David Ortez

Lawsuit Challenges Immigration Raids in New Jersey – Immigration agents systematically entered homes and made arrests without proper warrants during raids to round up immigration fugitives in New Jersey, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit, brought by lawyers at the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, will provide a constitutional test of law enforcement methods often used by immigration agents since May 2006 when they began operations across the country to track down and deport immigrants who had been ordered to leave by the courts.

Olympics ‘worsening China rights’ – China’s human rights record is getting worse, not better, because of the Beijing Olympics, a rights group says. According to Amnesty International, China is clamping down on dissent in a bid to portray a stable and harmonious image ahead of the Games in August.

80,000 Jobs Cut in March; Unemployment Rate Rises – The economy shed 80,000 jobs in March, the third consecutive month of rising unemployment, presenting a stark sign that the country may already be in a recession. Sharp downturns in the manufacturing and construction sectors led the decline, the biggest in five years. The Labor Department also said employers cut far more jobs in January and February than originally estimated.

Back to pencil and paper for 2010 census – Technology problems will force the government to count all of the nation’s 300 million residents the old-fashioned way in the 2010 census — with paper and pencil.

Gene links smokers and lung cancer – Three new studies analyzing the genetics of lung cancer have identified two inherited gene variations that raise white smokers’ chances of getting the disease by as much as 80 percent compared to tobacco users without the genes. All smokers have a tenfold greater risk for lung cancer than nonsmokers, but less than 20 percent of smokers eventually develop the disease. Scientists believe heredity is why some smokers are more likely to develop lung cancer.

Beijing rebuffs Olympics critics – China’s foreign minister has strongly criticised "anti-China forces" he says are determined to politicise this year’s Beijing Olympics. In recent weeks human rights groups and a number of Hollywood personalities, including Steven Spielberg, have stepped up criticism of China’s record.

Spitzer Resigns, Citing Personal Failings – Gov. Eliot Spitzer, reeling from revelations that he had been a client of a prostitution ring, announced his resignation today, becoming the first governor of New York to be forced from office in nearly a century.

Leaving it all behind, to bike around the world – In 2002, at the ages of 62 and 48, Pat and Catherine Patterson decided to leave it all behind. They sold their real-estate business and their cars, gave their furniture to their children, and put their home up for rent. Strapping their remaining possessions to two bicycles, the couple set off to bike around the world.

Euro tops $1.55 for first time – The euro has set a new record high against the US dollar, passing $1.55 for the first time.

Study: 1 in 4 teen girls has an STD – A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls — nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.