Hispanics criticize Supreme Court ruling on Arizona’s illegal immigration law
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Leaders of the Latin American and U.S. Hispanic communities continued sharp criticisms Friday against a Supreme Court decision that upholds a tough state law against illegal immigration.
They say the ruling on Thursday will lead to discrimination against Hispanic people.
The Arizona law empowers local police to shut down any business that knowingly hires illegal immigrants.
The Supreme Court ruling is expected to encourage other states to enact similar laws to ensure employees are Americans.
The Obama administration opposed the Arizona law, saying the state was authorizing itself to set immigration policy that the Constitution reserves to the federal government.
The Supreme Court said Arizona was not setting a new immigration policy, merely enforcing the federal laws that already exist.
“Arizona hopes that its law will result in more effective enforcement of the prohibition on employing unauthorized aliens,” Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the 5-3 majority.
As a result, “the Arizona regulation does not otherwise conflict with federal law,” he wrote.
Among the first Latin American leaders to criticize the Supreme Court’s decision was Wilbert Bendezu, president of Peru’s Parliament.
He said the Supreme Court’s decision set a “dangerous precedent” that will lead to other laws against immigrants.
Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Utah, Mississippi, Ohio and Florida all have either enacted or are considering laws against illegal immigration that closely follow the “Legal Arizona Workers Act.”
Bendezu said the Arizona law gives employers no other choice than to fire workers who lack U.S. government work permits.
He estimated that about 600,000 Peruvians live illegally in the United States.
Other criticism came from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), a civil rights organization for Hispanics.
“Today’s regrettable decision in Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting is a tortured product of judicial activism responding to perceived political views of the moment,” said Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF’s president.
He hinted that the Supreme Court’s decision could lead to approval of Arizona’s S.B. 1070.
The state law authorizes local police to question and arrest anyone if the officers have “probable cause” evidence they are illegally in the United States. The law is awaiting an appeal to the Supreme Court before it can be enforced.
“Laws that encroach on exclusive federal immigration enforcement by mandating or permitting untrained local police officers to engage in racial profiling will find little refuge in today’s decision,” Saenz said. “Wise state and local lawmakers must continue to tread carefully in areas touching on immigration. As has been the case for well over 200 years, federal action remains the sole legitimate avenue to address immigration issues.”
Dissenters on the Supreme Court largely agreed that Arizona lawmakers overstepped their authority with the Legal Arizona Workers Act.
“Either directly or through the uncertainty that it creates, the Arizona statute will impose additional burdens upon lawful employers,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in dissent.
The other dissenters were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.
Breyer wrote that employers now are likely to “erect ever stronger safeguards against the hiring of unauthorized aliens, without counterbalancing protections against unlawful discrimination.”
The Arizona law also requires employers to check the immigration status of all job applicants using an online federal background check program called E-Verify.
The Supreme Court ruling said E-Verify was “entirely consistent” with federal law.
About 215,000 employers nationwide have enrolled voluntarily in the E-Verify program. South Carolina and Mississippi also require employers to do E-Verify background checks.
Some members of Congress have said recently they plan to introduce bills requiring E-Verify checks nationally.
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Coffee prices continue to climb
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Coffee lovers face rising prices because prices for coffee beans continue to rise on commodity markets.
Retail prices for bagged coffee on grocery store shelves have already gone up and more price increases are expected.
Poor growing conditions in South America and other coffee-producing areas has caused concern over shortages of supplies, resulting in investor speculation in commodity markets that has driven up coffee futures prices by 95 percent during the past 12 months.
Companies that roast green coffee beans and sell bagged coffee have raised prices by varying amounts in response to the increased prices they must pay for green coffee beans.
Earlier this week J.M. Smucker increased prices by 11 percent. It marks the fourth time it has raised prices in a year. Smucker sells Dunkin Donuts, Folgers and Millstone brands. Kraft, which owns Maxwell House, has raised its prices three times recently.
Then on Wednesday, Starbucks announced plans to raise prices in mid-July by 17 percent for bagged coffee.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters also announced plans to raise coffee prices by 10 percent.
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American professor caught trafficking antiquities in Israel
Jerusalem, Israel Arieh O’Sullivan – An American history professor has been arrested by Israeli authorities at the country’s main airport as he attempted to slip out of the country with items allegedly obtained from illegal grave robberies.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the man, identified as John Lund from Utah, had ancient coins, pottery and Roman-era glass in his possession as well as over $20,000 in cash and checks as he tried to board an airplane for an unknown destination.
They accused him of taking advantage of his status in order to obtain hundreds of stolen antiquities and then sell them to members of a tour group that he was leading to the Holy Land. After his interrogation, the 70-year-old tour guide was released on $7,500 bond guaranteeing he return to face trial.
“This case is something special because what we have here is an American citizen, a doctor of history at an American university in Utah, who took advantage of his knowledge and as a tour leader in Israel to contact people who have looted antiquities and try to market them,” Shay Bar-Tura, from the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Theft of Antiquities, told The Media Line.
The heritage of the ancient world has always been at threat and even now is being eroded by illegal excavations and grave robbing to meet the escalating demand for antiquities. Most of the Mediterranean countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Jordan, have outlawed the trade in antiquities, but Israel allows it under intense regulation by licensed dealers.
Still, driven by lucrative prices, grave robbers have continued to plunder thousands of the more than 14,000 ancient sites, mostly tombs, estimated to exist across Israel. The small IAA unit composed of about two dozen armed rangers, faces an uphill battle trying to stem the looting.
According to the IAA, Lund first came under suspicion when he was seen selling ancient artifacts to a tourist in a Jerusalem hotel. The inspectors detained him and searched his room, finding hundreds of ancient artifacts, which were seized. He was let off with a warning. But agents kept him under surveillance and saw that he “resumed his evil ways” and continued selling antiquities to tourists.
A few days later, amazed customs inspectors detained about 20 members of a tour group crossing the border into Egypt from Eilat after they were found to have in their possession dozens of archeological items they were attempting to smuggle out of the country with permits. The IAA determined that the tourists had no idea that it was illegal and after turning over the items, some of which cost thousands of dollars, they were allowed to leave.
The items included ancient bronze and silver coins dating to the time of Jesus, clay oil lamps and glass vessels from the Roman and Byzantine periods. All of the items had been stolen from tombs and ancient sites in Israel, an IAA statement said.
After questioning, it turned out that they all purchased the artifacts from Lund during their visit to Israel. Word apparently reached him and he rushed to the Ben Gurion International Airport to flee the country, but was caught.
“The suspect admitted the offenses ascribed to him and at the conclusion of the investigation was allowed to fly to the United States after he deposited a large bond,” the IAA said.
“This guy committed several offenses against our domestic antiquities law,” Bar-Tura said. “He will be indicted for the offenses he has committed and he is looking at a maximum jail sentence of three years or a severe fine. And this is in addition to the antiquities that were seized from him and the checks in the sums of tens of thousands of dollars.”
Some of the items included a rare Roman-era lamp decorated with a seven-branched menorah and silver coins from the Second Temple period, 2,000 years ago. Lund, a lecturer and expert on Egyptian history and culture, couldn’t be reached for comment.
“This guy had no license and no legal standing to do what he did. We are absolutely certain that the origin of these items is in wrong doing,” Bar-Tura said.
He explained that according to Israeli law, all ancient artifacts must be purchased from a legal dealer and they all must have an export license, even for items as small as ancient coins.
“Our major concern is the looting of archeological sites and the artifacts in the illegal market are obviously from this kind of activity, from the looting of archeological sites,” Bar-Tura said. “Archeological items don’t grow on trees. It’s not like a tomato you can find in the market. Somebody went to a site, dug into it, creating a great deal of damage and then removed the artifacts that he found in order to put them on the market.”
Antiquity dealers say their stocks came from before Israel passed a law in 1978 declaring anything discovered belonged to the state. IAA suspects that dealers replace every object sold with a similar one in order to circumvent regulations. Israel tolerates this out of the belief that outlawing the trade altogether would only send it underground where it would be more difficult to monitor.
“We are not going to put our head in the sand and say it is illegal and banned, because even in the Mediterranean countries where it is banned this kind of commerce is going on,” Bar-Tura said. “We try to regulate it and oversee it.”
His unit was investigating the source of the artifacts obtained and sold by Lund, but Bar-Tura warned that even some of the most prestigious antiquity dealers sell items of questionable provenance.
“Anywhere you go, even in the most fancy of galleries in London and New York, most of these artifacts, if they do not have solid provenance and archeological origin, then they are most likely from site looting. Whether that site looting took place 200 years ago or 2,000 years ago, it’s not really relevant to the damage done to the archeological sites,” he said.
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Oil, silver prices recover in volatile world commodity trading
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Prices for volatile commodities such as silver and oil have bounced back in trading after plunging sharply in price last week.
Oil prices rose 5.5 percent to $102.55 a barrel on Monday, recovering some of the value lost after plunging 15 percent in price last week. That was the largest weekly drop since 2008. Analysts say that oil might rise to $105 in trading in the near future but probably will not hit $115 per barrel again for at least several months.
Silver prices had plunged by 30 percent last week. They recovered 5 percent of value to reach $37.12 per ounce in trading.
The European Central Bank says it is watching volatile commodity prices closely after raising interest rates in April because of inflationary pressures.
In the meantime, commodity metal prices are helping the Bombay, India, stock exchange. Analysts say that rising metal prices are attracting buyers to underperforming metal stocks on that exchange.
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UN Environment Program warns global use of resources not sustainable
New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Rising demand and use of the Earth’s resources is above sustainable levels and humans need to cut back and conserve, the United Nations Environment Programme said Friday.
Some cheap and high quality sources of essential materials are already running short, UNEP said. Those materials include oil, copper and gold and the remaining sources require more fossil fuels and fresh water to produce than in the past.
Population growth and increasing prosperity for many of the world’s people is fueling demand for natural resources that is pushing consumption toward levels that are well above anything that is sustainable.
UNEP officials said decoupling an increased growth in the use of natural resources from economic growth was critical.
“Decoupling makes sense on all the economic, social and environmental dials,” says UN Under Secretary-General Achim Steiner, UNEP’s Executive Director.
For example, people in developed nations consume an average of 16 tons of minerals, ores, fossil fuels and biomass per capita. In addition, that ranges up to 40 tons or more per person in some developed nations. By contrast average consumption of those resources is only four tons per per person per year in India. But as more nations develop, consumption of those items increases and that kind of growth in consumption simply is not sustainable.
UNEP called on people to do more with less to conserve resources.
The agency called for furthering that goal with “an urgent rethink of the links between resource use and economic prosperity, buttressed by a massive investment in technological, financial and social innovation, to at least freeze per capita consumption in wealthy countries and help developing nations follow a more sustainable path.”
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Mets clubhouse manager indicted for stealing team property
New York, NY, United States (AHN Sports) – Former New York Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels has been indicted for equipment and memorabilia theft, multiple sources reported Thursday.
The 53-year-old Samuels is facing numerous of charges, including falsification of business records and tax fraud, after he was found out stealing Mets jerseys and equipment in November.
Reports indicated Samuels accumulated 507 signed and unsigned jerseys, 304 baseball caps, 828 bats, 22 batting helmets, and 10 equipment bags.
Samuels, who also stole a World Series warm-up jersey signed by the entire 1986 team, stockpiled $2.3 million worth of equipment and collectibles in the basement of his friend’s home in Madison, Connecticut.
Samuels served the Mets for 27 years, working as traveling secretary, equipment manager, and clubhouse manager.
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Safeway recall expanded again to include party platter
Pleasanton, CA, United States (AHN) – Safeway has included more products in its voluntary recall of grape tomatoes that may be tainted with salmonella. The company is among several retailers affected by produce from a Florida grower.
Pleasanton-based Safeway on Monday expanded its recall to include its Eating Right Veggie Party Platter. The company said the product was sold last week at Safeway stores, as well as at Carrs, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Pak N’ Save, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb and Vons, which are all owned by Safeway.
The veggie platter was made using grape tomatoes from Six L’s. No illnesses have been reported from the product and the recall is a “precautionary measure,” according to the company.
Safeway last week recalled fresh kabobs sold in Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington state. Before that, it withdrew five salads under its Signature Café brand and two salads sold at deli counters.
Six L’s alerted authorities last month about the possible salmonella contamination of a lot of tomatoes packed on April 11 from produce grown at a farm in Estero, FL, that has stopped producing grape tomatoes. The contamination was discovered after the U.S. Department of Agriculture tested a random sample at a distributor in New York.
The recall has included Taylor Farms Seafood Salad from Albertson’s, Marketside Seafood Salad from Wal-Mart and Roche Brothers vegetable trays from Del Monte.
Salmonella is an organism that causes an infection that is one of the most common foodborne illnesses. The illness, however, can be fatal among children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems. Symptoms of salmonellosis include nausea, abdominal pain, fever and diarrhea.
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Apparel company drops Steelers’ Rashard Mendenhall as endorser
Pittsburgh, PA, United States (AHN Sports) – Despite clarifying his controversial comments about Osama bin Laden’s death Wednesday, embattled Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall was fired as an endorser by corporate sponsor Champion.
On Wednesday, the 23-year-old Mendenhall clarified his comments, saying he wanted to get people to reconsider the jubilant reaction to bin Laden’s death, but the fallout from his explosive tweets continued.
It led to Mendenhall being dropped as an endorser by Champion, an athletic apparel company, USA Today first reported the news.
The company said it has ended its “business relationship” with Mendenhall since the athletic brand does not believe the Steelers running back can no longer “appropriately represent Champion.”
The following is a full statement by the Hanesbrands’ unit on Mendenhall as reported by ESPN.com Friday.
“Champion is a strong supporter of the government’s efforts to fight terrorism and is very appreciative of the dedication and commitment of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Earlier this week, Rashard Mendenhall, who endorses Champion products, expressed personal comments and opinions regarding Osama bin Laden and the September 11 terrorist attacks that were inconsistent with the values of the Champion brand and with which we strongly disagreed.
In light of these comments, Champion was obliged to conduct a business assessment to determine whether Mr. Mendenhall could continue to effectively communicate on behalf of and represent Champion with consumers. While we respect Mr. Mendenhall’s right to express sincere thoughts regarding potentially controversial topics, we no longer believe that Mr. Mendenhall can appropriately represent Champion and we have notified Mr. Mendenhall that we are ending our business relationship.
Champion has appreciated its association with Mr. Mendenhall during his early professional football career and found him to be a dedicated and conscientious young athlete. We sincerely wish him all the best.”
Meanwhile, Champion, which extended Mendenhall’s first 3-year deal with the unit of Hanesbrands signed in 2008, is refusing to pay out the balance of the player’s endorsement contract that runs through 2015, according to USA Today Friday.
According to the company which recently signed Mendenhall to a 4-year extension to endorse the brand through 2015, it will only play Mendenhall through the “termination” of his contract which it is dating as of May 13, 2011.
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10,000 protest British government spending cuts in May Day rally
London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – About 10,000 protesters gathered at Trafalgar Square to protest British coalition government policies on May Day.
The demonstrators spoke against government spending cuts and pushed for a general strike to force the coalition to change its policies. Trade unions and international human rights organizations organized the rally to observe Labor Day.
The group Black Activists Rising Against Cuts sought a general strike as early as June to pressure the government to ease spending cuts, which the protesters blamed for a negative impact on public services.
Another rally is scheduled on Monday to push for major British companies to pay living wages to workers.
The event is spearheaded by an investor coalition made up of religious groups and philanthropists in the United Kingdom. and United States. Their aim is to pressure the top 100 British companies to increase pay.
The group will write to chief executives of the firms to ask them to apply living wage standards, pegged at a minimum of $10.80 (GBP 7.20) an hour for employees outside London and at $11.77 (GBP 7.85) for those working within the capital city.
The coalition said the amount cited is what is necessary for British families to afford basic needs.
Among those backing the campaign are the Methodist Church, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and labor unions Unison and Unite.
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Jobless claims above key 400,000 mark for second consecutive week
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose to 429,000 during the week ending April 23, a 25,000 increase from the previous week and the highest rate in three months.
It also marked the second week in a row that first-time unemployment claims were above the 400,000 mark after dipping below that mark for a time and raising hopes the nation was entering a labor sector recovery to match the ongoing economic recovery in the financial services sector.
In more bad news, the less volatile four-week moving average also rose above the key 400,000 mark to 408,500. That was an increase of 9,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 399,250 initial claims, the Department of Labor said.
States with the largest increases in the number of first-time jobless claims for April 16, the latest week for which such data is available, were Florida (+2,753), New Mexico (+680), New Jersey (+490) and Colorado (+481).
The number of people claiming benefits in all unemployment compensation programs for the latest week such data is available was 8,187,232 for the week ending April 9, which marked a decrease of 112,578 from the previous week.
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