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Arizona was set to legalize the sale of "potentially hazardous" homemade foods—but then Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed the bill.For over three years, Maria—not her real name—has been working in one of Arizona's most popular illicit trades. She makes good money, she can set her schedule to maximize time with family, and her customers are hooked on her product. But Maria isn't a liquor bootlegger or a drug dealer—she's a tamale seller, part of a beloved economy that is technically illegal in Arizona. "I was working as a housekeeper but they paid me very little and sometimes I couldn't get to...

Apparently there are illegal tamales. A passenger at Los Angeles International Airport learned that the hard way earlier this month when he tried to bring pork tamales into the U.S. from Mexico. The passenger arrived from Mexico on Nov. 2 and was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists, who found 450 pork tamales wrapped in plastic bags in the passenger’s luggage.

LOS ANGELES >> U.S. Customs officials seized 450 illegal pork tamales from a passenger coming through LAX from Mexico earlier this month. "Although tamales are a popular holiday tradition, foreign meat products can carry serious animal diseases from countries affected by outbreaks of Avian Influenza, Mad Cow and Swine Fever," said Anne Maricich, CBP Acting Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles in a written statement. "Every day CBP agriculture specialists prevent the intentional and unintentional introduction of harmful pests and foreign animal diseases into the U.S."

A bunch of bad tamales may have given a bunch of bad apples in Monterey County a bunch of trouble. Monterey County health officials were scratching their heads today over an outbreak of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other flu-like symptoms among dozens of inmates at the county jail. At last count this morning, 68 inmates were being treated at the infirmary, and authorities said the common thread among them all was the dinner of inmate-made tamales they enjoyed — if only briefly — Wednesday night,

One family's tamalada marks its 32nd year. By Suzannah Gonzales AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Sunday, December 05, 2004 The aproned women crowded around a square table in the kitchen of the Balcones home Friday night, their hands busy and eyes focused on the work in front of them. Piles of masa-covered ojas (corn husks), bowls of masa (corn dough) and containers of pork roast obscured the tabletop. With paint scrapers, some of the dozen or so women spread a thin layer of masa on the shucks. Others put a few spoonfuls of meat in a thin column on each masa-covered oja, rolled...

RIO GRANDE CITY — Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Thursday he was glad to be home after serving as the top U.S. commander in Iraq. "It’s always great to be in Texas, especially back in the Valley," said Sanchez, who attended a parade marshal reception Thursday night in his honor at the Twin Ballroom. The general is scheduled to serve as parade marshal today in the city’s annual Christmas parade. This morning he is scheduled to walk with other city officials to the middle of the Starr-Camargo International Bridge and meet with Camargo city leaders before having breakfast at the...

RIO GRANDE CITY — Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez is really missing his mom’s tamales. While his mother is sitting down today with his brothers and sisters for Christmas dinner, the top U.S. commander in Iraq is battling insurgents in a country brutalized for decades by Saddam Hussein. However, the general, who was born and raised in Rio Grande City, on Tuesday evening said there is still room for celebration. “We have a whole bunch of entertainers that are visiting us,” Sanchez said from Iraq during a telephone interview with The Monitor. “David Letterman and a bunch of others across the...

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. -At the Cinco de Mayo celebrations of his childhood, John Zamora remembers the sound of mariachis, the taste of tamales and mischievous kids cracking confetti-filled eggshells on each other's heads.</p> <p>When Zamora became a father, he brought his own children to the celebrations, then his grandchildren. But the crowds got bigger and people were drinking too much. Finally, he stopped going.</p>