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After House Democrats filed a discharge petition on Wednesday to try to force a vote on comprehensive amnesty legislation, President Barack Obama praised the bill as one that would "make sure everyone plays by the same rules," even though it would give special treatment to illegal immigrants who have broken the law. In a White House press statement, Obama blamed "Republicans in the House" for refusing to "allow meaningful immigration reform legislation to even come up for a vote." He then applauded the "efforts of Democrats in the House to give immigration reform the yes-or-no vote it deserves." "It would...

Civil rights groups on Friday appealed last week’s federal court decision that said states can require proof of citizenship on their voter registration forms — a ruling the activist groups said runs counter to Supreme Court precedent. The judge had ruled that the federal Election Assistance Commission couldn’t refuse requests by Kansas and Arizona that registration cards distributed in their states include proof of citizenship requirements. But the activists said that imposes an illegal burden on would-be voters. “The EAC has the authority to reject the states’ unproven claims and unreasonable request to require more paperwork from eligible Americans who...

It should come as no surprise The New York Times would bury news of a conservative victory over President Obama on page eight. The lead paragraph said it all: Senate Democrats, bowing to united House Republican opposition, dropped reforms of International Monetary Fund governance from a Ukraine aid package on Tuesday. The real question is whether this was merely a moment in time or a seminal shift in how congressional Republicans will approach future showdowns. And to be clear, future showdowns are inevitable if we are to achieve any conservative policy victories. Before going further, it is important to explain...

February 24, 2014 9:33 am • By Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services 17 PHOENIX — Arizona cannot cut off family planning funding to Planned Parenthood simply because the organization also provides abortions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning. Without comment the justices rejected... privately financed anti-abortion group to overturn lower court rulings ... Both Arizona and federal laws already bar.... But the state,... participation in the federal Medicaid program, ... federal government pays 90 percent.... Medicaid law ... has included Planned Parenthood. ... Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, who sponsored the legislation, ... ... Appellate Judge Marsha Berzon said .........

A three-page analysis from Jeff Sessions’s office. The good news is, at least ICE is prioritizing correctly. Illegals who’ve committed serious criminal offenses are the first out the door, followed by people caught at the border trying to sneak in and those caught inside the U.S. after having been deported before. The other 99.92 percent who are already here are, however, apparently here to stay, unless/until a Republican president sends down the order to restart deportations among that group. And given the GOP leadership’s icy panic about further alienating Latino voters, the odds of that are near zero.Remember this the...

BULLHEAD CITY — Mohave County will explore every avenue to keep the 50-year-old Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery rainbow trout stocking program going, said District 2 Sup. and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Hildy Angius, R-Bullhead City, as she updated the Colorado River Tea Party Patriots at their Saturday meeting. The program is of great economic benefit to the Tri-state, which relies on sport fishing to help draw tourists to the area. Before the stocking program was suspended, an estimated 4,000 trout were stocked monthly below Davis Dam. The Bullhead City Council passed a resolution in February requesting the Fish and...

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney denied on Thursday a television news reporter´s day-old claim that reporters often ´provide the questions to him in advance,´ before his daily briefings, and that he sometimes provides answers on paper before taking the podium. WIthin hours, the Phoenix reporter at the center of a quick-drying controversy admitted she got the whole thing wrong. Phoenix news anchor Catherine Anaya reported Wednesday night on KPHO-TV5 that in an ´off the record´ meeting, Carney had told a handful of local TV reporters that White House correspondents often tell him before daily briefings what they´ll be asking.

SIERRA VISTA — As a piper played “Going Home,” the cremains of 13 veterans were carried by soldiers, sailors and airmen, and placed on a table on the amphitheater stage at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery. It was time Saturday afternoon to give the final salute to the 13, whose remains had not been claimed except by the Arizona part of the Missing in America Project (MIAP). It was not the first time such a ceremony has been held at the state-operated cemetery, on land which once was part of Fort Huachuca, until the Army turned the acreage over...

When John McCain was running for president in 2008, he often spoke warmly of his friendship with Hillary Rodham Clinton as an illustration of his ability to work across the political aisle... Six years later -- even with all the partisan bickering over the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi -- that warmth between McCain and the Clintons appears to have survived. It was evident at the opening session of the youth-focused conference known as the Clinton Global Initiative University on Friday night at Arizona State University.

APACHE JUNCTION, AZ - Authorities say a homeowner in Apache Junction shot a suspect who was trying to kick in his door Monday night. According to Tim Gaffney with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, the incident occurred around 8:20 p.m. near McKellips Boulevard and Ironwood Drive. The 59-year-old homeowner heard the men at his back door and looked at the family's security camera, Gaffney said. He then saw the men wearing hoods and holding guns. When they started kicking at the door, the homeowner fired a round through the back door, Gaffney said in a news release. Another person in...

MEXICO CITY - Mention Arizona and many Mexicans grimace. It's still widely viewed here as the most anti-Mexico state in the U.S., even if the tough anti-migrant law behind that perception has been largely voided. But Arizona's leaders are logging lots of miles to put a new face on their home state.

The driver of an unmarked Maricopa County Sheriff's Office SUV was traveling 41 mph faster than the speed limit seconds before it T-boned a Nissan Cube and killed the driver in December. A crash reconstruction by the Glendale Police Department showed Deputy Sean Pearce was going 81 mph in a 40 mph zone just prior to slamming on his brakes and colliding with the Cube driven by John Edward Harding, 63, of Glendale, according to a Glendale police report obtained by CBS 5 News on Monday. Pearce, a 20-year veteran of the MCSO and the son of former state Sen....

Phasing out the A-10 attack aircraft could cost Tucson 2,000 jobs — and that’s just one of many changes in store for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the proposed 2015 Air Force budget shows. If Congress approves the cuts, D-M would see ongoing — though, in some cases, diminished — missions including electronic warfare and unmanned aircraft operations. Among the proposed changes: •Most significantly, the base would lose its entire fleet of 83 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs by the 2019 fiscal year. •It also would lose seven EC-130H Compass Call electronic warfare planes by fiscal 2016. The base now operates 15 Compass...

SIERRA VISTA — The United States cannot “hollow out our armed forces,” in light of tensions around the world, said congressman Ron Barber (D), whose district in Arizona includes two major military installations. Speaking during a press conference Thursday, which the Herald/Review attended by a video teleconference hookup from Tucson at Barber’s Sierra Vista’s office, the congressman said lawmakers have to ensure defense cuts are carefully thought through. And currently he said it doesn’t appear the Department of Defense is doing that. As for the Army’s announcement that Fort Huachuca could be facing a reduction of 1,700 soldiers and 1,000...

“First of all, he’s a Texas meat-eating cowboy, I’m a Jersey boy, vegetarian, so choosing the restaurant alone,” Booker joked Thursday when asked about the meeting on “Good Day New York” on the local Fox affiliate.Booker and the Texas Republican were spotted dining together at Capitol Hill restaurant Bistro Bis last week.(Also on POLITICO: Booker shuns spotlight)“We went to a place close to the Capitol and we sat, what was going to probably be an hour meeting, we sat for three hours,” Booker said. “He and I sat for three hours looking for common ground. We found some good areas...

Does the United States Election Assistance Commission (“EAC”) have the statutory and constitutional authority to deny a state’s request to include its proof-of-citizenship requirement in the state-specific instructions on the federal mail voter registration form? The Plaintiffs— Arizona and Kansas and their secretaries of state—say it does not, and have asked this Court to order the EAC to add the requested language immediately.

FORT HUACHUCA — A reduction of 2,700 positions on this southern Arizona Army post is possible in the next five years, as the Army looks at a proposed end-strength of 420,000 soldiers, the post’s senior commander told the Herald/Review Wednesday. But before the Army makes any decisions impacting the fort, and other of its installations, there will be a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), allowing area community and business leaders, and the general public, to comment on on any environmental or socio-economic impacts such a reduction will have, Maj. Gen. Robert P. Ashley said. “For Fort Huachuca the planning (reduction) numbers...

Under the oh so august leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, the Obama administration has been doing their very best to thwart various states in their individual endeavors to implement voter ID laws. In this latest iteration of that ongoing battle, the Federal Election Assistance Commission has so far refused to help state officials in Kansas and Arizona change federal election registration forms to include proof of citizenship. Both states have new voter-ID measures measures that require new voters to provide a birth certificate, passport, or other documentation to prove their citizenship, while the federal registration form only requires that...

A federal judge in Kansas on Wednesday ruled that the federal agency which oversees the federal voter registration form must include the state-specific proof-of-citizenship requirements requested by both Kansas and Arizona. The ruling was hailed by Republican officials in both states. And it also does away with the need for the "two-tier" voting systems that were proposed while the case was pending. “This is a huge victory for the states of Kansas and Arizona," Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) said in a statement. "They have successfully protected our sovereign right to set and enforce the qualifications for registering...

HEMPSTEAD - The Hempstead school board won't renew the contract of a principal who instructed her students not to speak Spanish, in a rapidly-evolving district where more than half of the students, like many Texas schools, are now Hispanic. Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey was placed on paid administrative leave in December after reportedly announcing, via intercom, that students were not to speak Spanish on the school's campus. The Hispanic population of the rural area, roughly 50 miles northwest of Houston, is growing quickly, and Latino advocates say that it's important to allow Spanish in public schools. "When you...