Stevens denies Blagojevich request for delay
National News
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to delay ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's trial on corruption charges, set to begin next week.
Justice John Paul Stevens rejected Blagojevich's request without comment. His decision came shortly after the Obama administration told the high court that it opposed Blagojevich's request.
The former governor's trial is scheduled to begin on Thursday.
In Chicago, Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky said after hearing about the decision that the former governor's legal team was ready for the trial to get under way.
"We didn't prepare presuming that the Supreme Court would rule in our favor — we prepared for the worst," Sheldon Sorosky said. "The Supreme Court has ruled and that's that."
Blagojevich had asked the high court to delay his trial until the justices rule first in pending cases about the constitutionality of the federal honest-services fraud law. Prosecutors have charged Blagojevich with violating the fraud law and other crimes.
Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said the evidence on the honest services charges "is the same as that underlying the bribery, extortion, and racketeering counts." That means the flow of the trial won't be affected by what the Supreme Court says about the honest services charges, Katyal said in court papers.
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USCIS Will Begin Accepting CW-1 Petitions for Fiscal Year 2019
On April 2, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting petitions under the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)-Only Transitional Worker (CW-1) program subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2019 cap. Employers in the CNMI use the CW-1 program to employ foreign workers who are ineligible for other nonimmigrant worker categories. The cap for CW-1 visas for FY 2019 is 4,999.
For the FY 2019 cap, USCIS encourages employers to file a petition for a CW-1 nonimmigrant worker up to six months in advance of the proposed start date of employment and as early as possible within that timeframe. USCIS will reject a petition if it is filed more than six months in advance. An extension petition may request a start date of Oct. 1, 2018, even if that worker’s current status will not expire by that date.
Since USCIS expects to receive more petitions than the number of CW-1 visas available for FY 2019, USCIS may conduct a lottery to randomly select petitions and associated beneficiaries so that the cap is not exceeded. The lottery would give employers the fairest opportunity to request workers, particularly with the possibility of mail delays from the CNMI.
USCIS will count the total number of beneficiaries in the petitions received after 10 business days to determine if a lottery is needed. If the cap is met after those initial 10 days, a lottery may still need to be conducted with only the petitions received on the last day before the cap was met. USCIS will announce when the cap is met and whether a lottery has been conducted.