Free Republic

It's called "lawsuits". If it was determined that local law enforcements let this guy slide, if they failed to stop this whack job, they're in deep doo-doo. The settlement payouts would be immense. If I was the local sheriff and government, I would find a scapegoat (FOX, talk radio, Palin, Tea Parties) and fast.

Arizona took a public-relations punch to the gut after passing the nation's toughest anti-illegal-immigration law earlier this year, but anyone who thinks (or hopes) the state Legislature will lower its profile on the border-security issue in 2011 likely will be disappointed. The state is positioned like never before to expand its efforts to combat illegal immigration. The November election saw Republican Jan Brewer elected to a second term as governor, largely on the strength of her decision to sign the headline-making law, while the Republican Party added to its already sizable majorities in the state House and Senate. Most significantly...

(CBS) For the second time in a week, a woman has been attacked by an acid-throwing female. And police and other experts say they suspect the latest assault may be been a case of someone imitating the first. The latest took place Friday afternoon in Mesa, Ariz. The victim, Derri Velarde, 41, a mother of five, says it came out of nowhere...

Prosecutors have secured their seventh conviction in the Hamas-financing case against the defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). On Wednesday, 54-year-old Akram Abdallah pled guilty to lying to federal agents about his HLF involvement during interviews in 2007. According to his indictment, Abdallah told FBI agents he had nothing to do with HLF, when, in fact, "between approximately 1994 and 1997, defendant was involved in fund raising activities" in the Phoenix area. Abdallah faces up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced in August. In November, five former HLF officials were convicted on 108 counts...

The Tribune Newspapers will cease operations on Dec. 31, the parent company Freedom Communications said Monday. Read the company's news release (PDF) Freedom officials made the announcement to Tribune employees Monday morning, citing the economic recession and changes in the newspaper industry that have cause many publications to close and others to file for bankruptcy protection. Freedom, which itself is operating under Chapter 11 reorganization, had been attempting to sell the Tribune, but no acceptable offers have come forward, said Interim Chief Executive Burl Osborne. “We have received a number of inquiries, but none at a level we would remotely...

Equality Arizona continues to push its radical agenda onto the citizens of Mesa, one of the nation’s more conservative communities. Earlier this summer, Equality Arizona encouraged homosexuals to move to Mesa, and now it is campaigning for domestic partner benefits with city officials there. This is nothing more than an effort to undermine marriage and family. What’s more, this group is asking its members call or email members of the Mesa City Council, Mayor Scott Smith and the Human Relations Advisory Board “to let them know you support a process to explore relationship recognition that that will provide opportunities for...

Holding signs reading "Stimulate Business, Not Government," "Families Against Porkulus" and "Say No To Generational Theft," protesters opposed to the $787 billion stimulus package have been mobilizing across the country. It started last Monday in Seattle, then moved Tuesday to Denver, where President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. That was followed by another one in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama unveiled a mortgage rescue plan. Another protest was planned for Saturday outside the office of Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, Kan. The Democrat voted for the stimulus. His office didn't return calls seeking comment. A New Populism? As...

A Dobson High School Advanced Placement government class with strong opinions about Barack Obama watched the president's speech Wednesday on a small, grainy TV in the corner of their classroom. Some of the students attentively watched the speech, giving questioning looks and comments, shaking their heads and laughing at some of Obama's words. Other students listened, occasion ally glancing up to watch, while texting on their cell phones, reading a book or finishing school work. The gymnasium's events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school, and teachers were given discretion on whether to show the speech, the students...

From this morning at the Dobson High School in Mesa, AZ. (I didn't take these pics but I drove by)

I attended the Mesa AZ "Mock and Ridicule" protest today at Dobson High arranged by Bruce Jacobbs and J.D. Hayworth of KFYI Radio. Attendees gathered intially for a hearty breakfast at T G Eggingtons's on Alma School Road where Bruce And JD were on location to broadcast Bruce's morning show. Breakfast was great, I was already ahead on the day in discovering a new breakfast venue worth re-visiting. JD, being the politician that he is, circulated round the entire restaurant and shook every hand. The intent of the protest was to mock the stimulus plan with bail out requests of...

PHOENIX, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Muslim leaders in Arizona have drawn increased scrutiny from federal officials in the past year because of a string of suspicious incidents, officials say. Although no one in the state has been accused of supporting terrorists, one Mesa, Ariz., man was charged with lying to the FBI during the terror financing investigation into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday. Also drawing attention to Arizona Muslims was a target-shooting episode in Phoenix that involved a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of...

Muslim leaders in Arizona have drawn increased scrutiny from federal officials in the past year because of a string of suspicious incidents, officials say. Although no one in the state has been accused of supporting terrorists, one Mesa, Ariz., man was charged with lying to the FBI during the terror financing investigation into a Muslim charity accused of funneling money to the Palestinian group Hamas, The Arizona Republic reported Sunday.Also drawing attention to Arizona Muslims was a target-shooting episode in Phoenix that involved a large group of Muslim men and boys firing hundreds of rounds from AK-47s and other guns....

Alliant Techsystems, an aerospace and defense firm commonly known as ATK, will team up with FN Manufacturing LLC on a $54.5 million contract from the U.S. Army to produce Mk19 Mod-3 grenade machine guns. Minneapolis-based ATK (NYSE: ATK) will perform barrel manufacture, gun assembly and test operations at the Mesa ordnance facility it acquired from Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) six years ago. FN Manufacturing will provide gun sub-assemblies. The Mk19 will be the first crew-served weapon produced by ATK, which currently manufactures 25mm through 40mm variants of its Bushmaster cannons that serve as the primary guns on Bradley fighting vehicles...

Protest against Palin as she attends a fundraiser in Costa Mesa, CA. Bring rally signs, posters and lots of friends. date: Oct 4, 2008 (Saturday) time: 3:30-6:30 pm location: Segerstrom Concert Hall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 615 Town Center Dr. Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Mesa Police Chief George Gascón unveiled more of his plan Thursday to minimize civil unrest when and if Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio brings his anti-immigration sweeps into the city. Cooperation or clash between Arpaio, Gascon: (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/113400) The strategy includes asking for the help of clergy and the legal community. Gascón wrote in a memo to his department Thursday that a group of about 15 pro-Arpaio protesters held demonstrations in Mesa Thursday near Gilbert and Broadway roads. One protester yelled out a racial slur at a black man and another brought along a pit bull that snapped at police officers....

Monday, 31 March 2008 ICE-led probe results in criminal and civil forfeitures of more than $1 million PHOENIX - A federal judge has sentenced the last of the 13 owners and former owners of six motels in Mesa, Ariz., who were indicted after a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed they were using their businesses to harbor illegal aliens in support of organized human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Martone imposed sentences of probation, fines and forfeiture on the final two defendants in the case March 26. The owners of the motels on Mesa's Main Street...

A woman was arrested in Mesa over the weekend for stabbing a man in an apparent sex-for-gas money deal gone bad. Officials from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said 33-year-old Kelli Still stabbed Michael Hamilton several times in the face and chest with scissors.  Still also suffered wounds in the attack, including a partially severed finger. When deputies arrived at the scene near University Drive and Ellsworth Road, both Still and Hamilton were covered in blood. Still was taken to Fourth Avenue Jail in Phoenix and charged with aggravated assault. MCSO said Hamilton called Still and told her to come to his home, promising...

A felony conviction and subsequent deportation didn’t stop Manuel Enrique Morales from crossing the border to return to Mesa, where police allege he and others terrorized victims with an assault rifle in a series of home invasions. This time, though, the 19-year-old illegal immigrant is going to stay awhile because police jailed him and five alleged accomplices in the spree of armed robberies that span from Nov. 16-29. Home invasions were becoming so rampant in Mesa in recent months that police formed a special task force to address the problem, which they believed was the work of as many as...

At the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) in Montreal earlier this month, fear and trembling were the order of the day. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education article, "Mideast Scholars, Meeting in Montreal, Worry About a Splinter Group and Academic Freedom," the leading lights of Middle East studies are feeling both "besieged" and "blessed" by the post-9/11 increase in attention to their field. Being forced to contend with the twin horrors of outside criticism and competition from groups such as the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) must indeed be...

Constitutional rights are eternal. But the City of Mesa believes that if you don't enforce them promptly, your right to do so expires. That would have been bad news for Oliver Brown, given that the Topeka, Kansas separate-but-equal laws had been on the books for decades before he challenged them. Mesa's argument takes place in the context of the Goldwater Institute's legal challenge, on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, to a development impact fee for cultural facilities. Mesa retained the fee when it increased its impact fees by about 60 percent earlier this year. We argue...