Free Republic

Top Hillary Aide John Podesta Records Released – Show Ties to Podesta Group Arizona Border Ranchers Live in Fear as Illegal Immigration Crisis Worsens Top Hillary Aide John Podesta Records Released – Show Ties to Podesta Group Those of us who have been watching the Mueller Circus avoid the real collusion with Russia are no longer surprised when we see even more hypocrisy oozing from the Swamp. Consider: We just uncovered new documents from the U.S. Department of State showing the Podesta Group working on behalf of the pro-Russia Ukrainian political group “Party of Regions.” The documents also show...

More than half a million illegal immigrants of several dozen nationalities have been apprehended on John Ladd’s sprawling cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. Ladd has also found 14 dead bodies on his 16,500-acre farm, which has been in his family for well over a century and sits between the Mexican border and historic State Route 92. The property shares a 10 ½-mile border with Mexico, making it a popular route for human and drug smugglers evading a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region. “As big as that number sounds, many more got away,” said National Border...

child-sized swimming pool got caught in electric power lines on Paseo San Luis and knocked out homes and businesses for about 30 minutes Monday afternoon. Jack Blair, chief member services spokesman for Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, said repair crews responded at about 4:30 p.m. after most of Sierra Vista's east side lost power. "We have no idea how it happened, but a small swimming pool somehow got tangled in our lines and knocked out the electricity," Blair said. Power was restored shortly after 5 p.m. to the area, Blair said.

SIERRA VISTA — Sierra Vista and its surrounding region are the 16th best place to raise a family in Arizona, offering affordable housing, a better education and a lower cost of living, an online financial services survey shows. WalletHub.com compared 65 cities across the state in 21 different categories, measuring factors that have the most impact on Arizona families. “Our data set ranges from median family income to school-system quality to housing affordability,” said Diana Popa, WalletHub communications manager. The city ranked second in housing affordability and third for its high school graduation rate. While other comparison categories were outside...

Meteor showers are associated with streams of debris left behind by comets. The Perseids are dust bits from Comet Swift-Tuttle and are famous for creating bright fireballs and elevated meteor activity for nearly two weeks in mid-August. This year it is predicted the shower will peak on the overnight of Thursday, Aug. 11, to Friday, Aug. 12. It is predicted to be twice the usual intensity. That’s because Earth will pass through the center of the debris stream rather than the grazing encounter we experience in most years. The display should be well worth the loss of a few hours’...

West Enders: Never surrender! Efforts to rejuvenate the West End are not new in this community’s history. Mayor Rick Mueller reminded us of that fact during his “Spotlight” speech Tuesday morning at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center. Technical problems prevented Mayor Mueller from starting his remarks with the benefit of a supporting video. All he had were a fist-full of notes and his decades-long memories of what Sierra Vista was like in its earlier days. That was more than enough. In the late ’90s, he and another local politician, Pat Call, invested themselves in doing something about the West...

With realistic aspirations of becoming one of just eight cyber academic centers of excellence in the nation, the University of Arizona South is aggressively developing a new program that will maximize the community’s efforts to attract new businesses to the area, the school’s dean, Dr. James Shockey said Monday. As part of that effort Jason Denno has been hired as the Director of Cyber Operations Program Development to oversee the preparation of a curriculum, meeting of certification requirements and construction of a “first-of-its-kind” virtual learning environment. Denno, 47, has worked most recently in cyber operations in the commercial sector and...

SIERRA VISTA — All but one of the loose dogs recovered by local police or animal control officers and sent to the Nancy J. Brua Animal Care Center around the 4th of July holiday have been reunited with their owners. The local animal shelter saw a significant uptick in the number of dogs brought into the shelter around the holiday, most likely due to becoming scared and panicked by the detonation of fireworks, said Arleen Garcia, animal control supervisor for Sierra Vista. By Wednesday, four of the 10 dogs had already been reunited with their owners, who were easily notified...

SIERRA VISTA — For the second consecutive accreditation cycle, Cochise College has received full accreditation of 10 years from the Higher Learning Commission. This is the maximum number of years awarded by the HLC, which accredits more than a thousand colleges and universities in 19 states as one of six regional institutional accreditors in the U.S. Accreditation allows students to transfer to other institutions, give potential employers factual educational records and obtain federal financial aid. “This reaffirmation demonstrates the amazing dedication the Cochise College family provides for our students and community,” said Cochise College president J.D. Rottweiler in a press...

SIERRA VISTA — A three month study has determined that Sierra Vista is a potentially viable site for the development of a cluster of efforts focused on making the city a cybersecurity hub, although it would require significant investment and mean competing with other communities looking for a piece of the billions of dollars pouring into the industry. The cybersecurity and market industry analysis, conducted by Peoria-based Rainey & Associates, LLC, concluded that “the development of a technology cluster focused on cybersecurity in Sierra Vista is conditionally feasible,” said Thomas Rainey, president of the firm, during a presentation to the...

SIERRA VISTA — While the national media discusses recent findings deeming 2015 as the warmest year on record, in terms of global average temperatures, southeast Arizona didn’t quite follow the trend. According to temperatures gathered at the Bisbee-Douglas International Airport, 2015 was the 23rd warmest on record in Cochise County at an average of 62.7 degrees, according to data maintained by NOAA Regional Climate Centers dating back to 1949. “There certainly could be considerable difference between that location and another part of the county,” said Ken Drozd, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Tucson bureau. “Because we get...

SIERRA VISTA — The annual Tour of Homes on Fort Huachuca this Saturday will feature mostly new homes never before seen on the tour, giving those who attend the fundraising event each year something new to look forward to, organizers said. Now in it’s 23rd year, the annual tour of historic officers’ residences on the Army post will include a touch of the modern, said Rebecca Alwine, president of the Fort Huachuca Community Spouses’ Club, which hosts the tour.

FORT HUACHUCA — For decades, the large, helium-filled aerostat has floated silently against the horizon above Sierra Vista, time enough for both long-time residents and new arrivals to possibly lose sight of the skyborne equipment’s mission as an important link a chain of detection spanning the entire international border. The Tethered Aerostat Radar System, or TARS, traces its origins back to the 70s and 80s, when traditional, ground fixed radar systems were being evaded by the newly airborne efforts of South American drug cartels.

SIERRA VISTA — The City of Sierra Vista's 21st annual Veterans Day Parade begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday, with veterans, floats, cars, musicians and more filling Fry Boulevard starting from the 7th Street intersection and finishing at Veterans' Memorial Park. In addition to the 50 participating groups, such as scouts, JROTC cadets, clubs and pageant queens, this year’s parade is expected to include an F-16 flyover, conducted by the 162nd Wing, around 9:20 a.m.

SIERRA VISTA — Fort Huachuca leadership are disputing the figures cited by the local president of a union of federal employees regarding the number of civilian positions lost on the military installation over the last year and a half. "Recently, a false report of 1,100 Department of the Army civilians being cut from Fort Huachuca over the past 18 months has come to our attention. Let me be as clear about this as I possibly can: that number is incorrect,” said Tom Borer, deputy to the Garrison Commander Col. Thomas Boone, in a statement Thursday. On Wednesday, Katie Rasdall, president...

SIERRA VISTA — The afternoon was bright and a slight wind made it feel like a usual autumn day. The flags of the five services — Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard — fluttered, their services insignias backlighted by the sun. On a table containers were placed holding the cremains of 21 soldiers, a Marine, two sailors, four airmen, a “Coastie” and the spouse of one the soldiers and five American flags, one for each branch of America’s armed forces, which would be symbolically be unfolded and then folded again during the hour-long service.

SIERRA VISTA — The United States is fast approaching the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. America’s entry into World War II officially began on Dec. 7, 1941, with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other military installations in Hawaii early one Sunday morning. One of the deaths during the attack was Bisbee resident Seaman 1st Class James Murphy, one of seven Arizonans who died while serving on the battleship USS Arizona. Although the U.S. was already providing war support war primarily to England by escorting merchant ships through the Atlantic, the official war status of...

A U.S. Marine veteran who grew up in Sierra Vista was one of nine people killed in Libya by a gunman in an apparent attack by the Islamic State. David Berry, a 34 year-old combat veteran who was working for a Virginia-based security contractor, was the sole American who died in Tuesday’s attack. Berry grew up and spent most of his early life in Sierra Vista, attending Buena High School and graduating from Tombstone High School in 2000. He enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately after high school and earned promotions to become a gunnery sergeant. He was deployed to...

SIERRA VISTA — A recent study by a New York-based personal finance research firm has found that Sierra Vista residents pay the lowest homeowners insurance premiums in the state. With an average annual premium of $990, Sierra Vistans pay a full 23 percent less than the state average of $1,275 for a $200,000 house, according to the study by ValuePenguin.

SIERRA VISTA — The 20th Annual Veterans Parade in the city will be held Tuesday — Veterans Day — said Laura Killberg, special events supervisor for the community’s Parks and Leisure Services. There are 55 entries in the parade and the event begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday, she said. Since Wednesday Killberg and others have been putting the finishing touches on the parade to include the lineup of the participants. The entries will be broken down into three sections with the first being veterans’ organizations — 17 of them — led off by the Buena High School Marching Colts, she...