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AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry doesn't like a transportation bill Texas lawmakers sent him and threatened Wednesday to call them back to address the issue if no solution is reached before the legislative session ends May 28. "The good news is, there's still time to fix it .... if not, I have no other option as the leader of this state than to bring the Legislature back until we address these issues and we get Texas back to where it can have a vibrant transportation infrastructure," Perry said. Though a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts is a major...

Proponents and opponents alike of the proposed Trans Texas Corridor might be pleased with a bill amendment that, if it completes the legislative process, will put a two-year moratorium on private-public highway partnerships. Officials in Austin believe it will pass both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate but are unsure whether Gov. Rick Perry will sign it into law. Senate Bill 1267 and House Bill 1892 impose a two-year moratorium on privately funded toll road projects by barring any new comprehensive development agreements or toll-project sales to a private entity, and requiring a study committee to examine...

Texas’ largest farm organization is once again describing the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) as a disaster for farming and ranching operations that lie in the potential path of the TTC and a major mistake for Texas itself. The Texas Farm Bureau is also discovering that there are many allies in opposing the massive highway project, some of them members of the Texas Legislature. “Our members are overwhelmingly opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor,” says TFB President Kenneth Dierschke, a grain and cotton farmer from San Angelo. “There’s never been any doubt that the impact on agriculture would be negative, but...

The massive Trans-Texas Corridor project is a disaster for farms and ranches that lie in its proposed path, the Waco-based Texas Farm Bureau says. The Farm Bureau has been steadfast in its opposition to the project and says its encouraged by efforts in Austin to derail or at least delay the $184 billion plan, which ultimately calls for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors that would crisscross the state with separate highway lanes for passenger vehicles and trucks, passenger rail, freight rain, commuter rail and dedicated utility zones. ?Our members are overwhelmingly opposed to the Trans Texas Corridor,? says TFB...

The state representative of a district where support for the Trans-Texas Corridor is hard to find filed legislation this week in hope additional time would allow for a better plan. Rep. Rick Hardcastle, R-Vernon, filed House Bill 3831 in the Texas House of Representatives, which aims to halt the transportation project until improvements have been made on Interstate Highway 35 in Cooke County through the cities of Valley View and Gainesville just south of the Red River. The improvements include widening of the current lanes on I-35 and the construction of additional lanes, which are currently under review by regional...

More than a million foreigners have been allowed to come to work in Britain in just three years - and given the right to remain indefinitely. The numbers of migrants, who are also entitled to bring their families and settle, have been revealed in new figures released to MPs by the Home Office. They reveal for the first time the full impact that officially sanctioned immigration is having on the UK work force. They show that the issuing of work permits to people from non-European Union countries continued to accelerate even after the expansion of the EU in 2004, which...

AUSTIN – Four years of simmering frustration boiled over at a recent Texas Senate committee hearing with just one thing on the agenda: toll roads. An overflow crowd bashed and booed the Texas Transportation Commission in front of mostly like-minded senators. For eight hours, lawmakers and audience members alike questioned the state's increasing reliance on tolls. "We can't simply build roads at any cost," Sen. John Carona said to cheers. "We've got to build them smarter." Some argue that toll roads are the only smart play in a state where the Legislature has refused to raise the tax on gasoline,...

AUSTIN - Thousands of Texas residents from across the state gathered at the state capitol Thursday and Friday to protest the issues of public private partnerships, the Security and Prosperity Partnership between Canada, Mexico and North America, and the issues surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor. Only a public all-day hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security on Thursday and a protest march on Friday by anti-toll parties from across the state settled the angry and frustrated mood of many who entered the capitol doors or stood on the steps. Bus-loads of residents and elected officials descended on...

AUSTIN — A protest against toll roads highlighted a rally on the Capitol steps Friday, but the Texas Independence Day holiday put folks in the mood to raise hell about other grievances as well. Many also complained about a national animal identification tag. Some grumbled about the state's loss of control of its borders. A few warned about the coming "North American Union." And some excoriated the United Nations for wanting "to take your gun," exhorting anyone within earshot to "get us out of the U.N." The "liberty or death" chant of a thousand or more protesters marching up Congress...

The wealthy Arab man, sporting a foreign accent, has just given an Iraqi teenager some cash and a bomb when police burst in and arrest him. "You come here from abroad and want to make this young man kill his Iraqi brothers?" an officer asks. Suspicion toward foreign Arabs stems, in part, from the fact that the Sunni-led insurgency has included many foreign fighters, most of them Arabs, who are blamed for deadly attacks that have claimed thousands of Iraqi lives. Foreign Arabs who live in Iraq often try to hide their identities by faking an Iraqi accent or staying...

How will the United States compete in the global economy, went the lament, when our students lag behind the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong in math and science? American fourth-graders ranked 12th in the world on one international math test, and eighth-graders were 14th. Is this further evidence of the failure of the nation's schools? Myth 1: U.S. students rate poorly compared with those in the rest of the world. Answer:This is true only if you cherry-pick the results...Americans are above average when compared with 22 other industrialized nations. In civics, no nation scored significantly higher than the United...

December 31, 2006 1,500 in Minneapolis protest ouster of Sharia government in Somalia What are 1,500 supporters of Islamic jihad and Sharia law doing in Minneapolis? What are the implications of this for our own national security? Why is no one with any power or influence even asking these questions? "Area Somalis want peace for homeland: Many of the 1,500 protesters in Minneapolis were angered that the U.S. gave tacit support for ousting of Islamists," by Liz Fedor in the Star Tribune, with thanks to CGW: More than a thousand Somalis gathered in Minneapolis on Saturday to call for Ethiopian...

Migrants face new 'Britishness' test By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor Last Updated: 2:53am GMT 05/12/2006 Tests in the English language and the British way of life will be compulsory from next year for foreigners wanting to settle here, the Government said yesterday. It will bring long-term immigrants into line with people who seek UK citizenship, who already have to sit the tests. Liam Byrne: migrants must recognise responsibilities Last year 180,000 people were granted settlement to stay. Some go on to seek British nationality but others may choose to retain their own while staying permanently. Liam Byrne, the immigration...

Before making any economic proposals, policymakers should always find out what they’re doing in France — and then do the opposite. France, suffering from unemployment rates of 9 percent or more, “protects” its economy from foreign investment by invoking national and economic security in order to block acquisitions in “strategic” sectors (including yogurt and casinos). The U.S. controversy over the aborted Dubai Ports World deal had a similar ring: As national security concerns were raised, some members of Congress proposed measures that would undermine the enormous economic benefits Americans receive from foreign investment. A recent study by the National Foundation...

Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying. On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years. Few people know that the tolls from the U.S. side of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Canada, go to a subsidiary of an Australian company —...

B.C. Health Minister George Abbott said taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $10 million in unpaid medical bills by hundreds of foreigners who have obtained hospital care in this province. He is urging health authorities to "look at every angle" for new methods to recover monies owed by those who have skipped out on paying. "B.C. is not a destination that is in the habit of providing free health care for the rest of the world. We have lots of demands for medical services by B.C. citizens, let alone serving the rest of the world," said Abbott. The health...

USA Citizens Day - July 1st Immigration Control Rally Nationwide Rally on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at your City HallMay 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally for Immigration ControlRally to stop our continuous invasion by...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Alarmed by the relentless rise of anti-Americanism around the world, a business-backed group is trying to change the behavior that spawned an enduring stereotype of Americans abroad -- loud, arrogant, ill-dressed, ill-mannered and lacking respect for other cultures. For many years, much of the rest of the world distinguished between the United States and the American people. Americans tended to get better ratings than their country and its policies. But recent surveys show that favorable perceptions of Americans have been shrinking while views on the world's only superpower grow increasingly hostile. Enter Business for Diplomatic Action Inc....

Washington DC -- April 4, 2006: In an alarming wake-up call to voting rights activists accross the country, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand last week a decision by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The lower court ruled (Landes v Tartaglione, et al) that Philadelphia journalist and voting rights activist, Lynn Landes, had no standing to challenge the constitutionality of election laws which Landes claimed deny direct access to a tangible ballot and meaningful transparency to the election process.Specifically, Landes challenged the use of voting machines and absentee voting in elections for public office. The defendants in the...

Just got back from the San Francisco protest. Good turnout, and here are some pics: http://home.comcast.net/~webspace06/SF_5-1-06 I go to all of the big San Francisco marches, and I can't help noticing that no matter what the cause - whether it's immgration, or bringing the troops home, or impeaching the President, or stopping global warming - it always seems that Che Guevera gets top billing. Interesting.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical as lawyers for two foreigners convicted of violent crimes in the United States argued that police had violated the men's rights. Lawyers for the two men — one from Honduras, the other from Mexico — told the court Wednesday that police should have told them they could seek legal help from their countries' governments, as required by a 1969 treaty. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy asked why police — and not the men's attorneys — should be required to inform foreign suspects of their treaty rights. "If a Miranda warning is given, it seems...

Peoria man pleads guilty in diploma mill case Latest News more>> Truck pulling horse trailer full of illegals crashes SPOKANE, Wash. An Arizonan has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors for his role in a gigantic diploma mill operation. Richard John Novak pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Spokane, Washington, to conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Novak, who formerly lived in Spokane and now lives in Peoria, could face up to ten years in prison and (m) millions of dollars in fines. Novak is the second person to reach a plea agreement with the Justice Department...

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida House passed Gov. Jeb Bush's "A-plus-plus" plan Thursday despite questions from opponents about its constitutionality. The bill, which passed 85-35, substantially revises Bush's 1999 A-plus education plan, adding subject majors for high-school students and enforcing performance-based pay for teachers. The bill now heads to the Senate... The House also approved a bill denying financial aid to foreign college students on temporary visas from all but Caribbean and Latin American countries. Amid Democrats' accusations of xenophobia, the House voted 96-23 Thursday for the proposal from Rep. Dick Kravitz, R-Orange Park, which would deny state-funded financial assistance to...

HOMELAND INSECURITY Probe finds terrorists in U.S. 'training for war' Neighbors of Muslim encampment fear retaliation if they report to police Posted: February 17, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com Entrance to Hancock, N.Y., encampment (Courtesy Northeast Intelligence Network) The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter. A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated...

The government has drawn up a bill requiring foreigners aged 16 and older to register their fingerprints in a government database when entering Japan as part of its campaign against terrorism, government sources said Tuesday. The bill, which will revise the Immigration Control and Refugee-Recognition Law, will also allow the government to deport those determined by the justice minister to be terrorists, based on an antiterrorism law, the sources said. The fingerprints would be stored in a database and checked against those of previous deportees. The database is designed to prevent those deported in the past from disguising their identities,...

/begin my translationForeigners Planning a Human Right Protest in N. KoreaVollertsen stated in public, "...have conferred with visitors attending Arirang Festival, ...am sure of it happening." [2005-10-14 15:49] Dr. Vollertsen protesting (Chinese) repatriation of N. Korean defectors back to N. Korea, in front of Chinese Embassy (in Seoul) on (Oct.) 14th.   Norbert Vollertsen(age:42), a German doctor and a N. Korean human right activist, announced, "We planned to stage the first-ever human right protest inside N. Korea carried by foreigners visiting (N. Korea) for attending Arirang Festival," while he was attending a rally for urging N. Korean human right, held at the auditorium in the...

Just came back from a meeting to simplify the features of the new Medicare prescription program and listening to some of the questions of feeble-minded citizens. One woman with a Russian accent wanted to know why all the European countries really take care of their elderly and why can't our Government do the same? Mike Fitzpatrick, our new and young Congressman, handled her very well. I wanted to ask her if Europe is so wonderful, why did she come here? And she's probably collecting Social Security without having paid anything into it as well! But I did stand up, very...

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that stepped-up immigration enforcement must be coupled with a program that will allow foreigners into the country on a temporary basis to seek employment.Chertoff said a new guest-worker program would meet the economic needs of businesses while creating a system to regulate the burgeoning flow of illegal immigrants into the country.snipSens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and John Kyl (R-Ariz.) have proposed a temporary worker visa program requiring foreigners to return to their home countries after two years, and mandating that illegal aliens leave the country to apply for work visas. The senators would add...

Residents Protest Apartment Living Conditions Contractors Walk Off Job POSTED: 5:26 pm EDT August 18, 2005 UPDATED: 7:09 pm EDT August 18, 2005 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Residents of a local apartment complex continued to protest what they say are unsafe and unhealthy conditions, NBC 4's Mike Bowersock reported. Contractors installing heating systems at Woodland Meadows apartments said they walked off the job Thursday morning after being told they won't be paid. They've been working at the complex for about a month and have yet to be paid. Residents have been protesting the living conditions all week. "This is America," said...

TORONTO - A U.S. security official said Wednesday it will use wireless technology at five border posts with Canada and Mexico to track foreigners driving in and out of the United States. Bob Mocny of the Department of Homeland Security said wireless chips for vehicles would become mandatory at designated border crossings in Canada and Mexico as of Aug. 4. Border authorities will provide a chip that drivers will put on the dashboard of vehicles. Antennas have been installed at the border crossings at Thousand Islands Bridge in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., and Blaine, Wash. crossings for the Pacific Highway and...

Under legislation backed Tuesday by a Ventura County congressman, the Department of Homeland Security would be able to deport immigrants who have not been convicted of committing crimes, if they belong to a group the government has designated as a criminal gang. Under the bill, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles or another district also could secretly designate new criminal street gangs, making immigrants in those groups eligible for deportation. Any group that the government decrees to be a gang could not challenge the designation for up to two years. Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, a lead co-sponsor of the...

June 7, 2005 -- ACCORDING to the SITE Institute, a respected counter-terrorism organization, only 9 percent of suicide bombings sponsored in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are conducted by native Iraqis. Analyzing data from a "martyrs" list posted on a Zarqawi Web site, SITE found that 42 percent of the killers hailed from Saudi Arabia, 12 percent from Syria, 11 percent from Kuwait, with the rest from an assortment of Asian and European nations.

A Republican congressman is pushing a bill that would prohibit the federal government from paying Social Security benefits to non-citizens living in other countries. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, re-introduced his bill, the Social Security for American Citizens Only Act, H.R. 858, in February after sponsoring a similar piece of legislation last year. "Please protect Social Security from being transformed into a system of global welfare by cosponsoring my Social Security for American Citizens Only Act," Paul wrote to his colleagues. The bill amounts to a pre-emptive strike against any efforts by the Bush administration to allow non-citizens in Mexico who...

Congress gave final legislative approval Tuesday to an emergency plan to ease hiring restrictions on U.S. businesses that have been blocked from employing seasonal workers from other countries. ADVERTISEMENT The Senate unanimously included the plan as part of an $82 billion Iraq and Afghanistan military spending bill. President Bush is expected to sign the package, setting the stage for seasonal hires as early as June. The plan addresses a labor crunch in a visa program that authorizes U.S. firms to hire temporary foreign workers for seasonal jobs often shunned by Americans. Fierce competition claimed the 66,000 available visas by Jan....

LOS ANGELES -- The number of foreign nationals enlisting in the US military is dropping, even though service now provides a fast track to American citizenship, a review of military data shows. The decrease in non-citizen enlistees -- who hail from countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria, and Germany -- has hit all branches of the armed services, which already are struggling with recruitment as the US presence in Iraq enters its third year. While US citizen enlistments also have fallen, the drop is more pronounced among non-citizens, legal immigrants the military has long allowed to serve as everything...

Fresh from picking up dozens of illegal immigrants in Suffolk County for deportation because they'd been convicted of sex crimes, federal immigration officers have spread their net to neighboring Nassau. Federal agents and Nassau police fanned out across the county Tuesday starting at 5 a.m., rousting the sex offenders out of their sleep, apprehending others on the streets and arresting some as they showed up for appointments with probation officers. Officials said 25 were rounded up in Tuesday's sweep and taken to a federal detention facility. They also disclosed that agents had earlier arrested 16 immigrants in Nassau over the...

CHINA'S PIRACY DILEMMA – U.S. ACTION VIA WTO?Feb 15, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby Tim BrownChina’s protection of intellectual property rights is forefront in the news again. In January Vice-premier Wu Yi had told US officials and business people that China would need time to correct the problem of piracy. He provided huge numbers such as the confiscation of 10 billion pieces of fake goods as evidence that China is trying to solve the problem. According to a Newsweek article for the February 21 issue Beijing has been successful in eliminating pirated copies of its 2008 Olympics logo. Now music, film and...

In order to comply with the firearms and weapons policies on eBay websites worldwide, effective today, December 28th, Gun Parts, Gun Accessories, Paintballs equipment and accessories, Crossbows, Airsoft equipment and accessories, and Throwing Knives may only be sold on eBay.com by sellers who are located in United States. The item and its specified Item location on the listing must be the United States. Additionally, US sellers may only offer domestic shipping on these products. Current listings that meet these conditions will be allowed to end as scheduled. All new listings or any re-listed item must comply with this policy effective...

Foreigners might want to watch what they say about President Vladimir Putin or how they treat the Russian flag if parliament approves new rules about who is welcome in the country. The legislation, which is expected to come up for the first of three readings in the State Duma early next year, would allow authorities to deny a visa to any foreigner who shows disrespect toward Russia. Foreigners could be denied entry if they "commit actions of a clearly disrespectful nature toward the Russian Federation or the federal organs of the government of the Russian Federation," says a draft of...

DENVER: A woman assaulted by a Mexican national at a Denver pro-immigration forum sponsored by First Data/Western Union filed a civil lawsuit today in Denver District Court. The lawsuit includes claims for ethnic intimidation, civil conspiracy, assault and battery, robbery, personal injury, and property damage against Colorado-based First Data Corporation, its subsidiary Western Union, the First Data/Western Union Foundation, the attacker and her former employer, Hep C Connection.

Selected excerpt. But the director of the center, former Iraqi exile Sadoun al-Dulame, says 58 percent of the respondents said they don't care who wins the U.S. presidential election. "But in the end, those who said they care about what happens in America, Kerry [is] in front of Bush," he noted. "22.5 percent said we prefer to see Kerry as the next American president. And those who said we prefer Bush just 16 percent, no more. And, that's a decline for Bush because when we asked the Iraqis two months ago, Bush was in front of Kerry." In a further...

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, non-Americans wishing to sound off on their choice for U.S. president can now do so, courtesy of a London-based website. GlobalVote2004.org is allowing residents of other countries to cast ballots in a non-binding opinion poll featuring seven presidential wannabes: George W. Bush, John Kerry, Michael Badnarik, Michael Peroutka, Walt Brown, David Cobb and Ralph Nader. "Even if you are not a U.S. citizen, the Nov. 2 presidential election will have a huge impact on your life," the site declares. "The very idea of democracy requires that you should have a say in choosing who determines your...

SAUDI ARABIA Non Muslim foreigners must observe Ramadan Riyadh (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Foreigners will have to observe all the rules and regulations of the holy month of Ramada. This means that they will not be allowed to eat, drink or smoke in public places during daylight hours. Saudi authorities warned foreigners that violations to the law will not be tolerated. The holy month Ramadan –ninth month in the Muslim calendar– will begin on October 15 when the first crescent of the new moon is sighted and will last four weeks. In this period Muslims must fast and abstain from sex...

According to a recent public opinion poll, most foreigners would vote for John Kerry for president. Citizens of thirty of the thirty-five nations surveyed prefer John Kerry for president. The poll was conducted from May to August, 2004 by GlobeScan, a Canadian research company, working with the University of Maryland and research institutes in each nation. Kerry would win a landslide election in Canada. 61 percent of Canadians chose Kerry and only 16 percent chose Bush. This is consistent with a May 2004, Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll that said, “ …more than eight in 10 Canadians said they harbor a...

THE concerns of foreigners don’t usually get much of a look-in in US presidential election campaigns. There aren’t many votes for a candidate who promises to make life more comfortable for French intellectuals or Latin American dairy farmers. Americans may have come quite a way since the world beyond their shores was (plucky Brits excepted) a snakepit of Commies, atheists and yellow-bellies, but selfconfidence that their way is essentially the right way is not much diminished. On the two coasts, it is true, there is a sizeable chunk of Democratic-voting, Sauvig-non-swilling, Goethe-reading opinion that blames America for most of the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Many of the millions of foreign laborers in Saudi Arabia suffer from extreme exploitation and work under conditions that resemble slavery, an international human rights watchdog said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia said the report exaggerated the experiences of a few of the more than six million foreigners working in the kingdom, and noted that millions of families around the world were dependent on remittances from such workers. The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in its first comprehensive report on foreign laborers in the oil-rich kingdom, slammed Saudi authorities, the legal system and private employers for a range...

Cash got foreigners in school, police say Orange's enrollment official was arrested after some said she sought money to help. By Mary Shanklin | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted May 26, 2004 For foreign students seeking a spot in Orange County public schools, Virginia Redding held the keys to an American education. But detectives say the school-district enrollment official also offered something less savory: a lesson in the art of the shakedown. Redding, a supervisor in the district's pupil-assignment office, was arrested and is accused of soliciting unlawful compensation after a sting operation set up in the parking lot of an...

Foreigners Helped Out of Haiti by Marines Wednesday February 25, 2004 4:46 PM By MICHAEL NORTON Associated Press Writer PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Foreigners tried to leave Haiti on Wednesday, some under guard of U.S. Marines, as looting erupted in the capital. Shops and hotels barred gates and shutters as the opposition coalition asked the international community to help ensure a ``timely and orderly'' departure of beleaguered President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Militants loyal to the president set up dozens of flaming barricades, blocking roads all over the city and some leading to the airport. One American abandoned his car at a...

NY1 News Sunday, January 25, 2004 Weather: Windy, High 33 Top News • NY1 Living Cab Driver Suspected Of Plotting Bomb Attack Pleads Guilty To Making False Statements JANUARY 24TH, 2004 A cab driver who asked how to make a bomb pleads guilty to making false statements to the FBI. Sayed Abdul Malike admitted in Brooklyn Federal Court that he lied to federal agents back in May about trying to obtain explosives. He said he only wanted the explosives to prospect for jade and rubies in Afghanistan, not for a terrorist attack. Prosecutors, however, say Malike's story doesn't explain...

Airports to Start Tracking Foreigners Tuesday December 23, 2003 1:31 AM By PENNY COCKERELL Associated Press Writer DALLAS (AP) - Major U.S. airports and seaports are preparing to begin using fingerprints and photographs to keep track of when foreigners enter the country and when they leave. The program, to be up and running on Jan. 5 at all 115 airports that handle international flights, will let Customs officials instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background. ``I think people have come to understand that an increase to security is necessary,'' said U.S. Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger. At Dallas-Fort Worth...