Free Republic

Turf battles between U.S. immigration and drug-enforcement authorities could jeopardize narcotics investigations and threaten officer safety, says Congress's investigative arm. A report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, set to be released Monday, says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder should quickly develop new rules for carrying out drug investigations. It also says Ms. Napolitano should order her agents to share intelligence that has been withheld from the Justice Department. Both Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reporting to Ms. Napolitano, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which reports to Mr. Holder at Justice, are sending more agents to...

Actually, Al Gore is still in denial, but the evidence keeps stacking up. We have had reports of Arctic ice growth in the last year. Of course the 'global warming' theorists claimed this was dramatically offset by Antarctic ice melting. That does not appear to be true. Antarctic ice is growing too according to this Fox News report,If that is not enough evidence, All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. See graph.

Ice is expanding in much of Antarctica, contrary to the widespread public belief that global warming is melting the continental ice cap. The results of ice-core drilling and sea ice monitoring indicate there is no large-scale melting of ice over most of Antarctica, although experts are concerned at ice losses on the continent's western coast. Antarctica has 90 percent of the Earth's ice and 80 percent of its fresh water, The Australian reports. Extensive melting of Antarctic ice sheets would be required to raise sea levels substantially, and ice is melting in parts of west Antarctica. The destabilization of the...

Willie Soon, a Harvard University astrophysicist and geophysicist with scores of peer-reviewed papers and books to his credit, said he is “embarrassed and puzzled” by the shallow science in papers asserting the Earth faces a climate crisis caused by global warming. Soon told the second International Conference on Climate Change on March in New York City, “We have a system [of peer reviewing scientific literature] that is truly, truly appalling.” Soon’s criticisms echoed an earlier presentation at the 2-1/2-day conference that was attended by about 700 scientists, economists, and policymakers considering the issue of “Global Warming: Was it ever really...

Remember how Polar bears are drowning because the ice caps are melting? Remember how the ice caps are melting because of CO2 emissions? Well new research at NASA suggests that the ice caps may be melting not because of CO2, but because of the elimination of aerosol particle emissions. In other words, pollution controls put into place in the 70's could be the cause of the polar ice caps melting. New research from NASA suggests that the Arctic warming trend seen in recent decades has indeed resulted from human activities: but not, as is widely assumed at present, those leading...

LAREDO, TX—Former Border Patrol agent Leonel Morales, 30, of Zapata County, has been sentenced to prison for bribery, acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today. Morales accepted $9,000 in exchange for using his position as a federal officer to ensure the safe passage of a 20-kilogram load of cocaine through Zapata County, Texas, during the summer of 2008. Morales was sentenced by United States District Judge Michaela Alvarez this afternoon to 168 months in federal prison without parole, fined $11,000 and ordered to serve a three-year-term of supervised release. The investigation leading to the charges against Morales included audio...

In emotional testimony before a House joint panel this week, a Virginia man recalled the death of his teenage daughter in 2007 – a death caused by an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk and who had been arrested twice before the crime, but was not deported. “Two years ago this week, my 16-year-old daughter, Tessa, and her best friend Allison were killed as they were sitting at in intersection waiting for a red light to change,” Ray Tranchant said, as friends placed a photograph of Tessa Tranchant on an easel behind him. Since his daughter’s death, Tranchant, a professor...

The U.S. Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along a 1.1-mile stretch of the Rio Grande riverbank as soon as Wednesday to get rid of the hiding places used by smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants. Although Border Patrol and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the chemical is safe for animals, detractors say the experiment is reminiscent of the Vietnam War-era Agent Orange chemical program and raises questions about long-term effects. “We don’t believe that is even moral,” said Jay Johnson-Castro Sr., executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center. Border Patrol agent Roque Sarinana said the...

CLEVELAND – Ice cover on the Great Lakes has declined more than 30 percent since the 1970s, leaving the world's largest system of freshwater lakes open to evaporation and lower water levels, according to scientists associated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They're concerned about how the milder winter freeze may affect the environment. But they're also trying to come to terms with a contradiction — the same climate factors that might keep lake ice from freezing might make freezing more likely if lake levels drop due to evaporation. Scientists at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann...

The two cities of El Paso and Denver are 800 miles apart, but they both exist in the rarified world of "sanctuary cities," where mayors and city officials love to proclaim, "We welcome all immigrants, regardless of immigration status." This is PC code for welcoming illegal aliens, but it also means they welcome the prosecution of Border Patrol agents and immigration enforcement agents who take their jobs too seriously. The prosecution, imprisonment and eventual release of El Paso Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean made headlines for two years, but few Americans outside Denver have ever heard of...

Arctic sea ice extent, at the lowest in the last eight years, is now the third highest and is in position to move into second place if current cool conditions persist. This graphic is updated daily - please use to confound your carbon-emitting friends:

SANTA ANA – The Santa Ana City Jail, which receives the most federal revenue of any city jail in the Greater Los Angeles area for housing immigration detainees – is planning to boost its revenue by housing additional detainees and negotiating a rate increase. Unfilled job vacancies, budget cuts and the lack of new revenue have motivated the Santa Ana Police Department to increase its revenue through immigration detention. The department plans to add 32 additional beds to bring its population capacity to 512 beds by May, said Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters.

EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is "un-American." The speaker, condemning raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, referred to the immigrants she was addressing as "very, very patriotic." "Who in this country would not want to change a policy of kicking in doors in the middle of the night and sending a parent away from their families?" Pelosi told a mostly Hispanic gathering at St. Anthony's Church in San Francisco. Video: Click here to view the video of...

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) - A Hannibal police officer was finishing up mundane paperwork on a quiet Saturday morning when Manuel Cazares walked into the station, blood splattered on his hands and shoes. Cazares put his hands out, crossed them, and told the officer to arrest him. "I killed two people," he allegedly said. Details surrounding the allegations are far too common: an abusive relationship, a jilted lover, a sudden attack. But some in this Mississippi River community of 17,000 best known as Mark Twain's hometown aren't just outraged by the violence. They also question why Cazares was in Hannibal at...

SAN DIEGO—A robot dispatched Saturday to look for suspected illegal immigrants seen entering a drainage pipe at the nation's busiest border crossing spotted two people but they evaded capture, authorities said. The search began after a motorist reported seeing about 12 people enter a storm drain in front of inspection booths at the San Ysidro port of entry that connects San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Vince Bond said. However, surveillance cameras showed only eight went into the storm drain opening. The opening is in American territory just south of San Ysidro's 24 vehicle inspection...

Federal authorities say they've tracked down the head of a murderous Mexican kidnapping ring who went into hiding in the Rosebank section of Staten Island. Liberio Andrew Gonzalez, 48 -- the leader of "The Liborio," a gang authorities say is responsible for about 20 murders and numerous kidnappings in three Mexican states -- was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Staten Island last week. It turned out he was living in a small, attic apartment on Bell Street, paying $400 a month in rent as he worked on the Staten Island waterfront, cleaning boats. ICE...

Strong winds push ice into beachfront homes along Saginaw Bayby Tom Gilchrist and Pati LaLonde | The Bay City Times Monday March 09, 2009, 9:37 AM Mountains of ice crept up the beach and over sea walls of Linwood homes early Monday morning. The ice made its way into backyards, broke windows and spilled inside homes on the shoreline. Tim Boutell said he and his wife heard the screech of "metal on metal," and then screamed themselves Sunday night as walls of ice pushed toward their Kawkawlin Township home along Saginaw Bay. "About 9 p.m. my wife, Beth, heard some...

The Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended during the Obama Administration, authorizes the federal government to enter intopartnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies to train officers to assist in identifying those individuals who are in the country illegally. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for supervising state and local officers under this program. However, following complaints received by members of the US Congress, the Government Accountability Office was asked to review this program. The GAO’s report reviews the extent to which ICE has designed controls to govern the program’s implementation, and how the resources are being used...

Some may accuse me of gross hyperbole when I say that the government of Mexico uses the US as their penal system, but truth be told, tens of thousands of criminal aliens who come into the US are from Mexico and our federal and state prisons, and local jails warehouse these lawbreakers at the expense of US taxpayers. Not only that, but the US provides an abundance of crime victims for these killers, robbers, rapists and child molesters.

ICE Trust Receives Approval From Federal Reserve to Clear Credit Default Swaps --ICE Expects to Complete TCC Acquisition within Week; Clearing of Existing North American CDS Indexes to Begin Thereafter NEW YORK, March 4, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, today announced that ICE US Trust, LLC (ICE Trust), a New York limited liability trust company, has received regulatory approval from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to become a member of the Federal Reserve System and to serve as a...

OSLO: Jagged mountains the size of the Alps have been found entombed in Antarctica’s ice, giving new clues about the vast ice sheet that will raise world sea levels if even a fraction of it melts, scientists said. Using radar and gravity sensors, the experts made the first detailed maps of the Gamburtsev subglacial mountains, originally detected by Russian scientists 50 years ago at the heart of the East Antarctic ice sheet. “The surprising thing was that not only is this mountain range the size of the Alps, but it looks quite similar to the (European) Alps, with high peaks...

"My country has let me down." That's the assessment of an Arizona rancher who was sued by six illegal immigrants he detained on his property and turned over to the Border Patrol in 2004. On Tuesday an eight-member federal jury in Tucson threw out the claim brought by the six illegal aliens that Roger Barnett violated their civil rights when he detained them at gunpoint on his ranch nearly five years ago. The panel also ruled against the plaintiffs' claims of battery and false imprisonment. But the jury did find Barnett liable on four claims of assault and four claims...

Barack Hussein Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:On energy policy, Mr. Obama’s budget will show new revenues by 2012 from his proposal to require companies to buy permits from the government for greenhouse gas emissions above a certain cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the permits would raise up to $300 billion a year by 2020. Since companies would pass their...

Federal officials said this morning they have indicted an Afghan national for lying about his alleged ties to terrorists in a bid to fraudulently obtain a U.S. passport. Ahmadullah Sais Niazi, 34, who was arrested without incident this morning at his Tustin residence by members of the joint terrorism task force, was named in a five-count indictment returned Feb. 11 by a federal grand jury. The indictment, unsealed this morning, alleges Niazi hid associations with “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” groups including Al Qaeda, Hizb-i-Islami and the Taliban, when he

As some of our readers have already noticed, there was a significant problem with the daily sea ice data images on February 16. The problem arose from a malfunction of the satellite sensor we use for our daily sea ice products. Upon further investigation, we discovered that starting around early January, an error known as sensor drift caused a slowly growing underestimation of Arctic sea ice extent. The underestimation reached approximately 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles) by mid-February. Sensor drift, although infrequent, does occasionally occur and it is one of the things that we account for during quality control...

A former immigration supervisor was sentenced to more than seven years in prison yesterday for accepting kickbacks from a Venezuelan company that provided armor-plated vehicles for U.S. officials in South America. Gerardo Chavez, 46, pocketed $172,000 from the scheme and planned to receive $87,000 more before federal agents uncovered it, prosecutors said. Chavez, 46, is a former deputy assistant director of international operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Chavez steered about $2.8 million in contracts for the four-wheel-drive vehicles to Caracas-based Blindajes Del Caribe, known as Blincar, according to court records. The company's owner then funneled money back to...

Minutes before Continental Flight 3407 plummeted to the ground killing all on board the pilots noticed a build up of ice on the plane's wings and windshield, an official said Friday. The plane was on its approach to Buffalo airport, New York state, when the crew spotted the problem, according to recordings taken earlier Friday from the aircraft's black boxes after the crash left 50 dead. "The crew discussed significant ice buildup, ice on the windshield and leading edge of the wings," Steve Chealander, an official with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told a press conference. "The crew briefed...

The nondescript 737 jet taxied to the front of the runway line at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Aboard the flight, 53 passengers stared out windows as their rising plane banked toward Mexico and their handcuffs glinted in the morning sun. This is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Flight Repatriate, a booming airline ferrying illegal immigrants out of the country. Flying worldwide from O'Hare and 22 other airports, the so-called ICE Air planes transported more than 367,000 illegal immigrants, including 11,500 from the Chicago area, out of the U.S. from October 2007 to October 2008—a 26 percent increase over the previous...

Link only - Obama declares disaster in Kentucky ice storm

February 4, 2009 Note: Photo included. Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090204elpaso.htm Mexican man deported; wanted in Sonora for possessing military-type weapons ICE located fugitive through its Criminal Alien Program (CAP) EEL PASO, Texas - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday deported a man to Mexico who had been a fugitive for seven years for possessing military-type weapons. ICE officers escorted Miguel Angel Camacho-Aguilar, 25, to the middle of El Paso's Stanton Street Bridge Feb. 3 and turned him over to Mexican authorities. He was wanted by the 6th District Judge of Sonora, Mexico, for possessing...

Last week a massive ice storm struck the heartland of America, leaving at least 42 dead and millions without power or water. Days later there are still over a million people in Kentucky who have no power, no water, and no communications. They could have to survive this way for weeks! The conditions are dire and getting worse, with some storm survivors carrying pails of water from creeks. Thousands more are living in shelters with no timetable for returning home. FEMA is nowhere to be found. Amid this catastrophe, where is President Barack Obama? While millions are struggling were struggling...

We may want to remind ourselves of media and political coverage of past natural disasters because the media remains besotted with Team Obama, and... by the way it's day 7 of dozens of people freezing to death in the Midwest and where's the Obama government? ... Let’s see… what’s the media’s reaction to the catastrophe in Kentucky where more than 45 people have died during a “global warming” ice storm. ... Ed Driscoll has a fair headline: Obama Dozed, People Froze! Headline via the The Sundries Shack, which asks, "Has anyone seen FEMA lately?" It seems we have people dying...

Ohio Humvees Help In Kentucky Storm ReliefSun, Feb 01, 2009. 03:31 PM By: Jennifer Steck Louisville, KY. (AP) -- Airmen from the National Guard are headed to Ohio to pick up Humvees to aid in relief efforts from the ice storm that has crippled parts of Kentucky, especially in the western region. Sgt. Phil Speck of the Kentucky Air National Guard says the Airmen will board a C-130 in Louisville on Sunday afternoon to fly to Columbus, Ohio. They'll drive back to Kentucky in the Ohio National Guard's humvees and spread out to areas of western Kentucky where they are...

The ice storm in Kentucky has proven to be a massive disaster. Scores of deaths in winter without heat, electricity, water, and so on. The utility company says it is the largest outage in history. Where's the President? Dunno. He's not spoken a word. After all, they're white crackers, not real people. They didn't vote for him, so... why help them? Why be concerned, when a few voters for the "other" party might die?

While watching the barely-existent coverage of the ice storms in Kentucky that have the entire Kentucky National Guard mobilized, I cannot help but ask the following questions about the LACK of response from the Obama administration...and how it is a very close parallel to the Hurricane Katrina situation that was so harmful to the Bush presidency, only instead of a lot of black folks in danger, this time it's a lot of white folks... Why aren't Kentuckians sitting on top of their houses, wailing at the constant whir of news helicopters for rescue? Why aren't Kentuckians on TV demanding that...

Too many people on the liberal side of the fence argue that illegal immigration is a racial issue. They believe that those of us who want to protect the US boarders are inspired by racism, trying to keep out Hispanics. Recent cases such as the Hezbollah Mole in the CIA case (Nada Nadim Prouty) and the terrorists targeting Army base after sneaking over the borders, highlight the reasons the United States true immigration reform without amnesty. How many others are out there-not to gather information but to launch terror attacks when the time is right. It is more difficult to...

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer Published: 1/29/2009 7:02 PM Last Modified: 1/30/2009 5:33 AM COOKSON — Sun-warmed temperatures that climbed near 50 degrees boosted — and sometimes hindered — power restoration efforts Thursday in areas gripped by the recent ice storm. According to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, nearly 26,000 homes and businesses statewide remain without electricity because of the storm Thursday afternoon. The Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives reported more than 24,000 electric cooperative customers are without power, with the highest number of outages concentrated in Cherokee and Adair counties. While the thaw allowed tree limbs and electric lines...

The President's "flinty toughness" gets a second look; Punxatawny Phil the weather marmot opens a wedding chapel...now there's press for ya.

Thursday (01.29.09) I traveled up I-55 through Arkansas and Missouri on the heels of a rather nasty winter storm. From just north of Blytheville, AR to a bit north of Charleston, MO the storm dropped an unbelievable amount of ice. The results were devastating. Thousands of people without power and significant damage to homes, trees and power lines. Being the shutterbug that I am, I grabbed my digital camera to get images for my blog. But the batteries were dead. And since no one had power and all the stores were closed, I could not get any batteries. So, I...

By RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer Published: 1/29/2009 2:43 AM Last Modified: 1/29/2009 2:49 AM WESTVILLE — The gravity of this week's ice storm weighed on Mary Hopkins. Speaking through tears, the Westville resident recounted Wednesday how the storm had zapped her trailer's electricity, dropped a tree limb through the back glass of her 2001 Saturn and separated her from her beloved Chihuahuas. "It's terrible," Hopkins said from a seat in the Assembly of God, where the American Red Cross is operating a shelter. "No electricity, limbs everywhere. My car got messed up ... My little dogs are in the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Well over a million people shivered in ice-bound homes across the country Wednesday, waiting for warmer weather and for utility crews to restring power lines brought down by a storm that killed 23 as it took a snowy, icy journey from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. But with temperatures plunging, utility officials warned that it could be mid-February before electricity is restored to some of the hardest-hit places.

"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy very quickly?" the new president told reporters at a gathering with business leaders. "And it has to do with Washington. My children's school was canceled today. Because of, what? Some ice?"

Ice in the St. Lawrence River has trapped three ships carrying a total of about 500 passengers — including an icebreaker sent in to unblock the waterway. A cruise ship with about 300 people on board is among the three stuck since Monday at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River near Matane, Quebec. A coast guard icebreaker was sent to free the cruise ship and a freighter that was also trapped, but it got stuck in the ice.

By Staff Reports Published: 1/26/2009 8:44 AM Last Modified: 1/27/2009 9:48 AM Freezing drizzle and sleet created dangerous conditions across a wide swath of the state Monday, and at least two people died and many others were injured in traffic accidents. Slick roads led to temporary closures of scores of highways and roads, early closings of schools and businesses, and announcements of school and event cancellations for Tuesday. A Tulsa man was killed when his Chevrolet Trail Blazer slid into a Freightliner truck on the Will Rogers Turnpike in Ottawa County, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. Renard J. Johnson Jr.,...

A group of Evanston friends thought it was funny when a man fell on the ice, but the situation quickly turned ugly when the fallen man drew a gun and shot one of them. The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. Saturday when the victim was standing outside with friends near 704 Florence in Evanston, according to a report from Evanston police. When the group saw a man fall on the ice, they started to laugh at him, but he wasn't amused. The man pulled a gun and fired a shot, striking the victim in the ankle, the report said. The...

Dozens of crashes reported; police urge motorists to slow down by: Staff Reports Monday, January 26, 2009 1/26/2009 4:37:16 PM Ambulance crews responded to dozens of crashes and police shut down all lanes of U.S. 169 from 11th Street to 21st Street. The highway was reopened late Monday afternoon after sand trucks were able to treat it, police said. Gov. Brad Henry has declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties. "Oklahomans know all too well that severe winter weather poses serious challenges to everything from roads and power lines to debris removal, and so it is important that...

To take a block of ice and sculpt it into art, you need a few things. A chain saw, some customized tools and a Zen master's grasp of impermanence. In a nippy parking lot off of Delmar Boulevard in the Loop on Saturday, Sean Leahy wielded a Stihl MSE 180 C and deftly buzzed through a 300-pound block. He wore heavy ski pants to seal off the cold, but only thin cotton gloves to give him a better grip on the ice. He heaved the pieces around or pushed them along the ground with his hiking boots, then sliced some...

A rare phenomenon normally associated with Scandinavia has been recorded on the River Otter in Devon for what could be the first time.

What many people may not realize is that all too often, leaders of agencies are actually non-elected politicians. Someone once said that if you put more than two people together, you wind up with a political system. In order to ascend the chain of command in any organization, often the person who winds up at the top of the pyramid is the person who has demonstrated the willingness to "go along to get along." Apparently the chief of the Border Patrol is such an individual. Virtually from his very first day in office, President George W. Bush made it clear...

SAN FRANCISCO — In its waning days, the Bush administration is ushering in last-minute immigration policy changes that could have a major effect on Bay Area courtrooms, workplaces and immigrant communities. U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey ruled this week that foreign nationals have no automatic right to a lawyer in deportation cases, overturning a common claim through which immigrants represented by incompetent lawyers could get another hearing before being deported. "This has been entrenched in the law for such a very long time that people have grown to rely on it," said San Francisco immigration lawyer Karl Krooth. "That's perhaps...