CHICAGO — Thousands of immigrants and activists gathered in cities across the country Thursday to demand comprehensive immigration reform, including citizenship opportunities for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.

Turnout has fallen sharply since the first nationwide rallies in 2006, when more than 1 million people — at least 400,000 in Chicago alone — flooded streets and brought traffic to a standstill.

Activists hoping to re-ignite the immigration debate in time for the presidential elections say this year’s efforts are focused less on protests and more on voter registration and setting an agenda for the next president. Read more »

As the calendar reads September 23, 1980, Iran recalls the spirit of its mythical archer and hero, Arash Kamangir, to launch Operation Kaman 99, its largest ever Air Force retaliation against US-backed dictator Saddam Hussein, just a day after Iraq launched surprise aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic.

On September 22, 1980, a war-experienced Iraq initiated massive air strikes on strategic locations in the newly-established Islamic Republic of Iran in the hope of crippling the country’s Air Force and gaining air supremacy.

At 1:45 pm local time, 6 Mig-23 fighter jets bombarded an airbase near Ahvaz in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan. Read more »

A man has been accused of attempting to pass a $360 billion check, which he claims was given to him by his girlfriend’s mother to start a record business, Fort Worth police said.

Charles Ray Fuller, 21, of Crowley, was arrested on April 22 on an accusation of forgery, police said.

Police responded to a report of a man attempting to pass the check about 4 p.m. that day at the Chase bank in the 8600 block of South Hulen Street, Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson said. Read more »

A US campaign watchdog has accused presumptive Republican president nominee John McCain of violating election laws by accepting campaign contributions from two prominent Londoners.

At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London’s Spencer House, during McCain’s swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their “kind permission”.

Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton’s White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored the fundraiser. US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals. Read more »

The Keystone State Skinheads say they are making a strong and progressive movement against crime, drug abuse and greed. They also say they have been unfairly stereotyped, and made out to be villains in the mass media. Civil rights groups disagree. They say the organization is filled with racist and violent skinheads determined to spread hate.

Tonight, we’ll be talking with a high-ranking member of the of the Keystone State Skinheads about what they wish to accomplish as a group, and how they go about reaching their goals.

Click here to vote whether you think the media has unfairly stereotyped skinhead organizations?

“Days later, Mr. Rumsfeld wrote a memorandum distilling their collective guidance into bullet points. Two were underlined:

‘Focus on the Global War on Terror - not simply Iraq. The wider war - the long war.’

‘Link Iraq to Iran. Iran is the concern. If we fail in Iraq or Afghanistan, it will help Iran.’ “ Read more »

Ray McGovern, a prominent former CIA analyst, says US President George W. Bush is planning to wage a military attack on Iran this year.

McGovern who has been a CIA officer under seven US presidents–presenting the morning intelligence briefings at the White House for many of them–believes President Bush and his administration have no intention of leaving Iraq and are preparing to attack Iran in the next few months.

“I believe George Bush and Dick Cheney plan to take care of Iran before they leave office,” the former CIA official said in an interview with Charleston Gazette, which was published on Wednesday. Read more »

LINCOLN, Neb. - Anne Hobbs was angry. The head of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission had just learned of a Hispanic couple who said their landlord asked for their driver’s licenses — but didn’t ask the same of non-Hispanic tenants.

Hobbs said it sounded like the couple were “treated differently than everybody else because of national origin,” and sent the case to the state’s top prosecutor, hoping he would sue on their behalf under fair housing laws.

When Attorney General Jon Bruning received the case, he was angry, too — for a different reason than Hobbs.

“I’m not going to use taxpayer dollars to file lawsuits for illegal aliens,” said Bruning after learning the couple was in the U.S. illegally. “You’re not going to get a free lawyer” from his office, he said, “if you’re not a citizen of this country.”   MORE>>>

Crack users openly suck on glass pipes, gang members deal drugs on sidewalks and streets are speckled with human feces.

Yet the Los Angeles Police Department and some people who live and work on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles — the city with the nation’s largest population of homeless people — say that crime is dropping and that the streets are safer and cleaner than they were just two years ago.

They credit the turnaround to a police crackdown launched 18 months ago and call it a rare success in dealing with homelessness, one of the most troubling social problems facing urban areas nationwide.   

“We wanted to restore order to what was one of the most chaotic areas,” said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, who supervised police in Skid Row until a recent transfer. “It’s completely transformed.” Read more »

Dennis Rodman has been arrested for allegedly hitting a woman at a hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles.

Police say the 46-year-old former NBA star was arrested Wednesday night after officers answered a report of a domestic dispute. Officer Sara Fayden says they learned Rodman had struck a woman who suffered “injuries to her arm.” Read more »

Just what we needed, another anti-discrimination bill. 

Companies would no longer be able to use genetic information like a person’s predisposition for breast cancer, sickle cell or diabetes to make insurance or job decisions under a bill passed by Congress on Thursday.

The House voted 414-1 for the legislation a week after it passed the Senate on a 95-0 vote. The bill would bar health insurance companies from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility. Similarly, employers could not use genetic information in hiring, firing or promotion decisions.

Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said that for years doctors have been forced to tell women whose families have a history of breast cancer to refuse genetic testing for fear of discrimination. Read more »

The destruction of the orange sedan with its slapdash paintwork may have been intentional but it was far from wanton. It was all part of Volvo’s bid to create an injury-proof car by 2020.

While that vehicle of the future may lack the self-awareness of the crime-fighting Trans Am in 1980s TV series Knight Rider, experts say it will be able to steer, brake and find out about the road ahead from within a vast electronic bumper.

And if all goes according to plan, its driver and passengers will escape even the most serious crash unhurt.

Volvo is far from the only player in what Claes Tingvall, the Swedish road administration’s head of traffic safety, calls the biggest revolution in the auto industry since the seatbelt. Read more »

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer, has stopped conducting oil transactions in U.S. dollars, a top Oil Ministry official said Wednesday, in a concerted attempt to reduce reliance on Washington at a time of tension over Tehran’s nuclear program and suspected involvement in Iraq.

Iran has dramatically reduced dependence on the dollar over the past year in the face of increasing U.S. pressure on its financial system and the fall in the value of the American currency.

Oil is priced in dollars on the world market, and the currency’s depreciation has concerned producers because it has contributed to rising crude prices and eroded the value of their dollar reserves.

Read more »

Five years after the “Mission Accomplished” banner was displayed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Bush administration now claims that they never meant this to mean the war mission was accomplished, but that the USS Abraham Lincoln had accomplished its mission.
It seems a bit Orwellian to me, that we are now being told that 2+2 does not equal 4. However, this is nothing new for this or other regimes. We are currently living in more of a totalitarian reign than most can see. In this era, hundreds of children can be taken from their parents and put into Government foster homes based on a phone call from a criminal Read more »