A former sheriff's deputy and a former probation officer charged with participating in a scheme to sell drugs seized from criminals pleaded guilty Tuesday under agreements with prosecutors. Steven Preston, 37, the former Henry County sheriff's deputy, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one charge of racketeering conspiracy, according the U.S. Attorney's Office. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Former probation officer Carlton Riley, 42, faces a minimum five years in prison for attempted drug distribution. The maximum penalty is 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine. The pair were among 20 people, including former sheriff H. Franklin Cassell and 12 other members of the department, indicted last fall in the corruption case. Fourteen of those named in the indictment have pleaded guilty to charges that included racketeering conspiracy, narcotics distribution and weapons counts....
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 19:17:00 03-21-07
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 Forbes pays out to Moscow tycoon |
Russia's richest woman, Yelena Baturina, has won a court action for defamation against the business magazine, Forbes. Ms Baturina is the wife of the Moscow Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov and also runs a big construction company. Her complaint was over an article in the Russian edition of the magazine which implied that her business had benefited from her husband's position. A Moscow court upheld her claim and ordered Forbes to pay about $4,000. The amount is symbolic, considering the actors involved, but the case raises new questions about the freedom of Russia's media to report the lives of the rich and famous. Following December's stand-off, which resulted in Forbes' publishers ordering the front cover to be changed, Maksim Kashulinsky repeatedly accused the company Inteko of censoring the media. However, Forbes' publishers took the view that their Russian operation had, in their words, "violated journalistic ethics". ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6476133.stm
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Editor - 19:15:00 03-21-07
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| Second Illinois judge sentenced in DUI case He was seen dumping out beer after his peer crashed into another car |
A judge accused of trying to hide a beer after a drunk colleague he was riding with got into a car crash has pleaded guilty to illegally transporting alcohol. St. Clair County Judge Jan Fiss entered his plea Tuesday and was sentenced to two months under court supervision and ordered to pay a $500 fine. Fiss, 64, and Circuit Judge Patrick Young, 58, were returning to Belleville from a St. Louis Rams football game in December when Young's sport-utility vehicle collided with a pickup truck, injuring the pickup driver. Young was convicted earlier this month of drunken driving. He was sentenced to two years of court supervision and ordered to pay $1,500 in fines. Police said Fiss was seen by an officer dumping out a beer after the crash and trying to hide a beer can. He was charged under an Illinois law barring open containers of alcohol in vehicles....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17724889/
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Editor - 17:05:00 03-21-07
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| Prime Minister Steven Harper could stop the North American Union |
Sources close to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tell Canada Free Press that he is firmly against Canada being part of the North American Union (NAU). Canadian sovereignty, they say, is everything in the opinion of the Canadian prime minister. As the proverbial `i’s’ and `’t’s are being dotted and crossed in a binding document that forces Canada, the United States and Mexico into one massive borderless entity, pockets of patriots are popping up in the U.S. to fight such a union. When officials convene well outside the disinfectant of sunlight, they gather under groups with names apt to confuse the people they govern. So last month it wasn’t the North American Union meeting in Canada, it was the “Security and Prosperity Partnership”, (SPP) a name more likely to have people nodding off rather than smelling a rat. American investigative journalist and media critic Cliff Kincaid was right on to the meeting. Kincaid, who learned at the knee of American Accuracy in Media ...
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/cover032107.htm
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Editor - 17:00:00 03-21-07
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| House Democrats see Iraq withdrawal bill win |
Democratic leaders on Wednesday predicted the U.S. House of Representatives will pass a war-funding bill that sets a strict timetable for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq, after struggling to round up sufficient votes. "We're going to go this week," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "We'll have 218 (votes)," Emanuel said. Loading up the bill with funds for drought relief, hurricane rebuilding and other measures, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her Democratic lieutenants have worked to clinch the necessary votes — 218 of the House's 435 members — to pass a $124.1 billion bill that mostly funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. President George W. Bush wants the money to keep U.S. forces in Iraq in an effort to stabilize it. Democrats have made the spending bill the focus of their efforts to end the conflict that has entered its fifth year with more than 3,200 U.S. troops killed and more than 20,000 wounded. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2970793
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Editor - 13:12:00 03-21-07
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| U.S., Britain slam Italy hostage deal with Taliban |
The United States and Britain criticized Italy's hostage deal with the Taliban on Wednesday, saying the release of five guerrillas in exchange for an Italian reporter put NATO troops in danger and encouraged kidnappings.A senior U.S. administration official said Washington had formally complained to Rome through diplomatic channels for putting pressure on Kabul to release the Taliban, adding the deal "caught the U.S. by surprise." A spokeswoman at the British Foreign Office said the deal sent "the wrong signal to prospective hostage-takers." Italy, which has 1,900 troops under NATO command in Afghanistan, confirmed on Wednesday that five Taliban had been released and said this was in exchange for Monday's freeing of reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, held for two weeks by the Taliban. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2970792
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Editor - 13:10:00 03-21-07
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