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Show 2 Wednesday, April 19,2006 797-1769 statesman@cc.usu.edu Bush shuffles economic team in effort to energize administration Today's Issue VedicQti_6ns__ Today is Friday, April 19, 2006. Today's issue of The Utah Statesman is published especially for Amanda Moosman, a junior majoring in history. Clarifications And Corrections The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 797-1762 or TSC 105. National Briefs A Quick idok^~ ZIIZZI3 Freddie Mac settles illegal campaign-contribution suit with $5.8 million fine WASHINGTON (AP) - The home loan giant Freddie Mac has agreed to pay a record $3.8 million fine to settle allegations it made illegal campaign contributions. The fine announced Tbesday is by far the biggest ever levied by the Federal Election Commission. Because the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, widely known as Freddie Mac, agreed to pay the fine and stop breaking the law, the FEC said it would not take further action against corporate officials. "We're hoping this will catch peoples attention," Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said, noting that campaign watchdogs have often called the FEC a do-nothing agency. "You don't want to be the person who beats this fine." Freddie Mac was accused of illegally using corporate resources between 2000 and 2003 for 85 fundraisers that collected about $1.7 million for federal candidates. Much of the fundraising benefited members of the House Financial Services Committee, a panel whose decisions can affect Freddie Mac. The fundraisers were organized by then-Freddie Mac lobbyists Robert Mitchell Delk and Clark Camper, who described them to the corporations board of directors as "political risk management,* the FEC said. The lobbyists told Freddie Mac officials the fundraising effort was needed to help the corporation achieve its lobbying goals. Delk wrote in his 2001 performance appraisal that Freddie Mac had held more than 40 fundraisers for House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio. The FEC also found Freddie Mac officials used staff and resources to raise money from company employees to give to candidates, and that in 2002 the corporation itself gave $150,000 to the Republican Governors Association. nal elections. WASHINGTON (AP) The president tapped Under pressure to revitalize his administration, President Bush Portman's deputy, Susan Schwab, to move up and reshuffled his economic team replace her boss as the adminTuesday with a new budget istration's top trade negotiator chief who is highly regarded with other nations. on Capitol Hill and promised more changes were coming. He Announcing the changes also named a new trade repre- during a Rose Garden cersentative. emony, Bush made clear that Defense Secretary Donald Bush chose Rob Portman, H. Rumsfeld's job was safe, a former six-term Republican despite calls for Rumsfeld's congressman from Ohio who resignation from a half dozen now serves as trade represenretired military commanders. tative, to head the Office of Management and Budget, put"I hear the voices and I read ting him at the heart of White the front page and I know the House decision-making. speculation," the president said testily. "But I'm the decider Hailed by Democrats and and I decide what's best. Republicans alike, Portman's And what's best is for Don nomination may help calm Rumsfeld to remain as the secGOP anxieties about adminisretary of defense." tration missteps. Portman is a close friend of Bush's and has Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon a reputation as a skilled comnews conference later in the municator about the economy, day, said he hasn't considered which will be a central theme resigning. "The president for the November congressioknows, as I know, there are no indispensable men. ... He knows that I serve at his pleasure, and that's that." Tuesday's changes were set in motion by the promotion of Joshua Bolten as Bush's chief of staff from his old job as budget director. Bush said Bolten, who moved into his new office last Friday, has a mandate to shake things up. "With a new man will come some changes," the president said. "And Josh has got all the rights to make those recommendations to me." Bolten will make suggestions "as to who should be here and who should not be here," Bush said. With the Iraq war overshadowing his administration, his agenda stalled and his poll numbers at record lows, Bush faces calls from Republicans > B U S H SHAKE-UP See page 7 7 Mexico wants migrant rights in U.S., but is harsh to undocumented Central Americans AP Photo/Dono Lopez-Mills CENTRAL AMERICAN MIGRANTS try to climb on a train headed north on their way to the United States near the town of Tultitlan, on the outskirts of Mexico City on Monday April 17. While Mexican immigrants demonstrate across the U.S. for better treatment of undocumented aliens, Mexico's own illegal population hundreds of thousands of Central Americans - must simply put up with robberies, assaults and extortion. TULTITLAN, Mexico (AP) - Considered felons by the government, these migrants fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations andfleabaghotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take their money. While migrants in the United States have held huge demonstrations in recent weeks, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico suffer mostly in silence. And though Mexico demands humane treatment for its citizens who migrate to the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Mexico provides few protections for migrants on its own soil. The issue simply isn't on the country's political agenda, perhaps because migrants make up only 0.5 percent of the population, or about 500,000 people - compared with 12 percent in the United States. The level of brutality Central American migrants face in Mexico was apparent Monday, CATCH Of THE • MIGRANTS See page 7 7 LOS ANGELES (AP) - A somber "Die Hard" director John MdTiernan stood before a federal judge and said he made "knowingly false" statements to an FBI agent about Anthony Pellicano, the celebrity private eye he admitted hiring to wiretap a business associate. McTiernan, McTlERNAN who pleaded guilty Monday to making false statements, faces up tofiveyears in prison when he is sentenced July 31. He is the highest-profile figure yet to plead guilty in the investigation of Pellicano, who is accused of bugging phones and bribing police to get information on celebrities and others. Pellicano has pleaded not guilty. Asked by U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer on Monday if the statements he made to the FBI agent were false, McTiernan replied: "They were knowingly false, your honor." McTiernan, director of "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Last Action Hero" and other films, sketched out a scenario that began with a phone call to his home on Feb. 13 from a person identifying himself as an FBI agent. He said he told the agent the only time he used Pellicano's services was in his divorce. "He asked me if I had hired him in any other area, and I said, *No, I didn't,'" McTiernan told the judge. Late Night David Letterman, April 19, 2006 Top Ten Features of President Bush's Bird Flu Pandemic Plan 10. Hang "Mission Accomplished" sign in every Kentucky Fried Chicken. 9. Torture some Perdue employees until they talk. 8. Scare birds away with giant radioactive kitties. 7- Be on the lookout for any bird which looks "fluey." 6. Build wall along border so birds can't walk in from Mexico. 5. Never leave the house, avoid human contact — like Letterman. 4. Tax cuts for the rich. 3. C'mon, it's a Bush plan ~ you actually think there's ten items? 2. If you see a bird, run like you're being chased by a tiger. 1. Hang on until 2009 when it becomes Hillary's headache. Western Wats Western Wats has increased wages, and is still willing to work around your schedule. We offer weekly pay, a fun work environment, and we'll give you time off for school events, tests, and holidays. For more information, call 753-1303 or stop by 22 East Center in Logan, or apply online: surveynetwork.com/application. Carolina Uownaomes UNDOUO'S Valid at Logan Gandolfo's Deli Only. 117 N. Main Street when police conducting a raid for undocumented migrants near a rail yard outside Mexico City shot to death a local man, apparently because his dark skin and work clothes made officers think he was a migrant. Virginia Sanchez, who lives near the railroad tracks that carry Central Americans north to the U.S. border, said such shootings in Tultitlan are common. "At night, you hear the gunshots, and it's the judiciales (state police) chasing the migrants," she said. "It's not fair to kill these people. It's not fair in the United States and it's not fair here." Undocumented Central American migrants complain much more about how they are treated by Mexican officials than about authorities on the U.S. side of the border, where migrants may resent being caught but often praise the professionalism of the agents scouring the desert for their trail. "If you're carrying any money, they take it from you - federal, state, local police, all of them," said Carlos Lopez, a 28-yearold farmhand from Guatemala crouching in afieldnear the tracks in Tbltitlan, waiting to People Buy any sandwich & 2 drinks and get a 2nd sandwich free with this coupon Private Bedroom & Bathroom • All Utilities & Gas Included • Free High-Speed Internet • Free Cable • Free Phone -Washer/ Dryer in every unit • Right by campus 776 N 750 E • Logan UT GaI/7J3-S12S |