US Composer Says Feds Are After Him

... thanks in part to increase in driving offenses

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration deported a record 393,000 people last fiscal year, with half of those deported considered criminals. That jibes with the Obama administration's pledge to go after the "worst of the worst," but the AP reports that some critics are scoffing: The figure includes big increases in the number of people deported after drunken driving arrests (27,635, up from 10,851 in 2008) and traffic offenses (13,028, up from from 4,527). More»

Composer saw creatures emerging from piano

(NEWSER) - The 19th-century composer Frédéric Chopin suffered frightening hallucinations, ranging from ghosts to creatures coming out of his piano. Now, researchers believe the visions may have been prompted by temporal lobe epilepsy, the Daily Telegraph reports. The disease can cause short, detailed hallucinations, and “could easily have been overlooked by Chopin’s doctors,” researchers note in Medical Humanities . More»

Dallas bomb plot highlights thousands who overstay visas

(NEWSER) - Hosam Maher Husein Smadi came to the US legally on a tourism visa. But the 19-year-old Jordanian stayed after it had expired and then, allegedly, tried to blow up a Dallas skyscraper. That case has sparked calls from both parties for a better system for tracking foreign visitors, the New York Times reports, not just when they enter the country, but when and if they leave. Congressmen want a universal electronic exit monitoring system, which would identify visitors who’d overstayed their welcome. More»

Project a 'weird dream come true' for fans of 2 seminal American composers

(NEWSER) - Beach Boys songster Brian Wilson will put a gloss on unfinished tunes by revered Jazz Age composer George Gershwin. Gershwin’s estate tells the Los Angeles Times that dozens of fragments, from “a few bars to some almost finished songs and everything in between,” have been in limbo since Gershwin’s death more than 70 years ago. The estate had been casting about for artists to complete them, but the pick is a surprise. More»

(AP) - A former Justice Department official has been picked to be the Southwest border czar—a new position created by the Obama administration to handle illegal immigration and border issues. The new Homeland Security Department post will be responsible for issues related to drug-cartel violence along the US-Mexico border and the hundreds of thousands of people there who try to enter the US illegally, said an administration official. More»