Critics say such laws

Critics say such laws are unconstitutional, that they discriminate against Hispanics, and that they place an undue burden on landlords to act as federal immigration enforcement agents. What’s more, the new ordinance in Farmers Branch is likely to exact “an extraordinarily high financial and social cost to the community and its future generations,” including millions of dollars in legal fees, wrote two University of North Texas professors in a report commissioned by the opposition group Let the Voters Decide.On the other side, proponents say the laws are a necessary response to the strain illegal immigrants put on city services. Personal injury attorney and Farmers Branch native Tim O’Hare —a relative newcomer as a city councilman—first raised the issue last August. The city had to do something about illegal immigration, he said, because his constituents were complaining about crime, overcrowding, and a strain on schools, police and hospitals. Another councilman, Ben Robinson, agreed and proposed that all foreign language materials be removed from the city library. After the city council unanimously voted in the apartment ban, opponents petitioned for the citywide vote.Robinson had moved to Farmers Branch in 1968 back when it was a nearly all-white community on the edge of the prairie. Now, this city is nearly 40 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 census. Over the years, “we’ve seen lots of changes. And what’s happened is we’ve sat on our duffs and we’ve been invaded by some folks that shouldn’t be here,” Robinson says. For a look at what’s gone wrong in Farmers Branch, Robinson points to the dilapidated shopping center in what could loosely be called downtown Farmers Branch. A vast, mostly vacant parking lot fronts a shuttered grocery store. The small shops nearby include a storefront Hispanic church, a dollar store, and a Guatemalan bakery. This area called the Four Corners is at the crossroads of Farmers Branch’s future. “We’re trying to revitalize this city,” says Robinson.Though many of the initial fears about how illegal immigrants were harming Farmers Branch have turned out to be unfounded—crime is down, property values are up, and the schools are good, there’s a strong perception among many that illegal immigrants are a problem. “I don’t think nothing against the Mexican people,” says Jerry Johnson, a 70-year-old retiree. “It’s just they’ve ruined this city, nearly.” Jean Donley, 78, said she wavered back and forth but finally decided to vote for the new law restricting illegal immigrants. “They’re coming in the wrong way. If they want to come the right way then they’re welcome,” she said.Mayor Phelps had to ask police to clear council chambers when a town hall meeting erupted into a shouting match. Local business owner Elizabeth Villafranca says a city inspector forced her husband to remove a “Vote Against Ordinance 2903” sign adorning the chest of a 25-foot inflatable eagle that they installed on the roof of their restaurant, Cuquita’s. She was nearly arrested on an accusation, spurious she says, of stealing dozens of yard signs.On Election Day, Travis Carter and other volunteers with the opposition group Let the Voters Decide went door to door rousting voters until 15 minutes before the polls closed. Amid record turnout, 68 percent of voters approved Ordinance 2903. Now, both sides are vowing to take it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. “People are frustrated and they’re afraid,” Carter says. “They’re frustrated with the lack of activity in Washington, and now they’re resorting to their own brand of immigration reform and policy,” he said.

Villafranca started making

Villafranca started making the rounds this week at apartment complexes, urging tenants to stand their ground. “These people are so scared to death,” she says. “But this ordinance will never see the light of day.” The day after the vote, a few Hispanic immigrants held impromptu garage sales and said they planned to move. The apartments across the street—and city lines —had already hung new banners advertising “Se habla espanol” and made a point of their location—Carrollton, Tex.“I’m afraid of course, like everyone,” Abigail, a 22-year-old cook who would only give her first name, says in Spanish. She arrived from Mexico five years ago, and doesn’t have residency. “But truthfully, I don’t know yet if I’ll move.”
For those who remain, Farmers Branch seems forever changed. Vanessa Alonzo, a 24-year-old dry cleaner attendant, says many of her longtime customers have begun to treat her differently. One asked her, unprompted, whether she had a green card. (She does.)
Another said he thought all the Mexicans should leave. “It didn’t used to be like this,” she says. “Now they look at you and see you’re Hispanic and they think you’re illegal.”
Mayor Phelps hopes passions will cool. Until then, “The people have voted and we’ll get on down the road. That’s all we can do. It’s in the judge’s lap now.” He won’t run again for mayor, but he won’t forsake Farmers Branch. “We don’t want to move,” Dee Phelps says. “Our church is here, our family, our friends. Also our enemies, now.”

Britney Spears:

LOS ANGELES -Britney Spears says she "hit rock bottom," in a message posted on her Web site about the end of her marriage and her time in rehab.
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"Recently, I was sent to a very humbling place called rehab. I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don't think that it was alcohol or depression," the 25-year-old pop star writes. "I was like a bad kid running around with ADD (attention deficit disorder)." Spears completed a monthlong stay at a luxury Malibu rehabilitation treatment facility in March after a series of run-ins with the paparazzi that included a stop at a San Fernando Valley hair salon, where she was caught on video shearing her own locks. Other photos splashed across the Internet appeared to reveal Spears out partying wearing nothing underneath her short skirts. She was seen going out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan after filing for divorce from aspiring rapper Kevin Federline last November, just two months after giving birth to their second child, Jayden James. The pair also have an older son, Sean Preston, now 20 months. The couple reached a divorce settlement in March. "I had a manager from a long time ago come in and try to direct me and my life after I got my divorce," writes Spears. "I was so overwhelmed I think that I was in a little shock too. I didn't know who to go to." "I realized how much energy and love I had put into my past relationship when it was gone because I genuinely did not know what to do with myself, and it made me so sad. I confess, I was so lost," she writes. "I think the whole problem was letting too many people into my life," she continues. "You never know another person's intentions or what another person wants. ... I have had to cut so many people out of my life." Spears also says she is "having to face a lot of things" as she raises her two young sons. "A lot of insecurities from when I was little are coming up again," she writes. "It is like we are never good enough." Explaining her recent behavior, she says: "I think it is actually normal for a young girl to go out after a huge divorce." "I am going to make mistakes everyday, and I am sure every mistake I make will probably be on CNN or `Good Morning America,'" she says. "I am only human people and I love you for still loving me." She closes by saying: "We will never really understand or figure out life completely. That's God's job. I can't wait to meet him ... or her. Love, Britney."

The senator

The senator from Illinois urged the graduates to rise above a culture that "too often tells us our principal goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe and entertained, a culture where those in power too often encourage these selfish impulses." Building his message on the themes of empathy for others, taking risks and persevering, Obama said much rides on whether the young generation rises to the challenges facing the country and the world, including fixing a broken health-care system, combating global climate change, stopping genocide in Darfur and restoring the U.S. image abroad. There are those who are betting against you, who say that you don't pay attention to what's going on, that you don't show up to vote, that you're too concerned with your own lives and your own problems to get engaged," he said. "That's not what I believe, and it's not what I've seen. I've seen rallies filled with crowds that stretch far into the horizon, thousands upon thousands signing up to organize online, scores who are coming to the very first political event of their lifetime." Obama spoke in Manchester a few hours after sending about 600 volunteers into the neighborhoods of New Hampshire with a petition urging the state's two Republican senators to support efforts in Congress to end the war in Iraq. His advisers said it was one of the largest early-canvassing efforts by a presidential candidate in the state. Clinton praised the Dillard University graduates for their commitment to a school that faced enormous challenges after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, but she coupled that with condemnation for the response of the federal government. "On everything from emergency response to rebuilding public works to restoring essential services, the federal government has failed us," she said.

Clinton has shown his continuing hold over Democratic politics by helping his wife raise millions of dollars in campaign funds and is presumed to be exerting a quiet, yet influential role as unofficial chief strategist. In the run-up to primary and caucus clashes which open in January, Clinton can also serve as a powerful surrogate for his wife. Political aides were said by The New York Times to be dreaming of the day when Clinton would hit the campaign trail with his own plane and press corps. Clinton, a back-slapping son of the South, will be an asset in states where the Chicago-bred former first lady's sometimes starchy demeanor may grate. But he will also have to be carefully used: early in his first term, it became clear the public did not necessarily buy the Clinton's two-for-one double act. And merely the words, Bill Clinton, in some parts of the United States still bring hard core Republicans out in a cold sweat, though memories of the Clinton scandals do appear to be fading. There is also the question of how a president Hillary Clinton would use Bill, who would become the first "First Husband" in US history. Both Clintons have said they believe US law precludes a president naming their spouse in the cabinet -- but candidate Clinton has said she would use Bill as roaming global ambassador.