Around the Nation

Menendez appointed to fill Corzine’s term

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Gov.-elect Jon Corzine yesterday appointed Democratic Rep. Robert Menendez to serve out the remaining year in his Senate term, giving New Jersey its first minority senator.

Mr. Menendez, 51, becomes the third Hispanic in the Senate, joining Democrat Ken Salazar of Colorado and Republican Mel Martinez of Florida.

He pledged to serve the interests of working families and called for affordable health care and middle-class tax breaks. The father of two also criticized the war in Iraq.

“I pledge to you that I will never send New Jerseyans into a war that I would be unwilling to send my own son or daughter to fight,” Mr. Menendez said.

Protesters thwarted at bus stop

DENVER — Protesters hoping to force a showdown over a rule requiring passengers to show identification at the RTD Federal Center bus stop were thwarted yesterday when federal officers brought in a second bus.

The demonstrators included Deborah Davis, an Arvada, Colo., grandmother who was cited last month for refusing to show her identification while riding an RTD bus that passed through the Federal Center.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped the charges earlier this week, but Homeland Security officials refused to change the requirement. Mrs. Davis called the rule unconstitutional, saying she and other passengers had a right to ride a public bus without being forced to show ID.

Mrs. Davis and her supporters boarded a Federal Center-bound bus yesterday and planned to refuse to show identification, forcing federal officers to cite or ignore them. Instead, officers stopped their bus before it reached the center and allowed passengers who showed identification to board a second bus.

Mrs. Davis plans to try again Monday. “They decided it was better to waste taxpayers’ money by bringing in a second bus,” said Bill Scannell, a privacy-rights activist. “Let’s see how many extra buses RTD has.”

Officer gets probation in immigrant shooting

NEW YORK — A police officer who fatally shot an unarmed immigrant in a warehouse was spared a prison sentence yesterday and instead was given five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service.

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