PHOENIX – The oldest soldier to be killed in Iraq fought in Vietnam and decided to re-enlist at the age of 59 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the death of his wife, according to his brother.

Army Maj. Steven Hutchison, 60, was killed in Iraq on Sunday after a homemade bomb went off near his vehicle in Al Farr, according to the Department of Defense.

Richard Hutchison of Scottsdale told The Associated Press on Thursday that his older brother Steven wanted to re-enlist immediately after the 9/11 attacks, but that his wife, Candy, didn’t want him to.

But when Candy died of breast cancer, “a part of him died,” so he signed up again in July 2007, according to his brother and the Army.

“He was very devoted to the service and to his country,” Richard Hutchison said. “For somebody to go back into the military at 60 years old, obviously I didn’t want him to do it, but he had a mind of his own and that’s what he wanted to do. He’s been a soldier his whole life.”

He said his brother never explained why he wanted to re-enlist, but that “I’m guessing it had something to do with them coming into our country and killing our people.”

“He wanted to go back in,” he added. “He wanted to do his share.”

He said Steven Hutchison served in Afghanistan for a year after he re-enlisted and went to Iraq in October as a team leader of about a dozen soldiers who would train Iraqi soldiers how to fight. But, he said his brother’s mission changed and that he was working to secure Iraq’s southern border instead.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said Thursday that Hutchison was the oldest Army soldier killed in Iraq.

An Associated Press database of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that Hutchison is the oldest member of any service branch killed since the wars broke out.

Richard Hutchison said Steven was a great big brother and a best friend who was always looking out for him. “He took care of me,” he said.

“I was worried about him. I didn’t want him to go (to Iraq),” he said through tears, adding that he loved his brother “so much.”

He said Steven Hutchison worked as a college professor of psychology at a couple of California universities and then worked at a private health care corporation in Arizona before he retired a few years ago.

Records at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles show that Hutchison taught in the psychology department there on and off between 1988 and 1996. Hutchison’s résumé, provided by the school, shows he was a lecturer at California State University in Long Beach and taught at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif.

Hutchison was born in Cincinnati and raised in Long Beach, Calif. Steven and Richard have a half brother and half sister living in Michigan. Steven Hutchison married four times, and was married to Candy for 10 years before she died. He had no children.

Richard Hutchison said his brother will be buried next to Candy in Scottsdale, and that a funeral is tentatively planned for Tuesday.

Hutchison was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kan.

This 2008 photo shows the type of surveillance equipment to be deployed on the border.

Construction has begun on towers for the final version of the virtual fence project in southern Arizona, and project leader Mark Borkowski said Tuesday he’s confident the multibillion dollar will system work well.

Borkowski, executive director of the Homeland Security Department’s Secure Border Initiative program office, said he’s 75 to 80 percent confident in the engineering of the revamped project.

“And I have higher confidence than that that if there were issues, they’d be issues that we could solve,” he said.

Plans call for extending the towers along almost the entire Mexican border by 2014 — at a cost estimated at $6.7 billion.

President Obama has not requested that money, nor has Congress appropriated it — yet.

“Right now, the administration and the Congress are both very interested in continuing this program,” Borkowski said. “What level will it be at — $200 million a year or will it be $2 billion a year? That’s part of the broader national debate about what are the priorities and budgets. But there seems to be a continued interest and priority in this at some reasonable level.”

The virtual fence is designed to use radar and cameras with about a six-mile range, including infrared devices and other technologies, to detect smuggling attempts. The sensors are designed to be able to distinguish people from animals and allow operators to direct Border Patrol agents to intruders.

The first section will cover about 53 miles of Arizona’s border with Mexico, with additional towers, up to 120 feet tall and spaced miles apart, to follow on the remaining 320 miles of the state’s southern border. Virtual fencing then will go up in New Mexico, followed by California and most of Texas.

Borkowski said towers with cameras, radars and sensors and communications gear won’t stop people or substitute for a physical fence. But he said it will tell the Border Patrol where people are entering the country illegally.

“Technology’s not going to secure the borders,” Borkowski said. “Frankly, the personnel fundamentally are going to secure the borders.”

A growing number of Arizona job seekers are getting ripped off by mystery-shopper pitches, pyramid schemes, work-from-home offers and other scams that seem too good to be true. Blame the recession.

The sixth sense that usually gut-checks suspicious offers can get blocked when a person is growing desperate for work, said Judd Rousseau, chief fraud officer of Scottsdale-based Identity Theft 911, which helps victims clean up after their personal information is stolen.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office reported an increase of more than a 275 percent in complaints about business opportunity scams, from about 225 during the first quarter of 2008 to about 850 in the first quarter of 2009, a spokeswoman said.

The Better Business Bureau of Central, Northern and Western Arizona has seen a spike, too.

“I think that people who run scams and these schemes follow the trends in the marketplace,” said Felicia Thompson, a BBB spokeswoman. Scam artists “know people are out of work and know that’s an opportunity to gain someone’s trust and violate that trust.”

There are ways to avoid getting duped, according to organizations such as the BBB, Identity Theft 911, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Trade Commission. Here’s how:

Mystery shopping

Rip-off: There are variations on this scam, but in one instance the victim receives an official looking letter and a sizable check to conduct undercover market research.

First, he or she must deposit the check into a personal bank account within a few days.

A portion of those funds is the victim’s payment and shopping money. He or she is instructed to wire the rest to an address provided in the letter.

The money needs to be wired in order to test consumer experience with services like Western Union or MoneyGram, some scams claim.

Here’s the problem: The initial check was fake. By the time it bounces, the company is long gone with the victim’s own money that has been wired.

The victim could be on the hook for thousands of dollars.

Warning signs: The Mystery Shopping Providers Association in Dallas warns consumers that shoppers never pay up-front fees. Also, mystery shoppers typically earn roughly $10 on average for an evaluation – not hundreds or thousands.

“People should always look at mystery shopping purely as an opportunity to make a few extra bucks,” said John Swinburn, the group’s executive director. “They can’t depend on mystery shopping to keep them solvent.”

Other sophisticated scammers spoof the Web sites of legitimate mystery-shopping companies.

Swinburn advises people to go to his association’s Web site (www.mysteryshop.org) and double-check the Web site address of its list of legitimate companies.

Pyramid scheme

Rip-off: A victim pays hundreds or even thousands of dollars to become a “distributor” for a company that sells items like perfume, lotion or vitamins – often at an insanely high price.

The more friends and family recruited to this “multi- level marketing plan,” the more money is made, the pitch goes.

But only the scammers end up rolling in dough. The scheme eventually collapses under its own weight when there are no more recruits.

Warning signs: A pyramid scheme promises a get-rich-quick approach. New products on the market can take years to make money.

Also, be wary of initial membership fees. You never should have to spend money to get a job.

Work from home

Rip-off: Earn a handsome salary from the comfort of home by stuffing envelopes or processing medical billing claims.

Don’t take the bait. If it worked, everyone would apply for these positions.

Scammers, for example, may charge envelope stuffers to learn the “secrets” of the industry and provide help. But the victims are left to drum up their own business.

It’s worse for medical billing. Scammers can charge victims thousands of dollars to start a firm to help doctors with outsourced billing, accounts receivable, electronic insurance-claim processing and practice management, according to the FTC.

This rarely ever makes money. “Competition in the medical billing market is fierce and revolves around a number of large and well-established firms,” the agency reported.

Warning signs: Not all work-from-home offers are scams, but be wary. In writing, the company should provide information on duties, pay, when your first check will arrive and total cost for supplies, equipment and membership fees, according to the FTC.

Contact the local BBB or Attorney General’s Office and speak to as many references provided by the company as you can.

And research the company online.

Social-networking ads

Rip-off: There’s an advertisement circulating on Facebook and other social-networking sites that features a stay-at-home mom who claims she adds “$67,000 a year to my family’s income working 10 hours a week (that’s over $128 an hour!) by creating Web sites that host Google ads,” according to the BBB.

The advertisement takes the victim to a “blog” that urges signing up for a “risk-free trial” to learn how to get a site up and running. But read the fine print. Victims can be charged $60 to $70 every month if they don’t cancel the trial.

Warning signs: Just because a company uses the word “Google” doesn’t mean it’s a part of or sanctioned by the Internet search giant.

The company’s AdSense program is free and allows users to display targeted ads on pages and earn money from clicks.

A spokesman for the Mountain View, Calif.-based company recommended that “users exercise the same amount of caution they would when evaluating other types of get-rich-quick claims.”

Faraway interviews

Rip-off: Chandler resident Carrie Landry, who was furloughed from her job as a US Airways pilot, answered a classified advertisement in The Arizona Republic for a food and beverage server on a corporate jet.

A man called her back and said the firm had many rich and famous clients who took charter flights to cruise ships and private yachts. It paid $950 and $1,250 per week.

Landry also had nine years as a flight attendant and said she was interested. But the interviewer seemed nervous about her wide range of experience. He hung up on her.

However, the man offered to fly Landry’s friend, who had less experience, from her home in Ohio to San Diego for an interview. She had seen the same ad in a different newspaper.

She was told she would need to wire $300 to help cover the travel expenses. If she was hired, she’d be reimbursed. The woman wired the money, and it was gone before she and her husband learned they’d been taken.

Warning signs: Most companies will not make you pay up-front to travel to a job interview. Reimbursement never should depend on getting hired.

Most importantly, contact the publication where you saw the advertisement.

“We monitor all advertising for fraudulent activity; key is hearing from our readers about their experiences,” said Peter Ricker, senior vice president of advertising at The Republic. “Our staff is trained to handle matters like this with referrals to the proper agencies. Several notices are placed throughout our classified products alerting the consumer on what to look out for and how to direct their complaints.

“Unfortunately on occasion, we do experience advertisers who bypass our safeguards. Once we are informed, they are removed from our products.”

2 allegedly dissolved in chemicals

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican police say three women who disappeared in the border city of Tijuana were killed by drug traffickers who dissolved their bodies in a caustic substance.

Baja California state investigator Miguel Guerrero says the women — aged 23 to 25 — have been missing since August after they traveled from Mexicali to Tijuana, across from San Diego.

Guerrero says two alleged drug traffickers who were arrested this week confessed to the killings. A third suspect is being sought.

He said in a statement Thursday that the women were killed after one of them argued with one of the suspects in a bar. The victims were smothered, and their bodies dissolved in a drum.

Spikedace, loach minnow may get larger set-aside

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal judge has ruled the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service can reconsider the critical habitat designation of two threatened fish species in New Mexico and Arizona after a probe found political interference likely affected scientists’ findings.

Senior U.S. District Judge John Conway ruled Tuesday that the agency’s original habitat designation for the spikedace and loach minnow would remain in place while federal biologists determine whether the fish need more habitat.

Conway said that it would be “least disruptive” to allow the existing designation to remain in effect pending a review.

A coalition of counties in the two states and the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association had sued over the original designation, saying the Fish & Wildlife Service overstepped its bounds and failed to adhere to requirements of the Endangered Species Act in setting aside the critical habitat.

They argued that the original designation should be vacated while the agency reconsiders the matter.

In his ruling, Conway said the original designation was likely “not expansive enough.”

He referred to a report by the Department of Interior inspector general that found potential political interference by Julie MacDonald, a former deputy assistant Interior secretary. Among other findings of interference, the report said MacDonald selected one of several potential critical habitat designations for the two fish and wanted to make the area set aside for the species “as small as possible.”

The agency filed a motion earlier this year seeking to take a new look at the species’ habitat needs.

The Fish & Wildlife Service planned to review the designation and have a draft proposal in October 2010, agency spokeswoman Charna Lefton said Wednesday. It would then be another year before the agency makes a final decision.

The spikedace and loach minnow have been eliminated from more than 80 percent of their ranges in the two states. The fish were once common in the Verde, Salt, San Pedro and Gila rivers.

Mexican army soldiers catalog seized weapons in a warehouse at the Secretary of the Defense headquarters in Mexico City. In all, the military has 305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults, just a fraction of those used by criminals in Mexico, where an offensive by drug cartels against the military has killed more than 10,750 people since December 2006. The U.S. has acknowledged that many of the rifles, handguns and ammunition used by the cartels come from its side of the border.

MEXICO CITY — Deep inside a heavily guarded military warehouse, the evidence of Mexico’s war on drug cartels is stacked two stories high: tens of thousands of seized weapons, from handguns and rifles to AK-47s, some with gun sights carved into the shape of a rooster or a horse’s head.

The vault nestled in a Mexican military base is the government’s largest stash of weapons — some 88,537 of them — seized from brutal drug gangs. The Associated Press was recently given rare and exclusive access to the secure facility.

The sheer size of the cache attests to the seemingly hopeless task of ever sorting and tracing the guns, possibly to trafficking rings that deliver weapons to Mexico. And security designed to keep the guns from getting back on the streets is so tight that even investigators have trouble getting the access they need.

The warehouse — on a main drag in northeastern Mexico City near the horse racing track — is surrounded by five rings of security. There are two military guards at the door and five more are in the lobby. Inside, another 10 soldiers sort, clean and catalog weapons. Some are dismantled and destroyed, a few assigned to the Mexican military.

The guns are stacked to the two-story ceiling in a warehouse the size of a small Wal-Mart. The rifles lie on 22 metal racks; the pistols hang from metal poles by their triggers.

The cavernous warehouse is impeccably clean, the only smell coming from the coffee the soldiers prepared for their rare visitors. The clash of metal and sounds of the soldiers at work echo off the walls.

The security, bolstered by closed-circuit cameras and motion detectors, makes the warehouse practically impenetrable, said Gen. Antonio Erasto Monsivais, who oversees the armory.

In all, the military has 305,424 confiscated weapons locked in vaults, just a fraction of those used by criminals in Mexico, where an offensive by drug cartels against the military has killed more than 10,750 people since December 2006. But each weapon is a clue to how the cartels are getting arms, and possibly to the traffickers that brought them here.

The U.S. has acknowledged that many of the rifles, handguns and ammunition used by the cartels come from its side of the border. Mexican gun laws are strict, especially compared to those in most U.S. border states.

The Mexican government has handed over information to U.S. authorities to trace 12,073 weapons seized in 2008 crimes — particularly on guns from large seizures or notorious crimes.

But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which handles the U.S. investigations, is at the mercy of local Mexican police for the amount and quality of the information.

“Many of these rural municipalities that may come into a gun seizure … may not even know anything about tracing guns,” ATF spokesman Thomas Mangan said.

A police officer in Mexico submits a description, serial number and distinctive markings of the gun. The weapons are then turned over to the military for storage in one of a dozen armories such as the one in Mexico City.

When U.S. investigators need additional details, as they often do, the request goes back to the original police officer, who must retrieve the gun from a military vault — sometimes hundreds of miles away.

Mexican police must ask permission each time they need to look at a stored gun, Monsivais said. Even if that permission is granted, the investigator cannot go past the metal fencing separating a reception desk and the shelves holding the guns. A soldier has to bring out the requested weapons.

The security, language differences and bureaucracy add up to a painstaking process, said J. Dewey Webb, special agent in charge of the ATF’s Houston Field Division.

“The military does a very good job when the weapons come into their custody of securing them,” he told the AP. “Because of the systems in Mexico, it’s very difficult for us to get in.”

Webb said recent talks between the two countries were beginning to ease access, but also noted other problems.

Many mistakes are made because of difficulty translating technical terms about firearms, Webb said. A Spanish-language version of eTrace, the Web-based method of submitting tracing information, won’t be available until next year.

About a third of the guns submitted for tracing in 2007 were sold by licensed U.S. dealers.

U.S. agents need the information to track the gun back to the manufacturer and determine when it was made and what wholesaler it was shipped to, ATF spokeswoman Franceska Perot said. Agents follow the gun to the local licensed dealer who sold it and determine the buyer.

ATF offices around the U.S. are swamped with tracing requests, trying to determine who actually bought the weapons and whether they were part of a firearms trafficking scheme. The ATF has sent an extra 100 agents to Houston to help unclog the 700-weapon backlog as part of its Project Gunrunner.

The seized weapons are kept in the vaults as long as they are needed as evidence, Monsivais said. Most have been there for years, an indication of how slow criminal investigations proceed and how few crimes are ever solved.

Indeed, the ATF gave the AP data showing the average “time to crime” — the time between when a gun was sold and when it was seized in a crime — is 14 years.

That’s an average of four years longer than guns in American crimes, the ATF said. The older the street age, the harder it can be to track how the gun wound up at a crime scene.

When the criminal investigations are complete, most of the weapons are destroyed and melted down. Some of the more powerful arms, such as M16 machine guns and sniper rifles, are added to the military’s own arsenal. Showpieces are destined for museums.

Most of the guns traced were originally sold by U.S. dealers in border states, with more than half purchased in Texas. Not only does Texas have the most gun dealers of any state, it makes up 1,200 miles of the 2,100-mile U.S.-Mexico border, with many of the established drug and trafficking routes.

Details on the 2008 tracing requests are not yet available.

It’s less clear how cartels are getting military-grade weapons. Amid the shelves of pistols and rifles, there is a 9 mm grenade launcher and a portable shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket launcher.

Such military-grade weaponry represents a tiny fraction of the seized weapons. But Monsivais said he’s most worried about the rising caliber of assault rifles and semi-automatic guns that have been found.

“There are weapons that have a lot of firepower and great penetration, like the .50-caliber Barrett … which can penetrate armored vehicles, body armor, and that normally only militaries use,” Monsivais said.

Thirty percent of AK-47 assault rifles seized have been modified to become fully automatic. He said about three of every 1,000 AR-15 assault rifles have been modified to take .50-caliber bullets, the kind of high-powered ammunition designed for sniper rifles.

“In my experience, I had never seen a modified AR-15 rifle,” Monsivais said. “It’s something new, and it is to a certain extent worrisome that they can have and use this type of weapon.”

A plane douses the hillside above Mission Canyon on Wednesday in Santa Barbara, Calif., as a stalled wildfire roared back to life.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Winds swirled and homes of all sizes burned as a wildfire descended on this scenic coastal city amid hot, dry conditions that resembled late summer more than the middle of spring.

Firefighters had a brief respite of moderate breezes early Thursday, but expected another day of heat, gusts and potential destruction as they took on a blaze that had swelled to 500 acres and forced the evacuation of more than 5,000 homes.

TV news helicopters showed at least a dozen homes ablaze as night fell, but authorities had no immediate estimate of how many had been destroyed.

Huge mansions and humble homes alike were reduced to rubble, leaving palm trees swaying over gutted ruins. Aerial footage showed five or more luxury homes burning along one crest-top road, and many flare-ups dotting the residential hills were apparently burning homes.

“The fire is very spotty and patchy and there’s a lot of smoke,” which makes it difficult to see the damage,” Santa Barbara County fire Capt. David Sadecki said. “Because it involves people’s homes, we don’t want to speculate.”

The fire went from tame to explosive Wednesday afternoon as gusts up to 50 mph in triple-digit temperatures hurled the fire from north to south into neighborhoods, Santa Barbara County fire Capt. David Sadecki said.

It remained out of control Thursday morning, though temperatures dropped to the 60s and winds had grown calm.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency, and the National Weather Service issued a “Red Flag” warning for fire danger, predicting strong wind danger through Friday morning.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Drew Sugars said 5,430 homes were under mandatory evacuation. The estimated population of those homes was 13,575 people, he said.

Some of the evacuated were allowed to return to their homes early Thursday, the county said in a news release, but officials had no estimate of how many people were affected.

More than 800 firefighters were on the lines, and 20 more strike teams totaling about 1,300 firefighters were requested.

“The firefighters are picking houses and seeing if they can make a stand,” Sadecki said.

Three Ventura County firefighters were injured when their engine was overtaken by flames as they tried to protect a structure, their department said in a statement. Two were treated for moderate burns and a third was treated for smoke inhalation, said center spokesman Roy Forbes. All were in serious but stable condition.

Their fire engine was heavily damaged in the incident.

The blaze bore down on the city at frightening speed, said Chad Jenson, a food server at Giovanni’s Pizza.

“The sky is just deep orange and black, pretty much our whole hillside is going down,” Jenson said.

In a city that has experienced a number of wildfires, Jenson said this one was as close to the city center as any he had seen. Less than six months ago a fire destroyed more than 200 homes in Santa Barbara and neighboring Montecito and in 1990, a fire killed one and destroyed 641 homes, apartments and other structures in the county. The new fire reached the area burned by that blaze Wednesday.

Santa Barbara, a city of 90,000 about 100 miles west of Los Angeles, rises rapidly from the coastline on the south to the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains to the north. It is subject to “Sundowners” — strong winds that blow downslope through passes and canyons of the mountain range and offshore.

Elsewhere, firefighters were battling a blaze in rural southeastern Arizona that destroyed three houses near Sierra Vista on Tuesday and injured a man. The fire charred about 4,200 acres near Fort Huachuca, threatening about 50 homes in a subdivision. Containment was estimated at 15 percent Wednesday.

In southern New Mexico, a wildfire in the mountains near Timberon charred about 100 acres, burning at least three structures. State Forestry spokesman Dan Ware said firefighters hadn’t been able to confirm what types of buildings they were.

Fifteen residents have been evacuated, and 70 structures were threatened, Ware said.

California wildfires burn structures and hillsides on Wednesday in Santa Barbara, Calif.

A home is threatened by a wildfire on Wednesday in the hills above Santa Barbara, Calif. Fierce winds blew a wildfire into Southern California homes Wednesday, forcing residents to flee as columns of smoke rose from a scenic coastal enclave.

FLAGSTAFF – A group of conservationists says pollution from a coal-fired power plant is clouding views of the Grand Canyon, and they want the federal government to do something about it.

A petition filed by the conservationists Tuesday asks the National Park Service to declare that particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions from the Navajo Generating Station near Page are harming air quality.

The group said the declaration could trigger a reduction in emissions at the plant, improve visibility and safeguard the public’s health.

The plant is operated by the Salt River Project, which supplies water and power to the Phoenix area. Kevin Wanttaja, manager of environmental services for SRP, said the agency has submitted a plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 40 percent. No cuts in particulate matter are planned.

Roger Clark of the Grand Canyon Trust, which is among the petitioners, commended SRP for volunteering to retrofit its three units at the plant with nitrogen oxide controls by 2011. But he said it’s not enough. The best available control technology would cut such emissions by 80 percent to 90 percent, he said.

Briant Rodriguez

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Investigators were searching Monday for a 3-year-old boy kidnapped by two gunmen who broke into his family’s home, tied up his mother and four siblings, and stole property, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert late Sunday for 3-year-old Briant Rodriguez, about nine hours after the family called San Bernardino County authorities.

The men, each carrying a handgun, burst through the front door around 2:30 p.m. and tied up the boy, four of his siblings and their mother, Maria Rosalina Millan. They then ransacked the house and stole money and other property, the county sheriff’s department said.

After about 20 minutes, the men left with Briant, telling the still-bound mother and the other children not to call police, the department said in a statement.

A motive for the abduction remained unclear.

“It’s horrifying,” sheriff’s Lt. Rick Ells said. “I don’t think I could impress on you how rare a kidnapping like this is.”

One of the children – an 8-year-old boy – wiggled free from his ties and freed the rest of the family, sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said. Briant is the youngest sibling of Millan’s seven children. Her 16-year-old boy was not home and another adult child does not live at home. No witnesses saw the men’s vehicle.

The boy’s father, Raul Rodriguez, was at work at the time and the initial investigation pointed to the kidnappers being strangers to the family, Ells said. There were no emergency responses to the house in the previous 90 days.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller said authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border had been put on alert, and FBI investigators were also helping in the investigation.

The family lives in a modest, single-story home in a mainly lower-income slice of county territory abutting the city of San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Journalists photographed a distraught-looking Millan standing outside her home Monday.

Briant is a Hispanic boy 3 feet tall and weighs 40 pounds, with brown eyes and long, curly brown hair. He was wearing a yellow shirt, blue-striped shorts and black sandals when he was taken.

Dupnik

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said his idea has merit, but he will not press Arizona to challenge a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it illegal for schools to check students’ citizenship.

Still, Dupnik said, checking citizenship when students enroll would remove a flaw in the nation’s border security and could deter immigrants from crossing the border illegally.

Such a move would eliminate some of the area’s social woes, he said, adding that the South, Southwest and West sides of Tucson have prominent social problems that can be attributed to illegal immigration.

Dupnik, citing unnamed sources, pointed specifically to the Sunnyside Unified School District, where he said as many as 40 percent of the students are illegal immigrants.

Sunnyside district spokeswoman Monique Soria said that “the district, by law, does not ask for legal status, and we do not have data on that.

“We would be breaking the law if we did ask,” she said.

Failing schools, high dropout rates and gang affiliation seem to be high in those areas, Dupnik said.

“Sunnyside is, I think, the area where the problem is most acute,” he said.

Dupnik stressed that he is not encouraging school districts to break the law.

Dupnik’s opinion arose when he attended a hearing on border violence held by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he said.

“I just brought up an issue that was not being dealt with that I felt should be dealt with,” Dupnik said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s a subject that nobody wants to talk about,” he said. “I merely aired an idea. I’m not on a platform. I don’t have a plan. I don’t have a strategy.”

Dupnik said he will not conduct immigration sweeps at area schools.

“I find that thought repulsive and repugnant,” he said.

Nor will the Sheriff’s Department stage similar sweeps anywhere in the community, he said.

“We will never do that as long as I am sheriff here.”

International travelers Alicia Salinas, right, and her husband Genaro wear masks after arriving at Bush Intercontinental Airport on a flight from Mexico City on in Houston. U.S. officials advised Americans against most travel to Mexico on Monday as a swine flu virus that began there spread to the United States and beyond. With 40 cases now reported in the U.S., President Barack Obama urged calm, saying there was reason for concern but not yet "a cause for alarm."

NEW YORK – The swine flu outbreak boosted shares of makers of of flu treatments, vaccines and tests Monday.

Though Wall Street remains concerned that swine flu could put a damper on any global economic recovery, several companies could benefit.

Gilead Sciences Inc., Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies with a stake in flu treatments and detection will likely see revenue boosts if the swine flu outbreak continues to spread, several Wall Street analysts said.

The bug is already suspected in more than 100 deaths in Mexico, with more than 1,400 cases, mostly in Mexico City. It has spread to the U.S., with 40 confirmed cases, and cases are being investigated in Spain and Canada.

The U.S. government declared a health emergency and released 25 percent of Tamiflu and Relenza treatment courses from the national stockpile to make sure health care providers are ready for any escalation in cases.

Tamiflu, which is an oral treatment, was developed by Gilead, which receives royalties from the drug’s maker, Switzerland-based Roche. Tamiflu is sold in Japan through a company mostly owned by Roche, while in India, Cipla makes a generic version.

Gilead shares rose $1.86, or 4.1 percent, to $47.66 in afternoon trading.

Relenza, an inhaled drug, is made by GlaxoSmithKline, which saw U.S.-traded shares rise $2.41, or 8.2 percent, to $31.75 in afternoon trading.

Both drugs are antiviral medications and are most effective when taken soon after the onset of symptoms. The companies have confirmed that the swine flu strain is sensitive to their drugs.

“Assuming the stockpile will be replenished, we estimate this represents up to $388 million worth of Tamiflu sales or $70 million in royalties for Gilead,” Thomas Weisel analyst Ian Somaiya said in a note to investors. “However, if the outbreak escalates into a pandemic we expect further upside driven by retail demand for the drug.”

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Joel Sendek also said Gilead is a likely beneficiary of the swine flu outbreak, with increased sales of Tamiflu.

Meanwhile, Rodman & Renshaw analyst Elemer Piros said Rockville, Md.-based biotech company Novavax Inc. could see a benefit from the outbreak, as its technology is one of the fastest methods for creating a vaccine.

“If the infection escalates and a government body decides to stockpile vaccine, we believe that Novavax is well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity with its recombinant vaccine technology,” Piros said in a note to investors.

Novavax shares nearly doubled in price to $2.84 in afternoon trading.

Elsewhere, shares of Quidel Corp. jumped 68 cents, or 7.2 percent, to $10.22 as the outlook for its flu tests improved.

“While we believe the probability of a near term flu pandemic is low we remind investors that Quidel’s QuickVue rapid flu test can detect the presence of swine flu and may be used in a screening setting to detect and manage flu outbreak,” Caris & Corp. analyst Zarak Khurshid said in a note to investors.

Other stocks posting gains on the swine flu outbreak include Corvallis, Ore.-based AVI Biopharma Inc., which develops treatments for viral infections. The stock rose 16 cents, or 18 percent, to $1.05.

Birmingham, Ala.-based BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing the flu vaccine peramivir, rose $1.56, or 70.8 percent, to $3.77 in afternoon trading.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised a new era of science and technology for the nation, telling the National Academy of Sciences on Monday that he wants to devote more funds to research and development.

America has fallen behind other countries in science, Obama said.

“I believe it is not in our character, American character, to follow — but to lead. And it is time for us to lead once again. I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than 3 percent of our gross domestic product to research and development,” Obama said in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

That 3 percent would amount to about $420 billion.

“We will not just meet but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the space race,” he said.

That pursuit of discovery a half century ago fueled the nation’s prosperity and success, Obama told the academy.

“The commitment I am making today will fuel our success for another 50 years,” he said. “This work begins with an historic commitment to basic science and applied research.”

And he set forth a wish list including solar cells as cheap as paint; green buildings that produce all the energy they consume; learning software as effective as a personal tutor; prosthetics so advanced that you could play the piano again and “an expansion of the frontiers of human knowledge about ourselves and world the around us.’

“We can do this,” Obama said to applause.

In recent years, he said, “scientific integrity has been undermined and scientific research politicized in an effort to advance predetermined ideological agendas.”

He then drew chuckles, commenting: “I want to be sure that facts are driving scientific decisions, not the other way around,” Obama said.

“At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science, that support for research is somehow a luxury at a moment defined by necessities. I fundamentally disagree,” Obama said.

“Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been,” he said.

Obama said he plans to double the budget of key science agencies over a decade, including the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.

He also announced the launch of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. It is a new Department of Energy organization modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, that led in development of the Internet, stealth aircraft and other technological breakthroughs.

And he said the Energy Department and the National Science Foundation will offer programs and scholarships to encourage American students to pursue careers in science, engineering and business related to clean energy.

Building antivenin distribution system a priority

With a little “seed money” from the federal government, Leslie Boyer hopes to shore up the country’s “critically” low supply of antivenin and quickly distribute that lifesaving drug to health care providers nationwide.

Boyer heads the University of Arizona’s Venom Immonochemistry, Pharmacology and Emergency Response (VIPER) Institute, which seeks $450,000 to begin creating a national distribution network for antivenin, a drug given to people suffering from bites from snakes, spiders and other insects and reptiles.

And U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., wants to help. Giffords is seeking federal funding for the institute’s plan and several other health-related projects in the region.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., also will go to bat for several area health care projects.

Between them, they seek about $9.6 million for projects that include addressing environmental and health problems on the U.S.-Mexico border and purchasing high-tech beds for the neonatal intensive care unit at University Medical Center’s Diamond Children’s Medical Center.

Medical professionals in southern Arizona “have more experience in dealing with antivenin for snake bites and scorpion bites than anywhere in the U.S.,” Boyer said Thursday. “We want to be able to share this with the country.”

Drug companies balk at the high costs of manufacturing antivenins, Boyer said, and supplies dwindle every year.

The institute could change that by leveraging its relationships with zoos, drug companies and researchers, Boyer said.

Her goal would seem to fit the criteria Giffords uses to evaluate requests made to her for federal funding, according to Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin.

“She needs to have the case made by the requesting entity that this is a good thing for taxpayers,” Karamargin said. “We vet it. Many projects do not make the cut.”

Giffords, who represents the 8th Congressional District, seeks funding for eight health care-related projects.

Grijalva, who represents the 7th Congressional District, wants to fund five projects, including $1 million for the UA-based U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Science and Toxicology.

That group tries to promote the shared use of technology and information to combat environmental and health problems along the border, said A. Jay Gandolfi, associate director of research and graduate studies at the UA College of Pharmacy.

Mexicans living along the border often get poor information about environmental problems that could affect their health, such as arsenic in their drinking water, Gandolfi said. The UA-based center tries to make the latest health information available to them and their health care providers.

The Diamond Children’s Medical Center seeks $425,000 to help cover about a third of the cost to buy 30 specialty neonatal intensive care unit beds, according to Vicki Began, vice president for women, children and emergency services at UMC.

With the new beds, which will warm premature babies as well as isolate them from harmful germs, “we won’t have to move kids back and forth,” Began said. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

It could take until December for those seeking federal help to find out if their projects will get funds. On their Web sites, Giffords and Grijalva caution fund-seekers that most projects won’t make the cut.

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Health care PROJECTS

U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raul Grijalva seek about $9.6 million in federal money for 13 southern Arizona health-related projects including:

• U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Science and Toxicology: $1 million to help address and solve environmental and health problems on the border. (Grijalva)

• Arizona 7th District Eye Care Initiative: $250,000 for free glaucoma/vision screenings. (Grijalva)

• Desert Sentia Community Health Center, Ajo: $150,000 for renovations. (Grijalva)

• Carondelet Health Network: $455,000 for new digital mammography equipment (Grijalva)

• University of Arizona Center for Cellular Transplantation: $811,420 for outreach to rural and minority communities about diabetes treatments.

• U.S. Army, Fort Huachuca: $4 million for an advanced trauma life support system. (Giffords)

• United Community Health Center-Maria Auxiliadora, Green Valley: $325,000 for construction of a 21,000-square-foot clinic. (Giffords)

• Bisbee Hospital Association: $500,000 for emergency department renovations. (Giffords)

• Marana Health Center: $400,000 for radiological and other medical equipment. (Giffords)

• Sierra Vista Regional Health Center/Midwestern University: $350,000 for postgraduate nursing program. (Giffords)

• University Medical Center: $425,000 to help purchase 30 neonatal beds for the Diamond Children’s Medical Center. (Giffords)

• Northern Cochise Community Hospital, Willcox: $500,000 for a modular surgery facility. (Giffords)

• VIPER Institute: $450,000 to begin national antivenin distribution network. (Giffords)

Sources: Giffords, Grijalva Web sites

MEXICO CITY – The army said Wednesday it has stepped up patrols in a remote, mountainous drug hotspot in northern Mexico, after gunmen killed two army lieutenants in the region.

The grisly discovery happened days after Roman Catholic Archbishop Hector Gonzalez Martinez created a stir by saying that Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman lives near the town of Guanacevi, in Durango state, and that “everybody knows it except the authorities.”

The bullet-riddled bodies of the two army officers were found in the Durango township of Tepehuanes, about 30 miles (50 kms) south of Guanacevi.

The army said in a statement Wednesday that the two officers were off duty when they were killed, and that it had increased patrols in the area to look for the assailants.

Local news media reported that the bodies were found with a sign that read “neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo,” an apparent reference to the archbishop’s comments and the government’s posting of a $2.1 million reward for Guzman in March.

An army official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, and a local official in Tepehuanes, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation, confirmed that a message was found with the bodies. But they could not say what it said.

The location of Guzman, who escaped from prison in 2001, has become a part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its “Golden Triangle,” a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.

Officials in Guanacevi, a small mining hamlet of about 2,500, said the town “totally rejects” it is home to Guzman.

“If they’re so sure this man is here, why haven’t they presented any evidence?” said Pablo Vargas, secretary of the Guanacevi town council.

Guzman has long been reported to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles. The heavily forested mountains around Guanacevi have few roads, making it a prime spot as a hideout.

Also Wednesday, the Defense Department announced that soldiers captured Isaac Manuel Godoy Castro, an alleged top member of the Arellano Felix cartel. The department said Godoy Castro led a cell of the cartel and answered directly to its suspected leader, Fernando Sanchez Arellano, known as the “the engineer.”

Godoy was arrested Tuesday, along with six other alleged members of his cell, the department said. They were found with four guns and marijuana.

LAUGHLIN, Nev. – Thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts are expected in the Colorado River resort town of Laughlin for a weekend rally forever marred by a biker gang shoot-out in 2002.

Authorities in Arizona and Nevada said Wednesday they were planning to send fewer officers to the 27th Laughlin River Run than in previous years. They say there has been a decline in crowds and arrests.

Las Vegas convention officials say 40,350 people attended last year.

Las Vegas police Sgt. John Loretto says about half as many arrests were made last year as the year before, when more than 70,000 people attended.

Three people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in the 2002 brawl and shoot-out between Hells Angels and rival Mongols at the Harrah’s Laughlin casino.