Children categories
JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) —
A judge cleared the way Thursday for thousands of young immigrants in Arizona who are protected from deportation under an Obama administration policy to get driver's licenses.
The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge David Campbell bars the state from enforcing Gov. Jan Brewer's policy of denying the licenses to about 20,000 immigrants.
The injunction that takes effect Monday was a formality that carries out instructions issued in July by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nora Preciado, one of the attorneys who pressed the challenge of the state policy, said the injunction eliminates the rule change that made it difficult or impossible for young immigrants to do essential things such as go to school and stores, and find and hold a job.
"This has been a terrible harm to them and has really stunted their ability to contribute to Arizona and their communities," Preciado said.
Brewer lashed out at the order, saying issuing licenses is a state matter, not one for "the federal government or an unelected judiciary."
"It is outrageous that Arizona is being forced to ignore longstanding state law and comply with a flawed federal court mandate that requires the state, at least temporarily, to issue driver licenses to individuals whose presence is in violation of federal law, as established by the United States Congress," Brewer said in a statement.
KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press
ULA ILNYTZKY, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) —
Authorities are stepping up security at the headquarters of an international Jewish organization in Brooklyn after a mentally ill man wandered inside the library and stabbed a student in the head before he was shot and killed by police.
Calvin Peters, 49, was seen on amateur video waving a knife in the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights at 1:40 a.m. Tuesday after the attack on Levi Rosenblat. The 22-year-old, wounded on the side of the head, was listed in stable condition.
New York City police said the stabbing was not believed to be connected to terrorism. But it shook the Jewish community, still reeling over an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by two Palestinian cousins last month that left four worshippers and an officer dead.
Police Commissioner William Bratton said the department was already on heightened alert based on the incidents in Israel. His deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, John Miller, said there was an increased presence at religious locations.
"Given frankly the concern that the news of this story may bring to houses of worship around the city, our critical incident response vehicles which we normally post at sensitive locations depending on what the threat stream of the day is will focus on religious institutions in part," Miller said.
BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press
AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press
GAITHERSBURG, Md. (AP) —
A small, private jet slammed into a house Monday, killing a woman and her young sons inside the home and three people on the aircraft, authorities said.
The jet crashed around 10:45 a.m. in Gaithersburg, a Washington, D.C., suburb, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Steve Lohr said during a news conference.
Authorities quickly said all three people in the plane had been killed, but it took hours for fire crews to sweep the home and confirm that three people were inside. They were identified as 36-year-old Marie Gemmell and her two sons, 3-year-old Cole and a 1-month-old Devon, police said.
They were found in a second-floor bathroom. Gemmell was lying on top of her young sons in an apparent effort to shield them from the smoke and fire, said police Capt. Paul Starks. Her husband and a school-age daughter were not home and were accounted for, police said.
The fuselage of the jet crashed into the front lawn of an adjacent home, which was heavily damaged by fire, and investigators believe one of its wings, which had fuel inside, was sheared off and tore through the front of the Gemmell home, said Robert Sumwalt, a National Transportation Safety Board member. Witnesses reported seeing and hearing a secondary explosion after the plane hit the ground.