The press stands idle moments after the final issue was printed late Friday night.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tucson late Friday to stop the closure of the Tucson Citizen, which was announced by the Citizen’s owners early Friday.

The lawsuit said closing the Citizen stemmed from an agreement between Gannett and Lee Enterprises Inc., owner of the Arizona Daily Star, to eliminate competition and increase profits to both companies.

The case has been assigned to Judge Raner Collins, but Goddard said in a phone interview Friday night that his staff could not reach Collins to “express the urgency of the case.”

“Usually there is some district judge to handle emergency motions and we are trying to find one,” Goddard said. “But I’m not at all certain we will be able to find one; it is a small panel in Tucson.”

Kate Marymont, vice president of news for the Gannett Co. Inc., told Citizen employees Friday that the last print edition would be Saturday. Gannett will continue to run a “modified” Web site of daily commentary and opinion with a weekly insert of editorial content appearing in the Star, she said.

She said two people accepted positions with www.tucsoncitizen.com but declined to say how many staffers the Web site would eventually hire.

“That’s my starting point,” Marymont said.

A preliminary job description for those hired showed that the site would focus on the “watercooler buzz” of the day.

Staffers would likely link to other Web sites and blogs, offer an opinion and open the discussion to commenters in an online forum. The site would also incorporate social networking, the document showed.

The staff will be responsible for defining the Web site’s form, Marymont said. “I’ve left it to them.”

The recently launched Metromix entertainment hub will continue on a “provisional basis” only, Marymont said.

Gannett’s joint operating agreement with Lee Enterprises Inc. also will terminate Saturday, although the two companies will continue as business partners in Tucson Newspapers, a subsidiary that handles all noneditorial operations for both papers. The JOA has been in effect since 1940.

Under the arrangement, Gannett takes the unusual step of partnering with a newspaper publication in which it has no editorial say to retain its profit interest in the operation.

Lee and Gannett will continue to share equally in the operating costs and profits of Tucson Newspapers, also known as TNI Partners, just as they did with the JOA, CEO Mike Jameson said. TNI, though, will no longer receive the limited antitrust immunity offered JOAs under the Newspaper Preservation Act.

The 1970 act gives newspapers operating under a joint operating agreement an exemption from federal antitrust laws in the hopes of increasing editorial diversity in cities and towns.

The announcement brings to a close months of uncertainty for the paper. Gannett announced in January that it was offering the Citizen archives, Internet domain name and lists of subscribers and advertisers to potential buyers, but not its 50 percent share of the JOA. If no buyer came forward, it intended to close the paper March 21.

On March 17, Gannett delayed the closure, saying “viable” buyers had come forward. The paper has operated on a day-to-day basis since.

Marymont informed Citizen employees of the closure at 9:30 a.m. Friday, about 30 minutes after notifying interim Editor Jennifer Boice.

“This is not about the journalism,” Marymont said. “Do not in any way take this as a reflection on your journalism. You have done outstanding journalism for decades.”

Laid-off employees will receive a week’s pay for every year they’ve worked for the paper up to 26 weeks, with a two-week minimum.

Boice, who has worked at the Citizen for 25 years and was appointed interim editor in July, could not hold back tears when making the announcement

“It’s been a difficult time,” Boice said. “But it’s also been fun. We’ve had people, even when our time was limited, going all out on stories, doing an incredible job of keeping the newspaper not only going, but good. And I am really grateful to all the people here who have put forth their heart and soul and energy in letting us go out with our head held high.”

Goddard was informed of the Citizen’s pending closure when Stephen Hadland, CEO of the Santa Monica Media Co. and the final bidder in the sale, wrote a letter Friday morning asking Goddard to intervene.

“The Tucson Citizen has been systematically destroyed by its owners and I believe it remains a viable and popular newspaper in the community,” he wrote.

Goddard said Hadland’s request was compelling, especially after he spoke with Gannett representatives.

“Their lawyer was unable to tell me how the proposed Web site would serve Tucson as a separate editorial voice,” Goddard said. “We took action because there was nothing in front of us that indicated any commitment to a vigorous continuing presence for the Citizen in some form.”

Reached Friday at his Santa Monica office, Hadland said, “We were, we are and we remain a bona fide buyer. We made a substantial cash offer; we later amended the offer to close to half a million dollars and were told that nothing less than $800,000 would be acceptable.”

In addition, Hadland said, he was “amazed” that Gannett was shutting the printed paper and going to an online-only operation because during negotiations, “a printed edition was an absolute requirement of Gannett’s.”

“This is the biggest perversion of the Newspaper Preservation Act that I have ever witnessed,” said Hadland, who publishes five weekly papers in the Los Angeles area.

Goddard said the arrangement between Gannett and Lee did not, in his mind, “meet either the spirit or the intent of the (antitrust) exemption” granted through the federal act.

The U.S. Justice Department began an investigation into the sale of the Citizen in February, when potential buyers told Justice representatives they were being told by Gannett’s sales broker that the Citizen wasn’t a good deal because Gannett wasn’t selling its interest in the JOA.

Marymont confirmed discussions with Justice were ongoing for the past month, but would not say Justice insisted on having a Web site instead of completely closing the Citizen’s presence in Tucson.

She said Gannett had not determined the length of commitment to the new Web site, and that there “is no legal document” saying the site has to remain operational for a certain time.

“In our conversations with the Justice Department, it was agreed that it was important we sustain a second voice in the community,” Marymont said.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said Friday that Justice “closed its investigation today and no enforcement action was taken.” She would give no further details.

National media experts had predicted the paper would never sell because, without the JOA, the Citizen was all loss and no profit.

Thus the paper appeared poised to be another casualty of a newspaper industry struggling to survive amid declining advertising revenue and Internet competition.

But the Citizen defied the odds, at least for a while, because of the federal investigation.

At least five people expressed interest in buying the Citizen. All decided against bidding when they couldn’t persuade Gannett to include the JOA in the sale.

The Citizen was started in 1870 as a weekly, the Arizona Citizen, preceding Arizona’s statehood. Its reporters were on the front lines covering everything from the raids of Pancho Villa to the first university-led space mission.

In its last two months, the paper reported on its own predicted demise.

“A newspaper doesn’t close, it dies, and the death leaves a hole in the community,” said Boice.

Associated Press writer Art Rotstein (left) and Tucson Citizen reporter Renée Schafer Horton ask Gannett Co. executive Kate Marymont (right) about the company's decision to close the Citizen.

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Other troubled newspapers

• Hearst Corp. printed the last edition of Seattle’s oldest newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on March 16, turning it into an Internet-only news outlet with 20 staff members, down from more than 150.

• E.W. Scripps Co. in February closed the 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News, one of two daily newspapers in Denver.

• Employees of the San Francisco Chronicle were told in February to prepare for closure or massive layoffs.

• The Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months.

• The Ann Arbor News announced in April it will close in July. In its place, the Web-based media company AnnArbor.com LLC will be launched, publishing continuously online and a print edition twice a week. About 272 employees remain at the News, and experts estimate that will fall to fewer than 50 for the Web venture.

By Carli Brosseau, Renee Schafer Horton

A motion for a temporary restraining order is in the process of being filed, said Anne Hilby, spokeswoman for Goddard’s office.

The case has been assigned to Raner Collins, Hilby said, “but we do not yet know if he will rule on it before tomorrow morning.”

“The process has been initiated,” Hilby said. “We will be notified by the court as how Judge Collins will rule.”

Collins could not be reached for comment.

Kate Marymont, vice president of news for Gannett Co. Inc., visited the Citizen newsroom Friday morning to say the paper would print its final issue Saturday, continuing with a “modified” Web site focused on opinion and commentary.

When asked about Goddard’s action, Marymont said she could not comment without seeing the actual filing.

“I have little to say, I’d need to see what was filed and speak with our lawyers,” Marymont said.

Goddard was informed of the Citizen’s pending closure when Stephen Hadland, CEO of the Santa Monica Media Co. and the final bidder in the sale announced by Gannett in January, wrote a letter Friday morning asking Goddard to intervene.

“I am requesting the Arizona Attorney General’s office file a Temporary Restraining Order preventing the Gannett Corporation from closing the Citizen and require Gannett to continue printing the newspaper pending a sale to a qualified buyer,” Hadland wrote. “The Tucson Citizen has been systematically destroyed by its owners and I believe it remains a viable and popular newspaper in the community.”

Hadland has contended from his first bid that Gannett was not serious about selling the paper because it was only offering the name of the paper, its Web site, archives and a subscriber list, but not the 50 percent interest in the joint operating agreement it has with Lee Enterprises Inc., owner of the Arizona Daily Star.

The JOA has been in effect since 1940 and allows Lee and Gannett to share equally in the operating costs and profits of Tucson Newspapers, also known as TNI Partners, a subsidiary that handles all noneditorial operations for both papers.

Hadland,who said his bid for the Citizen “assests” was $400,000, considers his media company a qualified and viable buyer, something Marymont denied in speaking with employees Friday morning.

“In the end, there was no buyer,” she said.

Hadland said in a phone interview that if a paper goes without printing one day, it loses all value and that is why he urged Goddard to act quickly.

By Carli Brosseau, Renee Schafer Horton

Sahuaro multisport star Rodney Peete.

Southern Arizona has produced a plethora of talented high school athletes through the years, some who went on to professional and Olympic careers. This list is the best of the best based on their dominance during their high school years.

BOYS

All-around

• Fred Enke, Tucson High, 1940s: Multitalented athlete was the brightest star of the Badgers’ glory years, starring in football, basketball and baseball and leading the Badgers to eight state team titles.

• Joe Batiste, Tucson High, 1930s: Track legend and football star set a hurdles record that stood for years.

• Michael Bates, Amphi, 1980s: Nationally ranked hurdler and sprinter and a Parade magazine All-American in football.

• Rodney Peete, Sahuaro, 1980s: Record-setting quarterback after being all-star wide receiver, point guard on state title basketball team, pitched and won state title game in baseball as sophomore.

• Dannie Jackson, Santa Rita, 1970s: Future world-class decathlete excelled in football, basketball and track for the Eagles.

Baseball

• Sam Khalifa, Sahuaro, 1980s: Picked No. 7 overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1982, he is the highest local prep selection in the draft.

Basketball

• (tie) Sean Elliott, Cholla, 1980s: Two-time All-State pick averaged 24.8 points per game in his career.

• (tie) Lafayette Lever, Pueblo, 1970s: Two-time All-State pick led team to two state titles.

Cross country

• Kyle Cormier, Douglas, 2000s: Cormier won six state championships in cross country and distance events in track and won the 2004 Foot Locker National and West Regional championships before an All-American career running at the University of Arkansas.

Football

• Rodney Peete, Sahuaro, 1980s: Future Heisman Trophy runner-up was a record-setting quarterback as a junior, all-city receiver as a sophomore.

Golf

• Willie Wood, Sabino, 1970s: Future PGA Tour player competed here only briefly but dominated the local scene.

Soccer

• Luis Robles, Sierra Vista Buena, 1990s-2000s: Robles, who spurned the MLS after being drafted by D.C. United to play professionally for Germany’s FC Kaiserslauter, was Arizona’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior, a high school All-American and a member of the U.S. under-18 national team while at Buena.

Swimming

• Doug Northway, Sahuaro, 1970s: Won a bronze medal in the 1972 Olympics while still in high school.

Tennis

• Bill Lenoir, Tucson High, 1950s: First Tucsonan to win a national junior title. Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith were among his victims.

Track and field

• (tie) Joe Batiste, Tucson High, 1930s: Set a national hurdles record that stood for more than 40 years.

• (tie) Michael Bates, Amphi, 1980s: Top hurdler, sprinter and football star.

Wrestling

• Eric Larkin, Sunnyside, 1990s: In the galaxy of Blue Devils stars, this three-time state champ is the only one named national high school wrestler of the year.

Boys Volleyball

> Joe Kay, Tucson High, 2000s: Kay earned a volleyball scholarship to Stanford, but he suffered a stroke after being trampled by fans storming the court after a basketball game his senior year. He recovered enough to attend Stanford, although he could no longer participate in athletics.

GIRLS

All-around

• Stacy Engel, Catalina 1980s: First girl to play boys varsity baseball here as well as being a softball, track & field and volleyball standout.

• Julie Reitan, Sahuaro, 1990s: Softball all-star, state long jump champ, cross country standout.

• Tara Erdmann, Flowing Wells, 2000s: Seven time state champion in track, cross country and soccer, including pulling off the track trifecta as a senior winning 5A-II state titles in the 3,200, 1,600 and 800 meters.

Basketball

• (tie) Paula Pyers, Santa Rita, 1980s: Led unbeaten Eagles to state title in 1984 before moving on to play at the University of Southern California.

• (tie) Sybil Dosty, Salpointe Catholic, 2000s: Dosty averaged 27 points and more than 11 rebounds per game during a four-year varsity career that included multiple All-America team selections.

Cross country

• Virginia Pedersoli, Amphi, 1990s: Won three straight Class 5A state titles.

Golf

• Cindy Flom, Sahuaro, 1970s: Future LPGA star played on boys varsity team.

Soccer

• Kelly Walbert, Salpointe Catholic, 1990s: City’s first major star, went on to play at Duke.

Softball

• Kenzie Fowler, Canyon del Oro, 2000s: The 2008 Gatorade National Player of the Year and former Junior Olympian is already a three-time All-American entering her senior season in 2009. As one of the country’s best-ever high school pitchers, the fact she was also one of the state’s best hitters often gets overlooked. Including a streak of four-straight no hitters and two perfect games, Fowler closed out her senior season by leading the Dorados to their fourth-straight state championship game.

Swimming

• Caitlin Leverenz, Sahuaro, 2000s: State record holder in multiple events. Missed qualifying for 2008 U.S. Olympic team by a fraction of a second after a junior year that including winning gold medals at multiple international events.

Tennis

• (tie) Kendra Strohm, Salpointe Catholic, 1990s-2000s: Lost one set in four-year career in which she became Arizona’s first girl to win four-consecutive singles state championships.

• (tie) Kirsten and Tristany Leikem, Flowing Wells, 2000s: Twin terrors became state’s first-ever four-time state doubles champions from 2005-2008.

Track and field

• Carolyn Jackson, Salpointe Catholic, 1990s: Showed tremendous range in the sprints from the 100 to the 400.

Girls Volleyball

• Bre Ladd, Canyon del Oro, 1990s-2000s: The 2001 Gatorade National Player of the Year was also a member of U.S. Junior National team. Selected by Volleyball Magazine as the No. 1 recruit in the nation for class of 2002.

COACHES

Great coaching goes well beyond wins and losses, but trying to list all the Tucson-area coaches who have touched the lives of area youths through the years would be a futile effort. Albeit not all-inclusive, here are some of the area’s most successful coaches through the years:

(* active)

• Sue Clark, Tucson High, girls tennis: From 1959 to 1972, Clark’s teams set a national record, going 213-0 in dual matches, and won 10 state titles.

• Bobby DeBerry, Sunnyside, wrestling: From 1996 to this past winter, DeBerry oversaw 13 state wrestling championship teams, including the past 12 straight.

• Bud Doolen, Tucson High, basketball: Won four 5A boys basketball championships between 1943 and 1949 and was runner up in 1940.

• Mike Dyer, Marana, girls basketball: Dyer not only won four state titles at Marana in the 1980s, he initiating a federal lawsuit against the Arizona Interscholastic Association to have the girls basketball season moved from the spring to winter, helping, among other things, spring softball blossom in southern Arizona.

• Hal Eustice, Sahuaro, baseball: Eustice brought three state titles and two runner-up trophies back to Sahuaro in the 1970s and ’80s and also won a baseball championship at San Manuel in 1963.

• Vern Friedli, Amphi, football: Still going strong, Friedli is Arizona’s all-time wins leader with 309 career coaching victories.

• Rollin T. Gridley, Tucson High, football: From 1935-47, Gridley won five state football championships and posted an 88-29-8 record.

• Mary Hines, Catalina, girls volleyball: Her 215-27 career record in 28 years at Catalina, including her 1985 national coach of the year award, are just part of the story. Her coaching tree of former players and assistants branched out across Tucson.

• Juanita Kingston, Rincon/University, volleyball: Her 34-year coaching career, which included an undefeated girls volleyball state championship season at Rincon in 1993, included coaching boys and girls volleyball, softball, basketball and track.

• Don Klostreich, Sunnyside, wrestling: From 1979-88, Klostreich’s Blue Devils squads won nine of 10 state titles, laying the foundation of the state’s greatest wrestling dynasty.

• Roland LaVetter, Pueblo, boys basketball: Coached Pueblo’s great state championship teams in 1977 and 1978 as well as having several coaching disciples move on to coaching success.

• Jeff Lockwood, Sahuaro, cross country: Under Lockwood’s guidance, Sahuaro won four girls and one boys state title between 1980 and 1990.

• Dick McConnell, Sahuaro, boys basketball: Retired in 2007 as Arizona’s winningest boys basketball coach with 714 career victories, 670 of which came at Sahuaro.

• Richard Sanchez, Sunnyside, wrestling/football: Sanchez won five straight state wrestling titles from 1990-94 and has built Sunnyside football into one of Tucson’s best since 1993, winning two titles. He currently has a 10-year streak of at least one playoff win, unmatched by any area coach or program.

• Jeff Scurran, CDO/Sabino/Santa Rita, football: Built Sabino into a decade-long dynasty with three state championships in the 1990s. Upon his return to high school football in 2007, Santa Rita went from 0-11 in 2006 to 23-4 in two seasons with semifinal and championship game appearances.

• Hank Slagle, Tucson High, baseball: Won 10 of Tucson High’s national-record 29 state baseball championships and coached the Badgers to two more title games between 1942 and 1954. Tucson High’s 52-game win streak spanning the 1942-46 seasons still stands as Arizona’s longest.

• Andy Tolson, Tucson High, baseball: Won six of Tucson High’s national-record 29 state baseball championships and coached the Badgers to four more title games between 1930 and 1941.

• “Doc” Van Horne, Tucson High, boys track & field: Van Horne was head coach for 13 state championships form 1927-1953.

• Wolfgang Weber, Salpointe Catholic, boys soccer: The dean of boys soccer in Tucson, Weber is approaching the unprecedented 500 career wins plateau in Arizona, has four state championships, three runner-up finishes and was also one of the founders of the successful Tucson Soccer Academy.

Tucson High star Joe Batiste.

Salpointe girls basketball player Sybil Dosty.

By Geoff Grammer, Michael Schmelzle

GM said it will notify 1,100 U.S. dealers on Friday that their franchise agreements will not be renewed. Dealers expect to hear either by telephone or FedEx letters that will begin arriving Friday morning.

GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said the company will not make public a list of dealers to be cut, leaving the decision to release information to individual business owners.

The company has scheduled a conference call for noon Friday to explain its dealer reduction strategy.

The cuts will come just a day after crosstown rival Chrysler announced it was dropping 789 of its roughly 3,200 dealerships by around June 9. Both companies have too many dealerships for too few sales are slashing costs as they race to restructure.

Dealers around the country nervously awaited news Friday morning, with some saying they were in the dark about how they would be notified. In Richmond, Va., Royal Chevrolet co-owner Del Mugford was slightly relieved when he sifted through FedEx packages Friday morning and hadn’t received any bad news from General Motors. But he knew his future could be determined by a phone call or a piece of mail.

“This is absolutely nerve wracking. It’s like a death sentence. It’s the worst feeling in the world,” said Mugford, 45, who bought the dealership with his younger brother in 2002 after owning an Oldsmobile franchise down the street. GM closed its Oldsmobile line of cars in 2004.

John Rogin, who owns a Buick dealership and GMC truck dealership in the Detroit area, was also awaiting word. But he said he’s not worrying. His Buick store, he said, has been among the top 10 performers in the country for 15 years.

“I’m just selling cars. I’m still a loyalist, and for the most part a purist as far as GM goes,” he said.

Many dealers, though, will fight the cuts in court, he said.

“Most of the dealer body realizes that just because you get a letter doesn’t mean it’s all over,” he said. “This company isn’t in bankruptcy.”

GM’s dealer cuts are part of the company’s plan announced last month to cut more than 2,600 dealers by 2010. The remaining cuts will come from closed Saturn and Hummer dealers, along with 400 dealers that the company expects will close voluntarily. Another 500 would be consolidated into other dealerships.

The GM dealer cuts are likely to have a much greater impact than Chrysler’s. While many Chrysler dealers also sell other brands and will stay open after losing their franchises, a large number of GM dealers sell only GM vehicles. So if their franchises are revoked, they run a greater risk of closing for good.

In both cases, the cuts will cost thousands of jobs, create holes in local tax bases, eliminate community pillars and create economic ripple effects across the country.

Chrysler is operating under bankruptcy protection, so it is likely to have an easier time tearing up its franchise agreements with its dealers than GM. A hearing is scheduled for June 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York for the judge to determine whether to approve Chrysler’s motion to fire its dealers.

Chrysler executives said Thursday the company is trying to preserve its best-performing dealers and eliminate ones with the weakest sales. More than half of the dealerships being eliminated sell less than 100 vehicles per year, they said, and account for 14 percent of U.S. sales.

Chrysler has received $4 billion in government aid, while GM has received $15.4 billion. GM is continuing to restructure out of court and faces a government-imposed deadline of May 31 for doing so. Several difficult hurdles remain, and many experts say that it is all but inevitable that it will follow Chrysler into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

To remake itself outside of court, GM must persuade its bondholders to swap $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of its risky stock. In addition, it must work out deals with its union, announce factory closures, cut or sell brands and shutter dealers.

Swapping its bond debt for equity may be its most difficult task. The company is trying to get 90 percent of its bondholders on board for the so-called debt-for-equity swap. A committee representing the bondholders has rejected the swap, saying it unfairly favors the government and the United Auto Workers union. They have counteroffered seeking a 58 percent ownership stake, which the automaker in turn rejected.

On Thursday, GM said that bankruptcy is possible if it doesn’t get enough takers on the exchange. If that happens, it likely would sell most of its assets to a new company and liquidate the rest, the automaker disclosed in a regulatory filing.

The automaker also says it could seek court approval of its reorganization plan even if creditors vote against it.

Shares of GM wobbled between $1.13 and $1.16 in morning trading Friday.

By Tom Krisher, Dan Strumpf

Gotcha! A traffic camera flashes to catch a speeder on the Piestewa Freeway in Phoenix. But the person driving may not get a speeding ticket.

Motorists activated photo-enforcement cameras on Arizona highways more than 471,000 times from December through February – more than 5,200 times each day – but on average, only about one-third of those drivers received tickets from the state Department of Public Safety.

An Arizona Republic analysis of three months of records shows Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. and the DPS threw out more than 65 percent of the photos captured.

The reasons for rejecting tickets vary but are relatively uncomplicated: Sun glare, dirty windshields and traffic rank as top causes.

Redflex, a Scottsdale-based company that operates Arizona’s statewide system, has a goal of issuing tickets 80 percent of the time the cameras are activated, DPS Lt. Jeff King said.

A Redflex spokeswoman clarified by saying that figure applies only to photos that aren’t compromised by factors such as the weather. Redflex refused to comment on the expectations or success of the program in Arizona.

King wouldn’t characterize the DPS’ position on the number of activations and the percentage of tickets issued but said the agency is pleased with photo enforcement’s impact on public safety.

“I think there’s always room for improvement, but we also recognize that there are some things outside of everybody’s control. It’s nature. You cannot fix the sun,” King said. “Between sun glare, dirty windshields, shade, there’s really not a whole lot you can do with that.”

Part of the problem in Arizona, King said, is that the state has a driver-responsibility law, like Colorado, California and Oregon. That distinction means DPS officers have to match the photo of the speeder with one on a driver’s license.

Authorities issue notices of violation to owners when a speed camera captures a clear picture of a license plate and a driver. But the vehicle’s owner may deny being the driver. If authorities can’t then match the camera image to a driver’s-license photo, they can’t issue a ticket.

Other states, like Louisiana, have a registered-owner responsibility law, which requires authorities to match only the license plate with a registered owner. The owner gets the ticket, even if he or she wasn’t the one driving.

“I don’t think you could ever get to that perfect 80 percentile that they’re targeting,” King said. “We have to actually be able to look in the picture and identify that person.”

Redflex officials would not discuss the technology that operates the photo-enforcement system, but the cameras have high-powered lenses, King said. The cameras are designed to take high-resolution photos across multiple lanes of traffic.

“We can just about zoom in and see stuff on the dash,” King said.

Motorists occasionally beat the cameras by blocking their faces or having a fortuitously placed visor.

Walter Figueroa’s case, though it didn’t arise from a freeway camera, shows that other factors can be at work, too.

Figueroa received a violation notice in his Laveen mailbox earlier this week for driving 50 mph through a 35-mph zone in Mesa on his motorcycle on April 25.

But Figueroa doesn’t own a motorcycle.

He drives a Nissan SUV, as the violation notes, with a license plate of ONIX.

The citation also contains a picture of a man on a motorcycle, making an obscene gesture toward the camera, with a license plate of ON1X.

“I’m just a little bent. Two people physically signed this ticket,” he said.

American Traffic Solutions operates Mesa’s photo-enforcement system. Figueroa called the toll-free number on the back of the violation, and the operator forwarded his dispute to Mesa police, who issued the ticket.

“What if I was out of state or out of the country and never acknowledged that and missed the court date, then my license is suspended because of their mistake,” Figueroa said. “Did it not behoove you to check my registered vehicles? I don’t even own a motorcycle.”

Legislators approved the statewide program in July, giving the DPS a mandate to install 100 fixed and mobile cameras on Arizona highways.

The DPS suspended the program’s expansion in mid-January, with 36 fixed locations and 42 mobile units in place. The suspension coincided with a wave of anti-photo-enforcement efforts that included residents’ protests and legislative efforts to end the program, but DPS officials insist they suspended the program to seek the best locations for the remaining cameras.

The most recent data from the DPS shows cameras snapped motorists more than 1 million times on Arizona highways during the program’s first seven months.

More than 80,000 drivers have paid the fines.

Arizona has collected nearly $12 million through the process, with more than $1.3 million going to Redflex, according to terms of the contract.

King and other DPS officials cite statistics that show traffic fatalities have dropped dramatically in areas where photo-enforcement cameras are stationed. Critics deride that data, which compared the same 80-day periods in consecutive years, as incomplete.

The April 19 murder of Redflex employee Doug Georgianni while he worked in a mobile photo-enforcement unit near Seventh Avenue and Loop 101 in Phoenix brought the program, and the controversy surrounding it, into the spotlight again.

DPS authorities have tried to focus on photo enforcement’s safety benefits from the beginning but have been plagued by a 2008 prediction from then-Gov. Janet Napolitano that the program could generate as much as $90 million in revenue in the first year.

Critics point to that prediction as evidence that speed cameras are nothing more than a revenue generator masquerading as a safety program.

By JJ Hensley, Matt Wynn

President Obama makes a point during the Arizona State University commencement ceremony on Wednesday in Tempe.

TEMPE – President Obama apologized for “stealing away” former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and urged students to never stop achieving as he made a commencement speech Wednesday night at Arizona State University.

Some 63,000 people filled the stands and most of the football field at Sun Devil Stadium.

It will be up to young people to redefine success, Obama told graduates, from materialistic greed to building a quality life while taking on the nation’s challenges. That means serving a higher purpose than themselves, he said.

Developing clean energy and improving failing schools will be this generation’s job, he said. He pointed to his own job title and said that doesn’t define success, comparing Abraham Lincoln to Millard Fillmore.

Being a superpower isn’t enough for America, he said. It must be mindful of the struggles of the rest of the world.

“Class of 2009, that’s why we’re going to need your help,” he said of issues such as global warming, rebuilding the economy and solving other “unprecedented” problems.

Careers such as engineering and teaching can be crafted with service in mind, he said.

A body of work is never finished, he said. He went on to cite the achievements of people who never gave up, including Kurt Warner, a former Arena Football League player who led the Arizona Cardinals to their first Super Bowl in 2009.

He also pointed to late achievers Julia Child, Col. Sanders and Winston Churchill.

While acknowledging that graduates were facing a tough economy – the nation has lost 1.3 million jobs since February – he called the challenges an opportunity.

“Because it’s moments like these that force us to try harder and dig deeper and to discover gifts we never knew we had – to find the greatness that lies within each of us. So don’t ever shy away from that endeavor,” Obama said during a speech that invoked the bravery firefighters demonstrated on Sept. 11, 2001, and the civil rights movement.

“Don’t stop adding to your body of work. As a nation, we’ll need a fundamental change of perspective and attitude,” he said. “It’s clear that we need to build a new foundation – a stronger foundation – for our economy and our prosperity, rethinking how we grow our economy, how we use energy, how we educate our children, how we care for our sick, how we treat our environment.”

Some 9,000 students were awarded diplomas at Sun Devil Stadium on a day when the high temperature in Phoenix was 101, but Obama wasn’t going to be one of them. University officials declined to give him an honorary degree, saying he had not yet accomplished enough to deserve the honor.

“His body of work is yet to come. That’s why we’re not recognizing him with a degree at the beginning of his presidency,” university spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said shortly after the school’s student newspaper reported the decision.

Obama said he “heartily concurred” with that assessment.

Officials later backtracked and instead named a scholarship in honor of the nation’s first African-American president. The President Barack Obama Scholars program will offer students up to $17,000 annually to pay for tuition, books, room and board.

Some sweated the wait for Obama’s speech. An official at the university’s emergency operations center said about 95 people were treated for heat-related illness while waiting for Obama’s address. None of the illnesses was considered life-threatening.

Rocker and Phoenix-area resident Alice Cooper was to perform “School’s Out.”

Obama was to fly to Albuquerque, N.M., after the speech. The president planned to have a town hall-style meeting Thursday in Albuquerque on proposed restrictions on credit card companies before he returned to Washington.

The White House has announced Obama plans other commencement addresses at the University of Notre Dame and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Student protests were expected Sunday at Notre Dame over Obama’s support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.

Nancy Tranchese (center) and her mother, Kathleen Tranchese, both of Tempe, join members of the End the War Coalition in a protest Wednesday in front of Sun Devil Stadium.

President Obama and Arizona State University President Michael Crow sing the National Anthem before the commencement address Wednesday at the university stadium.

President Obama arrives at the Arizona State University commencement ceremony at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe Wednesday.

By Citizen Staff Report, Wire Report

The minority population increased 2.3 percent to 104.6 million from mid-2007 to July 1, 2008, or just over one-third of the total population, the Census Bureau reported.

Hispanics had the highest growth rate – 3.2 percent – during the 12 months.

Although immigration has slowed, higher birth rates among Hispanics make them the fastest growing group. Births, rather than immigration, accounted for about two-thirds of the 1.47 million increase in the Hispanic population in 2008, according to Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute. In addition, Hispanics are younger, on average, than the overall population. Births among Hispanics outpaced deaths by nearly 10 to one.

Forty-seven percent of children under 5 are minorities, as are 43 percent of young people under age 20.

“It’s a cumulative effect of immigration,” says Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. “We’ve built up a population of Hispanics, and increasingly they’re native born.”

As the median age among non-Hispanic whites increases – it’s 41.1 compared with 27.7 for Hispanics – so will the racial and ethnic generation gap, demographers say.

“A lot of these Boomers are going to be relying on this younger generation to take care of them in a lot of ways,” says Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau. “In another generation, this is going to be our workforce that is supporting Social Security.”

Orange County, Fla., home of Walt Disney World, is one of six U.S. counties where the population became majority-minority in 2008: more than half the population are in groups other than non-Hispanic whites.

That’s “not a surprise” to Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, who says the county has always been “a snapshot of what America looks like.” Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s 3,142 counties have a minority population above 50 percent.

The demographic shift is most dramatic among “kids under 20,” Mather says. “They really are the groups that are driving these changes.”

Contributing: Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

By Paul Overberg, Martha T. Moore

A document obtained by The Associated Press shows the plan being developed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would also require employers to offer coverage to their full-time workers, or pay a percentage of their payroll to the government.

The committee summary is a first look at where House Democrats are headed as leaders try to meet an ambitious goal of passing a health care overhaul by the end of July. Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is expected to play a leading role in crafting the plan and steering it through negotiations with the Senate later in the year.

The three-page summary broadly tracks with the type of plan President Barack Obama outlined during the political campaign. The summary does not include any cost estimates, but independent experts have put the price tag for such a plan at $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years, with some estimates ranging as high as $1.7 trillion.

Obama has said the final legislation must rein in costs, guarantee choice of health plans and medical providers, and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable coverage. The president has proposed a downpayment of $634 billion over 10 years to pay for expanding coverage. He’s also promising to hold hospitals, doctors, drug makers and other providers to their recent offer of $2 trillion in savings over 10 years.

The Energy and Commerce plan would build on the current system in which employers, government and individuals share responsibility for the cost of health insurance. But it would make major changes in the way Americans get and pay for coverage. Workers and employers would have new obligations to obtain coverage. Insurers would have to abide by new consumer protections to prevent sick people from being denied coverage.

The subsidies for health insurance would be offered on a sliding scale to those earning up to four times the federal poverty level, or $88,200 for a family of four, according to the document.

The House plan would set up a new insurance purchasing pool called an “exchange” to help make private coverage more affordable for individuals and small businesses. In its first year, the exchange would be open only to employers with fewer than 10 workers.

Health insurance plans that participate in the exchange would have to follow the same consumer protection rules. They would not be able to deny coverage to the sick, or charge them exorbitant rates.

The document also calls for creation of a new government insurance plan to compete with private companies. The government plan would probably be run by the Health and Human Services department, but it would have to compete on its own. The government insurance plan would be financed by premium payments, not taxpayer dollars.

By Erica Werner, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar

Mike Morice (center) and other members of World Can't Wait group perform a live waterboarding demonstration outside the Spanish Consulate in Manhattan last month to urge prosecution in Spain of the alleged involvement of Bush administration officials in the torture of terror suspects.

When President Obama declassified and released legal memoranda from the Department of Justice, he opened the door to a drawn-out battle over the Bush administration’s use of coercive interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists.

We believe that any subsequent attempts to subject those who provided such legal advice to prosecutions are a mistake. They will have a chilling effect on the candor with which future government officials provide their best counsel.

The country must move on from debates about the past, because pressing questions about U.S. detention policy in the war on terror requires us to make difficult choices – and to make them soon.

In January, the president announced via executive order that the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will close within a year. The announcement was easy – but it left unanswered the hardest questions about detainee policy for the future.

How do we prosecute detainees suspected of committing war crimes now that military commissions have been suspended? How should we handle those detainees who cannot be tried, but who are too dangerous to release? Where will we house them?

How should we deal with detainees who, if released, would return to the fight against us? How do we deal with prisoners held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where some detainees captured outside Afghanistan are being held?

There are no easy answers. As senators who have struggled with these issues for years, we believe some basic principles can help us find a common path forward.

• First, do not confuse war with common criminality. The majority of detainees held at Guantanamo are not common criminals, but warriors fundamentally committed to the destruction of our way of life.

The appropriate legal foundation upon which detainee policy should be built is the law of war, along with procedures adapted from our military justice system.

• Second, military commissions remain the appropriate trial venue for these individuals. We would strenuously oppose any effort to try enemy combatants in our civilian courts.

By an overwhelming bipartisan vote in 2006, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act, which set forth procedures for trying enemy combatants for war crimes.

Our domestic criminal laws – including their treatment of classified information – are ill-suited for the complex national security issues inherent in the trial of enemy combatants. We have great faith in our military justice system – appropriately modified for war crimes trials – and we believe that military judges and lawyers render fair and impartial justice not only for our troops, but for enemy combatants as well.

• Third, preventive detention will continue to have a place in the war on terror. Under the law of war, the idea an enemy combatant has to be tried or released is a false choice. Rather, it is well-established that combatants can be held off the battlefield as long as they present a military threat.

While there is little doubt that we initially cast the net too broadly in determining who merited enemy combatant status, the Department of Defense estimates nearly 1 in 10 detainees released from Guantanamo have returned to the battlefield.

This includes Said Ali al-Shihri (second in command of al-Qaida in Yemen), and Abdullah Gulam Rasoul, who reportedly now serves as the Taliban’s operational commander in southern Afghanistan.

We cannot let this continue.

A significant group of detainees still in custody at Guantanamo may be too dangerous to release, but they are not suitable for war crimes trials.

In these cases, a system needs to be devised in which a designated national security court, with a uniform set of standards and procedures administered by a civilian judge, hears the petitions for habeas corpus authorized by the Supreme Court, and an annual interagency review is conducted to determine whether the detainee remains a security threat to the United States.

• Fourth, we must address the detainee situation at Bagram in Afghanistan. An improved system for reviewing the need for further detention of detainees is required at Bagram – but we must not lose sight that Afghanistan is still an active theater of war and we cannot impede the ability of our Armed Forces to fight the enemy.

We are encouraged that the Department of Justice has appealed a ruling by the D.C. district court that extended habeas corpus rights to detainees held on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

In its motion, the Department of Justice argued that allowing the ruling to stand would harm our military’s ability to win the war.

• Finally, Congress must be involved in crafting detainee policy. It is critical for all branches of government to work together to develop solutions to the complex legal problems presented by this war.

We believe that the time has come to focus on these urgent issues, rather than spend the nation’s energy on the debates of the past.

We stand ready to work with President Obama to develop an enemy-combatant detention process that is transparent, provides robust due process consistent with the law of war, involves an independent judiciary, and protects us against a dangerous enemy.

The American people and the international community will see such a system not as an arbitrary exercise of power, but as an intelligent balance of due process and national security.”

John McCain is a Republican senator from Arizona. Lindsey Graham is a Republican senator from South Carolina.

Sen. John McCain

Sen. Lindsey Graham

By John McCain, Lindsey Graham

MIAMI — The number of U.S. households faced with losing their homes to foreclosure jumped 32 percent in April compared with the same month last year, with Nevada, Florida, California and Arizona showing the highest rates, according to data released Wednesday.

Arizona posted the fourth highest rate, with one in every 164 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing.

The 10 states with the most foreclosure filings accounted for more than 75 percent of April’s national total. California documented the highest total (96,560), followed by Florida (64,588), Nevada (16,266) and Arizona (16,245).

More than 342,000 households received at least one foreclosure-related notice in April, RealtyTrac Inc. said. That means one in every 374 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing last month, the highest monthly rate since the Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing firm began its report in January 2005.

April was the second straight month with more than 300,000 households receiving a foreclosure filing, as the number of borrowers with mortgage troubles failed to abate.

The April number, however, was less than one percent above that posted in March, when more than 340,000 properties were affected. The March data was up 17 percent from February and 46 percent from a year earlier.

“We’ve never seen two consecutive months like this,” said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president for marketing. “It’s the volume that’s surprising.”

While total foreclosure activity was up, the number of repossessions by banks was down on a monthly and annual basis to their lowest level since March of last year, RealtyTrac said.

But that’s far from positive news. Because much of the foreclosure activity in April was in the default and auction stages — the first parts of the foreclosure process — it’s likely that repossessions will increase in coming months, RealtyTrac said.

About 63,900 homes were repossessed in April, down 11 percent from about 71,700 in March, RealtyTrac said. But the mortgage industry has resumed cracking down on delinquent borrowers after foreclosures were temporarily halted by mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, together with many other lenders.

“All of these loans are now being processed pretty rapidly by the servers,” Sharga said.

Help might be on the way. The Obama administration announced a plan in March to provide $75 billion in incentive payments for the mortgage industry to modify loans to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure. But the extent of the relief remains unclear, with questions lingering about how much the lending industry will cooperate in modifying loans.

After banks take over foreclosed homes, they usually put them up for sale at deep discounts. Nationwide, sales of foreclosures and other distressed properties made up about half of the market in the first quarter, the National Association of Realtors reported.

First-quarter home sales fell in all but six states — Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota — where buyers have been able to grab foreclosed homes at discounts, the realtors group said Tuesday.

On a state-by-state basis, Nevada had one in every 68 households receive a foreclosure filing, down 18 percent from March but still the nation’s highest rate. In Florida, one in every 135 households received a filing in April. For California, the rate was one in every 138 households.

Rounding out the top 10 were Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and Ohio.

Among large cities, Las Vegas led the way with one in every 56 households receiving a filing. That was a slightly higher rate than the southwest Florida metro area of Cape Coral-Fort Myers, which saw one in 57 housing units receive a filing.

Cities in California took the next six spots: Merced, Modesto, Riverside-San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Vallejo-Fairfield and Stockton. The Florida cities of Miami and Orlando were ninth and 10th, respectively.

By Wire Report, Staff