By DEANNA BOYD
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

FORT WORTH — An illegal immigrant in federal custody since his arrest early this month on traffic warrants was arrested Thursday in connection with a string of rapes and other sexual attacks dating back to December 2004, police said.

His hands and legs shackled, Jose Carrillo, 30, was transported from federal custody Thursday afternoon and arrested by Fort Worth police on warrants in two of the Fort Worth rapes. Police say DNA evidence linked Carrillo to the two attacks, plus a rape in Arlington. When asked by reporters if he committed the offenses, Carrillo said no, adding that he has a wife and a baby on the way.

“This is not fair what you guys are doing. This is not fair,” Carrillo said, shielding his face from the cameras with his green shirt as he was led down a police hallway to begin the process of being booked into jail with bail set at $300,000. “These guys have killed my life.”

Carrillo, who police say has numerous aliases, surfaced as a suspect in the case after an apartment manager told police that the man had sexually assaulted one of her tenants, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

He was arrested on outstanding traffic warrants March 10 as he drove away from his place of employment. A Mexican national, Carrillo was then placed into federal custody on an immigration hold.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, police obtained a warrant for a DNA sample from Carrillo. On Wednesday, Detectives C.B. Smith and S.L. Schloeman were notified that his DNA matched biological evidence recovered from the June 17 rape of a woman at the Meridian apartments on Marine Creek and the Jan. 24 rape of a woman in the 1000 block of N.W. 28th Street.

In addition, police said, Carrillo’s DNA matched evidence from the Dec. 19 rape of a woman at the Windcastle Apartments in southeast Arlington.

During a Thursday afternoon news conference, Sgt. Don Hanlon, supervisor of the sex-crimes unit, said Carrillo is also a suspect in about a dozen other offenses, including indecent exposures and robberies that investigators believe may have been unsuccessful sexual assault attempts.

Hanlon said investigators have learned that Carrillo lived in the Marine Creek area when the first series of attacks happened there between December 2004 and October 2005.

In those attacks, police say a masked man armed with a kitchen knife attacked women in their homes or as they were arriving or leaving.

Later, Hanlon said, Carrillo moved to north Fort Worth, where two attacks were reported between November and January. Police say a man, usually wearing a ski mask, confronted his victims as they walked down the road or were getting into their cars. He displayed a rope or placed one around the victim’s neck.

“There was enough variance in the description that we weren’t sure that it was the same person so we started analyzing evidence obtained from the crime scenes,” Hanlon said. “… We were eventually able to relate these two series of offenses together.”

Hanlon said investigators searching Carrillo’s home found items that may be related to the attacks, including clothing that matches the description of what the attacker wore in some of the offenses.

“We recovered articles that are similar in nature to what the victims described was used to restrain them around their neck,” Hanlon added.

Because of time gaps in the attacks and the attacker’s pattern, Hanlon said, investigators believe other sexual assaults may not have been reported to police. He urged any other victims to come forward.

“He didn’t know boundaries, obviously, because he was in two different cities in Tarrant County, so we’re concerned that there are other offenses that haven’t been reported to us and we want to prosecute this person for all the crimes he’s committed, not just the three that we have him on now,” Hanlon said.

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I would like you all to look at the comments at the bottom of the article entitled “mexicans.” I want you all to read what two women put up there. Read for yourselves how truly racist these two women are. But also read how they try to portray me and a few of my regular posters as being the racists. They make blatantly racist comments, yet they are so blinded by their own racism that they can’t see the forest through the trees. The following is my final response to their nonsense. I want you to read this. Perhaps it will give you all a better understanding as to why I think the way I think…. er ….. duh…..

What you all need to realize is that people like Barbie and Alice have been indoctrinated into this school of thought because for their entire lives they have been bombarded with this stream of consciousness that always comes to the conclusion that all of white society is racist. Their parents teach them to hate at an early age.

So all of you narrow minded bigots that attack me directly through this site or the constant barrage of emails and death threats, I just wanted to point out to you all that you are the racists, not us. We are simply asking that you abide by the same laws and rules that we Americans have to live by. As for Alice and Barbie, I hope you have learned a lesson here. The next time you open your mouth, give your brain a chance to say the right words and try to refrain from the personal attacks. It makes you look addlebrained.

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The Senate launched a debate on Wednesday on the most sweeping proposals to reform US immigration laws in two decades, but divisions within the majority Republican party pose a huge obstacle to approval of the legislation in an election year.

Immigration reform, which President George W. Bush has been seeking for more than two years, has exposed disagreements among conservatives over whether low-wage immigrants should be seen as a boon to the economy or a threat to American workers and a drain on government coffers.

In an unusual procedural move, the Senate will debate two different bills that reflect both sides of that debate. Bill Frist, the Senate Republican leader who is trying to position himself for a presidential run in 2008, has offered legislation that would tighten border security and increase penalties on US employers who hire illegal immigrants but would not increase the annual quota of legal migrants.

That approach is popular in the US, and among Republicans. Recent polls have found that as many as 70 per cent of voters say they favour candidates who pledge to get tougher on illegal immigration.

But Mr Frist has tried at the same time not to alienate Hispanic voters, who are an increasingly important Republican constituency, telling a group of Hispanic educators this week that “this nation was made great by men and women who longed for a better life and came to America to find it”.

As a result, he has pledged to allow a vote that could replace his bill with radically different legislation that is favoured by many Democrats and by Senator John McCain, who is likely to be one of Mr Frist’s chief rivals in the 2008 Republican presidential primary.

That legislation, approved on Monday by the Senate judiciary committee with the support of just four Republicans, would allow as many as 400,000 new workers to come to the US legally each year. The bill would also provide a path for some 11m immigrants who are already in the country illegally to acquire legal status and eventual citizenship after paying fines and facing long delays.

Many conservative groups have denounced it as “amnesty” for illegal aliens, but US business groups, a core Republican constituency, say there is broad demand for unskilled and semi-skilled labour that cannot be filled by US citizens.

Mr McCain insisted on Wednesday that the bill “is not amnesty. It’s earned citizenship.” He said that while the US needs to tighten border security, “we’ve got to fix this problem of 11m people that are living in the shadows.”

Congressional failure to enact any legislation, or a victory by Republican opponents of increased immigration, would also be a diplomatic embarrassment to Mr Bush. The president left Washington on Wednesday afternoon for a meeting in Cancún with Vicente Fox, the Mexican president, who has been urging the US to reform its immigration laws since Mr Bush took office in 2001.

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By Don Ramakers (03/26/2006)

Let me guess. You don’t like that title. I’m a racist, bigot, etc. right? I really don’t care, and it’s about time Republicans and other real Americans stopped caring about it too. It’s time to stand up and do what’s right, instead of letting political correctness rule over us like the tyrant it is. This has gone way past far enough.

This weekend thousands upon thousands of ILLEGAL immigrants and their criminal abettors marched around demanding their rights. I’m going to capitalize ILLEGAL any time I reference ILLEGAL immigrants, by the way, because for some strange reason everyone seems to leave out ILLEGAL when talking about “immigrant rights.” ILLEGAL immigrants are not even immigrants; they are invaders. People who apply to come here, get visas, and abide by our immigration laws are “immigrants.” Everyone else who comes here ILLEGALLY is an invader, terrorist, or spy. And they have no business being on our streets, much less being on our streets “demanding” anything.

Their arguments are laughable. One of my favorites, mouthed by the Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio “reconquista” Villaraigosa, is “we play by the rules,” and therefore deserve respect, admiration, etc. By definition, someone who is here ILLEGALLY is already not playing by the rules. In addition, he used the “we pay taxes” nonsense. First, who is this “we,” anyway? Antonio was born here, and speaks Spanish (poorly) as a second language! Second, if the ILLEGAL is paying taxes, the ILLEGAL is doing it ILLEGALLY. It is ILLEGAL to have a job at all if you are in the country ILLEGALLY. If you are paying taxes, you most likely are using a forged Social Security card and number, and had to show a forged I.D. just to get the job. All those things are also ILLEGAL, Mr. Mayor. Therefore, you are saying that because an ILLEGAL is ILLEGALLY working and ILLEGALLY paying taxes using ILLEGALLY obtained and ILLEGALLY used work documents, that ILLEGAL should be respected and treated as a normal citizen? Did you not take an oath to uphold laws and all that other inconvenient stuff when you were sworn in as Mayor of a supposedly American city?

This is like a bank robber claiming that not only should he not be prosecuted, he deserves respect and rights because, after all, he wasn’t caught right away and has a life here, never committed any other crimes (that we know of) and even paid taxes on the money. Sure, he had to falsify the tax return (another crime) to hide the criminal way he got the money, but hey, he did pay, right? That makes him the same as everyone who worked for their money in legal ways doesn’t it? It does according to the ILLEGAL rights Nazis.

Another knee-slapper was actually uttered by a protester, who said that ILLEGAL aliens should be protected by the federal government. That one is beyond rational response, as it is so amazingly illogical and just plain stupid. Or how about the people saying we have no right to treat them like criminals? I’m just an average Joe, but it has been my understanding since grade school that when you break the law, you are, by definition, a criminal. Apparently this concept is not taught in Mexican or even American schools anymore.

This is a war, and we are losing. Years ago I predicted that eventually California would become so heavily populated by Mexicans, both legal and ILLEGAL that the political leadership would consist of Mexicans. This is happening now, and is aided by the fact that even though citizenship is required to vote, no one is allowed to even ask if you are a citizen or not when you vote. I predicted that at that point, the laws would be changed to only benefit Mexicans, and eventually the state would vote to give California back to Mexico. At this point we would be at war with Mexico if we wanted to keep one of our own states. The first step in the process has begun. We have the mayor of Los Angeles actively motivating and advocating ILLEGAL activity and actively campaigning against the enforcement of both our laws and national borders. And it’s even worse than that.

The city of Maywood, California is now run by Mexicans, for Mexicans. The city council is stacked with them, the laws haven been changed to benefit them, or the laws simply are not enforced at all. The city council dissolved the entire traffic division of the police department, because ILLEGALS were being inconvenienced by enforcement of our traffic laws. This is actually a rather severe step, given that most cities get a good portion of their revenue from traffic fines here in California. At a city council meeting, conducted primarily in SPANISH, members of the crowd were allowed to heckle one of the city council members for refusing to conduct the meeting and address the council and the crowd in SPANISH. In an AMERICAN city! A couple accounts of this is here:

http://www.desertdispatch.com/2006/114321277232314.html

Notice, one of these is from a British newspaper. Apparently the “unbiased” Antique Media doesn’t think it’s a story when an American city is effectively a way-station for the Mexican invasion of America.

And that’s what it is. America had better wake up. Republicans need to find their marbles and stop trying to placate the forces of invasion. Stop worrying about labels like racist or bigot, because if you don’t one thing is becoming alarmingly clear. The next label you’ll have to worry about is what citizenship will be on your birth certificate if you’re born in California, and eventually any state in the Southwest. We need to say to immigrants who want to be Americans legally, “welcome.” To everyone else we need to say “go home!”

Link to original article on American daily

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Guess where these pictures were taken? If you said Los Angeles California, you’d be correct. You wouldn’t know it by the flags though. This is what we are up against here in California. mexicans that refuse to make even the slightest attempt to show any allegiance to the United States. This has been going on out here for about twenty years now.

These Mexicans refuse to try to get along with any other race. During this protest, 500,000 mexicans would shout down and threaten to beat up any that opposed them. The screamed racial epithets at everyone in the general vicinity that wasn’t mexican. It was a stinking disgrace!

These mexicans refuse to speak english and even insist that the tax dollars that we all pay help to fund teachers that are fluent in spanish because they don’t want their kids speaking english. They are bleeding the system dry. They are virtually every public assistance program we have.

These mexicans use our emergency rooms for their primary care phsyician and refuse to pay the bills. Or better yet, these mexicans use phony identification so they won’t ever have to pay any of their bills.

These mexicans lie about how many children they have so they can collect more welfare. They also lie about having a father around so they can get free food stamps and other freebies paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. Meanwhile the father is out working under the table and making $3,000.00 tax free to pile on top of all the government freebies.

Because of the way these mexicans have learned to exploit the system, a lot of them live better then you and me. I routinely see people that are obviously illegal immigrants driving Cadillac Escalades and new Ford Mustangs.

Now here’s the rub. These mexicans hate America and they hate Americans. It may not be happening where you live, but it will be soon. These mexicans make no bones about it. They scream it from the highest mountains. They despise America and all it stands for. They hate the people here too.

In and around the Los Angeles area, these mexicans have absolutely ruined entire communities. These mexican communities are rife with crime and murder. Drugs are everywhere and corruption abounds. While all of this is going on, these mexicans fly mexican flags over their houses to rub just a bit more salt in the wounds of America.

Take a good look at those pictures. These mexicans have no allegiance to America. Their allegiance lies 120 miles south of where I sit right now …. In mexico. That corrupt shit box to the south. So corrupt that these mexicans come to America with a great big chip on their diminutive shoulder, seeking a better life.

But I digress. These mexicans are indeed just what I have been calling them, mexicans. They are not Americans and they never will be Americans. Because to these mexicans, Americans are the aliens.

JD

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I urge everyone reading this post to call their elected officials and tell them to STOP illegal immigration. Today in several cities across America, A bunch of RACIST HISPANICS gathered and chanted RACIST ANTI-American slogans while drapping themselves in mexican flags. These people HATE AMERICANS and should be deported immediately! Get this: They claim to have a right to INVADE our country even though mexico will throw any AMERICAN out of mexico if their overstay their visa.

Can you imagine how fucking stupid these people are? They are claiming that they have a right to break out laws. They do this under the guise of simply wanting to “make a better life for themselves. Under this logic, I should be allowed to rob banks. If I were to get caught, I wouls simply explain to the judge and jury that I was only trying to make a better life for myself.

These people are racists, plain and simple. I will post pictures of their placards with racist slogans they use against U.S. citizens for simply asking that these racists obey the law. DEVELOPING……

Read the liberal spin here

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I know that most of you don’t care about this, but I am a huge UCLA fan. UCLA played high school basketball last night but they made an 11 point run in the final minutes and beat Gonzaga 73-71. Gonzaga played a better game but they blew it when they needed it most. Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, pictured crying at left, sobbed like a big ugly girl when it was over. It was great!!! JD

Friday, March 24, 2006

UCLA stuns Gonzaga
Outclassed for 37 minutes, Bruins score final 11 points to advance

By STEVE DILBECK
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS

OAKLAND, Calif. — And for their next trick, Ben Howland will fly, Aaron Afflalo will saw Adam Morrison in two and Jordan Farmar will pull a rabbit and an Elite Eight invite out of his trunks.

Understand this, it was completely ridiculous. So jaw-dropping it was just stupid. The kind of thing that Hollywood would be embarrassed to try and pull off.

But the UCLA Bruins did.

Pulled off a comeback that defied belief, not to mention all basketball logic.

This just doesn’t happen. It just isn’t allowed. Logic has to play some part.

After being outplayed all night, teams just don’t score the final 11 points of the game to come back and defeat a good Gonzaga team Thursday, 73-71.

They don’t keep digging and scraping and act determined to find a way to win a game they had tried so hard to give away.

They don’t leave Adam Morrison, the Player of the Year candidate, heaped on the floor after the final buzzer sounds, face buried in his hands, sobbing so hard Afflalo finally came over to him to help him up.

But legs are weak after they’ve worked so hard only to witness one of the great comebacks of this or any other postseason.

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“To be a part of it is something special,” Farmar said. “We kept trying to get the stops to start a run all night. I’m not sure where it came from in the last 3 minutes. It’s amazing.

“It’s unexplainable.”

Just imagine how the Bulldogs were left feeling. They had been in control all night. Had frustrated the Bruins with their zone, made the shots UCLA could not.

The last frantic seconds gave the furious comeback its fitting finale.

Farmar drove to the basket with 49 seconds left and hit a short floater. Morrison, getting Farmar on a mismatch, then missed a 15-foot jumper. Ryan Hollins grabbed the rebound and was foolishly fouled by J.P. Batista with 19.7 seconds left.

Hollins made both free throws, but Gonzaga still had a 71-70 lead. Inbound the ball, get fouled, make a couple of the free throws and it’s onto playing Memphis on Saturday.

The Bulldogs inbounded to Morrison, who quickly double-teamed, passed to Batista.

Bad idea.

Batista was doubled by Cedric Bozeman and Farmar, and then the I-can’t-believe-my-eyes stretch went into complete overkill.

Bozeman knocked the ball away from Batista. Farmar scooped it up and found Luc Mbah a Moute under the basket. He took the pass, scored underneath with 9.9 seconds to play and it was the comeback on steroids.

Honest to John Wooden. Goodness gracious, it happened.

“I was just trying to apply extreme pressure,” Farmar said. “We were going to foul if they got the ball across half court. We were both swiping at the ball.

“Ced knocked the ball loose, I picked it up, saw Luc under the basket in a crowd, but fortunately he’s 6-7 with a 7-foot wing span.”

Gonzaga, out of timeouts, inbounded to Derek Raivio and he started dribbling down court, but Mbah a Moute knocked it loose from behind. A jump ball with 2.6 seconds left to UCLA and the Bruins were actually going to do this.

“I feel very fortunate to pull out this victory,” Howland said, and not a soul in the interview room doubted him. “But you have to give us a lot of credit for battling back. We really gutted it up.

“Yet as happy as I am for our players and our program, I sincerely feel for (coach) Mark Few and his Gonzaga team.”

After leading by as many as 17 in the first half, the Bulldogs seemed in control. For all the UCLA faithful that missed Steve Lavin, the Bruins gave you Thursday’s first half.

In truth, they were confused and outplayed. They were most definitely outshot.

Mostly they looked really, really lost against the zone.

The Bruins opened the game by missing their first jumper. And then their next. And the next and the next ‘ until they had opened their little Sweet Sixteen adventure by missing their first nine shots. Meanwhile, they turned the ball over seven times. They went the first 9:45 without a field goal.

The Bruins had no business coming back from all this. Only they did. Believe it or not.

“It just happened in a blur,” Morrison said.

Almost like it was supernatural.

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Here is an interesting story. General Motors is willing to spend up to twelve billion dollars to get the UAW union out of its parts manufacturing business, Delphi Motar Parts. These union lackys were making $73.73 an hour including benefits. GM’s employee production was at an all time low and the employees, acting under the advise of the United Auto Workers Union, have been staging a work slowdown for the last three years. This has forced Delphi into bankruptcy. GM has decided rather then facing a strike by the union that would bankrupt Delphi, they would offer the employees $140,000.00 to retire and bust out the union. After Delphi gets rid of the union, they are going to move their entire operation to Canada and Mexico. All I can say is WAY TO GO UNIONS!!! Good one. Now you have successfully run another U.S. corporation out of America. JD

March 22 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp., struggling with mounting losses and eroding market share, offered buyouts of as much as $140,000 to a third of its U.S. factory employees and agreed with its biggest auto-parts supplier on ways to entice workers to retire.

The deal with the United Auto Workers reduces the chances of GM being crippled by a strike at Delphi Corp., its bankrupt former parts-making unit. GM last week said its costs for bailing out Delphi would be at least $5.5 billion. About 141,000 GM and Delphi employees would be eligible for the buyouts and retirement incentives.

“This marks the end of 20th Century industrial America and maybe, finally, the beginning of 21st Century industrial America,” said Sean McAlinden, a labor analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Turning over an entire labor force has never happened on this scale.”

GM, the world’s largest automaker, lost $10.6 billion last year as U.S. buyers flocked to models from Toyota Motor Corp. and other Asian rivals with non-union U.S. labor. GM’s troubles helped push Delphi, its biggest supplier, into bankruptcy in October.

Delphi Chief Executive Officer Steve Miller still seeks to reduce wages to $12.50 an hour from $27. Delphi reiterated today that it plans to ask a U.S. bankruptcy court judge for permission to cancel contracts on March 31 if the company and its unions don’t agree on wage cuts by then. The UAW has threatened to strike if the contracts are thrown out.

`Collision Course’ Softened

“What this indicates is that GM’s participation can soften the collision course that Delphi and the UAW were on,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

Shaiken said the toughest bargaining among the three parties lies ahead as they confront Miller’s demands to cut wages and close most of the company’s North American plants.

Moody’s Investors Service today said the deal was positive. The ratings company said it still may cut GM’s debt deeper into non-investment grade if the automaker doesn’t file its delayed annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of the month as proposed and complete the sale of a majority of the General Motors Acceptance Corp. finance unit.

Standard & Poor’s today also said GM’s current non- investment grade rating is not immediately jeopardized by the costs associated with the Delphi agreement.

The $140,000 buyout applies to GM workers with at least 10 years experience, the UAW said in a statement today. Those with less experience can choose a $70,000 buyout. The Delphi accord would let 13,000 Delphi workers qualify for special retirement that pays up to $35,000 to some eligible employees, Delphi said.

Good, If True

“If GM and Delphi are truthful in their press releases and there are no side deals to lower the price of Delphi’s products or a deal that allows GM to make monetary claims against Delphi, this would be a very good deal for Delphi and it would be a fantastic deal,” said David Tepper, president of Appaloosa Management LP in Chatham, New Jersey. Tepper is Delphi’s largest shareholder.

Employees who accept GM’s buyout offer would keep GM pension benefits already earned and give up GM health care and other post-retirement benefits. A full GM pension for UAW workers is $36,000 a year plus medical coverage.

GM, with about 105,000 active U.S. hourly union workers, has about 36,000 workers with the full 30-years of eligibility to retire and Delphi has 8,000, Dan Flores, a spokesman for Detroit-based GM said. In addition, there are about 27,000 GM workers who are within three years of reaching the 30 needed to retire.

Jobs Bank

Delphi said today a total of 13,000 of its workers qualify for some sort of retirement incentive. Another 5,000 would be allowed to return to GM.

The $140,000 amounts to about 1.5 years of compensation for a UAW worker, said Morningstar Inc. analyst John Novak in Chicago. GM’s UAW workers earn total hourly pay, including benefits and pension, of about $73.73, Flores said. That includes an hourly wage of about $27, he said.

“It’s an interesting and potentially far-reaching deal, but we don’t know what the ultimate economic consequences will be yet,” Novak said in an interview. “If they can convince a significant number of people to take these offers, it would be money well spent.”

Getting workers to retire helps both GM and Delphi, a former subsidiary, reach goals faster of cutting costs and ending losses. GM announced plans in November to eliminate 30,000 factory jobs in North America by 2008. Delphi, which declared bankruptcy Oct. 8, is trying to cut about 20,000 jobs.

Shares

GM shares rose 1 cent to $22.01 at 4:16 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They gained 5.5 percent yesterday on news of an imminent deal.

GM said March 16 that a labor agreement at Troy, Michigan- based Delphi would probably cost the automaker $5.5 billion to $12 billion on a pretax basis. The expense will probably be at the lower end of that range, GM said last week. The automaker already has set aside $3.6 billion for the costs, and has twice raised its estimate of the expense since October.

Getting workers to retire early would create job openings in GM plants for idled workers from Delphi, said McAlinden.

The openings might result in thousands of people leaving a “jobs bank” program that pays union members when there’s no work for them. GM agreed when it spun off Delphi in 1999 to take back some workers if the partsmaker became unable to give them jobs. GM also agreed to cover pension costs for former GM workers if Delphi couldn’t.

GM’s active workforce doesn’t include another 8,000 that are in the jobs bank or inactive because of disability or other reasons.

Things Changed

“At one point in time we did try to create as many jobs here as possible, and in doing so we probably did make the company less competitive and less effective. After we finally realized that, the goal become trying to take care of as many people as we could take care of,” said Joe Buckley, president of UAW Local 696 at a Delphi brake plant in Dayton, Ohio.

“The people who have dedicated their lives to this union are asking ourselves on a daily basis, `Is there something we could have done different that would have maintained greater employment?”

The threat of a strike at Delphi is just one of many challenges facing GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who is contending with his company’s debt being rated as junk, an SEC investigation of accounting practices and pressure from investors such as billionaire Kirk Kerkorian to end five straight quarters of losses, the longest stretch without a profit since 1992.

Bonds

Delphi’s 6.55 percent note due in June rose 0.5 cents to 66.5 cents on the dollar. The note has no yield because it’s in default. GM’s 8.375 percent bond due in 2033 fell 0.9 cents on the dollar to 74.6 cents on the dollar, yielding 11.4 percent, up from 11.3 percent.

The annual cost to insure $10 million of GM debt for five years using credit-default swaps fell to $1.7 million upfront plus $500,000 a year, from $1.78 million yesterday, according to Deutsche Bank AG prices. The price has dropped from as much as $2.4 million upfront in December.

Ford’s Buyouts

GM’s buyouts are more generous than those offered so far at Ford Motor Co. The No. 2 U.S. automaker is trying to cut 30,000 jobs and shutter 14 plants by 2012 in North America.

Ford, of Dearborn, Michigan, on Oct. 1 took back 23 plants and offices from Visteon Corp., its largest supplier and former subsidiary. The facilities included plants that employ about 18,000 UAW-represented workers. Ford plans to sell most of the plants and is offering buyouts to about 5,000 workers.

Workers assigned to plants that Ford sells will receive their present wages and benefits. Ford will make up the difference between a buyer’s wage scale and what workers currently earn.

Ford this month began offering five separate separation plans to UAW-represented workers at a St. Louis plant scheduled to close, spokeswoman Marcey Evans said in an interview. The buyouts would take effect April 1.

One plan would give workers $15,000 a year for four years of college and provide full medical benefits and half their regular pay while they go to school. Another option is a $100,000 cash payout without health benefits. The five plans are also being offered to workers in the plants Ford took back from Visteon, she said.

DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler unit has no plans for buyouts like those being offered by GM and Delphi, Chrysler spokesman David Elshoff said.

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This is a good one!

Two Days, Six Crashes and 80 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Taken Into Custody

By JONANN BRADY

March 21, 2006 — In a matter of 24 hours, dozens of suspected illegal immigrants were involved in six separate car crashes on icy roads in Colorado, according to police. Immigration officials say the suspected immigrants were being smuggled from Mexico into the United States.

Two additional vehicles — one carrying 20 suspected illegal immigrants, the other 11 — were pulled over by authorities on Tuesday but were not involved in wrecks, said the Colorado State Patrol.

“This time of year, it’s pretty common to have this type of traffic,” said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Troopers estimate they encounter more than 500 undocumented immigrants weekly on Colorado highways. At this time of year, many Mexicans enter the United States to look for work at the beginning of the growing season.

Rusnok said at least two of the vehicles embroiled in the accidents were headed for Chicago and Florida.

“This is something we investigate seriously and try to get to the smuggling organization responsible,” Rusnok said.

Immigration a Hot-Button Issue in State

All told, 80 suspected illegals were taken into custody within a 24-hour period.

The Colorado State Patrol said two vans — one carrying 16 suspected illegal immigrants, the other carrying 12 — rolled early Tuesday morning near Brush, Colo., about 80 miles northeast of Denver.

Also early Tuesday morning, another Suburban carrying 10 people rolled over on Interstate 70, about 110 miles east of Denver,

No injuries were reported in those accidents.

Forty-two suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody on Monday after two separate crashes on I-70 and I-75 in Colorado.

Several of the men involved in the crashes were “voluntarily returned” to Mexico, said Rusnok. Voluntary return is offered to illegal immigrants who don’t have criminal records, he added. The drivers of the vehicles suspected of smuggling the men are being held in federal immigration court.

Immigration is a hot-button issue in the state, and several anti-immigration groups are active there, including the Minutemen, Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform and Defend Colorado Now.

Colorado State Sen. Peter Groff is sponsoring two bills that would make smuggling and trafficking a felony. Violators would face five years in prison.

In Washington, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., heads a caucus that has vowed to derail President Bush’s guest-worker plan and any legislation that smacks of what he calls amnesty for illegal immigrants.

ABC News’ Denver affiliate and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Only in the elderly? What are these people smoking crack? Take a look at all the Oprahtrons running around convincing each other that Oprah actually knows something. She is among the dumbest billionaires on earth …. Why??? BECAUSE THE OPRAHTRONS THAT WATCH HER AND BUY THE BOOKS AND CHATCHKIES! Oprahtrons buy whatever that fat oaf hawks on her show! Remember what that bitch did to the beef industry with that Mad cow bull shit? Remember just recently when she went on Larry King and defended that liar James Frey? I covered it right here on brokencountry. Rememeber when she gave away all of those cars and sat back and took the credit for it? It was learned just a few days after that General Motors donated the cars! The people that won those cars couldn’t afford the sales tax on them so Oprah decided to play the noble and paid the SALES TAX!!! It amounted to less then $30,000.00 of her MULTI BILLION DOLLAR EMPIRE! Shes like a two bit CARNIE BARKER!!! Oprah looks like a God Damn fish, with those friggin eyes on the side of her head and all. I consider all that watch any of the daytime talk shows and buy into that nonsense a bunch of dullards that couldn’t tie their own shoelaces! JD

By Amy Norton Mon Mar 20, 10:41 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention and other cognitive skills, researchers reported Monday.

That doesn’t mean that daytime television is a brain drain, they say, since it’s not clear that there’s a direct relationship between the two.

But the findings do point to some association between TV choices and intellectual function, and that could prove useful in evaluating older people for cognitive decline, according lead investigator Dr. Joshua Fogel of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

A study of 289 older women without dementia found that those who rated talk shows and soaps as their favorite programs performed more poorly on tests of memory, attention and mental quickness than their peers who cited other types of shows.

What’s more, they were at greater risk of showing signs of clinical impairment. For example, compared with women who preferred to watch news programs, those who favored soaps were more than seven times more likely to show signs of impairment on one of the tests, while talk show fans were more than 13 times more likely to demonstrate impairment.

“Those findings are quite robust,” Fogel told Reuters Health.

He said it’s not possible to tell whether the programs somehow contribute to cognitive decline or whether women in the early stages of decline gravitate toward those shows. Preferences for daytime TV could also be a marker of a sedentary, homebound lifestyle, and research suggests that staying physically and socially active can help stave off mental decline.

But regardless of the reasons, a preference for talk shows and soaps “is a marker of something suspicious,” Fogel said.

He believes that doctors could ask older patients about their favorite TV shows as one way of spotting those who might need more screening for cognitive decline.

“It’s really a simple, friendly question to ask,” Fogel said.

The findings, which are published in the Southern Medical Journal, are based on questionnaires and standard cognitive tests completed by 289 women ages 70 to 79. None had dementia or physical disabilities and the researchers factored in variables such as education, race, depression and history of heart attack, high blood pressure or diabetes.

Even with those factors considered, TV habits were related to cognitive performance.

According to Fogel, a potential explanation rests in the fact that talk shows and soap operas involve so-called “parasocial relationships,” where viewers feel a connection to a show’s characters or host. Such shows may, for instance, be better able to hold the attention of older women with some cognitive impairment.

“This doesn’t mean ‘Oprah’ is bad for you,” Fogel said. However, an older woman’s fondness for the show could signal a possible problem, according to the researcher.

Asking patients about TV viewing and other daily activities could be “very useful” in assessing their cognitive health, according to Dr. Joe Verghese of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

But it’s not time to toss the remote control, he writes in an accompanying editorial. Some programs, Verghese notes, might actually benefit intellectual functioning, and TV watching can help some people manage their stress levels.

SOURCE: Southern Medical Journal, March 2006.

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Yet another article that does not address the real problems of socialism in France. The unemployment rate of the youth in France is nearing 25 percent yet the international media doesn’t want to see the trees through the forest! The reason that unemployment is so high is because the labor unions! Unemployment is at 10 percent in France Because you don’t have to work to survive. You can exist on the welfare system just fine.

The same holds true for the young college students in France. They get out of school and there is no incentive to work. They can just get on the dole and kick back waiting for the optimal job that they don’t have to work hard to keep because of the labor unions. Now this is a simplistic way of looking at a complex issue, but President Chrac needs to implement reform because France is collapsing under it’s own socialist weight.

I hope this all plays out to the end because it will show some of you indoctrinated union nazi’s here in America how inherently wrong the union philosophy really is. JD

Unemployment stymies France’s attempt at reform
General strike threatened over First Job law
Fears grow over barrier dividing society
Mar. 20, 2006. 01:00 AM
TOM HENEGHAN
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

PARIS—From the burning suburbs of last autumn to this weekend’s huge marches of students and workers, the spectre of unemployment haunts French politics and stymies the government’s attempts at reform.

The national unemployment rate is 9.6 per cent and tops 20 per cent for youths, but several French factors — such as strict labour laws, job discrimination and fear of globalization — spread the angst even wider.

Rage, in part at being shut out of the job market, fuelled riots by suburban youths of Arab and African origin last autumn.

Middle-class students who feel sidelined and exploited in the struggle for work are marching now.

Trade unions have joined in, fearing their working members could one day see labour laws that protect them melt before their eyes if Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin does not withdraw his new Contrat première embauche (First Job Contract), or CPE.

“Little by little, the feeling has spread that there is an internal barrier separating those who are in the system — well paid or not, they can plan their lives, rent a flat, get a loan — and those outside it,” said sociologist François Dubet.

“The world of the suburbs and the world of middle-class students live in growing insecurity,” he told the daily Le Monde.

“When unemployment hits 25 per cent of an age group, one soon feels one could fall on the wrong side of the barrier.”

The French call the wrong side “précarité” (precariousness), a term that covers outright unemployment, casual work and jobs someday likely to be downsized or outsourced by the global trends undermining the vaunted French social model.

More than 20 per cent of youths nationally and up to 40 per cent to 50 per cent in the suburbs have neither a job nor much hope of one.

For de Villepin, whose hopes to become president next year depend on his strategy for cutting unemployment, CPE is a step forward he says could spur bosses to hire new staff.

It allows employers, who say that labour laws coddle the workers and discourage them from hiring, to fire workers under 26 without reason in their first two years on the job.

Seen through the spectacles of “précarité,” de Villepin’s CPE institutionalizes the shaky situation in which the young French find themselves.

“The CPE is not better than nothing. It’s worse than everything,” read some protestors’ posters yesterday.

Official statistics show young French work an average of nine years in précarité — unpaid internships, three-month contracts and occasional stints collecting unemployment benefits — before landing the coveted long-term contract that puts them on the protected side of the barrier.

These long-term contracts require employers to justify convincingly any firing, offer workers options to appeal through labour courts and set generous indemnities if someone is laid off.

Trade unions, which usually only defend their members on the right side of this divide, see CPE as de Villepin’s wedge to undermine their members’ long-term contracts, and today’s student unions, once hotbeds of revolution and utopia, are lined up with trade unions to fight the law.

“Youths are in a kind of permanent conservative revolt because they feel that any political decision will deregulate the system and make their generation more precarious,” sociologist Erwan Lecoeur told the daily Le Figaro.

With mass protests on this scale and the threat of a general strike, this is the point when a French president, ensconced in his Élysée Palace, might direct his prime minister to scrap the reform.

De Villepin seems determined to tough it out but risk-averse President Jacques Chirac could call him back at any time.

“Reform in France has two enemies, the Élysée and the street, and the first is afraid of the second,” wrote Claude Imbert in the weekly Le Point.

“I exclude any withdrawal of the CPE, which must be given a chance to work,” de Villepin said in an interview published yesterday by monthly magazine Citato, adding he regretted misunderstandings over the law.

Separately, government spokesman Jean-François Cope said the government was open to dialogue to improve aspects of the bill but gave no hint it could be withdrawn or suspended.

The comments were likely to harden the position of student and union leaders who organized protests yesterday, which they said brought 1.5 million people onto the streets in 160 towns. Police reported 500,000 protestors.

Unions and left-wing parties favour a general strike March 23, said Olivier Besancenot, a young Trotskyite leader.

Police said 167 protestors were arrested in Paris after rioting hurt 17 protestors and seven security officials.

About 1,000 students in Paris did rally to demand the right to study, witnesses said. Students opposing CPE have blocked many universities only weeks before exams begin.

Some 60 per cent of voters want CPE withdrawn, according to a BVA poll for the daily Depeche du Midi, while 69 per cent said marchers were justified. Left-wing parties and unions were to meet today to consider future action.

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Yet another American citizen has been killed by an illegal alien here in America. So far this year that 26 Americans that have died as the direct result of illegal immigration. All of these people would be alive if the illegal aliens were not here in the first place. I need President Bush, Senators McCain and Kennedy to explain to me just one more time how illegal immigration is good for Americans.

Keep in mind that the families of those killed by illegal aliens have NO legal recourse for monitary compensation. Illegal aliens have no insurance. The have no legal assets to attach either. Should anyone try to attach their wages they find it impossible because the illegal alien is working under the table. As soon as the water gets too choppy they run back to mexico anyway, so the family of the victim is basically screwed. Welcome to America!!!

JD

WEST PALM BEACH — An illegal Mexican immigrant has been charged with driving a vehicle that hit and killed a middle school principal, authorities said.

Cesar Mejia will be transferred from Krome Detention Center to a jail where he will await trial on a vehicular homicide charge.

Mejia tried to out run a yellow light March 8 and hit a vehicle driven by Margaret “Peggy” Campbell, 62, authorities said. Campbell, who lived near Jupiter, had been the principal at Western Pines Middle School since it opened in 1997.

Mejia, who was carrying a driver’s license from Mexico, also was charged with driving without a valid license.

“Until we investigate and find out what happened, I don’t want him to go back to Mexico,” Prosecutor Ellen Roberts said.

It was not immediately known if Mejia had an attorney.

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This is a fine example of one of the biggest flaws within a socialist government. France is once again in turmoil because they are trying to change the rules in the workplace. Like Germany, France has an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent. This is coupled with the socialist way of business; Once you hire me I can’t be fired. France is run by unions. Once you get a job in France it’s almost impossible to be fired.

The French government has decided to change the rules a bit. They made it possible for a business owner or corporation to fire a person for no reason after two years. Why? To create incentive to work harder for the company. Let’s try to keep in mind that it was the liberal French government that passed a law five years ago that makes it a felony to work more than 35 hours in any five day period. Working more than 35 hours is classified under French law as an “act of treason” and carries a fine of $5,000.00 and mandatory jail time.

Once a person is hired on in the French workplace, the unions and the government make it impossible to fire them. The rule change has once again upset the apple cart. This is why the Muslim population was rioting in France early last year. Why? Because the French government told them to get off of their lazy asses and get a job. These people come to France and refuse to work. The unemployment rate in the muslim population is close to sixty percent. It’s absolute insanity!

Now the college students are rioting because they are going to have to actually prove to their employers that they are worth what they are earning. So what do the students do? Why they do what any good socialist would do. They RIOT!!! This is because socialism, like unions, breeds contempt. The French people have been told that they shouldn’t have to work hard because no matter how poorly they perform in the workplace, they will never be fired. It’s the socialist way!

I hope they burn that shitbox to the ground. France was once a nation that conquered other nations. They were feared throughout the world. The wars with the english are legendary. In fact some of those wars spread to the United States early on in the history of our great nation. A quick history lesson. The French hated the english so much that they funded the revolutionary war. They let us borrow money with almost no security and gave us the necessary weapons to defeat General Cornwallace and the english army. They also attacked the english supply ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean to help cut off the supply of powder, food, weapons and conscripts that were to help keep America under English rule.

Now because of socialism, they have been reduced to a nation of sniveling cowards. It’s a sad sight indeed. France was once a nation on the front lines of Europe. Surrounding nations feared the French. Now they laugh at them. What a shame.

Ah socialism, what a wonderful concept.

JD

Read the Article by clicking here

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Read this article. The author writes the story as if it’s the border patrols fault that this illegal ALIEN came to America and his daughter was killed. What a joke.

YUMA, Ariz. (AP) – Juan Cruz-Torralva brought his 12-year-old daughter through the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border because he wanted a better life for her in the United States.

Three days into the journey, a U.S. Border Patrol agent spotted the group of illegal immigrants, and as the agent chased them, the Border Patrol truck hit Cruz-Torralva and his daughter, Lourdes, killing her.

Yuma County sheriff’s detectives determined the death was an accident, but Cruz-Torralva was arrested on charges of endangerment. Deputies argued that he had placed the child in “risk of imminent death” by bringing her into the desert.

A prosecutor on Monday refused to pursue the case, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the charge.

Cruz-Torralva, meanwhile, sat in jail and said he didn’t understand why he was there.

“They said it’s my fault for bringing her here, that it’s my fault my daughter died. But I wasn’t driving the truck,” said the 28-year-old farm worker from Oaxaca, Mexico, who speaks limited Spanish.

He said he can barely walk since the accident, and his parents in Mexico are ill and don’t have jobs.

“I just wanted her to get a good education,” he said tearfully.

He had planned to take her to Oxnard, Calif., where his wife was living with the couple’s 2-month-old son. He wanted to enroll Lourdes in school and work in the area’s strawberry fields, he said.

“I was looking for a better life,” he said. “I needed money to send to my family.”

According to a report by the Yuma County Attorney’s office, Cruz-Torralva and his daughter were among a dozen illegal immigrants followed by a Border Patrol agent.

After they stopped, the agent got out of his truck, heard moaning and discovered he had run over Cruz-Torralva and his daughter.

Cruz-Torralva was jailed March 8. The Mexican consul general in Yuma told him Monday that he would be returned to Mexico.

“He doesn’t understand what happened,” Consul General Hugo Rene Oliva Romero said outside the jail. “He’s very concerned about the body of his daughter.”

Richard Hays, a spokesman with the Border Patrol, would not comment on the case because an internal investigation was under way.

Cruz-Torralva said he just wants to go home to Mexico to be with his family.

“My daughter is dead, and my mom and dad are sick,” he said. “I’ve been in jail for a week, I don’t have any money, and I’m in pain.”

“I just want to leave this place and never come back,” he added, wiping tears from his eyes. “Never.”

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Again, for the gazillionth time, I have received a rather threatening letter via snail mail from someone that opposes one of my political opinions. This time it was received for the following letter to the editor of the local newspapers in and around the San Gabriel Valley;

Bonita Unified School District held an Internet Safety meeting for the parents of students in the district. The meetings consisted of The Internet and Destructive Behavior, A tour of My space and ways to safeguard our kids. I did not attend these meetings because I believe that the problem isn’t the Internet. It’s the Bonita Unified School District.

In the last two months there have been two arrests of teachers that work for the Bonita school district. Walter Edward Babst was a 10th grade math teacher at Bonita High School. He was arrested in an Internet sting in Miraloma. He went to a house to have sex with a 13 year old girl. Most of the female students had complained that he was always leering at them and trying to look up their dresses and down their blouses.

Then on February 28, Debra Lynn Pence, 47, was booked on suspicion of having unlawful sexual intercourse and committing lewd acts upon a child 14 or 15. She was a teacher at Allen Avenue Elementary School, just around the corner from my house and the same school both of my daughters attended.

My concern here is not the Internet. My children are online right now as I type this and WHENEVER they are on the Internet I am right beside them, monitoring their activities. This is how you safeguard your children, not by attending some dopey meeting designed to placate a bunch of hand wringing parents.

As for the district, I believe that all of the teachers in the Bonita district should be required to allow law enforcement officials to look at their personal computers and see exactly what they are up to. I also believe that there should be a thorough background check be done annually. I know this seems a little drastic, but these are the people that we are trusting with our children. Bonita Unified is batting 1000 in the game of pedophile baseball. This is a simple solution to remedy the situation.

John A. De Gennaro

I will post the unsigned letter I received tomorrow or as soon as the FBI gives me the go ahead. Here is what we know so far. The letter was mailed from Pasadena, California on March thirteenth. I checked my hits log for my websites and I received two hits from someone at 9:15 and 9:24 am on that same day. Both of these hits looked up my name on Google. Both of these searches brought the individual to my sites. I handed all of this information over to the FBI and as in all of the other times I have been threatened, I sure they will find the perpetraitor of this crime.

As for my opinon of my school district, I am trusting these teachers with my children for eight hours a day. Twenty five years ago no one would have ever thought that preists were up to shananigans with our children. BUT THEY WERE AND STILL ARE!!! What makes any of us think that teachers are above reproach?

JD

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