Free Republic

MEXICO CITY - Mexico is creating an environmental reserve about 30 feet wide and 600 miles long on the Texas border, a "green wall" to protect the Rio Grande from the roads and staging areas that smugglers use to ferry drugs and migrants across the frontier. Much of this border zone is remote and inhospitable - generally too rough to hike through unless you're a black bear or a pronghorn sheep, species that have flourished in the area's deserts and mountains. And that's the way Mexico wants to keep it. While the proposed Rio Bravo del Norte Natural Monument is...

SACRAMENTO – Law enforcement officials said Thursday they are investigating a threatening letter and nontoxic white powder sent to a state senator through a California prison that was home to the "Green Wall," a band of rogue prison guards. The letter to state Sen. Gloria Romero appears to have originated within Salinas Valley State Prison near Soledad shortly after Romero's correctional system oversight committee held a hearing on the Green Wall, said California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two new members to the Board of Prison Terms, which oversees the state's troubled parole system,...