Free Republic

NACO — Dr. Ben Carson, a Republican candidate for the party’s nomination for president, had his eyes opened to the challenges of securing the U.S./Mexico border on Wednesday and said solving the problem is a matter of national security worthy of military involvement. “I think this is a solvable problem, but we lack the will to do something about it in Washington,” Carson said during a two-hour trip through the county, including a visit to a fenced area near the Naco Port of Entry. Getting out at a basin near the Green Brush Draw on John Ladd’s ranch, Dr. Carson...

Republican challenger Martha McSally grabbed a 36-vote lead overnight against Democratic incumbent Rep. Ron Barber in the rematch of a congressional race decided by less than one percent of the vote in 2012. McSally trailed Rep. Barber after the initial early ballot numbers from Congressional District 2 were released Tuesday night. But those numbers did not include early ballots from Cochise County, the conservative portion of District 2 McSally won with 59 percent of the vote in 2012. Late Tuesday night the Cochise County elections website posted this message: "Due to technical difficulties the early ballot counting machine did not...

Good morning, everyone. I asked KathyinAlaska to do a private prayer request for us last week, and am going public now. My wife, NanaJ, is undergoing cancer (endometrial) surgery today at UMC in Tucson. We are not anxious about this; she is very calm and ready for today. We have family here and she is in very good hands. My request is for her to know she is not alone and that His will be done; that we can turn this into an opportunity to glorify God's name. Thank you all. Jinx

The blogosphere has exploded with outrage in response to news that Walmart is suspending ammunition sales in anticipation of the Obama administration’s gun-control recommendations to Congress – but the retail giant tells WND the reports aren’t true. “That information is inaccurate,” said Ashley Hardie, a spokeswoman located at Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. WND then asked whether the retail chain is cutting back on orders of ammunition. “No,” Hardie said. “We’re continuing to serve our customers as we have in the past.” She said Walmart’s ammunition sales policy has not changed, even amid talk of gun-control legislation in Washington,...

TOMBSTONE — The City of Tombstone is embroiled in another dynamic showdown. The “Town too Tough to Die” is now squaring off against the U.S. Forest Service in what could be the fight of its life, a battle over water rights. More than 500 shovels have arrived in Tombstone from all over the country and are being stored at Tombstone City Hall. This photo was taken about two weeks ago, and the shovels just keep coming in. (Photo courtesy of George Barnes) On Friday and Saturday, a group called the Shovel Brigade will gather in Tombstone and head to the...

Okay, prayer warriors, we have another child to pray for. Kaytlinn is the granddaughter of my co-worker's friend. She is in ICU at University Medical Center in Tucson, AZ. Kaytlinn has been having seizures for the past week or so and the docs have been stymied. They've been running tests (MRI, CT, spinal fluid) all along, and yesterday afternoon they discovered what looks to be an infected abscess in her brain. Her white cell count has doubled since yesterday morning. I don't know anything about the next steps, but Mom and Grandma are both scared to death. Grandma isn't particularly...

Federal officials said Thursday they've taken down a drug and weapons trafficking ring involving members of a U.S. Iraqi community and a major Mexican drug cartel that was caught selling large amounts of drugs, guns and grenades. Police in El Cajon said they've arrested more than 60 people in the takedown of the ring, whose members are suspected of being affiliated with the Chaldean Organized Crime Syndicate based in Detroit. Smugglers were shipping drugs from El Cajon to Iraqis in Detroit, authorities said. El Cajon and federal police say they have seized 18 pounds of methamphetamine, narcotics, cocaine and other...

SIERRA VISTA — An Air Force aerostat fell to the ground Monday afternoon, scattering across several Sierra Vista neighborhoods debris ranging from small parts to major pieces of the device. Joan Basnar looks over parts of the aerostat that came down early Monday afternoon near Kachina Trail. (Beatrice Richardson • Herald/Review) Click the pic to visit the article and see a slideshow “Boom, boom, thud.” Those were the noises Lee and Joan Basnar heard shortly after 1 p.m. Monday. The two booms — one loud and the other more muted — sounded as if it happened directly over their home...

SIERRA VISTA — The search for two armed suspects who fled into the Huachuca Mountains continues today by local and federal law enforcement officials after an investigation into human smuggling at a Sierra Vista residence resulted in a pursuit. The Sierra Vista Police Community Response Team responded to the house in the 3200 block of Swan Drive after receiving a complaint, said Tracy Grady, public information officer for the department.   Law enforcement officers search Fort Huachuca on Tuesday after a high-speed pursuit through Sierra Vista. The pursuit began after officers responded to a residence believed to house people involved...

PHOENIX, July 29 (Reuters) - Arizona lodged an appeal on Thursday seeking to lift a judge's ruling blocking key parts of the state's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, the governor's office said. Lawyers for Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to lift a preliminary injunction blocking parts of the law, known as SB 1070, and sought to expedite consideration of the state's appeal.

AGUA PRIETA, MEXICO (KGUN-TV) - Mexican officials in Agua Prieta deny claims that Douglas Rancher Robert Krentz's killer is in Mexico. Agua Prieta's mayor and police chief also deny reports they're working closely with top U.S. investigators. They say they have not spoken with American officials in more then a month. Nine On Your Side's Steve Nunez sat down with Mayor Vicente Teran and his Police Chief Alfonso Novoa. Novoa tells us his officers have questioned more then 100 people. Teran says they've even offered a $10,000 reward, and no one has come forward. Nunez asked: "What do you say...

PHOENIX (AP) - Three suspected illegal immigrants working at a Tempe mall store have been arrested after a raid by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in an identity theft investigation. Deputies served a search warrant at the Burlington Coat Factory off Interstate 10 and U.S. 60 at the Arizona Mills mall around 7 p.m. Thursday. They say they received a tip from a former manager at the retail store that 10 workers might be using stolen identities. Deputies compared Social Security information with other forms of identification prior to the raid and say they knew which suspects to look for...

SIERRA VISTA — Responding to recent news reports, both citing anonymous sources claiming to be involved in the investigation, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said that his office had no new information regarding any possible suspect in the shooting death of Douglas-area rancher Robert Krentz. “All that I can say is that nothing has changed from our original release, and that is that we tracked the suspect from the scene of the murder to the Mexican border,” Dever said. “We do have some information that suggests that he was a scout for a smuggling organization. That’s about it.” On Monday,...

A bill introduced Friday by U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords aims to curb the flow of drug money across U.S. borders by closing a loophole that lets money in “stored value cards” go undeclared. The bill, dubbed the “Stored Value Device Registration and Reporting Act of 2010,” has three major provisions. The bill would count money stored in pre-paid cards or other devices as any other monetary instrument. A loophole in the current law allows these devices to slip through undeclared and unregulated, Giffords said. Anytime a stored value device is issued in excess of $10,000 in the U.S., the issuer...

SIERRA VISTA — With increased notice being paid to border security since the killing of a Cochise County rancher last month, it is important that local and state lawmakers get a commitment from the federal goverment to provide additional security along Arizona’s border with Mexico, the county’s sheriff said Monday. “While we have the nation’s attention, it’s important that we strike now,” Larry Dever said. The killing of Robert Krentz, presumably by an illegal immigrant, “has put an exclamation point on the problems that we face and have faced down there for some time,” the sheriff said during a telephone...

Congress needs to slow down when it comes to a national health care program, Sierra Vistans told their congresswoman. It was a message that Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords heard, often loudly, Monday night at a Sierra Vista town hall meeting on health care reform. It’s something she said she will take back to Congress when the country’s legislative arm resumes work after Labor Day. “The American people are frustrated. They think we are moving too quickly. It’s too confusing,” and that is evident by what many of the speakers said at the meeting, she remarked after the meeting. Even...

SIERRA VISTA — Local people involved with politics welcomed U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ announcement Friday that she will hold a Sierra Vista town hall meeting on health care reform. The meeting will be one of three in the Democrat’s district. The others will be in Green Valley and Tucson. Republican Edward Hylsky of Sierra Vista was pleased when informed Friday evening of Giffords’ announcement. “I think it’s about time,” Hylsky said. “I think she’s finally come to her senses.” U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat, is from Arizona's 8th Congressional District, which includes Cochise County. (File photo by Suzanne Cronn •...

BISBEE — A recent court decision that held the Border Patrol liable for occupying private property in California might be applied to lands in other places near the U.S.-Mexico border, including Cochise County. Otay Mesa Property LP, Rancho Vista Del Mar and Otay International LLC filed a lawsuit in March 2006 seeking compensation for the use of 750 acres of valuable development land in San Diego County. Without permission from landowners, the Border Patrol buried numerous sensors, and then entered the property when the sensors indicated movement of potential illegal immigrants. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims held...

To the Editor: I recently read that Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano during public hearings in Washington on April 29 to do more to prevent flu carriers from entering the United States at ports of entry. Collins reportedly told Napolitano: “I am not advocating closing the borders, but I am advocating for a stepped-up medical presence at the borders … the use of technology, perhaps these scanners that six other countries are using.” Senator Collins is apparently unaware that undocumented aliens avoid ports of entry, choosing instead to trek across mountains and desert, trespass ranches...

PHOENIX — A member of Arizona’s congressional delegation is moving to strip the state of its ability to put companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers out of business. U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat who represents much of Southern Arizona, called the state’s 15-month-old employer sanctions law “burdensome” on businesses. And she claimed Thursday that only 15 percent of Arizona companies actually are using the federal E-Verify system, mandated under the state law, which allows them to determine electronically if people they hire are in this country legally. But the president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose...