|
|
|
7/31/06 All-day kindergarten has created some big headaches. Schools are hustling to find enough teachers and enough space to hold classes. Some districts are so cramped they're expanding all-day kindergarten to only a few schools this year. Parents are not happy after at least one large district warned parents that all-day kindergarten may not be fully available until 2008. The schools feeling the pressure are those in fast-growing areas that are already crowded. They need twice the kindergarten rooms because they can no longer use the same room for morning and afternoon classes. Arizona is shelling out 118 (m) million dollars this year toward all-day kindergarten, up from last year's 38 (m) million.
7/22/06 A new study headed by a University of Arizona dean says medication errors are injuring at least one and a-half (m) million Americans each year. The study also says that every hospital patient is exposed to at least one medication error a day. And it says when an error occurs, it adds six-thousand dollars on average to a patient's hospital bill. The head of the study, Lyle Bootman, says the "the good news is, all of these types of injuries are preventable, using different strategies." One of the report's top recommendations is for all prescriptions to be written and transmitted electronically, to eliminate illegible handwriting and signal potential drug reactions. Bootman is the dean of pharmacy at the U-of-A and chairman of the committee that produced the report for the national Institute of Medicine.
7/21/06 Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has announced that there are approximately 1,200 National Guard Troops now deployed along the Arizona-Mexico border, and that the figure is expected to rise to 2,000 within a few weeks. Up to 2,400 troops of the 6,000 to be deployed along the border with Mexico will be in Arizona. Napolitano also says approximately two-thirds of the states have now signed agreements to participate in the National Guard deployment authorized by President Bush. The National Guard troops are being used in support roles with the Border Patrol and not in direct enforcement against illegal immigration or smuggling contraband.
7/21/06 A 76-year-old retired Eden man was found not guilty, Thursday evening, of growing marijuana along the Gila River in Eden. Bill Hawkins Sr., and his son Kirt Douglas Hawkins, 36, were arrested in September of 2005, by the Graham County Narcotics Task Force when they discovered three marijuana fields growing in the Eden area. Since the arrests, Kirt Douglas Hawkins has been tried and was convicted of drug possession and sent to prison. After months of plea bargaining, Bill Hawkins Sr. was charged with three felonies: Possession of Marijuana – a Class 4 Felony, Possession of Marijuana for Sale, a Class 2-felony, and Production of Marijuana or growing marijuana, a Class 3-felony. After hearing three days of testimony, a jury of eight found Bill Hawkins Sr. Not Guilty of the three felonies. Hawkins attorney, John Kaufmann, of Tucson said, when asked about the verdict said, “It was justified by the evidence”.
7/21/06 A Cochise County grand jury has refused to indict a Willcox man who shot a 14-year-old girl in the back, February 18th, during what was called a "ding-dong ditch" at the man's home. The victim, Kayla Shores, and her three friends had banged several times on the man's windows, and Kayla was shot with a .45-caliber hand gun as the four were running from the house. Kayla was taken to Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox where doctors discovered that she had been shot with a hand gun. She was then flown to University Medical Center in Tucson where she underwent emergency four-and-one-half hours of surgery to repair her intestines, remove 9-inches of her colon, and remove her appendix. Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer says the grand jury probably felt there was a self-defense issue, although he says it's hard to imagine that between an armed man and an unarmed teenage girl.
7/20/06 The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to reclassify the Gila trout in southern New Mexico and eastern Arizona from being endangered to threatened. The change takes effect August 17th and will allow for limited recreational fishing. Fish and wildlife agencies in Arizona and New Mexico will be able to develop opportunities for fishing Gila trout in areas that will not compromise recovery of the fish. The fish was first declared an endangered species in 1966. At the time, its range had been reduced to four streams within the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. Through recovery efforts, there are now Gila trout in Sierra, Grant and Catron counties in New Mexico and in Gila and Greenlee counties in Arizona.
7/20/06 The Arizona Attorney General's Office is warning senior citizens about telephone scams designed to get personal information by offering new Medicare services. Attorney General Terry Goddard's office began fielding complaints last week about phone callers claiming to be with Medicare, as well as a similar ruse involving callers claiming to be from the "National Medical Office." In both scams, callers told intended victims that their Medicare cards no longer are valid and offered them new cards for a "low-income discount," Esquer said. In some cases, callers threatened seniors by telling them they would lose their Medicare benefits if they didn't provide information such as date of birth and bank account numbers.
7/20/06 State health officials are stepping up prevention efforts as supergerms that resist antibiotics are spreading in Arizona. Doctors are urging patients to take extra precautions against spreading hard-to-treat infections, especially staph infections that break out in the skin but can spread to other parts of the body. It's not known if any deaths from superbacteria have occurred in the state since officials are tracking only the numbers of cases, not outcomes. The worst supergerm worrying infectious-disease doctors is M-R-S-A. Its symptoms can range from skin boils to necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria.
7/19/06 Six out of seven members of the Safford City Council, including Democratic Mayor Ron Green have individually declared their endorsement of Senator John Kyl’s re-election to the U.S. Senate, according to a press release from Senator Kyl’s camp. “We were very grateful for Kyl’s effective leadership in Arizona. He has helped secure much needed funding for Safford so our economy can continue to grow and our community can prosper. Senator Kyl cares about rural Arizona and has always responded to the needs of the Safford community,” said Safford Mayor Ron Green. The Safford Council also praised Senator Kyl for working to secure much needed funding for the Safford Bridge, while fighting for a change in the formula to secure Arizona a fairer share of wastewater treatment funds.
7/19/06 After more than 50 congressional hearings on immigration, lawmakers in Washington complained Tuesday about the prospect of even more hearings in a House-Senate standoff over how to deter illegal immigrants. House Republicans have called for six more hearings this month - and possibly more in August. The hearings began after the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill offering a chance at citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. The latest round of hearings has been criticized as a political maneuver to delay immigration legislation and to help Republican candidates in an election year.
7/19/06 Graham County Deputies and Safford Police were notified by Border Patrol, Monday night, that they were in hot pursuit of a Ford pick up, suspected of carrying at least 10 illegal immigrants, traveling North on Highway 191 into Graham County. Traveling at speeds of around 90-MPH, Border Patrol Agents radioed ahead to local officers and asked them to set up “stop sticks” to puncture the Ford’s tires and stop the speeding vehicle. Safford Officers set up speed sticks at the intersection of 32nd Street and 191, and waited for the vehicle. Apparently, when the driver of the fleeing pick up, coming into Safford, saw the officers at the intersection, he stopped the truck in the middle of Highway 191, in front of the National Guard Armory and all 10 illegals bailed out and fled west toward the Clay Knolls area, leaving the truck in the middle of the road. The Border Patrol arrived and began searching the area with K-9 units. All 10 illegal immigrants were located, detained, and taken to Willcox to be processed.
7/19/06 A female Sedona attorney has announced that she is throwing her hat into the political arena to challenge Republican Congressman Rick Renzi for the District #1 Congressional seat. Ellen Simon has jumped into the race with $275,000 of her own money to challenge Renzi and has attracted an additional $225,000 in contributions in just two months. According to the Arizona Republic, Simon’s political prowness signals that Renzi once again faces an expensive race in the rural 1st Congressional District which includes Graham and Greenlee Counties. Until moving to Arizona six years ago, Simon was an Ohio lawyer who won employee-protection cases and lawsuits against nursing homes’ abuse of the elderly. She was the president of the Cleveland-area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. According to the Republic, Renzi spent a total of $3.9-million in his two previous campaigns, and is still owed nearly $400,000 he loaned to the first campaign.
7/18/06 A panel of legal experts says the death penalty in Arizona should be made more fair. The panel was organized by the American Bar Association. It says the state should take steps that would give a prosecutors council or another statewide organization the final say whether to seek the death penalty in any case that might merit it. The panel also says Arizona should ensure that all indigent defendants get competent lawyers. Also, that it routinely conduct legal reviews of whether death sentences are imposed proportionately and provide new oversight and funding of crime labs and medical examiners.
7/18/06 About 200 members of the 252nd Combined Arms Battalion of the North Carolina National Guard have taken up positions and training in Southeastern Arizona. The Guardsmen, who are based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, arrived in Arizona on Saturday and will patrol along the Arizona-Mexico border until August 5th. The National Guard had been scheduled to patrol along the Mexican border in New Mexico, but those plans were changed when officials decided that there were enough resources in New Mexico. On Saturday, the troops filled out paper work, conducted drills, received medical checks, reviewed their wills and fired their M-16 rifles. Staff Sgt. David Spaulding said he doesn’t mind pulling a two-week stint patrolling the Mexican border. Compared to a Middle East war, Spaulding said other missions seem easy.
7/18/06 The Arizona Department of Agriculture began spraying an insecticide, Monday, in the Sierra Vista area for the Glassy-winged sharpshooter – an insect pest that is threatening the multi-million dollar wine growing industry in Southeastern Arizona. State agriculture officials have now trapped more that 100 glassy-winged sharpshooters in the last month. So far, Sierra Vista is the only area of the state where the glassy-winged sharpshooter has been found. Officials suspect that the pest was brought into the area from a nursery in California. Governor Janet Napolitano has declared a state of emergency and allocated $200,000 toward the monitoring and eradication of the sharpshooter. State agriculture officials estimate that they will need $700,000 to control the bugs. The flying insect first showed up in Sierra Vista late last summer when two adults were discovered on sticky traps that were intended for white flies. The glassy-winged sharpshooter spreads Pierce’s Disease, a pathogen that also kills Oleanders, nut trees, and other plants.
7/17/06 Safford Police and a Graham County Deputy were dispatched to 1705 2nd Avenue in Safford, in reference to a man who being violent in his parents house. At around 5:50am, Friday morning, the officers spoke to Pat Cervantez who stated that her husband was forceably holding her son down on his bed because they felt he was on drugs. When the officers entered the bedroom they found Joe Cervantez holding his son Bryan on the bed. Bryan was incoherent and could not speak clearly. Bryan’s mother, Pat said that Bryan had been acting violently and was very paranoid. She stated that he had three heart surgeries in the past and she was concerned for his health. An ambulance was called and Bryan was taken to the Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center. While in the bedroom, the officers noticed a crystalin substance on the night stand next to the bed. A crystalin substance was also found on the dresser. Several rounds of 9-mm ammunition were also found around the room and the deputy later found a 9-mm pistol and a loaded magazine under the mattress. During a search of the bedroom, the officers also found a digital scale, a glass pipe, and 4 green seals used to hold a quantity of drugs. The crystalin substance later tested positive as methamphetamine. Due to Bryan’s medical condition, he was not arrested. The case was turned over to the County Attorney’s Office.
7/17/06 A teenager who ran away from a VisionQuest facility in Elfrida was arrested after he returned with a shotgun and fired it into the air. Seventeen-year-old John Gatlin was booked into the Cochise County juvenile detention center on suspicion of assault, burglary, theft and criminal damage. No injuries were reported. A Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman says Gatlin told police he got the shotgun from the room of a VisionQuest employee. The unidentified employee was fired. VisionQuest is a program for juvenile delinquents that is an alternative to incarceration. The incident occurred last Tuesday night when the Sheriff's Department received word that Gatlin had left the facility without permission.
7/15/06 Safford police say a man charged with beating a three-year-old girl actually videotaped some of the incidents. Thirty-four-year-old Dustin Draper was arrested last Saturday after the child's mother watched the tapes and called police. Draper had been living with the child's mother, but split up with her after an argument last Friday. Police reports say the woman discovered the video after finding Draper's camera in one of her bags. Investigative reports say that in the video, a man hits the child over the head with a plastic container and yanks her hair. He also slaps her several times. After hitting her, the man cusses the kid out. The girl told her mother recently that Draper hurts her and she would get scared when he entered the room
7/14/06
It might be time to have another blood drive in the Gila
Valley. The Red Cross has put out a call for blood donors in
Arizona. It says it has only a four-hour supply of type O negative blood, a 15-hour supply of B negative and a 23-hour supply of O positive for the 22 hospitals it serves in Arizona. Some hospitals this week reportedly have started to reschedule elective surgeries, saving their blood supply for emergencies only. Blood centers in Tucson will have extended hours for the next several days to help boost supplies. The Red Cross is urging all eligible donors to make an appointment at a donor center or a mobile blood drive. Blood donors must be at least 17 years old, weigh 110 pounds or more and be in general good health.
7/14/06
A mapmaking unit from the Alabama National Guard will be sent to
the Arizona-Mexico border just to make sure that everyone knows where
the border is. According to the Pentagon,
the last time anyone checked where the border really was, was 150-years ago.
Accurate border maps will help U.S. government agents find their way around
rugged terrain and show where the territory they are patrolling ends and where
Mexico begins. According to Lt. General Steven Blum,
head of the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau, “There’s part of that border that
are very, very, poorly marked and very difficult to discern when you’re in the
United States or when you’re in Mexico. The 1203rd
Engineering Battalion of the Alabama National Guard can go down there and
actually chart and map the borders in areas where it’s contentious or it could
be misinterpreted.” Critics of the mapping detail
say that it’s a waste of money. Most Border Patrol
agents in the field rely on knowledge of their patrol area and high-tech
global-positioning satellite systems, not maps.
Details of the National Guard assignment are still being worked out. The
National Guard deployment of 6,000 troops to the United States Southwestern
Border with Mexico is scheduled to end in 2008. The cost is estimated at around
1.9-billion dollars.
7/14/06
A Sierra Vista man who allegedly robbed the Bank of America in
Sierra Vista on June 30th, was arrested Wednesday morning during a
traffic stop. Jeremiah Paul Jackson, 39,
allegedly walked into the bank at around 5:22pm, on June 30th, and quietly
handed the teller a note and walked out with around $2,000, according to a
Sierra Vista Police spokesperson. “Various witnesses
and sources have indicated his involvement in the crime, as well as having seen
him in the bank,” said Detective Sean Brownson of the Sierra Vista Police
Department. Police had an idea who the bank robber
was and found out that Jackson had an extraditable warrant for driving with a
revoked license from Pima County. Officers performed
a “high risk” traffic stop with guns drawn at around 9:00am on the northeast
side of Sierra Vista. Jackson was taken into custody without incident.
Sierra Vista police continue to investigate if anyone else was involved in the
robbery. Jackson was booked into the Cochise County Jail and charged with
robbery and driving on a revoked license. Bond was set at $100,000.
7/14/06
Are you planning a camping trip into the wilds of Eastern
Arizona? A new pack of Mexican gray wolves
is now roaming the Apache National Forest. The
Arizona Game and Fish Department says they brought a male, female and two
three-month-old pups last week to a temporary holding pen about ten miles
southwest of Alpine. Department officials who are
tracking the animals say the wolves have since left the pen and appear to be
doing well on their own. The pack joins nine others
in eastern Arizona and New Mexico. The department hopes to slowly increase the
population of Mexican gray wolves in that region from 24 to 100.
7/12/06
Securities regulators are warning people to be wary of a new
investment scam that uses phony government agency Web sites.
The National Association of Securities Dealers, the brokerage industry’s
self-policing organization, issued an investor alert, Tuesday, regarding Web
sites using –gov.us in the address, resembling the .gov.xx address of official
government sites outside the U.S. The scam, through
e-mail and faxes, mainly targets people outside the U.S, with investment pitches
meant to get them to send money in advance of services rendered, the NASD said.
The unsolicited pitch for stocks or other investments typically ends by sending
the consumer to a fake government regulators Web site.
In addition, the phony Web sites may use cookies – data files that allow a site
to track visitors electronically – to gather personal information.
In the U.S., all federal agencies’ Web sites have addresses ending with .gov.
The NASD said it is aware of at least three phony Web sites using the scheme.
Central Registry Regulators, which claims that the agency “administers and
enforces the federal securities laws in order to protect investors and to
maintain fair, honest, and efficient markets”, which is phony.
The National Mergers and Acquisitions Board, which claims to oversee,
administer, and enforce the federal securities laws relating to corporate
mergers and acquisitions, and the Board of Commissioners of Mergers and
Acquisitions, which claims the same thing, are all phony Web sites.
7/12/06
Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Agencies are crediting a
steady increase in National Guard troops and federal agents to the
increase of drug seizures along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Also being credited with more drug seizures is the improved surveillance
technologies and a shift toward seamless multi-agency interdiction strategies.
Officials feel that Mexican smuggling operations are moving larger quantities of
illegal drugs into the U.S. in an attempt to get them over the border before the
surveillance gets more difficult. As of July 5th,
Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agents have seized 543,740-pounds of drugs – up
11-percent from the total seized in 2005. New camera
systems have been pointed at the border to help “free up” agents to be more
mobile. According to DEA spokesperson, Ramona
Sanchez, in Phoenix, “If drug smugglers think the National Guard is coming to
the border, I would think that they would try to shotgun their loads. They’ll
get desperate and try to move larger loads across the border before this takes
effect.”
7/12/06
After 10-years, a man who was linked to the strangulation death
of an 85-year-old Willcox woman by DNA evidence, was sentenced Monday in
a Cochise County courtroom to 22-years in prison.
Alejandro Gutierrez, 48, entered a plea of no contest to the second degree
murder charge on May 22nd, as a part of a plea agreement with the state.
Gutierrez was incarcerated in the Arizona State Prison on an unrelated charge
when a DNA test turned up a “cold hit” showing that his DNA matched blood stains
found on Bessie Graham’s bedding and under her fingernails.
Graham was found dead in her home by her son on July 5, 1996, in Willcox. An
autopsy concluded that the 85-pound woman had been severely beaten and died of
asphyxia due to strangulation. Gutierrez was
sentenced to 22-years in prison, the maximum allowed by law and will begin
serving his sentence in 2011, after he completes his term for burglary and
attempted kidnapping. Gutierrez was born in San
Bernardino, California, and was raised in Willcox. According to court records,
Gutierrez now has five felony and 17 misdemeanor convictions to his record.
Although he graduated from high school, Gutierrez can neither read or write.
7/12/06
Phelps Dodge is moving ahead with plans to open the first major
U-S copper mine in decades. The copper giant
received the final permit it needs to begin mining north of Safford.
The air quality permit from the state clears the way for a half (b) billion
dollar construction project for a mine that will be able to produce 120-thousand
tons of copper a year by the second half of 2008.
Copper prices are at near records. The anticipated Safford production would
yield 880 (m) million dollars a year at Monday's spot closing price of three
dollars and 67-cents a pound. The company says up to
one-thousand construction workers will be needed at the peak of the building
project. After that, about 400 full-time workers and
100 more contract workers will operate the mine and processing plants.
7/11/06
Inmates in State Prisons have always provided cheap labor while
locked up, but these days, they're jobs have become more varied.
By working, inmates are actually paying for part of the cost of their
incarceration and training. On a typical day, about
six percent of Arizona's 34-thousand inmates are working for Arizona
Correctional Industries. They work at call centers, build furniture, make
skylights and tend chickens at a private farm. They
still make license plates, but they also make purses from old license plates.
In fiscal year 2005, sales of products made by inmates reached a record-high of
25-point-six (m) million dollars. That's also a 28 percent increase from 2004.
Statewide, about 16-thousand inmates completed a training class and seven
thousand earned professional certificates last year.
7/11/06
A female endangered Mexican gray wolf targeted by the U-S Fish
and Wildlife Service for permanent removal from the wild has been
killed. Officials were seeking to remove the
male and female that made up the Nantac pack because the animals had been
involved in the killing of at least five cows. The
male was killed in June by the wolf recovery team. The female was shot Thursday.
The Fish and Wildlife Service began releasing wolves into the wild on the
Arizona-New Mexico border in 1998 to re-establish the species in part of its
historic range. A Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman says
a male and female -- known as the Meridian pack -- were released in southeastern
Arizona Thursday.
7/11/06
Statewide initiative campaigns each have raised between
200-thousand and two-point-two (m) million dollars. Nearly all the
campaigns have some funding from donors outside the state.
That includes the East Coast-based Farm Sanctuary and Humane Society of the
United States. Those groups have given at least 325-thousand dollars to an
initiative to make the life of veal calves and pregnant pigs more humane.
An Illinois-based organization has given 650-thousand dollars since June to
strengthen private-property rights. RJ Reynolds
Tobacco Company also has been a big spender, giving at least 193-thousand
dollars to fund a proposed smoking ban that would exempt bars, tobacco shops and
other locations in specific instances. The
initiative campaign to raise the most money is First Things First for Arizona's
Children, which has gathered two-point-two (m) million dollars. The measure
would add a tobacco tax to raise money for early childhood education.
7/11/06
An increase in federal agents and high-tech tools have led to a
significant surge in drug seizures along the Arizona-Mexico border.
More than 543-thousand pounds of drugs were seized in the U-S Border Patrol's
Tucson sector through July fifth. That's an eleven percent increase from the
nearly 490-thousand pounds seized in fiscal year 2005.
Over the last three years, the Border Patrol has stepped up its presence on the
border with more agents. Officials say the Tucson
sector has a total of about 25-hundred agents. And
with thousands of National Guard troops slated to assist border agents,
officials say Mexican smuggling organizations are likely mounting an effort to
move as many drug loads as possible across the border before it gets more
difficult. Officials also are noticing that drug
smugglers are shifting territories in response to the agent increase.
7/11/06
One U-of-A researcher is calling it something akin to the "holy
grail for weather forecasting." He's talking
about a high-resolution computerized weather model that predicts the locations
and times of thunderstorms. U-of-A researcher Mike
Leuthold has been working in his free time to make the program specific to
southern Arizona. Officials could use the model to
predict where flash flooding or dust storms are likely to occur, allowing them
to close roads before a storm hits. The program was
invented by a team of scientists spanning several government agencies. It models
weather patterns in great detail through three-dimensional images and is used
across the country.
7/11/06
Every church worships in their own unique way. But what about a
church whose members deify and use marijuana as part of their faith?
The Church of Cognizance has been in Pima, West of Thatcher, since 1991. Until
recently, they smoked, ate or drank marijuana daily as a way of becoming more
spiritually enlightened. That was until federal
authorities charged them with possessing 172 pounds of their leafy green
sacrament earlier this year. And now, church
founders Dan and Mary Quaintance face added conspiracy charges and up to 40
years each in prison in a case they call religious persecution.
The couple is scheduled to go on trial in Las Cruces, New Mexico on July 18th,
though defense lawyers are asking for a delay.
Church leaders say they have 72 monasteries located in members' homes nationwide
and have a simple motto. That motto - "With good thoughts, good words and good
deeds, we honor marijuana; as the teacher, the provider, the protector."
7/08/06
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is recovering at home after a
fall from a horse, Tuesday. Dever was lined
up on horse-back to participate in a Fourth of July parade in Bisbee, when his
horse was spooked and it threw him to the ground, according to a Cochise County
Sheriff’s spokesperson. Luckly, Dever landed in an
area that was not paved but he still received several broken ribs and bruises.
Officials do not know what spooked the horse and do not know when Dever would be
back to work.
7/08/06
Arizona's Attorney General has filed consumer fraud lawsuits
against AutoZone and Wal-Mart - two retail outlet chains that have
stores in Safford. Attorney General Terry
Goddard accuses the retailing giants of overcharging customers and failing to
post prices. Goddard says both retailers were
repeatedly cited by the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures for
discrepancies between what price tags said and what customers were actually
charged. A Wal-Mart spokesman says he hadn't read
the lawsuit but acknowledged that the company has had problems with posting
accurate prices. He said the company would work with the A-G's office to fix the
problem. Officials with Memphis-based AutoZone did
not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
7/08/06
Scottsdale may be thanking its lucky stars soon.
It's close to unloading the Planet Ranch. Phelps
Dodge Corporation has agreed to pay nearly 25 (m) million dollars in cash and
water. The deal allows P-D to create a wildlife
habitat at the 83-hundred acre western Arizona spread.
In 1984, Scottsdale bought the ranch for just over eleven (m) million dollars in
hopes of securing water rights. Soon after, the
Legislature restricted the ability of cities to import water from rural
counties. Under the deal, Phelps Dodge will pay
Scottsdale 12 (m) million and give the city 50-thousand acre-feet of surface
water credits worth over 12 and a-half (m) million dollars.
7/07/06
Parched Arizona is getting some relief with the arrival of the
monsoon. The arrival of the summer rainy
season should reduce the extreme wildfire danger that has haunted fire officials
for months. Earlier in the year, experts warned that
Arizona faced months of extreme fire danger and that this could be one of the
worst years in terms of wildfires. But there have
been few major fires. And for the next three months, desert heat should suck
damp air into the state from the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of
California. The increased humidity will decrease the
fire risk. And instead of zapping the ground only with dry lightning, summer
thunderstorms should now bring rain. So, Hotshot
crews, helicopters and air-tankers are being pulled from Arizona and sent to
other parts of the country where they're needed more.
7/07/06
Governor Napolitano says she's pleased by progress made in deploying
National Guard troops along the U-S-Mexico border to free up Border
Patrol agents to apprehend illegal crossers.
The federal government fell short of its goal of having 25-hundred Guard
soldiers deployed by last Friday but Napolitano is looking on the bright side.
She says Arizona now has more than 300 National Guard soldiers deployed on the
border and that they're being joined by personnel from other states.
She says it's only natural that Guard deployments take time because the
part-time soldiers have other jobs and in some cases different plans for their
annual training.
7/07/06
A study in the Two and a-half miles of Minuteman fencing completed The
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says two and a-half miles of border
fencing along one Southeastern Arizona ranch has been completed.
The border watchers say they plan to build a stronger security fence several
miles east. A spokeswoman for the group says
construction of vehicle barriers will start soon on the first fence project.
An 800-foot section of the five-strand barbed wire fencing constructed on a
ranch owned by Jack Ladd and his son had to be restrung after vandals cut the
wire. After construction began on Memorial Day
weekend and continued for a few weeks, organizers decided to switch to a
contractor to complete the job.
7/06/06
………..ON THE MEDICAL FRONT………….
A study in the Wednesday Journal of the American Medical Association
reports that healthy adults taking maximum doses of Tylenol are at risk
of developing liver damage. In the Chicago
study, 106 participants took 4-grams of Tylenol, the equivalent to eight
extra-strength Tylenol tablets, each day for two weeks. Some took Tylenol alone
and some took it with an opioid painkiller. Dummy pills were given to 39 others.
Nearly 40-percent of people in the Tylenol and Tylenol with opioids had abnormal
test results that would signal liver damage. Those who took the placebos showed
no liver test changes. Dr. Neil Kaplowitz, a
co-author of the study from the University of Southern California said after the
test results, “ I would urge the public not to exceed 4-grams a day. This is a
drug that has a rather narrow safety window.”
7/06/06
A 64-year-old man is in custody in Sierra Vista, accused of
allegedly robbing the Stockmen’s Bank on Monday, of an undisclosed
amount of money. Joseph R. Dennis is being
held on a $20,000 bond in the Cochise County Jail, after the Sierra Vista
resident apparently attempted to disguise his looks, by shaving off his beard,
according to Sierra Vista Police. At around 9:40am,
Monday, police were notified that the Sierra Vista Stockmen’s Bank had been
robbed. Witnesses were able to describe the robber
and identify his car and license plate number. Sierra Vista police went to
Dennis’ home and arrested him for bank robbery.
Another robber got away with approximately $2,000, Friday afternoon when he hit
the Sierra Vista Bank of America slightly after 5:00pm., June 30th.
The man, who looked in his mid-20’s and possibly Jamaican, is still being sought
by Sierra Vista Police.
7/01/06
Ranchers in Cochise County on the Mexico border are being
warned that any fences built on their land must comply with county
zoning rules. The Cochise County Planning
Department is responding to a plan by the Minuteman Project to construct a
border fence on private land near Naco. Last week,
the Minutemen said they would begin building an Israel-style security fence at
an Arizona ranch in early July. Planning director Judy Anderson says the fence
needs to meets county fencing requirements. Her
office is contacting ranchers to gather details on the fence, such as height,
materials, and intended use. Al Garza is the
national executive director of the Minutemen and says the county is using a
scare tactic and that the fence-building will move forward as planned.
Garza says if necessary, his group will petition the county for a permit to
build the Israeli-style barrier - a design featuring two parallel 12- to 15-foot
fences flanked by anti-vehicle ditches and eight feet of concertina wire.
7/01/06
A new drug that could help patients at risk of going blind
will now go on sale in the U-S. But it won't be cheap. Lucentis treats
the most common form of a disorder that causes vision loss called
macular degeneration and often leads to blindness in older folks. It's
the only drug shown to significantly reverse failing vision.
But it's got an eye-popping price tag. A dose is expected to cost around
two-thousand dollars. The company making Lucentis
also manufacturers another drug increasingly used to treat macular degeneration.
It goes for as little as 17 dollars a treatment. But it's a cancer drug that's
not officially sanctioned for vision use, though more doctors are trying it in
their patients.
|
|
|
|
