Sex offender's listing may not be legal
SANTA FE (AP) - The state Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of the state's Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, but the ruling left the door open for arguments over the effectiveness of keeping nondangerous offenders on the list.
Friday's unanimous ruling came in the case of Sean Gene Druktenis, 34, of Albuquerque, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to one felony sex offense and one misdemeanor sex offense in exchange for the state dropping other charges and not requiring him to register as a sex offender.
At the time, the crimes to which he pleaded were not among those requiring registration.
The law was extended in 2000 to include those offenses, and state District Judge Ross C. Sanchez of Albuquerque ordered Druktenis to register. He appealed, contending the order violated a clause of the state constitution that prohibits laws being applied retroactively.
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Nighthawks' wings clipped by budget cuts
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., expressed dismay Monday over the retirement of 10 stealth fighter jets from Holloman Air Force Base and the privatization of military tasks overseas that he says has caused dangerous lapses.
"We learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom that some military combat support jobs were poor candidates for privatization," Bingaman said in a statement Monday. "Forces found themselves deployed without critical combat support functions. In some cases, soldiers had weapons and bullets but not enough food or water.
"We need to take a long, hard look at whether privatization has worked well for us in the past before we privatize more jobs in the future," he said.
He decried a plan to privatize 10,700 military jobs.
And at Holloman, a budget cutback will leave 41 F-117A Nighthawk jets grounded.
That, he said, is disappointing when one considers the role the planes have played in the Gulf War and the later conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Jewish settlements to be taken off Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel would need one to two years to remove 17 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in remarks published Tuesday, elaborating on evacuation plans first revealed a day earlier.
Sharon also said he would seek U.S. approval and possibly financial aid for relocating about 7,500 Gaza settlers to Israel.
He said he plans to remove what he called three "problematic" settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking to the Haaretz newspaper, the prime minister acknowledged that Israel might have difficulty justifying a request for U.S. aid, but said that in the end it would be in Washington's interest to help with the dismantling of settlements.
