Free Republic

Federal officials on Friday raided a squalid house and found 70 illegal immigrants and four suspected smugglers, authorities said. Federal agents and a sheriff's SWAT team entered the house about 6 a.m., setting off flash-bang grenades as a diversion because there was concern that some of the immigrants were being held hostage, said Frank Johnston, an assistant special agent in charge with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nobody was hurt in the raid in the unincorporated Willowbrook area of Los Angeles County Johnston said 70 people from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Mexico, including 15 to 20 women and children,...

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans sought Tuesday to turn up the political heat on Democrats stalling the nomination of President Bush's choice to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "It's been 200 days that this vacancy sign above our U.N. ambassador's door in New York has been blinking. It is now time to end that," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters. The Tennessee Republican said he would schedule a vote at the end of the week to cut off debate on Bolton so that the Senate can hold a final up-or-down vote on Bolton's nomination. However, it's not...

<p>Determined to get his "fiscal recovery" plan through the Legislature by Friday's deadline, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will spend next week barnstorming the state and applying pressure to targeted lawmakers he thinks may be persuaded to come to his aid.</p> <p>Using talk radio and campaign-style public events, the governor and his aides have carefully selected venues where they believe he can sway potentially sympathetic legislators by appealing directly to their constituents.</p>