Tag Archives: Texas

Truck driver formally indicted for 10 immigrant deaths in Texas

FILE PHOTO: Police officers work on a crime scene after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. July 23, 2017. REUTERS/Ray Whitehouse/File Photo

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A truck driver accused of smuggling immigrants inside a packed and sweltering tractor-trailer through Texas, 10 of whom died, was formally indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday on charges that can carry the death penalty, prosecutors said.

James Bradley Jr., 60, was given a five-count indictment that included charges of transportation of undocumented aliens resulting in death and conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death. If convicted on these charges, he could face up to life in prison or death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said.

A lawyer for Bradley was not immediately available for comment.

The incident was one of the deadliest cases of immigrant smuggling in recent U.S. history and brought renewed attention to the dangers of human trafficking.

Law enforcement was called to investigate a suspicious tractor trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio on July 23 and found about 39 people in the trailer, eight of whom were dead. Others were in perilous health, and two died later, court documents showed.

Many of the immigrants in the trailer ran when Bradley opened the doors. Nearly 200 people may have been inside the truck, according to the documents.

Bradley told law enforcement officials that he did not know about he was carrying human cargo.

“Bradley said he went to open the doors and was surprised when he was run over by ‘Spanish’ people and knocked to the ground,” the criminal complaint said.

Seven men from Mexico and an 18-year-old man from Guatemala were among the dead. The other two fatalities included a juvenile whose name has not been made public and an adult who has not yet been identified, prosecutors said.

Of the survivors, 22 were in federal custody and charged as material witnesses, two remained in hospital and five were released from hospital and turned over to U.S. immigration authorities, prosecutors said.

Some survivors have sought to offer testimony in exchange for consideration of visas that would allow them to stay in the United States, their attorneys said.

In 2003, 19 people died after traveling in an 18-wheeler truck through Victoria, Texas.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

Texas governor signs bill to limit insurance coverage for abortions

FILE PHOTO: The Texas capitol building, crafted from pink granite, is seen in Austin, Texas September 19, 2012. REUTERS/Julia Robinson/File Photo

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – The Republican governor of Texas signed into law on Tuesday a measure that will restrict insurance coverage for abortions, compelling women to buy a supplemental plan if they want coverage for the procedure.

Governor Greg Abbott said the measure known as House Bill 214 would protect abortion opponents from subsidizing the procedure. Democratic critics decried it as forcing people to buy “rape insurance.”

Texas, the most-populous Republican-controlled state, has been at the forefront in enacting abortion restrictions, with many of its measures followed by other socially conservative states. But when HB 214 goes into law on Dec. 1, Texas will be the 11th state to restrict abortion coverage in private insurance plans written in the state.

“As a firm believer in Texas values, I am proud to sign legislation that ensures no Texan is ever required to pay for a procedure that ends the life of an unborn child,” Abbott said in a statement.

The Republican sponsor of a Senate bill on abortion insurance restriction, Brandon Creighton, has told local media supplemental coverage would cost $12 to $80 a year.

House Bill 214, which passed both chambers this month, mostly on a party-line vote, does not offer exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Abortion rights groups said they plan a court fight to prevent it from becoming law.

“By signing HB 214 into law, Governor Abbott has told women and parents they must pay extra for what is tantamount to ‘rape insurance,'” Democratic Representative Chris Turner, who opposed the bill, said on Tuesday.

There are 25 states with restrictions on abortion coverage in plans set up by state exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act under former Democratic President Barack Obama, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks such legislation.

Also on Tuesday, Abbott signed another measure that expands reporting requirements for complications arising from abortions.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Edited by Colleen Jenkins and Sandra Maler)

Texas bill restricting insurance coverage for abortions nears approval

Texas bill restricting insurance coverage for abortions nears approval

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas bill that would restrict insurance coverage for abortions was approved by the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday, a move critics called cruel and damaging to women’s health.

The House measure would ban insurance coverage for abortions and require women who wanted coverage to purchase a supplemental plan for an abortion, the latest effort by the most-populous Republican-controlled state to place restrictions on the procedure.

If enacted, the bill would take effect on Dec. 1 and make Texas the 11th state to restrict abortion coverage in private insurance plans written in the state.

The Republican-dominated Senate has passed a similar bill, and Republican Governor Greg Abbott has shown support for the measures.

The bill’s backers say it would protect abortion opponents from subsidizing the procedure. A Democratic critic decried it as forcing people to buy “rape insurance.”

“It’s a question of economic freedom and freedom in general,” Republican Representative John Smithee, the bill’s sponsor, said in House debate on Tuesday ahead of the bill receiving preliminary approval.

The Republican sponsor of the Senate bill, Brandon Creighton, has told local media supplemental coverage would cost $12 to $80 a year

House Bill 214, which passed mostly on a party-line vote, does not offer exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Abortion rights groups are likely fight the measure in court if enacted.

“Women and parents will be faced with the horrific decision of having to purchase ‘rape insurance’ to cover them if they are victimized,” Democratic Representative Chris Turner said in a statement. “This is not only ridiculous, but it is cruel.”

Idaho, Kansas and Oklahoma are among the 10 other states that make abortion coverage a supplement on private plans. There are 25 states with restrictions on abortion coverage in plans set up by state exchanges as part of the Affordable Care Act under former Democratic President Barack Obama, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks such legislation.

“It is surprising that Texas has not done this before,” said Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues manager for Guttmacher.

The insurance measure is one of several bills concerning abortion before Texas lawmakers in a special session that runs through next week.

The Senate has already approved bills that include requiring physicians to improve notification of complications that occur during abortions and another that prohibits local governments from having contracts with abortion providers and their affiliates.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker)

Trucker in Texas denies knowing immigrants were in stifling tractor trailer

Police officers work on a crime scene after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. July 23, 2017. REUTERS/Ray Whitehouse

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) – The truck driver accused of smuggling at least 100 illegal immigrants inside a sweltering tractor-trailer, 10 of whom died, has said he was unaware of the human cargo he was hauling until he took a rest stop in Texas, court papers showed on Monday.

James Bradley Jr., 60, told investigators he was caught by surprise when he opened the trailer doors outside a Walmart store in San Antonio, only to be knocked down by a group of “Spanish” people pouring out of the rig, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.

But the narrative attributed to Bradley, who could face the death penalty if convicted, was at odds with authorities’ accounts of a small fleet of SUVs waiting in the Walmart lot to carry away some of the immigrants who clamored out of the truck.

Bradley was arrested on Sunday after police said they found the bodies of eight people in the truck, along with 30 to 40 others in and around the vehicle suffering from dehydration and heat stroke. All were illegal immigrants, the bulk of them Mexican nationals, ranging in age from 15 into their 20s and 30s, officials said.

Two died later, bringing the death toll to 10, while 29 remained hospitalized on Monday, according to Thomas Homan, acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Daytime temperatures in the hours before the truck arrived had topped 100 Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius).

Bradley made a brief appearance in federal court on Monday in San Antonio, where he was charged with one count of transporting illegal immigrants – a felony for which he could face capital punishment if convicted because the crime resulted in deaths.

More than 100 people were originally crammed into the stifling big-rig trailer, Homan said. But one of the survivors later told investigators that some managed to flee the scene before police arrived, swarming out of the truck when the rear doors opened to be whisked away by six black sport utility vehicles waiting for them nearby.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus also said video footage showed several vehicles coming to pick up people who were inside the truck, though Bradley, according to court documents unsealed on Monday, denied seeing any such vehicles.

Two of the survivors, according to the criminal complaint, recounted having been smuggled in small groups of immigrants across the Rio Grande River from Mexico to Texas, where they were harbored in “stash houses” around the border town of Laredo before being rounded up into the tractor-trailer for the trip to San Antonio, about 150 miles (240 km) to the north.

Describing desperate conditions inside the pitch-black interior of the truck without water or proper ventilation, one survivor recalled people taking turns to gasp for fresh air through a hole in the trailer’s side. Some passed out, while others shouted and pounded on the walls of the truck to get the driver’s attention. Their pleas went unanswered until arriving at the Walmart, according to the account.

One survivor said about 70 people were already present when he climbed into the trailer with his group of nearly 30. Another estimated as many as 200 were aboard in total.

Bradley told investigators he did not know anyone was inside the truck until he parked near the store to use the bathroom and heard banging and shaking coming from the back, according to the criminal complaint.

When the driver opened up the trailer, he noticed “bodies just lying on the floor like meat,” the complaint said. Some 30 or 40 people got out and “scattered,” Bradley told investigators.

According to the complaint, Bradley told investigators he was hauling the trailer from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas, to deliver it to its new owner. He said he had stopped in Laredo to get the vehicle washed before heading on to San Antonio.

Authorities gave Bradley’s residence as Clearwater, Florida. But Darnisha Rose, who lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and identified herself as his fiancee, told Reuters Bradley was a 47-year trucking veteran who made his home in his rig.

Rose described Bradley as a kind, family man whom she met two years ago when he was hospitalized in Louisville for a toe amputation and she was the housekeeper for his room. She said he recently had his right leg amputated.

Public defender Alfredo Villarreal, one of two lawyers representing Bradley, did not respond to a request for comment.

Mexico’s foreign ministry said four of the 10 dead were Mexicans, as were 21 of the 29 people hospitalized. The Guatemalan government confirmed that one of its citizens was among the dead and two others had been found alive.

Crossing the border illegally from Mexico has long been a dangerous proposition, according the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has documented at least 7,000 deaths among those making the trek since 1998.

In what is considered the worst illegal immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history, 19 people died after traveling in an 18-wheeler truck through Victoria, Texas, in 2003.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Jonathan Allen in New York, Letitia Stein in Tampa, Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City, Steve Bittenbender in Louisville and Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Frank McGurty, Jeffrey Benkoe and Lisa Shumaker)

Driver due in court in Texas for deaths of nine smuggled in truck

Police officers work on a crime scene after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. July 23, 2017.

By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – The driver of a truck in which at least eight men were found dead alongside dozens suffering in sweltering conditions in San Antonio, Texas was expected to appear in court on Monday, over what authorities called a case of ruthless human trafficking.

Thirty people, many in critical condition and suffering from heat stoke and exhaustion, were taken out of the vehicle parked outside a Walmart store that lacked air-conditioning or water supply, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. A ninth man died later at a hospital.

Outside temperatures topped 100 degrees F (37.8 C).

Another person found in a wooded area nearby was being treated, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said. All the dead were adult males.

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo,” said San Antonio-based U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin Jr.

“These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters. Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer.”

The truck’s driver, named by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, Florida, was arrested, with a criminal complaint set to be filed in federal court in San Antonio on Monday.

Bradley is expected to have an initial court appearance soon after, the U.S. attorney said.

Several agencies have launched investigations into the case.

The dead men, who have not yet been identified, were discovered after officials were led to the trailer by a man who asked a Walmart employee for water.

San Antonio is about 150 miles (240 km) north of the Mexico border.

Mexico’s government said it deplored the deaths and that it had asked the authorities for an exhaustive investigation.

In a statement, it said its consul general in San Antonio was working to identify the victims’ nationalities and, if necessary, repatriate their remains to Mexico.

 

U.S. STEPS UP RAIDS

Raids on suspected illegal immigrants have increased across the United States in recent months, after President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on entrants without authorization or overstaying their visas.

In Texas alone, federal immigration agents arrested 123 illegal immigrants with criminal records in an eight-day operation ending last week.

The San Antonio deaths come more than a decade after what is considered the worst immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history, when 70 people were found stuffed into an 18-wheeler. Nineteen died in the incident in Victoria, Texas, about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of San Antonio, in May 2003.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said other suspects fled the scene as police arrived. Video showed “there were a number of vehicles that came and picked up other people who were in that trailer,” he said.

Twenty people were airlifted to hospitals in conditions ranging from critical to very critical, Hood said. Eight more are listed in less serious condition.

McManus said those in the truck, whose origins were unclear, ranged from school-age juveniles to adults in their 30s. He said the Department of Homeland Security had joined the investigation.

Experts have been warning that tougher immigration policies could make it harder to stop human trafficking. Measures tightening international borders encourage would-be migrants to turn to smugglers, while fear of deportation deters whistle-blowing, they said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials defended the use of tough methods to fight human smuggling.

“So long as I lead ICE, there will be an unwavering commitment to use law enforcement assets to put an end to these practices,” the agency’s acting director, Thomas Homan, said in a statement.

The Border Patrol has regularly reported finding suspected immigrants in trucks along the U.S. border with Mexico.

This month, 72 Latin Americans were found in a trailer in Laredo. In June, 44 people were found in the back of a vehicle in the same Texas city, which lies directly across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

San Antonio has a policy of not inquiring about the immigration status of people who come into contact with city officials or police.

It was among several cities in Texas that filed a federal lawsuit last month to block a state law set to take effect in September that would force them to cooperate closely with immigration agents.

“San Antonio will not turn its back on any man, woman, or child in need,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement responding to the truck deaths.

(Corrects headline, paras 1 and 2 to show that eight bodies were found in truck, not nine; a ninth man died later at a hospital.)

 

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York); Editing by Chris Michaud and Clarence Fernandez)

 

Abortion rights groups sue Texas to block procedure ban

FILE PHOTO: Texas governor Greg Abbott speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, U.S. on July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Chris Kenning

(Reuters) – Abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block a Texas law that bans the most common method of second-trimester abortion which critics argue erodes women’s rights.

The challenge, which came six weeks after the state’s governor signed the law, was the latest salvo in a battle over state laws enacted by Republican-controlled state legislatures that advocates say limit access to abortion.

“The law we challenged today in Texas is part of a nationwide scheme to undermine these constitutional rights and ban abortion one restriction at a time,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin by Texas abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health, Planned Parenthood groups and others.

The suit, which names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and others as defendants, seeks an injunction and a ruling that the law is unconstitutional.

Paxton declined to comment on the challenge.

Anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life last month praised the legislation, calling it the “most significant pro-life victory” of the state’s legislative session.

The lawsuit targets a portion of the law – known as Senate Bill 8, which is set to go into effect on Sept. 1 – that bans dilation and evacuation abortion procedures.

The Texas law refers to the procedure as “dismemberment abortion,” in which a combination of suction and forceps are used to bring tissue through the cervix.

Opponents of the law say that after about 15 weeks of pregnancy it is the safest method of abortion.

Seven other U.S. states have approved similar bans, prompting legal challenges that prevented the bans from taking effect in Louisiana, Kansas and Oklahoma, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Last year, Whole Woman’s Health led a legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a Texas abortion law that had shuttered nearly half the state’s clinics by imposing strict regulations on doctors and facilities.

The latest Texas law, signed in June by the state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott, also requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetal tissue through burial or cremation. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit intend to challenge that provision as well.

The state law was enacted despite the fact that U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin put a temporary halt on a similar state regulation on fetal tissue disposal in January.

(Reporting by Chris Kenning; editing by Daniel Wallis, G Crosse)

Parents of kidnapped U.S. journalist Tice renew plea for release

Debra Tice, the mother of American journalist Austin Tice, holds his picture with her husband Marc Tice during a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon July 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The parents of a U.S. journalist kidnapped in Syria nearly five years ago issued a new plea for his release on Thursday.

Austin Tice, a freelance reporter and former U.S. Marine from Houston, Texas, was kidnapped in August 2012 aged 31 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The identity of his captors is not known, and there has been no claim of responsibility for his abduction. The family believe he is alive and still being held captive.

“We are willing to engage with any government, any group, any individual who can help us in this effort to secure Austin’s safe release,” his father Marc Tice said at a news conference in Beirut.

“When any journalist is silenced, we’re all blindfolded.”

His mother Debra Tice added: “Five years is a very long time for any parent to be missing their child … we desperately want him to come home.”

Nothing has been heard publicly about Tice since a video posted online weeks after he disappeared showed him in the custody of armed men.

U.S. officials and Tice’s parents do not think he is held by Islamic State, which typically announces its Western captives in propaganda videos and executed two U.S. journalists in 2014.

The Assad government says it does not know his whereabouts.

(Reporting by John Davison, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Magellan Midstream Partners pipeline ruptures in Texas, forcing evacuations

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A crude oil pipeline operated by Magellan Midstream Partners ruptured near Bastrop, Texas, on Thursday morning, spilling an estimated 1,200 barrels of oil and prompting an evacuation, the company said.

No injuries were reported, Magellan said in a statement.

Magellan’s Longhorn Pipeline, which transports crude oil from Crane, Texas to Houston, ruptured about 4 miles (6 km)southwest of Bastrop. The company shut the pipeline and isolated the affected segment, it said.

People within a two-mile (3-km) radius of the spill were advised to remain indoors, the sheriff’s department and local emergency officials said. Several families near the site of the pipeline break were temporarily evacuated, and part of a nearby road was closed, the company said.

The pipeline was ruptured when a contractor doing maintenance work hit a fitting, Magellan said. The line was in service at the time.

Emergency responders, company representatives, environmental agencies and clean-up crews were at the site, the company said.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said in an email that it had dispatched an inspector to the site.

The Longhorn Pipeline has the capacity to transport to transport 275,000 barrels of day of oil from West Texas to the Houston area.

Crude oil prices in West Texas slid following news of the event. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at Midland, Texas, fell to about a $1.45 a barrel discount, off around 15 cents a barrel from Wednesday, traders said.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Richard Chang)

U.S. judge rejects Texas professors’ bid to halt student gun carry

FILE PHOTO: Members of the University of Texas of the Guns Free UT group that includes faculty and staff protest against a state law that allows for guns in classrooms at college campuses, in Austin, Texas, U.S. August 24, 2016. REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz/File Photo

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A U.S. judge rejected efforts by three University of Texas professors to ban students from bringing guns to their classrooms after the state granted them that right last year, court documents showed on Friday.

Professors Jennifer Glass, Lisa Moore and Mia Carter had argued in a federal district court in Austin that academic freedom and classroom debate could be chilled under the so-called “campus carry” law backed by the state’s Republican political leaders.

The law allows concealed handgun license holders aged 21 and older to bring handguns into classrooms and other university facilities, including the University of Texas system, one of the nation’s largest with more than 221,000 students.

“Plaintiffs present no concrete evidence to substantiate their fear,” U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel wrote in his decision dismissing the professors’ complaint. Defendants included Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, University President Gregory Fenves and the university’s Board of Regents.

Paxton, who backed the law, praised the decision.

“The fact that a small group of professors dislike a law and speculate about a ‘chilling effect’ is hardly a valid basis to set the law aside,” he said in a statement.

University of Texas professors had lobbied unsuccessfully to prevent the law, arguing the combination of youth, firearms and college life could make for a deadly situation. Fenves reluctantly allowed campus carry, saying last year he was compelled to do so under state law.

Republican lawmakers said campus carry could help prevent a mass shooting.

A lawyer for the professors said the ruling was narrow and did not address the plaintiffs’ constitutional concerns.

“The order accompanying the dismissal doesn’t reach the merits of either the professors’ substantive First Amendment claims or any aspect of their Second Amendment and Equal Protection claims,” attorney Renea Hicks said in an email.

As of the start of May, 10 states had provisions allowing the carrying of concealed weapons on public college campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks state laws.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

U.S. court hears challenge on Texas law to punish ‘sanctuary cities’

A protester against the Texas state law to punish "sanctuary cities" stands outside the U.S. Federal court in San Antonio, Texas,

By Jon Herskovitz and Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – A small border town and some of the largest cities in Texas will ask a federal judge on Monday to block a new state law to punish “sanctuary cities,” arguing it promotes racial profiling, diverts resources from police and is unconstitutional.

The Republican-backed law in Texas, the U.S. state with the longest border with Mexico, takes effect on Sept. 1. It is the first of its kind since Republican Donald Trump became president in January, promising to crack down on illegal immigration.

Luis Vera, an attorney for the League Of United Latin American Citizens, one of the numerous plaintiffs in the suit, said the bill was signed despite opposition from several police chiefs across Texas and the state’s large Latino population.

“No one in the history of the United States has ever attempted this in any state. That’s why the whole world is watching us right now,” Vera said in an interview.

The law known as Senate Bill 4 calls for jail time for police chiefs and sheriffs who fail to cooperate in U.S. immigration enforcement. The measure also allows police to ask about immigration status during a lawful detention.

Supporters have said immigrants who do not break the law have nothing to fear. Critics contend it allows police to detain people for up to 48 hours for immigration checks, even for minor infractions such as jaywalking.

“It is absurd, it is offensive, when people say sanctuary cities make us safe. They allow hardened criminals to hide in plain sight,” Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told reporters last week.

The hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio will be before Judge Orlando Garcia.

In a separate case this month, Garcia cast doubt on the legality of some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests at the heart of the law, saying there are times when they can violate the U.S. Constitution.

A detainer is a request by immigration officials for a jurisdiction to continue to hold a person in custody, usually for no more than 48 hours, to check if they can be handed over to ICE for potential deportation.On Friday, The Trump administration filed court papers to support the Texas state law and is seeking to argue in court hearings in favor of the legislation it says will help keep America safe.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Jim Forsyth; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)