Free Republic

A pilot project at 25 Pima County polling places will have workers asking voters to scan their driver’s licenses with an iPad. The goal is to replace the signature roster books currently used at the polling places, Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson said. Poll workers will use the iPads to scan voters’ driver’s licenses and verify their identification. Voters will then sign their names on the iPad screens with their finger. The information scanned will be matched to data already contained in county databases that’s filled out when a person registers to vote, Nelson said. An Arizona driver’s license...

Now that the dust has settled and we know a little more about the prospect of Fort Huachuca losing 2,700 jobs, let’s look at the probability of that happening. As we now know, the 2,700 is part of the larger Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment, which considers huge reductions at nearly every installation due to the Budget Control Act of 2011 (including its sequestration provisions). We also know Army decision-makers haven’t yet decided where cuts will be made or whether Fort Huachuca will be affected at all. We know the numbers considered (such as the 2,700 at Fort Huachuca) are...

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...

FORT HUACHUCA — The post will conduct a nighttime training exercise with low-flying aircraft from 5 p.m. to midnight, Monday through Wednesday, announced Public Affairs Officer Angela Camara. Each evening will consist of helicopters transiting the Mustang Mountains near Whetstone, and crossing the post with activity between the South Range and Libby Army Airfield. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for our neighbors,” said Garrison Commander Col. Thomas A. Boone, “Our ability to conduct these training missions in support of the National Defense Strategy keeps our soldiers trained for operations in every corner of the globe and keeps...

SIERRA VISTA — Up to 2,000 people living just outside the southeast edge of Sierra Vista have had their water contaminated by E. coli, the utility management company for the affected area announced Friday. Customers of the Eastslope Water Company are advised to boil their water for at least a minute before drinking it, said Keith Dojaquez, vice president and operations manager for Southwestern Utility Management, Inc., a Tucson-based company that manages the affected area as well as dozens of other water companies across the state. The motor to the contaminated well is out of service and needs to be...

FORT HUACHUCA — This morning, special FBI checks of vehicles entering the post were supposed to start, but the fort’s Public Affairs Officer Angela Camara said it will not happen. “At this time only the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency can connect to the Defense Manpower Data Center’s Identity Matching Engine for Statistics and Analysis,” she told the Herald/Review on Thursday. There are plans in the near future to implement, if not the same, a similar system on the fort to connect to the FBI’s criminal database to show if an arrest, felony or outstanding warrant involving...

Remember when in 2011 voices on the left from Keith Olbermann to Paul Krugman to the Huffington Post among many others suggested that Sarah Palin was at least partially to blame for the shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords because Palin had put out a map of House seats with bullseyes depicting districts, including Giffords', that Republicans were targeting? Krugman for example wrung his hands over the "climate of hate" that Palin and others on the right were supposedly fomenting, and predicted growing political violence in the years ahead. So will those same leftists condemn the Daily Beast, which today featured...

Last week, conservative Sen. Ted Cruz endorsed Doug Ducey in ArizonaÂ’s GOP gubernatorial primary: " The crisis at AmericaÂ’s border is a defining issue in the coming election, especially in Arizona. IÂ’m supporting Doug Ducey for Arizona governor because he is the best candidate to help secure the border, protect the people, and enforce the law. He has the most serious and credible plan to address the border crisis." (SNIP) The endorsement was considered a major coup for Ducey, who is distrusted by some Arizona conservatives. (SNIP) In the wake of CruzÂ’s endorsement, tweets posted early last year by DuceyÂ’s...

Many of you across the country will have a chance to vote in GOP primaries this month. If you care about limited government, secure borders, and parental/local empowerment against Fed Ed, here are some of the stellar candidates running at the local, state, and federal levels who deserve your support. (SNIP) Support Joe Carr for Senate. GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander is another Beltway lifer who needs to be sent packing. Carr is an outspoken conservative state legislator with a proven record on fighting amnesty and turning off the entitlement magnets that attract illegal immigrants. (SNIP) ARIZONA I endorsed state school...

If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery store, or Mom's house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border Patrol. Many Americans don't have to imagine it -- it's how they live. Even as the federal government fails to control the southern border, it sends the Border Patrol farther into the interior, where Americans complain that agents harass people who are already U.S. citizens. It's legal. The Supreme Court ruled that the Border Patrol can set up "inland" checkpoints anywhere up to 100...

The 34-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder last year in Travis Alexander's grisly 2008 slaying, but the Arizona jury deadlocked on whether she should get life behind bars or death.Arias had admitted to slaying Alexander after a day of sex in his Phoenix home on June 4, 2008, but argued that it was in self-defense. Her victim was stabbed nearly 30 times, had his throat slit and was shot in the forehead. Prosecutors argued it was premeditated murder carried out in a jealous rage when Alexander wanted to end their affair. Arias will be assisted by her current attorneys, who...

FORT HUACHUCA — About four months ago John B. Morrison Jr., arrived on this southern Arizona Army post wearing the one-star of a brigadier general. Monday morning he was stripped of his one star and it was replaced by the two-stars of a major general, the authorized rank for the leader of the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command on the fort. Of Morrison, Lt. Gen. Edward C. Cardon, said to a person that much is given, ”much is expected.” Cardon added Morrison’s promotion falls into the giving and expecting categories. “I fully expect to see this from this leader,” said...

Crime is so high along the Mexican border that nearly half of all the criminal cases filed by federal prosecutors in the United States last fiscal year were concentrated in a handful of districts located in that region, according to the U.S. government’s figures. It’s not as if this is new, but to see it spelled out in a government report with a detailed breakdown is truly alarming. The statistics illustrate that the Mexican-border region is a cesspool of crime that’s costing American taxpayers a chunk of change not to mention loads of grief. There are 94 federal court districts...

Sarah Palin will be the headline speaker at a conservative talk radio station's event in Phoenix next month. KKNT-AM says the former Alaska governor will give remarks at a discussion about this year's election races and other issues at Grand Canyon University Arena on Sept. 4. Other speakers scheduled to attend the "United We Stand" event include comedian Paul Rodriguez and author Dinesh D'Souza...

RAMONA — The controversial sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County was in Ramona [last] Saturday to weigh in on the increasingly contentious immigration debate, applauding the protesters who blocked busloads of Central Americans in Riverside County this month as “heroes of our country.” Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the standoff outside a Border Patrol processing station in Murrieta helped reignite discussion of U.S. immigration policy. “Until then, nobody was talking about it, nobody was doing anything about it,” he said before a standing room-only crowd of more than 500 supporters packed into the theater at the Ramona Mainstage. :snip: Arpaio came to...

Veterans reading only headlines, hearing only sound bites, might have a few misconceptions about how Congress and the VA plan to use non-VA health care providers to ensure more timely and convenient access to care. A magical sounding item called a “Veteran’s Choice Card,” for example, won’t be a limitless credit card given qualified veterans to cover whatever health services they receive from whatever physician they use. And veterans not already enrolled in VA health care won’t gain accelerated access to outside care as promised by the legislation — unless they serve in areas of combat operations within five years...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced in a Friday press release he is endorsing State Treasurer Doug Ducey's gubernatorial campaign. The move doesn't necessarily come as a surprise, as both Arpaio and Ducey are very focused on illegal immigration and the border. "I'm supporting Doug (Ducey) because he's the right leader for Arizona, and he'll do the right thing as governor," Arpaio said in the release.

The Tea Party favorite loves to needle Team Obama. But in an interview, Cruz also reveals a new kind of conservative foreign policy: American exceptionalism without the nation building.One way to understand Ted Cruz’s foreign policy, particularly if you are a Democrat, is through the prism of the social media phenomenon known as trolling. The best trolls are provocateurs. Their language is meant to expose a fallacy or weakness in the opponent’s position as opposed to offering a constructive alternative. In a wide-ranging interview with the junior senator from Texas, there was a lot of trolling. Of Obama’s recent attempt...

An unusual amount of rain that ravaged parts of southern Arizona also knocked down 60 feet of the rebar-reinforced steel fence that divides the U.S. and Mexico. The storms began Friday in Sonora, Mexico, and resumed Saturday night until Sunday morning, when debris from the Mexican side of the border traveled through a wash and piled up against the border fence. The fence, just west of the Nogales-Mariposa Port of Entry near Interstate 19, stood between 18 and 26 feet high and extended at least 7 feet underground. Border agents were alerted not long after the wall fell. "Resources have...

A federal judge handed a landmark victory to Kane County and the state of Utah on Wednesday in a years-long dispute with the federal government over whether some rural routes should remain in use as roads, or if they should be closed to the public. In two decisions, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups found he had jurisdiction to hear Kane County's claim, gave parameters for "reasonable" right-of-way widths on some routes and determined that 12 of 15 routes in dispute were roads and therefore accessible by the public. The distinction hinged on an 1866 law through which Congress sought to...