In brief: Immigrant children ordered released
LOS ANGELES – A federal judge has once again dealt a blow to the Obama administration’s immigration policies, ordering federal officials to promptly release children held at family detention facilities.
The judge, in a ruling released Friday evening, said children should not be held for more than 72 hours unless they are a significant flight risk or a danger to themselves and others.
It’s unlikely that a mass release will happen right away, however.
Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles gave federal officials until Oct. 23 to comply with her order.
In a statement released Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security did not specify its next legal steps, saying only that it will “continue to screen family members’ claims as expeditiously as possible” and that it will review Gee’s decision and “consider available options with the Department of Justice.”
The Obama administration is detaining an estimated 1,400 parents and children at three detention facilities, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
Panda gives birth at National Zoo
WASHINGTON – The pregnancy escaped notice until just a few days ago. The baby was born pink, hairless and blind, and it wasn’t immediately apparent who the father was.
But the world of panda lovers is still excited about the new cub born at the National Zoo late Saturday afternoon – so much so that traffic to the famous “panda cam” crashed its Web page.
That left zookeepers to make the news official: Mei Xiang the giant panda gave birth at 5:35 p.m. with the zoo’s full panda team on hand to watch the intimate event.
The baby’s sex won’t be determined until later, and the name will come sometime after that. Zoo officials reported with relief that Mei responded to the cub by picking it up.
It would be hard to blame Mei for delaying the bonding, as her babies run a 50-50 chance of survival. She has two cubs who star on the panda cam, 10-year-old Tai Shan and 2-year-old Bao Bao. Two babies born between them didn’t make it.
Army parachutist honors skydiver
CINCINNATI – A solo Army Golden Knight parachutist honored a comrade’s dream by landing on the high school football field where hundreds of mourners gathered for his funeral Saturday, a week after he was involved in a deadly accident at a Chicago air show.
The military skydiver, joined by a team of professionals, fulfilled the wish of U.S. Army Master Sgt. Corey Hood, who had long wanted to parachute onto the field where he played as a youth, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
“He was highly competitive and didn’t want to lose at anything,” Larry Cox, his high school football coach, told the hundreds of mourners who gathered in the stands at Lakota West High School. “I think it correlated with why he became such a great soldier.”
Hood, 32, died Aug. 16, a day after colliding with another parachutist during a jump at the Chicago Air and Water Show.
Gunman had been whistleblower
NEW YORK – A New Jersey congressman said a man who gunned down a security guard at a federal building in Manhattan before killing himself was a whistleblower who had been given “a raw deal” by the agency that fired him.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell said Saturday that several members of his staff worked with gunman Kevin Downing to resolve his case and Downing never showed any violent tendencies.
Pascrell said he has no idea why Downing snapped.
Law enforcement authorities said the 68-year-old Downing opened fire at the federal building Friday evening, killing security guard Idrissa Camara, then himself.
Downing had been fired from his job at the New York City office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1999.