Fast And Furious

Re "Holder draws House panel's rebuke," and "Fast and Furious showdown," Editorial, June 21 I find it interesting that in these articles about the Fast and Furious operation, you neglect to mention that the "gun walking scandal" began under the Bush administration, when it was called Operation Wide Receiver. Suspected gun traffickers were able to buy guns with federal officials' knowledge. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista)

Universal Studios Hollywood is putting the pedal to the metal on a new attraction based on the popular "Fast and Furious" movie series. The theme park announced Tuesday plans to add a high-definition, 3-D feature to the park's long-running Studio Tour tram ride by the summer of 2015. The addition is part of a larger $1.6-billion, 25-year expansion that will include a highly anticipated Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction in the next two years and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem, set to open Saturday.

In a stinging rebuke of the Obama administration and Attorney General Eric H. Holder, an amendment to prevent the Justice Department from conducting any future gun-tracking operations such as the failed "Fast and Furious" program in the future sailed unanimously through the Senate Tuesday. The vote, on an amendment to a DOJ funding bill offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), was 99-0. Cornyn proposed legislation that would end Fast and Furious and bar new gun-tracking operations.

Paul Walker's "Fast and Furious" costars opened up over the weekend as his ashes were interred during a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills. Tyrese Gibson, who reportedly attended the private ceremony along with fellow "Fast and Furious" cast members Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Michelle Rodriguez, referred in a post on Instagram to the "13 years of laughter and grace" he shared with Walker. "For selfish reasons we all wanted you to stay, another laugh, another take, another talk, another moment," Gibson wrote.

The confrontation between the Obama administration and a House committee over documents related to the botched Fast and Furious investigation obviously has election-year political overtones. But it also involves serious questions of policy and law. Instead of playing a constitutional game of chicken, the administration and Congress should resume negotiations toward an accommodation. On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines to hold Atty.

WASHINGTON - Fourteen federal law enforcement officials - from field agents in Arizona to top managers in the ATF and Department of Justice in Washington - created a “significant danger to public safety” under Operation Fast and Furious and those still employed were referred for possible job discipline for carrying out a gun-walking operation that saturated the Southwest Border with more than 2,000 illegally-purchased firearms. Less than an hour after those findings were announced Wednesday by the Justice Department's Inspector General's office, two of the individuals - Kenneth Melson, the former head of the ATF, and Deputy Assistant Atty.

WASHINGTON - Just as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform was about to vote Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena for documents in the flawed Fast and Furious gun-tracking case, President Obama asserted executive privilege and backed up the attorney general's position in refusing to turn over the material. The fast-moving events Wednesday morning at the White House and on Capitol Hill significantly ratcheted up a growing constitutional clash between the two branches of the federal government, one that ultimately may not be resolved until it reaches the courts.

WASHINGTON -- Fourteen federal law enforcement officials -- from field agents in Arizona to top managers in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department in Washington -- created a "significant danger to public safety" under Operation Fast and Furious , an investigative report found. Those officials still employed were referred for possible job discipline for carrying out the gun-trafficking operation that saturated the Southwest border with more than 2,000 illegally purchased firearms.

WASHINGTON -- One at a time, Rep. Darrell Issa held up a thick wiretap application form and slammed it on his dais in the elaborate House Judiciary Committee hearing room. Each time the Vista, Calif., Republican angrily read out loud the dates: May 15, 2010, April 19, 2010, May 7, 2010, May 17, 2010, June 2, 2010, and July 2, 2010. All of them, he said, “before Brian Terry was gunned down.” The packages were proof, Issa contended, that the Department of Justice in Washington and perhaps the Obama White House were aware of the flawed tactics in the ATF's Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation in Arizona that allowed more than 2,000 firearms to “walk” into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Two top supervisors at ATF headquarters in Washington -- the deputy director and the assistant director for all field operations -- have been reassigned as the beleaguered agency attempts to remake itself amid the fallout from a failed gun-tracking operation along the Southwest border called Fast and Furious, according to two sources briefed on the changes. William J. Hoover, the No. 2 man at ATF, will become special agent-in-charge of the agency's Washington field office, while Mark Chait, who ran all of the field investigations around the country, is being reassigned as head of the Baltimore field office.

WASHINGTON - The firearms dealer caught up in the Justice Department's Fast and Furious scandal has won an early release from prison after a federal judge ruled that prosecutors overcharged him in alleging he sold high-powered weapons to smugglers working for a violent drug cartel in Mexico. Ian Garland, who ran a gun shop near El Paso, Texas, was released Friday after a court hearing in Las Cruces, N.M., showed that he was given a longer sentence because the court was misinformed that some of the weapons he sold were fully automatic machine guns, rather than rifles and pistols.

“Fast and Furious” actor Paul Walker was laid to rest Saturday in a private funeral service at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills attended by family and close friends, according to news reports. Those attending the service included his father, Paul Walker Sr., his mother, Cheryl Walker, and his brothers, Caleb and Cody, according to eonline.com . Walker's body was released to his family this week after the L.A. County coroner completed an autopsy. Walker and his friend Roger Rodas were killed Nov. 30 when a 600-horsepower 2005 Porsche Carrera GT driven by Rodas, 38, crashed into a concrete light pole and a tree on Hercules Street near Kelly Johnson Parkway in Santa Clarita.

"Hours," one of Paul Walker's last films and arriving in theaters just two weeks after his death in a fiery crash, comes as a modest memorial to the 40-year-old's career. But it is not the stirring emotional performance many hoped for, nor will it redefine the actor, best known for playing opposite Vin Diesel in "The Fast and Furious" franchise. This drama, about an ordinary guy trying to keep his infant daughter alive in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, is sincere but struggles as much as its hero.

It seemed like the right place to meet: the Polo Lounge, home of the power lunch for Hollywood's elite. But when Paul Walker and first-time director Eric Heisserer showed up at the Beverly Hills Hotel haunt in 2011, they quickly felt out of place among the sea of suited studio executives picking at elaborate bread baskets. "Both of us were a little awkward," recalled Heisserer. "We ordered beer. " Perhaps the setting should have felt more natural to Walker - after all, he'd made millions from starring in the "Fast and the Furious" franchise and had certainly been to his fair share of stuffy meetings after a decade in the business.

A child shot near his heart in Mid-City was upgraded from critical to serious condition Tuesday, Los Angeles police said. The 7-year-old boy, who police initially reported as being older, was shot as he was sitting in a car about 11 p.m. Monday in the 1900 block of South Corning Street. According to police, an unknown number of men in a white vehicle drove up, unleashed a barrage of gunfire at the rear of the car and sped off. The boy was hit at least once and his mother was grazed in the leg, CBS-TV Channel 2 reported.

"Fast and Furious" actor Paul Walker was recalled by colleagues this week as the heart and soul of his Burbank-based charity, traveling "under the radar" to help clear debris and render aid inside disaster zones. Authorities continued to investigate what caused the crash of the 2005 red Porsche Carrera GT that Walker and his friend, Roger Rodas, were riding in Santa Clarita on Saturday. The high-performance car slammed into a tree and concrete pole on Hercules Street about 3:30 p.m., bursting into flames and killing both men. Representatives at his charity, Reach Out Worldwide, described Walker as dedicated and hard-working.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats on Capitol Hill insisted a new independent report into deep failures in Operation Fast and Furious on the Southwest border vindicates the top leadership at the Department of Justice in the flawed gun-tracking program, while Republicans said it showed that Atty. Gen. Eric Holder's “inner circle” does not adequately serve the country's top law enforcement official. On Wednesday, the Justice Department's inspector general concluded that Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents; federal prosecutors in Phoenix; and top ATF and DOJ officials in Washington are all to blame for losing some 2,000 firearms on the U.S.-Mexico border after agents purposely allowed illegal gun purchases in hopes of tracking Mexican cartel leaders.

"Fast and Furious 7" on Monday began what could be an extended hiatus in the aftermath of the death of actor Paul Walker. The Universal Pictures film was set to resume shooting in Atlanta after a holiday break - with Walker slated to appear in key scenes throughout the week - but the cameras stayed down. It is unknown when shooting will resume as filmmakers consider how to adjust the storyline. PHOTOS: Paul Walker, 1973 - 2013 Director James Wan, lead producer Neal Moritz and Universal executives have been convening to figure out how to recalibrate the movie without Walker, who shot only some of his scenes as ex-cop Brian O'Conner before he was killed in a car accident Saturday in Valencia.  "Fast" veteran Chris Morgan wrote the script, which centers on rival racing crews; it is not yet clear whether he will be brought back to rework the movie's plot.

A 7-year-old boy shot as he sat in a car in Mid-City died from his wounds, Los Angeles police said Tuesday night. The boy died at a hospital Tuesday around 7 p.m, said Det. Gus Villanueva of the Los Angeles Police Department. The boy, who police initially said was 9, appeared to be improving Tuesday afternoon but suffered a setback a few hours later, according to the LAPD. INTERACTIVE: Times Homicide Report The child was sitting in a car about 11 p.m. Monday in the 1900 block of South Corning Street.