Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.

The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.

The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.

The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.

A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.

“Petitioner Hussein’s application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.

“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki said.

In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”

“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.

Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.

Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.

An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.

Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.

Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States’ Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.

Saddam’s lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on “everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution.” The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.

The governments of Yemen and Libya made eleventh-hour appeals that Saddam’s life be spared.

Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam’s execution would “increase the sectarian violence” in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court.

Source: msnbc.com

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Can you believe this guy an illegal deported three times and had a criminal record dating back to 1990, and still driving on the streets, does it take several crimes or maybe a shooting for the law to do something with these blood sucking scumbags. This is what our government has done for us, and now we are left to deal with it while they profit!

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A man suspected of shooting two police officers during a traffic stop was killed in a wild shootout with police in a strip mall parking lot, authorities said Thursday.

More than 50 shots were fired between Santa Ana police officers and 33-year-old Oscar Gabriel Gallegos on Wednesday, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said.

Gallegos was a suspect in the Dec. 22 shootings of two Long Beach officers during a traffic stop.

Santa Ana officers went to confront a man believed to be Gallegos, Long Beach Officer Jason Evans said. “As soon as he sees the car with the officers, he starts shooting,” Walters said.

The officers got out of their car, took cover and returned fire, police said. Three officers shot at Gallegos, who was hit several times.

Gallegos continued to fire on officers even after he was shot, Walters said. He died of his wounds in the parking lot, police said.

Gallegos was an illegal immigrant who had been deported three times and had a criminal record dating back to 1990, including arrests for drug offenses and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

Officers Abe Yap, 35, and Roy Wade, 39, were shot in their squad car after stopping a car for running a red light. Both are hospitalized in critical but stable condition, Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts said.

video on this can be seen here

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Fans honor Godfather of Soul at Apollo

Talk about a legend singer James Brown dies at 73 on Christmas Day and he recieves a beautiful farwell in a public viewing at the Apollo Theater in New York, after a horse-drawn carriage carrying the gold coffin of James Brown makes its way to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, Thursday December 28, 2006. Even in death, James Brown can move a crowd. Thousands of people danced and sang in the streets outside the Apollo Theater on Thursday in raucous celebration of the music legend’s life as his body was displayed to the public on the stage where he made his 1956 debut.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thousands of James Brown fans lined up on Thursday to bid farewell to the “Godfather of Soul” at a public viewing of his body on the New York stage where the singer first made his mark more than 40 years ago.

The 73-year-old entertainer — whose voice, showmanship and bold rhythms brought funk into the mainstream and influenced generations of music — died on Christmas of congestive heart failure in Atlanta.

Brown’s body traveled on a horse-drawn carriage through New York’s Harlem neighborhood to the Apollo Theater on Thursday. A 1962 self-funded recording of Brown performing at the Apollo became one of the singer’s first hit albums.

“James Brown means everything to the black community,” said Brenda Baskin, 50, from Brooklyn, as she stood outside.

“(Brown’s lyrics)’Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud,’ opened up the doors for black people to have more pride,” she said. “He told his people to hold their heads up and that there was something for them to be prideful in — themselves.”

After the viewing, Brown’s body was to be taken to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, for a private service on Friday. Another public viewing is planned for Saturday before Brown is buried.

The Grammy-award winning singer was one of America’s great showmen and band leaders. He created a revolutionary sound that mixed funky rhythms and staccato horns behind his own often explosive vocals.

Hip-hop and rap artists revered him and extensively used his beats as the backdrop for their own music, while singers like pop star Michael Jackson drew on his dance style.

‘THE MAN WHO SET THE STAGE ON FIRE’

A line to view Brown’s body snaked along almost three city blocks. A Brown impersonator gave the crowd an impromptu street performance, while salesmen hawked T-shirts and pictures of the singer. Flashy cars drove by blaring Brown’s music.

“I came out for soul brother No. 1. That’s who he is — James ‘Butane’ Brown, the man who set the stage on fire,” said fan Fred Chinnery, 50, from New Rochelle, New York. “This man was the baddest man who ever put on a pair of dancing shoes and slid across the stage.”

Brown, the self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business,” performed more than 100 live shows this year and had been scheduled to perform in New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Brown had more than 119 singles on the charts and recorded over 50 albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime Grammy achievement award.

His big hits included “Please, Please, Please,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good)” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)” and “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World.”

Brown emerged from a boyhood of poverty and petty crime in Augusta in the era when the South was still segregated and began his music career in jail as a juvenile offender.

His personal life remained turbulent. He was jailed in 1988 for drug, weapons and vehicular charges after a car chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. He left prison in 1991.

He was named to President Reagan’s council against drugs but was arrested several times in the mid-1980s and 1990s and charged with drug and weapons possession.

During his career Brown also built a business empire with a string of radio stations and a production company. He even played a manic preacher in the hit movie “The Blues Brothers.”

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Illegal immigrants have become a fixed and growing part of America — living, working, and raising families in the shadows

TRANSCRIPT
By Tom Brokaw
Correspondent
NBC News
Dec 27, 2006

In case any of you readers missed this on NBC last night here is the transcript Tom Brokaw did on Illegal immigrants living and working in Colorado I am so glad it is getting harder for illegals to find work, and take our welfare. But they our stealing it using others SSN. Gould Constuction Co. has been hiring illegals. And knows with each latino he hires is probably using a fake SSN. If he would pay a decent wage he might get employees that are legal or American.

ROARKING FORK VALLEY, COLO. – The Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado is home of Aspen and Snowmass, the playground, as they say, of the rich and the famous. This is also the home of working class and middle class communities.

There are boom times here—a lot of new construction, and a rapidly expanding population. But there’s something else going on: A passionate debate about the waves of illegal immigrants, undocumented workers pouring across the border from Mexico, Central and South America to find a job and a home here.

The debate is about the economic realities, the social consequences, and the political controversies. It’s also about whether these new immigrants should be allowed to stay in the this immigrant nation.

One Saturday night in March, the Garfield county police just stopped a van heading east on I-70, Colorado’s major interstate.

Female officer: They have so much weight, the muffler’s dragging on the pavement.

The reason the muffler was dragging quickly becomes clear: Eleven men, none of whom speak English, slowly emerge from a van that normally seats eight.

Gas receipts told them this van had been to the border of Mexico and back. It even had a makeshift bathroom, cigarettes, oil, and Pepsi, and a gallon jug.

A scene such as this has become routine in Colorado—and it’s become a popular image of illegal immigration across America.

But it’s only a small part of the story we found in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado, a pristine stretch between Aspen and Vail.

For eight months, NBC News explored the popular myths and the truths about illegal immigration.

The real story is of a booming economy dependent on thousands of illegal workers.

That illegal community is thriving and enjoying the benefits of what America has to offer—but only by breaking the law— whether it’s purchasing medicine on the black market or buying a fake driver’s license, and it all seems to go on out in the open.

Mark Gould owns Gould Construction company in Glenwood Springs.

It’s first in and first out at a construction site, laying sewer systems, sidewalks, and foundations for homes, and schools, and waste-water treatment plants.

Mark Gould, owner Gould Construction company: Americans don’t want this work.

The back-breaking and dirty work is done by the 25 Hispanic workers on Gould’s staff of 125.

Mark Gould: These are tough jobs. These people work their butts off.

In March, at the beginning of the Colorado building season, dozens of men, most of them Hispanic, gathered in the lobby of Gould Construction.

Brett Gould, in charge of hiring: I’ve gotta have you know real documents you know. They need to be real. Otherwise we can’t even go there.

Brett Gould, Mark’s brother who’s in charge of hiring, struggled to find and keep reliable labor without breaking the law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Tom Brokaw, NBC News: They present their papers to you?

Brett Gould: Yes, absolutely.

Brokaw: To say they’re legal?

Brett Gould: Yes.

Brokaw: And how much confidence do you have in those papers?

Brett Gould: Well, to me they appear legal. There are some that I’ve run across that—obviously they’re fake. Yeah, you could see that they’ve done something. They’ve doctored up the picture.

Brokaw: How much of a detective do you think you have to be at that first stop when determining the authenticity of the papers?

Brett Gould: If it looks obviously wrong, I’ll just say, “We can’t accept these.” I’ve seen permanent resident cards and this one is not even close.

Brett examines the identification presented: Social Security cards, permanent resident cards, but he’s not required to be a document expert.

Sometimes, the workers just don’t give up. Even if they’ve been turned away, they’ll come back with any documentation they can get their hands on.

Brett Gould: I need you know either a resident alien card or a permanent resident card. Do you have that?

This man tries to use a Mexican voter registration card and and a Social Security card, crudely forged.

Brett Gould: No, I can’t take this. The Social Security card had a tape over it with his name written in pen and I mean that is definitely a no-no.

Mark Gould: We don’t have enough unskilled workers in the state of Colorado.

Brokaw: But there’s nothing wrong with society advancing to a stage where it’s no longer necessary to have a good pair of boots and a strong back and a good pair of hands at the same time.

Mark Gould: Yeah, that’s the deal. I mean, right now we have every kid coming out of school feels they’re entitled to a job other than digging a ditch for Gould construction. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean I grew up digging ditches, but the bottom line is we all want better for our children than we had. And at the moment, there are enough skilled positions to where kids don’t have to go in the unskilled field.

Brokaw: And the moral dilemma for you is that, as a citizen, you do want to play by the rules. And you’re trying to play by the rules. But as a businessman, you have a need to fill. So there’s the real possibility that you’ve got some illegals on your payroll who are giving you the documents that seem to be right. Is that a fair summary?

Mark Gould: I would say that we have to make the assumption that we have followed the law and that there is the possibility that there are people in the system.

In mid-March, two men sat before Brett. They were both applying for entry-level jobs— that means digging ditches.

Brett Gould: Okay, I need your Social Security number right here.

Both had Social Security cards that to Brett Gould looked real.

Trinidad, who likes to be called Trino, is from Mexico.

Brett Gould: Sign and date here.

And Ray is American. Both were hired that day by Gould Construction for 14 dollars an hour—more than double the minimum wage, with full benefits.

Even though Brett checked all the identification, a permanent resident card and a Social Security card, could he be sure that Trinidad was a legal worker?

To read the rest of the transcript click here

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Virgil Goode should be commended for his candor and honesty. Keith Ellison should be publicly flogged and run out of town on a rail. JD

Virgil Goode sparks a nationwide controversy with a letter sent to a hundred of his constituents.

It said in part, “If American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” The letter went on to say, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.”

His e-mail was in response to Representative-Elect Keith Ellison’s decision to take the oath of office using a Koran instead of the Bible. Ellison, who is from Minnesota was born and raised in America and converted to Islam. Goode’s office received dozens of complaints about Ellison’s decision to use the Koran.

Goode’s letter has some Muslim groups asking for Goode to apologize, but those calls aren’t coming from around here.

In Rocky Mount, Goode’s hometown, there are streets and buildings named for his father, Virgil Goode, Sr. In this part of the Commonwealth, you aren’t likely to hear any criticism of the congressman.

“The people of Franklin County love Virgil,” said Sue Wallis of Boones Mill.

At Hazel’s Beauty Salon, they cut Goode some slack.

“I think Virgil would not do anything that he did not think was right for his people,” said Hazel Jones, the owner of the shop. “I think he’s trying to protect his people.”

Wallis added, “I think Virgil is an honest man and he tells things like he feels.”

Over at The Franklin Restaurant, the food was steaming and so were the opinions.

“This country was founded on Christian religion, not Muslim religion,” said, Fred Stump of Boones Mill.

Once again, people think Goode is justified.

“He’s right. I don’t want them in here,” said Dot Weiss of Ferrum. Her husband, Harry, said, “We have a culture, it’s not very old, but by god it’s ours. And if they can’t respect it then stay away.”

Goode will not apologize for the letter.

He was re-elected to his sixth term in 2006 with 59-percent of the vote.

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Correct me if I’m wrong, but Rosie O’donnell is entitled to an opinion, right? I think Rosie is an embarrassment to lesbians throughout the world. Why are most lesbians obese? Go on a diet, fatso! Sorry, end of side bar. Rosie got in trouble last week for goofing on Chinese people. She dared to goof on the way they speak. Personally, I think listening to Chinese people speak is like listening to Italians speak. EVERYTHING IS LOUD AND CONFRONTATIONAL. Thats funny to me. Grow some skin you big bunch of babies. JD

Talk show host Rosie O’Donnell is in hot water with Donald Trump after launching into a tirade about him live on The View.

O’Donnell, speaking about Trump’s decision to give Miss USA Tara Conner a second chance, called him a “snake-oil salesman” who went bankrupt and benefited from his father’s money.

Trump fired back Wednesday in an interview with People magazine, insisting he will sue O’Donnell.

“You can’t make false statements,” he said. “Rosie will rue the words she said. I’ll most likely sue her for making those false statements – and it’ll be fun. Rosie’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.”

O’Donnell angered the billionaire developer by flipping her hair over to one side, lowering her voice and mocking Trump for daring to evaluate the morality of Conner.

“(He) left the first wife – had an affair. (He) had kids both times, but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America. Donald, sit and spin, my friend,” she fumed.

O’Donnell also made fun of the Miss USA pageant, of which Trump is a 50 percent owner.

“It’s basically a model competition . . . They have one question in Miss USA, yeah and they’re like ‘I’d like to cure cancer and end world hunger – and then I’d like to go to Studio 54 and do some crack.’”

Trump told Access Hollywood: “She says things that come to her mouth, she’s not smart, she’s crude, she’s ignorant and to be honest I look forward to suing Rosie. I’m gonna sue her and I look forward to it. She’s really very dangerous for the show.”

He didn’t say on what grounds he will sue O’Donnell but insisted his legal team is already in motion.

“Rosie will find out what we’re suing her for,” he told the show. “Rosie’s been a loser for a long time.”

Trump also warned O’Donnell to keep a close eye on her partner Kelli Carpenter.

“Rosie is somebody out of control who really just doesn’t have it and she ought to be careful because I’ll send one of my friends to pick up her girlfriend and I think it would be very easy,” he told Access Hollywood.

In a statement, The View’s executive producers Bill Geddie and Barbara Walters said: “Both Rosie and Donald are high-spirited, opinionated people. Donald has been a friend of The View for many years and Rosie, of course, is our enormously popular moderator. We cherish them both and hope the New Year brings calm and peace.”

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Not may updates lately. Been working doubles from 2 pm to 6 am six to seven days a week. It takes its toll. I don’t know when I will next update because I’m working the holidays. I make triple time through the new year. My next day off isn’t until New Years Eve. I will see what I can find to put up from time to time. JD

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OAKLAND, Calif. A fifth D-M-V employee in Oakland has been convicted of accepting cash bribes for processing driver’s licenses and other documents for illegal immigrants.
Twenty-five-year-old Marla Robinson pleaded guilty in Oakland federal court yesterday to conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud.

The indictment accuses her of accepting an unspecified amount of bribes last summer to process documents for illegal immigrants who paid up to 15-hundred dollars to a broker.

Four other DMV workers in the Oakland office were convicted in the scheme.

All together, the plot involved issuing more than 200 fraudulent driver’s licenses and state identification cards from 2003 to 2005.

AP Credit: San Francisco Chronicle

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Lets see if a bunch of white people come out and defend these miscreants and their reprehensible actions like the black people are doing Down in Long Beach for the racist attacks by 12 black men on three white women last Halloween in Long Beach. JD

CLAREMONT, CA – Four men have been arrested on hate crime charges related to the beating and stabbing of a black man Friday evening.

Chad Timothy Milson, 20, of Yucca Valley; Ryan Christopher White, 28, of Joshua Tree; Joseph McCool, 20, of Redlands; and Anthony Scott Allen, 23, of Big Bear were arrested and booked Monday on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and hate crime enhancements, according to information from the Claremont Police Department.

The four men, along with several others, were on their way to a white supremacist rally Saturday in Westwood at the Veterans Building, Capt. Gary Jenkins said.

They were likely heading to Los Angeles from the High Desert area, Sgt. Shelly Vander Veen said.

The assault appears to have been a crime of opportunity, Jenkins said.

“They were just stopping here to use the restroom,” Jenkins said. “They pulled off the freeway, they just happened to be in Claremont. It just happened to be a black person that was in the same vicinity that they were.”

Claremont received several calls of a fight at 7:37 p.m. at a shopping center on Indian Hill Boulevard and San Jose Avenue, according to police.

On arrival, police found one
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man, later identified as Charles Washington, suffering from several stab wounds, police said.

Witnesses told officers that two black men were confronted by a white man after they emerged from a liquor store in the area. The three began arguing, and several of the white man’s friends came to his aid and the assault began.

While Washington received the brunt of the violence, he actually came to the aid of the man who was initially confronted. That man was able to escape, and police interviewed him during their investigation, Jenkins said.

Washington was airlifted to a trauma center because paramedics initially believed he had life-threatening injuries, Jenkins said.

“He was hit and kicked in the face,” he said. Washington has since been released.

Investigators are still looking for one other suspect, Vander Veen said.

Claremont police investigators took 13 people, 12 adults and one juvenile into custody Saturday afternoon, several hours after the attack, police said.

The arrests were made about noon, near the UCLA campus. Campus police initially detained the suspects, Vander Veen said.

Investigators traced a vehicle seen during the attack to that area, and police found about 20 people congregated around that vehicle just before the 13 were arrested.

The group was headed to the Martyr’s Day Rally, which was to be held in honor of Robert Matthews who died in a shootout with government agents in December 1984, according to the Web site of an anti-hate group.

Matthews founded the white supremacist group Bruder Schweigen, which roughly translates as The Silent Brotherhood. The group is also known as The Order, according to the Web site.

All four were booked into Claremont City Jail and held in lieu of $1 million each, according to the booking log from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The four were taken to Twin Towers on Tuesday and are scheduled to be arraigned in Pomona on Friday, Jenkins said.

Jannise Johnson can be reached by e-mail at jannise.johnson@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9318.

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Lets see if a bunch of white people come out and defend these miscreants and their reprehensible actions like the black people are doing Down in Long Beach for the racist attacks by 12 black men on three white women last Halloween in Long Beach.

CLAREMONT, CA – Four men have been arrested on hate crime charges related to the beating and stabbing of a black man Friday evening.

Chad Timothy Milson, 20, of Yucca Valley; Ryan Christopher White, 28, of Joshua Tree; Joseph McCool, 20, of Redlands; and Anthony Scott Allen, 23, of Big Bear were arrested and booked Monday on suspicion of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and hate crime enhancements, according to information from the Claremont Police Department.

The four men, along with several others, were on their way to a white supremacist rally Saturday in Westwood at the Veterans Building, Capt. Gary Jenkins said.

They were likely heading to Los Angeles from the High Desert area, Sgt. Shelly Vander Veen said.

The assault appears to have been a crime of opportunity, Jenkins said.

“They were just stopping here to use the restroom,” Jenkins said. “They pulled off the freeway, they just happened to be in Claremont. It just happened to be a black person that was in the same vicinity that they were.”

Claremont received several calls of a fight at 7:37 p.m. at a shopping center on Indian Hill Boulevard and San Jose Avenue, according to police.

On arrival, police found one
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man, later identified as Charles Washington, suffering from several stab wounds, police said.

Witnesses told officers that two black men were confronted by a white man after they emerged from a liquor store in the area. The three began arguing, and several of the white man’s friends came to his aid and the assault began.

While Washington received the brunt of the violence, he actually came to the aid of the man who was initially confronted. That man was able to escape, and police interviewed him during their investigation, Jenkins said.

Washington was airlifted to a trauma center because paramedics initially believed he had life-threatening injuries, Jenkins said.

“He was hit and kicked in the face,” he said. Washington has since been released.

Investigators are still looking for one other suspect, Vander Veen said.

Claremont police investigators took 13 people, 12 adults and one juvenile into custody Saturday afternoon, several hours after the attack, police said.

The arrests were made about noon, near the UCLA campus. Campus police initially detained the suspects, Vander Veen said.

Investigators traced a vehicle seen during the attack to that area, and police found about 20 people congregated around that vehicle just before the 13 were arrested.

The group was headed to the Martyr’s Day Rally, which was to be held in honor of Robert Matthews who died in a shootout with government agents in December 1984, according to the Web site of an anti-hate group.

Matthews founded the white supremacist group Bruder Schweigen, which roughly translates as The Silent Brotherhood. The group is also known as The Order, according to the Web site.

All four were booked into Claremont City Jail and held in lieu of $1 million each, according to the booking log from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The four were taken to Twin Towers on Tuesday and are scheduled to be arraigned in Pomona on Friday, Jenkins said.

Jannise Johnson can be reached by e-mail at jannise.johnson@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-9318.

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Feds raid Swift meat-packing plants at six locations across country

It is about time they start cracking down on these illegals! Do you know that if the illegals steal your SSN its likely you will never find out!

see related video on story below
Employment ID theft a virtually invisible crime
Hidden cost of illegal immigration — ID theft

GREELEY, Colo. – Federal agents raided meat processing plants in six states Tuesday and arrested an unknown number of suspected illegal immigrants in an identity theft investigation, temporarily suspending operations at all six plants.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the workers were being arrested on administrative immigration violations and, in some cases, existing criminal arrest warrants stemming from a nearly yearlong investigation.

ICE chief Julie L. Myers told reporters in Washington that agents had uncovered a scheme in which illegal immigrants and others had stolen or bought the identities and Social Security numbers of possibly hundreds of U.S. citizens and lawful residents to get jobs with Greeley-based meat processor Swift & Co.

Six Swift processing facilities were raided Tuesday, in Greeley, Colo.; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn., representing all of Swift’s domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.

No charges had been filed against the company.

Company’s reaction
“Swift has never condoned the employment of unauthorized workers, nor have we ever knowingly hired such individuals,” Swift & Co. President and CEO Sam Rovit said in a written statement.

Since 1997, Swift has been using a government pilot program that confirms whether Social Security numbers are valid. Company officials have previously said one shortcoming may be in the program’s ability to detect when two people are trying to use the same number.

In Greeley, cars lined the street leading to the plant as family members stood outside. One person held a sign that said, “Presents! No tears at Christmas!”

One sheriff’s deputy described the scene outside a meatpacking plant in Hyrum as a circus.

“They’ve got three buses, a bunch of transport vans, a lot of cars and 150 or so agents,” chief Cache County Deputy David Bennett said Tuesday.

Bennett said ICE officials didn’t notify the sheriff’s department about the raid.

“They didn’t ask for our help,” Bennett said. “We were lucky to find out.”

Swift & Co. describes itself as an $8 billion business and the world’s second-largest meat processing company. In Hyrum, where city Administrator Brent Jensen says the plant employs more than 1,000 workers, the company can process up to 2,200 cattle a day, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Several rings suspected
Myers said immigration officials were “looking very aggressively” at who may have sold the identities to the workers in several cases. She said ICE had uncovered several different rings that may have provided illegal documents.

Some immigrants targeted had genuine U.S. birth certificates, and others had other kinds of false identification, Myers said.

“The significance is that we’re serious about work site enforcement and that those who steal identities of U.S. citizens will not escape enforcement,” Myers said

ICE officials at the plants in Greeley and Worthington, Minn., said the total number of arrests might not be released until Wednesday, when a news conference was scheduled in Washington.

“We have been investigating a large identity theft scheme that has victimized many U.S. citizens and lawful residents,” said ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez at the plant in Greeley.

Gonzalez said federal agents worked closely with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to try to minimize the disruption at the plants while carrying out the search warrants..

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Celebutant Nicole Richie was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence Monday morning after she was spotted traveling the wrong way on a California highway.

Richie, 25, the daughter of singer Lionel Richie, was taken into custody at 1:45 a.m. without incident and tested for drugs after she failed a field sobriety test.

The Glendale Police Department booked Richie at 4:50 a.m. and released her at around 7:15 a.m., Glendale Agent John Balian told FOXNews.com.

“She was very cooperative with us and humble,” Balian said. “We had no problems with her.”

California Highway Patrol Officer Todd Workman told FOXNews.com that officers received a 911 call about a black Mercedes sport utility vehicle traveling the wrong way on State Highway 134 in Burbank around 12:30 a.m.

Click here to read the California Highway Patrol’s statement.

When the California Highway Patrol responded, Richie was stopped in the carpool lane and was alone in the vehicle. When cops approached the vehicle, Richie was on her cell phone.

“She failed the field sobriety test at the field, so she was placed under arrest,” Workman told FOXNews.com. “And she provided a sample for testing later on.”

Richie was arrested on charges of violating California Vehicle Code Section 23152a, driving while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs — a misdemeanor offense punishable by jail time and a $1,000 fine — and taken to the Glendale Police Department to be processed, Workman said.

There, Richie was searched, fingerprinted and photographed, Balian said. She spent time in a jail cell before being released on bail.

“We don’t know who picked her up,” he said.

According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Web site, Richie was released on $15,000 bail. The Web site said she was scheduled to appear at Glendale Municipal Court on Dec. 12, but Balian said her court date is set for Feb. 7, 2007.

The Web site also revealed Richie is 5-foot-1 and weighs 85 pounds.

Law enforcement officers told TMZ.com Richie admitted she had taken Vicodin and smoked pot. A preliminary alcohol screening device revealed that Richie was not under the influence of alcohol.

Richie has hired Hollywood attorney Howard Weitzman to represent her.

This is not the first brush Richie has had with substance abuse. In 2003, she pled guilty to heroin possession. The charges were dismissed after she completed the terms of her probation.

Richie rose to fame on the reality show “The Simple Life,” on which she co-starred with on-and-off best friend Paris Hilton. The star continues to battle rumors that she has an eating disorder.

The pair will star as camp counselors in the latest season of “The Simple Life,” which airs on E! in the spring.

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Again, as if its just not possible for black people to be bigoted. Most of the media coverage of this hate crime trial that involves black on white hate crimes, its almost never mentioned that the defendants are black and the thugs harrassing a key witness are black. The media just glosses over that little fact. JD

After a woman’s car is smashed, judge allows witnesses and victims to testify anonymously.

By Joe Mozingo, Times Staff Writer
December 8, 2006

A judge in the Long Beach hate crime trial has issued an unusual order allowing witnesses and victims to testify anonymously and barring defense attorneys from disclosing their names.

Legal experts say the move is extraordinary, though not necessarily unprecedented.

“I’ve never heard of that,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. “To the extent that it’s ever happened, I would expect it would have been in a Mafia trial.”

Judge Gibson Lee issued the order Wednesday during a closed session with attorneys after a key witness for the prosecution, Kiana Alford, learned that her car had been smashed in front of her home while she was in court testifying.

Levenson said witness intimidation is common, particularly in cases involving gangs, drugs, domestic violence and organized crime, but is usually dealt with in other ways. “The ordinary way to address it is to provide [police] protection of the witness,” she said. Alford has been coming to court with a police escort.

Lee said the defendants and their lawyers will be advised of the witnesses’ names, but ordered to keep them secret. The attorneys said they plan to argue today that the order violates their clients’ constitutional right to confront their accusers.

Levenson, however, said the order may be lawful because the defendants will learn their accusers’ identities. But the secrecy order raises 1st Amendment concerns, she said.

Ten black juveniles — nine girls and a boy — are charged with beating three white women on Halloween night while shouting derogatory comments about their race. Alford, who is black, spent five days on the witness stand describing the attacks.

Police say witnesses saw three or four gang members back their vehicle into Alford’s with such force that it was totaled. At the closed hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Andrea Bouas blamed the incident on defense attorneys who had elicited a vague description of the car from Alford during her testimony, they said. Bouas has not commented on the case outside of court.

The defense attorneys argued that gang members already knew her car because, as Bouas told the judge, six of them were seen sitting on it in an earlier act of intimidation.

Alford originally testified under the name Jane Doe. When the defense requested that she identify herself in open court, Bouas argued, “The witness has concern about her safety and the safety of her 1-year-old child.” Lee granted the defense’s request.

But after the car incident, Lee ordered that the names of Alford and other witnesses be withheld in the future.

One of the defense attorneys, Kathleen Moreno, who has been practicing law for 24 years, said she has never had such a ruling. “We’ve all been involved in much more dangerous cases than this,” she said.

The racially charged allegations in the case are continuing to stir emotions.

Prosecutors say that a crowd of up to 30 black youths — gathered on a street of well-to-do residents known for their Halloween festivities — attacked the three victims, ages 21, 19 and 19, because they were white. The women were stomped, punched, struck with a skateboard and beaten to the ground. The 21-year-old suffered multiple fractures to her face, her attorney said.

Talk radio hosts have drummed up a steady stream of outrage over the incident and its aftermath. Many people initially decried what they saw as law enforcement’s tepid response to a black-on-white hate crime.

The defendants’ families, meanwhile, say their children were not involved in the beatings and have been unfairly swept up in the hysteria. The nine girls and one boy have been held in Juvenile Hall since Halloween, and come to court shackled together.

In a closed hearing Thursday, the lawyers made an unsuccessful plea for the judge to release the minors to their families.

None have gang affiliations or criminal records, the attorneys said, adding that they have strong families who are mortified by the charges. One girl is in state college on a track scholarship, and several others are high school track stars, including a girl who represented the United States at an event in China this summer.

All 10, ages 12 to 17, face three felony counts of assault with intent to cause great bodily harm. Eight face hate crime enhancements.

They were arrested the night of the attack in cars that were seen leaving the scene.

Defense attorneys note that two 15-year-old boys were arrested in the case the following week and will be tried later. One was never held in detention; police declined to comment. The other was released to his family Thursday after prosecutors said they would not be ready to start trial for weeks.

“It’s blatantly and patently unfair to treat these 10 kids different than the other two kids,” said Deputy Public Defender Stephanie Sauter.

Testimony is expected to continue today. The trial could last several weeks, attorneys said.

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

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Prosecutors say he dropped the act to fight traffic ticket

Click here to see Video

TACOMA, Wash. — For nearly 20 years — ever since Pete Costello was 8 — his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn’t read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car.
But now prosecutors say it was all a huge fraud, and they have video of Costello contesting a traffic ticket to prove it.
“He’s like any other person trying to get out of a traffic ticket,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said.
Pete and Rosie Marie Costello were indicted in September on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and Social Security fraud; the case was unsealed Tuesday. The Vancouver pair pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tacoma on Tuesday.
Barbosa filed with the court two videos of Pete Costello taken this year: In one, he allegedly feigns retardation during an interview with Social Security workers; the other is of him contesting the traffic ticket in a courtroom earlier this year.
The indictment accuses Costello of faking — or exaggerating — retardation since August 1997, because that is what prosecutors are confident they can prove, Barbosa said. But the pair first received benefits 10 years before that. The benefits cited in the indictment totaled $111,000.
The traffic ticket was deferred.
Barbosa said the government does not know whether Costello is retarded to some degree, but he clearly has been “exaggerating whatever he may have, if any.”
Pete Costello sat in court Tuesday and said nothing. Instead of living with his mother, he works as an auto-body repairman and lives with a girlfriend and two of her children, prosecutors said.
“Obviously his mother did get him involved in this … but he’s been an adult for many years,” Barbosa said.
Court documents indicate prosecutors believe his mother, 46, pulled the same trick with a daughter, whom officials have been unable to locate. All told, she raked in $222,000 on their behalf, according to the documents.
Attorneys for the Costellos declined to comment after the hearing.
“This person isn’t being honest with the government about his condition,” Barbosa said. “It makes it impossible to sort out.”

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From someone who calls themselves “Pancho Villa.”

you are a racist! you tell lies and you dont know about mexicans or hispanics either. you should go back to europe you racist. BROWN PRIDE! HISPANICS RULE!

Fist of all, learn to punctuate you simpleton. Second, let me make this clear to everyone. I’m a bigot, not a racist. I might add that anyone that says that they are not bigoted in some way or another is a liar as well as a bigot. Clearly, we all have our own preferences and I see nothing wrong with people wanting to live among others that they share certain commonalities.

Let me get the definition of the word “racist” from Wikipedia;

Racism is commonly defined as a belief or doctrine where inherent biological differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, with a corollary that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.[1]

The term racism is sometimes used to refer to preference for one’s own ethnic group (ethnocentrism),[2] fear of foreigners (xenophobia), views or preferences against interbreeding of the races (miscegenation),[3] and nationalism,[4], and/or a generalization of a specific group of people (stereotype); regardless of any explicit belief in superiority or inferiority embedded within such views or preferences. Racism has been used in attempts to justify social discrimination, racial segregation and violence, including genocide. Politicians are known to practice race-baiting in an effort to win constituents.

The term racist, when used to describe someone who supports racism, has been a pejorative term since at least the 1940s, and the identification of a group or person as racist is nearly always controversial.

Now lets move on. I have never used the words “White Power.” I do not subscribe to the idea that white people are inherantly superior to any other race. I am of Italian extraction so technically I’m a latino too. I enjoy Mexican food & culture. I do however see hispanics wearing shirts that say “Brown Pride” and have even seen tattoo’s that proclaim that Mexicans are superior to every other race. Again, technically that would make you a racist.

Try to look at it from an American perspective. Your sitting in your home watching TV. Suddenly the door is kicked in and ten people barge in and sit down on your furniture, eat your food, drink your beer, spray paint gibberish on your walls, shoot at your family, beat up your children and steal from your neighbors all while speaking in a foreign tongue. Thats sort of how we see it. You refuse to assimilate. You refuse to speak english. And you tell us how you are taking over and how much more superior you are to all other races.

But lets not quibble over apples and oranges. On to your name. “Pancho Villa.” Pancho Villa was a coward that used to come across the New Mexico border under the cover of darkness and kill U.S. Calvary soldiers while they slept by cutting their throats. Villa and Villa’s ardent supporters, known as Villistas, employed tactics such as propaganda and firing squads against enemies, shooting many in the back. Villa expropriated hacienda land for distribution to peasants and villista soldiers, and robbed trains and printed fiat money to finance his cause. Villa’s generalship was noted for its speed of movement of his forces by railroad, use of cavalry and artillery attacks, and recruitment of enlisted soldiers of enemy units he defeated.

There you go. A quick english and history lesson for the idiots that call me a racist. If you want to see a real racist, look in the mirror. JD

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