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Fierce storms drench California

By Times Wires
Published January 27, 2008

LOS ANGELES   

As a fierce storm barreled toward Southern California on Saturday, searchers found the body of an avalanche victim and rescued a missing snowboarder who survived a night in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Taking advantage of a lull in a week of storms, searchers found the body of Christopher Allport, one of two people reported missing Friday near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood. Allport, 60, was a character actor who has appeared on such TV shows as ER, Felicity and Matlock. He was the third skier killed in the avalanche.

Meanwhile, large swaths of California braced for another bout of heavy rain. Storms have dumped rain onto Southern California since Monday, with some areas receiving more moisture in that time than during the entire rainy season last year.

LOS ANGELES

Small private copter crashes on freeway

A helicopter pilot was killed when his small craft crashed into the southbound lanes of the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles and burst into flames, authorities said. The two-seat Robinson R-22 went down about 11 p.m. Friday. No one on the ground was hurt, and the cause is under investigation. Investigators may need to use dental records to identify the pilot, who was alone, coroner's officials said Saturday.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

E-mail before raid notes ID program

An e-mail sent by local immigration officials to their agency head the day after New Haven adopted an ID program for illegal immigrants suggests that the timing of a raid soon thereafter was not coincidental, Mayor John DeStefano said.

Regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers told agency director Julie Myers in a June 5 e-mail that New Haven's Board of Aldermen had voted 25-1 the previous night to make the city the nation's first to offer illegal immigrants ID cards. City officials said the cards would help immigrants better integrate into mainstream culture by allowing them access to bank accounts and other services.

On June 6, ICE agents swept through the city and detained an estimated 30 illegal immigrants. Critics contend that the raid was retaliation for the city's adoption of the ID program - a claim the agency has steadfastly denied, saying that the raid was planned months in advance and that its timing was coincidental.

In the e-mail to Myers, obtained by the Associated Press through a federal Freedom of Information Act request, agents wrote that because of the recent vote, the raid would likely draw significant news coverage.

WASHINGTON

Bush threatens to veto surveillance extension

The White House warned Democratic leaders Saturday that President Bush would veto a proposal to extend an expiring surveillance law by 30 days, saying that Congress should quickly approve a Senate bill favored by the Bush administration.

The move is aimed at forcing Congress to renew and expand the Protect America Act, which is due to expire at the end of Thursday. House Democrats are scheduled to vote on a delay Monday.

The White House and Republicans want the temporary surveillance law made permanent. But many Democrats, spurred on by objections from civil liberties and liberal groups, have balked at the administration's demand to add legal immunity for telephone companies.

Times wires

[Last modified January 27, 2008, 02:24:57]