Washington, D.C.

Kerry, Nader to meet today

Democrat John Kerry will meet this afternoon with independent Ralph Nader and make his case for uniting against President Bush. Nader insists he cannot be persuaded to leave the race.

In an interview with The Associated Press, the consumer advocate said he looked forward to discussing “certain common policies” with Kerry.

“I think that’s for the good of our country and for the benefit of the American people that are being ignored or repudiated by the Bush regime,” Nader said Tuesday night.

He said he doubted that Kerry would ask him to withdraw from the race, and repeated his position that he had no intention of doing so.

Washington, D.C.

Bush, Senate strike compromise on judges

In an unusual display of election-year harmony, Senate Democrats and Republicans, along with the White House, struck a political compromise Tuesday that clears the way for confirmation of a number of President Bush’s less controversial judicial nominees.

Bush pledged not to bypass the Senate by appointing judicial nominees to the bench while Congress was in recess. In return, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said the Democrats agreed to allow votes on 25 judicial nominees.

The spirit of compromise only goes so far, however; Daschle said Democrats would continue to filibuster several of Bush’s judicial nominees whom they regard as too conservative.

Washington, D.C.

Justice report tracks human trafficking in U.S.

As many as 17,500 people each year are brought to the United States by human traffickers who trap them in slavery-like conditions for forced sex, sweatshop labor and domestic servitude, the Justice Department reported Tuesday.

In separate testimony on Capitol Hill, a top Homeland Security Department official estimated that human smuggling and trafficking generate some $9.5 billion worldwide each year for criminal organizations that also deal in illicit drugs, weapons and money laundering.

“These untraced profits feed organized crime activities,” John Torres, of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration.

Torres also said that terrorists could use the same smuggling networks “to gain entry to the United States to carry out their own destructive schemes.”