Detained Mexican gambling magnate walks free (AP)

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press Elliot Spagat And E. Eduardo Castillo, Associated Press – Wed Jun 15, 1:41 am ET

TIJUANA, Mexico – Former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon's 10-day legal odyssey left him rumpled but with his reputation intact: He is an eccentric gambling tycoon with suspected ties to organized crime who appears to be untouchable by the law.

Wearing a sweat shirt and a smile, Hank Rhon walked free Tuesday after winning two rounds against Mexican authorities as separate judges dismissed federal weapons charges against him, then refused to back state prosecutors' attempts to detain him in a murder investigation.

The rapid-fire developments — he was freed around dawn from federal custody, held by state prosecutors in the afternoon at a hotel and home safe by dinner — dealt a blow to Mexico's attempts to fight organized crime and fueled claims that the strike against the controversial magnate was politically motivated.

"I'm free, I'm in my house with my family," Hank Rhon, 55, said late Tuesday through his spokesman, Francisco Ramirez.

While Hank Rhon was reveling in his newfound freedom, federal authorities were smarting after a judge ruled that the story of his arrest during an army raid last week just didn't hold up.

The man U.S. authorities have long suspected of ties with money laundering had supporters demonstrating in the streets for his freedom, and Roman Catholic bishops calling for his speedy release. He has strenuously denied ties to organized crime.

Federal prosecutors said they would appeal the judge's ruling, while the state said it would continue the investigation into his possible links to three homicides, including that he ordered the 2009 killing of his son's former girlfriend.

Assistant Attorney General Patricia Bugarin said that on June 8, the judge had ruled the arrests were legal.

"I don't know what reasons she had to change her mind," Bugarin told Milenio television. "I don't think the evidence was adequately analyzed."

Hank Rhon was Tijuana's mayor from 2004 to 2007, when he staged a failed run for governor. He has long figured large on the national political scene, and not only because of the wealth amassed from his Caliente gambling empire.

His father was one of Mexico's best-known politicians, leader of a faction in the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, that ruled Mexico from 1929 until 2000. National polls indicate that the man with the best chance to oust Calderon's National Action Party and recover the presidency for the PRI in 2012 is Enrique Pena Nieto, who has political ties to Hank Rhon.

Federal Judge Blanca Evelia Parra Meza ruled early Tuesday that there wasn't enough evidence to order Hank Rhon and eight others to stand trial on charges of possessing weapons restricted to military use, according to a statement from the court office. Parra said that the story told by soldiers about the pre-dawn raid in which they found weapons at Hank Rhon's home didn't hold up.

Soldiers raided his elaborate compound, which includes a racetrack, a casino and a private zoo in the early morning of June 4, seizing 88 weapons and nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition during the raid.

Federal prosecutors said only 10 were licensed and two were traced to two other Tijuana murders, of a security guard in December 2009 and an alleged car thief in June 2010.

Hank Rhon's lawyers said the raid was illegal because soldiers didn't have a search warrant.

The army had said the soldiers didn't need a search warrant to enter the house because they got a tip about weapons being stored there, saw armed men at the residence and followed them inside. But Parra, the federal judge, said, "There was evidence of several inconsistencies, in regard to the times, distances and places referred to in the soldiers' report," according to the statement.

Hank Rhon was then turned over to state prosecutors, who announced they were investigating his link to the August 2009 killing of 24-year-old Angelica Munoz after the assassin testified that he acted under orders from Hank Rhon.

A state judge then refused to order him held for 40 days without charges while prosecutors completed the investigation.

Prosecutors' spokesman Marco Vinicio Blanco said a Baja California state judge cited a lack of evidence in deciding not to hold him in the killing, in which the woman was shot in the head.

U.S. authorities have long suspected Hank Rhon of links to money laundering, but no accusations have been documented. Two of his bodyguards were convicted of killing investigative journalist Hector Felix Miranda in 1988, but they denied the attack was linked to their boss, and no charges were filed against him.

Despite the accusations, Hank Rhon's reputation for generosity won him support in Tijuana.

Bertha Guadalupe Diaz, a 66-year-old street vendor who regularly attends Hank Rhon's massive, free parties on Mother's Day and other holidays, recalled being summoned to City Hall when Hank Rhon learned she couldn't afford a hearing aid. He offered to pay the bill.

"Thanks to him, I hear," she said.

Virginia Mora, 66, said she met Hank Rhon in her hardscrabble neighborhood when he campaigned for mayor and stopped by for two servings of homemade soup. He paid her with a huge delivery of cement and other building materials.

"He likes to help people out, give gifts," said Mora, 66.

___

Associated Press writer Mariana Martinez contributed to this report.

Yahoo! News

Nik Wallenda walks high-wire path that killed great-grandfather

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- It's one thing to defy death as high-wire walker Nik Wallenda routinely does.

That defiance, however, became even more breathtaking Saturday when Wallenda completed the exact 100-foot-high walk that killed his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, who fell to his death in 1978 at age 73.

If that wasn't enough, Nik Wallenda accomplished the 300-foot-long walk along with his mother, Delilah, on the same wire strung between the two towers of the Conrad San Juan Condado Plaza Hotel.

There was no safety net.

Nik Wallenda said he was fearless during the walk.

"I was not scared at all," Wallenda said.

But the circumstances of his great-grandfather's death had haunted him -- until Saturday's successful crossing.

"I started walking a wire when I was 2 years old, and this has been a dream of mine to recreate this walk. I've seen the video played over and over, and it replays in my head constantly. To be able to walk in his exact footsteps is an extremely huge honor, and I did this for him as much as I did it for my family to get some closure too," the great-grandson added.

Nik Wallenda is a seventh-generation performer in the legendary circus family known as The Flying Wallendas. The clan has been doing impressive circus acrobatics and stunts since the 1700s.

"My great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, was my biggest hero in life, my biggest inspiration behind everything I do," he said.

Wallenda, 32, who calls himself "the king of the high-wire," has broken several world records and holds the Guinness Record for crossing the longest and highest high-wire on a bicycle, but Saturday's walk was the biggest of his career, he said.

During the walk, he kneeled and gave a kiss.

"That was to my great-grandfather," he said afterwards.

CNN's Michael Martinez contributed to this story.

CNN

Paraplegic walks at UC Berkeley graduation with help of 'exoskeleton'

(CNN) -- Austin Whitney is walking proof that determination -- combined with creative ingenuity -- can turn a seemingly impossible idea into a reality.

Paralyzed from the waist down since a 2007 drunken driving accident, he had worked hard to graduate on time -- and with honors -- from the University of California at Berkeley.

That was reason enough to celebrate. But nothing compared to how he accepted his diploma on Saturday.

Pressing a button on his walker, Whitney rose to his feet at the commencement ceremony. Then, with the flick of a switch, his legs moved across the stage.

The journey lasted seven steps. Halfway through, he glanced over to the cheering crowd of 15,000 people, who were also on their feet.

"It really was beyond my wildest dreams," Whitney said Sunday night. "I'm still decompressing ... it really was overwhelming."

Whitney was able to move his legs thanks to an "exoskeleton" created by a group of graduate students and Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni.

"They're absolutely amazing," Whitney said of the engineers. "They're my best friends at the university." He has been working with the team for several months.

The project that helped Whitney take his first steps in years dates back to in 2000,when Kazerooni received a grant from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency -- a division of the U.S. Department of Defense -- to make an apparatus that would allow people to carry heavy loads for longer periods of time, according to Berkeley's media relations department. The idea was to help people to trek across rugged or remote terrain for longer periods, such as when military medics carry away an injured soldier or when firefighters trudge up stairs with their equipment.

Four years later, the idea culminated with the unveiling of BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton. The contraption, which has a backpack frame, connects to a person's legs and uses its own power source to move them without putting undue stress on the muscles of the human attached to it.

"We've designed this system to be ergonomic, highly maneuverable and technically robust, so the wearer can walk, squat, bend and swing from side to side without noticeable reductions in agility," Kazerooni said in a Berkeley press release at the time.

The professor said he envisioned bigger plans for his exoskeleton -- helping a person who cannot walk be able to.

While Kazerooni kept perfecting his exoskeleton project, Whitney was a star student at St. Margaret's High School in San Juan Capistrano, California. There, he was active in student government, participated in sports and acted in plays.

Whitney graduated from high school in May 2007 with a 4.0 GPA, sporting a bright smile and seemingly brighter future.

But his life changed two months later, on the night of July 21. After having a few drinks with friends, Whitney got behind the wheel of his car and then got in a horrific crash.

His best friend almost died, with doctors forced to remove his spleen and treat a fractured vertebra in his neck, according to a public letter from St. Margaret's released soon after the crash. Whitney suffered a broken back, and his spinal cord was instantly severed -- rendering him a paraplegic.

"I did it to myself," Whitney said. "I was consumed by self-hatred. But I realized I had two choices: I could live in the past and be filled with self pity ... (or) face the adversity in my life, not let this cover my goals and dreams and aspirations."

He chose the latter. Ten days after being released from the hospital, Whitney began classes at University of California at Santa Barbara. He eventually transferred to Berkeley, where he pursued a double major in political science and history.

Whitney plans to attend law school this fall and hopes to work in the entertainment business one day. But first, he'll start working full time at Kazerooni's lab on Monday.

Whitney met the professor last year after a friend from wheelchair basketball told him about Kazerooni's project. Whitney called Kazerooni, who invited him to his lab.

"It was like stepping onto the set of a sci-fi movie, this lab," Whitney said.

As a student, he became an integral part of the research team, which named a specially-designed exoskeleton "Austin" in honor of its first test subject.

Because others in the lab aren't paralyzed, "there's a lot of things they don't anticipate," Whitney said. "Once I test the system, I give them feedback. It's a very active role."

Kazerooni told the UC Berkeley News Center that exoskeletons currently on the market can cost more than $100,000. He said creating more affordable exoskeletons will enable more people to experience such technology.

Whitney said his type of exoskeleton isn't designed to replace the wheelchair, as it doesn't have the same amount of speed, agility and maneuverability.

"But there are so many health and mental benefits to be able to stand," he said. "I can't tell you what it means to walk across that stage and look the chancellor in the eye or be able to hug my mom while standing up -- that's priceless for me."

In addition to continuing his work with the exoskeleton project, Whitney also plans to continue speaking to high school students across the country about drinking and driving. In the past few years, Whitney said, he's reached about 40,000 students.

Now, he'll be able to tell them about graduating from college and redefining the impossible.

"When I stood up and I took the first few steps ... I felt a rush of memories," Whitney said. "Everything from the worst moments of my life -- the car accident, realizing I wouldn't walk again -- and then the best moments of my life -- being accepted to Berkeley -- and realizing, wow, I'm really here. I really was able to graduate in four years and wow, I'm really here walking, doing something I thought was 'impossible.' I'm much more hesitant to use that word ever again."

CNN's Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

CNN

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Obama Laments Loss of Privacy, Misses Walks and Grocery Shopping

AP

President Obama visits the Lincoln Memorial in Washington April 9.

Being president has plenty of upsides. But President Obama says he misses the way things were. 

"I miss being anonymous," the president said in an interview with Hearst Magazines. 

According to a brief article on the president's comments, Obama said the reason he plays golf so much is not because he's an addict -- it's just "the only excuse I have to get outside for four hours at a stretch." 

He told editors and publishers he enjoys life at the White House but would like to reclaim the days when he could sit in Central Park and "watch folks passing by," presumably without being noticed. 

"I miss Saturday morning, rolling out of bed, not shaving, getting into my car with my girls, driving to the supermarket, squeezing the fruit, getting my car washed, taking walks. I can't take a walk," he said.

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