LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The plan is to try and slow this down because it’s an extreme piece of legislation that’s tearing this state apart.” State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, one of a group of Democratic Wisconsin lawmakers who blocked passage of an anti-union bill by refusing to show up for a vote and then abruptly leaving the state Article, this page
Drug gang blamed in agent’s slaying
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Members of Mexico’s Zetas gang carried out a highway ambush that killed one U.S. federal agent and wounded another this week, a Texas congressman said Thursday.
Rep. Michael McCaul said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata, 32, was killed by members of the Zetas cartel after 10 to 15 armed men in two vehicles forced Zapata’s Chevrolet Suburban off a highway in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, on Tuesday afternoon. Agent Victor Avila was shot twice in the leg.
“This was a complete ambush,” McCaul said, adding that investigators recovered least 90 bullet casings from the scene.
Cargo hand gets life in airport plot
NEW YORK — An aging former cargo handler was sentenced Thursday in federal court to life in prison for hatching a plot to make John F. Kennedy International Airport go “up in smoke” by attacking jet fuel supplies with the help of an al-Qaida explosives expert.
Russell Defreitas and another man had been convicted last year of multiple conspiracy counts in a failed scheme that was infiltrated by a government informant.
At trial, jurors heard tapes recorded by the informant in which Defreitas, 67, ranted about wanting to avenge U.S. mistreatment of Muslims across the globe.
Defreitas was among four men charged in the plot. Codefendant Abdel Kadir, an engineer and former member of Guyana’s parliament, was sentenced in December to life in prison; Abdel Nur was sentenced to 15 years in prison; and Kareem Ibrahim is awaiting trial.
U.S. filing queries health-law ruling
The Obama administration asked a federal judge Thursday to clarify whether his recent ruling against the new health-care law was meant to block its implementation pending appeals.
The judge, Roger Vinson of U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Fla., ruled on Jan. 31 that the provision requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance was unconstitutional and that the entire Affordable Care Act was therefore invalid. While the judge did not specifically enjoin the law, he suggested that his ruling should be treated as the “functional equivalent” of an injunction.
That led to conflicting interpretations among lawyers for the federal government and for the 26 states that had challenged the law. Some states have continued to carry out its requirements, while others have declared that they consider it effectively dead. Gov. Sean Parnell of Alaska, a Republican, said Thursday that he would stop implementing the law.
The filing by the Justice Department, which represents the Obama administration in the health-care litigation, asked Vinson to clarify that his ruling “does not relieve the parties of their rights and obligations under the Affordable Care Act while the declaratory judgment is the subject of appellate review.”
Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/18/2011