In brief: Some convictions overturned in ex-governor’s case
CHICAGO – A federal appeals court Tuesday overturned some of the most sensational convictions that sent former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich off to a lengthy stint in prison, ruling that the Democrat did not break the law when he sought to secure a Cabinet position in President Barack Obama’s administration in exchange for appointing an Obama adviser to the president’s former U.S. Senate seat.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago also ordered the resentencing of Blagojevich, offering the 58-year-old a ray of hope that he could end up serving less than his original 14-year term.
The three appellate judges dismissed five of 18 corruption counts against Blagojevich, while affirming 13 counts. In a blow to the defense, the panelists also suggested the original sentence wasn’t necessarily extreme, even when factoring in the newly tossed convictions.
Blagojevich floated the idea of a Cabinet job in exchange for appointing Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to Obama’s vacant Senate seat. After Blagojevich’s arrest, the seat went to Roland Burris, who served less than two years before a successor was elected.
Immigration debate heats up
WASHINGTON – Urged on by anguished testimony from the father of a murder victim, Congress plunged into a heated debate over immigration on Tuesday as GOP lawmakers vowed to shut down funding for so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco that shield immigrants from deportation by federal authorities.
Immigrant advocates denounced the approach, accusing Republicans of following presidential candidate Donald Trump in demonizing Latinos.
But after 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle was shot this month, allegedly by an immigrant with a criminal record and without legal status, even some Democrats were calling for action to address the ineffective tangle of federal and local laws and policies that left the man on the street.
The alleged killer, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had multiple felony convictions and had been deported five times, but San Francisco authorities released him, rejecting a request from federal immigration authorities to hold him until they could take him into custody.
San Francisco is among hundreds of jurisdictions nationally that decline to honor federal immigration requests, or “detainers,” which have been successfully challenged in court and which advocates say can unfairly target immigrants who’ve done nothing wrong or committed only minor crimes.
Lauded author Doctorow dies
NEW YORK – Writer E.L. Doctorow, who wryly reimagined the American experience in such novels as “Ragtime” and “The March” and applied its lessons to the past and the future in fiction and nonfiction, has died. He was 84.
He died Tuesday at a New York hospital from complications of lung cancer, his son, Richard Doctorow, confirmed.
Doctorow won the National Book Award for fiction in 1986 for “World’s Fair” and the National Book Critics Circle award in 1989 for “Billy Bathgate” and in 2005 for “The March.”
Also in passing:
• Tom Moore, the “Archie” cartoonist who brought to life the escapades of a freckled-face, red-haired character, has died in Texas. He was 86.
Moore, who began drawing cartoons while in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, died early Monday while in hospice care in his hometown of El Paso, his son Lito Bujanda-Moore told the Associated Press on Tuesday. He said his father was diagnosed with throat cancer within the past week and chose not to undergo treatment.
Moore drew Archie Andrews and his friends on and off from 1953 until he retired in the late 1980s. Annual sales of the comic regularly surpassed half a million during the 1960s, according to the El Paso Times.
• Theodore Bikel, the Tony- and Oscar-nominated actor and singer whose passions included folk music and political activism, died Tuesday morning of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his agent Robert Malcolm. He was 91.
The Austrian-born Bikel was noted for the diversity of the roles he played, from a Scottish police officer to a Russian submarine skipper, Jewish refugee, Dutch sea captain and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. He sang in 21 languages.
Many viewers knew him best for his portrayal of Tevye in stage productions of “Fiddler on the Roof.” Although he did not appear in the original 1964 Broadway version or the 1971 film, he played Tevye more than 2,000 times on stage from 1967 onward.
• Grammy-winning songwriter Wayne Carson, who wrote hits like the Willie Nelson classic “Always On My Mind,” and The Box Tops’ “The Letter,” has died. He was 72.
Carson died on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, in hospice care after a lengthy illness, according to family friend Shirley Hutchins.