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<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agents in a sweep targeting the most dangerous criminal immigrants arrested 15 people who have been allowed to remain in the U.S. under President Barack Obama's executive action intended to protect children who came to the U.S. years ago with their parents, The Associated Press has learned.</p>

A year out from the Iowa caucuses, potential presidential candidate and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has taken the lead among Republicans, an Iowa Poll published Saturday indicates. With 15 percent support, Walker leads a number of other potential candidates for the Republican ticket, including Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush, the Des Moines Register reported. Walker is the No. 2 candidate among potential caucus attendees who support an establishment candidate as well as those who prefer one who is anti-establishment, the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa poll indicated. Following close behind, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky...

What's open, closed for Cesar Chavez Day Friday is Cesar Chavez Day, a legal holiday in California but not a federal holiday. Here's a roundup of what's open and what's closed: Government: Courts are closed. Most state offices will be closed. Federal and DMV offices will be open. Most county offices are open. Mail: The U.S. Postal Service will deliver mail. Universities: University of California, Irvine, and California State University, Fullerton, are closed. Transit: OCTA buses and Metrolink trains will run on a regular schedule. Banks: Banks and financial markets will be open. Events: At noon Saturday, the 12th annual...

Voters encountered a confident and combative Rick Perry last night at the first New Hampshire town-hall meeting of the Texas governor's presidential campaign. After uneven debate performances, Perry didn't hesitate as he took questions from voters about job creation, Social Security and global warming at the Adams Memorial Opera House in Derry. Throughout, he pitched himself as the Republican candidate who presents the clearest contrast to President Obama. "We need a nominee for the Republican Party that is a clear contrast with Barack Obama," Perry said. "Ronald Reagan said it pretty good when he said 'Now is the time for...

Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- Hundreds of people gathered outside Arizona's Capitol building on Sunday in a largely peaceful protest against the state's tough new immigration law. Chanting "Yes we can," waving American flags and holding signs reading "We have rights" and "We are human," demonstrators kept up a festive spirit as they denounced the bill signed Friday by Gov. Jan Brewer. The new law requires police to determine whether a person is in the United States legally. It also requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason...

The Dallas City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to rename a short stretch of a downtown street for civil rights hero and farm labor champion César Chávez, capping two years of struggle often rooted in raw feelings over race, culture and a changing city. < snip > At City Hall and around Dallas, the process to rename a street for Chávez engendered hard feelings among proponents and opponents alike. But the mood in the City Council chambers was buoyant Wednesday, with Hispanic leaders joining with black, Asian and other minority groups in a standing ovation when the vote was taken. Several...

Yes we can? Barack Obama wasn't sure at first. The President initially blanched when his now-famous campaign slogan was first introduced by political guru David Axelrod during the 2004 Illinois Senate race, a new book reports. "I don't like it. Come on," Obama was quoted as saying in "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," by author Christopher Andersen. Obama felt the catch phrase was "childish" and "corny," and even asked his staff to find something else - until his wife, Michelle, convinced him otherwise, the book reports. "It will work," she said, swaying the future President. "Trust me."...

As President Obama's Supreme Court nominee comes under heavy fire for allegedly being a "racist," Judge Sonia Sotomayor is listed as a member of the National Council of La Raza, a group that's promoted driver's licenses for illegal aliens, amnesty programs, and no immigration law enforcement by local and state police. According the American Bar Association, Sotomayor is a member of the NCLR, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. Meaning "the Race," La Raza also has connections to groups that advocate the separation of several southwestern states from the rest...

Original Title:豚インフルエンザで渡航規制相次ぐ、米国も要警戒Upshot: NEC, NTT Data, Hitachi, etc. ordering employees not to go to Mexico, and report any flu if arriving back in Japan immediately as well as to not come into work. What is questionable is that they are ordering family employees back from Mexico to Japan (what if they themselves already have the flu?) Reports also said Japanese people should take care if considering any kind of travel to the UNITED STATES. 　(FR Link to original article in Japanese)

Mexico City - The death toll from a spreading wave of influenza in Mexico has climbed to 81, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Saturday evening. Twenty of the lethal infections have been definitively linked to the newly emerging strain of swine flu, he said. All told, 1,324 people have been admitted to hospital for examination. In the United States, 11 non-lethal cases of a similar strain of influenza have been identified by the Centres for Disease Control, with tests pending on another 10 cases. The Geneva-based World Health Organization declared the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and...

Guatemalan girl describes alleged enforced prostitution She testifies in federal court how a group of immigrants duped her into coming to the U.S., forced her to sell herself and kept her captive. By Scott Glover January 9, 2009 When Sandra agreed to make the perilous trek from her native Guatemala to the United States in 2006, she said, she was lured by the prospect of a job as a housekeeper that would enable her to send money to her impoverished family back home. Her father had a hernia that prevented him from working, and money was so tight that she...

Politically active Barack Obama supporters in Michigan have tried to silence criticism of the president-elect on a talk program at a community radio station by cutting its air time, the program host says. Officials with radio station WRHC told WND the dispute involved talk show host Martin Dzuris' coverage of local issues as well as national issues. But Dzuris explained in a lengthy interview with WND he attended at least one meeting where radio station officials discussed specifically how to reduce Dzuris' criticism of Obama, which has linked Obama's statements taken directly from his speeches to Marxism. Dzuris said one...

Obama's Plan to Rejoin the World Communityby Phyllis Schlafly (more by this author) Posted 12/23/2008 ETUpdated 12/23/2008 ET When Candidate Barack Obama declared himself a "citizen of the world" before thousands of cheering German socialists and later pledged to "rejoin the World Community," those weren't just his usual platitudes about "change." Those words sounded the trumpet for his specific and far-reaching globalist agenda. Obama plans to use his presidential power to get the Democratic-majority Senate to ratify a series of treaties that would take us a long way toward global rule over our money, our laws, our military, our...

EDINBURG — Mario Olivares Cifuentes thought he understood the risks of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Tales of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande or succumbing to the oppressive South Texas sun spread frequently among those hoping to make the trek. But for Olivares, a Guatemalan migrant, the real danger emerged only after passing those natural perils. For almost a day, he and 20 of his countrymen were allegedly kidnapped, tortured, raped and held for ransom in a stash house east of Edinburg before federal agents rescued them last week. Their purported tormentors — a group of Mexican nationals believed...

Inspired by Barack Obama, the French first lady and other leading figures say it's high time for France to stamp out racism and shake up a white political and social elite that smacks of colonial times. A manifesto published Sunday urges affirmative action-like policies and other steps to turn French ideals of equality into reality for millions of blacks, Arabs and other alienated minorities. "Our prejudices are insidious," Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a singer and wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, which published the manifesto. She said she hoped the "Obama effect" would...

Plans are being made to promote a national holiday for Barack Obama, who will become the nation's 44th president when he takes the oath of office Jan. 20. "Yes We Can" planning rallies will be at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the downtown McDonald's restaurant, 1100 Kansas Ave., until Jan. 13. The goals are to secure a national holiday in Obama's honor, to organize celebrations around his inauguration and to celebrate the 200th birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who was born on Feb. 12 1809. At 7:30 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Obama Cake will be served at...

Obama's defeat of the heir apparent in his own party and his victory over the much-vaunted Republican machine is a remarkable achievement that owes a lot to his instinct for marketing When the book is written on this election, it should not be titled "The Making of a President," but "The Marketing of a President." Barack Obama's campaign is a case study in marketing excellence. True, it was always going to be a Democratic year. An unpopular war, an incumbent Republican president with rock bottom approval ratings, and many Republican incumbents retiring from Congress as a result all meant that...

Posted 5 :56 PM ST. LOUIS -- For many people outside of the political world Rahm Emanuel is not a household name, but that is about to change as President-elect Barack Obama has tapped him to be his White House chief of staff. “Rahm is exactly the right person at the right time for that job” said John Lapp who served as executive director under Emanuel in his role as chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, (DCCC). “What people don’t understand about him is, yes he is a great political strategist and statistician, but he is also a thoughtful...

Dealing with the BluesBy Rick Nauert, Ph.D. Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 6, 2008 Thursday, Nov 6 (Psych Central) -- The events that have occurred over the past few weeks have been emotionally charged. Now the election is over and reality sets in. Days are shorter and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is already here for many. “This is the time of the year when people are vulnerable to depression anyway,” said Dr. Thomas Nutter, assistant professor, psychiatry & behavioral neurosciences, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. “The fact that the election happened, the...

Paul Begala refers to Rep. Rahm Emanuel’s style as a “cross between a hemorrhoid and a toothache.” His stint as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been notable for his clashes with DNC Chairman Howard Dean over strategy, resources, and the direction of the party. A former aide to President Clinton, he was known as “Rahm-bo” among friend and foe alike. Schooled in the rough and tumble of Chicago politics, he was a senior adviser to Richard Daley’s successful 1989 mayoral bid Friends and enemies agree that the key to Emanuel’s success is his legendary intensity. There’s the...