Allison Leotta

DETROIT — Author Allison Leotta, a Detroit area native, says the Justice Department no longer has to screen her book transcripts, steamy sex scenes and all. That’s because she quit her job last year as a prosecutor in Washington.

“It’s is a relief,” says the Michigan State graduate who now lives in suburban D.C.

Back in 2010, the Justice Department screened her first book, “Law of Attraction”, to check for any national security breaches. So Justice Department folks had to read the whole thing. Everything.

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An agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigation was shot and wounded in eastern Hidalgo County in Texas near the Mexican border early Tuesday morning while conducting surveillance, the Brownsville Herald reported.

The agent was working along State Highway 186 when he was shot once in the abdomen about 4 a.m., the paper reported.

The agent was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Details of the shooting were still scarce Tuesday morning.

“A special agent with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was shot this morning while conducting surveillance related to an ongoing criminal investigation in Hidalgo County, Texas,” ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said in a statement, according to the paper.

“The special agent was transported to a local hospital where he is currently undergoing surgery for a gunshot wound,” she added. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the special agent and his family.”

 Steve Neavling

Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to criminal and civil charges in connection with off-label marketing of several drugs under an agreement announced Monday by the Justice Department, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The London-based company is accused of illegally marketing prescriptions, including diabetes drug Avandia and the antidepressant Paxil.

“Today’s multi-billion dollar settlement is unprecedented in both size and scope,” James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General, said in a statement. “It underscores the Administration’s firm commitment to protecting the American people and holding accountable those who commit health care fraud. At every level, we are determined to stop practices that jeopardize patients’ health, harm taxpayers, and violate the public trust – and this historic action is a clear warning to any company that chooses to break the law.”

I recently shot and killed a woman.

Leaning into her car’s open passenger-side window, I fired my weapon just as she pulled out a pistol, partially hidden under her thigh, and pointed it at me.

I was lucky.

I should have noticed the pistol sooner. Had I been a split-second slower in pulling the trigger, the outcome would have been different.

I was lucky because the incident was a simulation at the FBI Citizens’ Academy.

The academy is a series of six classroom seminars the Cleveland FBI office offers to a couple dozen community leaders each year to give them a behind-the-scene glimpse of the bureau’s work investigating public corruption, cyber theft, domestic terrorism and child prostitution, among many other crimes.

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Steve Neavling

The Justice Department has rejected South Carolina’s voter identification law for the second time, saying the state has been unable to show the ID requirement isn’t discriminatory, the Associated Press reports.

Feds blocked the state’s photo ID requirement in December, saying it would prevent tens of thousands of minorities from voting.

State officials said the law is intended to prevent voter fraud.

Justice Department officials disagreed, saying the requirement violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Joe Paterno’s family is urging the FBI to release all records related to the Penn State child sex-abuse scandal, saying select emails are being leaked to smear the reputation of the deceased coach, the Associated Press reports.

Those emails suggested Paterno and his coaching staff knew Jerry Sandusky took a shower with at least one boy since 2001.

Family attorney Wick Sollers says the leaked emails were used to “manipulate public opinion.”

Paterno died of cancer less than three months after he was fired.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys.

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• Justice Department Investigates Alleged Collusion Chesapeake
• Justice Department Threatens Oregon with Lawsuit over Disabled Worker Programs
• Immigration Officials Arrest Raggae Musician at NJ Home
• ICE Agent Shot Along Highway 
• DEA Finds 41,000 Marijuana Plants from a Farm in San Diego County

Steve Neavling

An undocumented immigrant who interrupted a state legislative hearing on immigration may be deported to Mexico – a place he barely remembers, the News & Observer in North Carolina reports.

Uriel Alberto was about 8 years old when his parents, seeking a better life, moved to the U.S. He is now 25 and considers himself a “Southern boy,” according to the News and Observer.

But after he and two other undocumented immigrants were arrested in February for interrupting the legislative hearing, he faces deportation – even after President Obama’s recent action to allow illegal immigrations to remain in the U.S. as long as their parents brought them to the country.

According to the News and Observer, Alberto has a checkered past.