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WORLD
Militant action spikes in Iraq
BAGHDAD – Eleven American service members have been killed since Sunday in a surge of violence after an Iraqi military offensive against Shiite Muslim militias, the U.S. military said Tuesday. Five died in Baghdad alone in clashes with the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and in rocket attacks, the military said.
The violence occurred on the eve of testimony before Congress on Tuesday by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.
Al-Sadr threatened Tuesday to end a six-month freeze he has called on his militia’s military activities. The freeze was credited with a large part of the drop in violence in Iraq, but in recent weeks an offensive against the militia by Iraqi Security Forces and American forces spiked the violence in southern Iraq and Bahgdad.
NATIONAL
Mexican government seeks to help returned immigrants
SEATTLE – Bienvenido Paisano.
It’s a message that welcomes Mexican compatriots driving or flying back to Mexico for holidays or to visit family and friends.
They aren’t just empty words but part of the government embrace of its citizens abroad who remain connected – and financially committed – to the country.
At airports and border crossings, the returnees are given information on staying safe and reporting any government corruption they encounter.
But for those Mexicans unceremoniously returned home (those deported and dropped off by U.S. immigration in Mexican border towns such as Nogales, Tijuana and Juarez) there is no such welcome.
While the Mexican government is taking small steps in response to growing criticism that it ignores Mexicans deported from the U.S. ( unveiling a test program in Tijuana last week to provide emergency help to those at the border) experts believe it’s not nearly enough.
Get your chips
SANTA ANA, Calif. – An oversupply of computer memory chips means one thing: time to go shopping for computer memory.
Overseas chip factories have spent the past few years upgrading facilities and improving production of DRAM computer memory. But now they are making too much. Hence, prices today are nearly 80 percent less than they were a year ago.
DRAM speeds up computer performance, doubling in computer memory results in a significant improvement in tasks, such as how quickly users can open files and switch between open programs.
The current slump is more than a year old. But the industry has been through this before. Back in 2001, there was another glut in the memory market, and prices also fell 80 percent.
In 2000, 1GB of DRAM was $931, said Bob Merritt, vice president with Semico Research, which tracks the memory industry. A year later, prices collapsed to $224. Today, 1GB of DRAM is $14 to $20.
American Airlines cancels 500 flights
FORT WORTH, Texas – For the second time in two weeks, American Airlines parked its fleet of MD-80 airliners Tuesday to conduct additional wiring inspections, resulting in hundreds of canceled flights and tens of thousands of displaced travelers.
Airline officials said as many as 500 flights were scrubbed nationwide after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the additional checks. More cancellations are expected Wednesday as the airline works to get the planes inspected and returned to service.
On March 26, the FAA ordered American to conduct new inspections of its MD-80s after determining that ties that hold wire bundles together in the aircraft wheel wells might not be properly spaced. That forced American to cancel about 300 flights as it brought the planes in for inspections and repairs when necessary.
On Monday night, FAA inspectors rechecked some of the planes at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and in Tulsa, Okla., and found that they still weren’t in compliance with the safety rules, said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. In addition to the spacing, the agency told American that some of the ties and lacing cords around the wires weren’t facing the right direction.
LOCAL/BSU
Judge sets bail on cocaine traffickers
CANYON COUNTY – Members of an alleged cocaine trafficking group were arraigned in court Monday as a judge set bail and scheduled further appearances.
Abelardo Dominguez Ramos, 56, and his son, Abelardo Dominguez Gomez, 24, along with brother Luis Tejada, 33, and Miguel Tejada, 25, were charged with offenses related to trafficking and distributing cocaine in Canyon County
Law enforcement arrested the men, along with five others, in a cocaine crackdown last week. The arrests were the result of a nine-month investigation by local, state and federal officials who claimed that the men had been smuggling and selling cocaine.
Hospital school gives ailing kids a hand
It might be one of the Treasure Valley’s smallest and least known schools. But since its opening in 2004, the St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital School has made sure that kids with cancer or chronic illness don’t get behind in their school work – and gives them the social and emotional support they need to heal.
Until the advent of the hospital school, social workers and nurse practitioners worked with parents of oncology patients and school districts to provide students with tutors.
But parents of children with chronic illnesses that kept them out of school didn’t have that kind of assistance.
Many of the children who were in and out of the hospital and kids who had had operations for brain tumors frequently needed a whole new kind of education in special education systems.
WHAT THE?
Hey, I’ve got to get home somehow
A man was released from the Palm Beach County lockup after being arrested for trespassing. He immediately went out into the parking lot and tried to carjack a woman’s vehicle. He told the officer who immediately arrested him again, “I didn’t feel like walking.”
I think this pretty much proves our point
When a police officer came to a woman’s home in Bay City, Mich., to serve papers requiring her to undergo a mental examination, she hit him with a shovel.
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.