In brief: House, Senate group agrees on FAA bill

Washington – An agreement on a bill to provide operating authority for the Federal Aviation Administration over the next four years and to boost the agency’s air traffic modernization effort was reached Tuesday by House and Senate negotiators, culminating a five-year struggle that included a two-week shutdown of the agency.

The bill authorizes $63 billion for the FAA through the 2015 budget year. It includes compromises on several difficult issues that divided lawmakers along party lines and by region, including air service subsidies for rural communities, safety regulation of cargo shipments of lithium batteries, and rules governing the formation of airline and railroad unions.

The FAA’s long-term operating authority expired in 2007. The agency has continued to limp along under a series of 23 short-term extensions, but its ability to commit to decisions on program like air traffic modernization, which isn’t expected to be complete until sometime after 2020, has been hindered.

Business group seeks aid for illegal workers

Topeka, Kan. – A coalition of business groups will propose Kansas start a new program to help some illegal immigrants remain in the state so they can hold down jobs in agriculture and other industries with labor shortages, coalition representatives disclosed Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Washington-based Immigration Policy Council called the proposal “unprecedented” and questioned whether the federal government would allow such a program. Utah has set up a guest-worker program, but it doesn’t take effect until 2013 and was part of a broader package of initiatives on immigration.

The proposal is likely to stir controversy in the Kansas Legislature and divide the Republican majority, some of whose members are pursuing proposals to crack down on illegal immigration.

Supporters of the proposal acknowledge they’re trying to protect industries heavily reliant on laborers, particularly agriculture. Kansas has an estimated 45,000 illegal-immigrant workers.

Park ranger uses Taser on dog owner

Montara, Calif. – A man walking his dogs in a federal park was hit with a stun gun and arrested by a park ranger who accused him of not putting a leash on the animals and giving a false name, astonishing passers-by who say the reaction was excessive.

The ranger deployed the Taser stun gun on Gary Hesterberg on Sunday after he ignored the ranger’s orders and tried to walk away, the National Park Service said. Hesterberg was allegedly walking his dogs without leashes in violation of the rules of Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was incorporated into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in December.

Hesterberg refused to provide the ranger with printed identification, and she realized he had told her a false name when she called dispatchers to verify, Howard Levitt, the recreation area’s communications director, said. While she was on the telephone, “the man failed to heed repeated orders to remain at the scene” and the ranger used her Taser, he said.

A witness, Michelle Babcock, said the ranger never gave Hesterberg an explanation as to why he was being detained and then hit him with the stun gun in the back.

“He just tried to walk away,” Babcock said. “She never gave him a reason. … It didn’t make any sense.”