Free Republic

MONTERREY, Mex. -- Masked gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a Mexican television station during its newscast Tuesday night. The two news anchors asked for help from police on the air. It was a stark warning from drug gangs about the station's drug coverage. No injuries were reported, but it was the latest in a series of attacks on journalists covering drug cartels in Mexico. Witnesses say the masked gunmen arrived in two pickup trucks and opened fire during the station's evening newscast. There was a message left outside the station saying "Stop reporting only about us; also...

Border Patrol agents are hoping the high-tech and increased manpower is enough to curb an anticipated spike in illegal crossings. Agents working in the Rio Grande Valley told Action 4 News that many illegal immigrants return to Mexico and Central America during the holidays. The immigrants typically try to return at the beginning of the year. Local Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez said agents are ready for the annual surge in illegal immigration. "We use technology, infrastructure and manpower in order to interdict these people or any possible incursion along the border," Lopez said.

Gunmen threw a grenade and opened fire outside a television news station during its evening broadcast in Mexico on Tuesday and left a message warning journalists from reporting on drug war violence. Gunmen hurled the grenade at the regional studios of Mexico's top broadcaster Grupo Televisa in the northern city of Monterrey during the evening news show, the station's reporters said live on the air. No one was hurt in the attack, believed to be the first against a TV station in Mexico, and in which the gunmen sprayed one of the complex's outside doors with bullets. The grenade exploded...

The U.S. has developed plans for a “surge” in crime fighters if the drug wars in Mexico should spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. Criminal activity in Mexico has killed more than 5,300 people in the past year, including members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, many of them slain close to the U.S. border. Over the summer Chertoff called for plans to combat the violence. He told The New York Times that the Homeland Security Department drew up a contingency plan so that if there is a significant spillover of violence across...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

A Pasco, Wash., man was arrested this morning by Oregon State Police after about 115 pounds of marijuana was found in a van he was driving north on Interstate 5. Lt. Brian Powers said Jesus Lopez-Ramos, 53, was the only occupant in the van, which was stopped about 8 a.m. south of Ashland for a traffic violation. There was a marijuana odor in the van. Lopez-Ramos is being held in Jackson County Jail on suspicion of possession, distribution and manufacturing of marijuana. State police valued the marijuana at about $345,000.

Election video: Lesbian kiss Party supporting legalization of soft drugs hopes to revive sleepy elections campaign Moran Zelikovitch Two lesbians engaged in a passionate kiss, drug use at a pub, starving musicians, and a clean, green environment. No, this is not Amsterdam in the spring. These are Ale Yarok's (Hebrew for "Green Leaf") TV election campaign ads to be aired on Tuesday. A different kind of wedding – Ale Yarok campaign video In a press conference, the party presented its TV and radio broadcasts under the slogan: "We also have other aspirations". So what are those aspirations? Strict conservation of...