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Kwame Kilpatrick top (right) leaves court at close of first day of trial. /Deadline Detroit photo

DETROIT — The prosecution lit into Kwame Kilpatrick in opening arguments today, and the defense countered with sharp criticism of the charges. By 1:55p.m., the first day of battle was over, opening the way for the government to call its first witnesses on Monday in the biggest case in Detroit history in memory.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Chutkow began the morning by carving up Kilpatrick, claiming as mayor he rigged tens of millions of dollars in contracts for his friend Bobby Ferguson and his father Bernard while lining his own pockets with bribes and kickbacks. He said if Ferguson didn’t get a piece of a contract, Victor Mercado, the head of the water and sewerage department at the time, would hold up or cancel the contract.

Kilpatrick faces 32 counts of public corruption along with co-defendants Ferguson, a close friend and contractor; father Bernard who had a consulting firm; and Mercado.

The prosecution tried painting Kilpatrick as man with plenty of questionable cash. Chutkow said he had at least $540,000 in cash above his paycheck during his mayoral reign, and suggested there was more beyond what the government could document. He noted that Kilpatrick would regularly go to the bank and ended up turning over some $280,000 in cash to pay for credit card debt.

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Some thefts get more attention than others.

Count on this one getting plenty of attention from the public and law enforcement.

The Associated Press reported that thieves stole a handgun and identification documents from an FBI agents car that was parked at a Houston gas station on Wednesday.

AP reported that a security video showed two men fleeing in a white SUV.

Steve Neavling

A year-long investigation into a Somali terror group’s efforts to recruit Americans may be gathering steam in Minnesota, the Associated Press reports.

The FBI has been focusing on Minnesota because it’s home to the largest Somali population in the U.S., according to the AP.

Fueling fears that al-Shabab is succeeding in its efforts was the recent revelation that a Minnesota man traveled to Somalia to join the terrorist group, his family said.

The AP noted that the FBI has been interviewing and subpoenaing Somalis in the state, a potential sign that the investigation is gaining traction.

Steve Neavling

Pop singer Fiona Apple was released from jail Thursday after authorities says she was busted with marijuana and hashish in her tour bus at the West Texas Border Patrol checkpoint, the Associated Press reports.

After drug-sniffing dogs detected pot, Apple’s bus was searched and authors found about four grams of marijuana and another four grams of hashish.

Apple could be charged with a felony for the hashish, which is considered more serious in the eyes of Texas officials, according to the AP.

Apple is just the latest celebrity arrested in Sierra Blanca on marijuana charges. Others include rapper Snoop Dogg, country singer Willie Nelson and actor Armand Hammer, the AP reported.

 Steve Neavling

A veteran Border Patrol agent faces charges of indecency with a child after surrendering to authorities following accusations that he molested a 14-year-old relative, 6 News reports.

Jose Jalomos, 49, is to be charged in two counties where he’s accused of fondling the girl at a ranch and another undisclosed location over the past six months in Duval and Jim Wells counties in Texas.

Jalomos, a 20-year-veteran of the agency, most recently worked at the Hebbronville station, according to 6 News.

Jalomos turned himself in a short time after an arrest warrant was signed, 6 News reported.

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• Somali Suspect Pleads Guilty to Lying to FBI Agents About Terror Probe
• Feds Bust Major Heroin Ring in Chicago Area
• DEA Agents Calling on Justice Department to Oppose Marijuana Ballot Initiatives

Steve Neavling

Federal prosecutors dismissed claims from the attorney of an Illinois teen Thursday that undercover FBI agents entrapped his client, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Although Ahmed Daoud pulled the trigger on what he thought was a car bomb outside a Chicago bar, he only did so because he was manipulated by undercover FBI agents, the attorney argued.

“He talked about how many people he wanted killed in this attack,” Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ridgway said during a detention hearing Thursday. “With every step, the defendant was pushing this operation forward. The defendant stood firm.”

Prosecutors said the FBI didn’t become involved until after Daoud, who turned 19 today, continually expressed an interest in waging violent jihad against Americans, according to the Tribune.

The recklessness of federal officials in their harebrained scheme to assist in illegal gunrunning to Mexican drug cartels was laid bare in a scathing report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Primary blame for the botched program — known as Operation Fast and Furious — was placed on a group of Arizona-based prosecutors and officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who lost track of hundreds of weapons that were allowed to pass into Mexico in hopes of tracing them to cartel leaders.

Two of the high-powered guns turned up at an Arizona shootout in 2010 that killed an American Border Patrol officer.

The ill-conceived operation put public safety at risk with no effective plan to track the guns, according to the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, who found “misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment and management failures,” including slipshod oversight at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

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