Washington, D.C.

GOP leaders agree to extend tax cuts

Republican leaders agreed Tuesday to extend three middle-class tax cuts for five years, clearing the way for Senate and House votes as early as this week on the fourth tax-cut package in as many years.

The agreement, which would cost the Treasury as much as $150 billion through 2009, was a victory for President Bush, who had scuttled a deal in July to extend the tax cuts for two years, arguing he could get a longer extension in the heat of the campaign season.

The package would extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit that would shrink to $700 if Congress does not act. Also to be extended are an expanded tax break for married couples and a 10 percent income tax bracket that had been enlarged for just one year in the tax cut Bush signed last year.

Republicans also decided to extend for one year a host of expiring business tax credits, including tax credits for research and development and for hiring welfare recipients, and deductions for teachers’ classroom expenses

Arizona

Border crackdown to continue indefinitely

A government crackdown on illegal immigration in southern Arizona will continue beyond Sept. 30, the day the initiative was supposed to wrap up, a top Homeland Security official said Tuesday.

Some agents, prosecutors and helicopters that had been transferred to Arizona for the crackdown will remain permanently, said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security.

The buildup, which began in March, aimed at clamping down on the soaring numbers of illegal immigrants brought into Arizona by smugglers from Mexico.

The action has resulted in more than 351,700 apprehensions of illegal immigrants on the Arizona border, compared with about 225,000 during the same period in the 2003 fiscal year, Hutchinson said in Tucson.

Texas

Fiery crash kills 10

The driver of a tractor-trailer that veered across a median into oncoming traffic, killing 10 people in two vehicles, was charged Tuesday with criminally negligent homicide.

The crash occurred during afternoon rush hour Monday on U.S. 75 just south of Sherman.

Three children and their mother and grandmother were killed in a sport utility vehicle that was burned beyond recognition, Sherman fire Capt. Doug Blackburn said. Five others were killed in a pickup truck, and two adults were injured.

The tractor-trailer’s driver, Miroslav Janusz Jozwiak, 45, also was injured.

Jozwiak was being held on $200,000 bond on each of 10 counts of the homicide charge.

Illinois

Suspect charged in Capitol shooting

A man suspected in the shooting death of an unarmed Capitol security guard was arrested Tuesday in Springfield as he knocked on doors asking people for a ride to the police station, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the suspect, a 24-year-old college dropout, has a history of mental illness including manic depression, and has been off his medication. They are reviewing whether to seek the death penalty.

“This was an extremely violent crime,” prosecutor John Schmidt told a judge in successfully seeking a $20 million bond for Derek W. Potts.

Potts was charged with first-degree murder, burglary involving a gun from a military surplus store and gun violations.

Police had said they knew of no motive for the shooting or any connection between Potts and the victim, William Wozniak, a father of two who was in his 18th year as a Capitol guard.