East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, ScottsdaleA half-dozen legislative candidates who knocked off Republican incumbents in September's primary election have two little-known political operatives from the East Valley to thank. Now, as those new lawmakers prepare to take their seats when the Legislature convenes in January, the two operatives are at the center of state investigations into possible voter disenfranchisement and violation of campaign finance laws. One of the new lawmakers could even face removal from office if found to have broken campaign laws. Constantin Querard and Chris Baker arguably affected the political bent of the next Legislature more than any other political figures. About half of their staunchly conservative candidates trounced moderate Republicans — lawmakers who had rebelled against GOP leadership to pass a budget written largely by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. As a result, this Legislature will be one of the most conservative in recent years, which means tax cuts, restricting access to abortion and immigration-related policies will get a higher priority. Querard and Baker helped to craft themes about low taxation, responsible education spending and immigration control that were repeated from campaign to campaign. But some losing candidates as well as Republican officials see Querard and Baker as shadowy conspirators willing to bend or break state election laws to win. They say the pair manipulated campaign records and hid expenditures to help their candidates win in tough races.
deseretnews.com | Folks in Arizona not bowl savvy PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — After a 14-month hiatus, the Rock Report was rolling — soaring, actually — right up until the security guard at Paradise Valley Mall said, "Sir. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." It lost steam after that. "I'm not selling anything. I'm conducting a poll for the newspaper in Salt Lake," the Rock Report explained. Pretty soon another security officer arrived. A regular Welcome Wagon. They whispered a minute. "I'm sorry. You're going to have to leave. It's policy," the first guard continued. "No news media allowed unless it's cleared by the management." The Rock Report is pretty sure he was lying but wasn't interested in finding out if mall security had a policy of conducting body cavity searches, too. The purpose of the latest Rock Report was to determine exactly how up to speed Arizonans are on the Utes and their bid to win the Fiesta Bowl. Answer: Not very. Unless Keith Urban actually is the coach, Joseph Smith the quarterback and Mele Kalikimaka the right guard. "What's the name of that team again?" said Elizabeth, of Phoenix. The Rock Report, by way of explanation, is a highly respected if somewhat unscientific poll. It normally involves interviewing 10 people on a given subject. Thanks to the security staff at Paradise Valley Mall, this time the poll included just seven.
Regents could set tuition by major | The Arizona Daily Star �: Arizona's university students will be paying more in tuition next year, but how much will depend on a variety of factors, including their institution and possibly - for the first time - their major. 'We may consider differential tuition with the colleges within a single university,' said Gary Stuart, Arizona Board of Regents president. He said he did not know whether the regents would ever approve that concept, but this will be the first time it will be discussed and analyzed. After two years of consecutive increases that boosted tuition more than 50 percent at the state's three universities, the regents are considering a variety of ideas to help pay for higher education in one of the nation's fastest-growing states. An idea proposed by Tucson Regent Fred Boice would ensure that tuition increased by a predictable amount over four years for each freshman class. That would help families budget the education costs, he said, and give students an incentive to earn their degree in four years.
Americas Amber Alert Center - Parents kidnap 2 kids from Arizonia Media Alert: "Americas Amber Alert News Center(S.Tucson AZ USA)TAA-- South Tucson police are searching for two children who were kidnapped Thursday from Child Protective Services by their parents. An Amber Alert wasn't issued for the 6-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl because the incident didn't meet the criteria of imminent danger, said Officer Ed Little. Still, the children may be in danger. 'When it's a kidnapping, nobody knows,' he said. 'We all hate to assume.'" Angel Jacobo and Nataly Queira Reyna were taken from a scheduled supervised visit with their parents at the CPS facility at 2750 S. Fourth Ave., Little said. The kidnapping occurred between 11 a.m. and 12:35 p.m.
Arizona tops entrant busts Arizona tops entrant busts | The Arizona Daily Star �: More illegal entrants were caught along the Arizona-Mexico border this year than in California, New Mexico and Texas combined, officials said. While Arizona has been known to be the busiest crossing point for illegal immigration for the past seven years, the new high in the number of people captured in the Border Patrol's Tucson and Yuma sectors accounted for about half of all of the agency's apprehensions along the border with Mexico. Arizona's trend to No. 1 in the Border Patrol's apprehension rate appears to be on track to continue next year. Since the Oct. 1 beginning of the agency's fiscal year, there have been 97,731 apprehensions in Arizona. That's more than half of the Border Patrol's 186,713 apprehensions all along the Mexican border. Record pot seizures in state likely Record pot seizures in state likely: TUCSON - In the peak of harvest season for marijuana, federal agents along the Arizona-Mexico border are predicting another record year for pot seizures, which have skyrocketed more than 440 percent during the past decade. Agents patrolling Arizona's border and inspecting cargo at the six ports of entry intercepted more than 168,000 pounds of marijuana since Oct. 1, the start of the federal fiscal year. Last year, agents in southern Arizona confiscated a record amount of pot: more than 400 tons all told. That's greater than the weight of the Statue of Liberty.
Special-edition Lotus Elise on the block at Barrett-Jackson - 2004-12-30 - The Business Journal of Phoenix: A special 2005 Lotus Elise created for the Barrett-Jackson Auction will be unveiled Jan. 5, 2005, at the Los Angeles International Auto Show before being auctioned off in Scottsdale later in the month. "The Lotus Elise is one of the most exciting and desirable sports cars in the world," said Craig Jackson, president of Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. "We're honored that Lotus and U.S. dealer Park Place would create a one-off 'Barrett-Jackson' edition. With the 2005 Lotus offered at no reserve, this is a chance for someone languishing on a waiting list to instantly own an Elise." The Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction at Scottsdale's WestWorld will be held Jan. 25-30, with 900-plus cars scheduled to be auctioned off. The 190-horsepower Elise is mated to a six-speed manual gearbox inside a chassis made of bonded and extruded aluminum. Weighing less than 2,000 pounds, the Elise zips from 0 to 60 mph in under five seconds. Manufacturer's suggested retail price for an Elise begins at $40,930; the Barrett-Jackson Edition model includes a special interior, graphics, speed gear and other amenities.
In honor of New Years and my own planned self-destruction, I thought it would be fun to take a spin on the web in search of hangover cures.
Before I go any further, and without implying anything, alot of what I found came from the UK and Ireland. That said there are some interesting cures out there… Most are crap but their worth a chuckle. By the way, in this list is one tested cure (and one that is obviously a perfect preventative); I don’t want to spoil it so I’ll wait until the end to clue you in.
Sticking 13 needles in the cork of the wine bottle is reputed to head off a hangover. Probably because by the time you find the needles and get coordinated enough to stick them into the cork, you've given your body a chance to recover! This remedy has a variation where the ashes of a cigar are dropped into a beer bottle. (Not recommended in nonsmoking areas)
Apparently, the latest answer is to use the skin of the prickly pear cactus. It significantly reduces the body’s inflammatory reaction to alcohol, thereby reducing the severity of hangover symptoms such as headache and nausea, they say.
Gerry from
[In addition,] as the prickly pear cactus is in abundance throughout the
Have a hot bath and drink two pints of Vimto on ice. The Vimto keeps your head cool so your body sweats out all the booze. You have to start by kneeling up in the bath then gradually immersing the rest of your body” – Cold Feet star John Thomson’s hangover cure.
A hangover cure based on volcanic dust may soon be on the shop shelves, according to a
A
Fructose, found in many fruit juices, helps the body burn alcohol faster. Consuming food high in fructose is beneficial, both before and after an evening of excessive alcohol. "Honey has the highest concentration of fructose. …spread some honey on toast." Eating honey on toast can double your benefits, as long as the toast is burnt. Burnt toast has a small amount of carbon, the same ingredient found in the hangover pills, which can absorb the impurities in alcohol.
Until hangover cure is found, drink less booze, more water
Remedy is elusive: Purported aids range from the prickly pear to a big, greasy breakfast, but researching a "magic pill" brings some ethical headaches, too
Party Poopers!
The perfect cure of course is not to drink. The studied one is the Prickly Pear extract. Apparently, you can get it in health food stores.
This is news? - Slightly Off Center: "It must be an incredibly slow news day in Tucson. C.J. Karamargin, Political Reporter for Tucson's largest paper, the Arizona Daily Star, is reporting on what the Google hit counts of what prominent Arizona politicians are. Just when you think that you can only find boring and irrelevant political information here at Slightly Off Center, we discover there are more outlets out there for your perusal."
phoenixnewtimes.com | 2004-'05 New Year's Eve Guide | 2004-12-30: "If your idea of a fun New Year's Eve consists of sitting at home in front of the TV and doing shots of Tequila Rose while watching the ball drop in Times Square, consider this: Those poor East Coast bastards are freezing their buns off, and there are plenty of hot New Year's events right here in the Valley of the Sun. The following is a select listing of parties, dinners and events happening around the Valley on Friday, December 31, and Saturday, January 1, so you can take your pick of places to sing 'Auld Lang Syne.' All events are subject to change. Call the venue to confirm details."
Mohave Valley News: News Column: "KINGMAN -- Whether a Mohave County employee and his family were affected by Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis remains a mystery. An earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale struck the region off the northwestern coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. As of Tuesday, tidal waves -- or tsunamis -- killed more than 52,000 people from 11 countries from Sri Lanka to Thailand where Kingman resident Greg Laporta and his wife were honeymooning. The Thai government reported Tuesday more than 1,500 people have been killed by the tsunamis in that country. Of that, more than 700 Western tourists have been killed at vacation destinations along Thailand�s western coast of the Indian Ocean. Laporta left Kingman Dec. 20 to travel to Thailand to marry a Thai woman, Bunnada Kongrach. The wedding date was reportedly Dec. 22. Joining him on the trip were his parents, Andrew and Joanne Laporta also of Kingman, according to Mike Matthews, director of the county's information technology department. Andrew Laporta reportedly is a science teacher at the Eagle Academy in Golden Valley. Phone calls to the school as well as to Laporta's residence went unanswered."
City woman among dead in Sri Lanka | The Arizona Daily Star �: "A Tucson woman, vacationing with her family in Sri Lanka, was among the tens of thousands of people killed Sunday by the massive, earthquake-triggered tsunamis. Her death and the growing natural disaster affecting their homeland and at least nine other Asian and East African countries have stunned the small Sri Lankan community in Tucson. Soma Madawela, a Sri Lankan who returned to her homeland with her husband and son last month for a trip around the country, drowned in the waves that crashed into the country's eastern coast, friends in Tucson said. The news of her death traveled quickly through the 25 families that make up Tucson's Sri Lankan community. The U.S. State Department released a statement that 12 U.S. citizens had died in the disaster and hundreds more were missing Tuesday night."
Prescott Newspapers Online"A Prescott woman who traveled to Thailand before an earthquake and tsunami ravaged the region this week is unharmed, her son said Tuesday. Matt Condie, a freshman at Yavapai College, said his mother, Marlys Tanner, called him at around midnight Monday to say that she was OK, and spoke to him for about an hour. Condie added that his mother said she was staying in a house with a family friend on the island of Phuket a few miles inland when the tidal wave struck on Sunday. “She said all the tourists there left,” Condie said. “She is working on one of her books and she is basically just hanging out.” Condie, who works in a Prescott motel, said that Tanner, who is retired, was planning to travel to Malaysia Tuesday to extend her visa and return to Thailand later that day. He added that the natural disaster, which has claimed more than 52,000 lives, will not alter her plans to stay in Thailand until her return flight Feb. 18."
The MegaPenny Project says One Hundred Thousand Pennies is just over 2 square feet of pennies, or stacked 512 feet.
The stadium at ASU is approximately 122 feet from the playing field to the top of the bleachers. The pennies would stack just over 4 times as high as the stadium.
Click here for more interesting Perspective from Arizona.
* Google has a special page setup with a list of charities. * Benjamin Rosenbaum has collected ratings of the charities mentioned in Google's list and on Tsunamihelp. * You can now donate to the American Red Cross through Amazon. Nearly $3 million has been collected through Amazon so far.
The Payson Roundup: Zane Grey Cabin on-target for spring debut at Green Valley Park: It may not be the original location, but the Zane Grey cabin is rising from the ashes of the Dude Fire that consumed it more than 14 years ago. Progress on the reconstruction of the cabin next to the Rim Country Museum in Green Valley Park has been steady, if not spectacular, Dick Wolfe, president of the Zane Grey Cabin Foundation reported. 'The foundation is complete,' Wolfe said. 'The foundation for the chimney and fireplace is also built.' Construction has slowed of late because contractors have been busy on other projects. 'That's good for them and the economy, but not for us,' Wolfe said. 'But we hope to start on the chimney and fireplace next week, and once that's done the framing will go very quickly.' Wolfe hopes to have the cabin complete sometime next spring. So far the cabin foundation has raised $122,000 to rebuild the cabin, with a total projected cost of $170,000. The famous Western novelist's cabin was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and by the 1980s it was attracting 20,000 visitors a year. Grey, who penned more than 60 Western novels, spent each fall at the cabin during the 1920s. He set 24 of his books in Arizona; half of those were in the Rim country. Among the novelist's works are 'Riders of the Purple Sage,' 'Call of the Canyon,' 'To the Last Man' and 'Vanishing American.'
Independent - December 28, 2004: Crime fighting takes a hitWINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation Law Enforcement, Corrections and Criminal Investigations are projecting a combined shortfall of $4.8 million in Fiscal Year 2005, according to Samson Cowboy, director for the Division of Public Safety. Also, Tuba City Jail is on the verge of closing, Hope MacDonald-Lonetree, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said during Monday's meeting. Still worse, the committee has learned that all of the Navajo Nation's jails were built by the tribe and not the Bureau of Indian Affairs as previously thought. MacDonald-Lonetree said the Navajo Department of Justice will would look into the contract with BIA and figure out whether there are any options available to the Nation under the current contract. All six of the detention centers need major renovation. And though no one knows quite how it happened, the Navajo Nation has been left out of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Fiscal Year 2006 detention facilities budget request for appropriations from Congress, MacDonald-Lonetree said.
East Valley Tribune | Daily Arizona news for Chandler, Gilbert, Tempe, Mesa, ScottsdaleTom Liddy, one of the attorneys who successfully defended Randy Bailey against Mesa’s attempts to take his brake shop for economic development, is now defending the use of condemnation in neighboring Tempe. The conservative talkshow host and chairman of the Maricopa County Republican Party has been hired to represent the developers of the planned Tempe Marketplace. If Miravista Holdings and Vestar are unable to broker private deals with landowners refusing to sell their property for the $200 million project, they could ask the city to step in and take the property. Liddy, former executive director of the Institute for Justice’s Arizona Chapter, said there was a stark difference between Bailey’s Brake Shop and the planned Marketplace. The institute, a Washington D.C.-based law firm, is a major advocate for the protection of civil liberties and private property rights and helped bring national news media attention to Bailey’s fight against Mesa. "There is clearly a public benefit here where there was none in the Bailey case," Liddy said. He said there are three areas where the public stands to benefit from taking the property. First, after assembling the properties, Liddy said the developers could complete a major environmental cleanup of the area. It would prevent further contamination of an area that is exposing business owners and their employees to poisonous gases such as methane. Environmental studies show there are a number of properties that have been contaminated by hazardous waste, including the site of a former Tempe dump. However many of the remaining property owners dispute the extent of contamination. Second, Liddy said relocating the businesses would improve safety conditions for employees working in the area. For example, he said there are not enough hydrants to offer adequate fire protection. There is only one hydrant on the 200-acre site, said Deems Shepard, a senior fire inspector for the Tempe Fire Department. The area, which which was annexed in 1999, does not meet the city’s fire hydrant code, Shepard said. Third, Liddy said the public would benefit from redeveloping a "blighted" area. However, Bailey disagreed with the popular talk-show host, saying the public does not benefit when cities take private property and give it to developers. Bailey, who has been speaking with a number of the Tempe holdouts, said that he was very surprised to learn that Liddy is supporting the use of eminent domain. "I don’t support transferring private property to private owners," he said.
The Moderate Voice: Jerrry Orbach Leaves Us: Veteran character actor Jerry Orbach, best known for his role in Law & Order has died of prostate cancer at age 69. He was a star of stage, screen, TV and even cartoons (Beauty and the Beast: he sung 'Be Our Guest') for many years. You can hear him on the original cast album of the classic off-Broadway musical The Fantastics. Orbach was on Law & Order (the modern day descendent of the old TV show Dragnet) for 12 years and recently left the show and was to start in a spin-off 'Law & Order: Trial by Jury' that was to have debuted on NBC in the fall. One of acting's all-around best.
Here's a handy formula you may want to write down: Finger food + Tabasco sauce + itchy eye = Danger. Very very danger. You may want to stick it on your refrigerator to remind yourself. I know I will.(from Deans World)Which reminds me of another lesson: Here in the Southwest many of us follow the tradition of buying large quantities of green chili every fall. To process the chili for use throughout the year, the pods are roasted (usually at the point of sale) in large wire mesh drums that rotate over a propane flame (to me this is the best smell of autumn). The chili is next dumped into plastic garbage bags and taken home. We generally let the chili rest in the plastic for several hours. The next step is to bag the chili into usable amounts and then freeze them (we double bag in quart zip-locks; single bagging tends to leak when thawed). Depending on how much you buy, this can be pretty time consuming. Not only do you have to be careful not to scratch your eyes, it's best to wear gloves to keep your hands from burning (not from heat but from the chili).
Lake Powell Chronicle Online Page Unified School District officially cut its ties with Greg Conway on Dec. 22 as it agreed to a severance package of more than $55,000 in exchange for Conway’s immediate resignation as the district’s superintendent. After a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, PUSD’s governing board announced the settlement in open meeting. While there had been very little discussed in previous meetings, board member Dale Tsosie spoke on the matter last week. Reading from a prepared statement, Tsosie explained that the agreement releases the district and Conway from any liability, but the district is still compelled to respond with any government agency that decides to review matters pertaining to the superintendent.See previous story here.
