For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center Near Chicago Moves Ahead As Illinois House Vote Fails

Illinois lawmakers failed to muster the votes needed Thursday for a bill that would have blocked construction of a for-profit federal detention center for undocumented immigrants south of Chicago.

For more than a year, controversy has consumed the village of Crete, Ill., a site the federal government is considering for a new, 750-person immigrant detention center that would be built and operated by the nation's largest private prison contractor, Corrections Corporation of America. The proposal has inflamed people in the village of about 8,000, where strip malls give way to cornfields in the southern reaches of the Chicago suburbs.

Opponents of the detention center have erected yard signs and collected more than 1,000 signatures on a petition in recent months, calling on elected officials to abandon the plan.

"This is a small, semi-rural town, a blip on the south side of Chicago," said Jerry Callaway, a Crete resident who has organized opposition to the detention center over the past year. "We don't want to be defined by that institution. We don't want to be a prison town."

Lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly voted late Thursday on a bill that would have banned privately operated detention centers in the state, preventing the Crete project. The Illinois House voted down the measure 59-54, following a legislative session where Corrections Corp. of America hired an influential state lobbying firm to make its case.

The state Senate introduced the bill banning private detention centers in February, and approved the measure in March. Thursday was the last day for the House to take action before the end of the legislative session.

Private prison companies such as CCA and the GEO Group have zeroed in over the past decade on immigration detention as a growing source of revenue, since the federal government has taken a harder line on apprehending and deporting undocumented immigrants. Revenue from the immigrant detention business has more than doubled over the past decade for both companies.

But Illinois is an unlikely place for private prisons to set up shop. Since 1990, Illinois law has prohibited the outsourcing of state prisons to private contractors. Last year, lawmakers extended the private prison prohibition to contracts with county and local governments.

State law does not, however, expressly prohibit state or local authorities from contracting with private entities to run immigration detention centers such as the one proposed in Crete. When lawmakers this year proposed rewriting the law to also include detention centers, CCA hired one of the state's most powerful lobbying firms to work on its behalf.

State records show that the company hired Dorgan-McPike & Associates, run in part by a former Illinois House majority leader, to lobby the Assembly and the governor's office this year. This is the first year CCA has hired a lobbyist in Illinois, according to the state's lobbying records database, which dates to 2000.

A CCA spokesman, Mike Machak, wrote in an e-mail that the company had "worked to educate policymakers about the value of public-private partnerships, and the many benefits these relationships can mean for communities." He noted that the vote will provide "important support for economic opportunities in Illinois when the state needs it most."

Opponents of the plan, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, argued that building the detention center would instead shift jobs away from county jails where Illinois immigrant detainees are currently being held. Lawrence Benito, the group's executive director, called the legislative battle a "David and Goliath fight."

"Corrections Corporation of America, a multi-billion dollar company, has many more resources than we have," Benito said.

Discussion of the detention center in Crete began in 2010, when CCA approached village officials about a potential opportunity to build a detention center in town, said Tom Durkin, Crete's village administrator. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities wanted a new facility in the Chicago area to house immigrants awaiting deportation or court hearings.

Town officials and CCA sent a joint proposal to ICE in November 2010, and the agency "tentatively selected" Crete as the proposed site last year.

Residents who oppose the detention center complain that village officials have not been forthcoming with the public about the plans. The village hasn't held any public hearings on the detention center, and the members of the village's elected board of trustees have not publicly said where they stand on the project.

"We go to the village hall meetings every other Monday, and there's a good 30 or 40 or 50 people who come and continuously ask questions," said Marimonica Murray, who has distributed signs around town opposing the detention center. "Right now, the trustees are pretty tight-lipped about which way they're going to vote on this. They just aren't probably going to say anything until it comes down right down to it."

Durkin, the village administrator, said officials are evaluating the detention center just like any other economic development opportunity that comes along. He said no one wants to make a decision prematurely before studying all the costs and benefits of the project.

"Just because you look at something doesn't mean that it's a done deal, and I think we were very, very explicit about that fact," Durkin said. "If I have a Walmart that wants to come to town, or if I have somebody who wants to build a car wash, is that something you go to the public for?"

Neither CCA, the Village of Crete nor ICE have signed any formal agreements on the detention center. An ICE spokeswoman wrote in an email that the agency "has not yet signed any agreements or committed to any long-term obligations; these terms are still under negotiation."

UPDATE: 11:08 p.m. -- This article has been updated to include comments from a Corrections Corp. of America spokesman.

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NEW KIND OF WARFARE WILL LEAD TO SAME OLD PROBLEMS

WASHINGTON -- President Obama has been doing some very interesting things lately regarding the United States and wars in the modern age. With his Memorial Day speech finally giving some respect to the long-forgotten Vietnam veterans, he seemed to be resetting history, inserting important parts that were left out the first time around.

Speaking to thousands of Vietnam vets and others before the shiny black granite wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial here, with its incised names of the dead, President Obama tried to fill in what should have been said decades ago.

"You were often blamed for a war you didn't start when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor," the president said. "You were sometimes blamed for misdeeds of a few, when the honorable service of the many should have been praised. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened ..."

Asking the veterans to stand, Obama in effect presided over a belated homecoming. "Welcome home," he said. "Welcome home. Thank you."

At another commemoration on Memorial Day, this one at Arlington National Cemetery, he pledged to go to war only with a "clear mission," with the support of the nation and when "absolutely necessary." Which is where the problems arise.

It is easy, today, to praise the Vietnam vets; it is easy and it is right. They were sent to those miserable jungles by politicians just like Obama, after quick meetings in the Oval Office, and after President Kennedy had already bungled the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961.

It was a draft army then, and in my stays in Vietnam in 1967, '68 and later, I never found one soldier, or even officer, who approved of such a foolish and wasteful war. These men and women deserved neither the fates they met in Saigon, Danang and all those other places on their map, nor the opprobrium heaped upon them if they were lucky enough to return home. The war's political planners went on to higher jobs, or to movies where they cried over their mistakes, or to the presidency. Talk about resentment!

We have to give President Obama abundant thanks for the ways he has dealt with the wholly unnecessary and foggy wars he inherited. He gradually pulled us out of Iraq, with little drama and high effectiveness. When "our" Iraqi government refused status-of-forces agreements with our military -- meaning that American troops who remained could be tried only by American judges -- we simply left. Most Americans probably didn't even know it.

Afghanistan is still a work in progress, but it would seem that we will, indeed, leave by 2014, as will the even-more-eager NATO troops. Just what we could possibly leave behind in such a backward and traumatized country remains to be seen; our only comfort is that it probably won't be any worse than before in its history.

But then we get to the future, which is already closing in on us rather than opening up for us. The president's "Welcome home" fell apart into tiny pieces when he talked about the U.S. embarking only upon wars that had a "clear mission" and were "absolutely necessary."

The truth is, we already are embarked upon missions mired in the fog of human nature, with robotic weapons that may relieve the threat to our human soldiers but that will cause many times more hatred toward America.

We are talking now about drone strikes, attacks by unmanned aircraft, which are devilishly capable, at their best, of hitting only carefully chosen targets. There is no question that the U.S. has used these special aircraft to kill many al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but also as far away as Yemen, where al-Qaida is holding whole small cities. But now we are seeing the results.

There are new stories daily from those countries about the inaccuracy of the drones -- about how they are killing totally innocent people, whole families, men who just happened to be around the local al-Qaida chief. Pakistan is in virtual upheaval about the deaths -- and the nerve of the U.S. in sending drones to explode within their territory!

Even worse, as The Washington Post reported in a comprehensive article from Yemen this week, "an escalating campaign of U.S. drone strikes is stirring increasing sympathy for al-Qaida-linked militants and driving tribesmen to join a network linked to terrorist plots against the United States."

The article reported that as many as 21 missile attacks have hit Yemen since January, "reflecting a sharp shift in a secret war carried out by the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command ..."

The importance of the drone strikes cannot be overstated. The White House has called them "the only game in town," a phrase that reminded Adm. Dennis C. Blair, former director of national intelligence, of the disastrous policy of "body counts in Vietnam."

When you put all the pieces together, you get a picture of the United States under Barack Obama, the "anti-war president" to so many, but who is already leading us into a new kind of war without even waiting for the last one to end.

Moreover, we are not only implementing these new robotic weapons but are also providing them to other countries (drones are being made available to Turkey and Italy, for starters). That can serve only to make the battleground more confused, and the responsibility for using them more difficult to determine.

Imagine, for a moment, a United States of America that is not thinking constantly about the next war, but is working at the less glorified business of negotiating and peacemaking. That is the country so many expected of Barack Obama, but it is not the vision he has given us.


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Twenty Surprising Benefits of Meditating | joyfulyogablog

As Tess prepares of offer her first Primordial Sound Meditation course at Joyful Yoga, we wanted to remind you that meditating has MANY hidden benefits. This information is courtesy of Arina Nikitina (http://www.arinanikitina.com/20-surprising-benefits-of-meditation-everyone-sh...>

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For decades meditation practice has been viewed with suspicion and often thrown into the same ?esoteric? pot as crystals, astrology and palm readings. However, the situation is changing fast as more and more people turn to meditation practice, looking for silence, inner peace and tranquility.

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If you have never meditated, below are some convincing reasons, why you might want to reconsider and give it a try.?If you are practicing meditation regularly (or at least trying to), keep reading anyway to discover all the physiological, psychological and spiritual benefits that you get while meditating!

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Here is a list of 20 Amazing Benefits of Meditation:

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1. Stronger, healthier heart.

Meditation is not just a practice to calm down our mind. It has numerous physical health benefits as well. Recent studies have found that meditation can protect us against heart disease and stroke (both leading causes of death in the Western world). Your heart can benefit from regular meditation in many different ways: it lowers blood pressure, improves blood circulation, and reduces cholesterol and atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque in the arteries that can cause heart problems).

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2. Slimmer, better looking body.

I know it sound too good to be true, but, never-the-less, it is true ? you can shed pounds without sweating in the gym!

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It is not a secret that we gain a lot of extra calories due to our bad eating habits (like eating in a hurry or munching on something when we feel frustrated, sad or bored). Stress relief and relaxation provided by meditation promote more conscious eating helping us to eat healthier and, consequently, stay thinner.

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3. Reversed biological Aging Process.

Biological age measures how old a person is physiologically, taking in consideration the functioning of the major organ systems. As it turns out, long-term meditators, who have been practicing meditation for more than five years are physiologically 12 years younger than their chronological age, while short-term meditators quickly reverse physiological signs of aging by 5 years! Try it for yourself and feel your body getting younger and healthier every day!

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4. Reduced stress and anxiety.

Neurological studies of the brain show that meditation boosts the intensity of alpha waves ? associated with quiet, receptive states that can not be achieved during sleep or other relaxation techniques. This relaxed state combats worry and stress by efficiently lowering ?stress? hormones and shifting brain activity to the calmer left hemisphere.

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5. Stronger immune system and improved mood.

It has been shown that meditation can help produce antibodies against illness as well as lift your spirits, when you feel frustrated or sad. But the most remarkable thing is that these positive biological effects can last up to four months after the end of meditation training. Which means that it is enough to meditate for a couple of weeks to stay healthy for months!

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6. Decreased muscle tension.

After a long day at work as little as 15 minutes of meditation can increase the circulation of oxygen to the muscles and help you cope with tension and fatigue much better.

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7. Better sleep and a cure for insomnia.

Bedtime meditation is a great natural sleeping aid. It not only promotes deep and relaxed sleep, helping you to feel well-rested and energized the next day, but also cures insomnia. A recent study published by The American Journal of Medicine reports that 100% of insomnia patients who have been regularly meditating reported improved sleep and 91% either fully eliminated or reduced sleeping medication use. Not bad for a ?relaxation? practice!

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8. Reduced tension headaches and migraines.

Do you know that feeling when your head is filled up with so much pressure to the point where you think it might explode? A few times in my life I have felt like this. But since I started to meditate and do yoga my tension headaches have disappeared. This phenomenon has a very simple scientific explanation ? the positive relaxing effect that meditation has on your body and your mind, eliminates the main causes of headaches (such as stress, muscle tension and anxiety).

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9. Laser-like focus.

Contrary to what many people believe, meditation does not mean ?zoning out? and just sitting there with your eyes closed. In fact, regular practice will make your mind much sharper and quicker. A vast body of research shows that meditation hugely enhances our ability to stay focused and to quickly enter a state of ?flow?.

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10. Improved learning ability and memory.

In one of the studies dedicated to meditation, scientists tested whether meditation could improve our memory. As it turned out, it can! But even the researchers themselves were blown away by the results! People who practiced a 40-day meditation program did four times better in memory tests than a group of people who did not meditate. So if you cannot recall your spouse?s phone number or have a hard time remembering where you last saw your keys, take it as a sign to start meditating!

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11. Greater control over your thoughts.

We may have conquered space and developed top of the art nano technologies, but most of us still struggle to conquer our own mind. No matter what we do, negative thoughts and self-doubt keep coming back, stealing our focus and draining our energy. Meditation is by far the most effective technique that helps us to calm our worried mind and keep the flow of negative thoughts under control.

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12. Improved creativity.

If your work, like mine, largely depends on creativity, then your most valuable piece of equipment is not your laptop (I cannot believe I have just said that). It is your mind and its ability to generate new ideas.

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However, in a world of constant distractions and worries it is not always easy to get into a state of flow and come up with something original. Meditation not only helps to calm down an overly agitated mind and improve focus, it also promotes the co-operation of our creative (right) side of the brain and rational (left) side of the brain, creating perfect ?conditions? for brainstorming million-dollar ideas.

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13. Greater intelligence.

How would you like an idea to get smarter, without studying harder? As it turns out ? it is possible! To their great surprise scientists have discovered that meditation can improve brain development and boost our intelligence. Just like regular work-outs make our body stronger by building new muscle mass, regular meditation can hike our IQ up by 20 points by increasing the thickness of the cortex (neural tissue of the brain, also known as ?grey matter?) in the areas that are involved in attention, awareness and thought!

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14. Unshakeable self-confidence.

Meditation can help us to overcome moments of self-doubt and boost our self-esteem, by helping us stop the flow of negative thoughts, get in touch with our inner unique Self and become more detached from other people?s opinions and criticism. It has been shown that people who meditate regularly tend to perceive the world more positively and holistically.

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15. Enhanced emotional resilience.

Regular practitioners say they develop a feeling of greater emotional equilibrium. Just by taking a small amount of your daily time to meditate you too can find an escape from your everyday worries, become more relaxed, more patient and more peaceful.

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16. Improved decision-making skills.

When we feel overtired, overwhelmed or stressed out our the brain bypasses its ?higher,? more evolved, rational thinking stages and starts using more primitive stimuli-response pathways that are responsible for such emotions as fear, anger and anxiety. Consequently, we respond to daily demands without thinking, making impulsive, shortsighted decisions. Meditation practice provides the experience of ?restful alertness?, while helping us regain our ability for purposeful thinking and farsighted decision-making.

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17. Enhanced Productivity.

This probably does not come as a shock to you ? if meditation improves focus, creativity, decision-making skills and intelligence, it obviously increases our performance at work, making us shine and able to fully express our talents and abilities.

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18. Better relations at work.

Recently conducted research showed that we can noticeably improve our relationship with our managers and co-workers after only 11 months of meditation. Interestingly enough, people who participated in the study reported that they felt less anxiety about promotion, although their fellow employees saw them as moving ahead quickly.

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19. Greater happiness and peace of mind.

Is there anybody who does not, in some way, search for happiness? Meditation is the fastest ways to learn that happiness is not dependent on outer circumstances, but on our inner attitude. When we still our mind and just accept every moment of our life (without judgment, without regret), we suddenly discover a source of happiness, tranquility and love within us. And the more we meditate, the better and happier our life becomes, not because people around us change, not because circumstances change ? but because we change.

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20. Clear life purpose.

Usually we search for meaning in life through external events and other people, instead of looking deep inside our heart for the answers to the questions ?Who am I?? and ?Why am I here??

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When we meditate and let go of our ego and false expectations that have been forced on us, we gain a greater understanding of life through knowing who we are and by getting in touch with a source of eternal light and love inside of our heart. ?We start to live a life of purpose and all the doubts slowly disappear.

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If you still have doubts whether meditation is for you, consider this ? it can be practiced anywhere, at any given moment, by people of all religions, ages and traditions. It is absolutely free, requires no special equipment, is easy to learn and is takes only 15-20 minutes per day!

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Therefore, if you are not meditating yet, the one question you should ask yourself is ?Why not??

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How Interventions Help Prevent Early Indications Of Addiction

Article Directory :: Self-Improvement/Motivation Articles

There are several ways and approaches to help those who are abusing alcohol or illegal substances. But for family members and friends to help someone that they know are showing signs of early drug or alcohol dependencies, they have found that interventions help by confronting those people and making them admit that they have a problem with drugs or alcohol. The group who will be facilitating the confrontation should be composed of close friends, family members and co-workers who are concerned for the well being of that individual.

There are actually two kinds of confrontation, the direct approach or the indirect approach and both of these kinds of interventions help a lot. The direct approach is where all the closest people in the life of that person confronts them in a meeting, make them admit to the problem they have and help them go through the process of rehabilitation. The indirect approach on the other hand is where you help a family or a group of friends confront the person and encourage them to help himself/herself be rehabilitated.

Planning for an intervention is very crucial to how the outcome might be. Those who are involved in it should set up an initial meeting where they must discuss the situation and agree on the things that they will say to the confronted individual. They also need to seek the help of a trained therapist in order for them to do the technique right. The therapist should also be present during the intervention itself in order to have someone who is much more experienced with situations like this. A therapist can in addition give advice and talk to the confronted individual about why everyone has gathered in that meeting and how they are willing to help that person out with their problem.

intervention treatments are effective when the individual they performed this method on has observed that people still care about them and that they are there to help them and support them during the rehabilitation process. At times the use of non lethal force is necessary in order to fully convince that individual to go into rehab. Cornering the addict or locking themselves inside the meeting area is at times needed in order for that individual to listen and be convinced to seek the help that they need and the treatment and therapy that they must undergo.

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Last Asbestos to be Abated at Mt. Pleasant Schools | Serling Law Blog

According to an article in Michigan?s Morning Sun Newspaper last week, the last asbestos should be out of Mt. Pleasant Public School buildings by the end of the summer, according to school officials. The asbestos removal is part of the summertime renovations and updates that are planned at most of the district?s schools, said Chief Financial Officer Ginger Stowell.

According to the district, the kitchen floors of Vowles and Mary McGuire elementary schools contain asbestos, and those are to be replaced this summer. The floor in the band room at West Intermediate School is to be replaced. The asbestos-containing boiler-room door at Vowles also is to be replaced, Stowell said. ?I believe that is the last of it,? Stowell told the school board this week. ?That would clean up everything in our district.?

The asbestos work is to be done over the summer, paid for from a bond issue. Mt. Pleasant schools finished all the projects to be funded through a $14.5 million capital improvement bond issue passed in 2007. The total bids for the projects came in at just under $374,000.

Despite their limited resources, the schools in Michigan have been doing a great job of maintaining and abating asbestos which prevents or eliminates exposure. Asbestos which is not properly maintained or abated can lead to asbestos related diseases such as malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

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Anti Aging Products a secret to youthful skin! ? Beauty, Health and ...

When you tend to age you need to make use of anti aging products in order to look young!

Angling is not liked by anyone. Some of the signs of aging are fine lines, wrinkles, freckles and many more such signs. These are the things that are bound to come with age. These are the signs that can affect both the genders and they try to put in all the efforts to get rid of it. The main reason behind this is that these signs make you look dull and unattractive.

You might be thinking that celebrities are able to fight them more successfully. This is true because they take up cosmetic surgeries, injections as well as anti aging products. These are some of the things that are affordable by them only. It is difficult for a common man to afford all these things.

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UK's top court backs extradition of WikiLeaks boss

FILE - Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder leaves the Supreme Court in London, in this, Feb. 1, 2012 file photo. UK Supreme Court backed the extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden Wednesday May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder leaves the Supreme Court in London, in this, Feb. 1, 2012 file photo. UK Supreme Court backed the extradition of Julian Assange to Sweden Wednesday May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

FILE - This is a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he pauses as he makes a statement to media gathered outside the High Court in London. Britain's Supreme Court on Wednesday May 30, 2012 ruled that Assange can be extradited to Sweden where he is accused of sex crimes. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

FILE - This is a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he makes a statement to media gathered outside the High Court in London. Britain's Supreme Court on Wednesday May 30, 2012 ruled that Assange can be extradited to Sweden where he is accused of sex crimes. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

(AP) ? Britain's Supreme Court has endorsed the extradition of WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange to Sweden, bringing the secret-spilling Internet activist a big step closer to prosecution in a Scandinavian court.

But a question mark hung over the decision after Assange's lawyer made the highly unusual suggestion that she would try to reopen the case, raising the prospect of more legal wrangling.

Assange, 40, has spent the better part of two years fighting attempts to send him to Sweden, where he is wanted over sex crime allegations. He has yet to be charged.

The U.K. side of that struggle came to an uncertain end Wednesday, with the nation's highest court ruling 5-2 that the warrant seeking his arrest was properly issued ? and Assange's lawyer saying she might contest the ruling.

Supreme Court President Nicholas Phillips, reading out the verdict, acknowledged that coming to a conclusion in the high-profile case had "not been simple."

Assange's story has been shot through with international intrigue, online activism, and scandal. But the case before the Supreme Court hinged on a narrow technicality: Did Swedish officials properly order his arrest?

His lawyers say "no." A prosecutor, not a judge, issued the warrant, a practice they've described as arbitrary and unfair. Swedish officials say "yes," arguing that, in Sweden as in other European countries, prosecutors carry out a quasi-judicial function.

The Supreme Court came down on Sweden's side Wednesday, with Phillips ruling that "the request for Mr. Assange's extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed."

But scarcely had Phillips finished speaking before Assange lawyer Dinah Rose was on her feet, complaining that the court's ruling largely relied on a treaty whose interpretation she says she never had the chance to challenge.

In a surprise move, she requested extra time to study the judgment with an eye toward trying to reopen the case.

Phillips gave Rose two weeks to present her case, meaning an extradition wouldn't happen until the second half of June at the earliest.

Such a maneuver is practically unheard of, according to attorney Karen Todner, whose law firm handles many high-profile extradition cases.

"It's very unusual," she told The Associated Press. "I've never known them to reopen a case."

Any eventual extradition of Assange could, however, be much later. Even if the Supreme Court refuses to revisit its judgment, Assange could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, although Todner said he was unlikely to make much headway there unless he could argue that his physical safety or psychological well-being would be at risk in Sweden.

Assange, a former computer hacker from Australia, shot to international prominence in 2010 with the release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. documents, including a hard-to-watch video that showed U.S. forces gunning down a crowd of Iraqi civilians and journalists that they'd mistaken for insurgents.

His release of a quarter-million classified U.S. State Department cables in the final months of that year outraged Washington and destabilized American diplomacy worldwide.

But his work exposing government secrets increasingly came under a cloud after two Swedish women accused him of molestation and rape following a visit to the country in mid-2010. Assange denies wrongdoing, saying the sex was consensual, but has refused to go to Sweden, claiming he won't get a fair trial there.

He and his supporters have also hinted that the sex allegations are a cover for a planned move to extradite him to the United States, where he claims he's been secretly indicted for the WikiLeaks disclosures.

Those allegations, paired with the ponderous progress of Assange's appeals, have caused irritation in Sweden.

Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer who represents the two Swedish women who accuse Assange of sex crimes, expressed support for the verdict, but said he found it "difficult to understand" why the defense had been given the opportunity to try to reopen the case.

He dismissed suggestions that the underlying motive behind the extradition was to hand Assange over to the U.S.

"He is not at a greater risk of being handed over from Sweden than from Britain," he told the AP.

Borgstrom wasn't the only one expressing impatience. Ola Lofgren, of the Swedish prosecutor general's office, said it was in everyone's interest that the judicial back-and-forth "is shortened as much as possible."

Australia's government also weighed in, saying in a statement that it would "closely monitor" any proceedings against Assange in Sweden.

Unusually, Assange did not appear in court Wednesday; he was reportedly stuck in traffic. The WikiLeaks chief has spent much of the past 18 months living in a supporter's mansion in rural England.

Although his website has languished amid legal and financial issues, he's moved on to other projects, including a WikiLeaks-themed social networking site and a talk show on the Russian government's English-language broadcaster, RT.

Attempts to reach him for comment on the verdict weren't immediately successful.

___

Karl Ritter and David MacDougall in Stockholm and Rod McGuirk in Sydney contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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At least 15 die as 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits Italy

Salmoirago Paolo / EPA

A volunteer helps people evacuate the Tesoreria Comunale and Marino Palace offices in downtown Milan after Tuesday's earthquake.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 12:10 a.m. ET: MILAN, Italy --?An earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor shook the region just over a week ago.

The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless in the Emilia Romagna region north of Bologna, one of Italy's most agriculturally and industrially productive areas.


The United States Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), was centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna and was felt across much of northern and central Italy.

Some 200 were injured and were seven people missing, a government undersecretary Antonio Catricala said during a briefing of the Senate in Rome.

AP Photo / Luca Bruno

A young girl runs outside tents housing people made homeless in a May 20 earthquake in northern Italy. Another deadly quake hit the area on Tuesday.

"The situation is very serious, some people are stuck under the rubble," Alberto Silvestri, the mayor of San Felice sul Panaro, one of the towns near the epicenter, told SkyTG24.

PhotoBlog: Factory collapses as second big quake hits northern Italy

Prime Minister Mario Monti said: "I want to assure everyone that the state will do all that it must do, all that is possible to do, as fast as it can to guarantee the return to normality in a region so special, so important, so productive for Italy."?

The earthquake was felt from Piedmont in northwestern Italy to Venice in the northeast and as far north as Austria. Dozens of aftershocks hit the area, some registering more than 5.0 in magnitude.

The temblor terrified many of the thousands who have been living in tents or cars since the May 20 quake and created a whole new wave of homeless. ?Seven people were killed in the earlier quake.

"I was shaving and I ran out very fast, half dressed," a resident of Sant'Agostino, one of the towns devastated in the quake earlier this month, told AP Television News.?

That quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including ancient churches and castles, and forced more than 7,000 people to sleep outdoors in tents.

An 6.0 earthquake caused a violent tremor in Italy on Sunday, destroying historic buildings, including a cathedral. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

It also hit production of some of the area's most internationally famous produce, including Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Farmers estimated the damage to agriculture in one of Italy's most fertile zones at more than 200 million euros (around $251 million).

While Tuesday's quake was about 100 times less intense than the one May 20, its death toll was more than twice as high.

People trapped under rubble
On Tuesday, officials said operations to rescue people from the rubble had been hampered by disruption to the mobile phone network.?

"The town has been largely damaged. There are people under the rubble, we don't know how many," a police officer from Cavezzo told Reuters.

Train services around Bologna, near Modena, were disrupted, media said, and schools and other public buildings had been evacuated as far south as Florence.

"We felt a very strong tremor," said Raffaella Besola, a resident of Bologna.

Television footage on ITV News showed evacuees from the previous quake peering out of shaking tents in disbelief.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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