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Note: The following text is a quote: Authorities in El Paso Arrest Seven in Connection with Kidnapping/Murder Investigation Federal Charges Include Conspiracy to Commit Murder, Murder for Hire, Kidnapping, Drug Distribution and Interstate Transportation in Aid of Racketeering SAN ANTONIO—U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy, DEA Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit, FBI Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson, U.S. Border Patrol Marfa Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Smietana and El Paso Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Randy Hill, El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza and El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles announced the arrest of seven individuals charged...

Juan Martinez can barely pay the bills, even with the income from his second job as a security guard. Now he hardly sees his family. Juan Carlos Martinez sits in a lonely Miami office tower late on a Sunday night, fighting back yawns as the rumble of passing trucks shake the empty building. He's miles from home, where he'd rather be, helping his children get ready for bed. But he needs this job as a weekend security guard. Martinez is a Miami-Dade teacher with a master's degree in education and ten years of experience. For that, he earns $38,050 a...

"Huge Union Corruption Draws a Yawn From Liberal Media" Posted by the ChronWatch Founder, Jim Sparkman Wednesday, August 27, 2003 The liberal media has an inexhustable appetite for any news about any form of corporate corruption. They fed on Ken Lay and Enron for months, and still get an occasional meal over his corporate corpse. When it comes to union fraud, we find a distinct disinterest on the part of the liberal media. This item by Michelle Malkin tells of a case of huge union corruption that draws a yawn from the media. Three months ago, this column wondered if...

Tornillo To Serve Two Years In Plea Deal Tornillo Will Get Two-Year Sentence NBC 6 News Team POSTED: 12:58 p.m. EDT August 25, 2003 UPDATED: 7:13 p.m. EDT August 25, 2003 MIAMI -- The longtime leader of the Miami-Dade County teacher's union pleaded guilty Monday in a deal after a public corruption task force found he fraudulently charged the organization for up to $650,000 in personal expenses for cruises, vacations and other luxuries. Pat Tornillo, on leave from the United Teachers of Dade, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and filing a false tax return under the deal in exchange for...

Even now, as federal agents pore over the financial records they seized from his union headquarters in Miami, Pat Tornillo remains a legend among Florida teachers. He led the nation's first statewide teachers' strike, a bitter walkout that kept 1-million Florida children out of school but gave public employees the right to bargain collectively. He built the largest labor union in the South, securing higher pay for teachers who paid him millions of dollars in dues - money he used to help elect dozens of Democrats to public office. But the 77-year-old Tornillo now faces the biggest battle of his...

he president of the teachers' union in Miami-Dade County, Fla., is under federal investigation, union officials said on Friday, after reports that he had spent $350,000 in union money on a way of life that included $175 python-print pajamas from Neiman Marcus and a $49,715 three-week vacation to Australia, New Zealand and California. The union official, Pat Tornillo, who has been president of United Teachers of Dade for more than two decades, took an unpaid leave of absence after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the union's office in late April.Union officials said that Mr. Tornillo, who earned $243,000 in...