Women say Schwarzenegger groped, humiliated them
Six women who came into contact with Arnold Schwarzenegger on movie sets, in studio offices and in other settings over the last three decades say he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent.
In interviews with The Times, three of the women described their surprise and discomfort when Schwarzenegger grabbed their breasts. A fourth said he reached under her skirt and gripped her buttocks.
A fifth woman said Schwarzenegger groped her and tried to remove her bathing suit in a hotel elevator. A sixth said Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.
According to the women’s accounts, one of the incidents occurred in the 1970s, two in the 1980s, two in the 1990s and one in 2000.
Four of the six women told their stories on condition that they not be named. Three work in Hollywood and said they were worried that, if they were identified, their careers would be in jeopardy for speaking out against Schwarzenegger, the onetime bodybuilding champion and box-office star who just emerged the winner in the Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election. (LA Times)

Skull and Bones Society admits to grave robbing
The Skull and Bones Society admitted to Apache leaders 17 years ago that they had a skull they call “Geronimo’s” in their secret cult museum in New Haven, CT. Still, his remains have not been returned.
Raleigh Thompson, former San Carlos Apache tribal councilman to 16 years, said it is time to bring Geronimo home to be buried in the mountains that he loved.
The grave robbing was exposed when Apache leaders received a photo and information in the 1980s. The informant, fearing for his life and never identified, provided Apache leaders with a photo of the cult museum’s display of Geronimo’s remains in a glass cage. The informant also provided a copy of a Skull and Bones log book, in which the 1918 grave robbery was recorded.
According to the Skull and Bones log book entry, Prescott Bush, grandfather of George W. Bush, and five other officers at Fort Sill, OK., desecrated Geronimo’s grave.
After receiving the information, an Apache tribal delegation met with the Society. During a series of meetings, they met with Skull and Bones officials and Jonathan Bush, George Bush’s brother, in New York City in 1988.
However, Thompson said the skull that the Skull and Bones Society offered to return to the Apache delegation was that of a young boy, not Geronimo, and the Apache leaders refused it.
George W. Bush, in his 1999 campaign autobiography, A Charge To Keep, speaks of his membership in Skull and Bones. “My senior year I joined the Skull and Bones, a secret society, so secret I can’t say any more.” (Indian Country Today)

Appeals court rules on DNA database
In a move that could affect hundreds of criminal cases in Arizona and other western states, a 3-year-old law that requires federal prisoners and parolees to provide DNA samples for an FBI database was declared unconstitutional Oct. 2 by a federal appeals court.
A three-judge panel ruled that requiring blood samples for the database amounts to an illegal invasion of privacy because they are taken without legal suspicion that the convicts were involved in other crimes.
The court’s jurisdiction covers Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho, Washington state, Montana, Nevada, and Alaska.
The court said that is a violation of inmates’ Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches. The samples “constitute suspicionless searches with the objective of furthering law enforcement purposes,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt said.
The San Francisco-based 9th circuit court is the most liberal in the nation. The court’s three-judge panels are known for several contentious rulings, including one that declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional in public schools and a decision last month that postponed California’s recall election. That ruling was later overturned by a larger 9th circuit court. (AP)

Union members locked out by White Lily Foods
When contract negotiations broke down between Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco, and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 165G union members and White Lily Foods Co. on July 24, he company locked out 68 members at its Knoxville, TN plant. At the center of the lockout is the company’s demand that workers accept higher health care deductibles, no pension increase, forced overtime and low wage increases. Local 165G members whose contract expired May 31, make White Lily and Pioneer brand flour and mixes for muffins, brownies, biscuits and other dry mix products. The company also supplies restaurant chains Hardee’s with biscuits, McDonald’s with “McGriddles,” and the Waffle House with waffles and grits. The company’s dry mix products are sold in grocery stores throughout the US.
The company has brought in scab labor to produce products, while union members and their supporters picket just outside the entrance to the plant. However, according to International vice president Tony Johnson, “workers’ solidarity in unwavering.”
The BCTGM is asking patrons of businesses like Hardee’s, McDonald’s, and the Waffle House to encourage managers to purchase flours and dry mixes from other sources until the lockout ends. (BCTGM)

Judge rules out death sentence, terror evidence in Moussaoui case
The Bush administration’s hopes of trying the only person charged over the Sept. 11 attacks in a civilian court were drastically reduced Oct. 2 after a judge said prosecutors could not seek the death penalty against Zacarias Moussaoui and neither could they use evidence that linked him to the attacks on New York and Washington.
US district Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said she was punishing the government for refusing to obey her ruling that would allow Moussaoui the right to call as witnesses three alleged al Qaida members. The Bush administration argued that doing so would be damaging to national security.
Government prosecutors had expected that Judge Brinkema would actually dismiss the case, allowing them to then appeal to a different court and proceed with their prosecution of the French citizen charged with conspiracy.
Her decision, to rule against the death penalty and bar any evidence linking him to the attacks of Sept. 11, was not expected. It means it is much more likely the administration will place Moussaoui before a military tribunal. (Independent (UK))

Border patrol dumps illegal immigrants in far away towns
Migrants caught in the deserts of Arizona are being put on planes by the US Border Patrol and deported hundreds of miles away along Texas’ southern border, in many cases to cities in Mexico they’ve never seen.
US officials say deporting migrants from Texas — instead of at the border where they crossed — reduces repeat attempts and cuts migrants’ links to the smuggling networks in Arizona, the most popular route for undocumented crossings. The pilot program has caused anger on the Mexican side, where town officials say they are ill-equipped for the influx of deportees.
The program has created a class of unwanted people, ejected from the US side of the border to the Mexican cities of Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Reynosea, and Matamoros. Once they are in Mexico, city officials often hustle the migrants aboard public buses, give them a free meal and rush them to the nearest terminal with a bus ticket out of town.
US officials say only a fraction of those deported through the program are caught trying to sneak across the border again in Texas, and total detentions in the Arizona desert fell 19 percent after the program started.
Returning to the Arizona border from Texas is difficult and costly because the region in between is desolate, with few roads or cities.
The Mexican government has protested the US practice of handcuffing migrants with chain wraps around their waists during the plane ride.
“If they have to deport us, they shouldn’t treat us like criminals,” said Martin Romero, 38, a field worker from Durango. “It’s humiliating. We’re just working people.” (AP)

US rejects skilled immigrants
In an era of increasing immigration restrictions, it just got a lot tougher for foreign nationals to get professional visas to work in the United States.
On Oct. 1, the total number of visas for skilled foreign workers — a category that includes computer technicians, engineers, and fashion models — that the US government can issue was reduced to 65,000, less than half the total issued the previous year.
Though the quota reduction was not unexpected, it’s still likely to prompt a rush for visas in the category known as H-1B, according to immigration advocates and attorneys in South Florida and across the nation.
The cutback is the latest in a series of visa restrictions for foreign visitors, immigrants, and workers. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, federal authorities have imposed additional requirements for visitor and immigrant visa applicants, including personal interviews by US consular officers with all petitioners. The requirement has increased visa backlogs.
In addition, all processing of visas and immigration petitions takes longer because of increased scrutiny and more elaborate background checks in the aftermath of the attacks. (Miami Herald)

Nader would have supported invasion of Iraq
Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader said he would have supported an invasion of Iraq “if they did it with support of the United Nations,” Nader said at a Green Party fund-raiser at the City Steam Brewery Café on Saturday. Nader ran for president on the Green Party ticket in 2000.
He said the United States has a responsibility to the Iraqi people because US foreign policy put Hussein in power and allowed him to conduct a reign of terror against his own people.
Nader accused President Bush of “high crimes” in lying to the American people about the reasons for going to war in Iraq.
Nader said that while he believes Bush can be defeated, he would not decide whether to run for the presidency again until the end of the year. (Norwich Bulletin)