Flagstaff, Ariz.
Campers charged in wildfire: Two campers were charged last week with causing the largest wildfire in Arizona’s history. David Malboeuf, 24, and Caleb Malboeuf, 26, each face misdemeanor charges in connection with the fire, which destroyed 32 homes and left 538,000 acres of land in Arizona and New Mexico blackened and charred. The two cousins are accused of leaving a campfire smoldering in the Bear Wallow area of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests; the embers apparently went on to spark the blaze. “They believed the campfire was out,” said an affidavit from the U.S. Forest Service, “because David threw a candy wrapper in the fire just prior to their departure and it did not melt.” Arizona Sen. John McCain suggested that the fire had been started by illegal immigrants, but the Malboeufs are Arizona natives. If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of six months in prison.
Austin
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‘Stripper tax’ ruled legal: The Texas Supreme Court ruled this week that a $5 “stripper tax” levied on all patrons of the state’s nude bars was constitutional. The charge, also known as the “pole tax,” is added to the price of entry to each of the 169 bars in Texas that feature nude dancing. The revenue provides $25 million a year to a sexual-assault program. The Texas Entertainment Association sued on behalf of club owners in 2008, arguing that the tax violated freedom of expression rights under the First Amendment. Appellate judges upheld the complaint, but the decision has now been reversed by the state Supreme Court. Justice Nathan Hecht ruled that the combination of nudity and alcohol does not deserve constitutional protection. “The fee is not a tax on unpopular speech,” he wrote, “but a restriction on combining nude dancing…with the aggravating influence of alcohol consumption.”
Birmingham, Ala.
Judge blocks immigration law: A federal judge temporarily blocked a controversial immigration law in Alabama that is considered one of the harshest in the country. Judge Sharon L. Blackburn, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, ruled that the courts needed more time to “adequately address the numerous challenges” to the legislation. The law, which was due to go into effect on Sept. 1, denies illegal immigrants the right to most public benefits, and makes it a felony for legal residents to knowingly employ, shelter, or transport illegal immigrants. It also requires public schools to determine that students and parents are legal residents. The government challenged the law on the basis that it pre-empts federal jurisdiction, but the state also faces challenges from the ACLU and other civil-rights groups.
Washington, D.C.
ATF shake-up: Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, lost his job this week, following revelations that the bureau had botched a gun-trafficking sting involving Mexican drug cartels. Congressional investigators have been probing the Phoenix-based sting, dubbed “Operation Fast and Furious,” after it was revealed that the ATF allowed more than 2,000 firearms to be sold to middlemen for drug cartels, with the aim of tracking the weapons and dismantling the drug networks. But ATF agents lost track of many of the weapons; several of the firearms may have been involved in the shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent last year. Melson will become a senior adviser in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. He will be replaced by the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, B. Todd Jones.
Philadelphia
Four dead in rampage: A U.S. Army captain who killed four people in a shooting rampage and wounded two police officers in the ensuing manhunt was this week found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Leonard Egland, a three-tour veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, began his killing spree during Hurricane Irene in Chesterfield, Va., where he gunned down his 36-year-old ex-wife, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend’s young son. He fled north with his 6-year-old daughter to Buckingham Township, Pa., where he murdered his former mother-in-law. After Egland dropped his daughter off at a local hospital, he was confronted by police. Following a shoot-out, which wounded two officers, Egland escaped, but his body was later found behind a gas station on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
Framingham, Mass.
Obama’s uncle arrested: A long-lost Kenyan uncle of President Obama was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving last week, and is now being held without bail on charges of being an illegal immigrant. Onyango Obama, 67, was detained after he rolled through a stop sign and almost crashed his SUV into a police cruiser. He was taken to a police station, where a Breathalyzer test revealed that his blood-alcohol level was almost double the state limit. On being offered a phone call, the half brother of the president’s late father told officers, “I think I will call the White House.” It’s not clear whether he got through. Onyango later pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence, but was handed over to immigration authorities under a long-standing deportation order. The president wrote in his book Dreams From My Father, first published in 1995, that Onyango—whom he called “Uncle Omar”—was said to have left Kenya “for America 25 years ago and had never come back.”
