Vote for Tom McGuire
I have known Tom McGuire since Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area (SCRCA) opened to the public. Tom and I were among one of the first groups of hikers who had the privilege of climbing to the fortress on Elephant Mountain.
Since then we have gone on many hikes together and I have come to know Tom for the dedicated public servant that he is. Tom’s background is in education and writing. He has put the education part to good use as a docent in the SCRCA and at the Cave Creek Museum. Tom respects the land and our history. He has helped to unite the community through his work on the trail systems. We are both members of the town’s the Open Space committee and have helped define the uses for the annexed areas.
Vote for the candidate who has shown 10 years of service to Cave Creek and represents the whole community. I believe Tom exhibits the commitment, experience, integrity and skills to represent the citizens of Cave Creek.
Sue Mueller
Cave Creek
Pass time
Entering Cave Creek from the east one slides down a gentle slope past saloon row, speed limit 30 MPH. Coming north up Cave Creek Road from Carefree Highway, past the cop shop, the speed limit drops to 30 MPH. Safe and sane speeds for the pedestrian friendly town core; for those who keep it. In the day when you could still buy gas at what now is Big Earl's everyone seemed to adhere to the rules; not so much these days.
Unless one winds around narrow residential streets the only way to enter from outside town limits is on Cave Creek Road. Regardless of the direction there is little adherence to the posted speed limit. Coming down the hill from Carefree, in an apparent rush to get by the gin mills, the passers far out number those following the posted limit.
Although on essentially flat ground the speeds are even greater northbound going by town hall. As the speed limit falls and traffic slows, impatient drivers grab the opportunity – it's pass time – right in front of MCSO. The periodic use of the "Your speed is ..." digital sign has little effect on those ignoring the law. A few dozen really expensive citations would have great effect, or a level of enforcement like that during Bike Week might be appropriate.
Randy Edwards
Cave Creek
About Amnesty
There is no shortage of potential workers in Arizona: 424,000 citizens want a full-time job but can't find one. More than two out of every five (44.4 percent) working-age citizens in Arizona with a high-school education or less are not working. There are one million, two hundred thousand Arizona citizens of all education levels who are not in the workforce.
The immigration reform legislation Sens. McCain and Flake sponsored in concert with the Gang of Eight moves 7 million illegal workers and their families into the legal labor pool, and adds an additional one million-plus foreign workers every year to apply for U.S. jobs.
Their proposal states that additional immigration is necessary to "serve our nation’s workforce needs," which implies, if unwittingly, there are jobs in America Americans either cannot, will not or should not do. Senators McCain and Flake are wrong. A majority of workers in every occupation tracked by the government were born in the United States except for two: agriculture and fingernail painting.
Workers in every occupation deserve lives of dignity. They deserve better treatment from their elected representatives. In America, there should be no shame in having a parent or a child who is willing to work hard for a living, regardless of their education or skill. We cannot thrive as a society when we condition people to believe certain jobs are too hard, dirty, or unpleasant to be done by our citizens, or they have a right to something easier than what immigrants are expected to do. When we disrespect and demean essential jobs, we discourage hard work and sow the seeds of social dysfunction.
Arizona workers – citizen and immigrant – are unlikely to see any significant improvement in their long-stagnant wages as long as the government continues to set immigration numbers at unprecedented levels - over one million per year - to expand the available pool of workers at all skill levels. The law of supply and demand, as every introductory economics textbook makes clear, is inexorable.
McCain and Flake's immigration expansion legislation will condemn to the shadows hundreds of thousands of Arizona citizens who are now, or will be, rendered jobless and hopeless by cheap labor policy.
Exploitative employment requires only the excess labor McCain and Flake's immigration bill promises. Instead of adding millions of job seekers, we should invest in the available workers already here in Arizona. The citizens of our state can and will work any job that offers living wages to attract Arizonians interested in self-sufficiency rather than government dependency.
G. Russell Childress
Email
Modern-day Boomers and Sooners
April 22nd marked the start of the Oklahoma land rush of 1889. At the sound of the starting cannon the "Boomers" began their "mad dash" to stake a legal claim for land. There were others that "jumped the gun" to seek an illegal advantage. History calls those folks "Sooners," a name of derision appropriate for the illegal border-crossers of today. Had the "Gang of Eight" been senators then they would have pandered for the votes of the Sooners, just as they are pandering for the votes of those who are here illegally today. The Gang offers no sense of justice or rewards for the modern day Boomers who have been waiting patiently in the legal immigration line. The modern-day Sooners are racists in the sense they believe they deserve special treatment ahead of all others. The Gang of Eight’s proposed rewards for their illegal jumping of the gun has established a new low. “Law and Order,” once the hallmark of American society, is rapidly disappearing, wounded by political pandering and sanctioned racism.
Jack C. McVickers
Scottsdale
Obama-quester punishes Americans
Excuse me, but a 4 percent cut in the budget, does not equate to a 10 percent cut in air-traffic controllers! You are being had, America! If Obama can't get "his way," he is going to seek revenge and try to pressure the citizenry into making concession after concession, until Freedom and Liberty are but a memory.
A National Park employee (anonymous to prevent whistle-blower retaliation), who conducts guided tours, says they have received instructions to cancel one day of tours, every week, and use sequestration as the reason for the cut backs. However, according to this employee, they have the same number of employees as they did last year, and they are receiving the same pay as last year. So why the cuts?
Our President is a childish, hateful, revengeful, Community Organizer, elevated to "Messiah" status by the uneducated and indoctrinated masses. The uneducated are the majority of illegal aliens who average a sixth grade education level, if any at all, and have never experienced living in freedom. They have been conditioned to having the government make all their decisions and run their lives. The indoctrinated are the young Americans who have been brainwashed by the school system, political correctness, and the idea of a "global" community, where peace and lollypops are the norm. Good Luck on that one!
Mr. Obama, stop being a spoiled child and man up! You are not looking out for America's best interests. You are trying to destroy the greatest country on earth. You are a disgrace!
Rick Galeener
Phoenix
Will County Supervisors award convicted felon Wolfswinkel $5 million?
Judge repeatedly ruling against Wolfswinkel's lawsuit against Maricopa County over "stress" from being prosecuted, so he turns to County Supervisors for settlement
You can't make this stuff up. Convicted felon Conley Wolfswinkel, who was disgraced former County Supervisor Don Stapley's business partner, is demanding $5 million from county taxpayers over Sheriff Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas attempting to prosecute him. The Phoenix New Times exposed Wolfswinkel's dishonest land swaps with Stapley a few years ago.
We've been told that Wolfswinkel's lawsuit against the county hasn't been going so well, the judge has been ruling against him on everything. Realizing he's going to lose and not get even one cent of our money, Wolfswinkel has turned to the County Supervisors, who have a pattern of handing out millions of taxpayers' dollars to anyone who disagrees with Arpaio (and Thomas), in order to make them look bad. Any whistleblower who tries to put a stop to their taxpayer-funded political vendetta spending spree is fired, as happened to poor Deputy County Attorney Maria Brandon.
Will the County Supervisors repeat their generous handouts of taxpayer money and award convicted felon Wolfswinkel millions of dollars, simply to make Arpaio look bad? How many more people have to lose their jobs, reputations, and live savings simply because they tried to put a stop to this kind of corrupt activity? The Supervisors are met recently to discuss his settlement.
Contact the Supervisors NOW and tell them you do not approve of them handing out OUR money to corrupt politicians in order to shame Arpaio.
American Post-Gazette
Distributed by COMMON SENSE, in Arizona
Defending our country should be the top priority
Why is it that when a crazy dictator like Kim Jong-un makes endless threats to our country, most of us laugh it off as mere ramblings from a crazy leader. One could say it's because we know that any futile attack on the United States would surely result in a massive response from the U.S. I think that says great things about our military. Our military superiority is due to the fact that we continue to fund the most technologically advanced projects, like the F-35 Fighter Jet program, so when we are faced with a threat, we can respond quickly and with great force. We may want our government to spend less and become smaller, but it is times like these I am thankful they haven't forgotten that defending our country should be the top priority when it comes to our national budget.
Wesley M. Harris
Phoenix
P.S. - Loved your editorial on the Second amendment!
The day America is disgraced once more
In his keynote address to Planned Parenthood, otherwise known as "Infanticide is Us", Barack Hussein Obama has gone out of his way to supply American with positive information to just how much he represents and is involved in the satanical, blood lusting dark side of the world we live in.
Upset with the GREAT State of North Dakota which has banned abortions if a heartbeat is detected, he accuses those of "turning back the clock" against women's "health'.
Turning back the clock by permitting life to exist?
Read the sentence above until the absurdity of it sinks in.
It takes a truly demented being to think that saving the lives of unborn innocents is somehow "turning back the clock." This from the very same person that loudly and proudly supports and endorses a "religion" that believes it's just fine and dandy to stone a woman to death for being raped or killing someone for converting to a religion other than Islam.
This guy is obviously a murderous radical with no sense of the value of life and no redeeming Judeo-Christian-American values or qualities.
You don't need to believe MY words, you only need to open your eyes and ears and watch as he marches along an ever increasing blood soaked path, chocked with bodies of innocents of all ages, as he moves toward the altars honoring Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
If you truly examine your heart and let common sense enter your mind you will find that Barack Hussein Obama is NO GOOD FOR AMERICA.
"In God We Trust"
Tom Carbone
Phoenix
Keystone Pipeline clogged
The Solar thing just got a little more interesting ... REALLY!
The Tonopah Solar Company in Harry Reid's Nevada is getting a $737 million loan from Obama's D.O.E.
The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employs l45 permanent workers.
That's costing us just $16 million per job.
One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG).
The PCG executive director is Ron Pelosi who is the brother to Nancy's husband.
Every American should know how their money is being stolen.
Jon Marker, U.S. Army (Ret)
Email
IRS overpaid Earned Income Tax Credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has overpaid the earned income tax credit by at least $110.8 billion since 2000, according to a recent Treasury Department inspector general report.
That is more than double the $53 billion of sequester cuts expected in 2013 totaling less than 2 percent of outlays, and puts the lie to those who suggest there is nothing to cut in the federal budget.
The report covered tax years 1999 through 2008, and thus the overpaid expenditures occurred in the following calendar years through 2009. Current data is not available. According to the report, "Because of the time it takes to complete the annual National Research Program, the IRS's annual estimate is based on data that are approximately three years old."
The average minimum overpayment each year was 22.8 percent of all money spent on this particular tax credit, which applies to lower income individuals and couples with children.
Originally enacted in 1975, the program has been expanded numerous times over the years, including in 2009, when it was expanded to include those with three or more children, and married couples.
Benefits under the tax credit often exceed an individual's tax burden, resulting in an effective negative tax rate. Meaning the individual could wind up paying no personal income tax, and yet receive a refund sometimes totaling thousands of dollars.
For example, an individual with an adjusted gross income of less than $37,870 and one child can receive a maximum credit of $3,250. With two children, $5,372, and with three or more children, $6,044.
The report noted that the earned income tax credit was the only program administered by the IRS with "a high risk for improper payments."
Why? How come as much as 1 in 4 dollars of payments from the credit are made improperly? Apparently, the IRS does not perform much verification of claims made on tax returns.
According to the inspector general report, "the IRS cannot conduct extensive eligibility checks similar to those with other Federal programs that typically certify eligibility prior to the issuance of payments or benefits."
The report attributes this to the fact that the agency is required to process tax returns and issue tax refunds within 45 days of receipt.
That, despite the fact that the program will spend approximately $55.1 billion in 2013, according to the White House. This means at least $12.6 billion could be wasted in overpayments this year alone.
Remarkably, the inspector general report does not bother to cite some of the likely causes for the overpayments.
Since the tax credit is administered on the basis of income and family size, there would appear to be three probable causes for the waste. Either, filers are 1) understating their actual income; 2) overstating their family size; or 3) parents are claiming the same kid(s) twice on separate tax returns when children are only supposed to be claimed once.
What is even more amazing is that in this modern data-driven age, the IRS cannot perform straightforward pre-refund verification of tax returns.
By Robert Romano
Americans for Limited Government
www.NetRightDaily.com
Incorrect assumption
After reading the last two post Cave Creek Council election editions of the Sonoran News, I get it. There must have been, and it appears it still exists, a very fiery incestuous relationship between the paper and the soon to be long gone, hosta la vista, see you later, don't let the door hit you on the way out, incumbent Cave Creek Town Council. The paper did not publish any pro-challenger articles or emails of which I am sure existed and probably will continue to be voiced to the Sonoran News. I find this to be very biased and a non-community representative opinion. You might want to listen to all of your readers and the majority of the Cave Creek voting residents. It has actually become so bad, that even my cat won't piss on the paper anymore.
Chris Finnerty
Cave Creek
Editor note: To date Sonoran News has received one letter in support of council challengers. It was grossly inaccurate and would have required a clarifying editor note that would have required more space than the letter.
Diehard Republican says Obama is right: Republicans are hypocrites
There is not very much that a lifelong Republican like me can find to praise about President Obama’s politics but his idea to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority is certainly on that list. It disgusts me to learn that several prominent Republicans are criticizing this proposal. This rank hypocrisy and failure to live up to free market principles are why the second Bush administration will go down in history as one of the worst presidencies. If Republicans cannot support a clearly sensible measure to privatize this huge government bureaucracy then the Republican Party will accelerate its spiral into oblivion.
Roy Miller
Phoenix
