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Members of a Tucson Army National Guard unit are shipping out late next week for a year-long tour in Afghanistan. More than 80 members of the 158th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion will help provide food, water, ammunition, fuel and other necessities to U.S. and allied troops in the war zone. The citizen soldiers will spend several weeks training at Fort Hood in Texas before heading overseas. They are due to return to Tucson in October 2010, said Maj. Paul Aguirre, a spokesman at Arizona Army National Guard headquarters in Phoenix. About half of the unit's 84 soldiers are from Southern...

Students at Howenstine High Magnet School will be collecting donations for troops serving in Afghanistan as part of Make a Difference Day. But the students' efforts are not a one-day deal. Instead, Corrine Blum's service learning class decided to adopt a Marine unit as a yearlong project. They sent a box of letters and personal items to the troops last month and are now planning to adopt an Army unit. The project began when Blum told her students she was planning to send a package to a family friend serving in Afghanistan. She asked her students if they wanted to...

A trio of illegal male immigrants from Mexico were found to have arrest records in California when they were processed by Border Patrol agents from the Douglas Station. Tucson Sector spokeswoman Colleen Agle said the three were found to have significant criminal arrests when their fingerprints were checked against records Thursday. One individual had been accused of intercourse with a minor and rape by force/fear, another of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and the third of threatening crime with intent to terrorize, child cruelty, and possible injury/death and battery of a spouse,...

U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered a smuggling tunnel under the border in Nogales, Ariz., on Wednesday. It was the first passageway agents have found in the Tucson Sector in nearly four months. The 30-foot tunnel, 150 yards east of the DeConcini Port of Entry, was fortified on the Mexican side with shoring, but on the American side it appeared unfinished, U.S. Border Patrol spokes-man Mario Escalante said. The tunnel was not connected to the drainage system. Escalante said there was no evidence as to who was using the tunnel. "They already had an opening on the north side at the...

PHOENIX—Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Jose Carmelo Magana, 46, of Yuma, Ariz., pleaded guilty today on charges of Attempting to Bring Illegal Aliens into the United States and Acceptance of a Bribe by a Public Official. Sentencing for Magana is set before U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg on January 19, 2010. Magana admitted to have participated in an agreement with Brenda Covarrubias, Ana Bertha Calderon, Jesus Gastelum-Rodriguez, Guadalupe Milan de Gastelum and others, to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. through a lane at the San Luis Port of Entry in San Luis, Ariz., staffed at the...

How would you rate the job the Tucson City Council has done this year? Good Fair Poor Undecided. They're all RATS except for the RINO mayor.

She 'had a fainting episode and injured her head' while on vacationThe 97-year-old mother of U.S. Senator John McCain spent the night in a Lisbon hospital after a fall, Portuguese health officials and the senator's office said Friday. The Sao Jose hospital said in a written statement that Roberta McCain was in stable condition and was undergoing tests after being admitted Thursday evening. It provided no further information. Senator McCain's office in Washington said Roberta McCain "had a fainting episode and injured her head" while on vacation in the Portuguese capital.

PHOENIX — The leading sponsor of legislation to combat illegal immigration said Wednesday that he is preparing three new measures, with the promise to take the issues directly to voters if colleagues or the governor balk. The package being put together by Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, would: • Allow local police to arrest those in this country illegally under state trespass laws. • Bar local governments from having "sanctuary" policies that prohibit police officers from inquiring about the legal status of those they encounter. • Let prosecutors subpoena business records and testimony to investigate whether companies are hiring undocumented workers,...

Arizona needs to borrow about $600 million from the federal government or risk running out of unemployment benefits. The funds would be paid back by sharply increasing company unemployment-insurance taxes.

Poll asks if Obama should be able to tell companies that took bailout money how much to pay executives. Link only due to copyright.

The Republican Party is in search of a message to attract voters who are angry with just about everything — healthcare, the U.S. deficit, Wall Street bonuses, increased unemployment and home foreclosures to mention a few. “There’s a lot of anger out there and there’s a lot of frustration,” said Republican Senator John McCain, who was defeated by Democrat Barack Obama for president last year. Thousands of people are turning up at townhall meetings and “tea party” protests against government policies, he noted. “So there’s something going on out there. And I’d love to sit here and tell you that...

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain said on Wednesday his party needed a positive agenda to better attract those Americans who are disenchanted with Democratic policies. McCain said he sensed "a lot of anger and a lot of frustration" among Americans over taxpayer-backed bailouts of banks and auto companies while they cope with a persistently high U.S. jobless rate of 9.8 percent and see bank executives get "obscene" bonuses. McCain, who was his party's presidential nominee and lost the 2008 election to Democrat Barack Obama, spoke to a Reuters Summit in a roundtable interview with journalists.

Earlier this year, a TV reporter in Arizona coaxed Sen. John McCain into a quick on-air game of word association. The reporter would say a word or two, McCain would offer a short response and it all went along well until the reporter said the following words: “Joe Arpaio.” The 2008 Republican presidential nominee, seldom at a loss for words, momentarily went blank. Arpaio — the bombastic Maricopa County sheriff who’s immensely popular with the right but widely reviled by Hispanics for his anti-immigration sweeps — has a long and turbulent history with Arizona’s most famous politician. And now McCain...

(CNN) -- Arizona police are looking for a man who they allege ran down his daughter and her friend because he believed his daughter had become "too Westernized." Police say they're looking for Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who they say struck two people with a vehicle Tuesday. Peoria, Arizona, police said Wednesday that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, struck his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf with a vehicle he was driving in a parking lot Tuesday afternoon. Faleh Hassan Almaleki was angry with his daughter "as she had become too 'Westernized' and was not living...

PEORIA, Ariz. — Police in a Phoenix suburb are looking for a father suspected of running down his daughter because she was becoming too "Westernized" and was not living according to their traditional Iraqi values. Police say 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale allegedly ran his daughter down Tuesday at an Arizona Department of Economic Security parking lot in Peoria.

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PHOENIX -- A judge has ruled that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office cannot force jail inmates to prepay the cost of being transported to a clinic to obtain an abortion. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Oberbillig ruled Tuesday that the issue was covered by a 2005 injunction against the Sheriff's Office in which the department required a court order to transport an inmate to an abortion clinic. The Sheriff's Office appealed that decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. The office then instituted a policy that inmates must prepay $300 to $600 in transport and...

Is Target's 'illegal alien' costume offensive? Yes, and it should be removed. Yes, but it should remain on store shelves. No, it's all in good fun. No, some are just too politically correct.

FREEP THIS POLL: A new national poll indicates that the majority of Americans now support a public health-insurance option. Poll asks if you believe a national poll that indicates majority support for National Socialist Health Care. Link only due to copyright. Poll is about halfway down on right side of page.

VIRGINIA BEACH -- Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, headlined a packed veterans rally for Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell on a cold, rainy Saturday morning. About 300 supporters crammed into a Veterans of Foreign Wars post that had been decorated with massive red, white and blue "Veterans for McDonnell" signs. "This is the man who will bring about fiscal discipline, who understands what it means to balance a budget, who understands what pork barrel spending is, who understands that we have an obligation not just to our present citizens and out present veterans but to our...

McCain latest heavyweight in race for governor. BY BOB LEWIS VIRGINIA BEACH (AP) - Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell said Saturday he thinks the globe is warming but wouldn't fix blame on man-made carbon emissions as its cause. Mr. McDonnell said after a veterans rally with Sen. John McCain that he remains firmly opposed to energy reform legislation intended to slow global warming by reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere. "I think it's a real concern, and we need to find ways to be able to reduce [carbon dioxide] emissions," Mr. McDonnell said in advocating development of technology to...

Sen. John McCain -- a fervent sponsor of immigration reform -- is once again being dragged into the messy border war of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is defying the Obama administration's ban on his highly controversial illegal immigrant sweeps in the Phoenix area. Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano excluded Arpaio -- reviled by Hispanic advocacy groups for alleged racial profiling-- from a joint federal program that gives local law enforcement agencies the power to dragnet for illegals. McCain's office wouldn't say whether he supported or opposed the move. But late Friday, McCain wrote Napolitano asking for...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Oct. 18) – The family of a Minnesota woman who died more than a week after being overcome in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony said Sunday that she prided herself on leading a healthy and active life.

SURPRISE, Ariz. — An Arizona sheriff known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday, a half day after officials in Washington limited his powers to make federal immigration arrests. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants. "It doesn't bother...

"Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants Maricopa County residents to know he’s not changing how he conducts his crime suppression sweeps, in spite of the federal government’s limitation of the sheriff’s officers to act as federal immigration agents. “We will continue to do what we have been doing, and target human smuggling, employee sanctions and any criminal activity we come across,” Arpaio told a group of reporters on Friday evening at the District 3 substation in Surprise. “I will be doing the same job, which is to enforce state laws, arrest (criminals) and book them into the county jail.” TAKE OUR POLL...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain on Friday pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman. McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon. "Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration," they wrote...

<p>PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) - Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88.</p> <p>Lawrence Oliver said his father died at the Northern Arizona Veterans Administration Health Care System Hospital in Prescott, Ariz. He had been declining health for the past two years.</p>

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

A Fox NFL Sunday skit made vicious fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. Meghan McCain says cheap shots like that are harmful to women of all shapes and sizes. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN Last weekend’s Fox NFL Sunday broadcast featured an offensive animated segment making fun of Jessica Simpson’s weight. Yet again. The cartoon, which was set in the Dallas Cowboys' locker room featured several players joking about the singer in front of her ex-boyfriend, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. "Man, I still can’t believe Tony dated Jessica Simpson, even after she blew up bigger than Flozell Adams!" (Adams is the team’s 340-pound...

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has held a series of meetings in Washington with leading Democrats and Republicans on the issue of US immigration reform. Senior Republican Senator John McCain said he was still committed to a comprehensive deal. He said he hoped Congress would address the issue early next year. Senator McCain also said he was particularly anxious to resolve the difficulties facing up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the US.

Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe’s decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. That’s about all they can do. “My job as whip is not to twist her arm but to bring all the information that we can bring to bear on the issue and hope that people vote the way we would like to see them vote,” said McConnell’s No. 2, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Kyl said a heavy-handed approach “doesn’t work.”

<p>Meghan McCain, a Daily Beast columnist and daughter of Sen. John McCain, apologized late Wednesday after posting a photo of herself on Twitter that stirred up some criticism and plenty of retweets.</p> <p>The photo shows Ms. McCain in a tanktop, holding a copy of Andy Warhol’s biography, and her accompanying tweet referred to her “’spontaneous’ night in.”</p>

PRESCOTT, Ariz. – Willard Varnell Oliver, a member of the Navajo Code Talkers who confounded the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in their native language, died Wednesday. He was 88. ... Oliver was part of an elite group of Navajo Marines who confused the Japanese during World War II by transmitting messages in Navajo. The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Their work was declassified in 1968. Oliver, who grew up between Shiprock and Farmington, N.M., served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Marine Division...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A top adviser from John McCain's presidential campaign who has criticized Sarah Palin's odds as a presidential candidate in 2012 is standing by the decision to pick her as McCain's running mate in the 2008 election. Steve Schmidt, who was chief strategist for McCain's presidential race, said Palin helped McCain as a running mate in the 2008 race. Schmidt earlier this month said that Palin would be a catastrophe for the GOP if she's the party's presidential nominee in 2012.

Unlike other results shows -- "Dancing With The Stars" we are looking at you -- here at the Fix we get right to the nitty-gritty. Yesterday we asked Fixistas to choose the most overrated Senator in the chamber. After more than 3,000 votes, the winner was Arizona Sen. John McCain with 23 percent.

Traffic, congestion and related pollution in large cities could be problems of the past with the implementation of a futuristic, personal rapid transit system called SkyTran, according to the system’s designers.Unimodal Inc., the project’s overarching company, originally looked at ASU’s Polytechnic campus as a possible site for the first track, said Jon Fink, director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. The plan fell through because the details weren’t sorted out fast enough to meet the pending deadline for a federal grant Unimodal intended to apply for. “This summer, when stimulus fund grants became available from the U.S. Department of Transportation,...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Border Patrol agents said Monday that several groups of illegal immigrants from China have been arrested in southern Arizona in recent days. The arrests included two Chinese found among a large group of migrants who entered the county from Mexico on Friday. Three more Chinese were found on Saturday, a group that included four Chinese was captured on Sunday and four more were arrested early Monday. Border Patrol agent Colleen Agle says the arrests are part of a trend that has seen increasing numbers of Chinese migrants trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico.

A firebrand Arizona sheriff known for his hard-line immigration enforcement is vowing to press ahead with an illegal immigrant sweep Friday, defying a revised Department of Homeland Security policy that takes away his federal authority to make such arrests. "I'm not gonna stop," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in an interview with FOXNews.com. He said the federal changes amount to a political hit job and that if Immigration and Customs Enforcement won't take illegal immigrants off his hands he'll personally drive them to the U.S.-Mexico border. "Nothing will change," he said. "I'm not going to be deterred by any...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The United States, criticized for holding illegal immigrants in overcrowded and poorly run jails, on Tuesday announced plans to convert hotels to detain some noncriminal immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said illegal immigrants ranging from criminals to newly arrived asylum seekers would be held in different facilities according to the risk they pose.

A controversial Arizona sheriff known for taking a hard line against illegal immigrants has been stripped of some of his powers in what he described as a political move by the Obama administration. Joe Arpaio, a gruff lawman who styles himself as America's toughest sheriff, has won acclaim from US anti-immigrant forces for his relentless pursuit of mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants in Maricopa county, Arizona, a fast-growing county of 4 million people that is home to Phoenix, the nation's fifth largest city. Arpaio's aggressive tactics include the jailing of illegal immigrants in tent cities surrounded by barbed wire in the...

Here was a chance for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. to admit he was wrong, and to conclude publicly that government intervention in the private sector doesn't always result in the best of outcomes. McCain appeared on CNN's Oct. 11 "State of the Union" in a pre-recorded interview and was asked by host John King if the lackluster recovery of the economy warranted more government intervention. "The president has said he's considering new initiatives to help job creation," King said. "They passed one stimulus plan and most Republicans, including John McCain, have been pretty critical of this $787-billion stimulus passed early...

This morning, in an interview with CNN's State of the Union, Sen. John McCain (RINO-Ariz.) apparently used some rather choice language to describe the fairly evident future political aspirations of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Ak.): "Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time."—http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2360310/posts With only a cursory glance, it appears from McCain's language that he is merely asking for a second chance -- in 2012? -- with Palin. [And, at first...

(snip) Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," the Arizona Republican said: "When we selected, or asked, Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party. And I have great affection for her. Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time." (snip)

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They came with signs, T-shirts and petitions expressing skepticism, fear and anger. About 6,000 people descended Saturday on Tucson Electric Park for the Tucson Tea Party event, billed as "Tucson's Last Stand." The event kicked off with Tucson Tea Party organizer Trent Humphries expressing his own brand of hope for the future: "I love the smell of freedom in the morning." By 8:07 a.m., nearly two hours before the speeches began, the main parking lot of TEP was filling up. A random survey of one aisle found a car with a bumper sticker for limited-government advocate Ron Paul, next to...

(snip) It was just a year ago when Obama and McCain (Ariz.) were trading sharp words, by long distance on the campaign trail and face-to-face in three presidential debates. Obama won those rounds and the presidency. McCain now describes their relationship as "respectful," but respectful as part of "the loyal opposition."They came together to kill the F-22 fighter jet project. They have parted ways on health care and the stimulus package. They are now sparring over Afghanistan. The issue is whether to send 40,000 more troops there, as Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. forces, has proposed. (snip)

(snip) McCain took five questions about health care, and heard from several other people, including one who challenged his conservative credentials and several who said they deeply opposed Obama policies and expansion of the government into health care or other facets of personal life. (snip) The only note of disagreement came from Gabriela Mercer, a naturalized citizen from Mexico who repeatedly challenged McCain’s conservative credentials, saying he has not represented Arizona on immigration issues. McCain defended his record and said he recently won an award for tight-fisted spending. (snip)

Tea Party at Tucson Electric Park with pictures. J.D. Hayworth spoke while I was there as did Judge Andrew Napolitano and James T. Harris whipped things up near the end.

The parking lot of Tucson Electric Park filled quickly Saturday morning with Tucsonans eager to take part in The Tucson Tea Party. Organizers said they expected up to 10,000 people to descend on Tucson Electric Park for the rally to demand less government. Long lines of cars and a healthy crown of tailgaters Saturday morning made it clear organizers could get as large a turnout as they had predicted. “We’re normal, non-racist everyday Tucsonans who are very concerned about the direction our government is going, ” said Chris Bubany, a small business owner who was serving chile relleno and peanut...