PHOENIX – Weeks after voters approved amending Arizona’s Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, gay-rights activists are looking toward 2010.

A man who champions equality for gays in the United Kingdom has traveled to Arizona to begin a drive for a ballot initiative that would establish civil partnerships, which since 2005 have allowed same-sex couples to legally register their relationships.

“We’re not fighting for marriage; we’re fighting for equal rights,” said Gino Meriano, whose UK business, Pink Weddings, arranges commitment ceremonies and provides free legal advice for gay couples wishing to establish civil partnerships.

Steen Lawson, co-founder of Marriage Equality USA’s new Arizona chapter, said civil unions don’t go far enough. His group wants same-sex couples to have the same rights as heterosexual couples who wish to marry.

“Since government uses the word marriage, we must fight for marriage,” Lawson said.

Meriano, Lawson and others are looking for a next step in response to Proposition 102, which Arizona voters approved Nov. 4. Given that the initiative amended Arizona’s Constitution, making a legal challenge difficult, opponents of 102 say any next step likely would be a ballot proposition.

John Garcia, a professor of political science at the University of Arizona, said it would be tough in the current political climate for gay-rights leaders to make the gains Lawson wants. Still, he said civil unions are a realistic goal.

“If new propositions focus in on civil unions, they will gain the necessary votes to pass,” Garcia said.

While the United Kingdom offers civil partnerships, Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire offer civil unions, which provide the same benefits for same-sex couples. Massachusetts and Connecticut are the only states allowing same-sex marriage since California voters approved Proposition 8 in November.

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said it’s easy to come up with ideas for initiatives that would establish civil unions or give same-sex couples the right to marry; she said he hears those regularly.

“The problem is they don’t have the money or time to fund it,” she said, estimating that would take $3 million to run a successful campaign.

That kind of money wasn’t available this year for opponents of 102. While supporters raised $7.7 million, most of it from individuals, opposition groups raised $820,000, according to reports filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.

Cynthia Leigh Lewis, campaign treasurer for Arizona Together, an anti-102 group that raised $746,000, said this isn’t a good time to push for gay marriage or civil unions.

She said the economy would make it difficult to raise enough money, and she said the passage of Proposition 102 and GOP gains in the Legislature illustrate a difficult political climate for such as move.

“As our country moved center-left, Arizona moved center-right,” she said.

Meriano, who has yet to submit the paperwork necessary to begin gathering signatures, said he thinks an initiative seeking civil partnerships for gay couples can win because it takes marriage out of the debate.

“The campaign is simple: Vote no for gay marriage, vote yes for civil partnerships,” Meriano said.

Lawson said he and other leaders of Marriage Equality USA think civil unions wouldn’t have equal standing with marriage.

“If someone could show me that a civil partnership was 100 percent equal I would be for it,” he said. “But no one has ever shown me a civil partnership that is 100 percent equal.”

Equality Arizona, a statewide group seeking gay and civil rights, campaigned against 102 and is still evaluating its options for 2010, said Sam Holdren, the group’s public affairs director. But he said it isn’t a good time to push for same-sex marriage.

“We have to take a look at what’s going on,” Holdren said. “Realistically, marriage is off the table in Arizona.”

———

Around the U.S.

States that allow same-sex marriage:

• Connecticut

• Massachusetts

States that allow civil unions:

• New Hampshire

• New Jersey

• Vermont

Former director of Pew Hispanic Center cites ‘overplay of Latinos being shipped away’

PHOENIX — While mainstream media demonize illegal immigrants, Spanish-language media are creating “an atmosphere of fear” by repeatedly covering family members being torn away from loved ones, an expert in immigration policy said Tuesday.

“The media exaggerates immigration issues, making it worse than it seems,” Robert Suro, founder and former director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said during an appearance at Arizona State University. “The overplay of Latinos being shipped away on buses has got to end.”

Suro, who is now a journalism professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, is a former foreign, domestic and Washington reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In a talk before students and faculty members at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Suro said the media are portraying illegal immigration as an epidemic But he noted that studies have shown illegal immigration has fallen sharply in the past year as the U.S. economy has slowed.

“Originally immigrants found work in the housing market; now that employment has dried up,” Suro said.

Suro said the Spanish-language media also have caused illegal immigrants to leave and have caused prospective border crossers to stay in Mexico by suggesting that immigration enforcement tears families apart.

“The Spanish media constantly shows loved ones being taken away on buses,” Suro said. “It is the prominence of those stories that has created an atmosphere of fear.”

Ricardo Torres, CEO of Phoenix-based Latino Perspectives Media, publisher of Latino Perspectives magazine, said Spanish-language media are trying to show the human impact of enforcement to counteract mainstream media’s portrayal of illegal immigration. He agreed that the tone of coverage sends a message to immigrants.

“Headlines range from X number of people being deported to X number of people being investigated,” Torres said. “This creates fear among Latinos.”

Rick Rodriguez, a professor of practice and former newspaper executive who heads the Cronkite School’s Southwest Borderlands Initiative, agreed that the Spanish-language media’s coverage has frightened many immigrants. But he said it’s also been an effective way to get the news out

“Although Spanish media presents their facts using scare tactics, it is better that getting your information from rumors,” Rodriguez said.

SONOITA — Popping out of its burrow, a black-tailed prairie dog seems a natural part of this grass-covered expanse.

It would seem natural, that is, if the hole into its burrow weren’t a plastic tube. Or if a cage weren’t keeping it from going anywhere fast. Or if two people from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, camping nearby, weren’t keeping an eye on it through binoculars.

Nearly 50 years after the black-tailed prairie dog was poisoned, shot and trapped out of existence in this area, the creature is clawing its way back into southern Arizona.

Seventy-four black-tailed prairie dogs were brought here in early October from a ranch in New Mexico. They’re starting out in acclimation pens on 10 acres of the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, 45 miles southeast of Tucson.

While not everyone around here celebrating their arrival, Game and Fish biologist Kyle McCarty said prairie dogs are key to this area’s environment.

“There are so many false perceptions of black-tailed prairie dogs,” McCarty said. “Many people don’t understand these animals are actually beneficial to our ecosystem.”

It’s the prairie dog’s ability to dig — and dig and dig — that benefits the environment, he said. Prairie dog burrows aerate the soil, help water reach aquifers faster and provide habitats for other species, and the creatures’ waste fertilizes the rangeland grasses on which prairie dogs and cattle feed.

“People realized it was a huge mistake to exterminate these animals,” said Bill Van Pelt, a Game and Fish program manager in charge of the reintroduction. “Just because something was done historically does not make it right.”

The black-tailed prairie dog, which once was endangered but has come back in other areas, is native to 11 western states and parts of Mexico and Canada. The group brought here was selected because it’s similar genetically to the population that once existed in Arizona.

McCarty said the prairie dogs’ new home was chosen for its rich soil and rolling hills, which resemble an area in Mexico that has one of the largest populations of black-tailed prairie dogs.

“This land has given these prairie dogs the best possible chance for survival,” McCarty said. “The soil and vegetation is just ideal.”

The artificial burrows are only temporary accommodations. The new residents already are digging and will expand their burrows at a rate of about 10 to 15 percent a year, Van Pelt said.

The colony is starting out on land that where Mac Donaldson’s family has grazed cattle for four generations. He said he had mixed emotions about having prairie dogs back.

“I support the attempt to keep these animals off the endangered species list,” Donaldson said. “On the other hand, I hope they don’t compete against my cattle for food.”

Donaldson said his feelings are shared by neighboring ranchers, who wonder whether prairie dogs are even native to the area. He said he’s confident Game and Fish will work with ranchers if problems arise.

“Learning from the past, the better we cooperate the more impact we can have on management,” Donaldson said.

McCarty said people historically have feared that the creatures could transmit bubonic plague, which has harmed prairie dog numbers over decades, to humans, which he said isn’t the case. Prairie dogs also have been viewed as competitors for cattle forage, but McCarty said prairie dogs actually improve cattle grazing.

“Although they benefit the environment in so many ways, people still look at them as rodents that carry the plague,” McCarty said.

While ranchers might have to get used to their new neighbors, hawks and eagles, which feed on prairie dogs, will benefit immediately from having them back, McCarty said.

When the population here is fully established, Game and Fish plans to reintroduce black-tailed prairie dogs to five other sites in southern Arizona. The effort, a collaboration with the State Land Department, is using federal and state funds and is expected to cost $276,000 over five years.

“The money being used is well worth it,” Van Pelt said, noting that the program will help keep the creature from being listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Holly Hicks, a second-year intern with Game and Fish, is camping at the site to assure area residents that the prairie dogs won’t affect their livestock or crops. She said responses so far have been promising.

The prairie dogs breed in the spring, with females producing anywhere from three to six pups, but it will take a long time for this colony to expand beyond the conservation area, she said, in part because there are no abandoned prairie dog tunnels nearby to move into.

“These animals will not affect ranchers for many years if at all,” Hicks said.

———

Prairie dog facts

Size: 14 to 17 inches long.

Weight: 2 to 3 pounds.

Lifespan: 3 to 5 years.

Social Groups: Live in complexes of tunnels called towns, or colonies.

Relatives: No relationship to dogs; they are rodents.

Active: Sleep most of the day; most active in mornings and evenings.

Says commission should be involved in talks on emission caps

PHOENIX – Bob Stump, a Republican running for the Arizona Corporation Commission, says an agreement in which Arizona would join other Western states and some Canadian provinces to cut greenhouse gas emissions should involve the regulatory body and state lawmakers.

“Any agreement must include the input of the Corporation Commission and the Legislature, and any effective cap-and-trade system must operate on a national, not regional basis,” said Stump, who represents parts of Peoria and other nearby communities in the Arizona House of Representatives. “Otherwise, Arizona jobs will be lost and our economy will suffer.”

Stump, who answered questions via e-mail, said the Corporation Commission must be involved in any such agreement to make sure that utility rates don’t escalate to a degree that harms ratepayers.

Arizona, six other states and four Canadian provinces that are part of the Western Climate Initiative in September unveiled a plan to cut their greenhouse emissions by 2020 to 15 percent below 2005 levels. It includes a cap on emissions that decreases over time and a system that would allow utilities and other businesses to trade pollution rights or offset emissions through actions such as planting trees.

Gov. Janet Napolitano and others involved in the effort have said they are acting in the absence of federal leadership on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.

While Stump said he supports the Corporation Commission’s requirement that Arizona utilities get 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025, he also said the fast-growing state must focus on various sources.

“We need a diverse portfolio of energy options – fossil-based, nuclear and renewable – to meet our state’s growing demand for power,” Stump said.

Stump, who has served in the state House since 2002 and chairs the House Committee on Health, is a native of Honolulu and worked as a journalist before moving to Arizona in 1995.

He said his focus in running for Corporation Commission is securing Arizona’s energy and water future.

“As a commissioner, I will continue to place the interests of ratepayers first, much as I have placed the concerns of taxpayers first as a legislator,” Stump said.

“A commissioner must ask the tough questions of utilities to ensure that they are managing their assets wisely and are providing air-tight justifications for any rate increase they propose,” Stump said.

Part of securing Arizona’s energy future, Stump said, is taking greater advantage of nuclear power.

“France produces 80 percent of its energy from nuclear, a cheap, emissions-free energy source,” Stump said.

Another goal for Stump is protecting citizens from fraud, which is a key role of the commission.

———

BOB STUMP

Party: Republican

Residence: Peoria

Professional experience: Journalist, business owner

Public service: Arizona House of Representatives, 2002-present

Education: Master of theological studies, Harvard University; bachelor’s degree in philosophy and social thought, University of California, Berkeley

———

On the Web

Campaign Web site:

www.stump4az.com

PHOENIX – Two years after rejecting a similar measure, Arizona voters appear to favor a ballot proposition that would define marriage as a union of one man and one woman, according to a Cronkite/Eight Poll released Tuesday.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said they planned to vote for Proposition 102, while 40 percent were against it. Nine percent were undecided.

In 2006, voters defeated Proposition 107, which would have carried the same definition of marriage and also barred unmarried partners from receiving benefits.

Bruce Merrill, a retired Arizona State University professor who directs the poll, said not having the prohibition on benefits this time around could be helping the new proposition.

“I believe personally Proposition 107 would have passed if it wasn’t a compound law,” Merrill said.

Kelly Molique, spokeswoman for the campaign supporting Proposition 102, said the results reinforce her confidence that the measure will pass.

“The fact is Arizona voters want a clear definition of marriage, and now most likely they will get it,” Molique said.

State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, chairwoman of the campaign to defeat Proposition 102, noted that 49 percent doesn’t represent a majority of Arizona voters. She said Molique shouldn’t be so confident.

The poll, conducted Thursday to Sunday by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Eight-KAET-TV, involved 976 registered Arizona voters. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The Cronkite School operates Cronkite News Service.

———

POLL HIGHLIGHTS

Here are highlights from the Cronkite/Eight Poll released Tuesday by Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Eight/KAET-TV:

Proposition 102, to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman:

Vote for it: 49 percent

Vote against it: 42 percent

Don’t know/no opinion: 9 percent

Probably will vote for the following in November:

McCain: 45 percent

Obama: 38 percent

Nader: 1 percent

Undecided: 15 percent

Confidence in Sarah Palin’s ability to be an effective president if forced to take over:

Very confident: 24 percent

Generally confident: 24 percent

Not very confident: 46 percent

Don’t know/no opinion: 6 percent

Confidence in Joe Biden’s ability to be an effective president if forced to take over:

Very confident: 35 percent

Generally confident: 35 percent

Not very confident: 24 percent

Don’t know/no opinion: 6 percent

SEDONA – Jack Edwards gives visitors to Red Rock State Park a handshake and hello along with a pamphlet on the park’s history.

Louise Appleton leads visitors on moonlight walks.

Those who sneak onto park grounds after hours will get a lecture from Don Swanson, who stays overnight in his trailer.

This nature preserve, set beneath the spectacular cliffs overlooking Sedona, has several employees, but the three aren’t among them. The retirees are part of a crew of about 80 volunteers that keeps the park running.

“I found myself being bored when there was no work to be done,” said Edwards, who has volunteered here every Thursday morning for nearly a year. “Volunteering has filled that gap.”

Arizona’s 31 state parks cannot operate without volunteers, officials said. Hundreds of people, out of the goodness of their hearts and sometimes in exchange for free camping, lead tours and hikes, maintain facilities, staff welcome desks and perform other essential tasks. Like Edwards, Appleton and Swanson, most of the volunteers in the state parks are retirees.

As temperatures cool and Arizona State Parks readies for an increase in visitors, officials worry that the worsening economy and high gasoline prices will make it more challenging to find volunteers, some of whom drive long distances to parks.

“The cost of gas is definitely starting to prohibit volunteers from driving 30 to 40 minutes out of their way,” said Nicole Armstrong-Best, an Arizona State Parks resource planner who coordinates volunteers.

It’s already tough at Jerome State Historic Park, where ranger Nora Graf needs five more volunteers to join the six who work the front desk, collect entrance fees and run antique engines. Newspaper advertisements, fliers and events haven’t worked, but officials are working with Armstrong-Best on other options, she said.

“I think part of it is the price of gas along with the long winding road that leads to our park,” Graf said.

Sara Hensley, director of parks and recreation for the city of Phoenix and a faculty associate in Arizona State University’s School of Community Resources & Development, said the poor economy means parks must be more creative to get volunteers.

“Parks up until now have only targeted volunteers who live right around the area,” she said. “To get more volunteers, parks must begin to target different age groups and different locations.”

Arizona State Parks is working to keep current volunteers and lure new ones by organizing carpools and arranging schedules so volunteers can work the same number of hours each week over fewer days, said Ellen Bilbrey, the agency’s public information officer.

Bilbrey said she and others are soliciting volunteers through news releases, fliers posted at parks and invitations from employees and volunteers.

“We are letting the community know we need them,” she said.

Consolidating hours has helped Louise Appleton, a volunteer at Red Rock State Park, cope with a trip of 19 miles to and from the park. She used to work part-time two days a week, staffing the information booth and leading tours, but now works about same number of hours on one day a week.

“The prices of gas has impacted me in the sense that I try to consolidate some of my volunteer duties,” Appleton said.

Brenda Robinson, volunteer coordinator for Red Rock State Park, said she’s always on the lookout for people willing to help.

“We have spent a great deal of time reaching out to our community,” Robinson said. “Every individual has a gift to give to Red Rock State Park.”

Armstrong-Best, who recruits volunteers for the entire park system, said she is ready to adjust her marketing campaign if the economy cuts into volunteer numbers.

“Parks cannot remain open without the help of volunteers,” she said.

———

On the Web

Arizona State Parks:

www.azstateparks.com

PHOENIX — For America to achieve energy independence, citizens and elected officials must embrace the idea that it’s going to require sacrifice, a former U.S. Energy Department official said Thursday.

“Sacrifice needs to come back into the political realm of the country,” said Jay Hakes, who was in the Phoenix area to promote his book “A Declaration of Energy Independence.”

“I think if we’re asking troops to go over and sacrifice their lives in the Middle East, for us at home to be more careful about how we use energy is a reasonable request,” Hakes said in an interview.

Hakes headed the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration from 1993 to 2000. He currently runs the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.

Consumers need to accept that they will face higher utility bills as the nation converts to renewable sources of energy, Hakes said. But he said citizens need to understand that they must sacrifice time as well by taking public transportation, carpooling, bicycling and walking.

Hakes said parents can help ease the transition to energy independence by encouraging children to conserve by taking steps such as turning off lights and hair dryers when they aren’t needed.

“Little things make a difference, including checking tire inflation, keeping the inside temperature of your house consistent with the outdoors and talking with your family on how not to waste energy,” Hakes said.

Hakes said America’s energy future will include biofuels, electric fuels and emerging sources of energy such as algae.

“Algae is a great processor of energy from the sun,” Hakes said. “It has a number of technical advantages in producing gasoline and jet fuels.”

Later Thursday, Hakes gave a speech at Arizona State University, telling the audience that taxing carbon output can help fund research into renewable energy sources.

“Carbon has to pay its way if we are to resolve this energy predicament,” Hakes said.

Jonathan Fink, the Julie A. Wrigley director of ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability and the university’s chief sustainability officer, said Arizona’s requirement that utilities get 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2025 is an example of the sacrifice Hakes recommends.

“It’s not just up to you and me, but rather the utility companies must begin to sacrifice first,” Fink said.