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GOP settles suit over jamming phone lines

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 3, 2006

State and national Republicans will pay $135,000 to settle a suit involving a scheme to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote calls on Election Day 2002, officials said Saturday. Republicans had hired a telemarketing firm to place hundreds of hang-up calls to phone banks for the Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters union, a nonpartisan group offering rides to the polls. Service was disrupted for nearly two hours. State Republican chairman Wayne Semprini said the Republican State Committee deplored the phone-jamming incident and does not endorse illegal or improper election tactics. "The phone jamming scheme was the act of a few unauthorized individuals and not that of the Republican Party," he said. The settlement announced Friday ended the civil lawsuit, three days before it was to go to trial.

Lawmaker's wife could be deported

The wife of a Georgia legislator known for his strong support of immigrants' rights is in hiding after federal agents came to their home on Tuesday with an order to deport her to her native Colombia, her lawyer said. In a written statement issued Wednesday, state Sen. Curt Thompson, 37, a Democrat, said his wife, Sascha Herrera, 28, missed an immigration-related court hearing in February 2005. Thompson said notices about an asylum application that had been mistakenly filed on her behalf had been sent to the wrong address, causing her to miss the hearing. Because Herrera did not appear in court, a federal judge issued a deportation order in 2005, Charles Kuck, Herrera's immigration lawyer, said on Friday.

Student linked to would-be terrorist

A university student trained with assault rifles gave a fiery sermon supporting jihad and associated with two Houston men accused of conspiring to help the Taliban, authorities said. Syed Maaz Shah, 19, a University of Texas at Dallas student, was charged this week with illegally possessing an assault weapon. He is not accused of conspiring with the Taliban, and Shah's attorney denied that he was involved in anything illegal. But authorities say Shah is a close associate of Kobie Diallo Williams', also known as Abdul Kabir, and Adnan Babar Mirza's, and practiced shooting with them. Williams, 33, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to help the Taliban, while Mirza faces a similar charge. Authorities have said neither of the Houston men had any real contact with terrorist groups. Shah's lawyer said he simply went to a shooting range with Mirza and Williams.

Killer caught 33 years after escape

A convicted murderer who escaped from a work release program 33 years ago was captured in Alabama, where he had been working construction jobs using his real name, U.S. marshals announced Saturday. Billy Wayne Hayes, 57, was arrested Friday in Dothan, Ala., nearly 350 miles from Nashville, where he had been imprisoned. Hayes was sentenced in 1968 to serve 10 years for second-degree murder. He never returned after signing out for work on Dec. 21, 1972. Officers said Hayes was surprised when arrested and said he had no idea why he fled. He said he only had a short time left to serve when he escaped.

[Last modified December 3, 2006, 01:42:36]