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Ex-Border Agents' Supporters Hopeful After Senate Probe Two leading senators Wednesday called on President Bush to commute the sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents who are facing more than a decade each in prison for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler and covering up the incident. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote in a letter to the White House that a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week into the prosecution and jailing of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean had "confirmed the concerns raised by many members of the public: that this penalty levied on these agents is excessive and that they deserve the immediate exercise of your executive clemency powers." The letter to the president highlighted the fact that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, who prosecuted the case, had used his discretion to include a specific charge -- discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime -- that carries a 10-year minimum sentence. This was not necessary, the senators argued....
Chertoff: Texas border fence construction to begin by fall U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he expects construction of a Texas-Mexico border fence to begin by this fall. He pledged to consult with local communities on the fence design, but said he won't give them a veto on the plan. "I expect we'll be doing some construction in Texas this fiscal year," Chertoff said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Chertoff also said he "can't rule out" that the government could use eminent domain to seize private property if it's necessary to build the fence. Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas said he hasn't been notified of the fence's location in his city. "I understand we don't have veto power, but I hope the citizens of Laredo, the business community, the ranchers and farmers, will have an opportunity to speak about this issue," he said. "If you're going to construct something in your neighborhood, aren't you going to tell them?" McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez said most residents believe the fence won't be effective....
US guns arm Mexico's drug wars In some ways this is an old border story. Drugs have always gone north. Guns go south. But as Mexico's drug wars spiral so violently out of control that beheadings are tallied in local papers, the Calderón administration is demanding that the US do more to stanch the gun smuggling and to amend gun laws that, it says, are interfering with Mexico's fight to disarm organized crime. "There is a contradiction," says a Mexican senior official speaking on condition of anonymity. "The US says they are so worried about drug trafficking, but the US is the one arming the drug traffickers." Amid violence that has even spilled onto American soil, the US government is answering the call. US-Mexico cooperation on the matter, say many involved in the effort, has reached an unprecedented level, including gun tracing, personnel training, information-sharing, extraditions, and the establishment of joint task forces....
FEMA lawyers nixed trailer tests for toxicity The Federal Emergency Management Agency has suppressed warnings from its own Gulf coast field workers since the middle of 2006 about suspected health problems that may be linked to elevated levels of formaldehyde gas released in FEMA-provided trailers, lawmakers said today. At a hearing Thursday of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, investigators released internal e-mails indicating that FEMA lawyers rejected environmental testing out of fear that the agency would then become legally liable if health problems emerged among as many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who lived in trailers. FEMA's Office of General Counsel "has advised that we do not do testing," because this "would imply FEMA's ownership of this issue," wrote a FEMA logistics specialist on June 16, 2006, three months after news reports surfaced about the possible effects of the invisible cancer-causing compound and one month after the agency was sued....So, is the government looking out for you, or for itself?
Texas State Site Leaks Personal Data Troy Aikman may not be happy about it, but the State of Texas has made his address and social security number available via the Internet. Sensitive information on Aikman, formerly a star quarterback with the Dallas Cowboys, and thousands of others is available on the Texas Secretary of State's SOSDirect Web site, according to Steven Peisner, the president of fraud prevention vendor Sellitsafe Inc., who has provided IDG News Service with a half-dozen examples of social security numbers he was able to obtain from the site. As government pushes more and more documents online, Texas is one of many state and local governments across the U.S. that is now struggling to remove sensitive information so that it cannot be misused by criminals. Peisner found social security numbers on tax liens and on loan agreement notifications filed with the state, called Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) financing statements....
Copyright prison break Four enterprising prison inmates have been accused of trying to use copyright law to escape. They allegedly copyrighted their own names and then demanded millions of dollars from jail officials for using them without permission, reports the Daily Telegraph. Russell Dean Landers, Clayton Heath Albers, Carl Ervin Batts and Barry Dean Bischof sent demand notices for payment to the warden of the El Reno federal prison in Oklahoma City, according to prosecutors. They allegedly filed claims against his property, then hired someone to seize his vehicles, freeze his bank accounts and change the locks on his house. Believing the warden's property had been seized, the inmates allegedly said they would not return it unless they were released from prison, according to the indictment....