I had to grin when I read this (which was also reported on the local news), that the Mexicans got disoriented along the border. What Mexican does not know that following the Colorado river north will get you into the US?!?! Especially since this isn't the first such incident. Most of these don't even make national news.
I think los mexicanos are providing security for the drug runners.
___
Border Patrol detains Mexican army unit
Oct. 31, 2008 03:48 PM
Associated Press
YUMA - The U.S. Border Patrol says it detained a Mexican army unit that had apparently accidentally crossed into the U.S. near Yuma early Friday.
The Mexican army Hummer and seven armed soldiers were found along the Colorado River less than a mile north of the border. Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bernacke says the Hummer was apparently disabled. Agents approached the vehicle, questioned the soldiers and took them into custody without incident.
Bernacke says the soldiers claimed they had become disoriented while on a patrol and accidentally crossed into the U.S. The border is poorly marked in the area.
The soldiers were taken to the border crossing in nearby San Luis, processed for return to Mexico and handed over to their commanding officer.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/265093.php
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/31/20081031border-incursion1031-ON.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/14/mexican-soldiers-crossed-clear-line/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11226144/
Friday, October 31, 2008
"Can you come in?"
The phone rang at 6am. I could hear Kevin's voice on the answering machine. I knew right away it was the school asking me to sub.
I accepted.
I arrived at a school dressed for Halloween: witches, clowns, draculas, saloon madames (very popular in an Old West town), princesses and elves were popular. One young man was dressed as a banana with a Chiquita sticker on his forehead. Without that sticker he could have passed for a yellow condom...
Today was another easy (re: boring!) day dealing with students on truancy, delinquency or special needs. I figured I'd have a rough time but even the three football players who came in for after-school detention were gentlemen.
It never got rowdy like I was warned it would get. I actually had some nice conversations, including a sweet young lady who has to leave school twice a week to drive her disabled mom to the chiropractor.
I even was able to read a chapter in an American History book "The Great West" by David Lavender, published in 1965 by American Heritage Books. The forced resettlement of the native Americans was one chapter that caught my attention, and which took me all day to read.
Another sub recognized me from the middle school, and for 15 minutes she reminisced on our four days together earlier this month. She mentioned kids' names I wished she hadn't mentioned, as many of the middle school students are known by older students in the high school and there were several students in class when she dropped by.
One of the students warned me that the classroom I was in was infested with bees. By the end of the day I saw three bees flying around the classroom. There were many more bees near the garbage bins on the other side of the school grounds.
***
I got home shortly after 4pm, feeling another bout of the sniffles and sneezes coming. And I wasn't in the mood to sit outside and pass out candy for Halloween.
Yappity dogs in the neighborhood barked all night long. Our dogs were restless.
The kids came by in short groups. The first two came at 5:45pm, the next group of four came at 6:22pm, another group of four, then three, then two. Where were the massive groups we had in 2005, when we had two huge bowls of candy and almost ran out?
"They are at the mall" said Kevin.
The mall's eight miles away!
I ended up passing four pieces of candy each to the little ones, knowing that we'd have a lot of left overs this year.
I accepted.
I arrived at a school dressed for Halloween: witches, clowns, draculas, saloon madames (very popular in an Old West town), princesses and elves were popular. One young man was dressed as a banana with a Chiquita sticker on his forehead. Without that sticker he could have passed for a yellow condom...
Today was another easy (re: boring!) day dealing with students on truancy, delinquency or special needs. I figured I'd have a rough time but even the three football players who came in for after-school detention were gentlemen.
It never got rowdy like I was warned it would get. I actually had some nice conversations, including a sweet young lady who has to leave school twice a week to drive her disabled mom to the chiropractor.
I even was able to read a chapter in an American History book "The Great West" by David Lavender, published in 1965 by American Heritage Books. The forced resettlement of the native Americans was one chapter that caught my attention, and which took me all day to read.
Another sub recognized me from the middle school, and for 15 minutes she reminisced on our four days together earlier this month. She mentioned kids' names I wished she hadn't mentioned, as many of the middle school students are known by older students in the high school and there were several students in class when she dropped by.
One of the students warned me that the classroom I was in was infested with bees. By the end of the day I saw three bees flying around the classroom. There were many more bees near the garbage bins on the other side of the school grounds.
***
I got home shortly after 4pm, feeling another bout of the sniffles and sneezes coming. And I wasn't in the mood to sit outside and pass out candy for Halloween.
Yappity dogs in the neighborhood barked all night long. Our dogs were restless.
The kids came by in short groups. The first two came at 5:45pm, the next group of four came at 6:22pm, another group of four, then three, then two. Where were the massive groups we had in 2005, when we had two huge bowls of candy and almost ran out?
"They are at the mall" said Kevin.
The mall's eight miles away!
I ended up passing four pieces of candy each to the little ones, knowing that we'd have a lot of left overs this year.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Oh, dear
The hikes the last few days have worn me out. I was exhausted in yesterday’s class and fatigued all day today. I had no energy to do anything, even with three sets of dog eyes watching my every movement and waiting for clues that meant I was going outside for a walk: putting on my shoes, dangling my car keys, putting on my floppy hat.
I felt more tired and more weak as the day progressed. I didn’t even have the energy to check on the vegetable garden. I probably caught either a flu or cold virus from a classmate last night.
The dogs watched me forlorn from a safe distance—they don’t trust me when I have the water hose in my hand—and followed me all over the house when I was inside. I never had a moment to myself.
It drizzled briefly in the early afternoon, enough to wet the grass. Even the short rain wasn't in the forecast.
By 3pm I couldn’t take their anticipation anymore. “Let’s Go!” I yelled, and in no time all three dogs were beside themselves with glee and knocking each other over to get to the front door.
I didn’t drive far, just Hunter Canyon. I had enough energy to walk the lower trail out and back for 1.5 miles, skirting the main road due to dirt bike traffic, until I came to the Kelly Springs campsite popular with target shooters.
There was a lot of new brass on the ground. I stopped here, picked up most of the brass…and more brass. There was so much there my jeans pockets were getting too full, making walking difficult. The dogs sat in the shade and watched.
Sammy found a mule deer leg and was crunching on it to pass the time. (Mule deer hunting season opened 24 October) I thought he was chewing on a twig until I came up close. He didn’t want me to take the bones from him when we left to walk back to the SUV, so I carried the deer leg, hoof and all, with me down the trail. It was still a fresh leg, with red bloody muscle fibers visible from the exposed tendons. I would have looked weird had anyone seen me with that deer leg in my hand, like a surrealistic photograph from the wild.
"Sorry, Ma'am, do you have a hunting license for that deer leg?"
The dogs enjoyed their venison bones all evening long. All three dogs got one joint which kept them busy. From every corner of the house I heard bone-crunching noises. The last time I brought home a deer leg Sara ate the entire leg. There was not even a thread of deer fur in the yard afterwards.
I felt more tired and more weak as the day progressed. I didn’t even have the energy to check on the vegetable garden. I probably caught either a flu or cold virus from a classmate last night.
The dogs watched me forlorn from a safe distance—they don’t trust me when I have the water hose in my hand—and followed me all over the house when I was inside. I never had a moment to myself.
It drizzled briefly in the early afternoon, enough to wet the grass. Even the short rain wasn't in the forecast.
By 3pm I couldn’t take their anticipation anymore. “Let’s Go!” I yelled, and in no time all three dogs were beside themselves with glee and knocking each other over to get to the front door.
I didn’t drive far, just Hunter Canyon. I had enough energy to walk the lower trail out and back for 1.5 miles, skirting the main road due to dirt bike traffic, until I came to the Kelly Springs campsite popular with target shooters.
There was a lot of new brass on the ground. I stopped here, picked up most of the brass…and more brass. There was so much there my jeans pockets were getting too full, making walking difficult. The dogs sat in the shade and watched.
Sammy found a mule deer leg and was crunching on it to pass the time. (Mule deer hunting season opened 24 October) I thought he was chewing on a twig until I came up close. He didn’t want me to take the bones from him when we left to walk back to the SUV, so I carried the deer leg, hoof and all, with me down the trail. It was still a fresh leg, with red bloody muscle fibers visible from the exposed tendons. I would have looked weird had anyone seen me with that deer leg in my hand, like a surrealistic photograph from the wild.
"Sorry, Ma'am, do you have a hunting license for that deer leg?"
The dogs enjoyed their venison bones all evening long. All three dogs got one joint which kept them busy. From every corner of the house I heard bone-crunching noises. The last time I brought home a deer leg Sara ate the entire leg. There was not even a thread of deer fur in the yard afterwards.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
San Pedro River Trail--Hereford Bridge South
Autumn days fly by too fast. I wanted to leave the house at 8:30am and instead didn’t leave until 9:40am, with three very excited dogs. They know by now that a ride in the Escape means a ride to a trailhead.
Today was a relatively short hike of around four miles. I parked at the San Pedro River-Hereford Bridge parking area and proceeded south along a single-track that led through amber fields of…itchy, dry ragweed. The dogs had to stop many times to scrape the embedded seeds off their fur as I swiped the pesky seedsoff my jeans.
It was another hot and exposed hike but at least on this stretch the river was within easy reach. There were so many illegal trails that led directly to the river that I never knew if I was trespassing or not. I took the dogs three times each way to the river to refresh themselves.
I wanted to hike to the Lehrer Kill Site and back, an unmarked, hard-to-find portion along this part of the river trail. I never found it. When the trail led directly toward a house and private property, I turned around. By then we had walked over an hour anyway, longer than I thought we would be out exploring.
I took the dogs to the river where we rested for 20 minutes. The red-winged grasshoppers were especially annoying today, clacking their wings around us, jumping up from the dried grass, enticing Sadie to chase them into the river where many of the grasshoppers doomed themselves to drown. The San Pedro is especially pretty along this section. On the return hike I took a 30-minute break to let the dogs chill near the water while I lay back, mesmerized by the sounds of babbling waters and the distant calls of song birds.
The high peaks of the Huachucas were to my west. Shaded homes on large lots were dotted along the river. If I could buy property in southern Arizona, it would be here, near the river, where one can enjoy the silent flights of hawks, owls and other raptors as they swirl around the big skies.
I was lucky that we didn’t meet any horses. The dogs were off leash and we were near ranches; I always had my eyes open.
Today was a relatively short hike of around four miles. I parked at the San Pedro River-Hereford Bridge parking area and proceeded south along a single-track that led through amber fields of…itchy, dry ragweed. The dogs had to stop many times to scrape the embedded seeds off their fur as I swiped the pesky seedsoff my jeans.
It was another hot and exposed hike but at least on this stretch the river was within easy reach. There were so many illegal trails that led directly to the river that I never knew if I was trespassing or not. I took the dogs three times each way to the river to refresh themselves.
I wanted to hike to the Lehrer Kill Site and back, an unmarked, hard-to-find portion along this part of the river trail. I never found it. When the trail led directly toward a house and private property, I turned around. By then we had walked over an hour anyway, longer than I thought we would be out exploring.
I took the dogs to the river where we rested for 20 minutes. The red-winged grasshoppers were especially annoying today, clacking their wings around us, jumping up from the dried grass, enticing Sadie to chase them into the river where many of the grasshoppers doomed themselves to drown. The San Pedro is especially pretty along this section. On the return hike I took a 30-minute break to let the dogs chill near the water while I lay back, mesmerized by the sounds of babbling waters and the distant calls of song birds.
The high peaks of the Huachucas were to my west. Shaded homes on large lots were dotted along the river. If I could buy property in southern Arizona, it would be here, near the river, where one can enjoy the silent flights of hawks, owls and other raptors as they swirl around the big skies.
I was lucky that we didn’t meet any horses. The dogs were off leash and we were near ranches; I always had my eyes open.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Upper Ash Canyon
Time went by fast today. I wanted to take the dogs on an early hike if the school didn’t call by 8am. I didn’t leave the house until after 2pm and got to the Ash Canyon Road turn-off twenty minutes later.
The dogs jumped out of the truck as soon as I reached the National Forest sign. I drove slowly up the canyon, stopped briefly at the first creek, let the dogs rest, then drove another half-mile to the upper-most parking area. One other truck was already there.
The truck belonged to a local man who was told by his friends to drive up to Ash Canyon to look for gold. I spotted him resting in the shade of a Manzanita tree, smoking a cigarette. All the dogs alerted me that a man was up ahead. When I saw him I was relieved. He was neither a hunter nor an illegal.
“This is my first time up this trail” he explained as he showed me his gold panning material.
“You won’t find any gold here, but down in the dry creek bed. After a heavy rain people prospect for gold down there and find flakes from time to time. Just be careful up the trail, this is a popular trail with illegals coming down the mountain.”
"Oh great! I just came to explore. I saw on Google Earth all the trails here, and you could see where the illegals trashed the place."
After a few more friendly exchanges, I wished him well and continued up the right fork of the trail. This trail got steeper and rockier. I explored the many dead-end side trails until I opted to hike the main trail to the end. The trail got steeper, rockier and cooler. My lungs felt like they were ready to burst.
I recognized the dead-end. I had been here before, years ago. I just didn’t realize this was from the right trail. My memory had me thinking this high meet-up was from the left trail. So what is now on the other trail?
Old clothes, dirty backpacks, empty plastic bottles lay around, off another illegal trail that went up an even steeper, narrower trail.
I had to turn around here. It was 3:40pm and the sun had already set behind me. It was cooler, and the dogs were acting more animated.
On the way down Sadie started barking. All three dogs took off running down the trail. Had they spotted something, someone? The trail was too curvy for me to see far, and the close-lying manzanitas hid my view. I stumbled as I panicked, nearly spraining my right hand in the fall. I dropped Kevin’s sunglasses when I fell and had to walk back up the steep trail to retrieve them. I stopped to listen. I heard nothing. But the dogs remained aggitated.
Whatever spooked the dogs had either slipped off or hidden. The rest of the walk back down to my car was uneventful.
I don’t think I am going to go into the mountains in the afternoon anymore. It’s getting too dark and too cold too soon now.
The dogs jumped out of the truck as soon as I reached the National Forest sign. I drove slowly up the canyon, stopped briefly at the first creek, let the dogs rest, then drove another half-mile to the upper-most parking area. One other truck was already there.
The truck belonged to a local man who was told by his friends to drive up to Ash Canyon to look for gold. I spotted him resting in the shade of a Manzanita tree, smoking a cigarette. All the dogs alerted me that a man was up ahead. When I saw him I was relieved. He was neither a hunter nor an illegal.
“This is my first time up this trail” he explained as he showed me his gold panning material.
“You won’t find any gold here, but down in the dry creek bed. After a heavy rain people prospect for gold down there and find flakes from time to time. Just be careful up the trail, this is a popular trail with illegals coming down the mountain.”
"Oh great! I just came to explore. I saw on Google Earth all the trails here, and you could see where the illegals trashed the place."
After a few more friendly exchanges, I wished him well and continued up the right fork of the trail. This trail got steeper and rockier. I explored the many dead-end side trails until I opted to hike the main trail to the end. The trail got steeper, rockier and cooler. My lungs felt like they were ready to burst.
I recognized the dead-end. I had been here before, years ago. I just didn’t realize this was from the right trail. My memory had me thinking this high meet-up was from the left trail. So what is now on the other trail?
Old clothes, dirty backpacks, empty plastic bottles lay around, off another illegal trail that went up an even steeper, narrower trail.
I had to turn around here. It was 3:40pm and the sun had already set behind me. It was cooler, and the dogs were acting more animated.
On the way down Sadie started barking. All three dogs took off running down the trail. Had they spotted something, someone? The trail was too curvy for me to see far, and the close-lying manzanitas hid my view. I stumbled as I panicked, nearly spraining my right hand in the fall. I dropped Kevin’s sunglasses when I fell and had to walk back up the steep trail to retrieve them. I stopped to listen. I heard nothing. But the dogs remained aggitated.
Whatever spooked the dogs had either slipped off or hidden. The rest of the walk back down to my car was uneventful.
I don’t think I am going to go into the mountains in the afternoon anymore. It’s getting too dark and too cold too soon now.
Douglas High School shuts down
This was all over KVOA this morning (but nothing yet in the Daily Star). This sounds like a copy-cat version from a few weeks ago when several major banks received envelopes mailed from Amarillo TX from disgruntled former homeowners after their homes were foreclosed. The envelopes contained a benign white substance.
Somehow, the conversation I had with Rob in the Stock Exchange Saloon about the Douglas school district came to mind. "It's a family community" he said. Perhaps it's a dysfunctional family community...
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9249139
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/28/news/doc4907bc19b84f1184995959.txt
http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=9255047
Douglas officials shut down high school, medical center emergency room
Oct 28, 2008 03:55 AM CDT
Officials in Douglas have shut down the emergency room, at Southeast Arizona Medical Center, and temporarily closed Douglas High School, based on two separate incidents, police have not connected.
Police say on Friday, a student brought a substance to Ray Borane Middle School. Contact with the substance sent the principal to the hospital. According to the school's web site, the substance is benign, and the school will remain open.
On Monday, police say an administrative assistant at Douglas High School opened a letter addressed to her. A white powdery substance was inside. That person went to the medical center, while the powder is being sent to a lab in Phoenix for testing.
Until test results are in, the entire emergency room has been shut down, and is not accepting any patients.
Somehow, the conversation I had with Rob in the Stock Exchange Saloon about the Douglas school district came to mind. "It's a family community" he said. Perhaps it's a dysfunctional family community...
http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=9249139
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/28/news/doc4907bc19b84f1184995959.txt
http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=9255047
Douglas officials shut down high school, medical center emergency room
Oct 28, 2008 03:55 AM CDT
Officials in Douglas have shut down the emergency room, at Southeast Arizona Medical Center, and temporarily closed Douglas High School, based on two separate incidents, police have not connected.
Police say on Friday, a student brought a substance to Ray Borane Middle School. Contact with the substance sent the principal to the hospital. According to the school's web site, the substance is benign, and the school will remain open.
On Monday, police say an administrative assistant at Douglas High School opened a letter addressed to her. A white powdery substance was inside. That person went to the medical center, while the powder is being sent to a lab in Phoenix for testing.
Until test results are in, the entire emergency room has been shut down, and is not accepting any patients.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Mountain Lion killed after stalking hiker and his dog
This incident happened in the Santa Ritas, home of 9400' Mount Wrightson, near the Super Trail. I had considered hiking in the area this weekend to explore the Chinaman trail (which is on the east and northeast side of the mountain), but ended up spending too much time in front of the computer doing research for my EDU class.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/264313
http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=9241339
Mountain lion killed after menacing hiker
By Alex Dalenberg
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 10.27.2008
Game officers found and killed a mountain lion Sunday afternoon that stalked a hiker and his dog in a popular recreation area in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.
The hiker was walking with his dog on a trail Saturday near Madera Canyon when he saw that he was being followed by a mountain lion, said Heidi Schewel, a spokeswoman for Coronado National Forest.
It's possible that the lion saw the dog as prey, she said.
As the mountain lion got closer, the hiker "did everything that he was supposed to do" — shouting and making himself look bigger by waving his arms, Schewel said.
When the lion didn't stop, the hiker fired two warning shots into the air with his gun. When the lion kept coming, he shot at it, and this time it ran away.
The hiker didn't know if he hit the lion or not, Schewel said.
The incident was troubling to Forest Service officials because the lion showed no fear of humans. "It was not acting in a way that normal mountain lions act," Schewel said.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officers were able to find and kill the lion Sunday about 2 p.m., she said.
The officers used dogs to track the lion, which had been lingering around several camping and picnic areas.
They eventually caught the animal near Bog Springs Campground in the Madera Canyon Recreation Area, "too close for comfort," Schewel said.
Because the lion had lost its fear of people and had become "an obvious threat to human safety," officers had little choice but to kill it, Schewel said.
While there is no longer an immediate threat in Madera Canyon, forest officials urge visitors to wild lands to remain cautious and to learn tips on staying safe if they encounter aggressive mountain lions.
Reno, Nevada had a close encounter, too:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/10/27/harrington.mountain.lion.kolo
As well as Pacific Grove, CA, where I used to live with the kids
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_10879306?nclick_check=1
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/264313
http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=9241339
Mountain lion killed after menacing hiker
By Alex Dalenberg
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 10.27.2008
Game officers found and killed a mountain lion Sunday afternoon that stalked a hiker and his dog in a popular recreation area in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson.
The hiker was walking with his dog on a trail Saturday near Madera Canyon when he saw that he was being followed by a mountain lion, said Heidi Schewel, a spokeswoman for Coronado National Forest.
It's possible that the lion saw the dog as prey, she said.
As the mountain lion got closer, the hiker "did everything that he was supposed to do" — shouting and making himself look bigger by waving his arms, Schewel said.
When the lion didn't stop, the hiker fired two warning shots into the air with his gun. When the lion kept coming, he shot at it, and this time it ran away.
The hiker didn't know if he hit the lion or not, Schewel said.
The incident was troubling to Forest Service officials because the lion showed no fear of humans. "It was not acting in a way that normal mountain lions act," Schewel said.
Arizona Game and Fish Department officers were able to find and kill the lion Sunday about 2 p.m., she said.
The officers used dogs to track the lion, which had been lingering around several camping and picnic areas.
They eventually caught the animal near Bog Springs Campground in the Madera Canyon Recreation Area, "too close for comfort," Schewel said.
Because the lion had lost its fear of people and had become "an obvious threat to human safety," officers had little choice but to kill it, Schewel said.
While there is no longer an immediate threat in Madera Canyon, forest officials urge visitors to wild lands to remain cautious and to learn tips on staying safe if they encounter aggressive mountain lions.
Reno, Nevada had a close encounter, too:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/10/27/harrington.mountain.lion.kolo
As well as Pacific Grove, CA, where I used to live with the kids
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_10879306?nclick_check=1
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The San Pedro River Trail-Palominas Section
I finally got myself torn from the internet to take a hike this afternoon with the dogs. In hindsight, I should have done this in the morning, as it turned out to be a hot and dry hike in the beginning.
I took the dogs to the most southern terminus of the San Pedro River Trail, a 40-mile long trail in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, or SPRNCA. This pretty section is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is free and only 11 miles from the house.
I took the dogs to the most southern terminus of the San Pedro River Trail, a 40-mile long trail in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, or SPRNCA. This pretty section is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, is free and only 11 miles from the house.
I didn't get to the trailhead until 2:20pm, taking the dogs first to the river to let them splash around before starting on the hot and exposed path southward to the border.
"The Girls" love to run in and out of the water, take a drink, run back up the shore to romp, then run back down to the river to do their antics all over again. ) Sam stays on dry land watching the "girls" and sometimes I wonder what he thinks of them. "Those silly girls" he must be thinking in Caninese.
I had no idea how far I was going to make it, knowing that it gets dark by 5pm now. I only had water with me and wore shoes meant for the backyard and not the frontier.
Hiking for me is like eating potato chips. It's hard for me to just stop and turn around. I decided I would hike as far as the dogs would let me, as Sara or Sammy will lay down in the shade to let me know they need a break.
I figured I'd walk an hour south, rest, then turn around. But then I came across a surveillance tower halfway through the hike, then saw a windmill and some homes further down the path. I made the windmill my absolute turn-around point. The dogs could get some water, refresh and we'd head back north to the parking lot.
The river is one of the few free-flowing rivers left in Arizona. It's not a long river, and certainly not a wide river, but it's wellknown for birding. Hawks, owls, vermillion fly catchers, mallards call this riparian area their home.
But I saw none of the big birds today. I only saw lots of coyote scat along the trail.
Kevin and I have already done most of the rest of this pretty trail along the river in the years we have lived here, but not this section. Normally when we go to "The River" we walk along the stream on trails blazed by the illegals. Downstream there are a few historic sites of old ranches or mammoth finds. I saw jasper and agate along the trail.
I left the house wearing my eight-year-old leather Timberland open-toe sandals, shoes not fit for walking eight miles. I’ve seen Haitians with better shoes than the ones I wore today. I only wear the sandals around the house; the soles are getting thin and the leather is cracking.
I had never hiked this section before. Kevin and I walked nearby about a month ago, with the dogs, but we were following the dry wash and not the official trail.
And quite frankly, I most likely won’t walk this stretch again soon. It would make a great winter hike with some frost on the trail, but the exposed trail, the wide path and the lack of any water makes this stretch of the SPRNCA rather boring. Illegals coming across the border could also make this section potentially dangerous. (I saw little trash and no illegals today)
I did this section because it’s close to the house and the trails in the mountains are busy with hunters shooting deer. It also gives me an excuse to say I did this section of the long trail.
The dogs got hot fast. They let me know when they needed a rest when they’d stop and lay down in the shade of a mesquite tree. I had enough water for the hike, but I rationed what I had.
The trail was nothing more than an exposed jeep trail used by the Border Patrol to monitor illegal traffic. A satellite tower was two miles from the border. The San Pedro River was a half mile to the west. Despite the name, the trail never came close to the river, and what little water there was was warm mud on the trail. Tall grass with mature seedheads lined the trail
I saw few birds: ring-neck doves and finches dotted the smaller trees, but they would fly away when we approached. The only living thing I saw walking south was a centipede crawling across the trail. (We saw more wildlife coming back in the cooler shade, as the dogs chased some mule deer and the birds came out to sing in the dead branches of stray cottonwoods)
It took me 90 minutes to get to the border. A row of shack homes was visible on the Sonoran side. The windmill and water tank for cattle that I saw from a distance turned out to be south of the fence.
I had never hiked this section before. Kevin and I walked nearby about a month ago, with the dogs, but we were following the dry wash and not the official trail.
And quite frankly, I most likely won’t walk this stretch again soon. It would make a great winter hike with some frost on the trail, but the exposed trail, the wide path and the lack of any water makes this stretch of the SPRNCA rather boring. Illegals coming across the border could also make this section potentially dangerous. (I saw little trash and no illegals today)
I did this section because it’s close to the house and the trails in the mountains are busy with hunters shooting deer. It also gives me an excuse to say I did this section of the long trail.
The dogs got hot fast. They let me know when they needed a rest when they’d stop and lay down in the shade of a mesquite tree. I had enough water for the hike, but I rationed what I had.
The trail was nothing more than an exposed jeep trail used by the Border Patrol to monitor illegal traffic. A satellite tower was two miles from the border. The San Pedro River was a half mile to the west. Despite the name, the trail never came close to the river, and what little water there was was warm mud on the trail. Tall grass with mature seedheads lined the trail
I saw few birds: ring-neck doves and finches dotted the smaller trees, but they would fly away when we approached. The only living thing I saw walking south was a centipede crawling across the trail. (We saw more wildlife coming back in the cooler shade, as the dogs chased some mule deer and the birds came out to sing in the dead branches of stray cottonwoods)
It took me 90 minutes to get to the border. A row of shack homes was visible on the Sonoran side. The windmill and water tank for cattle that I saw from a distance turned out to be south of the fence.
I saw no life on the other side of the border.
The new 14’ tall metal fence is already erected in this section, and a wide border road parallels the fence into the horizon. The steel slabs are about six inches apart so that small animals can get through, but not humans or large animals.
The fence threw long shadows in the late afternoon sun. I didn’t get to the border until 4:20pm. We stayed long enough to take some photos, but I knew I had to beat feet back to the car before sunset.
I barely made it. The sun sunk behind the mountains at 5:26pm. The light went quickly to dark red to purple. By 6pm it was dark. It took me 70 minutes to walk back.
A lone Border Patrol stood near my truck as I got back to the parking lot. Sara stopped in her tracks when she saw the agent. That was an alarm for me. At first I thought the person in that dark uniform was a Mexican waiting for a ride out of the area, but once I spotted the shoulder patch I felt safe. The dogs barked at the man but he knew they were harmless.
“I am a legal citizen of the United States and so are the dogs!” I jokingly told him. He was alone.
“You don’t have a partner out here?” I asked him
“No, I am just here to check out the wash”
“I didn’t see anything or anyone on the entire trail, but we stayed on the trail” (and not the wash where many illegals walk instead because the wash is lower than the trail)
The agent walked down the wash a bit, but as soon as I drove off, he did too. He was probably waiting for me, the driver of the parked car, to return to make sure I wasn’t picking up any illegals, and only used the excuse to walk down the wash to prevent me from being suspicious. (It didn't work!)
The fence threw long shadows in the late afternoon sun. I didn’t get to the border until 4:20pm. We stayed long enough to take some photos, but I knew I had to beat feet back to the car before sunset.
I barely made it. The sun sunk behind the mountains at 5:26pm. The light went quickly to dark red to purple. By 6pm it was dark. It took me 70 minutes to walk back.
A lone Border Patrol stood near my truck as I got back to the parking lot. Sara stopped in her tracks when she saw the agent. That was an alarm for me. At first I thought the person in that dark uniform was a Mexican waiting for a ride out of the area, but once I spotted the shoulder patch I felt safe. The dogs barked at the man but he knew they were harmless.
“I am a legal citizen of the United States and so are the dogs!” I jokingly told him. He was alone.
“You don’t have a partner out here?” I asked him
“No, I am just here to check out the wash”
“I didn’t see anything or anyone on the entire trail, but we stayed on the trail” (and not the wash where many illegals walk instead because the wash is lower than the trail)
The agent walked down the wash a bit, but as soon as I drove off, he did too. He was probably waiting for me, the driver of the parked car, to return to make sure I wasn’t picking up any illegals, and only used the excuse to walk down the wash to prevent me from being suspicious. (It didn't work!)
But I understand and support his mission. Our border needs to be protected and I don't want to stand in the way of his job. There are plenty of illegals who use the river as a crossing point; I see the USBP pick them up on my way to Bisbee in the mornings.
A sign at the trailhead reminds visitors that the trail was for “Day Use Only.” I had barely made it!
Kevin called to see where I was. He had driven to the parking area just before I arrived back at the car.
The dogs were exhausted and so was I when we got back. Kevin made a delicious roast beef meal, with home-grown beets, beans and butternut squash.
A sign at the trailhead reminds visitors that the trail was for “Day Use Only.” I had barely made it!
Kevin called to see where I was. He had driven to the parking area just before I arrived back at the car.
The dogs were exhausted and so was I when we got back. Kevin made a delicious roast beef meal, with home-grown beets, beans and butternut squash.
Sara got a warm bath after dinner. The mud she rolled around in had crusted thickly around her belly. She would have left mud crumbs all over the house. Oh, how she hates baths!
http://www.discoverseaz.com/Attractions/SPRNCA.html
http://www.discoverseaz.com/Attractions/SPRNCA.html
Saturday, October 25, 2008
More drug killings on the border
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/263955.php
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/263802.php
This was front-page news in yesterday's Arizona Daily Star out of Tucson.
Running battle with police kills 10 gunmen in Nogales
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 10.24.2008
NOGALES, Sonora — Just minutes after Fausto Hopkins arrived Thursday morning for work at his food service company in the heart of Nogales, gunfire crackled outside the building.
As he huddled for safety behind closed doors in his office at about 6:30 a.m., Hopkins counted more than 200 gunshots. Many were right outside his business.
Hopkins was listening to the beginning of a deadly shootout and chase between heavily armed organized-crime gunmen and Mexican law-enforcement officers that sped through the city streets just a couple of miles from the border.
The rolling gunbattle went past supermarkets and malls and down side streets before ending in an industrial park.
That's where a vehicle full of men with AK-47 rifles and grenades was hit by police gunfire, went out of control and flew off an embankment. The vehicle crashed into the brick wall of the state prison, killing four of the six occupants and bringing an end to the chase.
A total of 10 gunmen were confirmed dead by Mexican officials. Three bystanders were injured, one of whom was in the hospital after being shot in the pelvis, said Arturo RamÃrez Camacho, Nogales, Sonora's, police chief. At least two officers were hurt but not seriously, RamÃrez said.
"It was something terrible," said Hopkins. "It was something totally unexpected."
Violence growing
Unfortunately for Hopkins and other Nogalenses, the shootouts are becoming more common every day.
Thursday's incident is the latest example of a deadly gunbattle occurring during daylight hours and near heavily frequented places in Nogales, Sonora — where drug cartels are battling for prized smuggling turf and Mexican law enforcement is trying to clamp down on their activity.
There has been a spike in homicides this year in Nogales — 76 through September, surpassing the 2007 total of 52 and more than doubling the 2006 total of 35. Most of them have been attributed to drug cartel-fueled violence.
The unprecedented bloodshed landed the city on the U.S. State Department's updated travel alert for Mexico that was released Oct. 14. The alert — which warns travelers about dangerous situations but doesn't instruct them not to go — put Nogales alongside notoriously dangerous cities such as Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo.
It mentioned Nogales as one of the cities that "recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues," which would describe Thursday's gunbattle.
At Hopkins' company, known as Superior Food Service in the United States, stray bullets hit his building, his personal car and four of the company's delivery trucks, causing an estimated $5,000 in damage, he said.
Hopkins, who owns the business with his two sons, said he felt fortunate — he could have found himself in the crossfire had he arrived a few minutes later. "I don't care about the monetary losses, that's the least of my worries," Hopkins said.
That doesn't mean he and other business owners in the border city aren't getting fed up with the ongoing violence. One of the gunmen died on the driveway of Hopkins' business, the blood stain still visible in the afternoon. "We feel very insecure," Hopkins said.
Started near city sports park
The events began when state police officers stopped an SUV on Avenida Tecnológico, in front of the Unidad Deportiva, a city sports park, RamÃrez said.
While making the stop, people in another vehicle, a Chevrolet Avalanche, opened fire on the state police officers.
Those gunmen drove around the corner, in front of Superior Food Service building and waited for police, opening fire on them when they came around the corner. Here, one gunmen was killed and another wounded.
The gunmen sped off southwest on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio, past the Soriana supermarket to the west and the Nogales mall to the east. They were followed by state, federal and municipal police, RamÃrez said.
Another shootout, apparently involving the SUV that had been originally stopped by officers, took place further to the southwest, where two gunmen were killed and the three innocent people were injured, RamÃrez said.
The chase involving the Avalanche continued onto a side street near Colonia Las Bellotas and onto a street that goes past the state prison and the industrial park. Here, the gunmen threw grenades at the officers.
It ended when police gunfire hit the Avalanche, causing the driver to lose control and crash into the prison wall. Four were dead at the scene. Two injured gunmen were arrested.
It was unclear where the other three gunmen died, but the incident involved a total of four vehicles with gunmen aboard, RamÃrez said.
Police seized four vehicles, two grenades, five rifles and six handguns. The chase involving the Avalanche lasted about 20 minutes, he said.
No claim of victory
Even though no police officers died in the shootout, RamÃrez stopped short of calling Thursday's gunbattle a victory.
"It's obvious it's a war but to talk about victories when it puts the residents at risk, I think that's difficult," RamÃrez said. "How many people were innocently leaving their houses for work and school and all of sudden, they are at risk in a shootout?"
When asked if the shootout will cause even more concern among prospective U.S. tourists who are already worried about travel through Nogales due to the State Department alert, RamÃrez echoed what other city officials have said: The battles only affect police and those involved in the drug trade.
"It's true there is a problem in this city, this state, this country that we can't hide," RamÃrez said. "But, it's nothing that puts people who are coming for other activities at risk."
But, even Manuel Hopkins, the son of Fausto Hopkins, who lives in Nogales, Ariz., acknowledged that with each new incident, it changes the way people behave.
"You have to be more cautious from now on," Manuel Hopkins said. "We don't feel targeted, but you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like my dad today."
The Nogales shooting was one of several in border cities across Mexico in which four men were shot dead in front of a crowd at an amusement park, a toddler died after the car he was traveling in crashed during a gunbattle, and a businessman was killed after leading a protest against violence, officials said Thursday.
All together, 21 people died during 24 hours across Mexico, which is waging a fierce battle against drug traffickers and other criminal gangs.
In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, the four men were shot inside a go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park Wednesday night, said Alejandro Pariente, a spokesman for the local prosecutor’s office. The park had been filled with teenagers, bicycling through obstacle courses, skating and rappelling.
Police had no suspects and had not disclosed possible motives for the shootings.
Elsewhere in the city, a used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main boulevard hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a protest against kidnappings and extortion, Pariente said.
The protesters had gathered at the Treasury Department’s local offices, threatening to close their businesses or stop paying taxes if they did not receive police protection. One protester, who refused to give his name because he feared for his safety, said hundreds of business owners have been targeted by extortioners who demand up to US$500 a week for “protection” against crime. Others have been kidnapped for ransom.
In Tijuana, a 1-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver tried to flee a gunbattle late Wednesday between police and three armed men, officials in the state prosecutor’s office said. The toddler, who had been sitting in his mother’s lap, died from the impact of the crash.
Outside the northeastern city of Monterrey, meanwhile, a soldier, the director of a security firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a highway Wednesday, officials from the prosecutor’s office said. At least 10 soldiers have been found dead in Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, in the past two weeks.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/263802.php
This was front-page news in yesterday's Arizona Daily Star out of Tucson.
Running battle with police kills 10 gunmen in Nogales
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 10.24.2008
NOGALES, Sonora — Just minutes after Fausto Hopkins arrived Thursday morning for work at his food service company in the heart of Nogales, gunfire crackled outside the building.
As he huddled for safety behind closed doors in his office at about 6:30 a.m., Hopkins counted more than 200 gunshots. Many were right outside his business.
Hopkins was listening to the beginning of a deadly shootout and chase between heavily armed organized-crime gunmen and Mexican law-enforcement officers that sped through the city streets just a couple of miles from the border.
The rolling gunbattle went past supermarkets and malls and down side streets before ending in an industrial park.
That's where a vehicle full of men with AK-47 rifles and grenades was hit by police gunfire, went out of control and flew off an embankment. The vehicle crashed into the brick wall of the state prison, killing four of the six occupants and bringing an end to the chase.
A total of 10 gunmen were confirmed dead by Mexican officials. Three bystanders were injured, one of whom was in the hospital after being shot in the pelvis, said Arturo RamÃrez Camacho, Nogales, Sonora's, police chief. At least two officers were hurt but not seriously, RamÃrez said.
"It was something terrible," said Hopkins. "It was something totally unexpected."
Violence growing
Unfortunately for Hopkins and other Nogalenses, the shootouts are becoming more common every day.
Thursday's incident is the latest example of a deadly gunbattle occurring during daylight hours and near heavily frequented places in Nogales, Sonora — where drug cartels are battling for prized smuggling turf and Mexican law enforcement is trying to clamp down on their activity.
There has been a spike in homicides this year in Nogales — 76 through September, surpassing the 2007 total of 52 and more than doubling the 2006 total of 35. Most of them have been attributed to drug cartel-fueled violence.
The unprecedented bloodshed landed the city on the U.S. State Department's updated travel alert for Mexico that was released Oct. 14. The alert — which warns travelers about dangerous situations but doesn't instruct them not to go — put Nogales alongside notoriously dangerous cities such as Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo.
It mentioned Nogales as one of the cities that "recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues," which would describe Thursday's gunbattle.
At Hopkins' company, known as Superior Food Service in the United States, stray bullets hit his building, his personal car and four of the company's delivery trucks, causing an estimated $5,000 in damage, he said.
Hopkins, who owns the business with his two sons, said he felt fortunate — he could have found himself in the crossfire had he arrived a few minutes later. "I don't care about the monetary losses, that's the least of my worries," Hopkins said.
That doesn't mean he and other business owners in the border city aren't getting fed up with the ongoing violence. One of the gunmen died on the driveway of Hopkins' business, the blood stain still visible in the afternoon. "We feel very insecure," Hopkins said.
Started near city sports park
The events began when state police officers stopped an SUV on Avenida Tecnológico, in front of the Unidad Deportiva, a city sports park, RamÃrez said.
While making the stop, people in another vehicle, a Chevrolet Avalanche, opened fire on the state police officers.
Those gunmen drove around the corner, in front of Superior Food Service building and waited for police, opening fire on them when they came around the corner. Here, one gunmen was killed and another wounded.
The gunmen sped off southwest on Periférico Luis Donaldo Colosio, past the Soriana supermarket to the west and the Nogales mall to the east. They were followed by state, federal and municipal police, RamÃrez said.
Another shootout, apparently involving the SUV that had been originally stopped by officers, took place further to the southwest, where two gunmen were killed and the three innocent people were injured, RamÃrez said.
The chase involving the Avalanche continued onto a side street near Colonia Las Bellotas and onto a street that goes past the state prison and the industrial park. Here, the gunmen threw grenades at the officers.
It ended when police gunfire hit the Avalanche, causing the driver to lose control and crash into the prison wall. Four were dead at the scene. Two injured gunmen were arrested.
It was unclear where the other three gunmen died, but the incident involved a total of four vehicles with gunmen aboard, RamÃrez said.
Police seized four vehicles, two grenades, five rifles and six handguns. The chase involving the Avalanche lasted about 20 minutes, he said.
No claim of victory
Even though no police officers died in the shootout, RamÃrez stopped short of calling Thursday's gunbattle a victory.
"It's obvious it's a war but to talk about victories when it puts the residents at risk, I think that's difficult," RamÃrez said. "How many people were innocently leaving their houses for work and school and all of sudden, they are at risk in a shootout?"
When asked if the shootout will cause even more concern among prospective U.S. tourists who are already worried about travel through Nogales due to the State Department alert, RamÃrez echoed what other city officials have said: The battles only affect police and those involved in the drug trade.
"It's true there is a problem in this city, this state, this country that we can't hide," RamÃrez said. "But, it's nothing that puts people who are coming for other activities at risk."
But, even Manuel Hopkins, the son of Fausto Hopkins, who lives in Nogales, Ariz., acknowledged that with each new incident, it changes the way people behave.
"You have to be more cautious from now on," Manuel Hopkins said. "We don't feel targeted, but you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, like my dad today."
The Nogales shooting was one of several in border cities across Mexico in which four men were shot dead in front of a crowd at an amusement park, a toddler died after the car he was traveling in crashed during a gunbattle, and a businessman was killed after leading a protest against violence, officials said Thursday.
All together, 21 people died during 24 hours across Mexico, which is waging a fierce battle against drug traffickers and other criminal gangs.
In Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, the four men were shot inside a go-cart rental at the Xtreme amusement park Wednesday night, said Alejandro Pariente, a spokesman for the local prosecutor’s office. The park had been filled with teenagers, bicycling through obstacle courses, skating and rappelling.
Police had no suspects and had not disclosed possible motives for the shootings.
Elsewhere in the city, a used car salesman was shot to death while driving down a main boulevard hours after leading hundreds of other business owners in a protest against kidnappings and extortion, Pariente said.
The protesters had gathered at the Treasury Department’s local offices, threatening to close their businesses or stop paying taxes if they did not receive police protection. One protester, who refused to give his name because he feared for his safety, said hundreds of business owners have been targeted by extortioners who demand up to US$500 a week for “protection” against crime. Others have been kidnapped for ransom.
In Tijuana, a 1-year-old boy was killed when the car he was riding in crashed as the driver tried to flee a gunbattle late Wednesday between police and three armed men, officials in the state prosecutor’s office said. The toddler, who had been sitting in his mother’s lap, died from the impact of the crash.
Outside the northeastern city of Monterrey, meanwhile, a soldier, the director of a security firm and third man were found stabbed to death alongside a highway Wednesday, officials from the prosecutor’s office said. At least 10 soldiers have been found dead in Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, in the past two weeks.
Back in Bisbee
The BUSD called me to sub for the day, for an English teacher at the high school. YEAH! And I enjoyed it.
Although I babysat more than taught (my big lecture was five minutes on the Iraq War at the start of first hour), most of the students were juniors and seniors who were independently working. No one caused any trouble.
Nona, a large blonde gal in my second-hour art class, stood out as an outgoing but very negative young woman who found nothing nice to say about anyone or anything. "I hate art!" she told me, and never during the 90-minute class got started on her art exercise.
Although I babysat more than taught (my big lecture was five minutes on the Iraq War at the start of first hour), most of the students were juniors and seniors who were independently working. No one caused any trouble.
Nona, a large blonde gal in my second-hour art class, stood out as an outgoing but very negative young woman who found nothing nice to say about anyone or anything. "I hate art!" she told me, and never during the 90-minute class got started on her art exercise.
"We can take these home for homework" she explained.
A group of loquacious students huddled around an elementary school yearbook, describing student and their baby pictures that were next to their school portraits. They were obviously not into their art assignment, either.
"Yeah, that boy...he's so emo!" said one active young man.
I love that retro word, "emo."
Another gal, Nina, was an outgoing, foul-mouthed redhead who showed signs of one day being an ambitious newspaper editor.
"My stepmom just returned from Iraq and quite frankly, I wish she were still there!" she confessed. She doesn't get along with her stepmom. "She bad-mouthes my biological mom for having me when she was 15" she went on, "and she herself had an abortion when she was 15."
I saw young people with pierced lips and dangling, gold necklaces. I saw pink hair, tight clothes and baggy pants but nowhere did I see lavish attire. I smiled at one young couple embraced in a hug and kiss as school let out at 3pm. Memories of my own senior year came back to me.
Some of the kids knew kids in the middle school, and some names looked familiar to me. Bisbee truly is a family community.
Staff was helpful, too. I had NO issues.
"Have you ever taught at the middle school?" asked one of the administrators before I left for the day.
"No."
"Good, next time we'll give you some of the rowdier students!" she added with a smile.
I think I've already been broken into that!
I had an hour to spare before Happy Hour at the Stock Exchange Saloon in Old Bisbee. I drove around Old Bisbee, photographed the hillside homes, photographed those that were on sale. One such house, the Marbel brothel off Brewery Gulch (which was famous for the brothels during Bisbee's haydays of mining), a remodeled 900-square foot home is selling for a gasping $185,000. Not even the purple-and-red facade could convince me to buy something that expensive, right off the road with no yard. But it would be cool to own property in Old Bisbee.
"My stepmom just returned from Iraq and quite frankly, I wish she were still there!" she confessed. She doesn't get along with her stepmom. "She bad-mouthes my biological mom for having me when she was 15" she went on, "and she herself had an abortion when she was 15."
I saw young people with pierced lips and dangling, gold necklaces. I saw pink hair, tight clothes and baggy pants but nowhere did I see lavish attire. I smiled at one young couple embraced in a hug and kiss as school let out at 3pm. Memories of my own senior year came back to me.
Some of the kids knew kids in the middle school, and some names looked familiar to me. Bisbee truly is a family community.
Staff was helpful, too. I had NO issues.
"Have you ever taught at the middle school?" asked one of the administrators before I left for the day.
"No."
"Good, next time we'll give you some of the rowdier students!" she added with a smile.
I think I've already been broken into that!
I had an hour to spare before Happy Hour at the Stock Exchange Saloon in Old Bisbee. I drove around Old Bisbee, photographed the hillside homes, photographed those that were on sale. One such house, the Marbel brothel off Brewery Gulch (which was famous for the brothels during Bisbee's haydays of mining), a remodeled 900-square foot home is selling for a gasping $185,000. Not even the purple-and-red facade could convince me to buy something that expensive, right off the road with no yard. But it would be cool to own property in Old Bisbee.
Most homes in Old Bisbee are renovated wooden structures built over 100 years ago. Most are standing on unstable, rocky hillsides. Many are uninhabitable but still show signs of human living.
Some streets were too hard for my Escape to drive up on; I could smell my brakes burning.
Another home, a larger two-story home near the old Central High School (which is now home to the county education departments) is selling for $155,000. Again the home was nestled in a dead-end street with limited parking.
I saw Obama/Biden signs everywhere and not one McCain/Palin sign.
Leaves in town were starting to change colors. Some of the streets still had chalk marks from last weekend's 5km race.
I walked into the Stock Exchnge Saloon shortly after 4pm, just as Happy Hour began.
This building was built in 1909. The floors are old wooden floors, the ceiling still has wooden art. It's perhaps the last original bar that isn't saturated with obnoxious tourists from the upper Midwest.
To my suprise there were few people there. Mike, a long-haired local, sat at the bar, I sat a few seats from him on the other end. Next to me came Rob a few minutes later, who just happened to be an administrator for the Douglas School district.
So naturally we talked about Arizona standards, local school, and the teacher shortage.
Rob had taught school for ten years before jumping into the administrative part. He supports the new standards for Arizona schools (I do, too) but most of the standards were brought down by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which only punishes schools for having less-than-higlhy-qualifed (HQ) teachers. Until I am fully certified, I am not HQ and a liabilty to any school district. And school districts can't find HQ teachers so they hire what they can on a temporary basis.
"I've met HQ teachers, though, who couldn't teach" he added. I had some of those in my lifetime, too.
"Don't ignore Douglas" he said before I left. "It's a family community and only 20 minutes 'down the hill' from Bisbee" (And Bisbee's 30 minutes from where we live.) "If I could buy a house now I'd live where you live, in the quiet bedroom community." I never saw our neighborhood as such, but Rob is right. Nothing happens where we live because we live in an area where people come home to relax after work.
Another home, a larger two-story home near the old Central High School (which is now home to the county education departments) is selling for $155,000. Again the home was nestled in a dead-end street with limited parking.
I saw Obama/Biden signs everywhere and not one McCain/Palin sign.
Leaves in town were starting to change colors. Some of the streets still had chalk marks from last weekend's 5km race.
I walked into the Stock Exchnge Saloon shortly after 4pm, just as Happy Hour began.
This building was built in 1909. The floors are old wooden floors, the ceiling still has wooden art. It's perhaps the last original bar that isn't saturated with obnoxious tourists from the upper Midwest.
To my suprise there were few people there. Mike, a long-haired local, sat at the bar, I sat a few seats from him on the other end. Next to me came Rob a few minutes later, who just happened to be an administrator for the Douglas School district.
So naturally we talked about Arizona standards, local school, and the teacher shortage.
Rob had taught school for ten years before jumping into the administrative part. He supports the new standards for Arizona schools (I do, too) but most of the standards were brought down by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which only punishes schools for having less-than-higlhy-qualifed (HQ) teachers. Until I am fully certified, I am not HQ and a liabilty to any school district. And school districts can't find HQ teachers so they hire what they can on a temporary basis.
"I've met HQ teachers, though, who couldn't teach" he added. I had some of those in my lifetime, too.
"Don't ignore Douglas" he said before I left. "It's a family community and only 20 minutes 'down the hill' from Bisbee" (And Bisbee's 30 minutes from where we live.) "If I could buy a house now I'd live where you live, in the quiet bedroom community." I never saw our neighborhood as such, but Rob is right. Nothing happens where we live because we live in an area where people come home to relax after work.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
News from my other former home states
(That includes Indiana, New Jersey, California and Texas, a great representation of the US)
New Jersey:
I was always amazed at the HUGE houses being built all over New Jersey, wondering who could afford the mortgage payments on those mansions...
N.J. home foreclosure filings outpace national rate
by Jeff May/The Star-Ledger
Thursday October 23, 2008, 7:49 AM
For the first time since the onset of the housing slump, the rate of foreclosure filings in New Jersey outstrips the national average.
In September, one in every 453 homes in the state received a filing -- either a default notice, a scheduled sheriff's auction or a bank repossession, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based data tracking firm. The rate for the United States was one in 475 households.
U.S. foreclosure filings for the three months ending Sept. 30 rose a whopping 71 percent, year over year. During the same period, however, N.J. filings climbed 95 percent.
New Jersey ranked eighth in rate of filings for September. Nevada, California and Florida were the top states. For updated coverage, see the New Jersey Business News page.
________________________________________
And here is a wild fire burning in my old stomping grounds from late 2000-2004 in my beloved Jersey Pine Barrens
Wildfire burns 1,800 remote acres in South Jersey
by MaryAnn Spoto and Rudy Larini/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday October 22, 2008, 7:45 PM
A fire burning in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey has charred 1,800 remote acres of the Wharton State Forest, but fire officials have scaled back immediate concerns that the wind-whipped flames would spread to more populated areas.
Tonight, Stephen Maurer, assistant fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, estimated the fire was about 40 percent contained and he said he did not expect either its size or containment would change much before Thursday morning.
Residents who were evacuated earlier today from four homes and two businesses in Hammonton, Atlantic County, were allowed to return in the afternoon as flames appeared not to be spreading, Maurer said.
Additionally, state officials reopened a portion of Route 206 in Hammonton. The roadway remains closed between Atsion and Chew roads, Maurer said.
"The fire activity has decreased substantially. Most of the fire has been burning on the ground because it's been so dry," Maurer said.
"It seems to have settled down quite a bit even though it was pretty windy today," he said tonight, attributing that to the higher humidity.
"There are going to be between 50 to 70 men and about 15 trucks out there tonight doing what they can to contain the fire lines," Mauer said.
With no rain in the forecast until Saturday, he did not expect the fire to be doused any time soon.
"If we don't get any rain or not enough, this'll burn for weeks," he said.
This morning, fire officials estimated 1,200 acres had burned, but Maurer attributed the additional 600 charred acres to a better mapping of the area by aerial observation teams.
"There was so much smoke, they didn't know how much had burned," he said.
Today's northerly winds weren't strong enough to warrant fears of a quick spreading fire, but they had enough force to give firefighters on the ground some assistance, Maurer said.
"The wind is helping dissipate the smoke so they can see what they're doing and helping the guys on the ground breathe a little better," he said.
The blaze began Tuesday afternoon in Camden County and spread to Burlington and Atlantic counties, according to Bert Plante, a division fire warden with the fire service.
Firefighters tried to stop it from crossing Route 206, but the blaze jumped the highway Tuesday night, Plante said. See more in Atlantic County, Editors' Picks, Environment, Fire
______________________________
California:
Home sales soar as prices fall
Foreclosures drive purchases concentrated in Salinas Valley
By MARIE VASARI Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/22/2008 09:54:56 AM PDT
Monterey County's home sales tripled in September over the same period last year, driven by steep price reductions on foreclosed properties.
The bulk of those transactions were in existing home sales: 393 properties closed escrow in September, up from 130 in September 2007.
But while sales have increased for seven of nine months this year, the impact on pricing has been just the opposite.
The September median home price in Monterey County was down 45.1 percent compared to September 2007, according to new data released Tuesday by real estate research firm MDA DataQuick.
In dollar figures, that means the median sales price for a Monterey County home, which was at $500,750 in September 2007, plummeted to $275,000 last month. Those figures comprise all newly built homes and condos, resale condos and resale detached houses, according to the La Jolla-based tracking firm.
Foreclosures are the biggest factor in the pricing equation: 62.3 percent of existing home sales sold in September had been foreclosed upon at some point in the past 12 months, said DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage.
While no part of Monterey County has been immune to the wave of foreclosures, the hardest-hit areas are those now experiencing the greatest number of sales, as bank-owned properties continue to flood the market.
For the third quarter of 2008, 70 percent of closed sales were concentrated in Salinas and the northern and southern regions of Monterey County, said Sandy Haney, chief executive officer of the Monterey County Association of Realtors. The remaining 30 percent were sales of properties on the Peninsula, including Seaside and Marina.
Of the 940 homes that sold during last quarter, 76 percent were foreclosures sales, according to data compiled from MLSListings, Inc., making the average sale price from $200,000 to $300,000 for a Salinas home, and from $300,000 to $400,000 for properties in Seaside and Marina, said Haney.
In practical terms, the continued downturn in pricing means local real estate agents have been busier than they have been in some time. Hopeful first-time homebuyers and investors are showing up to open houses again, and some agents are seeing multiple offers on properties.
For some buyers, those prices are creating opportunities that few could have imagined just two years ago, when Monterey County's median sales prices peaked at $675,000.
So, what's ahead? Haney said it's hard to say, but pending home sales suggest that the current trends could continue. Of the 160 contracts entered into during the past 30 days, 84 happened during the past two weeks, despite the nation's economic crisis. But only 21 percent of those properties were located on the Peninsula, with the majority of those transactions in North County, South County and Salinas.
Those pending transactions range from an $89,499 single-family home listing in East Salinas to a $599,000 property along Monterey-Salinas Highway, Haney said, and 28 of those 84 pending sales were listings under $200,000.
"If the prices go low enough, people will buy, and why wouldn't they?" said Haney. "It was always the adage: Once a buyer can buy cheaper than he can rent, the decision's been made — providing they qualify for the loan."
But while the trends of the past nine months have been unequivocal, lending patterns and consumer confidence are tomorrow's unknowns. In a recent Monterey County Association of Realtors survey, members named consumer confidence as their biggest challenge right now, as consumers are hit with an onslaught of financial worries about their stock market investments, consumer prices and a shaky job market.
"If you don't feel comfortable," said Haney, "regardless of whether you have the money or not, you won't buy, whether it's a house or a waffle iron."
And there's still the big unanswered question about local real estate: "Just how low can it go?" asks Haney. For now, inventory remains high — 2,747 properties were listed for sale at the end of September, up from 2,480 in January — and no small portion of those are foreclosures. The impact, said Haney, is that the ripple effect on sales — a seller buying a new home with proceeds from the sale of a house — doesn't happen when someone buys a bank-owned property.
"Until that inventory is reduced, that's when we'll start seeing what the market's really made of," said Haney. "Right now, it's still a fire sale." Marie Vasari can be reached at mvasari@montereyherald.com or 646-4478.
See Monterey County Association of Realtors monthly data at www.mcar.com/statss.html
____________________________________________
Indiana:
(Indiana has some of the highest cancer rates in the country, to include lung cancer. It doesn't help that Indiana has low cigarette taxes and allows smoking in restaurants)
President's panel seeks answers on cancer
October 23, 2008
By Piet Levy Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- A special panel that reports directly to the president of the United States came to Indiana's capital city for a seminar about cancer.
The President's Cancer Panel, which monitors activities conducted by the National Cancer Program, is hearing from health experts and the general public at four special meetings across the country. All the meetings have a singular theme -- environmental factors that may cause cancer.
Indianapolis was the site of the second meeting Tuesday, which specifically focused on potential agricultural exposure to pesticides and herbicides.
The opportunity to meet with a panel that reports to the president was too good to pass up for Gary environmentalist Lin Kaatz Chary.
Chary made the trip for the meeting, and during public comment, emphasized the importance of promoting prevention.
"We don't wait to count the bodies to decide there's proof of harm," she said regarding the possibility of chemicals in pesticides causing cancer.
Dr. LaSalle Leffall, chairman of the panel and Professor of Surgery at Howard University's College of Medicine in Washington, said the panel wanted to meet in the Midwest for the agricultural meeting.
He said the panels, which looked at possible health consequences from exposure to compounds like atrazine, found in pesticides, didn't conclude there was a direct correlation to human-related cancer.
But he said it was important to have discussions so precautionary actions could take effect. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, less than 2 percent of chemicals on the market have been tested for carcinogenicity.
"Sometimes you cannot wait until you get all the information," Leffall said.
Speakers at Tuesday's meeting included experts from the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pesticide Education Center, the Canadian Cancer Society and the University of California-Berkeley.
The panel also included Margaret Kripke, special assistant to the provost at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Career Center, Abby Sandler from the National Cancer Institute, and until recently, famed cyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.
Joe Torre, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a cancer patient, is Armstrong's pending replacement, Leffall said.
Contact Piet Levy at 648-3102 or plevy@post-trib.com.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1237756,indycancer.article
_________________________________________________
Texas:
WEATHER
Cold front introduces first real taste of fall
Lows in the 40s expected Friday morning.
By Emily GlazerAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, October 23, 2008
It's time to dig out your sweaters and jackets because Austin's first major cold front this season has arrived.
For the first time since April 15, temperatures are expected to fall into the low and mid-40s Friday morning. Highs are expected in the low 70s today and Friday, said Bob Rose, meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority.
"We're not going to see freezing temperatures, but it's the coldest front so far this fall," Rose said.
Temperatures will warm to the low 80s Saturday, but no rain is expected. Another cold front will push through late Sunday, reinforcing the cool conditions, Rose said.
Still, winds could kick up to 15 to 25 mph, with gusts hitting 30 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Fogarty said.
The cold front blew in from western Canada and hit downtown Austin about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Rose said. Between 4 and 5 p.m., the temperature dropped from 82 to 69 degrees.
"We'll see several days of sweater weather," he said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/23/1023chill.html
New Jersey:
I was always amazed at the HUGE houses being built all over New Jersey, wondering who could afford the mortgage payments on those mansions...
N.J. home foreclosure filings outpace national rate
by Jeff May/The Star-Ledger
Thursday October 23, 2008, 7:49 AM
For the first time since the onset of the housing slump, the rate of foreclosure filings in New Jersey outstrips the national average.
In September, one in every 453 homes in the state received a filing -- either a default notice, a scheduled sheriff's auction or a bank repossession, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based data tracking firm. The rate for the United States was one in 475 households.
U.S. foreclosure filings for the three months ending Sept. 30 rose a whopping 71 percent, year over year. During the same period, however, N.J. filings climbed 95 percent.
New Jersey ranked eighth in rate of filings for September. Nevada, California and Florida were the top states. For updated coverage, see the New Jersey Business News page.
________________________________________
And here is a wild fire burning in my old stomping grounds from late 2000-2004 in my beloved Jersey Pine Barrens
Wildfire burns 1,800 remote acres in South Jersey
by MaryAnn Spoto and Rudy Larini/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday October 22, 2008, 7:45 PM
A fire burning in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey has charred 1,800 remote acres of the Wharton State Forest, but fire officials have scaled back immediate concerns that the wind-whipped flames would spread to more populated areas.
Tonight, Stephen Maurer, assistant fire warden for the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, estimated the fire was about 40 percent contained and he said he did not expect either its size or containment would change much before Thursday morning.
Residents who were evacuated earlier today from four homes and two businesses in Hammonton, Atlantic County, were allowed to return in the afternoon as flames appeared not to be spreading, Maurer said.
Additionally, state officials reopened a portion of Route 206 in Hammonton. The roadway remains closed between Atsion and Chew roads, Maurer said.
"The fire activity has decreased substantially. Most of the fire has been burning on the ground because it's been so dry," Maurer said.
"It seems to have settled down quite a bit even though it was pretty windy today," he said tonight, attributing that to the higher humidity.
"There are going to be between 50 to 70 men and about 15 trucks out there tonight doing what they can to contain the fire lines," Mauer said.
With no rain in the forecast until Saturday, he did not expect the fire to be doused any time soon.
"If we don't get any rain or not enough, this'll burn for weeks," he said.
This morning, fire officials estimated 1,200 acres had burned, but Maurer attributed the additional 600 charred acres to a better mapping of the area by aerial observation teams.
"There was so much smoke, they didn't know how much had burned," he said.
Today's northerly winds weren't strong enough to warrant fears of a quick spreading fire, but they had enough force to give firefighters on the ground some assistance, Maurer said.
"The wind is helping dissipate the smoke so they can see what they're doing and helping the guys on the ground breathe a little better," he said.
The blaze began Tuesday afternoon in Camden County and spread to Burlington and Atlantic counties, according to Bert Plante, a division fire warden with the fire service.
Firefighters tried to stop it from crossing Route 206, but the blaze jumped the highway Tuesday night, Plante said. See more in Atlantic County, Editors' Picks, Environment, Fire
______________________________
California:
Home sales soar as prices fall
Foreclosures drive purchases concentrated in Salinas Valley
By MARIE VASARI Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/22/2008 09:54:56 AM PDT
Monterey County's home sales tripled in September over the same period last year, driven by steep price reductions on foreclosed properties.
The bulk of those transactions were in existing home sales: 393 properties closed escrow in September, up from 130 in September 2007.
But while sales have increased for seven of nine months this year, the impact on pricing has been just the opposite.
The September median home price in Monterey County was down 45.1 percent compared to September 2007, according to new data released Tuesday by real estate research firm MDA DataQuick.
In dollar figures, that means the median sales price for a Monterey County home, which was at $500,750 in September 2007, plummeted to $275,000 last month. Those figures comprise all newly built homes and condos, resale condos and resale detached houses, according to the La Jolla-based tracking firm.
Foreclosures are the biggest factor in the pricing equation: 62.3 percent of existing home sales sold in September had been foreclosed upon at some point in the past 12 months, said DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage.
While no part of Monterey County has been immune to the wave of foreclosures, the hardest-hit areas are those now experiencing the greatest number of sales, as bank-owned properties continue to flood the market.
For the third quarter of 2008, 70 percent of closed sales were concentrated in Salinas and the northern and southern regions of Monterey County, said Sandy Haney, chief executive officer of the Monterey County Association of Realtors. The remaining 30 percent were sales of properties on the Peninsula, including Seaside and Marina.
Of the 940 homes that sold during last quarter, 76 percent were foreclosures sales, according to data compiled from MLSListings, Inc., making the average sale price from $200,000 to $300,000 for a Salinas home, and from $300,000 to $400,000 for properties in Seaside and Marina, said Haney.
In practical terms, the continued downturn in pricing means local real estate agents have been busier than they have been in some time. Hopeful first-time homebuyers and investors are showing up to open houses again, and some agents are seeing multiple offers on properties.
For some buyers, those prices are creating opportunities that few could have imagined just two years ago, when Monterey County's median sales prices peaked at $675,000.
So, what's ahead? Haney said it's hard to say, but pending home sales suggest that the current trends could continue. Of the 160 contracts entered into during the past 30 days, 84 happened during the past two weeks, despite the nation's economic crisis. But only 21 percent of those properties were located on the Peninsula, with the majority of those transactions in North County, South County and Salinas.
Those pending transactions range from an $89,499 single-family home listing in East Salinas to a $599,000 property along Monterey-Salinas Highway, Haney said, and 28 of those 84 pending sales were listings under $200,000.
"If the prices go low enough, people will buy, and why wouldn't they?" said Haney. "It was always the adage: Once a buyer can buy cheaper than he can rent, the decision's been made — providing they qualify for the loan."
But while the trends of the past nine months have been unequivocal, lending patterns and consumer confidence are tomorrow's unknowns. In a recent Monterey County Association of Realtors survey, members named consumer confidence as their biggest challenge right now, as consumers are hit with an onslaught of financial worries about their stock market investments, consumer prices and a shaky job market.
"If you don't feel comfortable," said Haney, "regardless of whether you have the money or not, you won't buy, whether it's a house or a waffle iron."
And there's still the big unanswered question about local real estate: "Just how low can it go?" asks Haney. For now, inventory remains high — 2,747 properties were listed for sale at the end of September, up from 2,480 in January — and no small portion of those are foreclosures. The impact, said Haney, is that the ripple effect on sales — a seller buying a new home with proceeds from the sale of a house — doesn't happen when someone buys a bank-owned property.
"Until that inventory is reduced, that's when we'll start seeing what the market's really made of," said Haney. "Right now, it's still a fire sale." Marie Vasari can be reached at mvasari@montereyherald.com or 646-4478.
See Monterey County Association of Realtors monthly data at www.mcar.com/statss.html
____________________________________________
Indiana:
(Indiana has some of the highest cancer rates in the country, to include lung cancer. It doesn't help that Indiana has low cigarette taxes and allows smoking in restaurants)
President's panel seeks answers on cancer
October 23, 2008
By Piet Levy Post-Tribune staff writer
INDIANAPOLIS -- A special panel that reports directly to the president of the United States came to Indiana's capital city for a seminar about cancer.
The President's Cancer Panel, which monitors activities conducted by the National Cancer Program, is hearing from health experts and the general public at four special meetings across the country. All the meetings have a singular theme -- environmental factors that may cause cancer.
Indianapolis was the site of the second meeting Tuesday, which specifically focused on potential agricultural exposure to pesticides and herbicides.
The opportunity to meet with a panel that reports to the president was too good to pass up for Gary environmentalist Lin Kaatz Chary.
Chary made the trip for the meeting, and during public comment, emphasized the importance of promoting prevention.
"We don't wait to count the bodies to decide there's proof of harm," she said regarding the possibility of chemicals in pesticides causing cancer.
Dr. LaSalle Leffall, chairman of the panel and Professor of Surgery at Howard University's College of Medicine in Washington, said the panel wanted to meet in the Midwest for the agricultural meeting.
He said the panels, which looked at possible health consequences from exposure to compounds like atrazine, found in pesticides, didn't conclude there was a direct correlation to human-related cancer.
But he said it was important to have discussions so precautionary actions could take effect. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, less than 2 percent of chemicals on the market have been tested for carcinogenicity.
"Sometimes you cannot wait until you get all the information," Leffall said.
Speakers at Tuesday's meeting included experts from the National Cancer Institute, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pesticide Education Center, the Canadian Cancer Society and the University of California-Berkeley.
The panel also included Margaret Kripke, special assistant to the provost at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Career Center, Abby Sandler from the National Cancer Institute, and until recently, famed cyclist and testicular cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.
Joe Torre, manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a cancer patient, is Armstrong's pending replacement, Leffall said.
Contact Piet Levy at 648-3102 or plevy@post-trib.com.
http://www.post-trib.com/news/1237756,indycancer.article
_________________________________________________
Texas:
WEATHER
Cold front introduces first real taste of fall
Lows in the 40s expected Friday morning.
By Emily GlazerAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, October 23, 2008
It's time to dig out your sweaters and jackets because Austin's first major cold front this season has arrived.
For the first time since April 15, temperatures are expected to fall into the low and mid-40s Friday morning. Highs are expected in the low 70s today and Friday, said Bob Rose, meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority.
"We're not going to see freezing temperatures, but it's the coldest front so far this fall," Rose said.
Temperatures will warm to the low 80s Saturday, but no rain is expected. Another cold front will push through late Sunday, reinforcing the cool conditions, Rose said.
Still, winds could kick up to 15 to 25 mph, with gusts hitting 30 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Fogarty said.
The cold front blew in from western Canada and hit downtown Austin about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, Rose said. Between 4 and 5 p.m., the temperature dropped from 82 to 69 degrees.
"We'll see several days of sweater weather," he said.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/23/1023chill.html
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A typical day for me
As soon as Kevin left for work I got on my computer to finish my homework assignment for my EDU221 class: Teaching Methodologies for English Language Learners. This course is required for ALL Arizona teachers, whether they are highly-qualified contracted teachers or beginners like me.
I had to find an English-language article of medium difficulty so I found one on the Wall Street Journal on-line edition. It was a fairly long article about David Letterman Show that had Senator John McCain on the second time on 16 October. The wordage was, as expected, not easy.
Finishing the assignment took me two hours. Longer than I thought. From there I checked my email and read the local newspaper for anything exciting. The only exciting thing right now is the Coronado National Forest opening up a reform as a public meeting on 17 November. I will attend that meeting. With the current administration pushing for more profitable management of our National Forests and Parks, I am concerned that more land will be opened up to land development, mining, timber harvesting and more cattle grazing.
My AEPA results arrived today in the mail. Although I passed both exams, the graph enclosed shows that I do have a weakness in Instructional Planning and Management. That is nothing new; BMS showed me that!
I also got my Canon Rebel xTi replacement battery charger and batteries from Diamondback Batteries and Electronics out of Las Cruces, NM. Diamondback is a start-up company from a year ago. The products arrived just two days after ordering the items. I am very pleased with the service from that company. I was a nerd enough to write the company back with a few kudos. I'll probably be on their website as a satisfied customer.
By noon I went out into the garden to sow a garden bed of Bloomsdale spinach, Detroit Red Beets and White Globe turnips. Nancy next door was in her backyard and showed me her new pitbull puppy she bought last weekend from a local breeder. (The puppy is a cute brown little guy)
Nancy, bless her heart, is a talker. I was watering the garden beds and left the hose run as we chatted. Nancy is home this week, sick with a bronchial problem. I hope it's nothing serious; she is a smoker like Kevin.
I had to find an English-language article of medium difficulty so I found one on the Wall Street Journal on-line edition. It was a fairly long article about David Letterman Show that had Senator John McCain on the second time on 16 October. The wordage was, as expected, not easy.
Finishing the assignment took me two hours. Longer than I thought. From there I checked my email and read the local newspaper for anything exciting. The only exciting thing right now is the Coronado National Forest opening up a reform as a public meeting on 17 November. I will attend that meeting. With the current administration pushing for more profitable management of our National Forests and Parks, I am concerned that more land will be opened up to land development, mining, timber harvesting and more cattle grazing.
My AEPA results arrived today in the mail. Although I passed both exams, the graph enclosed shows that I do have a weakness in Instructional Planning and Management. That is nothing new; BMS showed me that!
I also got my Canon Rebel xTi replacement battery charger and batteries from Diamondback Batteries and Electronics out of Las Cruces, NM. Diamondback is a start-up company from a year ago. The products arrived just two days after ordering the items. I am very pleased with the service from that company. I was a nerd enough to write the company back with a few kudos. I'll probably be on their website as a satisfied customer.
By noon I went out into the garden to sow a garden bed of Bloomsdale spinach, Detroit Red Beets and White Globe turnips. Nancy next door was in her backyard and showed me her new pitbull puppy she bought last weekend from a local breeder. (The puppy is a cute brown little guy)
Nancy, bless her heart, is a talker. I was watering the garden beds and left the hose run as we chatted. Nancy is home this week, sick with a bronchial problem. I hope it's nothing serious; she is a smoker like Kevin.
At 1pm, back inside and on-line, NBC TV which plays in the background of my office (and which I listen to more than I watch), interrupted the start of Law and Order to announce with an ominous BREAKING NEWS that stocks closed in New York with more negative points. Whew, at first I thought someone important like the president or either presidential candidate had died. Stocks tumbling is only bad news to the seller.
After the garden was done, which was my big plan for today, I realized I had time to take the dogs up Ash Canyon for a run before my college class. We arrived at the National Forest trailhead at 2:38pm. The dogs were let out and ran behind me the entire time as I slowly drove uphill to the last available camp site.
A USBP van drove downhill. I stopped to ask if it was safe up the canyon.
"There's one other guy up there, most likely hiking." the agent told me. I was safe.
Sadie ran right behind the truck, clocking at times 9mph. The other dogs were further behind. Sammy, then Sara joined up with Sadie and me and I let them rest five minutes before we drove to the two campsites Kevin and I were at this past Sunday: 1.3 and 1.6 miles away.
There was more brass shellings on the ground. I collected as much as I could while the dogs splashed around the creek. Weather was beautiful.
A USBP van drove downhill. I stopped to ask if it was safe up the canyon.
"There's one other guy up there, most likely hiking." the agent told me. I was safe.
Sadie ran right behind the truck, clocking at times 9mph. The other dogs were further behind. Sammy, then Sara joined up with Sadie and me and I let them rest five minutes before we drove to the two campsites Kevin and I were at this past Sunday: 1.3 and 1.6 miles away.
There was more brass shellings on the ground. I collected as much as I could while the dogs splashed around the creek. Weather was beautiful.
Sadie is a fast runner. She runs as fast as she has to to stay right behind the vehicle. Sometimes she runs in front of me and stops right in front of the car. What does she think she's doing? She is not SuperDog who can stop a speeding car with a single bound. Her antics sometimes frighten me. I don't ever want to know I ran over her by accident. The other two dogs keep a respectful distance from the car and know to stay away when the engine is running. Sadie hasn't learned that yet.
The dogs were panting at the finish line. Both Sammy and Sadie were drooling in the front seat. Some of the drool dripped on me, but most of it drooled on my cloth seats.
We were back home by 3pm. Dr Phil was a minute away from starting. Today's topic? "Are men responsible for unwanted pregnancies?" And I had to think of Erin and her upcoming pregnancy.
She chose to keep her baby, and I support her, but what if someday down the road she needs financial support from the father, who as far as I know, is not involved in her life right now? Is he obligated to pay child support? Would he one day want to be part of the baby's life? Could she manage on her own, or will she depend on her father for financial support for the baby? (I am curious how this will unfold, years down the road.) An ideal family is still a two-parent household, and no, I don't believe the parents HAVE to be a man and a woman. The love a parent gives its child is more important than the gender of the parent.
Hungry, I opened up an ice cream carton and started eating the treat. "Moose Tracks" is today's flavor, vanilla ice cream with chocolate-covered peanuts and fudge swirls.
It was a busy day. I wonder how people can just sit around and watch TV all day.
Soon I have to get ready for my EDU class tonight. At least I know the dogs were exercised.
___
Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008.
NEW YORK – Wall Street tumbled again Wednesday as investors worried that the global economy is poised to weaken even as parts of the credit market slowly show signs of recovery. The major indexes fell more than 4 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which finished off its lows with a loss of 514 points.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was the worst performer among the major indexes with a 6.1 percent slide that left it at its lowest level since April 2003.
Corporate profit forecasts, a jump in the dollar and falling commodity prices signaled investors are fearful that an economic slowdown will sweep the globe even if lending begins to approach more normal levels as credit markets ease.
The dollar hit multiyear highs against several other major currencies, weighing on commodity prices. That hurt materials and energy companies, while the fall in oil gave a boost to airlines. Technology shares fared better than the broader market following quarterly reports from Apple Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
While reduced strains in global credit markets have eased some investors' nervousness about the economy, market anxiety remains as hundreds of companies this week report third-quarter results and issue somewhat murky forecasts that are stirring unease about the economic bumps that may lay ahead. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street
Monday, October 20, 2008
I passed both AEPA exams!
The German and Secondary Education assessments, the Arizona Educators Proficiency Assessment (AEPA) scores that I took on 20 September in Marana, AZ came back today via email: I have passed both!
I was quite surprised I passed the Secondary exam. That was no easy feat and I took my time. The entire time I sat in the test room I rued the moment I had signed up for the test prior to completing any teaching methodology exams.
And how cold the test site was! I was the third or forth person to finish the exam and I left as soon as I could to get back outside into the warmth of the afternoon.
The German exam was easy. Perhaps I can dare take the French and Spanish exams next spring and work as a foreign language high school teacher, which is what I was working on my last year in college?
Ironic to be working my dreams afterall, with a 23-year break in the persuit of that dream!
All those late hours reading over teaching websites helped. And working at the elementary school also benefitted me.
I am relieved. The official test scores will be mailed to me. As soon as I can get my resume finished, I will send in an updated one to the only high school in the county that teaches German: Buena High School in Sierra Vista. They haven't called me yet for an interview to substitute teach.
Perhaps education is in my future afterall. After that month in Bisbee I left a bit discouraged at all the failures.
http://www.aepa.nesinc.com/AZ_viewFW_opener.asp
I was quite surprised I passed the Secondary exam. That was no easy feat and I took my time. The entire time I sat in the test room I rued the moment I had signed up for the test prior to completing any teaching methodology exams.
And how cold the test site was! I was the third or forth person to finish the exam and I left as soon as I could to get back outside into the warmth of the afternoon.
The German exam was easy. Perhaps I can dare take the French and Spanish exams next spring and work as a foreign language high school teacher, which is what I was working on my last year in college?
Ironic to be working my dreams afterall, with a 23-year break in the persuit of that dream!
All those late hours reading over teaching websites helped. And working at the elementary school also benefitted me.
I am relieved. The official test scores will be mailed to me. As soon as I can get my resume finished, I will send in an updated one to the only high school in the county that teaches German: Buena High School in Sierra Vista. They haven't called me yet for an interview to substitute teach.
Perhaps education is in my future afterall. After that month in Bisbee I left a bit discouraged at all the failures.
http://www.aepa.nesinc.com/AZ_viewFW_opener.asp
Ash and Lutz Canyon
I was still exhausted from Saturday's hike the next morning and wanted to do something low-energy: I went with Kevin up Ash and Lutz canyons in his pick-up. This twin canyon system is only six miles from our home and a few miles south of Hunter canyon where we normally go to exercise the dogs.
Ash and Lutz canyons, because of their southern and eastern locations in the Huachucas, are popular pick-up points for illegal border crossers. Trash was evident along the creek and in shaded areas.
Together we picked up brass shellings left behind by target shooters and hunters. We were in the shaded canyons for almost three hours. The dogs enjoyed romping around in the cool creek water and I just enjoyed being outdoors, taking a break from writing my mid-term paper on the Arizona Constitution.
We brought back a lot of brass in various calibers. Although most of the shellings were from .22 pistols, there was enough .45 and 9mm shells as well.
"When are you going to turn in all that brass for money?" I asked him.
"In about ten years, when the price for brass sky rockets!" he said.
Most of the shells were around camp sites, but many were also corroded from having been in the ground for a long time. We left much more behind, to collect another day. It was just nice to get out with Kevin and enjoy the beautiful autumn day.
One man, hiking alone with his chocolate Lab puppy, climbed up Ash Canyon behind me and the dogs while Kevin stayed behind at the campsite. The little pup was a little afraid of our dogs and barked once out of fear, but I assured the owner that our dogs are more curious than mean (I wouldn't own a mean dog, let alone go hiking with one off leash!)
"Be careful on this trail, this is a popular one for illegals!" I warned him.
"I know, I come here all the time" he replied.
Kevin told me later that the man was hiking up to the Crest Trail (a 3.5-mile steep hike) and that his wife would be picking him up six hours later in Copper Canyon, to the south of the ridge.
When we got home in the mid afternoon I continued writing my mid-term, finishing the 15 pages at 8pm and spending more time researching more on the Arizona constitution. I enjoyed writing this paper and learned more along the way about my adopted homestate. Arizona has one awesome constitution and perhaps the most direct democracy system in the country. I have to admit I am proud to be an Arizonan.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Hiking up Lyle and Brushy Canyons
This was an enjoyable hike yesterday in the western Huachucas. Weather was ideal, company was great and the challenge just perfect. Even the dogs, albeit tired, had fun.
At first I thought I had missed the meet-up time, but it turned out I was just 30 minutes early. I used that time to scope out the area off Forest Road 201, driving along the alluvial plains that are common on the western slope of the Mountains.
I found the rest of the hiking party as they were ready to hike at 9am. We were seven people: Steve Sa, Steve Sch, Paul, Rob, Casi, Susan and I. And then there were Sammy and Sara. (Sadie stayed home as she's not yet learned trail etiquette, and the older dogs enjoyed having a break from her)
The Sycamores along the babbling brook of Lyle Creek were in their autumn yellows, which became more dramatic later in the afternoon on our return hike when the afternoon sun was lower over the horizon. The dogs took advantage of the water, and I was happy to not have to worry about running out of water for them.
Lyle Creek and the adjacent trail slowly crept uphill in the riparian environment. We saw a few squirrels and quail but wildlife was mostly absent. At times the trail disappeared and we had to walk along the dry rocky creek bed. And toward the peak the trail completely disappeared, most likely victim to a massive landslide that took the trail with it.
There was little to no illegal trash along this trail. In fact, the entire trail looked little used.
At first I thought I had missed the meet-up time, but it turned out I was just 30 minutes early. I used that time to scope out the area off Forest Road 201, driving along the alluvial plains that are common on the western slope of the Mountains.
I found the rest of the hiking party as they were ready to hike at 9am. We were seven people: Steve Sa, Steve Sch, Paul, Rob, Casi, Susan and I. And then there were Sammy and Sara. (Sadie stayed home as she's not yet learned trail etiquette, and the older dogs enjoyed having a break from her)
The Sycamores along the babbling brook of Lyle Creek were in their autumn yellows, which became more dramatic later in the afternoon on our return hike when the afternoon sun was lower over the horizon. The dogs took advantage of the water, and I was happy to not have to worry about running out of water for them.
Lyle Creek and the adjacent trail slowly crept uphill in the riparian environment. We saw a few squirrels and quail but wildlife was mostly absent. At times the trail disappeared and we had to walk along the dry rocky creek bed. And toward the peak the trail completely disappeared, most likely victim to a massive landslide that took the trail with it.
There was little to no illegal trash along this trail. In fact, the entire trail looked little used.
"Look, the Red Monkey Flower!" said Susan as we approached Lyle Creek. Further up was a similar red tubular flower, the Red Cardinal Flower. Both Rob and Susan knew the names but to me both looked too similar at first glance.
"Did you see that flower?" asked me Susan.
"Yes, I stopped to photograph it!" I reassured her.
We rested for a while at the halfway mark near the peak. Each dog ate a can of Alpo and some Nathan Hot Dog Treats for Dogs. My legs felt the exhertion and the dogs were glad to rest their paws.
We rested for a while at the halfway mark near the peak. Each dog ate a can of Alpo and some Nathan Hot Dog Treats for Dogs. My legs felt the exhertion and the dogs were glad to rest their paws.
Susan and Paul, whenever they are together, talk politics. Today they talked about General Powell coming out and endorsing Senator Obama for the presidency, a liberal Republican endorsing a Democrat because Powell's own party member, Senator McCain, is deemed too liberal for a Republican and because, according to Powell, "McCain has run a very negative campaign."
The interview with General Powell and Tom Brokaw from NBC was on Sunday morning.
We had hiked just a tad over eight miles, according to the GPSs that both Steve Sa and Rod had. (Rod never hikes without his GPS).
We were done with the hike and back at our cars at 3:40pm. I was exhausted, but content that I finally got a good work-out in. Afterall, the other option I could have done today was the Bisbee Stairclimb, the annual 5km race through Old Bisbee that raises money for the repairs of the old mining stairs. (Although according to one newspaper report, only about $5000 of the usual $13,000 generated from race entries gets used for the repairs, the rest is given to other charities.)
Or I could have helped at the High Desert Fair at the County Extension office.
http://www.bisbee1000.org/about.htm
ag.arizona.edu/cochise/mg/nnlpdf/Garden%20Fair.pdf
Friday, October 17, 2008
Funeral for a young man
Last Sunday Kevin got a phone call from a co-worker. One of their part-time summer helpers, a local man aged 23 years, had collapsed at his home and died. He had been in a coma a few months ago but came out of it after a month, but was never the same after the experience.
Allegedly while in the hospital he was in a room with another coma patient, who happened to be related to him but he didn't know it. He told Kevin and the guys that "This woman told me "Stephen, don't go, they need you down there!" and he awoke from the coma.
He only lived a month after coming out of the coma. He suffered from a brain infection that Kevin believes took his life in the end.
What a shame to die so young. The local newspaper ran his obitutary and there are many loving comments left behind by old friends and co-workers. Kevin liked this man, too and is attending the funeral this afternoon.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/15/community/obituaries/doc48f5824b4ea1d798492708.txt
Allegedly while in the hospital he was in a room with another coma patient, who happened to be related to him but he didn't know it. He told Kevin and the guys that "This woman told me "Stephen, don't go, they need you down there!" and he awoke from the coma.
He only lived a month after coming out of the coma. He suffered from a brain infection that Kevin believes took his life in the end.
What a shame to die so young. The local newspaper ran his obitutary and there are many loving comments left behind by old friends and co-workers. Kevin liked this man, too and is attending the funeral this afternoon.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/15/community/obituaries/doc48f5824b4ea1d798492708.txt
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Nogales, Sonora on travel alert
Perhaps Kevin was right...traveling through Mexico is dangerous for now. What a shame, as I always gaze southward toward the Sierra Madres and wonder what it is like there.
___
Nogales, Mexico added to travel alert
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEINAssociated Press
Published on Thursday, October 16, 2008
TUCSON — The U.S. State Department has added the border city of Nogales, Sonora, to its list of locales in Mexico where American travelers should be wary because of increasing violence.The updated State Department travel alert attributes much of the violence in northern Mexico border cities to fighting among Mexican drug cartels for control of border-area narcotics trafficking routes.
Mexico’s government has deployed military troops to the region to try to crack down on the drug organizations.
An American scuba instructor who travels through Sonora with divers every other week said Wednesday that he expects the alert to impact border tourism, with downtown Nogales store owners who cater to border visitors bearing the brunt of a slowdown. But he said he hasn’t encountered any problems nor does he expect to.
The alert said Nogales, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana were among cities that “recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues.”It also said U.S. citizens driving along Route 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo, the capital of the northern state of Sonora, have been followed and harassed.
Nogales is about 60 miles south of Tucson. “Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have taken on the characteristics of small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and, on occasion, grenades,” the alert said. It cited firefights in many towns and cities, including Ciudad Juarez, where more than 1,000 people have been killed this year, Tijuana and Chihuahua City.
Alejandro Ramos, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Tucson, said there are people living in border communities like Nogales who cross over the border every day.“I don’t see a change in their daily lives,” he said. “For the people, it’s just what they’ve been living with. That is not to say that there hasn’t been an increase in violence on the part of drug gangs, and criminal activity.” But he said the Mexican government has taken significant action to try to address the violence.
“We should not make people fearful of what is happening, because there are also things that are being done on the Mexican side,” Ramos said. “Right now we can’t say that that is enough, but for the most part Mexico is still the same place. And it’s common to see these kinds of warnings, but we should not take it for more than a warning.”
Del Randall, co-owner of the Dive Shop in Tucson, said he’s taken groups to such locations as La Paz on the Gulf of California coast for five years, and for years fought fires in Mexico.“I have never encountered a problem,” he said, noting that any city can have bad areas. “There are bad places in Tucson to avoid. I don’t see the violence in Nogales being any worse than South Tucson.”But Randall said the travel alert “definitely will affect the shopping down there. It’s definitely going to affect the little guy.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin said it was too soon to see any impact from the travel alert, but that there could be one within a few days.“Right now we’re still seeing about 42,000 or 43,000 people a day coming through Nogales,” a normal number for this time of year, Levin said. ——
On the Net: U.S. Department of State: http://travel.state.gov/
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/16/news/doc48f6dcaa9db6c575462337.txt
___
Nogales, Mexico added to travel alert
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEINAssociated Press
Published on Thursday, October 16, 2008
TUCSON — The U.S. State Department has added the border city of Nogales, Sonora, to its list of locales in Mexico where American travelers should be wary because of increasing violence.The updated State Department travel alert attributes much of the violence in northern Mexico border cities to fighting among Mexican drug cartels for control of border-area narcotics trafficking routes.
Mexico’s government has deployed military troops to the region to try to crack down on the drug organizations.
An American scuba instructor who travels through Sonora with divers every other week said Wednesday that he expects the alert to impact border tourism, with downtown Nogales store owners who cater to border visitors bearing the brunt of a slowdown. But he said he hasn’t encountered any problems nor does he expect to.
The alert said Nogales, Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana were among cities that “recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues.”It also said U.S. citizens driving along Route 15 between Nogales and Hermosillo, the capital of the northern state of Sonora, have been followed and harassed.
Nogales is about 60 miles south of Tucson. “Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have taken on the characteristics of small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and, on occasion, grenades,” the alert said. It cited firefights in many towns and cities, including Ciudad Juarez, where more than 1,000 people have been killed this year, Tijuana and Chihuahua City.
Alejandro Ramos, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Tucson, said there are people living in border communities like Nogales who cross over the border every day.“I don’t see a change in their daily lives,” he said. “For the people, it’s just what they’ve been living with. That is not to say that there hasn’t been an increase in violence on the part of drug gangs, and criminal activity.” But he said the Mexican government has taken significant action to try to address the violence.
“We should not make people fearful of what is happening, because there are also things that are being done on the Mexican side,” Ramos said. “Right now we can’t say that that is enough, but for the most part Mexico is still the same place. And it’s common to see these kinds of warnings, but we should not take it for more than a warning.”
Del Randall, co-owner of the Dive Shop in Tucson, said he’s taken groups to such locations as La Paz on the Gulf of California coast for five years, and for years fought fires in Mexico.“I have never encountered a problem,” he said, noting that any city can have bad areas. “There are bad places in Tucson to avoid. I don’t see the violence in Nogales being any worse than South Tucson.”But Randall said the travel alert “definitely will affect the shopping down there. It’s definitely going to affect the little guy.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin said it was too soon to see any impact from the travel alert, but that there could be one within a few days.“Right now we’re still seeing about 42,000 or 43,000 people a day coming through Nogales,” a normal number for this time of year, Levin said. ——
On the Net: U.S. Department of State: http://travel.state.gov/
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/16/news/doc48f6dcaa9db6c575462337.txt
Monday, October 13, 2008
BRRR, It's cold!
The rains that fell Friday night into Saturday morning brought with it a cold front. It was 44F yesterday at 6am. Today it was 39F at the same time. I could feel the cold sneak in from the open backdoor where the dogs run into the garden. It's time to dig out my sheepskin slippers!
I was expecting this cold, as autumn rains quickly bring in the cold that only keeps getting colder. The grasshoppers in the garden are getting more sluggish. The nectarine trees and blueberry bushes are starting to change colors. And I still have the fall garden to plant.
And that is what I did this weekend. While Kevin was diligently cleaning out the kitchen and his personal display case, I was outside pulling weeds still soft from the heavy rains, sowing cabbage, spinach, beets and turnip seeds, and pulling out the dead corn stalks. There is still so much to do. The cold reminds me that I have to winterize the garden, too: I need clear plastic tarp to help keep the growing vegetables warm when it gets really cold next month.
I took all three dogs up the illegal trail in Carr Canyon yesterday. I haven't been there since late this spring. There was more trash left behind, and I brought back down what I could, using a black garbage bag an illegal left behind. With the severe downturn in our economy, it's amazing that so many people are still daring to sneak across the border. What kind of jobs could they possibly get here?
One good tidbit of news: the local gas station off Highway 92 is now selling gas for $3.29! It was $3.36 a week ago, before that $3.44 for a long time. Now that I'm no longer subbing in Bisbee I won't be gassing up as often, but now I can rest assured that my Christmas drive back to Indiana won't be too expensive. But anything can happen until then. We still have the presidential elections to survive.
I was expecting this cold, as autumn rains quickly bring in the cold that only keeps getting colder. The grasshoppers in the garden are getting more sluggish. The nectarine trees and blueberry bushes are starting to change colors. And I still have the fall garden to plant.
And that is what I did this weekend. While Kevin was diligently cleaning out the kitchen and his personal display case, I was outside pulling weeds still soft from the heavy rains, sowing cabbage, spinach, beets and turnip seeds, and pulling out the dead corn stalks. There is still so much to do. The cold reminds me that I have to winterize the garden, too: I need clear plastic tarp to help keep the growing vegetables warm when it gets really cold next month.
I took all three dogs up the illegal trail in Carr Canyon yesterday. I haven't been there since late this spring. There was more trash left behind, and I brought back down what I could, using a black garbage bag an illegal left behind. With the severe downturn in our economy, it's amazing that so many people are still daring to sneak across the border. What kind of jobs could they possibly get here?
One good tidbit of news: the local gas station off Highway 92 is now selling gas for $3.29! It was $3.36 a week ago, before that $3.44 for a long time. Now that I'm no longer subbing in Bisbee I won't be gassing up as often, but now I can rest assured that my Christmas drive back to Indiana won't be too expensive. But anything can happen until then. We still have the presidential elections to survive.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Hurricane Norbert blows through
Our first autumn rain and it's a big one! It started to drizzle lightly early last night, but by early morning it was coming down in buckets. The rain buckets were overflowing. This rain is nice for the weeds that need to get pulled, the grass that is turning brown, and for the late-flowering plants in the garden.
This is residual rain from Hurricane Norbert that blew up from Baja California.
WEATHER UPDATE: Rain and gusty wind forecast for Friday evening, Saturday
SIERRA VISTA — Cochise County could see thunderstorms and gusty winds on Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
In a hazardous weather outlook issued early Friday morning, the weather service says a “strong storm system will push into the great basin today and Saturday resulting in not only a chance of showers and thunderstorms for portions of Southeast Arizona, but strong and gusty winds as well.”
Sustained winds could reach 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 40 mph across the valleys, the weather service said. The winds are expected to go into the early evening hours.
In Sierra Vista, there is a 20 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms during the day on Friday, and a 60 percent chance on Friday night. On Saturday, there is a 70 percent chance of showers, with that dropping to 30 percent on Saturday night.
In Bisbee, there also is a 20 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms during the day on Friday, and a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms on Friday night. On Saturday, there is an 80 percent chance of showers, with a 30 percent chance of scatter thunderstorms on Saturday night and a 20 percent chance of storms on Sunday.
“Localized areas of heavy rainfall up to an inch are likely across the mountains,” the weather service said in its outlook.
The storm is expected to clear out of the area by Sunday, but will bring with it cooler temperatures. Highs in the area will be in the 70s, while lows will be in the 40s on Saturday and into early next week.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/11/news/doc48ef9736d1776825855205.prt
This is residual rain from Hurricane Norbert that blew up from Baja California.
WEATHER UPDATE: Rain and gusty wind forecast for Friday evening, Saturday
SIERRA VISTA — Cochise County could see thunderstorms and gusty winds on Friday and Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
In a hazardous weather outlook issued early Friday morning, the weather service says a “strong storm system will push into the great basin today and Saturday resulting in not only a chance of showers and thunderstorms for portions of Southeast Arizona, but strong and gusty winds as well.”
Sustained winds could reach 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 40 mph across the valleys, the weather service said. The winds are expected to go into the early evening hours.
In Sierra Vista, there is a 20 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms during the day on Friday, and a 60 percent chance on Friday night. On Saturday, there is a 70 percent chance of showers, with that dropping to 30 percent on Saturday night.
In Bisbee, there also is a 20 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms during the day on Friday, and a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms on Friday night. On Saturday, there is an 80 percent chance of showers, with a 30 percent chance of scatter thunderstorms on Saturday night and a 20 percent chance of storms on Sunday.
“Localized areas of heavy rainfall up to an inch are likely across the mountains,” the weather service said in its outlook.
The storm is expected to clear out of the area by Sunday, but will bring with it cooler temperatures. Highs in the area will be in the 70s, while lows will be in the 40s on Saturday and into early next week.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/11/news/doc48ef9736d1776825855205.prt
Friday, October 10, 2008
Local schools
Local schools fare well in AZ Learns rankingsBy Katie EvansHerald/Review
SIERRA VISTA — The AZ Learns profiles brought good news to many local school districts.
The profiles, which were released Wednesday, measure how a school is performing from one year to the next, according to the Arizona Department of Educa-tion.
Schools are evaluated based on several components: AIMS/Dual Purpose Assessment scores, measure of academic progress, graduation/dropout rates, reclassification of ELL students and the school’s adequate yearly progress, the department said.
The Fort Huachuca Accommodation District was highly performing at both schools evaluated, General Myer Elementary School and Colonel Smith Elementary School.
Fort Huachuca Superintendent of Schools Ronda Frueauff said the highly performing ratings were exceptional “considering we have a transient population.”
While in the past Colonel Smith Middle School had an excelling designation for three years, it is difficult to maintain such an achievement profile because there are so many formulas used, Frueauff said.
The only other school on the post, Colonel Johnston Elementary School, was not rated as its grades are kindergarten through second, and what is measured, such as the AIMS tests, do not begin until the third grade, which is the level students start attending General Myer Elementary School, Frueauff said.
The Palominas Elementary School District saw strong results, with Coronado Elementary School and Valley View Elementary School being labeled as highly performing. Palominas Elementary School received a performing plus designation.
All three schools in Tombstone — Huachuca City School, Walter J. Meyer School and Tombstone High School — received performing plus labels.
“We’ve turned the corner and we’re going up in the right direction,” said Tombstone Superintendent Karl Uterhardt when he made the announcement to the Tombstone school board at its Wednesday night meeting.
In the Bisbee school district, Greenway Elementary, Lowell Junior High and Bisbee Middle School were performing, while Bisbee High School was performing plus.
Naco Elementary School was designated as underperforming.
In the Sierra Vista school district, Pueblo del Sol Elementary School received the highest label, being designated highly performing, while the rest of the elementary schools and both middle schools were labeled performing plus.
Buena High School’s evaluation came back as performing.
The following are the AZ Learns rankings for area school districts.
Bisbee Unified District
• Greenway Primary School — Performing
• Lowell School — Performing
• Bisbee Middle School — Performing
• Bisbee High School — Performing Plus
Fort Huachuca Accommodation District
• General Myer Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Colonel Smith Middle School — Highly Performing
Palominas Elementary District
• Palominas Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Coronado Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Valley View Elementary School — Highly Performing
Sierra Vista Unified District
• Bella Vista Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Carmichael Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Huachuca Mountain Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Pueblo del Sol Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Town & Country Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Village Meadows Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Joyce Clark Middle School (formerly Sierra Vista Middle School) — Performing Plus
• Apache Middle School — Performing Plus
• Buena High School — Performing
Tombstone Unified District
• Huachuca City School — Performing Plus
• Walter J. Meyer School — Performing Plus
• Tombstone Unified District — Performing Plus
Naco Elementary District
• Naco Elementary School — Underperforming
— Source: Arizona Department of Education.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48eda931f1ebd270932580.txt
Governor asks schools to explain spending
By Howard FischerCapitol Media Services
Published on Thursday, October 09, 2008
PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano wants more than half of the state's school districts to explain why they are spending less than the national average of dollars in the classroom.The governor on Wednesday noted that the most recent figures from the state Auditor General's office show the average Arizona school spends less than 58 cents of every dollar received on direct instruction. That compares with more than 61 cents nationwide.
Napolitano said she is not suggesting that local administrators and school board members are wasting money. And she said some districts, because of special circumstances, will always have high non-classroom costs.The governor said, though, she and her staff may be able to use examples from schools that beat the national average to suggest ideas to those who lag.
But Mike Smith, who lobbies for the Arizona School Administrators Association, said the big non-instruction cost for most schools is utilities, something that hits Arizona schools particularly hard for heating at higher elevations and air conditioning in the lower desert. More to the point, he said Arizona spend so much less per child on education that there isn't really anywhere to cut.
"The pie is so small that when you say. 'We need you to move it from this piece of pie to that piece of pie.' it doesn't work that way,'' he said. "There's no flexibility in the administrative costs.'
'Napolitano, however, said the state's financial crunch is going to mean that schools will get only the legally mandated inflation increase in state aid. She said that means schools will have to get more creative to ensure sufficient dollars for instruction.The governor said her call simply reignites a challenge to school officials she made in 2003, shortly after taking office, to move a nickel of every dollar in state education funding from outside the classroom to direct instructional costs, including teacher salaries, supplies and textbooks.
Napolitano said Wednesday that initiative shifted more than $100 million into classroom spending. But the most recent statewide average of 57.9 cents of every dollar for instructional spending actually is less than the 58.2 cents reported when Napolitano took office and 58.6 cents a year later. Questioned later about the discrepancy, gubernatorial press aide Jeanine L'Ecuyer said that statewide average is "irrelevant.''
She said Napolitano was specifically talking about the work she did with 27 selected school districts. But even among that list the results are mixed.Douglas Unified School District spent 61.0 cents of every dollar in the classroom in 2003. It rose to 63.6 cents the following year but then declined and is now at 59.6 cents.
Marana Unified School District has managed a more or less steady increase, from 56.5 cents in 2003 to 59.1 percent in the latest report.But in Sunnyside Unified School District the spending was at 59.0 cents in 2003. It declined steady for the next three years and now is two cents below the 2003 figure.
The governor said there may be reasons why some districts never will reach the national average of classroom spending. For example, she said, a small rural school district will have much higher per-student costs for transportation."But it may be because they're doing things the way they've always done them,'' she said. Napolitano said that resuming her "nickel'' efforts will give school officials some ideas they might not have considered.
She cited the Chandler and Mesa schools, who she said have found new ways to manage electricity costs."When you actually start looking at food service contracts, maintenance contracts, bus service contracts for schools, energy contracts, there are places there were schools around the state ... have achieved some real savings which then they were able to put those dollars into other purposes,'' Napolitano said.
Smith said the money just isn't there to shift.He noted that the Auditor General's report showed that Arizona schools, on average, have lower pure administrative costs -- non-teaching staff -- than the national figure.
Aside from utilities, Arizona schools spent proportionately more on student support services, things like counselors and nurses. Auditor General Debbie Davenport said that may reflect higher staffing levels to deal with the higher-than-average share of "at-risk'' students, with arizona having a higher percentage of school-age children living in poverty than the national average.
Arizona schools also spend a bigger share of education dollars on food services. Davenport said that could be due to the fact that a higher percentage of students in this state are participating in the National School Lunch Program which provides free or reduced-price meals to eligible youngsters.And Smith said the report does not classify "master teachers'' who are mentoring new teachers as classroom expenses but treats them as if they were administrators.
School district / % 07 money in instructionArizona average / 57.9%National average* / 61.2%* from 2005, most recent figures availableComponents of Arizona average:Area / Arizona / NationwideClassroom instruction / 57.9% / 61.2%Plant operation and maintenance / 11.3% / 9.6%Administration / 9.5% / 11.0%Student support / 7.3% / 5.2%Instruction support / 4.8% / 4.8%Food service / 4.7% / 3.9%Transportation / 4.3% / 4.1%Other / 0.2% / 0.2%Ajo Unified / 56.7%Altar Valley Elementary / 46.5%Amphitheater Unified / 56.8%Antelope Union / 43.7%Apache Junction Unified / 55.8%Bisbee Unified / 49.7%Camp Verde Unified / 55.4%Catalina Foothills Unified / 57.9%Cave Creek Unified / 55.5%Chandler Unified / 63.2%ClarkdaleJerome Elementary 59.1%Continental Elementary / 56.2%CottonwoodOak Creek Elementary / 53.4%Crane Elementary / 55.8%Deer Valley Unified / 60.5%Dysart Unified / 58.9%Douglas Unified / 59.5%Flagstaff Unified / 58.5%Flowing Wells Unified / 59.0%Fountain Hills Unified / 57.9%Gadsden Elementary / 50.5%Gilbert Unified / 63.0%Grand Canyon Unified / 48.1%Higley Unified / 57.7% /Kyrene Elementary / 63.5%Marana Unified / 59.1%Mesa Unified / 62.1%Mingus Union / 62.4%Naco Elementary / 63.0%Nogales Unified / 55.0%Oracle Elementary / 50.2%Palominas Elementary / 55.5%Paradise Valley Unified / 62.4%Patagonia Elementary / 55.0%Patagonia Union / 42.2%Peoria Unified / 59.6%Queen Creek Unified / 60.0%Red Rock Elementary / 54.3%Sahaurita Unified / 54.9%Scottsdale Unified / 61.3%SedonaOak Creek Joint Unified / 54.9%Sierra Vista Unified / 55.5%Somerton Elementary / 50.6%Sonoita Elementary / 68.5%Sunnyside Unified / 57.0%Tanque Verde Unified / 56.7%Tempe Elementary / 55.4%Tempe Union / 59.7%Tombstone Unified / 47.7%Tucson Unified / 54.3%Vail Unified / 59.3%Williams Unified / 56.5%Yuma Elementary / 51.9%Yuma Union / 56.5% Source: Auditor General's Office
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48ed91ff2c077116038789.txt
SIERRA VISTA — The AZ Learns profiles brought good news to many local school districts.
The profiles, which were released Wednesday, measure how a school is performing from one year to the next, according to the Arizona Department of Educa-tion.
Schools are evaluated based on several components: AIMS/Dual Purpose Assessment scores, measure of academic progress, graduation/dropout rates, reclassification of ELL students and the school’s adequate yearly progress, the department said.
The Fort Huachuca Accommodation District was highly performing at both schools evaluated, General Myer Elementary School and Colonel Smith Elementary School.
Fort Huachuca Superintendent of Schools Ronda Frueauff said the highly performing ratings were exceptional “considering we have a transient population.”
While in the past Colonel Smith Middle School had an excelling designation for three years, it is difficult to maintain such an achievement profile because there are so many formulas used, Frueauff said.
The only other school on the post, Colonel Johnston Elementary School, was not rated as its grades are kindergarten through second, and what is measured, such as the AIMS tests, do not begin until the third grade, which is the level students start attending General Myer Elementary School, Frueauff said.
The Palominas Elementary School District saw strong results, with Coronado Elementary School and Valley View Elementary School being labeled as highly performing. Palominas Elementary School received a performing plus designation.
All three schools in Tombstone — Huachuca City School, Walter J. Meyer School and Tombstone High School — received performing plus labels.
“We’ve turned the corner and we’re going up in the right direction,” said Tombstone Superintendent Karl Uterhardt when he made the announcement to the Tombstone school board at its Wednesday night meeting.
In the Bisbee school district, Greenway Elementary, Lowell Junior High and Bisbee Middle School were performing, while Bisbee High School was performing plus.
Naco Elementary School was designated as underperforming.
In the Sierra Vista school district, Pueblo del Sol Elementary School received the highest label, being designated highly performing, while the rest of the elementary schools and both middle schools were labeled performing plus.
Buena High School’s evaluation came back as performing.
The following are the AZ Learns rankings for area school districts.
Bisbee Unified District
• Greenway Primary School — Performing
• Lowell School — Performing
• Bisbee Middle School — Performing
• Bisbee High School — Performing Plus
Fort Huachuca Accommodation District
• General Myer Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Colonel Smith Middle School — Highly Performing
Palominas Elementary District
• Palominas Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Coronado Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Valley View Elementary School — Highly Performing
Sierra Vista Unified District
• Bella Vista Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Carmichael Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Huachuca Mountain Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Pueblo del Sol Elementary School — Highly Performing
• Town & Country Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Village Meadows Elementary School — Performing Plus
• Joyce Clark Middle School (formerly Sierra Vista Middle School) — Performing Plus
• Apache Middle School — Performing Plus
• Buena High School — Performing
Tombstone Unified District
• Huachuca City School — Performing Plus
• Walter J. Meyer School — Performing Plus
• Tombstone Unified District — Performing Plus
Naco Elementary District
• Naco Elementary School — Underperforming
— Source: Arizona Department of Education.
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48eda931f1ebd270932580.txt
Governor asks schools to explain spending
By Howard FischerCapitol Media Services
Published on Thursday, October 09, 2008
PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano wants more than half of the state's school districts to explain why they are spending less than the national average of dollars in the classroom.The governor on Wednesday noted that the most recent figures from the state Auditor General's office show the average Arizona school spends less than 58 cents of every dollar received on direct instruction. That compares with more than 61 cents nationwide.
Napolitano said she is not suggesting that local administrators and school board members are wasting money. And she said some districts, because of special circumstances, will always have high non-classroom costs.The governor said, though, she and her staff may be able to use examples from schools that beat the national average to suggest ideas to those who lag.
But Mike Smith, who lobbies for the Arizona School Administrators Association, said the big non-instruction cost for most schools is utilities, something that hits Arizona schools particularly hard for heating at higher elevations and air conditioning in the lower desert. More to the point, he said Arizona spend so much less per child on education that there isn't really anywhere to cut.
"The pie is so small that when you say. 'We need you to move it from this piece of pie to that piece of pie.' it doesn't work that way,'' he said. "There's no flexibility in the administrative costs.'
'Napolitano, however, said the state's financial crunch is going to mean that schools will get only the legally mandated inflation increase in state aid. She said that means schools will have to get more creative to ensure sufficient dollars for instruction.The governor said her call simply reignites a challenge to school officials she made in 2003, shortly after taking office, to move a nickel of every dollar in state education funding from outside the classroom to direct instructional costs, including teacher salaries, supplies and textbooks.
Napolitano said Wednesday that initiative shifted more than $100 million into classroom spending. But the most recent statewide average of 57.9 cents of every dollar for instructional spending actually is less than the 58.2 cents reported when Napolitano took office and 58.6 cents a year later. Questioned later about the discrepancy, gubernatorial press aide Jeanine L'Ecuyer said that statewide average is "irrelevant.''
She said Napolitano was specifically talking about the work she did with 27 selected school districts. But even among that list the results are mixed.Douglas Unified School District spent 61.0 cents of every dollar in the classroom in 2003. It rose to 63.6 cents the following year but then declined and is now at 59.6 cents.
Marana Unified School District has managed a more or less steady increase, from 56.5 cents in 2003 to 59.1 percent in the latest report.But in Sunnyside Unified School District the spending was at 59.0 cents in 2003. It declined steady for the next three years and now is two cents below the 2003 figure.
The governor said there may be reasons why some districts never will reach the national average of classroom spending. For example, she said, a small rural school district will have much higher per-student costs for transportation."But it may be because they're doing things the way they've always done them,'' she said. Napolitano said that resuming her "nickel'' efforts will give school officials some ideas they might not have considered.
She cited the Chandler and Mesa schools, who she said have found new ways to manage electricity costs."When you actually start looking at food service contracts, maintenance contracts, bus service contracts for schools, energy contracts, there are places there were schools around the state ... have achieved some real savings which then they were able to put those dollars into other purposes,'' Napolitano said.
Smith said the money just isn't there to shift.He noted that the Auditor General's report showed that Arizona schools, on average, have lower pure administrative costs -- non-teaching staff -- than the national figure.
Aside from utilities, Arizona schools spent proportionately more on student support services, things like counselors and nurses. Auditor General Debbie Davenport said that may reflect higher staffing levels to deal with the higher-than-average share of "at-risk'' students, with arizona having a higher percentage of school-age children living in poverty than the national average.
Arizona schools also spend a bigger share of education dollars on food services. Davenport said that could be due to the fact that a higher percentage of students in this state are participating in the National School Lunch Program which provides free or reduced-price meals to eligible youngsters.And Smith said the report does not classify "master teachers'' who are mentoring new teachers as classroom expenses but treats them as if they were administrators.
School district / % 07 money in instructionArizona average / 57.9%National average* / 61.2%* from 2005, most recent figures availableComponents of Arizona average:Area / Arizona / NationwideClassroom instruction / 57.9% / 61.2%Plant operation and maintenance / 11.3% / 9.6%Administration / 9.5% / 11.0%Student support / 7.3% / 5.2%Instruction support / 4.8% / 4.8%Food service / 4.7% / 3.9%Transportation / 4.3% / 4.1%Other / 0.2% / 0.2%Ajo Unified / 56.7%Altar Valley Elementary / 46.5%Amphitheater Unified / 56.8%Antelope Union / 43.7%Apache Junction Unified / 55.8%Bisbee Unified / 49.7%Camp Verde Unified / 55.4%Catalina Foothills Unified / 57.9%Cave Creek Unified / 55.5%Chandler Unified / 63.2%ClarkdaleJerome Elementary 59.1%Continental Elementary / 56.2%CottonwoodOak Creek Elementary / 53.4%Crane Elementary / 55.8%Deer Valley Unified / 60.5%Dysart Unified / 58.9%Douglas Unified / 59.5%Flagstaff Unified / 58.5%Flowing Wells Unified / 59.0%Fountain Hills Unified / 57.9%Gadsden Elementary / 50.5%Gilbert Unified / 63.0%Grand Canyon Unified / 48.1%Higley Unified / 57.7% /Kyrene Elementary / 63.5%Marana Unified / 59.1%Mesa Unified / 62.1%Mingus Union / 62.4%Naco Elementary / 63.0%Nogales Unified / 55.0%Oracle Elementary / 50.2%Palominas Elementary / 55.5%Paradise Valley Unified / 62.4%Patagonia Elementary / 55.0%Patagonia Union / 42.2%Peoria Unified / 59.6%Queen Creek Unified / 60.0%Red Rock Elementary / 54.3%Sahaurita Unified / 54.9%Scottsdale Unified / 61.3%SedonaOak Creek Joint Unified / 54.9%Sierra Vista Unified / 55.5%Somerton Elementary / 50.6%Sonoita Elementary / 68.5%Sunnyside Unified / 57.0%Tanque Verde Unified / 56.7%Tempe Elementary / 55.4%Tempe Union / 59.7%Tombstone Unified / 47.7%Tucson Unified / 54.3%Vail Unified / 59.3%Williams Unified / 56.5%Yuma Elementary / 51.9%Yuma Union / 56.5% Source: Auditor General's Office
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/doc48ed91ff2c077116038789.txt
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