Cross Country
A Big Rumble in an Island Paradise
Hawaiians were cleaning up last week after the largest earthquake to hit the islands in more than two decades. The 6.7-magnitude temblor, which rocked the state on October 15, was centered near Kailua Kona and triggered a series of more than 60 aftershocks. Hawaii, known as the Big Island, took the brunt of the impact; seven school buildings, a bridge, and piers at Kawaihae Harbor suffered severe damage. President George W. Bush declared the incident a major disaster, making federal funding available. Estimates pegged quake damage at $73 million, but there were no fatalities. Officials worried that the earthquake-on top of 40 days of rain and flooding this past spring-would hurt tourism. But things were mostly back to normal by midweek, prompting Gov. Linda Lingle to say that vacationers were still "going to have a great time."
End of an Era in Manhattan?
For nearly six decades, the 110 brick buildings that make up Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village on New York City's East Side have provided homes for the middle class. Though Manhattan has become mostly the province of the rich, roughly three quarters of the 11,000-plus apartments in the complex still rent for almost half the market rate because of city regulations that encourage affordable housing. But in what could be the largest real-estate transaction in U.S. history, the 80-acre complex was sold last week for $5.4 billion to Tishman Speyer Properties, a New York-based company that owns the likes of Rockefeller Center. Tenants and advocates tried to buy the village, fearing a new owner would turn it into pricey condos. Tishman Speyer says not to worry about a "sudden or dramatic" change in the neighborhood. For now.
ID Flap in the Show-Me State
Here's a battleground you might not have heard about this midterm election: voter identification laws. Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court in Jefferson City became the latest state to rule such a measure unconstitutional; the court said a law requiring voters to present a state or federally issued photo ID placed a "heavy and substantial burden" on voting rights. Democrats had funded the lawsuit, arguing that the requirement would disproportionately affect female, minority, and disabled voters; as many as 240,000 Missourians were said to lack the ID. Missouri Republicans had argued that fraudulent voter registrations in St. Louis justified the law. They plan to introduce a new bill in January.
Georgia and Arizona have also seen similar laws struck down, although Arizona has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to enforce the measure on Election Day.
Untangling Those Wires in the Desert
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard wants to cut off the money paid to Mexicans smuggling drugs or people through his state. So he's combing through thousands of wire transfers and seizing the payments that look illegal. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, and three legal immigrants who filed suit in Phoenix last week claim Goddard has grabbed some hay in the process. "He's taking a lot of innocent people along with the guilty," says Joshua Hoyt, head of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, another plaintiff in the suit. Goddard says he tries to avoid seizing legal transfers, but he has viewed his jurisdiction broadly, even going after money sent from other states to Mexico if the transaction originated with a phone call from Arizona. Western Union won a court order in September halting Goddard's seizure of money sent to the Mexican state of Sonora. Immigrants are expected to send $45 billion from the United States to Latin America this year, according to a study sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank-surely not all of it legal.
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