Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 12

NATION THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC HIZ THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 201 1 Swollen river overtops dikes, imperils N.D. city Journalist says he's an illegal immigrant He won Pulitzer while at Washington Post internship at the Seattle Times because he didn't have all the documents they required. But he kept applying and got an offer from the Washington Post. The newspaper required a driver's license, so Vargas said his network of mentors helped him get one from Oregon, which has less stringent requirements than some other states. He wrote that he was nearly paralyzed with anxiety that his secret would be found out at the Post.

He tried to avoid reporting on immigration policy, but at times, it was impossible. At one EH- M'Htu. By Judy Keen USA Today The sound that everyone in Mi-not, N.D., had been dreading came just before 1 p.m. Wednesday when emergency sirens alerted residents that water was rushing over Souris River dikes and it was time for as many as 10,000 people in evacuation zones to leave. "I feel we've done everything that we possibly could have," said Mayor Curt Zimbelman.

"This is really going to be an extended fight." Flood stage in Minot, measured in feet above sea level, is 1,549. By 3 p.m. Wednesday, the river was at 1,555.44. The Army Corps of Engineers predicted that it will rise 6 to 8 feet higher than in a 1969 flood, when it crested at 1,555.4 feet, and surpass the record 1,558 feet set in 1881. The crest could be days away, on June 30.

Minot's levees average a height of 1,558 feet. The Souris River loops down from Canada through north-central North Dakota. Carol Carr wept Wednesday as she hauled possessions out of the Dakotah Rose Bed Breakfast, which was built in 1906. She and her husband, Jim, have owned the Flooding from the Souris River sweeps across the outskirts of Minot, N.D., on Wednesday, christian randolphgrand forks (n.d.) herald point, he wrote about then-Sen. Hillary Clinton's position on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

Vargas eventually told his mentor, Peter Perl, now the Jose Antonio Vargas opened two shelters in Minot and asked for donations to help it provide hot meals to evacuees. The North Dakota National Guard sent 500 soldiers to go door-to-door in evacuation areas to make sure people leave and to help direct traffic. If necessary, they will conduct search and rescue, Capt. Dan Murphy said. Most residents were cooperative.

Minot also was hit last month by flooding. The Associated Press contributed to this article. six-room inn since 2007. "We've got the river right behind our house," she said. "She's a grand old lady.

It'll be here after the flood, but I just hope it isn't damaged too much." With the help of her employees, Ruth Linke, owner of Ultimate Cuts, had stripped the salon down to the walls Wednesday morning in anticipation of flooding. "It's pretty obvious that it's going to happen unless there's a miracle," she said. "How bad it's going to be, nobody knows." The American Red Cross By Brett Zongker Associated Press WASHINGTON A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered the Virginia Tech massacre for the Washington Post went public Wednesday with a secret he has been keeping for nearly two decades: He is an illegal immigrant. Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, says now he wants to push Congress to pass the Dream Act to allow people like him to become citizens if they go to college or serve in the military. "I'm done running.

I'm exhausted," Vargas wrote in a New York Times Magazine essay posted online Wednesday. "I don't want that life anymore." He also spoke to ABC News in interviews that will air today and Friday. He says he didn't know about his citizenship status until four years after he in the U.S., when he applied for a driver's permit and handed a clerk his green card. "This is fake," a Department of Motor Vehicles clerk said, according to Vargas' account. "Don't come back here again." Vargas confronted his grandfather, who acknowledged he purchased the green card and other fake documents.

"I remember the very first instinct was, OK, that's it, get rid of the accent," Vargas told ABC. "Because I just thought to myself, you know, I couldn't give anybody any reason to ever doubt that I'm an American." His grandfather imagined the fake documents would help Vargas get low-wage jobs. College seemed out of reach, until Vargas told Mountain View High School Principal Pat Hyland and school-district Superintendent Rich Fisher about his problem. They became mentors and surrogate parents, eventually finding a scholarship fund for high-achieving students that allowed him to attend San Franciscp State University. was hired for internships at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News.

He was denied an Officials: Man tied to '10 D.C.-area shootings the shootings. He has not been charged in last week's incident nor the building shootings. Melaku, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethiopia, was detained newspapers training director. Perl told him that once he had accomplished more, they would tell then-Editor Leonard Downie Jr.

and Post Chairman Don Graham together. They kept the secret until Vargas left the paper. On Wednesday, Washington Post spokeswoman Kris Coratti condemned their actions. "What Jose did was wrong. What Peter did was wrong," Coratti said, declining to comment further on personnel matters.

An e-mail seeking comment was sent to Perl. The Post originally planned to publish Vargas' story but decided not to. Coratti would not say why. In an article published Wednesday evening on the Post's website, the newspaper reported that Vargas approached his old newspaper in March about writing his story. It was to be published Sunday.

But Executive Editor Marcus Brau-chli killed it several days before its scheduled publication. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Cori W. Bassett would not comment specifically on Vargas' case but said the agency prioritizes cases that pose the most significant threat to public safety. Friday after he was spotted carrying a suspicious backpack near the Pentagon containing what initially was feared to be bomb-making material.

Authorities later said the suspi V'i i enforcement official has said Melaku is not believed to have any links to al-Qaida or any other terrorist organization. He was detained for trespassing after being found after-hours in Arlington National Cemetery. The shootings last year, all done with the same gun, did not injure anyone. The Marine Corps museum was targeted twice. Two windows were shot out at the Pentagon, 'and a Marine recruiting station in Chantilly, outside Washington was also targeted.

FBI officials suspected then that the shooter had some sort of gripe against the Marine Corps. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, declined to comment except to say that Melaku remains under investigation after last week's incident. By Matthew Barakat and Eric Tucker Associated Press WASHINGTON A Marine reservist who was detained during a security scare near the Pentagon last week has been linked to the shootings last year at the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and several D.C.-area military-recruitment stations, officials said Wednesday. Ballistics evidence appears to link Yonathan Melaku, 22, to the shootings, one official said.

The two officials spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Melaku, of Alexandria, is being held without bail on unrelated larceny charges involving car break-ins that happened after Yonathan Melaku cious items were not explosive. Melaku also had a notebook with the words "al-Qaida" and "Taliban Rules" written inside, one of the officials has said. The context of the words was not immediately clear, but another law- ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY! THE FIRST AND ONLY SAN FRANCISCO MINTED SOLID SILVER AMERICAN EAGLE COIN The silver eagle is Americas largest, purest and heaviest silver why it is the 1 solid silver collector 2011. (S, coin in the world today.

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