TUCSON, Ariz.

Mexican police chopper fires shots at U.S. border agents

Mexican law enforcement on Thursday crossed into Arizona by helicopter and fired two shots at U.S. border agents, a border patrol union leader says.

A Mexican law enforcement chopper crossed about 100 yards north into the Arizona desert, the U.S. Border Patrol said in a statement. The helicopter then fired two shots on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Nation. Border patrol union leaders say the Mexicans fired at agents but that none was hurt.

However, Mexican authorities have denied shooting at agents and say they were under attack during a mission to find smugglers on the border.

Art del Cueto, president of the local union, said four agents were in a marked patrol vehicle when they were shot at.

“They could say they didn’t fire at the agents intentionally. But for them to say that they were no shots fired … toward the United States Border Patrol, is a lie. They got in contact with our managers and apologized for the incident,” del Cueto said.

NEW YORK

Wrongly convicted men say $40 million can’t buy time

Three of the men who were wrongly convicted in the brutal 1989 Central Park jogger attack said Friday that a $40 million settlement can’t buy back the dignity or the time the case unjustly cost them.

“Y’all don’t really understand what we went through,” Kevin Richardson said. “People called us animals, wolf pack. It still hurts me emotionally.”

Richardson joined Raymond Santana and Yusef Salem to speak at City Hall a day after the city comptroller said he had approved a tentative settlement with them and the two others.

The five black and Hispanic defendants were found guilty as teens in the rape and assault of a white woman who had gone for a run in the park.

They served six to 13 years in prison before their convictions were thrown out in 2002 because of evidence that someone else, acting alone, was responsible.

SAN FRANCISCO

Parking app maker rejects order to stop selling spaces

The company behind an app that allows San Francisco drivers to get paid for the public parking spaces they exit is rejecting an order from the city attorney to stop its operations.

MonkeyParking CEO Paolo Dobrowolny said Friday that City Attorney Dennis Herrera is misapplying a police code that prohibits the sale or lease of San Francisco’s streets.

Dobrowolny says MonkeyParking doesn’t sell parking spots, but convenience. He cites freedom of speech, saying people have the right to tell others they’re leaving a parking spot and get paid for it.

– From news service reports

Copy the Story Link