WEST

POLICE THINK SEX OFFENDER KILLED FAMILY

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – A convicted sex offender accused of kidnapping 8-year-old Shasta Groene and her brother is also believed to be responsible for the May killings of three people at the family’s home, authorities said yesterday.

“When we get the pieces together, we’ll find out what the motive is,” the Kootenai County sheriff’s captain, Ben Wolfinger, said at a news conference.

Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, of Fargo, N.D., a fugitive from an earlier child molestation charge, was arrested Saturday at a Denny’s restaurant with Shasta, believed to be the sole survivor of the attack and its aftermath.

The bodies of Shasta’s mother, older brother, and mother’s boyfriend were found May 16, bound and bludgeoned at the home outside Coeur d’Alene, and authorities have said they believe her 9-year-old brother, Dylan, also is dead.

Their father, Steve Groene, held a news conference yesterday in which he said Shasta, who remains hospitalized at the Kootenai Medical Center here, is doing well. “That’s certainly more than we could have hoped for. She’s very upbeat, seems to be pretty healthy, and she’s really glad to be home,” Mr. Groene said.

– Associated Press

FEDERAL PROBE BEGINS INTO POSSIBLE SPY FUNCTIONS OF NATIONAL GUARD UNIT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Military authorities yesterday began investigating whether a California National Guard unit was created to spy on citizens, as dozens of demonstrators confronted Guard officials while armed soldiers stood by.

The federal probe of the nation’s largest National Guard force involves the American Army’s inspector general, the federal National Guard Bureau’s inspector general, and the National Guard Bureau’s legal division. The unit has raised concern among peace activists that the Guard is resorting to the same type of civilian monitoring that helped fuel Vietnam War-era protests. Such monitoring, while not illegal, would be a departure for the Guard.

“These are your mothers, grandmothers and neighbors,” the president of Veterans for Peace and an organizer of yesterday’s protest outside guard headquarters, George Main, said. About 30 demonstrators took part. “They are not potential terrorist threats,” Mr. Main said. “The excuse that these groups might be infiltrated is an insult to the intelligence of every Californian.” Under scrutiny is a California National Guard unit with a tongue-twisting name: the Information Synchronization, Knowledge Management and Intelligence Fusion program. It was established last year, and came to public light after a recent story in the San Jose Mercury News.

– Associated Press

EAST

JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS JOIN TOGETHER TO PROMOTE IMMIGRATION REFORM

In commemoration of 350 years of Jewish immigration to America, dozens of Jewish organizations are joining together to promote comprehensive immigration reform. A communal vision statement that was endorsed by more than a dozen national Jewish organizations – including the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League – urges improved border security, visa reform, and interior immigration enforcement while opening America to greater legal immigration. “The existence of a population of approximately eight to twelve million undocumented migrants residing in this country is unacceptable, as are the hundreds of thousands more facing death and discrimination as they enter illegally each year seeking employment,” the vision statement says. “The best hope to prevent future undocumented migration would be an approach that is comprehensive and realistically related to economic realities.”

The president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Leonard Glickman said the vision statement was, “firmly rooted in Jewish history and tradition, and applies these lessons to the most pressing public policy questions in the immigration and refugee arena.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MIDWEST

JUDGE DISMISSES SLAVE DESCENDANTS’ REPARATION SUIT

CHICAGO – An effort by slave descendants to gain reparations from corporations that allegedly benefited from slavery was dismissed yesterday by a federal judge.

Judge Charles Norgle characterized the issue as basically political, and said it should be decided by the legislative or executive branch.

He added that the plaintiffs have failed to show a link between themselves and the 17 corporations named as defendants, and that the statute of limitations rules out damages for wrongs committed before slavery was abolished in 1865.

It was the second time Judge Norgle dismissed a version of the slave reparations suit and this time he did it with prejudice – meaning that any hopes of reviving it at the District Court level most likely are dead. Judge Norgle based his decision partly on “long-standing” doctrine that political issues should be resolved in the Congress or the executive branch, and noted that slavery reparations issues historically have been fought there rather than in the courts. Attorney Benjamin Obi Nwoye said he and other lawyers who have worked on the suit planned to appeal.

– Associated Press