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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations.
Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, will spend the weeklong congressional Fourth of July break in Michigan and Minnesota, inspecting national parks and border crossings.
Souder is a member of the committee that is responsible for oversight of all government operations. He also serves on the Homeland Security Committee, which deals with border security.
Souder’s trip will be paid for with taxpayer money. He will pay for his wife’s expenses.
Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery charges Friday, becoming the latest Detroit politician taken down by scandal.
Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers, admitted in federal court to taking cash from a Houston-based company in exchange for her vote on a city sludge-treatment contract.
Conyers, 44, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she’s sentenced.
The train operator killed this week in a Washington, D.C., rail crash was a hero who saved lives, the Metro transit agency’s general manager said Friday.
John Catoe told relatives, friends and colleagues who gathered at a Washington church that 42-year-old Jeanice McMillan of Springfield, Va., will be known as “the Metro hero.” He predicted investigators will ultimately determine that her actions “saved lives.”
Federal investigators have said there is evidence that McMillan applied an emergency brake before her train plowed into another, killing her and eight passengers.
A man suspected of killing a college student who led a secret life as an Internet porn model is being held on a $3 million bond in Kansas following his extradition from Mexico.
Israel Mireles, 26, made his first court appearance Friday before Butler County District Judge David Ricke.
Mireles was extradited back from Mexico on Thursday by U.S. Marshals. He is charged with capital murder, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy in the 2007 death of Emily Sander, 18.
Five members of the Jena Six pleaded no contest Friday to misdemeanor simple battery and won’t serve jail time, ending a case that thrust a small Louisiana town into the national spotlight and sparked a massive civil rights demonstration.
State District Judge Tom Yeager then sentenced the five, standing quietly surrounded by their lawyers, to seven days unsupervised probation and fined $500. It was a far less severe end to their cases than seemed possible when the six students – all of whom are black – were initially charged with attempted murder in the 2006 attack on Justin Barker, a white classmate.
They became known as the “Jena Six,” after the central Louisiana town where the beating happened.
Motorcycle bombs killed at least 20 people in separate attacks in Baghdad on Friday, part of an apparent trend toward increased use of motorcycles to thwart stepped-up security measures.
The attacks were the latest in a week of violence that has killed more than 250 people, with four days to go before U.S. combat troops withdraw from Iraqi cities.
