Arizona’s Obama I.D. Bill Still Stuck in Legislative Limbo

April 4, 2012

Info Wars

By Patrick Henningsen

“Can you imagine is this law passed and Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in AZ come November?” –KTRN

The fate of Arizona’s own Candidate Certification Bill is still yet to be determined according to its supporters inside the state capitol.

HB 2480 would require Barack Obama to prove his eligibility as a US President, and would also determine whether his name would appear on the Grand Canyon State’s ballot come November. The bill has met with extreme resistance from some members of the state government.

According to Arizona State Representitive Carl Seel(R) who sponsored the bill, “It is still stalled in the Senate President Steve Pierce’s office, and is being held up by both Pearce and Senator Nancy Barto(R).”

Sen. Barto broke legslative protocol last week, maintaining that HD 2480 would remain stuck in her committee until Rep. Seel handed over a fully intitialed ”laundry list” of the names of all the bill’s sponsors. Major concerns have been raised over this breach in ethics and gamesmanship being played by tabling such an unorthodox request – effectively an ad hoc, addition of new rules to the state’s long-standing legislative tradition.

Similar legislation was passed last year, but was then vetoed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer(R). Among other concerns, Brewer rejected the bill on the grounds that it over-empowered Arizona’s Secretary of State to judge the qualifications of all candidates who ran for office.

According to its supporters, this new piece of legislation has been refined somewhat, with a focus on empowering citizens to legally challenge a candidate’s qualifications on grounds of suspicion. ”The current bill handles these concerns and merely requires all candidates running for office to declare under penalty of perjury that they are qualified for the office they seek and gives citizens standing to sue”, said Seel to Infowars on Monday afternoon.

Asked if he beieves the Governor would veto this latest version of the bill, Seel states, “I am not sure, but I trust she would sign it.”

Click here for the full report.

Human Rights Violations On United States-Mexico Border

March 29, 2012

CNN

By Michael Martinez and Gustavo Valdes

Latinos, immigrants and Native Americans experience “a pattern of human right violations” in the American Southwest under U.S. immigration policies, Amnesty International said in a new report.

A two-year study focusing mostly on Arizona and Texas found that “communities living along the border — particularly Latinos and individuals perceived to be of Latino origin, and indigenous communities — are disproportionately affected by a range of immigration control measures, resulting in a pattern of human rights violations,” Amnesty International said.

The report cited the failure of federal and state laws to respect immigrants’ right to life and found that U.S. citizens of Latino descent and Native Americans are subjected to “discriminatory profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement officials, that result in their being disproportionately targeted for police stops and searches.”

Other breaches of international human rights standards occurred in the access to justice for immigrant survivors of crime and in accountability for state officials and private individuals accused of abusing immigrants’ rights, the group said.

“All immigrants, irrespective of their legal status, have human rights. Amnesty International’s report shows that the USA is failing in its obligations under international law to ensure these rights,” the report said.

The group’s report, which urged a suspension and a federal review of all immigration enforcement programs, was criticized and dismissed by U.S. officials.

“Amnesty International’s report is based almost entirely on either outdated information or anonymous anecdotes that can be neither investigated nor resolved,” Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said.

“Moreover, the report does not offer thoughtful, actionable recommendations for improvement but instead calls for the wholesale suspension of immigration enforcement programs nationwide,” Chandler said.

Federal and Arizona authorities disputed the report’s accusations of racial profiling and other findings. The Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment on an dvance copy of the report until it is formally published, said spokesman Tom Vinger.

“The Amnesty International Report makes a rather general statement of criticism toward all law enforcement in Southern Arizona,” said Bart Graves, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. “The Arizona Department of Public Safety does not take part in racial profiling.”

The federal Secure Communities initiative was designed to prevent racial profiling by having the fingerprints of every person arrested and taken into custody checked against FBI criminal records and federal immigration records, Chandler said.

That initiative reduces “the risk of discrimination or racial profiling because the program applies to all who are arrested and booked for a crime, including U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents,” Chandler said.

The Amnesty International report said monitoring and accountability of immigration and law officers who practice discriminatory profiling is “lacking,” and those officials are “rarely held to account, with the result that such practices have become both commonplace and entrenched,” the report said.

FBI statistics show that bias crimes against Latinos have increased 40% from 2003 to 2007, and about 56% of bias victims don’t file police reports because they often believe police won’t help them, Amnesty International said.

“The fact that local law enforcement officials are used to implement federal immigration programs has exacerbated this problem. Those who do decide to report crimes may still be denied access to justice because law enforcement officials see them not as the victims of crime, but as criminals,” the report said.

“Immigrant victims of crimes such as human trafficking and domestic violence also face obstacles when attempting to access justice and remedies, while the proliferation of recently enacted state laws in Arizona and other states across the country obstructs immigrants’ ability to access education and essential health care services,” the report added.

But the federal government said that under a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy, officers exercise “appropriate discretion to ensure victims and witnesses to crimes are not penalized by removal,” Chandler said. The federal agency also developed a policy to protect victims of domestic violence and other offenses and to ensure the crimes are prosecuted, Chandler said.

The rights group criticized U.S. border policy for pushing undocumented immigrants to use deadly desert routes as a way to enter the country. Amnesty International reported as many as 5,287 migration deaths along the border from 1998 to 2008.

“Increasingly, state laws and local policies are creating barriers to or discouraging immigrants from accessing their rights to education and essential health care services, impacting their U.S. citizen children,” the report said.

At the same time, the U.S. government has reported that 14,500 to 17,000 people are trafficked into the country for sexual or labor exploitation, and while the federal government offers so-called T-visas for such trafficking survivors, only 6% of such visas were actually utilized in 2009, Amnesty International said.

The report also recommended that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection should consult with the 26 Indian nations along the border and respect and facilitate the use of tribal passports, identification papers and immigration documents for travel across the international lines.

For example, the Tohono O’odham nation straddles both countries, including 76 miles of the international line, with 28,000 members in Arizona, the report said. The tribe uses identity cards listing one of five districts to which a U.S.-born member belongs, while the cards for members born on the Mexico side list “ND” for “No District,” the report said.

Customs and Border Protection said it is working with tribes to develop forms of identification, and as of January, the federal government has approved six of 12 tribes’ memoranda of understanding to develop tribal identification that is valid for crossing the border, Chandler said.

Of the six, two tribes, the Kootenai of Idaho and the Pascua Yaqui of Arizona, have fully approved Enhanced Tribal Cards that are accepted as documents to enter the United States, Chandler said.

 

learn more at CNN

Flashing Phoenix Lights A Mystery

March 12, 2012

Huffington Post

By HP

“More weird things are happening in the skies above Phoenix. Click the link below to see the video. This is indeed strange.” –KTRN

A large, fleeting flash of light that appeared in the darkened skies over the northwestern edge of metropolitan Phoenix remains a mystery.

The ball of light that looked like an explosion was captured by a traffic camera on Interstate 17 around 4:45 a.m. Thursday and happened to be broadcast by KSAZ-TV when the station showed footage of the roadway during a report on the morning’s commute.

The two electric utilities that serve metro Phoenix say they didn’t have any reports of electric transformer explosions that might explain the flash.

Damon Gross, a spokesman for Arizona Public Service, says a blown fuse on a transformer can produce a flash, but he said the utility had no such report Thursday morning.

“It’s a mystery to us as well. I can’t even offer a guess,” said Doug Nintzel, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Click here for the full report.

Arizona Governor: Obama Was ‘Thin-Skinned’ In Airport Exchange

January 26, 2012

Los Angeles Times

By Kathleen Hennessey

“It seems Obama isn’t such a nice guy after all.”  –KTRN

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says President Obama was “somewhat thin-skinned” and “tense” in a testy greeting caught on camera on a Phoenix-area tarmac.

Brewer and Obama were seen exchanging brief words by reporters as the president arrived for an event Wednesday to promote his economic plan. Brewer handed the president a letter, the two appeared to talk over each other and the governor pointed her finger at the president.

Brewer, known for her tough stance on illegal immigration, told a Phoenix radio talk show that she was surprised that the welcome went so sour. She says she welcomed the president to the city warmly and said she hoped to sit down with him some time.

Click here for the full report.

Is the Welfare System Making Americans Incompetent?

August 23rd, 2011

The Huffington Post

By: Janell Ross

Sasha Mandel says she never imagined going on welfare. But her plans for a career and the independence she craved ran headlong into a pair of unforeseen developments — an unplanned pregnancy at 18, and the worst job market since the Great Depression.

In April 2009, freshly unemployed and devoid of savings, Mandel reluctantly walked into a state office in Phoenix to apply for welfare. Her caseworker was sympathetic, swiftly arranging emergency food aid along with cash assistance. But she was also clear on the limits of that relief: Under the terms of Arizona’s welfare program, Mandel could draw a welfare check for no more than three years.

That timeframe was about to get shorter. This April, cash-strapped Arizona tightened the limit on welfare payments to two years. Mandel learned about the change when she received a letter from the state in June. She was only a few weeks away from exhausting her benefits.

“That letter,” she said, “it just said to me that they decided to change the rules when the game for single mothers is already really, really hard.”

Fifteen years after President Clinton joined with congressional Republicans and affixed his signature to a law that “ended welfare as we know it” — imposing a five-year time limit on federal cash assistance for poor families, while allowing states to set shorter limits — the social safety net is failing to keep pace with the needs of struggling Americans, many experts say. Millions of single mothers are falling through the cracks, scrambling to support their families with neither paychecks nor government aid.

Welfare reform, one of the hallmark events of the Clinton presidency, was supposed to be a healthy tradeoff: Single mothers who had grown dependent on government checks would instead go out and work. The federal government gave the states lump sums of money, known as block grants, to create programs that would prepare, prompt and push poor single mothers accustomed to living on welfare into the workforce, providing job training, resume-writing tutorials and subsidized child care.

But the time limits on cash aid were enacted in the mid-1990s, in the midst of one of the most vibrant job markets in modern times. Today, with nearly 14 million people officially out of work and jobseekers outnumbering available positions by more than four-to-one, the logic of those reforms is being overwhelmed by the reality of a stark shortage of paychecks, experts say.

“Today, everybody is expected to work,” said Sheila Zedlewski, an economist at the Urban Institute and co-author of an institute study released last week that examines the consequences of welfare reform during the recession. “The problem is finding a job is incredibly hard.”

Since the beginning of the recession in late 2007, the nation’s unemployment rate has increased by 88 percent, while welfare caseloads have grown just 14 percent, according to the Urban Institute report.

Experts say this disparity reflects the inadequacy of remaining welfare programs in the face of a veritable epidemic of joblessness. During a period of national distress, fewer and fewer people have been able to secure help to meet their basic needs, according to the report.

Between 2007 and 2010 — just as the economy was contracting and joblessness was rising, generating greater demand for public assistance — welfare caseloads dropped in 13 states, according to the Urban Institute report. In Arizona, which faced a particularly powerful blow to its finances in the form of a sustained plunge in housing prices, the welfare caseload dropped by 48 percent during that timeframe.

Many of those who advocated for ending welfare as an unlimited entitlement say the change has been beneficial — the share of single, never married mothers in the workforce climbed from 62.9 percent in 1996 to 72.4 percent a decade later, according to federal data.

“Poverty rates are still lower and work rates still higher than before welfare reform,” said Ron Haskins, who played a key role in shaping the policy as a senior Republican congressional adviser, and who is now co-director of the Brookings Center on Children and Families. “In that sense, welfare reform has been a success.”

But as Haskins acknowledges, the reforms have never managed to address the barriers confronting a small subset of welfare recipients with very limited education, significant physical and mental health problems, or unhealthy children, preventing them from entering the workforce.

The share of people who both live in poverty with no reported income and lack welfare assistance has changed significantly since welfare reform. In 1996, 1 in 8 single mothers fit this profile, according to Zedlewski. By 2008, the most recent year for which this data is available, that figure had climbed to 1 in 5, she said.

In the early days after welfare reform, many states enacted stricter time limits, Arizona included, and beefed up programs offering subsidized child care — a crucial component for single mothers required to work. The budget crisis assailing states has prompted many states to effectively roll back these programs.

States around the country are slashing cash benefits, reducing time limits and, in some cases, imposing strict work requirements on welfare applicants, said LaDonna Pavetti, an expert on welfare who works at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The practices also make it very hard for parents already dealing with a job crisis, a disability or other complications to qualify for cash aid, she said.

In the 2000s, states also began shifting federal funds that could be used for cash benefits for single mothers to cover other costs. Some of the money went to cover the cost of child care or transportation assistance. But large shares were also used to fund state child welfare agencies, which frequently don’t get all the resources they need from states.

In 1997, the first year the reforms took effect in most states, Georgia used 73 percent of its federal welfare block grant to provide cash aid to poor families, according to data the state reported to the federal government. By 2009, the most recent year for which complete data is available, Georgia spent just 11 percent of its block grant on cash aid. Spending in Florida, Texas and Arizona plunged by similar margins.

The impact of these cuts is easy to discern: Far fewer poor families are being given cash assistance. In 2009, Georgia and Texas each provided cash aid to less than 10 percent of poor families, according to the Urban Institute report.

“You have so many people who were pushed off welfare who didn’t find work in the beginning, and today there are so many people who can’t get welfare at all,” said Peter Edelman, a Georgetown University law professor who resigned from a senior position in the Clinton administration to protest the President’s decision to sign welfare reform into law. “As an anti-recessionary tool, welfare as we know it today is useless.”

Edelman compares the paltry expansion of the nation’s welfare rolls during the recession — from about 3.9 million families in 2007 to about 4.4 million families in 2010 — to what happened to the food stamp program. During the same time period, food stamp program participation rose from about 30 million households to 44 million, reflecting real levels of economic need.

“What we’ve done is make things worse,” Edelman said. “There are now people who cannot find work, and who can not get welfare.”

Click here for the full report from The Huffington Post

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 3-23-11

Today, Kevin explains how you can live an organic lifestyle without spending a ton of money! Plus, find out what he uses as an all natural sweetener and why rebounders are so important to your daily routine!

Self Help:
Eliminate Viruses
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Organic Hair Care System
Filter Your Water
Show Your Support
Get Educated On Natural Cures

Health:
Over-The-Counter Pain Medication Carry Heart Attack Risk
FDA To Limit Pain Reliever Amount In Prescription Drugs

NWO:
Arizona Shooting Victim Arrested After New Threat

Wealth:
The Worrisome Stats Official Inflation Figures Aren’t Showing

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Sweat Lodge Accident

March 17th, 2011

JamesRay.com

On October 8, 2009, at a “Spiritual Warrior” retreat conceived and hosted by Ray, at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Yavapai County near Sedona, Arizona, two participants, James Shore and Kirby Brown, died as a result of being in a sweat lodge exercise. Eighteen others were hospitalized after suffering various physical problems such as pinpoint pupils, shaking organ failure, and cold/hot flashes. According to medical records not one person exhibited the symptoms of dehydration or elevated body temperatures which are critical indicators for heat stroke. Liz Neuman, another attendee, died October 17 after being comatose for a week.

The EMT’s and emergency room doctors all documented that participants appeared to have signs of organo-phosphate (pesticide) poisoning with some believing it to be carbon monoxide. The sweat lodge structure was provided by Angel Valley Ranch for which Ray’s company, James Ray International, paid over $100,000 to provide in addition to food and lodging for the participants. The contract specifically stated that Angel Valley would provide “a 415 square foot space to accommodate up to 75 people.” On the day of the accident the sweat lodge contained 52 people. Angel Valley Ranch is owned and operated by Michael and Amayra Hamilton, both residents of Yavapai County.

Even though a written contract was presented between Ray’s company and Angel Valley, the Yavapai County Sheriff, Steve Waugh, said October 10 that the investigation was focusing on Ray and his staff in an attempt to determine if criminal negligence was involved. The county sheriff’s office held firm in the belief that Ray’s staff actually built the sweat lodge completely disregarding the contract.

On the night of the accident, Ted Mercer, an employee of Angel Valley Ranch and the man who built the lodge, told detectives that the tarps used were “stored with chunks of rat poison all year long in a shed,” he further told detectives that this was the first year that they used “pressed wood to heat the stones versus tree wood” and that he was “told by Hamilton to do so.” Pressed wood is well known to contain formaldehyde and other poisons and to be toxic when burned.

Less than 48 hours after the accident, the states detectives released the alleged crime scene and allowed the Hamilton’s to destroy the lodge. All tarps, blankets, and stones were burned or completely destroyed. The Hamilton’s were also told by authorities that “they were not under any investigation.”

While numerous indicators from EMTs and emergency room doctors were present and documented of poisons, the state followed up on none of them. A source close to Ray stated that upon arrival at the scene of the accident the detective stated to Ray, “We’re investigating this as a homicide.” After answering a few basic questions, Ray was detained by authorities until nearly 2 AM that next morning. Regardless of the facts, it was reported in the press that Ray “fled the scene” and “refused to speak with authorities.”

When contacted about the lodge, Angel Valley Resort refused comment on the details of the contract. The site owner’s press release said James Ray was the sweat session facilitator in direction and control. Jack Judd, the county building safety manager, said that there was no record of a permit or an application for a permit to build the sweat lodge.

On October 15, 2009, the Yavapai County sheriff’s office upgraded the investigations into the deaths of James Shore and Kirby Brown to homicide probes, officials claimed the sweat lodge lacked the necessary building permit. James Ray arranged for his own private investigation into the deaths. He expressed sorrow and shed tears during a seminar in Los Angeles, although he did not explicitly apologize for the deaths.[32] Detectives executed a search warrant at James Ray International’s offices.[33] confiscating servers, computer equipment and documents worth multiple tens of thousands of dollars to the company.

On October 15, 2009, print media began reporting that Mr. Ray conducted a conference call with some victims, one of which recorded this call and provided it to the AP. During this call, one of attendees from the Spiritual Warrior retreat recounted that Angel Valley Ranch had brought in a self-described channeler post the accident stating she had communicated with the dead and said they “were having so much fun” out of their bodies that they didn’t want to return. While the statement was clearly not from Ray many media outlets attempted to attribute the supposed “channeling” to him.

On October 17, Ray’s spokesperson Howard Bragman said, responding to the investigation upgrade, “I think they are trying to tar my client. Somebody must be running for re-election in Yavapai County.”

On October 27, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the event to complement the local investigations. This did not occur.

On October 28, the family of victim Kirby Brown said that Ray was insincere. They said he assured them he was working with authorities and yet the sheriff hasn’t received an official statement from Ray. The family had previously announced their intentions to sue him.

On October 29, Ray postponed his event schedule and pledged to fully commit himself to the investigation for the victim’s and family’s benefit of an authoritative response for closure. Ray admitted he had been struggling to respond in the right way since the tragedy started. Ray’s attorney placed no responsibility for the lodge design, construction or maintenance on his client.

On October 30, a wrongful death lawsuit claiming negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and other actions on the part of Ray and the site owners was filed for the family of Liz Neuman. A similar action was filed for Sidney Spencer who was seriously injured. The suits sought compensatory and punitive damages alleging that defendants failed to provide adequate prior warnings, to monitor the participants’ well being in the sweat lodge, and to provide medical treatment. On November 10 Dennis Mehravar, an injured attendee from Canada, joined the Spenser suit. Mehravar had been in a coma and his medical records indicated, “heat stroke not the cause” it further went on to say it appeared to be some type of “toxic poisoning.”

In November 2009 Ray closed James Ray International, his company of seventeen years. On November 4, Ray listed his Beverly Hills home on the market for $5,495,000. Ray paid $4 million in March, according to public records, for the 7,234-square-foot (672.1 m2) contemporary Mediterranean home.
Ray was arrested in connection with the deaths on February 3, 2010, and bond was set at $5 million. Ray’s attorney stated that he could not afford the $5 million. After spending nearly a month in solitary confinement, Ray was released on February 26, 2010, after bail was reduced to $250,000.

Ray settled all civil claims with families and participants in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. To date, Angel Valley Ranch has not settled.

On April 2, 2010 a suit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court claimed that Ray failed to refund money paid in advance for seminars which Ray cancelled following the sweat lodge deaths. The suit was later dropped and in early 2010 Ray provided an online replacement program for all who had paid in advance.

On July 14, 2010 the court date of August 31, 2010 was vacated due to another overlapping trial with Judge Warren Darrow. Legal sparring is continuing in advance of the current court date of February 16, 2011.

Click here for the full report from JamesRay.com

The Kevin Trudeau Show: 2-28-11

Today, Kevin exposes the politics behind winning an Academy Award and what it takes to be successful in Hollywood. 

Self Help:
Viral Detox  
Invest Wisely    

Health:
McDonald’s ‘Wholesome’ Oatmeal Not So Healthy   
Americans are Loaded With Toxic Chemicals    
Flame Retardants Found in Butter     

Technology:
Ferrari Developing Mind Reading Car    

NWO:  
Arizona Teacher Fired Over Bumper Sticker    
FBI Arrests a Suspected Bomb Plotter    

Everything Kevin:
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Support Kevin!
Kevin is on YouTube!
Sign Up For Kevin’s FREE Podcast
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Take Trudeau on the Go! Click here to download this show to your iPod, mp3 player, or PC through iTunes! 

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The Kevin Trudeau Show: 1-18-11

Today, Kevin explains how you can live an organic lifestyle without spending a ton of money! Plus, find out what he uses as an all natural sweetener and why rebounders are so important to your daily routine!

Self Help:
Eliminate Viruses   
Natural Toothpaste   
Organic Hair Care System   
Filter Your Water  
Show Your Support   
Get Educated On Natural Cures   

Health:
Over-The-Counter Pain Medication Carry Heart Attack Risk   
FDA To Limit Pain Reliever Amount In Prescription Drugs      

NWO:
Arizona Shooting Victim Arrested After New Threat     

Wealth:
The Worrisome Stats Official Inflation Figures Aren’t Showing   

Everything Kevin:
Become An Insider!
Kevin is on YouTube!
Sign Up For Kevin’s FREE Podcast
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The Kevin Trudeau Show: 1-11-11

Today, Kevin reveals the steps to reduce the effects of brainwashing and gives you the recipe to manifest all your dreams!

Self Help:
Get Paid To Listen To KT
Stop Showering In Toxins
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Get A Discount!

Big Pharma:
Suspect In Arizona Shootings Had History Of Troubling Behavior

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