World / Nation briefs October 8, 2011

Small plane pilot runs out of fuel, lands in ocean

HILO, Hawaii - The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued the pilot of a small plane who was forced to land in the Pacific Ocean after running out of fuel while flying from California to Hawaii.

Petty Officer Angela Henderson says the 65-year-old pilot, whose name was not released, called for help Friday afternoon after noticing his Cessna was low on fuel about 400 miles east of Hilo. The Guard sent a plane to fly alongside him and dispatched a vessel known as a cutter to the area.

The Guard was waiting when the pilot, who had been flying the twin-engine plane to the Big Island from Monterrey, Calif., splashed down.

He was rescued and taken to a hospital. His condition was unknown.

Feds crack down on California pot dispensaries

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Federal prosecutors announced an aggressive crackdown on California pot dispensaries Friday, vowing to shut down dozens of growing and sales operations and saying that the worst offenders are using the cover of medical marijuana to act as storefront drug dealers.

Officials described it as the first coordinated statewide offensive against marijuana dealers and suppliers who use California's 15-year-old medical marijuana law as legal cover for running sophisticated drug trafficking ventures in plain sight.

"California's marijuana industry supplies the nation," said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, citing a 2009 federal study that 72 percent of marijuana plants eradicated nationwide were grown in California. "Huge amounts of marijuana grown here in this state is flowing east to other states, and huge amounts of money are flowing back in the opposite direction."

The actions were geared toward stopping a proliferation that has led to thousands of pot shops opening their doors across the state. The spread was fueled partly by the Obama administration's assurance two years ago that it did not plan to devote federal resources to countering marijuana outlets operating in compliance with state laws.

One example cited by the prosecutors Friday: In one Orange County strip mall, eight of the 11 second-floor suites are occupied by dispensaries and doctors' offices for doctors where healthy individuals obtain "sham" recommendations to use medical marijuana.

It is "a Costco, Walmart-type model that we see across California," said Andre Birotte Jr., U.S. attorney in the Los Angeles-area. Some people making money from medical marijuana openly revel in what some have called "the new California gold rush," he said.

Feds ask court to halt Alabama's immigration law

ATLANTA - The federal government asked an appeals court Friday to stop Alabama officials from enforcing a strict immigration law that has already driven Hispanic students from public schools and migrant workers from towns, warning that it opens the door to discrimination against even legal residents.

The Department of Justice's filing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also said the law, considered by many to be the most stringent immigration measure in the country, could cause considerable fallout as immigrants flee to other states or their native countries.

A coalition of advocacy groups also filed a separate appeal Friday that claims the law has thrown Alabama into "chaos" and left some Hispanics too afraid to go to their jobs and reluctant to send their kids to school.

The court signaled in an order Friday that it wouldn't decide whether to halt the law until it reviews more arguments from both sides next week. The state must file a brief by Tuesday, and the government must respond by Wednesday. After that, the court could decide whether to intervene by issuing a preliminary injunction.

In the meantime, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said he intends to continue enforcing the hotly disputed law, which allows authorities to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally and lets officials check the immigration status of students in public schools.

Mexican drug gangs become even more brutal

MEXICO CITY - Masked gunmen dump the bodies of 35 slaying victims during rush hour as terrified motorists watch and tweet friends to avoid the highway.

A woman's decapitated body is left at a city's monument to Columbus, the head atop a computer keyboard with a sign saying she was killed for blogging about drug traffickers.

The severed heads of five men are dumped outside an elementary school in Acapulco, and two more near a military base in Mexico City days later.

And that was just in the last three weeks.

The brutal public killings that began about five years ago have worsened as Mexican drug cartels try to one-up each other in their quest to scare off rivals, authorities and would-be informers - and still stun Mexicans increasingly numbed to the gory spectacles.

- The Associated Press