, Iraq, June 16 and killed sometime later. The soldiers were members of the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, part of Multinational Division Baghdad. "Multinational Division Baghdad condemns the release of the video in the strongest of terms," the command said in a news release. "It demonstrates the barbaric and brutal nature of the terrorists and their complete disregard for human life." The video, uploaded on a...

MIDLAND, Texas - A former Army private accused in the horrific rape and killing of a young Iraqi woman and the execution-style slaying of her family had been discharged because of an "antisocial personality disorder," U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. Investigators say Steven D. Green and other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division plotted to rape a young Iraqi woman they first saw at a traffic checkpoint in the village of Mahmoudiya. Green is accused of rounding up three family members in a room of the woman's house and shooting them before raping and killing her. Previously, in...

New Jersey National Guard officials say they are prepared to send as many as 650 troops to back up border patrols along the US-Mexico border.....because the Pentagon has guaranteed to cover the cost of the deployment..........The troops will be volunteers, going on the mission in lieu of annual training. Gov Corzine must sign a formal agreement before any troops deploy. Despite an end-of-the-month deadline to have 2,500 troops along the Mexican border, only 483 were in position Friday working with the U.S. Border Patrol.....according to the National Guard Bureau, an arm of the Pentagon. ......more than 2,000 others were somewhere...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2006 – A key al Qaeda operative implicated in the February bombing of a prominent Iraqi mosque was captured last month, a senior U.S. military officer said in Baghdad today. Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie announced yesterday that terrorist Abu Qudama had been seized by Kurdish pershmerga troops after a May 20 firefight north of Baghdad, Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell told reporters at a news briefing. Abu Qudama, a Tunisian, is an admitted participant of the Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Dome, a holy Shiite mosque in Samarra, Caldwell said. The bombing set...

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2006 – Today's Supreme Court decision specifically invites the administration to work with Congress to change the law so it can try some detainees through military tribunals, senior officials from the Departments of Justice and Defense said today. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 this morning that military commissions for detainees charged with war crimes would violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as four Geneva Conventions. While ruling against military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as they currently stand, the court's decision notes that "nothing prevents the administration from going to Congress...

Russia is growing, and so are the shadows that are cast over the business proceedings there. The bureaucracy is still extremely burdensome and growing. And laws are a matter of convenience and seemingly circumvented at will -- or at least when you have the right connections. Corruption and middlemen are a matter of course, and bribes are expected and given. Confiscation of private goods -- i.e., Motorola's ongoing fiasco -- and resale for profit is old news. Legitimate dealings are called smuggling. And smuggling is called smuggling. Russian law allows confiscated material in criminal investigations to be sold or destroyed...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will have to explain why it thinks it can ignore or overrule laws passed by Congress in a hearing next week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said on Wednesday. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said he hoped to force the Bush administration to reduce its use of "signing statements" -- memos that reserve the right to ignore laws if the president thinks they impinge on his authority. "Our legislation doesn't amount to anything if the president can say, 'My constitutional authority supersedes the statute.' And I think we've got to lay down the gauntlet...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities are discovering new home-grown cells of Islamist radicals in the United States that draw inspiration and moral support from al Qaeda, officials said on Tuesday. Like local terrorism cells that have recently come to light in Canada and Europe, officials said the groups are comprised of disaffected young men in their teens and 20s who rely on the Internet to try to organize and plan potential attacks on the U.S. homeland. Concern about attacks inside the United States gathered pace after the arrest earlier this month in Canada of 17 men...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2006 – On a surprise visit to Baghdad today, President Bush told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki he is impressed with Maliki's choices for top Iraqi Cabinet officials. President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki walk together outside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad June 13. The U.S. president made a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital. Photo by Staff Sgt. James Sherrill, USA   "It is an impressive group of men and women," Bush said to the prime minister during a press conference after meeting members of Maliki's Cabinet. Maliki was seated to the president's left,...

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2006 – With hurricane season nearing, the Defense Department has tremendous assets to offer a civilian-led response to a major disaster, a top DoD official involved in the process told reporters here yesterday. "Those assets are ready for deployment, and ... we are better prepared than at any point in our nation's history to move that assistance as rapidly as is humanly possible," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said. DoD defense coordinating officers will be assigned full-time to each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency's regional offices to ensure coordinated planning and operational...

Press Briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar, ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul McHale, and Chief of the National Guard Bureau Lt. General Steven Blum on the President's Immigration Reform Plan. Ms. Healy: I just wanted to thank you all for being here. I'm Erin Healy with the White House Press Office. I just want to introduce everyone very quickly. We have Secretary Chertoff from Homeland Security who is here with us today. We also have Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHale who is also with us....

Lagos - The United States congressman, Rep. William Jefferson, under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer. The government says Jefferson got the $100,000 in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official - the name is blacked out in the court document - to ensure the...