Language added to a hotly debated immigration resolution at the request of members of the state’s congressional delegation is giving Mayor Kathy Taylor second thoughts about signing off on it, her spokeswoman said Friday.

The resolution initially directed police to check the immigration status of inmates in on felony arrests, but misdemeanor complaints were added Wednesday before the council voted.

Taylor’s office said she and the council reached an agreement in committee on Tuesday that called for only those arrested on felonies to be checked.

How can a firefighter with a criminal record and possible ties to a criminal street gang work his way up the ranks of the state’s fire prevention agency? With relative ease, actually, fire officials said. California Department of Forestry officials in Tulare County admitted Friday that a background check is not required to work as a firefighter at the department.

The disclosure comes in the wake of a Recorder story that revealed a former CDF-Tulare County Fire Department firefighter is facing felony vandalism charges for allegedly spray painting gang graffiti on several buildings in the town of Pixley — while in uniform.

Pixley residents said Juan Cardona Valdez, a 32-year-old former CDF engineer, spray painted red Norteno gang graffiti over blue Sureno graffiti in early December.

So you’ve met someone online. You’ve met a few times and seem to be “clicking.” This relationship has potential. But how do you know that this person you’re dating is really who they say they are?

Online dating “may seem like a convenience for some people, but you don’t really know who is on the other end,” says Ken Plummer, crime prevention officer with the Rochester Police Department.

There are ways to check into a potential partner’s background. Start by typing their name into Google or another search engine to see what comes up. You also can try an online public records search through a fee-based service such as ussearch.com or netsleuth.com. You also can conduct a search of Olmsted County court records on the fifth floor of the city-county Government Center.

A month to the day after the shootings at Virginia Tech left 33 people dead, Maine lawmakers took testimony on a bill Wednesday that supporters said could play a vital role in preventing similar scenes from playing out closer to home.

Assistant House Majority Leader Sean Faircloth’s bill seeks to close a loophole that enables someone who has been certified as mentally ill to buy guns. About half of the states have similar gaps in their laws.

Faircloth, D-Bangor, said he agrees with the National Rifle Association on the need to address the matter, but at the same time he does not want his proposal to stigmatize mentally ill people.

A rookie police officer in Southwest Division has been fired after it was determined that he was allowed into the Police Academy without a proper background check that would have disqualified him, officials said Wednesday.

The removal came months after a city background investigator resigned amid allegations that he approved the hiring of at least 15 police recruits without conducting required background checks, officials said.

In the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, lawmakers are again pushing states to provide more comprehensive mental-health records for use in background checks for gun purchases.

Congress is set to consider legislation that would provide $375 million to upgrade state computer systems and ensure faster delivery of mental-health data into the check system. States that fail to comply could lose funding for some law enforcement programs, though the bill does not impose any new restrictions on gun ownership.

In February, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the legislation, which she first proposed in 2002. It has been referred to the Judiciary Committee’s Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee. A spokesman was optimistic that the bill would have support this session.

Legislation requires federal criminal checks for new school employees.

Think submitting to a drug test during a job interview is bad? Then you probably don’t want to get a job in Pennsylvania’s schools.

Last year, the Pennsylvania legislature added fingerprinting and federal background checks to the list of requirements prospective school employees and student teachers must pass. The law took effect on April 1, and its ramifications are now hitting schools and colleges throughout the state.

The Beaverton School District is re-evaluating its hiring practices after the arrest of a cheerleading coach.

ChatmanDavid Chatman was the head cheerleading coach at Beaverton’s Southridge High School and also a coach the West Coast Extreme All-Star Cheerleaders, a private company based in Tigard.

The 32-year-old was escorting a group of 20 cheerleaders back from a competition in Florida when the alleged abuse took place. He was reportedly seated between two of the girls and abused one of them while she slept on the airplane. The 16-year-old woke up during the alleged abuse and told her parents when she got home.

Mysteriously, cabdrivers in Houston seem not to have noticed the drama the rest of us have been going through the last five plus years about hassles at the airport. It’s a mystery because why else would Houston cabdrivers be out in protest over a simple — and by the way, long overdue — order that cabdrivers entering the airport to pick up fares will have to submit to a background check and they will have to obtain and display a photo ID?

Considering you have to have a background check and a photo ID to get a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom in the airport, why would anybody think that people who drive into the airport several times a day to do business should not submit to a background check and have their ID posted in the cab with a picture and a name and a Houston airport identification number?

I ride in cabs in New York all the time. Every one of them has a picture ID visible to the passenger. What could possibly be the harm?

Caregivers in the thousands refuse background check

Thousands of Coloradans who get state aid for providing in-home day care to the children of relatives or friends are refusing to undergo the criminal background checks required by a new state law.

As a result, 70 percent of the people caring for 7,662 children and getting payments under the state’s Child Care Assistance Program in 2006 are expected to be ineligible for additional money, state human-services officials said.

The remaining providers who agree to the background checks will get the payments if they pass.

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