Free Republic

[...] Hickenlooper, founder of a beer brewery and a former mayor of Denver, opposed the historic 2012 measure that legalized pot for adults 21 and older. But in the interview published on Wednesday in Westword, he says legalization hasn't been so bad, after all. "Now I look at how far we've come, and I think there's a real possibility that we'll have a system that works... if you eliminate the black market, make it harder for kids to get marijuana. We can put more money into education for kids," he says. "The sky isn't falling. People thought it was the...

Tucson City Council leaders voted unanimously to support stricter gun control with a memorial resolution Wednesday night, and are asking licensed gun dealers to abide by the Brady Bill code of conduct. The bill includes the following: •Asking gun dealers to work to prevent sales to straw purchasers, or those buying guns for others. •Asking dealers not to sell guns until results of a background check are in - right now a loophole allows dealers to sell at will if the results come back as "delayed." •Asking dealers to train workers to spot risky buyers. •Working with police to prevent...

Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Phoenix’s Maricopa County, is infamous for his harsh crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. But even he says Donald Trump’s anti-Mexican rhetoric has crossed a line. “I agree with him on one aspect, that we do have rapists and murderers coming across the border,” Arpaio told Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos in an interview. “But when you mention rapists and murders, okay, I don’t think the majority of people from Mexico are rapists and murderers.” “I think Mr. Trump was frustrated at the many crimes committed in this country by those from Mexico, including coming across the border...

Ten shootings, 11 days, all along one small, busy stretch of Interstate-10 through downtown Phoenix. And no suspects, and no end in sight -- yet. Fresh off another shooting Wednesday, the head of the Arizona Department of Public Safety called ending this spree "job one" for his and partner agencies. But to do so, he said, the public may need to help. "Somebody is very aware of who this is," Col. Frank Milstead said. "... There should be no benevolence for this person, or apathy. This is a cold-blooded crime. This person is a coward."

20 percent of illegals caught at border have criminal recordsLess than half of the U.S.-Mexico border is under “operational control” at this point, the chief of the Border Patrol agents testified to Congress Thursday, detailing the porous situation and violent conditions in the southwest. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, also said one out of every five illegal immigrants agents caught along the border in 2014 had a criminal record, which helps explain some of the violence that occurs. All told, 91,000 criminal aliens caught by the Border Patrol were deported last year, compared to about 486,000...

{Heard this on the radio newsbreak five minutes ago} Phoenix, ARIZONA — There has been nine shootings in the past 10 days on Arizona’s highways, luckily no one has been killed. On Sunday, September 6, 2015, at approximately 8:30 p.m., a shooting occurred on westbound SR 202 near 32nd Street. After a disagreement in Tempe, a black Toyota Camry or Corolla with a temporary plate followed the victim vehicle west on SR 202. The Toyota was occupied by three males. At 32nd Street an occupant of the Toyota fired at least once at the victim vehicle striking the victim vehicle....

Arizona, long a hotbed of anti-immigrant sentiment, finally swallowed its pride and sent a delegation to Mexico City, a mission designed to beckon Mexican shoppers north. The 2013 trip was known as the apology tour. Last year, California retooled its Mexico City office and hosted the Mexican president for his first U.S. state visit. Following years of acrimonious relationships with Mexico, U.S. states along the Mexican border are finding that a little good-neighbor outreach serves their economic interests. Texas is about to take what some experts call a similar mea culpa journey as Gov. Greg Abbott visits Mexico with a...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday said conservative commentator Meghan McCain has no future in television following her appearance on Fox News the day before. “@MeghanMcCain was terrible on @TheFive yesterday,” Trump tweeted. “Angry and obnoxious, she will never make it on T.V. @FoxNews can do so much better.”

A federal judge has upheld part of Arizona’s contentious immigration law, rejecting claims that the so-called “show your papers” section discriminated against Hispanics. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton on Friday was on the last of seven challenges to the 2010 law. The section she upheld allows police in Arizona to check the immigration status of anyone they stop. Bolton ruled that immigration rights activists failed to show that police would enforce the law differently for Hispanics than other people. …

In 2013, more than 200,000 people on net fled states with Democrat governors for ones run by Republicans, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by Americans for Tax Reform. "People move away from high tax states to low tax states. Every tax refugee is sending a powerful message to politicians," said ATR President Grover Norquist. "They are voting with their feet. Leaders in Texas and Florida are listening. New York and California are not." That year, Democrat-run states lost a net 226,763 taxpayers, bringing with them nearly $15.7 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI). That same year,...

Abengoa, a renewable energy multinational company headquartered in Spain, has been a favorite of the Obama administration in getting federal tax money for clean energy projects. Since 2009, Abengoa and its subsidiaries, according to estimates, have received $2.9 billion in grants and loan guarantees through the Department of Energy to undertake solar projects in California and Arizona—as well as the construction of a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas. But in the space of less than a year, Abengoa’s financial health has become critical, leading investors to worry whether the company can survive. The company’s stock price on NASDAQ has swooned—from...

Former four-star general and CIA chief David Petraeus pleaded guilty to one count of retaining classified information for handing over information in personal notebooks to his biographer girlfriend in 2011. He agreed to pay a $40,000 fine; prosecutors said they would recommend two years' probation instead of prison, although a judge could decide otherwise. It's a sad close to a government career for the man whose counterinsurgency strategy turned around the war in Iraq. He's an American hero who seemed all that much more upright when he resigned in November 2012 after admitting to an affair that compromised his position...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Idaho was among seven states where the number of unauthorized immigrants increased between 2009 and 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. The report also found the number of unauthorized immigrants decreased in 14 states, including Oregon, in that time period. The number stayed relatively stable in the remaining states, including Washington. Nationally, the number of unauthorized immigrants remained stable at 11.2 million between 2009 and 2012, the report found. The number of such immigrants peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million, the report said. But changes occurred within states. Idaho, for...

School choice is a hot-button issue for local school districts, parents and students. Glenn Delk’s op-ed in The American Spectator asked, why aren’t the GOP presidential candidates joining the fray and supporting education savings accounts (also known by the acronym ESAs)? Education savings accounts allow low-income minority students to have access to better schools outside of their assigned school districts. They are education-specific savings accounts, through which taxpayers pay for vouchers for low-income students, and parents have the option to use the accounts to pay for books and tuition at private or public schools of their choice. Minorities in urban...

Several parents say they are shocked by comments Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) made to second- and third-graders about suicide bombings and nuclear weapons last week. The congressman was giving a presentation to students at San Tan Charter School about how bills become laws, when he reportedly began talking to the children about Iran, according to CBS 5 Phoenix. “The congressman chose to give an example of the current situation in Iran, and made some inappropriate comments about ‘Do you know what a nuclear weapon is? Do you know that there are schools that train children your age to be suicide...

An Arizona mom allegedly told cops she drowned her twin two-year-old sons because "nobody loved them and nobody loved her." Newly released court documents show Mireya Alejandra Lopez, 22, admitted to killing the boys and said she attempted to drown another family member, but was stopped by a relative.

The very same crew which recently dumped three million gallons of toxic sludge out of an abandoned mine and turned the Animas River in Colorado the color of a yellow banded poison dart frog for roughly a week has just issued a whole new set of rules to “protect” small pools of water. They would also like you to know that these rules are going into effect even though a federal judge put them on hold in 13 states, too. This new batch of regulations is going to “protect” bodies of water which may include the ditch in front...

Two years ago, Trump met with immigration activists who told them their stories and asked for his support on immigration. "You convinced me" Trump said as the meeting ended. Donald Trump with Antonia Tijerino, Estuardo Rodriguez, and DREAMer activists at his office in 2013. Courtesy Estuardo Rodriguez On an August day two years ago, Donald Trump was in a much different place: He was just a billionaire with the simple goal of connecting his beauty pageant business with the upcoming Hispanic Heritage Awards. So at his New York penthouse office atop Trump Tower, he convened a meeting. Trump ushered in...

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some state waterways. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against a the rule, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers authority to protect some streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The rule was scheduled to take effect Friday. “The risk of irreparable harm to the states is both imminent and likely,” Judge Erickson said in blocking the rule from taking effect....

Years ago, an engineer named Glenn Spencer bought a little compound on the U.S.-Mexico border from an Arizona farmer who was tired of the drug cartels' shoot-outs spilling onto his land. It became the home base of American Border Patrol, a company that would develop radars, seismic sensors, and drones to police the border -- a job Americans weren't doing, to coin a phrase. Spencer, like so many immigration hawks, suffered through years of political disappointment, until he finally found salvation in Donald Trump. For the first time since 1996, he thought, a credible candidate for the presidency was talking...