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From The Associated Press
Major Arizona human smuggling scheme broken
PHOENIX — A human smuggling scheme responsible for arranging air transportation for thousands of illegal immigrants has been broken up with the indictments of 14 people who worked in travel agencies, officials announced Thursday.
Six Phoenix-area travel agencies were responsible for moving at estimated 6,800 people since 2005, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.
In addition to the 14 owners or employees of the agencies who were indicted, two people who ran so-called “drop houses” also were charged.
The agencies arranged for one-way travel to destination cities across the nation, in many cases through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
Goddard said the year-long investigation uncovered ticket sales worth about $2 million.
The Las Vegas airport was usually chosen because the Phoenix airport had a greater law enforcement presence.
‘Grave concern’ expressed at capture of British
UNITED NATIONS—After marathon negotiations, the U.N. Security Council agreed on a watered-down statement Thursday expressing “grave concern” at Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines and calling for an early resolution of the problem including their release.
Primarily because of Russian opposition, Britain failed to win council support for a stronger statement that would “deplore” Iran’s detention of the Britons and call for their immediate release.
Tuskegee Airmen awarded Congressional medals
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Bush saluted the Tuskegee airmen on Thursday, six decades after they completed their World War II mission and returned home to a country that discriminated against them because they were black.
Two of the airmen are from Southern Arizona— Oro Valley resident Luke Weathers, 86, and Nogales, Ariz., native George Biggs, 81.
"Even the Nazis asked why African-American men would fight for a country that treated them so unfairly,” Bush told the group of legendary black aviators, who received a Congressional Gold Medal—the most prestigious Congress has to offer.
Weathers, a lieutenant colonel, flew P-51s and P-39s in action and received a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Biggs, who achieved the rank of major, trained with the Tuskegee Airmen but the war ended before he saw combat. He went on to fly as a navigator in various aircraft during the Korean War.
Arizona prosecutor’s firing blamed on policy dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C.— A former high-ranking Justice Department official said Thursday that a policy dispute with the Justice Department—not ongoing investigations of two congressmen —was the reason Arizona’s former U.S. attorney was targeted to be fired.
Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he was aware of news accounts about Paul Charlton’s office investigating the two officials.
But “based on everything I observed and heard, that was not a factor” in Charlton’s firing, he said.
Instead, Sampson said that Charlton had disagreed with the department over whether to seek the death penalty in certain cases and whether to use taped confessions in prosecutions. Department officials have maintained that was why Charlton was added to the list of prosecutors to be fired.
Charlton’s office had opened investigations into two Arizona Republicans. One was a camping trip former Rep. Jim Kolbe had taken with two former pages. The other was a land deal involving Rep. Rick Renzi.
Charlton was fired just months after the investigations were made public last fall, although internal documents show he was being considered for dismissal before press reports made the investigations public.
House passes Democratic budget plan
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget blueprint predicting a big surplus in five years but relying on the expiration of tax cuts to do so.
The 216-210 vote sets up negotiations with the Senate, which last week passed a budget blueprint with similarly large spending increases for education, defense, homeland security and veterans programs.
The measure comes in response to Democratic complaints that President George W. Bush has shortchanged domestic programs funded each year by appropriations bills — including education, health research and grants to local governments—while awarding deficit-boosting tax cuts tilted toward the affluent.
Major Arizona human smuggling scheme broken
PHOENIX — A human smuggling scheme responsible for arranging air transportation for thousands of illegal immigrants has been broken up with the indictments of 14 people who worked in travel agencies, officials announced Thursday.
Six Phoenix-area travel agencies were responsible for moving at estimated 6,800 people since 2005, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.
In addition to the 14 owners or employees of the agencies who were indicted, two people who ran so-called “drop houses” also were charged.
The agencies arranged for one-way travel to destination cities across the nation, in many cases through McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
Goddard said the year-long investigation uncovered ticket sales worth about $2 million.
The Las Vegas airport was usually chosen because the Phoenix airport had a greater law enforcement presence.
‘Grave concern’ expressed at capture of British
UNITED NATIONS—After marathon negotiations, the U.N. Security Council agreed on a watered-down statement Thursday expressing “grave concern” at Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines and calling for an early resolution of the problem including their release.
Primarily because of Russian opposition, Britain failed to win council support for a stronger statement that would “deplore” Iran’s detention of the Britons and call for their immediate release.
Tuskegee Airmen awarded Congressional medals
WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Bush saluted the Tuskegee airmen on Thursday, six decades after they completed their World War II mission and returned home to a country that discriminated against them because they were black.
Two of the airmen are from Southern Arizona— Oro Valley resident Luke Weathers, 86, and Nogales, Ariz., native George Biggs, 81.
"Even the Nazis asked why African-American men would fight for a country that treated them so unfairly,” Bush told the group of legendary black aviators, who received a Congressional Gold Medal—the most prestigious Congress has to offer.
Weathers, a lieutenant colonel, flew P-51s and P-39s in action and received a Distinguished Flying Cross.
Biggs, who achieved the rank of major, trained with the Tuskegee Airmen but the war ended before he saw combat. He went on to fly as a navigator in various aircraft during the Korean War.
Arizona prosecutor’s firing blamed on policy dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C.— A former high-ranking Justice Department official said Thursday that a policy dispute with the Justice Department—not ongoing investigations of two congressmen —was the reason Arizona’s former U.S. attorney was targeted to be fired.
Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, testified during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that he was aware of news accounts about Paul Charlton’s office investigating the two officials.
But “based on everything I observed and heard, that was not a factor” in Charlton’s firing, he said.
Instead, Sampson said that Charlton had disagreed with the department over whether to seek the death penalty in certain cases and whether to use taped confessions in prosecutions. Department officials have maintained that was why Charlton was added to the list of prosecutors to be fired.
Charlton’s office had opened investigations into two Arizona Republicans. One was a camping trip former Rep. Jim Kolbe had taken with two former pages. The other was a land deal involving Rep. Rick Renzi.
Charlton was fired just months after the investigations were made public last fall, although internal documents show he was being considered for dismissal before press reports made the investigations public.
House passes Democratic budget plan
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a $2.9 trillion Democratic budget blueprint predicting a big surplus in five years but relying on the expiration of tax cuts to do so.
The 216-210 vote sets up negotiations with the Senate, which last week passed a budget blueprint with similarly large spending increases for education, defense, homeland security and veterans programs.
The measure comes in response to Democratic complaints that President George W. Bush has shortchanged domestic programs funded each year by appropriations bills — including education, health research and grants to local governments—while awarding deficit-boosting tax cuts tilted toward the affluent.
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