United States Laws

Part of the Napster story is indeed about keeping digitized material--in this case, music--from being stolen. But it's also about a well-funded campaign by big business to maximize profits by curtailing consumer rights. Corporations want to earn as much as they can from their intellectual property by turning all our entertainment--print, music, video--into pay-per-view.

Fifteen years after the United States launched a campaign to track down terrorists around the world and bring them to justice, most extremists linked to attacks against American interests are still at large--and not one state sponsor has been held accountable in a U.S. criminal court. Only 16 suspected terrorists have been extradited to the United States since U.S. legislation passed in the mid-1980s allowed American law enforcement agents to nab them abroad and bring them here for trial.

By nightfall, the line stretched half a block down Whittier Boulevard, the facial expressions of the assembled betraying expectation and wariness, fatigue and hope. "Who knows?" said Irma Villa, accompanied by her husband and three children. "Maybe we have a chance."

The Anaheim City Council heard this week but took no action on a proposal to let the city seek immigration-code enforcement powers for its police officers so they can arrest suspected undocumented immigrants. After hearing impassioned speeches by both sides, Mayor Tom Daly said the council will not consider the measure unless one of the other four panel members introduces it for debate.

An Orange County-based immigration reform group plans to lobby the Anaheim City Council tonight to authorize local police officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. If the plan is passed and approved by the U.S. attorney general's office, Anaheim could become the first city in the nation to make use of a little-known federal law that allows local police agencies to arrest people under federal immigration laws.

An Orange County-based immigration reform group plans to lobby the Anaheim City Council today in an effort to gain the authority for local police officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. If the U.S. attorney general's office approves, Anaheim could become the first city in the nation to use a little-known federal law that allows local police agencies to arrest people under federal immigration laws.

President-elect George W. Bush on Thursday dismissed the price caps sought by Gov. Gray Davis as a way out of California's deepening electricity crisis, and instead proposed relaxing environmental rules that he said keep the state's power plants from running full tilt.

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether longtime legal immigrants to the United States can be deported without legal recourse if they had committed a serious crime in the past. A ruling on the issue is due by the summer and could affect several thousand pending cases. In 1996, Congress, newly under Republican control, sought to crack down on immigrants--including those who were here legally--by restricting government benefits and making it easier to deport those who commit crimes.

It is basketball season and it is wrestling season, and I have a basketball player and a wrestler under my roof. For the next three months, it will be necessary for me to be at two different gyms at once after traveling all over the county in opposite directions. Oh yeah. And I have a job. I have responded to the logistical challenges this season will present by declaring that I will have to take family leave. I am only half kidding, but the idea of actually taking family leave is a joke.

To Sally Miller, community colleges are a great place. They take all comers. They help all sorts of people make something of themselves. They give others a second chance to turn their lives around. But as a badge-carrying detective on community college campuses in Sonoma County, Miller was deeply disturbed by one fact: Colleges and universities were one place where serious sex offenders could avoid being publicly identified by "Megan's Law" public disclosures. Not for long.