Texas

Former sheriff charged in criminal operation

A scandal-plagued former sheriff has been charged with leading a criminal enterprise while in office that included extortion, drug trafficking and witness tampering, federal prosecutors announced Thursday in Brownsville.

The indictment alleges the enterprise led by former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu netted tens of thousands of dollars, offering information about investigations and protection to drug traffickers and operators of an illegal gambling operation.

Four others were named in the indictment, including two who worked with Cantu at the sheriff’s department in Cameron County, on the border with Mexico.

Washington, D.C.

Senate approves Pryor for appeals court

The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday approved former Alabama Atty. Gen. William Pryor and Michigan nominees David McKeague and Richard Griffin for seats on the U.S. Appeals Court, completing an unprecedented run of long-delayed judicial confirmations.

With a vote of 53-45, Pryor was approved for 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles federal appeals from Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Griffin was confirmed 95-0 and McKeague 96-0, both for seats on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

“These three nominees have waited a combined total of over eight years for their votes,” President Bush said in a statement. “I applaud the Senate for today giving these fine nominees the up-or-down votes they deserve.”

The Senate confirmed three of President Bush’s most-wanted appellate nominees in less than three weeks after Senate centrists looking to avoid a partisan battle over judicial filibusters struck a deal.

Miami

Four Cubans in boat allowed to stay in U.S.

Four of the 14 Cubans intercepted at sea aboard a vintage taxi converted into a boat will be allowed to stay in the United States because they have valid immigration documents, but the others will be sent back to Cuba, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Rafael Diaz Rey – the mechanic who built the blue 1948 Mercury taxi-boat – his wife and their two children appear to have legitimate documents that would permit them to stay in this country, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.

An attorney for Democracy Movement, a Cuban exile group in Miami, said Diaz and his family last year won the documents in an annual lottery in Cuba for legal travel to the United States. But the communist government of President Fidel Castro refused to let the family leave, said attorney Wilfredo Allen.

After interviewing the remaining 10 migrants, Homeland Security Department officials concluded they have no reasonable fear of being persecuted or tortured if they are repatriated to Cuba, according to documents filed in federal court.

Florida

Tropical storm Arlene churns toward Gulf

Tropical storm Arlene likely won’t become a hurricane and should aim well west of Florida – but still poses the threat of heavy rains, flooding and even tornadoes today and Saturday in south Florida.

A flood watch was issued for the entire southern tip of the state, as the storm’s sloppy outer fringes could produce up to 3 inches of rain along the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service in Miami.

Arlene, the first named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, was forecast to churn north through the Gulf of Mexico and approach the Mississippi or Alabama coast on Saturday, near the same area Hurricane Ivan pounded in September.

That track is close enough to south Florida that it could be a troublesome rainmaker and help whip up 30 mph gusts throughout the day today.

Wisconsin

Toddler found dead in day care center’s van

A toddler was found dead Thursday in a day care center van after apparently being left there in muggy weather for most of the day, authorities said.

Police said the child was about 2 years old and might have been in the van outside the Come and Grow with Me Learning and Arts Center in West Allis for up to eight hours. Temperatures reached into the lower 80s during the day.

Investigators were interviewing the driver but no charges had been filed by late Thursday against him or the center’s operators.

“(The driver) came here voluntarily and he’s cooperating with us,” said police detective Lt. Chuck Padgett.

Resident Karen Smith said she witnessed the scene when the mother came looking for her child in midafternoon.

“This lady was screaming, ‘Where’s my kid? Where’s my kid?'” Smith told WTMJ-TV. “‘You guys had my kid, picked up my kid at 7 o’clock this morning and you’re trying to tell me you haven’t seen my kid all day?’ … They looked in the van, and her kid was just laying there.”