A judge today warned a city of Houston employee that she will be returned to jail if she has any contact with the co-worker she is accused of shooting.

“No phone, no e-mail or anything,” state District Judge Mike Anderson told Natasha Latrice Akins. “Do you understand?”

Akins, 24, replied that she did.

The judge also ordered her to comply with a curfew and not go to the public works building where she and Dave Whitfield Jr. worked — and where police say she shot him six times on Thursday morning. Read more »

Tucked away in a landscaped corporate park in north Houston, a sprawling complex is barely noticeable to the public. But it’s a well-known stop, a sort of symbolic exit door out of America, for about 1,500 illegal immigrants who come through this busy detention facility every month.

In Houston, the familiar image of immigration enforcement in recent months has been high-profile workplace raids such as the one at Shipley DoNuts. But what the public rarely sees is the back end of this enforcement process: detention and removal.

As the pace of immigration enforcement quickens in the Houston area, this detention center becomes increasingly vital to the government’s strategy of deporting higher numbers of illegal immigrants. Read more »

Lisa Macias, a daughter of Mexican immigrants, was born in the United States.

The Lafayette resident says she often hears people talk negatively about her and her Spanish-speaking friends as they shop in grocery stores or elsewhere.

Until she switches to English.

“When I walk in someplace, the first thing they think is, ‘Does she speak English or not?’” Macias said.

Macias isn’t alone in feeling the sting of discrimination. A survey of Spanish-speaking Lafayette-area residents by a Purdue University professor reveals an increasing number of Hispanics being treated unfairly or unkindly in 2007 compared with 2006.

Such perceptions arise amid increasingly bitter debate about immigration law reform as the population of Hispanic immigrants — particularly those without legal status — continues to grow throughout the community, region and state. Read more »

REDDICK - Marion County sheriff’s deputies arrested an undocumented immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico, on Sunday evening on charges of molesting an 8-year-old girl.

The victim’s grandmother entered a bedroom and found Martin Ramirez Garcia, 43, with the girl, sheriff’s Detective Mariam Diaz said.

“She didn’t see the actual touching, but she saw him on top of her,” Diaz said. “The grandmother beat him off of her.”

According to the arrest affidavit, the victim told an investigator that Ramirez Garcia touched her inappropriately over her clothing on several occasions and exposed himself to her. Diaz said the victim’s 5-year-old sister also saw Garcia touch the 8-year-old but was not a victim herself. Read more »

San Bernardino officials have blasted San Francisco officials for dumping illegal immigrant criminals in group homes located in San Bernardino County.Eight illegal immigrants, reportedly young convicted cocaine dealers, were placed in a Yucaipa home by San Francisco officials.

The illegals walked away, seven are still at large. San Bernardino County officials learned of the situation in the media. Needless to say they are angry. Read more »

CHICAGO (AP) - A 45-year-old woman charged in the fatal shooting of a Chicago police officer early Wednesday will be held without bond.

Robin Johnson is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Officer Richard Francis. And a Cook County judge yesterday denied bond.

Authorities say the officer was investigating a fight on a city bus when the suspect wrestled his gun away from him and shot him in the head. Other officers at a nearby police station heard the gunfire and ran to the scene. Investigators say they opened fire when she shot at them.   MORE>>>

PARIS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told a newspaper his country is unlikely to make peace with Israel while President George W. Bush remains in office.

However, in an interview published on the website of Le Figaro daily on Monday, Assad said he was betting that the next U.S. leader would get more involved in the peace process.

Assad said Syria and Israel were looking for common ground to start face-to-face negotiations, adding that it was vital to find the right country to mediate such talks. Read more »

NEW YORK - Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won’t eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative.

Say it on the Internet, and you’ll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.

Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that’s controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.   MORE>>>