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The series of sweeps by Border Patrol agents in the Inland Empire and San Diego County appear to be over, but the political fallout may last until the November election. Rep. Joe Baca (D-San Bernardino), a staunch Latino rights advocate, jumped into the political storm by leading a protest of the sweeps — which netted more than 450 suspected illegal immigrants — and helping prompt federal officials to suspend the roundups. Because of his activism, Baca has become a lightning rod of criticism from supporters of the sweeps and from a Southern California Border Patrol union whose members felt the...

ONTARIO - Community leaders and activists from across the state came together Saturday in hopes of creating a plan of action to protect undocumented workers from U.S. Border Patrol immigration raids. Leaders and representatives of Mexican and Latino organizations, community leaders, clergy and business people came from as far south as San Diego and as far north as Santa Maria to develop better communication and coordination of efforts among the organizations dealing with the Border Patrol raids conducted last month. "We need to continue to work to preserve the rights of immigrants,' said Armando Navarro, coordinator of the National Alliance...

ONTARIO – A series of Border Patrol arrests of illegal immigrants more than 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border will be reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security at the request of members of Congress, officials said Friday. Undersecretary of Homeland Security Asa Hutchinson told members of Congress from Southern California that the more than 400 arrests in Ontario, Corona and other cities were legal but violated policy because they were done without advanced authorization from headquarters. Hutchinson will review the activities of agents from the Temecula Border Patrol station who made the arrests, Border Patrol spokeswoman Gloria Chavez said....

On Saturday, June 26, a march and rally will begin at 11:00 a.m. at the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway to protest the recent immigration sweeps. Click here for the article

ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) - Elidia Celestina peered from behind a window shade before opening the door a crack to a stranger. If she leaves her apartment at all these days, it is only for a rushed, nerve-racking trip to the store. "Everyone is afraid," said Celestina, 19, who came from Mexico five months ago. "We're like mice, hiding in our homes." She and many other illegal immigrants in Southern California have been gripped by fear since a new Border Patrol unit began roving through Hispanic communities and making arrests well north of the border, beyond the agency's usual area of...

ONTARIO, Calif. (AP) - Hundreds of protesters marched through San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties in opposition to a federal crackdown on illegal immigration resulting in 160 arrests. As many as 1,000 demonstrators hoisted signs and shook maracas while trekking from Ontario to Pomona on Sunday, accusing immigration authorities of unfairly targeting Hispanic communities. "Why are they targeting Latinos?" Abel P. Medina, an organizer and member of Hermanidad Mexicano Nacional Ontario, said during the march. "We haven't received any numbers (showing) they have arrested any Canadians or any Europeans." U.S. Border Patrol agents have stopped people on streets and coming...

Rural crime wave sweeps California By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles (Filed: 05/06/2004) It may not involve guns or gangs but California is facing a new crime wave: rural theft. Farms and ranches across the state are falling prey to thieves who steal everything from tractor fuel to avocados. Criminals realise that rich pickings are to be had in the fields and orchards of the state's 78,500 farms, which make up 28 per cent of its land and produce goods worth £14.4 billion a year. But the richest pickings lie in the burls, or roots, of walnut trees, which are...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Arab militias are conducting an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing to drive out black Africans from Sudan's Darfur region and the government is doing little to stop it, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator said on Friday. "I have no reason to believe that the government is actively planning it, but I have reason to say that little is done to stop it, and therefore it seems as if it is being condoned," Jan Egeland, the world body's humanitarian affairs chief, said after briefing the Security Council. "Scorched-earth tactics are being employed throughout Darfur, including the deliberate...

Veteran television host and producer Merv Griffin, a long-time friend of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, appeared Tuesday night on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann and used the opportunity to blast CBS for "the most cowardly thing I've ever heard" over the reported tone and content of CBS's upcoming mini- series, The Reagans. "It's a cowardly act," he charged, asking: "Is that what the 'C' stands for in CBS?" Griffin, the owner of the Beverly Hilton who created the Wheel of Fortune game show after many years as host of his own daytime Merv Griffin Show, relayed how Nancy Reagan feels...

Elizabeth Smart's parents are losing control of a carefully orchestrated and lucrative November Sweeps rollout for official product based on the abduction of their daughter! MORE The "Elizabeth Smart Story" [which many in the industry have dubbed "The Ed Smart Story"] began to unspool this week on schedule with an authorized Couric/Oprah one-two public relations punch. But now Ed and Lois Smart and Doubleday, publisher of the upcoming book, are claiming the project has been kidnaped -- after CBS betrayed them by airing an unauthorized one-hour "news" special last Saturday night! MORE According to the publisher, CBS had verbally agreed...

It's Sweepstime For Hitler, But Winter for Truthby Ron Rosenbaum It's springtime, I mean sweepstime, for Hitler in Hollywood. I'm sure you've all heard of the forthcoming two-night, four-hour, prime-time CBS "Miniseries Event" called Hitler: The Rise of Evil (airing May 18 and 20). Well I've finally seen a review copy of the controversial "docudrama," and there's a lot I could say - and may say in the future - about the soap opera-fication of the Hitler story.But there's a drama behind the docudrama that hasn't received the attention it deserves. A story about the political uses of Hitler and...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House sought to have an administration official counter Saddam Hussein's claims in an interview with CBS' Dan Rather, but could not reach agreement with the network on the right person to do it.</p> <p>Much of the interview was airing Wednesday night on "60 Minutes II."</p>

(CBS) There are just two men in the world now who can prevent a new U.S.-led war in Iraq, and CBS News Anchor Dan Rather sat down with one of them: the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. In his first interview with an American journalist in a decade, Hussein talked for more than three hours about the looming war and his efforts to head it off. Saddam indicated he will not destroy -- as ordered by the U.N. -- his arsenal of controversial al Samoud missiles. Saddam also challenged President Bush to a televised debate about their differences. CBS News...

NEW YORK, Feb 24, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- CBS News' Dan Rather said hard work and luck helped him land his interview with Saddam Hussein on Monday - the Iraqi leader's first interview with a foreign television journalist in 12 years. CBS posted a report about the interview on its Web site Monday afternoon, saying Saddam has challenged President Bush to a live debate on their nations' differences. It's the biggest interview "get" of the year in television news, one all the national news organizations had been seeking. Reached by telephone in Baghdad, Rather credited his executive producer,...

Hussein calls for debate with Bush Iraqi leader also tells CBS anchor he won't destroy banned missiles 02/25/2003 Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Monday challenged President Bush to an internationally televised debate and indicated that he did not intend to follow U.N. orders to destroy his al-Samoud 2 missiles. In an interview with CBS anchor Dan Rather, Mr. Hussein said he envisioned a live debate with Mr. Bush along the lines of those in a U.S. presidential campaign, CBS said on its Web site. Regarding chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix's order that Iraq...

Saddam Expects War Soon (CBS) In an exclusive interview with CBS News Anchor Dan Rather, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein indicated he feels an invasion aimed at unseating him will come soon. Speaking to an American journalist for the first time in about a decade, Saddam also denied his Al Samoud 2 missiles were illegal and challenged President Bush to debate the need for war. The wide-ranging three-hour interview covered Saddam's feelings on his own people, the American public, Osama bin Laden, and what his own fate might be. Saddam made it clear that he takes the threat of war seriously...

So why did Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein choose CBS tycoon Dan Rather to be his propaganda tool? Rather claims it was because of "hard work and luck." Here's the truth: Fanatical Bush-hater Ramsey Clark, a force in the pro-Saddam appeasement movement, set it up. Thus reports the Associated Press. Clark, of course, was attorney general to the disastrous Lyndon Johnson, who pursued that really popular Democrat war in Vietnam. Clark has even visited his pal Saddam in Iraq. Useful IdiotIn giving Saddam a propaganda platform to spout his self-serving rhetoric, Rather handed him a nationwide audience for his attempt...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House criticized CBS television on Wednesday over what a spokesman said was a spurned offer to rebut comments by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during an interview to be broadcast on Wednesday evening. "This seems odd they wouldn't let the White House have a voice," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told Reuters. He said the White House had offered a representative to counter what he said would be propaganda, lies and irresponsible statements by Saddam in the rare interview, but he said CBS replied it was interested only if President Bush made the response himself. CBS...

(CBS) In an exclusive interview with CBS Anchor Dan Rather, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein says he will die before going into exile. Hussein also denied links with Osama bin Laden and indicated he would not set fire to Iraq's oil fields or other sabotage in the event of a U.S.-led invastion. In the interview, which airs on 60 Minutes II on Wednesday, 9 p.m. EST, 8 pm CT., Saddam answered key questions about what his actions might be in the event of a U.S.-led war against Iraq. The interview with Rather was Saddam's first with an American journalist in about...