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SIERRA VISTA — Fon B. Huffman, the last survivor from the international Panay Incident of 1937, died Thursday, his family announced. Huffman, born in 1913, celebrated his 95th birthday on Aug. 19. He died peacefully in his sleep at noon in Hacienda Rehabilitation and Care Center. His daughter, Nancy Ferguson, was by his side. The Iowa farm boy who joined the Navy at age 16 was a 24-year-old sailor aboard the USS Panay when it was attacked near Nanking, China, on Dec. 12, 1937, by Imperial Japanese warplanes. In those days, the American gunboat, part of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet,...

OK, have at it. Right now it's How does John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin influence your vote? More likely to vote for McCain 45 % Less likely to vote for McCain 26 % No effect on my vote 29 % Total number of votes 163 Poll results aren't scientific. Percentages may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding off.

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EL PASO, Texas — Security is being heightened along the southern U.S. border because of a threat that warring Mexican cartels may send hit men into the United States, authorities said Monday. Law enforcement officials would not discuss specific security measures being taken at the ports of entry, along the border or in the city of El Paso, Texas. "We received credible information that drug cartels in Mexico have given permission to hit targets on the U.S. side of the border," El Paso police spokesman Officer Chris Mears said.

MESA - The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit arrested and booked into jail 24-year-old Jesus Martinez (DOB 06/15/84) on 1 count of child molestation, a class two felony and on four counts of sexual abuse, class three felonies. Sheriff’s deputies began investigating the sexual abuse and molestation after the young victim’s mother found the 24-year-old illegal alien and the child kissing after the twelve-year-old left home, without permission to meet with him, at a late hour. The victim told her mother that Martinez took her next to a tractor and began kissing her on the mouth and neck....

[Phoenix] - John McCain made it clear who his daddy was Monday morning. Daddy Yankee, the hip-hop star from Puerto Rico, endorsed the Republican candidate Monday morning. Wearing black aviator shades in the library of Central High School here, Daddy Yankee said, “I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation…He’s been a fighter for the Hispanic community.”

Seeing yourself talk about the break-up of your marriage on the big screen is probably not what John McCain expected when he went to church this morning. But that’s exactly what happened at the North Phoenix Baptist Church today, when Pastor Dan Yeary played a clip from Rick Warren’s interview with McCain last weekend where he asked him what his “greatest moral failing” was. "The failure of my first marriage," McCain told Warren. “It's my greatest moral failure." McCain and his wife Cindy both looked visibly uncomfortable during the presentation, which was played on big screens in the sanctuary where...

John McCain certainly won't let Barack Obama have his Democratic convention all to himself. If Obama has a story to tell voters over the next four days, McCain is already pitching a far less flattering version from afar. In newly produced television ads and on the stump, McCain is casting Obama as untested, unprepared to lead the country and too aloof to connect with voters. If he has an audience in mind, it's likely to be working-class voters, disaffected Democrats and independent-minded white women. McCain's weapons? Democrats themselves. The McCain camp gleefully raked through the Democratic primary archives to find...

When the six Boy Scouts from suburban Maplewood, N.J., went camping in the Grand Canyon, they expected an adventure they would long talk about, but they did not expect to be clinging to treetops and praying to survive a flash flood. The six Scouts and three adult leaders were eventually guided to safety by American Indians who live in the area, and plucked out of the wilderness by a Black Hawk helicopter. By the time they flew away, the 10-yard-wide canyon next to a stream where they had been camping had become a 300-yard-wide raging river. The scouts and their...

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office reports that at least a dozen undocumented immigrants have been detained after wandering near a US Air Force Base in southwestern Arizona Sunday. Sheriff's deputies are working with border patrol agents and DPS officers in an effort to locate five to seven more undocumented immigrants who are believed to be in the area of the Barry M. Goldwater Range about 13 miles south of Gila Bend. Two undocumented immigrants have died, likely from dehydration, according to MCSO. The range, which is active with armed military aircraft, has been shut down as authorities search for other...

ARIZONA DAILY STAR A Northwest Side homeowners association discovered its old community-management company was quietly making money off the area's home sales during the housing boom without the HOA board's knowledge. Now, after hammering out a contract with a new management company, the board wants other associations to look at their own contracts so they know who is paid when homes are sold in their communities. At issue is a fee collected — from the buyer or the seller — to cover the cost of the state-mandated transfer of homeowners association documents to a home's new owner. In other words,...

PHOENIX — When it comes to marking up historic signs, good grammar is a bad defense. Two self-styled vigilantes against typos who defaced a more than 60-year-old, hand-painted sign at Grand Canyon National Park were sentenced to probation and banned from national parks for a year. Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson pleaded guilty Aug. 11 for the damage done March 28 at the park's Desert View Watchtower. The sign was made by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, the architect who designed the rustic 1930s watchtower and other Grand Canyon-area landmarks. Deck and Herson, both 28, toured the United States this spring,...

JUST IN FROM JOE LOYA... ************************* Agent Ramos' father-in-law, Joe Loya, just spoke via the telephone to Raymond Herrera. Agent Ramos' youngest son was discharged today from Children's Hospital, Houston, TX. He underwent a multitude of tests, including "interior tests" to the neck, ear, back and kidneys. Agent Ramos was afforded a phone call to his son while he was in the hospital - his son will be readmitted to the hospital after a visit with his mother, Monica Ramos, in Arizona. *************************************************************

Without a Prayer Subtitle: John McCain can't stand sucking up to the Christian right. Is this the end of the GOP's unholy alliance? "The Bible-thumpers, mainly working- and middle-class whites with limited educations from the landlocked states of the South and the Midwest, would seem to have had little in common with the archpriests of the neoconservative movement, who as it happened were mainly Jewish academics with fancy degrees from the East and West Coasts. But they did: They shared an almost equal disdain for democracy, free speech and learning, and paradise for both groups was an intellectually mute America...

Two self-described “grammar vigilantes” were sentenced to one year of probation and have been banned from all National Parks after they were caught “correcting” a a historical sign at the Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Jeff Michael Deck, 28, of Massachusetts and Benjamin Douglas Herson, 28, of Virginia, pled guilty to conspiracy to vandalize government property. The men were on a tour of the United States from March to May 2008 with a purpose to stamp out typos in public signage and other venues, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s...

GLENDALE, AZ -- A plane carrying a pilot and two United States Secret Service agents for Senator John McCain crash landed in a West Valley field on Tuesday morning, according to officials from the Arizona senator's campaign. No serious injuries were reported at the scene near 99th and Northern avenues. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the single-engine Cessna 206 took off from Glendale Airport just after 10 a.m. The pilot noted a rough-running engine and tried to land in a vacant lot two miles from the runway, but hit a fence. The plane sustained substantial damage. According to...

Judge: Valley mom starved daughter to death, gets lifetime probation Reported by: Trevor Ravenscraft Last Update: 8/13 11:20 am PHOENIX -- A judge sentenced a west Phoenix woman to lifetime probation Tuesday after she admitted to starving her 2-year-old daughter to death. Eboni Perri, 26, had earlier pleaded guilty to charges of attempted child abuse. Her daughter, Nakeisha Walker, was pronounced dead at a Phoenix hospital on March 5th, 2005. She weighed only 14 pounds at the time. After Nakeisha's death, police searched Perri's apartment near 27th Avenue and Indian School Road. Officers found no baby formula, cups, plates or...

An earthen dam broke near the Grand Canyon following heavy rains, and officials are evacuating hundreds from the massive gorge. Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge says Redlands Dam broke at about 6 a.m. and is causing some flooding in the town of Supai at the bottom of the canyon. She says Supai is not under water. About 400 members of the Havasupai Tribe live there. Oltrogge says some campers and river runners in the canyon also are being evacuated by seven helicopters at the scene. She says evacuees are being taken to a Red Cross shelter in Peach...

Lots of groups were there. LA Answer, the peace group, was aggressive and loud. The Obama supporters were subdued. AARP was there, as was a large group of Ron Paul Supporters. There was a large anti abortion group. Every one of the Pro - McCain supporters agreed that the border needs to be secured. Law Enforcement was great, horse patrol was there. A Few of the LA Answer Peace advocates had to be detained for pushing and shoving. Mc Cain was much more on point than Obama, who seemed to be vague and rambling.

Poland's 'Peace Sky' at home in Arizona August 15, 2008 (by Capt. Gabe Johnson) In the transition from Soviet-built MiG-29s and Su-22s to American-built F-16s, Poland takes on one of NATO's most aggressive fighter up-starts known as "Peace Sky". A new generation of Polish Air Force pilots are learning how to fly their country's most advanced fighter, the F-16C/D block 52 "Jastrzab" or Hawk as it's called, from the Arizona Air National Guard. To date, the Central European country has received 41 of the 48 F-16s it has on order, and is rapidly increasing its number of qualified pilots with...

The personalities and personal histories of John McCain and Barack Obama are as evident in the artwork, books and mementoes in their Senate offices as in any words they may utter. McCain's office oozes comfy clutter and informality: random piles of books, a fortune-cookie message taped to the desk, an abundance of tchotchkes and bric-a-brac. Obama's office feels more like a gallery of modern art: precisely placed objects, sparsely adorned surfaces, clean lines, choreographed displays. Both offices show their occupants' sentimental streak: McCain has a picture of his favorite high school teacher, and a 1904 Navy register that lists his...

Border Patrol agants in Yuma arrested three illegal aliens with extensive criminal histories and immigration violations including assault with a deadly weapon, drug offenses, vehicle theft, multiple battery/assault charges, public intoxication, and shoplifting. All had been previously prosecuted for illegal entry and multiple re-entries after deportation.

BEIJING -- Just when it seemed that nothing good could pierce the gloomy, gray haze that stifles this city, just when the U.S. Olympic Committee set the bar of foolishness and political expediency higher than any gold medalist will ever jump, a story comes along to remind the world that the Olympics, though appallingly commercialized, still have great redemptive power. The captains of the U.S. teams participating in the Beijing Games soared above the pettiness of their elders Wednesday when they chose 1,500-meter runner Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee who was abducted from his church at age 6 and targeted...

Phoenix police on Thursday formally presented the Maricopa County Attorney’s office with the investigation into the death seven years ago of an Ahwatukee Foothills man whose girlfriend, they believe, called a national talk radio show and bragged that she got away with murder. Phoenix police Sgt. Joel Tranter also officially named the girlfriend, Megan Suzanne Vice of El Mirage, as the suspect in the case. He said while police won’t arrest the 30-year-old Vice, they are seeking charges of first-degree murder and obstructing a criminal investigation for filing a false police report. Two years ago, a woman claiming to be...

The actions of Pima County Legal Defender Isabel Garcia at a protest last month against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio are "under review" after top county officials were flooded with complaints. Garcia, who is active with the immigrant rights group Derechos Humanos, participated in a protest at a signing event at a Barnes & Noble bookstore promoting a book by Arpaio, who has a national reputation for anti-illegal-immigrant raids and tough jail conditions. Videos posted on YouTube show Garcia picking up the head of a piñata representing Arpaio after several teenagers smashed it, and carrying around the head. Photo:...

Mexican troops crossed the border into Arizona and held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint on Sunday, according to a published report. Agents assigned to the Border Patrol at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the border into an isolated area southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who has not been identified. The Mexicans withdrew after other American agents arrived on the scene, The Washington Times reports. It’s not known why the troops crossed the border, but American law enforcement authorities have said that current and former Mexican soldiers have been hired to protect drug...

PHOENIX (AP) -- With one brief criticism of affirmative action, John McCain has brought new attention to ballot issues aimed at dismantling preferential treatment programs for women and minorities. The question is whether McCain's support for one of those initiatives, in Arizona, will make any difference. . . .McCain's comments also have drawn critics who pointed to comments he made a decade ago calling similar measures "divisive."

Let’s get back to work folks! If WE want our Representatives to COME BACK from vacation TELL THEM! This is OUR GOVERNMENT! Not THEIRS! They SERVE us, time to REMIND THEM! CALL THE REPUBLICAN OFFICES-- TELL THEM TO KEEP WORKING FOR US!!!! List of Reps from A to Z Toll free Capital switchboard numbers are: 800-965-4701 800-828-0498 Call Nancy BACK from her book tour! Tell her to SHUT UP AND DRILL! (202) 225-0100 or Phone: (202) 225-4965 send an email to Pelosi at sf.nancy@mail.house.gov SOME GOOD REPS TO CALL!! Cantor: (202) 225-2815 Pence: (202) 225-3021 Price: (202) 225-4501 Kingston: (202)...

Up from 9 pts in June.

Two polls show the presidential race in a dead heat, but one of those show Republican John McCain with an advantage over Barack Obama for the first time since June. A Rasmussen poll released Monday showed the race for the White House is tied at 44 percent for Obama and McCain. However, among “leaners,” McCain leads 47-46 percent. A Gallup poll released Sunday showed Obama with a one point lead, 45 percent to 44 percent. Both polls surveyed about 1,000 voters and have a two percent margin of error. Obama still has a two-point advantage in the Real Clear Politics...

First came speculation that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine was on Barack Obama's short list for the Democrats' vice presidential nod. Today, the Associated Press is reporting that John McCain's campaign has asked another son of the Old Dominion, Rep. Eric Cantor, for personal documents -- a pretty good indication that he is under scrutiny as a running mate for the presumptive Republican nominee. Cantor, 45, has racked up overwhelming victory margins from his Richmond district since he first ran for Congress in 2000. He serves on the powerful Ways & Means Committee and, as chief deputy minority whip, is a...

<p>A Mexican federal police commander whose top deputies were gunned down last weekend was charged Friday with possessing more than $500,000 from drug trafficking.</p> <p>Carlos Cepano Filippini, 34, was one of four people charged with one felony count each of possession of money as part of narcotics trafficking, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement.</p>

Close To You Summers in Tucson, Arizona can be pretty hot, and so can political passions. But sometimes the level of political rhetoric can go beyond passionate, beyond vitriolic and even beyond reason. Yet it was with a cheerful heart that I pulled up to 2302 E. Speedway on a bright Wednesday morning on July 30, 2008 at about 7:00 am. The weekly mission? Support the troops, counter anti-recruitment protesters and stand up for America. The regular weekly troop supporters were mostly set up when I arrived at the Tucson Military Recruiting Center strip mall but I was able...

Phoenix, Arizona, August 1, 2008. In Arizona, the contest for President of the United States between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain could prove to be a dilly and is most likely to be decided by which candidate carries Maricopa county where nearly six out of ten Arizona voters reside and which is generally conceded to be the heartland of Republican strength in the state. Yet here in Senator McCain’s back yard, his lead which was a comfortable 15 to 17 points for most of last and this year, has shrunk significantly. In late July, a survey of 401...

SAN FRANCISCO -- About a dozen members of the Minutemen, a group that patrols the U.S.-Mexican border in an effort to keep illegal immigrants out, stood on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall today to decry the city's sanctuary policy and demand that Mayor Gavin Newsom resign. They waved signs calling Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris and William Siffermann, head of the city's Juvenile Probation Department, "accessories to murder" for the city's now-reversed policy of not turning over illegal immigrant youths arrested for felonies to federal authorities for possible deportation. One Salvadoran immigrant who benefited from the policy, Edwin...

PHOENIX — Last-minute legislative action that led to placement of a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the November ballot has triggered a rare state Senate Ethics Committee investigation. On a 3-2 vote, the committee agreed Monday to hold hearings on whether Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, intentionally broke the Legislature's rules by cutting off a filibuster attempt last month, a move that paved the way for the issue to win ballot approval in the Senate. The hearing will not affect the ballot measure but could result in a formal reprimand for Harper if the committee upholds a complaint by Sen....

DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO – Social and environmental groups yesterday challenged a multistate proposal to trim greenhouse gas emissions because they fear it would harm low-income communities and be vulnerable to fraud. Protesters showed up outside a meeting of the Western Climate Initiative in San Diego, where leaders from several states and Canadian provinces discussed their pollution-reduction compact. California supports the blueprint, which aims to drop climate pollutants 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The most controversial aspect is a plan to create a cap-and-trade system for atmospheric pollutants. Once emission limits are set by the 11 participating governments, high-polluting...

At least one 'coyote' was taken into custody after 50 suspected undocumented immigrants were found in a west Phoenix home early Tuesday. Phoenix police said they were tipped off to the home when neighbors called about people running through the neighborhood. Inside the home near 59th Avenue and Thomas Road, officers found the immigrants, including from 15 to 20 women and young children. The people being held in the home had their shoes taken from them by the 'coyotes', according to authorities. Phoenix Police Sergeant Andy Hill told ABC15, "Typically the coyotes will keep them shoeless so they don't run...

Latino neighborhood slowly disappearing in central Mesa Cannot quote or excerpt so here is the link http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2008/07/29/20080729mr-neighbor0730.html

At 11:30 am today, right as the ground breaking ceremony with Brian Bilbray and Duncan Hunter was getting underway at the bottom of Smuggler's Gulch, four Bush-McCain-Kennedy "guest workers" decided to invade the sovereign territory of the United States (sans permission) just a couple hundred yards to the east on the high ground. Apparently, they figured the distraction of the nearby ceremony would be a great time to sneak past the Border Patrol who were all down in the gulch. An American Patriot driving towards Smuggler's via the border road spotted 4 in the bushes, got out and snapped these...

In a complex decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the major counts against former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean but reversed the obstruction of justice counts and sent the case back to a lower court for resentencing.

Presidential challenger John McCain said Sunday that he supports a proposed ballot initiative in his home state that would prohibit affirmative action policies from state and local governments. A decade ago, he called a similar effort "divisive." The reversal comes as McCain, a conservative senator from Arizona, seeks to tailor his policies and rhetoric to independent-minded voters who will determine the outcome of November election. Both McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama have accused each other _with good reason _ of "flip-flopping," a charge that carries weight with independents who seek consistency and authenticity in their political leaders. McCain was...

It isn't often that an issue involving a specific state takes center stage during a presidential campaign -- particularly if the matter isn't even officially before the voters yet. But an effort in Arizona to prohibit state and local governments from considering race, ethnicity, color, gender or national origin in matters involving public employment, public education or public contracting was among the topics discussed by both John McCain and Barack Obama on Sunday. The Arizona ballot initiative is the brainchild of Ward Connerly, the former UC regent who was behind a similar proposal in California more than a decade ago....

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Kevin Kilbane Report: During a "This Week" interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos John McCain reversed himself on affirmative action and endorsed for the first time a proposed state ballot measure which would end race and gender-based affirmative action in his home state of Arizona. "I support it," McCain declared when asked about the referendum. "I do not believe in quotas... I have not seen the details of some of these proposals. But I’ve always opposed quotas."

Your daily routine -- switching on a light, cooking a meal, driving down the street -- would generate less greenhouse gases under a first-of-its-kind regional strategy to curb global warming unveiled Wednesday at the state Capitol in Salem. The strategy emerged from the Western Climate Initiative, an alliance of Western states -- including Oregon and Washington -- and Canadian provinces trying to jump ahead of any federal move to regulate greenhouse gases. Large utility companies and factory owners would feel the effects first, followed by fuel distributors, as they face limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. Individual Oregonians would not...

HEREFORD — The founder of a new Web cast recorded in Cochise County that focuses on border and illegal immigration issues says the program is already popular among listeners and he is hopeful it will only get better. “On the Border with Al Garza,” which first aired July 14, is hosted by Garza, who is perhaps best known for his role as national executive director of the border watch group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Chuck Alton decided to start Cochise Talk due to the lack of local originated radio in Sierra Vista and Cochise County. Garza consented to be the...

<p>Officials say three people were shot at a community college in Phoenix.</p> <p>Fire department division chief Mark Faulkner says a 25-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman wounded at South Mountain Community College are in critical condition, and a 17-year-old boy is in stable condition.</p>

PHOENIX - As a general rule, Senator John McCain does not alert the news media when he eats breakfast in Arizona. But on a Monday morning this month, Mr. McCain campaigned in a local diner, after a Sunday stop at his campaign office here, where he urged volunteers to “make sure we get our voters registered, to make sure we are organized.”

Mexican officials say a concrete barrier constructed by the U.S. Border Patrol in a storm-water tunnel beneath Nogales appears to be on Mexican soil and was the main cause of serious flooding July 12 in Nogales, Sonora. The flooding caused about $8 million in damage in Nogales, Sonora, the officials say. The 5-foot-high wall on the floor of the tunnel in front of a gate was put in without notifying the International Boundary and Water Commission, said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the U.S. section of the commission. The commission requests that any agency doing work on the border that could...

The government watchdog group known as Judicial Watch recently filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department, for that agency’s failure to turn over certain documents related to the prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean… The suit comes after the government refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request for documents which detailed the agreement made between the governments of Mexico and the United States, which allowed drug smuggler Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila to return to this country to actually testify against Ramos and Compean. The FOIA request was filed by Judicial Watch on April 17, 2008. The...