Washington – Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has been placed under Secret Service protection, the earliest ever for a presidential candidate, the agency said Thursday.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff authorized Obama’s protection after consultations with the bipartisan congressional advisory committee, according to Chertoff spokesman Russ Knocke and the Secret Service.
Obama, D-Ill., who frequently draws crowds in the thousands at campaign stops, requested the protection. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren and Homeland Security officials said they were not aware of any threats to the senator.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters Thursday night that several weeks ago he received information, some of it with a racial bent, that made him concerned for Obama’s safety. The number of people Obama was attracting at campaign events also worried him, Durbin said.
Durbin said he approached Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., six to eight weeks ago and that Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went to the Secret Service last week.
According to a senior law enforcement official, although there was no direct threat to Obama, several factors raised concerns, including some racist chatter on white supremacist websites. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the security issue.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also a presidential candidate, has a Secret Service detail that is provided to all former first ladies.
In the last election, Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards received their protection in February 2004 as they were competing for the party’s nomination. Federal law allows candidates to seek protection if they meet a series of standards, including public prominence as measured by polls and fundraising.
LOS ANGELES
Paris Hilton faces jail for probation violation
Paris Hilton will have a very unglamorous new address if prosecutors get their way: the Los Angeles County jail.
The city attorney’s office filed documents in Superior Court recommending the hotel heiress and TV star be jailed for 45 days for violating terms of her probation for an alcohol-related reckless-driving conviction.
Prosecutors also want Hilton to stay away from alcohol for 90 days and wear a monitoring device that will chart whether she complies.
And they are seeking to have her license suspended for an additional four months.
The recommendation will be reviewed by a judge when Hilton appears for a probation-violation hearing today. The judge can accept it or impose a different penalty. The maximum penalty is 90 days in jail.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Hilton is being treated the same as anyone else.
WASHINGTON
Makers of human food checked as precaution
Government inspectors are checking foodmakers who use protein concentrates to make sure none of the contaminated products found in pet food have reached other products, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.
There is no evidence that any of the two contaminated batches of wheat gluten and rice protein from China ended up as an ingredient in human food, “but it’s prudent to look,” said Dr. David Acheson, assistant FDA commissioner for food protection.
Acheson said the inspections began this week.
The announcement came as pet food manufacturer Menu Foods expanded its recall because of possible cross-contamination between melamine-tainted products and other foods made in the same period.
The expansion includes cuts and gravy pet food, as well as other products that were not made with the contaminated wheat gluten supplied by ChemNutra Inc., but were manufactured during the period the chemical-laced gluten was used. A complete list of the Menu Foods recall is available at www.menufoods.com/recall/
HAVANA
Cuban soldiers kill officer in failed hijack
Fugitive army soldiers tried to hijack a U.S.-bound plane before it took off Thursday and killed a military officer they took hostage during the failed attempt, the Interior Ministry said.
The ministry blamed U.S. policies that the communist government says encourage Cubans to immigrate to the United States and also said it was a result of Washington’s tolerance of violence against Cuba.
The incident began before dawn when the fugitives commandeered a regular city bus near the airport and forced it to drive inside and onto the tarmac of terminal 2, which services charter flights between the Cuban capital and the United States. The exact destination of the plane in the United States was not known, but most charter flights out of terminal 2 fly to Miami.
Army Lt. Col. Victor Ibo Acuna Velazquez was killed aboard the plane but there were no crew members or passengers on board at the time, the ministry statement said.
LOS ANGELES
FBI to open civil-rights probe of police at rally
The FBI will open a civil- rights inquiry into the Los Angeles Police Department’s actions Tuesday at an immigration rally where officers cleared a city park by wielding batons and firing rubber bullets, the bureau said Thursday.
The preliminary inquiry seeks to determine “whether the civil rights of protesters taking part in the May 1st immigration rally were violated,” according to an FBI news release.
The FBI probe is the fourth official investigation of the violence. The U.S. Department of Justice will review the bureau’s results and decide whether to initiate a full investigation.
