Ward Connerly’s Guest Editorial
Ward Connerly's Guest Editorial in the May 19 issue of Sonoran News is the most intelligent and reasoned view on SB 1070 I have read.
Too bad Washington doesn't have the IQ necessary to read and understand this.
Judith Smith | E-mail
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When students become collateral damage
Mr. Durham,
Thank you for writing us your concerns and also your support of instrumental music and Desert Arroyo Middle School. The board has not taken action on either of these items for next year. Our budget discussions will continue at the next Governing Board meeting on May 11th and the decision for the school closure is on May 18th. Both meetings begin at 6:00 pm in our Governing Board room at 33016 North 60th Street.
There have been no lies. We have talked about trying to preserve programming which includes many different programs across our schools; dependent on the final budget cut number, we are not certain what will remain and what will not. The list for reductions does currently have elementary band as a potential cut but has elementary art, PE and music further down on the list – almost at the end. However, as I stated above, the final order of cuts has not been approved by the board and is still up for discussion.
The gym floor was a capital improvement (different dollars than are used for maintenance and operations where our staff salaries are) that was on a timeline for work. This gym is used constantly by not only the DAMS' students but also the community after hours and on weekends. Whether the school is kept open or closed, the rental of the gym after hours and on weekends will continue.
The Smartboards being added must have been through the school PTO's generosity and since we do not know if the school will open or close at this time, it enhanced learning for DAMS' students second semester.
Textbooks would be ordered out of our "soft capital" fund but the state required all school districts to return dollars this year to reduce the state budget deficit. For CCUSD, that was over $900,000 dollars and we used the "textbook" dollars to give back to the state in Feb. when they required the give-back. Last year, they also required a give-back for over $700,000 – again we used our textbook dollars rather than take it away from the schools or staffing.
I would be happy to meet with you to provide further explanation or information.
Most sincerely,
Debbi Burdick
Dear Ms. Burdick,
This is MRS. Durham again. Kyle Durham. I am female. Sorry if I did not make that clear.
So, tell me again about the decisions the board has not yet made? Now that you have closed Desert Arroyo AND cut the elementary school music program (despite the fact you said if you did the former you would not be forced to do the latter), what else are you planning on which you have not yet "taken action?"
I have already decided to pull 2 (out of 3) of my children out of CCUSD. I haven't yet "taken action" on the third.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Kyle Amy Durham
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Romley sounds retreat on fighting illegal immigration
Rick Romley’s latest proposal regarding illegal immigration shows how little he has learned in the six years since walking away from the County Attorney’s Office and is further evidence that he never understood the issue in the sixteen years he had to address it.
“Rick Romley has sounded the retreat against the full scale and aggressive approach to fighting illegal immigration in Maricopa County,” according to Bill Montgomery.
It is an overly simplistic approach that appeases opponents of a tough stance against illegal immigration and is not the approach the citizens of Maricopa County have come to expect from their County Attorney.
Montgomery noted, “You cannot focus on just one half of the equation in the battle against illegal immigration and expect to achieve real results. With the numbers of illegal aliens in Arizona and Maricopa County dropping roughly 17 percent in the last couple of years, we have also seen our crime rate in Maricopa County fall more than twice the national average. Rick Romley’s foolhardy plan will hurt the citizens of Maricopa County.” Montgomery concluded, “Ultimately, a change in policy on fighting illegal immigration is a decision that should be left to the next duly elected Maricopa County Attorney so the citizens can decide the approach they want.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has endorsed Bill Montgomery for Maricopa County Attorney, stated, “The people of Maricopa County need Bill Montgomery as County Attorney to ensure all laws against illegal immigration are enforced, not just some. I will continue to make arrests under all of our laws. If Rick Romley chooses not to prosecute, that will be his decision the voters will hold him accountable for.”
In contrast, Montgomery has previously pledged to the citizens of Maricopa County that he will continue efforts to fight illegal immigration in partnership with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and all of the Valley’s law enforcement agencies to safeguard our communities and protect our citizens. To do so, he will form a special crimes bureau to handle cases currently arising under present laws and the implementation of SB1070.
Bill Montgomery, Candidate for Maricopa County Attorney | Phoenix
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Do you know how Prop. 100 taxes will be spent?
The legislature was too chicken to pass a sales tax increase, so they out it to a vote of the people. To assume the proposed one cent sales tax hike will do anything to ease the state’s budget woes is a pipe dream. It’s geared two-thirds for primary and secondary education and one-third for health and human services and public safety. With Arizona in a shooting, kidnapping, car jacking, car theft war, wouldn’t public safety deserve a bit more than half of a third of this pot?
Unlike the federal Social Security “Trust Fund” and the Federal Highway “Trust Fund,” two of the major federal taxes that have been hijacked out of trust funds into pork barrels, the Arizona Constitution prohibits that kind of tomfoolery. Article 9-Statement of tax and objects. Section 9: “Every law which imposes, continues or revives a tax shall distinctly state the tax and the objects for which it shall be applied, and it shall not be sufficient to refer to any other law to fix such ax or object.”
A few years ago, the state was caught trying to raid the state mobile home relocation Fund of millions. More recently, in the March 2010 Journal of Mohave County, another grab was exposed. “The National Federation of Independent Business Legal Center is joining the fight against the state of Arizona’s unconstitutional taking of funds from the state’s workers’ compensation fund.” (Industrial Commission of Arizona v. Dean Martin, et al. case No. CV2009-019303.)
If the new one cent sales tax is for primary and secondary education, why is it a factor in building, staffing and maintaining an ASU campus in Payson? Payson Mayor Kenny Evans said in the May 7, 2010 Payson Roundup newspaper, “… bringing together a brand new kind of campus would be much more difficult of Prop. 100 does not pass.”
If that be the case, I wonder how the folks in Kingman, Wilcox, Show Low, Wickenburg and elsewhere in the state feel about their tax money helping fund yet another ASU campus in Arizona?
I say no to this sales tax scheme.
Sonni Hunt | Christopher Creek
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I didn't know that
Arlen "crybaby" Specter was known as the "Bulldog of the Senate?"
Wow, was I off base. I always thought of him more as "the Weasel of the Senate." I guess there is no need to debate which best describes Specter since we now can thankfully refer to him as "Gone from the Senate." Good Riddance.
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United Nations "Experts" Call Arizona Immigration Law Human Rights Violation. This is so absurd I can't stop laughing.
Besides Obama, does anyone else really care what the crooks, thieves, rapists and murderers at the U.N. think?
I know for sure I don't give a rats ass.
Tom Carbone | Phoenix
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God bless you all down there
I came across Sonoran News only yesterday, I am only sorry I did not find it sooner.
I am a resident of Louisiana but I am an Arizonian at heart.
I write and I am a columnist for several online sites and a contributor for others. I have been thinking of writing a piece about the call to boycott Arizona but in reverse.
I Googled some great material on the history of Arizona and the attractions your great state has. I was overwhelmed. What a grand place to visit, and what a treasury of history.
My own website covers religion, current events, politics and more but above it all I am a man of faith and I believe in the power of earnest prayer. You can be assured I have prayed for your wonderful state and your very brave Governor Brewer. God bless you all down there in the Southwest.
Sincerely,
Rev Michael Bresciani | E-mail
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Who applauded the president of Mexico?
Why is it members of Congress applaud the president of Mexico who seems to feel that invading the USA is a Mexican birth right! God bless you folks living on the border who have the resolve to stand tall.
My Congressman Carney, both my U.S. Senators, look at you with disgust. I however look at them with disgust. Keep up the good work!
Joseph DuPont | Towanda, Pennsylvania
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Letter to Señor Robert Sarver,
I am a 28 year season ticket holder. The Suns team, coaches and Al McCoy have been a part of our entertainment life. Your support of the illegal aliens has destroyed that bond.
Our states treasurer, Dean Martin, has said all of our state’s financial problems are caused by the illegal aliens. They pay no state, federal or property taxes. Their use of our schools, hospitals, police, fire jails, food stamps, welfare and identity theft are all paid for by our citizens. They also send most of their income back to Mexico. Eight of the last eleven police officers killed in Phoenix were killed by an illegal.
You are backing their cause against our rights and laws. Romans 13 says to obey the government which means to obey the law. If you don’t like the laws, change them.
You have made it easy for me to choose between paying my property tax burden or buying Suns tickets. I will not be buying Suns tickets again. I am looking for entertainment, not politics.
Having been born and raised in Tucson, I have many hard-working and honest Mexican friends there. You should listen to Phil Jackson. You might learn how to run a team and obey the law.
Jim Markins | E-mail
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Clothing donations
The clothing donation containers at the corner of Schoolhouse and Cave Creek Road are now down to one, where there used to be a choice of which charity/organization to whom one could donate. Now the one that is left is a "For Profit" organization. What is disturbing is that on the front of the container, below the opening in which the clothes are placed it says it is a non-profit, and above the opening it disclaims that it is a "for profit" organization. It is purposely deceitful. There are too many legitimate organizations; can't the person running this find one? If so, then maybe the blight these containers cause on this prominent corner could be excused.
B.J. Walters | E-mail
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Now that you’re in office, tea partier, what do you do?
It’s pretend time. Pretend that you’re a tea party candidate who has been elected to Congress on a platform of reining in government spending, cutting the deficit, and keeping future generations from being bequeathed the bills of the current generation.
You enter Congress knowing that the nation’s debt, interest on the debt, and unfunded liabilities for entitlements total $100 trillion. You have the following options for drastically reducing this number and saving the nation:
Option 1: Write legislation to severely cut entitlements, to close several federal departments, to lay off 30% of the federal workforce, to end most government subsidies and grants, and to close half of the 700 military installations around the world.
You realize that this option will result in thousands of affected people demonstrating outside of your office. Calling for your head will be farmers in John Deere caps, veterans in VFW caps, elderly retirees in wheelchairs, rent-seeking corporate executives in Gucci suits, teachers with their students in tow, college students with their tuition bills in hand, welfare recipients with their expensive communication devices in hand, and other irate members of special-interest groups. Of course, the left-wing media will characterize you as a mean-spirited right-wing extremist who wants to starve little children and the elderly, and the right-wing media will characterize you as an unpatriotic left-wing extremist who wants to endanger the country. All of this will result in you being a one-term congressman.
Option 2: Don’t do anything of substance that will seriously address the problem and that will trigger demonstrations outside your office. In other words, be like every other member of Congress.
You realize that this option will eventually result in either the Federal Reserve printing money to enable the government to inflate its way out of the problem, or in the government eventually defaulting on its debt. Either way, responsible citizens who have saved money and are not in debt will be the losers. But since they are such a small minority, you will have little risk of being voted out of office.
So what option would you pick, tea partier?
If you answered “Option 1,” you’re a lying sack of crap.
And that, my few fellow responsible citizens with savings, is why you’re screwed no matter whom you vote for.
Craig J. Cantoni | Scottsdale
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Great quote
Too bad we don't know who wrote it ...
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to an electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.
Author Unknown
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HB 1388 passed
You just spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization, to the United States; housing, food, the whole enchilada.
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U.S. needs to know ….
H.B. 1388 was passed, behind our backs. You may want to read about it ... It wasn’t mentioned on the news ... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA. This is the news that didn't make the headlines ...
By executive order, President Barack Obama has ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza.
The "presidential determination," which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas (a known terrorist organization) to resettle in the United States, was signed and appears in the Federal Register.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006. These are terrorists !!!
Now we learn that he is allowing thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the U.S. at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.
Doubtful? To verify this for yourself: www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488
Dina Rose | E-mail
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Sonoran Newspaper reader comments
My husband and I own a townhouse unit in Carefree. We are extremely interested in Arizona news. We are upset regarding the illegal immigration problem that has affected Arizona. It is also a problem here in Northern Westchester and throughout other areas in New York. Our beautiful towns are being affected by South American illegals and Middle-Eastern illegals who are causing terrorist attacks in N.Y.C. and threatening our entire state. Our town of North Salem is lovely, but we are now experiencing a subtle influx of Middle Eastern people buying homes and businesses in our towns and it is a matter of concern, as the potential criminal and terrorist factor is frightening. We believe Obama and all the people he has appointed to govern with him are determined to change America into a Socialist/Communist nation. Obama is not concerned with a second term in office if he can succeed in transforming America before his term is ended. John McCain was for amnesty and my concern is that he will do the same if re-elected. We would like to subscribe to your newspaper to stay informed of Arizona news. Please e-mail us with details regarding our subscription to Sonoran News. We look forward to your response and we pray that Arizona will persevere. Governor Jan Brewer is a fantastic Governor and a lady who is not afraid to speak the truth and stands firm. I only wish other governors would be like her including New York’s governor. We await your response.
Sal and Ann Ciriello | North Salem, New York
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Scottsdale Airport – Our money wasted!!
Having read the article in the NE Valley News section of the AZ Republic relative to the U.S. Dept. of Energy plane taking off from Scottsdale Airport, one had to think the following:
What in the world was our government thinking when they diverted a DC9 Jet leaving Albuquerque to Scottsdale Airport simply to take on fuel on its way to Texas? Everyone knows that jet fuel at Scottsdale Airport is much more expensive than most any other airport in the valley, but here was this large noisy jet spending our tax money to fuel up at SDL!
It supposedly left SDL after purchasing about 1,000 gallons of fuel from “a gas station at the airport” so it obviously landed with over 75,000 lbs and took off about an hour later at 80,000 lbs. Do the math!
Most people that used to register complaints on the SDL noise complaint system have stopped doing it (myself included) as we can see the obvious. The airport, city council, and staff do not care one iota about how bothersome the constant overhead jet traffic is to the quality of life for its residents as their only concern is “MONEY” and how they can get their hands on as much of it as possible.
Bob Popow | Scottsdale
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Welcome to our newest legal alien
Obama’s aunt, who had been fighting a judge’s deportation order since 2004, has finally won! Obama said he wasn’t going to help with her legal fees. Why should he? The U.S. taxpayers did, along with free housing and medical care for her debilitation.
Now watch as that judge gets appointed to the federal court system.
Legal justice died, but Social Justice has taken her mantle.
Elias Christakos | South Norwalk, Connecticut
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