Agent, Green Card, Demand for Sex.Seismologists said severe earthquakes are relatively rare around the city and cannot be predicted. But if one were to hit, it could inflict serious damage.

Is the New York Area Overdue for a Major Earthquake?

Seismologists said severe earthquakes are relatively rare around the city and cannot be predicted. But if one were to hit, it could inflict serious damage.

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An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex

By NINA BERNSTEIN

Published: March 21, 2008

No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?

The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price — not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.

green card (WORK) noun [C]
a document giving a foreigner permission to live and work in the United States


staple (WIRE) Show phonetics
noun [C]
1 a short thin piece of wire used to fasten sheets of paper together. It has sharp ends which are pushed through the paper and then bent flat by a special device.


2 a U-shaped piece of metal with sharp ends which is hammered into a surface to hold something, such as a wire fence, in a particular position

staple Show phonetics
verb [T]
Would you mind stapling the reports together?

stapler Show phonetics
noun [C]
a small device which you can hold in your hand or use on a table to push staples through pieces of paper



brush (TOUCH) Show phonetics
verb
1 [I + adverb or preposition; T] to touch (something) quickly and lightly or carelessly:
Charlotte brushed against him (= touched him quickly and lightly with her arm or body) as she left the room.
His lips gently brushed her cheek and he was gone.

2 [T + adverb or preposition] to move something somewhere using a brush or your hand:
Jackie brushed the hair out of her eyes.
He brushed away a tear.
She stood up and brushed the wrinkles from her dress.

brush Show phonetics
noun [C usually singular]
1 a brief light touch:
He felt the brush of her hand on his.

2 a brush with sth when you experience something, or almost experience something, especially something unpleasant:
Jim had a brush with death (= was nearly killed) on the motorway.

overdue, summons