Possibility of Guns on Amtrak Causes Concern

TRENTON, N.J. — Rail security in the New York metropolitan area may be in peril now that the U.S. Senate wants to allow firearms aboard Amtrak, officials and rail advocates say.

That potential security risk could also force the national rail service to install gun-safe storage compartments and add security checkpoints, causing long lines on a system with a steadily increasing ridership, Amtrak says.

In a letter to congressional leaders, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said he was “outragedâ€Â that the U.S. Senate, by a 68-30 vote, agreed last week to permit Amtrak passengers to transport firearms and ammunition in their checked baggage.

Corzine said he will “not allow the NRA to force guns to be transported or carriedâ€Â into stations that serve New Jersey’s urban centers and major universities, such as Newark and New Brunswick.

“Mandating our national railroad to hold and transport firearms in unsecured baggage areas across America is both deplorable and ludicrous in a post-9/11 world,â€Â he said.

Gun-rights advocates said Amtrak’s current policy prohibiting people from transporting any firearm, ammunitions, explosives or similar weapons unfairly penalizes law-abiding passengers.

The National Rifle Association noted that guns are permitted aboard planes as long as the weapon is unloaded and stored safely and separately from the passengers.

“There are people who use it and have a need to carry firearms for a lawful purpose,â€Â said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman.

The amendment to the transportation and housing appropriations bill still needs President Obama’s signature — a long shot, some say, because of Obama’s past opposition to gun-rights legislation.

Missing price tags lead to a baseball cap beating

An irate customer at a Chevron convenience store in Williams, Calif. had to be scolded and sent on his way by a sheriffs deputy Saturday night after allegedly shouting at a cashier and striking another shopper with his baseball cap.

No arrests were made.

The angry customer became incensed about a lack of price tags on the store’s products, said Tino Aguilar, 37, the store’s cashier. Aguilar described the customer as gray-haired and in his 50s, and said the customer began to shout obscenities.

When asked to leave, the man said he would have to be forcibly removed. Aguilar dialed 911.

Meanwhile, another customer asked the angry man to please stop cussing because his kids were in the store.

The shouting man removed a cap from his head and slapped the other customer repeatedly with it.

Colusa County sheriff’s deputy Chris Liston said he arrived at the store on Fourth Street to find the offending customer outside, in an agitated state.

“The victim of the hat-slapping was nowhere to be found,â€Â said Liston. “He didn’t want anything more to do with that, and I don’t blame him.â€Â

Liston gave the subject a talking-to.

“I told him to get the heck out of there,â€Â Liston said. “I was trying to keep a straight face.â€Â

Aguilar, who has worked at the Chevron since 1994, did not wish to press charges.

But he had to call 911 again after Liston left, because the angry man returned.

“He stood here and screamed at me some more. Then he gave me his card and told me to call him if I’d like to continue,â€Â Aguilar said. “I said, ‘Hey guy, you’re crazy, man.’â€Â

“I don’t get paid enough to deal with this,â€Â he said.

G20 leaders to call for executive pay limits, other economic policy changes

PITTSBURGH — World leaders pledged Friday to keep economic stimulus efforts going in order to nurture the tentative recovery.

They also lent their support to a U.S. plan to restructure global growth by relying less on American consumers and more on domestic spending from export-dominant countries such as China.

At the conclusion of the two-day summit, which involves the 20 largest developed and emerging countries, leaders issued a 23-page statement that promised, among other things, to fix problems in the financial system that contributed to the economic crisis.

To discourage excessive risk-taking and reduce the chance of future financial meltdowns, the leaders endorsed practices to limit bonuses and to tie executive compensation to long-term performance. European leaders had pressed for pay caps, but the idea was resisted by the United States and was never on the negotiating table, officials said.

The G-20 leaders also agreed to adopt higher capital requirements for banks, so institutions would have more reserves to cushion against future losses, but there were few specifics. Officials set an implementation date at the end of 2010.

In their statement, the leaders took credit for implementing stimulus and other programs that they said helped bring the global economy from the brink. “It worked,â€Â they said. But they also cautioned against any premature withdrawal of stimulus and pledged to adopt new policies to build a foundation for sustained and balanced growth.

“Because our global economy is now fundamentally interconnected, we need to act together to make sure our recovery creates new jobs and industries, while preventing the kinds of imbalances and abuse that led us into this crisis,â€Â Obama said in a statement at the conclusion of the summit.

Defense Secretary calls deadline for Afghanistan war a mistake

SAN FRANCISCO — In a sharp rebuke to growing calls for a timeline or time limit, Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Sunday that setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan would be a mistake that could lead to a disastrous defeat for the U.S.

“The notion of timelines and exit strategies and so on, frankly, I think would all be a strategic mistake,â€Â Gates said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.â€Â “The reality is, failure in Afghanistan would be a huge setback for the United States.â€Â

“Taliban and al-Qaida, as far as they’re concerned, defeated one superpower. For them to be seen to defeat a second, I think, would have catastrophic consequences in terms of energizing the extremist movement, al-Qaida recruitment, operations, fundraising, and so on. I think it would be a huge setback for the United States,â€Â Gates said.

Gates’ comments come as President Obama begins reexamining his administration’s strategy in Afghanistan and considers a Pentagon request for additional troops there.

To battle the insurgency, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, is expected to ask for up to 40,000 more troops, according to the Washington Post. There are 65,000 U.S. troops and 38,000 allied troops in Afghanistan now, according to the Post.

But some congressional Democrats are increasingly uneasy about the ongoing eight-year military campaign there. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she takes issue with the relatively open-ended nature of America’s role in the fighting, according to the Associated Press. “I do not believe the American people want to be in Afghanistan for the next 10 years, effectively nation-building,” Feinstein told “Fox News Sunday.â€Â