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Kidnapper's car found in canal - Los Angeles Times

Cars are pulled from the Delta-Mendota Canal in the search for a kidnapper and a 4-year-old boy. (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press / January 28, 2011)

Divers searching the Delta-Mendota Canal on Friday found the car used by a kidnapper who grabbed a 4-year-old boy from his grandmother's arms. The bodies were not in the vehicle.

All evidence, from tire tracks to an eyewitness, had indicated that the silver Toyota of kidnapper Jose Esteban Rodriguez was in the canal. A farmworker who saw the car go into the canal told police it was airborne and that two people — one much smaller than the other — were inside. Detectives had been careful to not extend hope.

Nevertheless, the small town of Patterson had fervently cast about for a different explanation. Juliani Cardenas' mother, Tabitha Cardenas, said she knew her son was not in the canal. At nightly candlelight vigils, people prayed that Juliani would be returned.

"We're saddened that we found the car, even though we knew we would," Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson told reporters Friday.

Christianson said a search of the canal would probably resume Monday, this time looking for the bodies. The car was found lodged in a siphon where the canal drops to a tunnel beneath a creek. Both front windows were rolled down.

On Jan. 18, Rodriguez rushed Amparo Cardenas, knocking her over and grabbing Juliani from her arms.

Rodriguez, the ex-boyfriend of Tabitha Cardenas, who is 8 months pregnant with his child, was not Juliani's biological father, although the boy had once called him Daddy. Juliani was crying as Rodriguez ran away with him, according to authorities. Police said Rodriguez has a record of domestic abuse and manslaughter.

Forty-five minutes later, the farmworker saw a car go into the canal.

That stretch of the canal is a notorious dumping spot. Recovery teams pulled up 13 other vehicles, most of them stolen, before finding the car they were looking for.

On Friday, authorities lowered the water level 10 feet to calm the canal and improve operating conditions for sonar equipment. Even with the water lowered, it was dangerous for divers to be near the siphon.

They located the car in the morning and workers pulled it out in the evening.

Amparo Cardenas, the grandmother, waits tables at Damasco Fine Foods and Spirits, a main hub in town that holds Rotary Club meetings.

"Everyone in Patterson knows her. She's hardworking and sweet and loves everybody," restaurant owner Steve Ceron said.

"She really loved that little boy. She took care of him all the time and always talked abut him. The whole town is just silent today. When it's this sad, there's nothing to say."

metrodesk@latimes.com

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Robber is killed outside bank - Washington Post

At 9:22 a.m. Friday, a masked and hooded man walked up to a teller at the Capital One Bank in Takoma Park, placed a metallic-looking device with wires sticking out of it on the counter and pulled out a 9mm handgun.

He pointed it at the teller and at least two other employees.

A customer tried to grab the gun. The gunman then pistol-whipped him so badly the man bled onto the bank floor.

But his action created a diversion that allowed another employee to run out and summon help.

"He took immediate action. He put his life in danger," said Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Drew Tracy.

The incident would be over in 15 minutes - in the most dramatic of ways, under television cameras that broadcast the footage nationwide.

Police descended on the bank. But rather than give up quietly, the robber walked out holding a gun to a teller's head.

Police surrounded him as he used the teller as a shield. But as he stepped toward the parking lot, holding the teller in an armlock and aiming the gun at her head, a dye pack exploded. Moments later, the gunman slipped near a pile of snow, giving the teller a chance to slip from his grasp.

The robber chased her, but six officers opened fire at close range. He was dead at the scene.

A police officer was grazed but not seriously injured.

The dramatic ending was set in motion not just by the actions inside the bank but by the location of the bank itself - smack in the middle of one of the most heavily patrolled areas in the region.

Takoma Park has its own police force, and on most mornings its patrol officers make a point of being near the bank because of loitering problems.

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Pentagon chief could stay awhile after all, some say - Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON -- What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me" -- his remaining defense secretary beyond Inauguration Day -- is looking a bit more conceivable to the rest of Washington.

The 65-year-old former spymaster has turned publicly mum on the circumstances under which he would stay -- even briefly -- in his role at the U.S. Department of Defense after President-elect Barack Obama takes office. But one of the leading scenarios for a wartime transition at the Pentagon has Gates holding the fort.

If Gates is staying on, the announcement could come soon.

A national security spokeswoman for Obama, Brooke Anderson, said Thursday that she had no comment on Gates or on whether the president-elect has held discussions with any candidate for Gates' job.

The apparent logic in keeping Gates for an extended transition is that it would allow time for a secretary-in-waiting, who might come aboard in January as Gates' deputy, to assemble a team of senior defense policy officials before the top boss departs.

It also would reflect a widely held view among Republicans, as well as Democrats, that Gates has the experience, demeanor and policy priorities to manage U.S. defense under a president of either political party.

One of the strongest indications of Obama's interest in possibly keeping Gates came in early October, when Richard Danzig, a senior national security adviser to the Obama campaign and a possible selection to succeed Gates, told reporters that Gates has proved himself an effective Pentagon chief.

Gates has run the department since December 2006, after he reluctantly gave up his post as president of Texas A&M University to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld at a point when the Iraq war seemed to be failing.

Thus far, Obama has informally selected Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as health and human services secretary. The plans could be sidetracked by unexpected glitches in the final vetting process, officials note.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., seems more likely than ever to be Obama's secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said.

Democrats also said that several people remain in the running for treasury secretary, including Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Lawrence Summers, former treasury secretary and one-time Harvard University president, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Officials said Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton, is in the running for the secretary of commerce.

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Arizona Shooting Case Moves to Tucson for Now - Fox News

Published January 29, 2011

| Associated Press

PHOENIX -- Prosecutors and defense lawyers have agreed that the federal case against the suspect in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will be held in Tucson, at least for now.

The case against Jared Lee Loughner was moved to Phoenix after federal judges in Tucson recused themselves because a fellow judge died in the attack.

Loughner was arraigned Monday in Phoenix. Prosecutors then requested the move so victims and witnesses would not have to drive there.

The deal doesn't prevent future requests for moves.

Loughner pleaded not guilty to federal charges of trying to assassinate Giffords and kill two of her aides. He also faces federal charges in the deaths of an aide and the judge.

He likely faces state charges in the Jan. 8 rampage at a Giffords event that wounded 13 and killed six others, including a 9-year-old girl.

His next court is set for March 9.

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Born in US as Citizen: Constitution Guarantees Birthright - The Ledger

Published: Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, January 28, 2011 at 5:34 a.m.

Republican legislators from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Oklahoma and several other states plan to introduce bills to restrict "state citizenship" -- and the issuance of birth certificates -- to children with at least one parent who is a permanent resident of the United States.

They say they want to discourage illegal immigration. A less charitable view says they're trying to capitalize on anger about immigration. In either case, they're trying to legislate away the 14th Amendment.

Ratified in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, the 14th Amendment ensured that newly freed slaves and their descendants enjoyed U.S. citizenship. It says that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are U.S. citizens.

EXCLUSION PROHIBITED

The Republican legislators are focused on the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," arguing that it doesn't include illegal immigrants and, therefore, their U.S.-born children aren't guaranteed American citizenship. However, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that argument in 1898, when it blocked efforts to use the Exclusion Act -- the only law in U.S. history that explicitly prohibited entry into the country, or naturalization based on race or nationality -- to deny U.S. citizenship to children born to Chinese parents.

The exceptions carved out by the court involve children born to foreign diplomats or enemy forces engaged in a hostile occupation of U.S. territory, not children born to parents who crossed the border illegally.

One of the many myths about immigration is that having children makes it easier for people who entered the country illegally to remain. In fact, children must reach the age of 21 before they can petition for parents to legally join them in the country, and the process can take decades to complete.

There are important immigration-related issues for lawmakers to address, including workforce needs, border security and, yes, a path to legalization for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States. None of those issues will be addressed by playing games with the Constitution.

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Cause of death released in Wheeler case - Newark Post

The Delaware Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced that John P. Wheeler, III, whose body was found at the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington, died as a result of blunt force trauma after being assaulted.

Newark Police detectives continue to investigate a new information on the case as it is received and continue to look at survelliance video taken during the last hours of Wheeler's life in downtown Wilmington and Newark.

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Missing Michigan mother, 2nd woman found buried - CNN

Amy Henslee, who was last seen on Monday, was found buried with the corpse of another woman.Authorities find bodies of Amy Henslee, another woman
Police say that the mother of two left the home with only her coat and shoes
Man arrested in slaying is cousin of Henslee's husband

(CNN) -- A man has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of two Michigan women, including a mother who went missing shortly after her children left on the bus for school, authorities said.

Investigators found the bodies of Amy Henslee, 30, and Tonya Howarth, 36, Friday morning. They had been buried and appeared to have died after receiving multiple gunshot wounds, Van Buren County Prosecuting Attorney Juris Kaps told reporters.

Henslee's husband told police she was missing Monday, prompting a police investigation in Hartford Township, Michigan.

Authorities arrested an acquaintance of both women identified as Junior Lee Beebe, Kaps said. Beebe, 34, is also Henslee's husband's cousin, Kaps said.

Beebe faces murder charges in connection with both deaths, Kaps said.

Amy Henslee was last seen in Hartford Township at 7:30 a.m. Monday, about 10 minutes after her two children, ages 8 and 10, hopped on a bus for school. At 10 a.m., her husband telephoned -- as he does every weekday -- but didn't get a response, according to police.

After more unanswered calls, James Henslee left work for home to look for his wife. After finding the front door locked, he went in through an unopened back door and couldn't locate her.

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Ill. high court mulls Rahm Emanuel's mayoral run - TMCnet

CHICAGO (AP) — With Chicago election officials printing mayoral ballots that include Rahm Emanuel's name, it's up to the Illinois Supreme Court to decide whether voters will actually see him among their choices during next month's election.

The state's highest court agreed Tuesday to decide whether Emanuel can run for mayor, and the justices ordered election officials not to print any ballots without his name until they can rule.

The action bought valuable time for the former White House chief of staff, who a day earlier was kicked off the ballot by an appeals court because he didn't live in the city for a year before the Feb. 22 election. The state Supreme Court said it would expedite the matter but gave no specific time frame.

With less than a week to go before the first early ballots are cast, a number of potential scenarios loomed, including the possibility that Emanuel would have to resort to a write–in campaign or wage a desperate bid to take the matter to federal court.

Emanuel, who had been the heavy favorite to lead the nation's third–largest city, pressed ahead with confidence and said he was doubling his campaign by adding more stops to his already busy schedule.

"I am clear that I think that we will succeed because of the thoroughness of our argument," he said Tuesday at an event where he received an endorsement from the Teamsters. He said he was "more determined to see this through so the people have a right to make the choice for themselves."

Until October, the former Chicago congressman had been living in Washington working for President Barack Obama.

The high court was to review legal briefs and would not hold oral arguments, a sign the justices want to decide the case quickly.

That plan is "absolutely a reflection that they understand the tightness of the time schedule," said Dawn Clark Netsch, a professor emeritus at Northwestern University's law school.

Chicago election officials said they had printed nearly 300,000 ballots without Emanuel's name before they abruptly stopped. The Board of Elections had hurriedly authorized the printing after Monday's appellate ruling.

"Things are changing in an unprecedented fashion," board chairman Langdon Neal said.

If the Supreme Court does not put Emanuel back on the ballot, he could consider a write–in campaign. He would have to declare himself a write–in candidate by Feb. 15.

Emanuel has declined to say whether he would entertain such a drastic step. He also has refused to say whether he would consider other legal remedies, such as finding a way to get his case into the federal courts, possibly all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Netsch said there was little chance the matter could make the leap to federal court.

"In my judgment there is no significant federal constitutional issue," she said.

In their appeal to the high court, Emanuel's attorneys called Monday's ruling "one of the most far–reaching election law rulings" ever issued in Illinois, not only because of its effect on the mayoral race but for "the unprecedented restriction" it puts on future candidates.

His lawyers raised several points, including that the appeals court applied a stricter definition of "residency" than the one used for voters. They say Illinois courts have never required candidates to be physically present in the state to seek office there.

By adopting this new requirement, the court rejected state law allowing people to keep their residence in Illinois even if they are away doing work for the state or federal government, the appeal said.

The new standard also sets a "significant limitation on ballot access" that denies voters the right to choose certain candidates, the appeal said.

John Coli, president of the Teamsters Joint Council 25 that endorsed Emanuel, said the two appellate judges who threw Emanuel off the ballot were "subverting democracy." He called the opinion "ridiculous."

"I believe that the law's on Rahm's side in this case," said Coli, who is also an attorney.

In a dissent filed Monday, appellate court Judge Bertina Lampkin pointed out that Emanuel never voted in Washington, didn't change his driver's license, didn't buy property and didn't do his personal banking in Washington.

"How many days may a person stay away from his home before the majority would decide he no longer 'actually resides' in it? Would the majority have us pick a number out of a hat?" she wrote.

In the wake of Monday's ruling, other main candidates in the race — former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, city Clerk Miguel del Valle and former Chicago schools chief Gery Chico — moved quickly to try to win over Emanuel supporters.

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Associated Press (News - Alert) writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.

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Illinois election law: http://tinyurl.com/5uuat7y

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