Elliot Spagat

January 30, 2009 | Daily Report Online

SAN DIEGO AP - The Justice Department doesn't have to look far to find a scam that preys on people whose retirement plans have been crippled by the global financial meltdown.It designed one of its own. And e-mailed it to agency employees.The bogus offer - signed by "Thrift Savings Plan Account Coordinator" - was sent two weeks ago and directed employees to a Web site and asked them to plug in account information by Jan.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

3 minute read

July 24, 2008 | Daily Report Online

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

3 minute read

April 09, 2009 | Daily Report Online

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. AP - Military jurors began deliberating Wednesday whether a Marine sergeant should be convicted of murdering an unarmed detainee during a battle in Iraq.The jury got the case after closing arguments in which a defense attorney insisted that Sgt. Ryan Weemer acted in self-defense.Weemer is charged with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the November 2004 death in Fallujah.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

4 minute read

March 03, 2010 | Daily Report Online

SAN DIEGO AP - Thousands of mourners walked the sidewalks of a wide avenue in silence, holding candles and tearfully embracing.Many were at a loss for words over the discovery of a body believed to be that of 17-year-old Chelsea King, five days after the popular, straight-A student from San Diego County disappeared and two days after a registered sex offender was booked on suspicion of rape and murder.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

4 minute read

October 23, 2009 | Daily Report Online

OKLAHOMA CITY AP - In the largest single strike at Mexican drug operations in the U.S., authorities arrested more than 300 people in a sting that demonstrates an upstart cartel's vast reach north of the border.The tentacles of "La Familia" extend coast to coast and deep into America's heartland, with arrests announced Thursday in 38 cities from Boston to Seattle and from St.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and SEAN MURPHY

6 minute read

March 15, 2010 | Daily Report Online

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and KEN THOMAS

5 minute read

April 08, 2008 | Daily Report Online

SAN DIEGO AP - The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint Monday against five former San Diego city officials, alleging they committed fraud by concealing a ballooning shortfall in the city pension fund.The SEC said the officials knew the city was underfunding its pension obligations and failed to disclose the extent of its problems to bond-rating agencies or to the investors who bought city bonds in 2002 and 2003.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

4 minute read

March 10, 2010 | Daily Report Online

EL CAJON, California AP - Before he called emergency dispatchers, James Sikes says he reached down with his hand to loosen the "stuck" accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius, his other hand on the steering wheel. The pedal didn't move."My car can't slow down," he began when a California Highway Patrol dispatcher answered his call.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

5 minute read

March 02, 2010 | Daily Report Online

SAN DIEGO AP - Chelsea King is a straight-A student who plays French horn for the San Diego Youth Symphony, runs on the school cross-country team and actively volunteers in a peer counseling program.At Poway High School, photos adorn the walls with the caption, "Last seen 2-25 at RB Community Park wearing running clothes.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

4 minute read

August 07, 2007 | Daily Report Online

SAN DIEGO AP - The Bush administration upheld an import ban Monday on cell phones that contain Qualcomm Inc. chips, further threatening the introduction of new handsets.U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said she was sticking to a long practice of declining to overrule the U.S. International Trade Commission unless conditions were "extraordinary.

By Elliot Spagat

4 minute read