Detectives believe the four men arrested during a traffic stop late Thursday night on Highway 97 just north of Redmond, Oregon were transporting the drugs discovered in their vehicle from the Beaverton area for distribution in Madras and other Central Oregon locations.   (top left) Octavio Real Barajas, (top right) Luis Manuel Avalos Gonzalez, (bottom left) Javier Garcia Reyes, (bottom right) Ernesto Carranza - DCJ photos  Members of the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) team assisted Redmond Police ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen federal inmates could be released within the next few days under new sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine convictions, officials said.Federal judges can now sentence crack-cocaine defendants under new guidelines, CNN reported. The guidelines were revised to reduce the differences in terms meted out for crack convictions compared to people convicted on charges involving powder cocaine.In addition, about 1,600 federal inmates can ask a court to reduce their sentences because of ... [full story]

EMORY, Texas - A 16-year-old eastern Texas girl was among four suspects held Sunday in the shooting deaths of her mother and two brothers, police said.The family's father also was wounded in the Saturday attack in rural Rains County, KLTV in Tyler, Texas, reported. Penny Caffey, 37, Matthew Caffey, 13, and Tyler Caffey, 8, were shot and stabbed multiple times in their home, the TV station reported. The father, Terry Caffey, was hospitalized in fair condition ... [full story]

Six people were injured Saturday morning in a crash on icy Highway 97 about 13 miles south of Chemult, Oregon, when an out-of-control car spun into the path of a semi-truck and trailer, which then jack-knifed and crashed into another semi-truck, police reported.   All five occupants of the car were injured, as was the driver of one of the two semi-trucks involved in a crash on Highway 97 south of Chemult, Oregon on Sat. - ... [full story]

CRESCENT LAKE, Ore. -- A semi-truck and trailer driver from California was cited for careless driving after he lost control on Highway 58 near Crescent Lake Sunday night, crashed into a snow bank, jack-knifed, overturned, then slid down the highway before it stopped, blocking all lanes of traffic for near six hours.   The driver of this semi-truck and trailer was cited when he allegedly was traveling too fast for road conditions and crashed, blocking Highway 58 ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuked critics of the recent Israeli military incursion into Gaza, saying "no one will be immune" from retaliation."We will act against those who dispatch the terrorists and against those who harm us. No one will be immune," Olmert said before the weekly Cabinet meeting.International critics called the Israeli reaction to repeated Qassam attacks targeting southern Israel "excessive," with the U.N. Security Council expressing its concern over the ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Top U.S. military officials told a congressional committee that outer and cyberspace are the next war-fighting frontiers, The Washington Post said.U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that "we must be ready" to defend "our space infrastructure" and categorized cyberspace as an "emerging war-fighting domain," the Post said Monday.Chilton said enemies of the United States "constantly" try to hack into ... [full story]

ROUND ROCK, Texas -- A top adviser to Arizona Sen. John McCain says the Republican presidential hopeful will have to run as an underdog when it comes to fundraising.The de facto GOP nominee can't compete in the money race with Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who have collected more than $130 million in the first two months of this year, The Politico reported Monday."We don't expect we'll be able to compete dollar for dollar," ... [full story]

SACRAMENTO -- The California budget crisis could soon hit the state's public schools as local boards try to put together spending plans for next year."These could be the most devastating cuts our schools have ever seen," Orange County Superintendent William Habermehl told the Orange County Register. "I don't know how some of our school districts will be able to survive this and provide the same quality of education."Seventy percent of California school spending comes from ... [full story]

BAGHDAD -  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used his historic visit to Iraq Sunday to highlight ties between the two nations.Ahmadinejad's two-day visit to Iraq, the first by an Iranian leader since the eight-year war in the 1980s between Iran and Iraq, began in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani. "Our countries have the same viewpoint on the resolution of international and regional problems," Ahmadinejad said at a joint news conference with the Iraqi president, RIA ... [full story]