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Ariz. killings highlight risk of fringe activists
The Associated Press | June 19, 2009
PHOENIX (AP) – The tagline on Shawna Forde's anti-illegal immigration Web site says her group was "doing the job our government won't do." They wanted to patrol the border, but her small band of activists needed money to do it.
So, authorities say, Forde and two men dressed up as Border Patrol agents and broke into the southern Arizona home of a man they thought was a drug dealer, hunting for money or drugs to sell. They found neither, but killed the man and his 9-year-old daughter.
The May 30 killings rocked an anti-illegal immigration movement that prides itself on being vocal but not violent, and added to a growing list of activists accused of using violence to advance their aims.
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Low-priced foreclosures incite bidding wars
The Associated Press | July 20, 2009
PHOENIX - Each time Lance and Kelli Thorson thought they had found their first home, someone would outbid them. It's already happened at least 15 times.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be in a depressed housing market like Phoenix. Buyers are supposed to be able to walk in, and get pretty much whatever they want. Now, the Thorsons have taken up a tactic not seen since the heydays of the housing bubble — they are making offers on homes before they've seen them, as many as three per day.
"It's frustrating because we've jumped through all the hoops and there still isn't a reward," Kelli Thorson said.
In Phoenix suburbs and other areas of the nation saturated with foreclosed homes, low prices for bank-owned properties are sparking bidding wars that drive up sale prices, entice investors and frustrate traditional buyers who make dozens of offers and still can't land a home.
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Budget woes, recession challenge day-labor centers
The Associated Press | Aug. 2, 2009
PHOENIX (AP) - Until a day-labor center opened nearby, jobseekers in Keenan Strand's north Phoenix neighborhood used to drink from people's hoses, urinate on walls and duck behind bushes to escape triple-digit heat while waiting for work.
But the economic downturn is threatening the 6-year-old day-labor center and others like it around the country, leaving some advocates concerned that job seekers will return to neighborhoods and street corners in search of work.
"We supported it because it brought order to the neighborhood," said Strand, president of the neighborhood association. "Until the federal government does something about immigration, this was our neighborhood solution."
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AP Newsbreak: Ariz. suspends use of outdoor cells
The Associated Press | May 29, 2009
PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona's prisons director has suspended the use of all outdoor holding cells while crews retrofit them to provide shade and water in the wake of an inmate's heat-related death.
Marcia Powell, 48, died last week after being left in an unshaded enclosure on a day when temperatures topped 100 degrees.
Prisons spokesman Barrett Marson told The Associated Press on Friday that workers have already begun retrofitting 233 outdoor cells at 10 state prisons. He was unsure how long it would take.
State treasurer fine being 'the herald of bad news'
Cronkite News Service | April 1, 2009
PHOENIX - Reporters are assembling to hear State Treasurer Dean Martin announce that Arizona's cash-strapped government will have to borrow money for the first time since World War II.
Aides scurry to finalize numbers on handouts, translate information for Spanish-language media and locate a podium for the news conference.
Martin is in his office, connecting printouts into a large display showing the general fund's daily balance. He'll use it to illustrate how a scheduled payment to schools would push the state's finances into the red.
He has no one to assemble the chart for him. Martin said he cut an assistant's position almost a year ago to use the money elsewhere due to the bleak budget situation.
Martin is Arizona's banker, keeping track of billions flowing through state accounts. In these tough economic times, he has turned what was once a little-noticed office into a megaphone for sharing grim information that he says politicians and the public need to hear.
But he doesn't mind being what he called the "herald of bad news," even if it costs him another term.
"I'd make a whole lot more money if I ever lost an election. That's why it doesn't bother me to go out and tell the truth. That's my job."
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Surge in rabies cases prompts pet quarantine in Flagstaff
Cronkite News Service | April 8, 2009
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Matthew Harrison’s two dogs love to run in the forest outside his home. But on this day they are in a fenced dog park, and their romps among the pines are out for now.
Citing a sharp increase in rabies cases, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors this week approved a three-month quarantine for dogs and cats across much of Flagstaff.
Pets must be kept on leashes or confined to enclosed areas.Harrison said he understands the need to protect pets and people from rabies, but he wishes there were a less-onerous way to do it.
“It seems like they might be able to do things in a way that wouldn’t have quite the impact on pets,” he said. “It’s not rocket science.”
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Embattled ex-resource officer no longer able to serve in Ariz.
The Arizona Republic| Sept. 24, 2008
For four years, Brad Donahue was a trusted figure at Avondale's Westview High School.
But for most of that time, officials said the then-Avondale Police Department's school-resource detective was stashing confiscated drugs instead of investigating, documenting and impounding them as evidence.
Now, Donahue can never serve in the state.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board last week revoked Donahue's certification.
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Driver killed, but his truck shielded bus
The Arizona Republic | Oct. 3, 2008
For miles, Daniel Powell steered his empty cement truck behind a school bus, patiently waiting as the bus stopped to pick up students along a meandering western Arizona highway.
He never tried to pass the bus. Instead, he stopped at every bus stop and left a wide cushion between his truck and the school bus.
But the Goodyear man's caution put him directly in the path of a tractor-trailer coming up from behind and, his family says, likely saved the lives of the students on the bus.
"I'm a Christian person, and he was put there for a reason. And that reason was to save the lives of the children on that bus," said Jim Luesner, Powell's father-in-law.
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Switch to digital may clog landfills
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
| May 27, 2008
WASHINGTON — The switch from analog to digital television in February could bring problems beyond new costs to consumers: clogged landfills and pollution from old televisions.
Consumers expect to dispose of 43.5 million television sets by the end of this year and nearly 120 million through 2010, according to a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents manufacturers.
The deluge of garbage has prompted a handful of states to consider legislation to deal with the hazardous byproducts, and Congress is starting to get into the act by considering federal legislation to address the problem.
The cast-off of outmoded televisions already has begun with the arrival of high-definition and flat-screen TVs. Some of the old televisions go to friends, charities and online auction sites. But many will end up in landfills, where lead, mercury and other hazardous materials can leach into soil and groundwater. Last year, consumers trashed 14.1 million TV sets, according to the industry group.
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