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WORLD
NAFTA may cause more immigration
MEXICO CITY – Jesus Velasquez doesn’t want to move to the United States.
He fears, however, that he may have to if he loses his job selling avocados.
Velasquez, 36, says he and his family have benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement. For him, the alternative is to immigrate to the United States.
As voters in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont went to the polls Tuesday, some workers and distributors at the 800-acre food market, one of the biggest in the world, expressed concern about presidential candidates Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s threats to pull out of NAFTA unless it’s renegotiated.
NAFTA is unpopular in Ohio, a key win for Clinton, where thousands of manufacturing workers have lost jobs.
Iran president wants removal of U.S from Iraq
BAGHDAD – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took another series of swipes at the Bush administration Monday, telling the “foreigners” who’d traveled thousands of miles that it was time to go home so Iran and Iraq could develop their “brotherly connections.”
The Iranian leader avoided mentioning the United States by name but left no doubt about the target of his ire.
He denounced dictator Saddam Hussein, who led an eight-year war against Iran starting in 1980 that left 1 million people dead. But Ahmadinejad didn’t acknowledge the American role in Saddam’s overthrow.
He signed seven agreements – on trade, transportation, electricity, industry, customs, mining and finance – cementing the economic relationship between the nations, and prayed in the middle of the night at a Shiite Muslim shrine.
He dismissed American claims that Iran supports and trains Shiite militias.
Colombian police release documents belonging to FARC leader
BOGOTA, Colombia – A mysterious “Belisario” offers FARC rebels radioactive uranium that terrorists can use for a “dirty bomb.” There is a spat between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba. And an odd Chavez proposal to move FARC hostages to Venezuela – and hold them there.
Those are just some of the items in 15 documents released Tuesday by Colombian police, who said they had been found in the captured laptop of slain FARC leader Raul Reyes.
Overall, the documents describe the Venezuelan and Ecuadorean governments more deeply enmeshed with the FARC than simply trying to win the release of 45 high-profile FARC-held hostages, as the two governments claim.
There was no independent verification of the documents although Colombia has said it would allow experts from the Organization of American States to examine the computers involved.
NATIONAL
California takes gay marriage to the courts again
SAN FRANCISCO – Attorneys argued for and against same-sex marriage for three hours Tuesday before the Supreme Court of California, the final public airing of the constitutional issues before the state’s highest court issues what’s sure to be a bellwether decision for the rest of the nation.
The plaintiffs – a collection of same-sex couples and advocacy groups plus the city and county of San Francisco, which ratcheted up the rhetoric in this debate by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004, only to see them voided by this very court – argued California law’s ban violates their equal-protection rights and has no rational purpose.
Later, questioned by Associate Justice Joyce Kennard, Minter argued same-sex couples’ fundamental right to marry has always been there, and only now is it being recognized.
The respondents – the state and two conservative groups – claim there is no right to same-sex marriage, and that California’s citizens and lawmakers should define marriage, not the courts.
The court will issue a ruling within 90 days.
Suicide rates in army on rise
PAHRUMP, Nev. – All Spc. Travis Virgadamo ever wanted was to be a soldier.
But two years after his father signed papers for him to enlist at age 17, things went terribly wrong. Last August, three months after arriving in Iraq, he walked outside his barracks and killed himself with his rifle.
When the news crackled over the Bonecrusher Troop’s radio, 1st Lt. Kyle Graham knew immediately that it was Virgadamo, the troubled soldier who had been on suicide watch since June, when he threatened to kill himself while on patrol.
Virgadamo, whose case has been cited on the Senate floor and in congressional hearings, is a symbol of a growing problem facing the military as soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars face repeated and extended deployments.
Last year, 121 soldiers in the Army and active-duty National Guard and Reserves committed suicide, the largest number since the military began keeping records in 1980.
More problems with meth result from cut in funding
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A common fear is sweeping through the Midwest’s drug-enforcement community: that methamphetamine, the narcotic scourge that has wounded middle America as no drug ever before, is about to surge again because of extreme federal slashes in police funding.
In Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska, the story is the same. Just as statistics show that anti-meth task forces may be beginning to gain an upper hand on those who manufacture, deal and use the highly addictive and destructive drug, the source of the majority of these states’ drug-enforcement funding is slated to disappear overnight.
President Bush, whose administration has long expressed the opinion that federal dollars should not be the primary means of funding state and local law enforcement, has dramatically cut funding in the 2009 budget for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, the primary program used to finance drug enforcement in nearly every state. The proposed cut would trim $170 million, virtually the entire Byrne program for drug enforcement.
LOCAL/BSU
Police bust child porn ring
A Boise man is one of 12 Americans indicted in a worldwide investigation that ultimately charged 22 people with participating in a highly sophisticated child porn ring. The U.S. Justice Department identified one of the suspects as Warren Weber, 56, of Boise. In all, more than 400,000 pictures, video files and other images showing children engaged in sexual behavior were produced, advertised, traded and distributed globally in the online pornography ring, according to U.S. and international authorities. The sting, which started in Australia, also netted accused pornographers in England, Canada and Germany.
NNU gym burns
NAMPA – Northwest Nazarene University personnel and local authorities continue cleanup and an investigation into the fire that started outside the Johnson Sports Center.
The hardwood floor of the main gymnasium, because it is elevated slightly, appeared to be undamaged. Classrooms were unharmed, and offices sustained only slight smoke damage.
However, much of the building’s interior is sooty from smoke, ceiling tiles will have to be replaced and the lobby and field house – a gymnasium with three convertible basketball courts – flooded with three or four inches of water after 51 fire sprinklers went off throughout the building.
The sprinklers effectively prevented the fire from spreading through the building, limiting most interior damage to that from water and smoke.
Latino Youth Summit slated for April 5
NAMPA – The Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs is having its third annual youth summit in Nampa on April 5 at the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho.
The summit, hosted by the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, targets “at-risk” Hispanic students who struggle to achieve within their schools or communities.
About 125 students will be selected by their school administrators to attend.
This year the theme is “Life Is What You Make It.” In addition to the workshops for students, the summit will also host a town hall meeting on underage drinking for parents.
WHAT THE?
Of course it’s my car, officer, why do you ask?
A man in a stolen Hummer with Michigan license plates pulled into the parking lot of the welfare office in Jonesville, Tenn., to apply for benefits. This attracted the attention of someone who thought it odd to see someone in an extremely expensive vehicle with out-of-state plates in need of welfare. Police were informed.
World/National/What the? stories courtesy of MCT Campus Wire Services unless otherwise credited. Local/BSU stories are courtesy of the Boise State Web site at www.boisestate.edu. All stories are compiled by News Writers.