PHOENIX (AP) - A federal judge dealt a serious rebuke to
Arizona's immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the
crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton sets up a lengthy
legal battle as Arizona fights to enact the nation's
toughest-in-the-nation immigration law. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer
said the state likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge's
order overturned.
But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions
that angered opponents will not take effect, including sections
that required officers to check a person's immigration status while
enforcing other laws.
The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants
to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for
undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places - a
move aimed at day laborers. In addition, the judge blocked officers
from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.

Despite 102 Democrats who broke ranks, the
House has approved $33 billion to fund the surge in Afghanistan.
The bill sent to President Barack Obama also had an additional $26
billion for non-war programs. Some Democrats said the war funds
should be used on domestic needs.

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner pressed the case on Sunday for letting Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire later this year.

In appearances on two television programs, Mr. Geithner said that letting tax cuts expire for those who make $250,000 a year or more would affect 2 percent to 3 percent of all Americans. He dismissed concerns that the move could push a teetering economy back into recession and argued that it would demonstrate America’s commitment to addressing its trillion-dollar budget deficit.

On “This Week” on ABC, he said, “We think that’s the responsible thing to do because we need to make sure we can show the world” that America is “willing as a country now to start to make some progress bringing down our long-term deficits.”

Mr. Geithner added, “I do not believe it will affect growth.”

Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress strongly disagree and have pledged to launch an all-out effort to extend the tax cuts for people of all incomes. The cuts were passed under President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. Supporters of extending the cuts for everyone argue that raising taxes on any group, particularly one considered crucial for creating jobs, could endanger a precarious economic recovery.

(AP) - It's 599 down, and one to go for Alex Rodriguez
in his pursuit of 600 career home runs. A-Rod slugged No. 599 in
the Yankees' 10-4 win over Kansas City. He's one shy of becoming
the seventh major leaguer to swat 600 homers.

A-Rod admits to using performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003.
Does his record taint baseball?

A year after President Barack Obama's political honeymoon ended, his job approval rating has dropped to a negative 44 - 48 percent, his worst net score ever, and American voters say by a narrow 39 - 36 percent margin that they would vote for an unnamed Republican rather than President Obama in 2012, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to a 48 - 43 percent approval for Obama in a May 26 national poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University and a 57 - 33 percent approval last July, just before the political firestorm created by opposition to his health care plan galvanized political opponents and turned independent voters against him.

In this latest survey of more than 2,000 voters, independent voters disapprove of Obama 52 - 38 percent and say 37 - 27 percent they would vote for a Republican contender in 2012.

American voters also say 48 - 40 percent Obama does not deserve reelection in 2012.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A different picture is emerging, and it's led
the administration to re-think its decision to force an Agriculture
Department employee from her job. In an edited video posted on a
conservative website, Shirley Sherrod was heard telling an NAACP
group that she withheld some help from a white farmer years ago
because of his race. She says the complete version -- now posted by
the NAACP -- shows that she was talking about overcoming racial
bias.

Fox News and conservatives used the video to portray Sherrord as a racist.
This is not the first time conservatives have edited video to skew the
truth.

Click here for more:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/viral-videos-shirley-sherrod-flap-highlights-growing-political/story?id=11214756

ABC News - Sarah Palin's inflammatory tweets calling on New Yorkers to "refudiate" a planned mosque near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has made her both a satirical target and a thorn in the side of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The former Alaska governor took to Twitter Sunday to oppose the city's plans for the mosque, already a source of heated debate in New York.

After Palin tweeted "peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is unnecessary provocation; it stabs hearts," Bloomberg shot back.

"Sarah Palin has a right to her opinions, but I could not disagree more. "Everything the United States stands for and New York stands for is tolerance and openness."

Daisy Khan, a spokesperson for the community center that will include the mosque, said Palin's stance "raises the very question of what is at the heart of all this furor and that is ignorance."

NEW YORK (AP) - Gov. David Paterson signed legislation Friday
that eliminates a database of thousands of people stopped and
frisked by New York City police without facing charges, calling the
practice "not a policy for a democracy."
Paterson signed the law over vehement objections of New York
City's mayor and police commissioner, who said the city was losing
a key crime-fighting tool.
But the governor said the policy that targets criminals won't be
affected by eliminating a database of people who were stopped, then
released.
"This law does not in any way tamper with our stop-and-frisk
policies," Paterson said. "What it does is it disallows the use
of personal data of innocent people who have not done anything
wrong. ... That is not a policy for a democracy."
Critics have said information from such stops, mainly of blacks
and Latinos who are innocent, can lead to future police suspicion
and surveillance. Police say the database helped to solve crimes,
including anti-gay and anti-Hispanic bias attacks.
"Albany has robbed us of a great crime-fighting tool, one that
saved lives," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a
statement. "Without it, there will be, inevitably, killers and
other criminals who won't be captured as quickly, or perhaps
ever."
Paterson said he had met with Kelly and spoken to Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, but had not been persuaded that the database protects
the city from crime.
"Civil justice, and I think common sense, would suggest that
those who are questioned and not even accused of crimes be
protected from any further stigma or suspicion," Paterson said.
He signed the bill at a press conference with the bill's
sponsors and supporters including the city's public advocate, Bill
de Blasio.
"Today's reform of the stop and frisk database reaffirms a
basic value of this country. The government cannot keep tabs on
people who have done nothing wrong," de Blasio said.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union, praised Paterson for signing the legislation.
"Innocent people stopped by the police for doing nothing more
than going to school, work or the subway should not become
permanent criminal suspects," said Lieberman. "By signing this
bill, the Paterson administration has put itself on the right side
of history and leaves an important legacy in support of civil
rights, civil liberties and common sense."
In his sponsor's memo, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Brooklyn,
said that in 2009, the New York Police Department stopped 574,304
people, nearly 90 percent of them people of color, and nine out of
10 were released without any further legal action. Data show 2.5
million stops since 2005.
Sen. Eric Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat and former NYPD captain who
sponsored the bill, said Friday the bill would protect innocent
people from being targeted by police, especially minorities.
"Our fear is not to have our sons (be) victims of aggressive
criminal behavior, but we also don't want our children to be
victims of aggressive police behavior," Adams said.
The automated database, believed to be the only one in the
country, grew out of a law requiring police to keep details such as
age and race on anyone they stop, and it was envisioned as a way to
safeguard civil rights.
The law, enacted in 2001, required the police department to turn
information over to lawmakers every quarter. It was aimed at
uncovering whether police were disproportionately stopping black
and Hispanic men. But police also indefinitely hold on to addresses
and names of people stopped - information not required by the law.
The bill, which takes effect immediately, would not prohibit
police from entering into an electronic database generic
identifiers, such as gender, race and location of the stop.

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- NBC and CBS have reportedly refused to air an advertisement urging people to "kill" the idea of a proposed mosque near ground zero.

The advertisement, sponsored by the National Republican Trust PAC, features a narrator speaking over images of Sept. 11 destruction and stating the mosque would be a "monument to their victory"

PLEASE click here to view the ad:

http://www.1010wins.com/NBC--CBS-Refuse-to-Air-Anti-Ground-Zero-Mosque-Ad/7692134