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WASHINGTON - The House and Senate should vote on a compromise immigration bill before the November elections so voters can assess how their lawmakers did on the issue, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner said Friday. But a chance at citizenship for illegal immigrants — what some call amnesty — is a nonstarter for any compromise bill, said Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. Failing to appoint negotiators to a House-Senate conference committee or waiting until after the elections would amount to "punting," he said. Plus, the American public is entitled to assess how their senators and representatives did on the issue "before they...

Feds Are Intruding, Says Angry La. Lawmaker Tied to BribesBy Renee D. Turner, BET.com Staff Writer Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) Posted May 23, 2006 – Democratic Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, rebutting claims by the FBI that he is on tape accepting a bribe, said Tuesday that he would not step down. "I expect to continue to represent the people who have sent me here," Jefferson told reporters, emphasizing that he will seek re-election in November. The Saturday- through-Sunday search into Jefferson’s D.C. congressional offices was an “outrageous intrusion,” the New Orleans representative said at a news conference. “…There are two...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born Dutch politician known for her outspoken criticism of Islam, plans to leave parliament and move to the United States after admitting she lied to win asylum in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali, 36, sought asylum in the Netherlands in 1992, claiming to be escaping from an arranged marriage. She gained Dutch citizenship in 1997 and was elected to parliament in 2003. A storm erupted about her asylum application last week after a Dutch television documentary interviewed members of her family about her background. They said she had not been forced into an arranged...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Kentucky businessman pleaded guilty on Wednesday to bribing Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) in an African Internet venture, the U.S. Justice Department said. .... According court records filed in the plea deal, Jefferson helped secure a deal with a Nigerian company, Netlink Digital Television, to deploy iGate's high-speed Internet technology throughout Africa and when that deal turned sour secured $45 million from a Virginia investment firm. Jefferson traveled to Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon to promote iGate's technology and sought financing through the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the documents say. In...

Lawmaker's warning: Vote in New Orleans race could tip taxman U.S. actor/comedian Bill Cosby makes a face during a rally for voting rights of displaced residents in New Orleans April 1, 2006. Many citizens scattered across the country since Hurricane Katrina may be unable to vote in the city's April 22 mayoral election, according to rally organizers. REUTERS/Lee Celano BATON ROUGE, La. When New Orleans residents scattered about the country by Hurricane Katrina cast their ballots in the mayor's race, they'll be giving state tax collectors a way to locate them. One Louisiana lawmaker says he wants people to know...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Colorado lawmaker said there was a "war" under way along the US-Mexico border and urged President George W. Bush to deploy troops there, alleging drug trafficking by the Mexican military. Republican Representative Tom Tancredo said the United States was facing "a war" with renegade Mexican troops over the long, porous border. "We have a war. We are facing a military on the other side of the border," Tancredo told demonstrators protesting illegal immigration outside the US Congress. "In other places, in other times, that would be an active war," he added, reiterating an accusation that Mexican...

PHOENIX - An Arizona legislator has been removed from office for overspending during his 2004 primary race, making him the first lawmaker in the country to be ousted for violating a state's public campaign financing system. After a five-month court battle, the Arizona Supreme Court on Thursday ordered first-term Republican Rep. David Burnell Smith to leave office at midnight. "I will no longer exercise any duties as a representative," the 64-year-old lawyer said Friday. Under Arizon's 1998 Clean Elections Law, candidates who voluntarily participate must collect a set number of $5 contributions from voters to qualify for public funding. In...

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - Louisiana Democratic Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) sought a cut of a Nigerian telecommunications venture in return for his help setting it up, a former aide said on Wednesday as he pleaded guilty to bribery charges. In return for lobbying Nigerian officials and arranging a loan through the U.S. Import-Export Bank, Jefferson demanded an ownership stake in a venture by two U.S. companies to provide high-speed Internet and cable television to Nigeria, former aide Brett Pfeffer said. "The congressman told me he would require 5 to 7 percent of ownership of the company," Pfeffer...

Iranian parlamentarian Kurosh Niknam, a member of Iran's Zoroastrian religious minority has been summoned to appear before the country's Revolutionary Tribunal after being accused of spreading false news and showing lack of respect for the authorities. The charges stem from comments Niknam made to protest against derogatory remarks against non-Muslims uttered by a close aide to Iran's Supreme Leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Non-Muslims "cannot be called human beings but are animals who roam the earth and engage in corruption." said Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati last week at a ceremony in north-eastern Iran to commemorate the 'martyrs' of the Revolutionary Guards and...

A U.S. lawmaker says elements of the war on terror are now spilling across the nation's southwestern border, and that colleagues he's spoken to who have seen the problem first-hand, as he has, say they felt safer "during trips to Iraq than they would have in a pickup truck on our southern border." Rep. John A. Culberson, R-Texas, also says there has been an increase in apprehensions of so-called "special interest aliens," or SIAs – aliens from countries where al-Qaida is known to be in operation – along the U.S.-Mexico border, and that American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are...

LONDON (Reuters) - Maverick British lawmaker George Galloway on Tuesday angrily rejected new U.S. accusations that he profited from the U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq. The flamboyant parliamentarian, an outspoken opponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, challenged Congressmen to charge him with perjury and pledged to fly out to Washington on the next plane to defend himself. U.S. congressional investigators say they have evidence that Galloway profited from the U.N. program. They also allege he knowingly made false or misleading statements to Congress in May when he denied the charges. The Senate governmental affairs subcommittee on investigations will hand...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California assemblywoman who suspects pollution contributed to the cancer she was diagnosed with last year announced plans Wednesday to seek an air cleanup bond that could cost the state between $2 billion and $5 billion dollars. The announcement by Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, followed a hearing in which lawmakers heard nearly three hours of testimony linking air pollution from California's ports, trucks and other shipping sources to deaths, childhood illnesses and even poor fetal development. The state Air Resources Board released a study earlier this month that found diesel emissions from the Los Angeles...

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - The president of the government-allied Liberal Party resigned from Congress on Monday - the first lawmaker to step down in a widening corruption scandal that has plagued the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Rep. Valdemar Costa Neto, who represents Sao Paulo state for the Liberal Party, said he had erred in accepting money from Silva's Workers' Party during the 2002 elections. "I assume the only and absolute responsibility for this act," Costa told Congress in an address. He said he would stay on as president of the Liberal Party. Costa Neto acknowledged he...

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- A New York state lawmaker says he's embarrassed, after he mistakenly sent out an e-mail message that referred to his constituents as "idiots." Assemblyman Willis Stephens says he thought he was sending the e-mail to an aide. Instead, he sent the note to nearly 300 people on an online discussion group that focuses on the community of Brewster. The message included the comment that he was "just watching the idiots pontificate." Within an hour of sending the message Monday morning, Stephens sent another e-mail apologizing for the slip-up. Stephens, a Republican, represents an area north of New...

For weeks now the FBI's Tennessee Waltz sting has dominated headlines, yet another corruption probe involving former state senator John Ford continues quietly to build steam. Indicted in Memphis for allegedly taking bribes from a fake FBI company, Ford still isn't clear of a separate Nashville investigation centered on payments he got from real companies doing business with TennCare. Advertisement The latest indication of the Nashville probe comes from the overseer of United American Health Plan, who confirmed this week that the TennCare contracting firm received a grand jury subpoena. "I'm fully cooperating," said Paul Eggers, state-appointed supervisor of United...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - During a tour of the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists on Saturday, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said the United States has made progress in improving conditions and protecting detainees' rights. The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cellblocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring. A Senate delegation also was visiting this weekend. "The Guantanamo we saw today is not the Guantanamo we heard about a few...

JERUSALEM – An Arab lawmaker will propose a Knesset bill next week seeking to ban all Druze Arab soldiers from participating in the evacuation of Jewish communities from Gaza and parts of the West Bank this summer, WorldNetDaily has learned. Arab Druze Knesset Member Ayoob Kara, from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party, told WND in an exclusive interview yesterday he will introduce the bill next week because he doesn't think Arabs should uproot Jews from their homes. "My community didn't come to Israel to rip Jews out of their houses," Kara said. "Druze Arabs gladly become soldiers in...

Former state senator John Ford's financial ties to a TennCare contractor -- the source of ethics and criminal inquiries since April -- now are the focus of a securities fraud lawsuit as well. A federal suit in Michigan seeking class action status and damages to be determined at trial alleges that publicly traded United American Healthcare Corp. misled investors by concealing an "illegal political payments scheme'' that steered more than $400,000 to Ford over four years. Revelations of the payments led Tennessee insurance regulators to act against United American's sole viable business, Memphis-based OmniCare Health Plan, recently renamed UAHC Health...

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A vote buying scandal in Brazil's Congress was financed by state and private companies, a Brazilian lawmaker alleged in an interview published Saturday. Rep. Roberto Jefferson said the money was collected from the private and public companies by a man who works with Delubio Soares, the Workers Party treasurer accused of making the reported payoffs. Last week Jefferson claimed that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers Party made monthly payments of about $12,000 to lawmakers in exchange for votes. In the exclusive interview with the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Jefferson did not name the...

SACRAMENTO — Approval of a 12 percent pay hike that will elevate the salaries of California legislators — already the nation's highest-paid state lawmakers — to $110,880 annually has set off a new annual salary since taking office in November 2003, was disappointed with the commission's vote, believing the state's fiscal condition — though improving — does not justify a pay raise. "What have they accomplished since 1998 (the last time legislators received a raise)?" he asked. "Because that's what we do in the private sector, we will now analyze what have they accomplished: They have chased businesses out of...