PHOENIX — Ten Republican congressmen argue that a civil rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office could have a chilling effect on other state and local police agencies that seek to crack down on illegal immigration.

The congressmen, responding to a Department of Justice probe into allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures by the sheriff’s office, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to voice support for vigorous immigration enforcement and assure police agencies that they won’t face similar investigations.

“It is important that state and local law enforcement officers and the public are reassured that the investigation is proceeding in a judicious and fair manner, and not for the purpose of politicizing or chilling immigration efforts,” the 10 congressmen said in a letter to Holder on Wednesday.

The Department of Justice didn’t provide specifics of the allegations, but Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the probe was prompted by his immigration efforts, including his crime and immigration sweeps of some heavily Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix. Arpaio denied allegations that his deputies racially profiled people during the sweeps and called the investigation politically motivated.

“I look at this as a political situation. I am not worried,” Arpaio said.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee also plans to hold a hearing next month on the allegations against Arpaio.

Four Democratic members of the committee, including its chairman, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, had requested the Justice Department investigation. The 10 Republican congressmen who wrote the letter to Holder are members of the committee.

Hector Yturralde, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America and a critic of Arpaio, said he believes the letter by the 10 Republicans was a political move aimed at helping a fellow member of the GOP and that Arpaio has targeted people simply because of the color of their skin. “If other agencies in the country are doing this, they should be stopped,” Yturralde said.

Arpaio has taken some of the most aggressive approach to immigration enforcement, including arresting more than 1,200 illegal immigrants under a state smuggling law and setting up a hot line to report immigration violations.

Alejandro Miyar, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, issued the following statement in response to questions about whether Holder would follow the requests of the 10 Republican congressmen: “Career professionals in the Civil Rights Division began looking into this matter last year, and the Department made the decision to open this investigation in the same manner we make every such decision, based on the facts and the law.”

A suspect in metro Phoenix’s Serial Shooter cases testified at his murder trial that he never shot anyone or witnessed anyone else fire at someone.

Dale Hausner, who is charged with killing eight people and attacking 20 others, took the stand in his own defense Monday at his months-long trial.

Hausner’s lawyer spent much of the morning detailing Hausner’s family and work history and asked general questions about whether his client took part in any shootings, though he didn’t ask questions about specific cases.

Prosecutors haven’t yet had a chance to question Hausner.

About a month ago, Hausner’s former roommate, Samuel Dieteman, told jurors that the two had driven around metro Phoenix shooting people from a car.

Passengers board Metro cars at the official opening of Metro Light Rail Saturday in Phoenix. The 20-mile, $1.4 billion startup line runs from north-central Phoenix through downtown and then east through suburban Tempe and Mesa.

PHOENIX – Thousands of people in this car-crazy city packed themselves tightly into train cars Saturday as metropolitan Phoenix launched its sleek new light rail system.

Despite lingering questions over whether the system will be much use in such a sprawled-out city, several riders waiting at a busy station said the trains will get plenty of use, because the system is convenient, good for the environment and saves gas money.

“I am an environmentalist,” said Dean Pedrotti, a hazardous materials inspector for the fire department who rides his bike to work at least once a week. “I have a solar system on my house and generate 90 percent of his electricity. So, to me, this is the right way to go.”

If Saturday’s grand opening turnout was any indication, ridership may well be above expectations: Lines to board the trains on the inaugural runs ran more than 1 1/2 hours at times, with some people hopping on shuttle buses to return to their cars rather than wait for a train heading back down the line.

The cities along the route were offering free rides, live bands and other entertainment at stations. Residents turned out in droves to get their first real look at what their tax dollars had funded. The standing-room areas of the rail cars were so thick with people that there was no such thing as elbow room.

The $1.4 billion startup line, which took nearly four years to build, runs from north-central Phoenix through downtown and then east through suburban Tempe and Mesa. More than 30 miles are planned to open in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa and Glendale by 2025.

The system is aimed at trying to flout urban sprawl and car culture and get people on public transportation. Critics say the car culture in Phoenix is too strong, the first line is too limited and summers are too hot for people to wait at a train stop.

Light-rail officials are expecting at least 26,000 riders on average during weekdays. Although a one-way ticket will cost $1.25, rides on the system are free through Wednesday.

Abraham Koory, an employee of a printing company in Tempe who already takes the bus to work, plans to use the light rail system every day to get to his job.

“I think it will be faster than the bus,” said Koory, who will still have to take a bus to his train stop.

Gloria Celentano, a state employee waiting to take the train Saturday, said she would like to use the light rail system regularly, but doubts she’ll actually use it much, because taking it would require driving several miles out of her way to a train stop. “I might as well drive to work,” Celentano said.

Still, Celentano said she believes the system will be successful. “I know people at work who are really awaiting its start, because of the commute. It cuts down on everything,” Celentano said.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by several hundred people, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon scoffed at critics who said the system was a waste of money. “Today, you don’t hear or see very many of those individuals,” Gordon said.

Gordon said he’s confident that some people will use it to get to work, while others will turn to it when going to restaurants and downtown sports venues.

Christopher Robinson, who plans to use the trains because he doesn’t own a car, said the trains will appeal to people in Phoenix because fares will be cheaper than buying gas. But he also thinks people will be drawn to it for cultural cache.

“I think that people in Arizona want to know what it really feels like to be a New Yorker,” Robinson said. “This is their little taste.”

PHOENIX – As the newspaper business struggles to survive, journalism would seem to be a hard sell for young people trying to pick a career.

Newspaper circulation is plummeting steadily. Advertising dollars are being lost to Internet sites. And scores of veteran reporters, editors and photographers are being laid off or taking buyouts.

In spite of these dire conditions, Arizona State University is investing heavily in its Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, revamping its curriculum to focus on digital reporting, beefing up its faculty with news industry veterans and moving into a new $71 million building in downtown Phoenix, which was officially dedicated Thursday.

Christopher Callahan, the school’s dean, said graduates are landing jobs at newspapers, television stations and in public relations because they are cheaper to employ than veterans and are prepared to do the versatile multimedia reporting now demanded by the business.

“These students are actually quite in demand,” Callahan said. “It’s a different world. It’s a world that a lot of my (older journalist) friends don’t like. That’s a perfectly legitimate point of view, but the fact of the matter is that the world has changed. It’s a digital world.”

While some journalism schools are holding steady in their growth, Arizona State University joins the University of Missouri, Northwestern University and others in expanding their investments in journalism education, said Jennifer McGill, executive director of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication.

One of the most significant changes at Arizona State’s school was requiring a multimedia class in which each student must write stories, shoot still photos and videos, edit footage and produce Web pages. Lessons from the class will be incorporated into other courses when logical.

Adriana DiMatteo, a freshman journalism student who wants to become a beat writer covering professional sports teams, said she and other students are comfortable with the expectation that they will have to produce news in several formats.

“We’re so used to being around the Internet and used to having different sorts of multimedia things thrown at us, so it’s not that big of an adjustment for us,” DiMatteo said.

The school has purposefully lowered its enrollment from 2,000 in 2005 to 1,300 today so that professors can spend more time working with students. At the same time, the faculty roster has been boosted from 20 full-time professors in 2005 to 36 today, with plans to hire three more in the coming months.

The faculty are focused on giving students real-world experience that will make them more valuable in the job market.

“It’s very hard to teach a student how to play in the majors if you have never played in the majors,” Callahan said.

Among the projects led by new professors are a wire service in which students produce stories that are published by professional news organizations, research programs aimed at creating multimedia products for media companies and publishing outlets for students, and a reporting program focusing on America’s fast-growing Latino population.

Over the last four years, the school has gotten a total of $15 million from the university. It also has rounded up another $23 million from foundations, businesses and individual donors since mid-2005.

The most visible reminder of investment in Arizona State’s journalism school sits six stories high in downtown Phoenix, where the university has opened a new campus.

While the school’s former location on the university’s main campus in Tempe was crowded, the new building is spacious. It includes newsrooms, dozens of digital editing rooms, a 150-seat auditorium, banks of TV screens, two TV studios for the school and two more studios for the university’s television station.

It also has a media museum whose collection includes a wire-service ticker box, reel-to-reel tape players, and smoking pipes and an electric typewriter belonging to Walter Cronkite, who lent his name to the school 25 years ago when the owner of the local CBS affiliate approached him about helping to build up the school.

The downtown campus puts students closer to some media outlets where they will seek internships and to the corridors of power that they will cover as part of their studies.

Tim McGuire, an Arizona State professor who worked previously as editor of the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis, said journalism still offers a bright future for young people, because the appetite for credible news is growing and the public will seek out credible coverage.

“I think there will be a backlash against news we can’t trust,” McGuire said. “I think people are going to seek out brand names they can trust.”

While graduates can continue seeking jobs at news organizations, the school is encouraging students to develop an entrepreneurial spirit to create their own outlets for publishing journalism.

In between reading a printed newspaper, freshman journalism student Rosalinda Albrecht said she was confident that her school will prepare her for the changing news business, but still worries whether she’ll have a place as a reporter when she graduates.

“It’s how hard you fight for it,” Albrecht said. “But I understand that it’s going to be a lot harder now. That scares me. That means I am going to have to rise above what was previously expected of me.”

The East Valley Tribune will put more focus on its online edition beginning in January.

PHOENIX – A daily newspaper in suburban Phoenix stakes its future on a bold experiment in hopes of surviving a declining industry: reducing the number of publication days of its print edition while posting news on its Web site daily.

The East Valley Tribune, owned by Freedom Communications Inc., is the largest newspaper in the country to take this approach as the industry struggles with competition from Internet news sources, dwindling circulation, an economic downturn and slumping revenues from advertising, particularly classifieds.

“It wouldn’t surprise me to see more of this as the tsunami that has hit the newspaper business moves on,” said John Morton, a veteran newspaper analyst based in Silver Spring, Md. “It looks like conditions are going to be negative certainly through 2009 and perhaps through 2010.”

The approach intends to reduce the high costs of producing and delivering printed newspapers while retaining readers and advertisers as the industry moves deeper into online and niche publishing.

Two smaller newspapers in Wisconsin — The Capital Times in Madison and The Superior Telegram — have already made similar changes. Earlier this year, both papers went from six to two days a week with print editions and focused their daily news online.

The Capital Times, a paid paper that was converted to a free publication during the change, is delivered with a morning newspaper that has wider distribution. The Superior Telegram, which remained a paid newspaper, mails its print editions.

But the East Valley Tribune, with a combined paid and free circulation in excess of 100,000, will be the largest daily to take the leap when the changes go into effect in January. The Christian Science Monitor, with a circulation of about 50,000, next year will become the first national newspaper to drop its daily print edition and focus on publishing online.

The Trib, as locals call it, had a high water mark paid circulation of 94,500 in 1997. It competes in the Phoenix metro market with nearly 40 weeklies and the Freedom-owned Daily News-Sun in Sun City, but the longtime battle has been with The Arizona Republic, the nation’s 10th-largest newspaper and Gannett Corp.’s biggest daily besides USA Today.

N. Christian Anderson, an Arizona State University journalism professor and a former Freedom Communications editor and executive who had oversight over the Arizona newspaper, said a combination of factors prompted the changes at the Tribune.

The newspaper was suffering from the economic downturn and faced stiff competition for classified ads from Web sites. It also was considered a secondary advertising outlet, behind The Republic, that could be dropped by big retailers once things got tight economically. “It’s not a story that’s unique to the East Valley,” Anderson said.

Tribune Publisher Julie Moreno announced in October that the paper would cut 142 jobs, or 40 percent of its staff, by January. The paper will no longer be distributed in the affluent suburb of Scottsdale or Tempe, home to Arizona State University, or charge subscribers. Papers will be tossed onto driveways and stacked into free racks in four targeted, growing communities, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Queen Creek.

“You give something up on the fringes to get more on the core,” said Jonathan Segal, president of Freedom Communications, which also owns the Orange County (Calif.) Register and 31 other dailies and 77 weeklies.

Freedom, based in Irvine, Calif., is a privately held company partly owned by two of the world’s largest investment groups, Blackstone and Providence Equity Partners.

Segal said Freedom may make similar changes at its other newspapers, but specifics would be dictated by the unique factors of each market.

Clayton Frink, publisher of The Capital Times in Madison, Wis., said changes at his paper in May weren’t intended to cut costs, but to raise the Times’ Internet presence and expand its circulation.

The Times had suffered falling circulation for at least five years, losing 500 to 1,000 readers each year before dropping to 16,500, when the paper decided to focus its reporting online and use the Web to promote its print editions.

Circulation has risen to about 85,000, now that it’s delivered by The Wisconsin Journal, the dominant daily newspaper. The Journal shares an advertising operation and splits revenues with The Capital Times under unique operating rules that are similar to — and yet still distinctly apart from — a joint operating agreement.

If the Times were a single-market paper without such an agreement, the online focus wouldn’t have made sense, since online ad sales, while growing, come nowhere near matching the proceeds from print ads, Frink said.

Three hundred miles away, in a northern Wisconsin town near the Minnesota border, The Superior Telegram began October offering more online content and reducing publication of its paid print edition from six to two days because of falling advertising revenue.

“It’s what the market can support,” said Ken Browall, the general manager of a newspaper group that includes the Superior Telegram.

Jobs were cut. Carrier delivery was eliminated. The paper is now mailed to readers.

The Telegram also considered eliminating the print edition altogether and becoming an all-Web operation, but kept the print edition because it’s still a large piece of its franchise, its older readership is fond of the print edition and some parts of its market are in rural areas with slow dial-up Internet connections.

Dumping the print edition is appealing because it would eliminate a large chunk of a paper’s expense base — newsprint, printing, and paying press operators and drivers, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

But papers aren’t doing it because online advertising is a small piece of newspaper revenue, and it’s risky to remove the traditional link to readers, Edmonds said.

Edmonds believes the printed newspaper will eventually fade, but it will endure another 10 to 20 years to offer more analytical and investigative content.

Dick White, an East Valley Tribune subscriber and president of a group of religious leaders who lobby the Legislature on immigration, health care and education policies, said the newspaper has a strong record of digging deep into stories that matter to readers and that he is concerned the changes will lead to less scrutiny of government.

White said readers will suffer because the paper will report on fewer communities and journalists who seek deeper explanations and have developed expertise are being laid off. “This is a serious blow to the community’s ability to receive that kind of analysis,” White said.

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On the Net:

East Valley Tribune: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/

The Capital Times: http://www.madison.com/tct/

The Superior Telegram : www.superiortelegram.com/

PHOENIX – It’s possible to argue that Barack Obama’s campaign isn’t a lost cause in John McCain’s home state of Arizona. Convincing anyone is another matter.

Obama can take comfort in these facts:

• Democrats have captured the governor and attorney general seats, and two congressional seats previously held by Republicans.

• McCain fell short of capturing a majority when he won the presidential primary in February.

• Obama has lined up thousands of volunteers in the state.

• And, hey, remember when Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee in 2000?

In fact, if McCain didn’t hold a home-field advantage, Arizona probably would stand with Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada as toss-up states in the West, where both campaigns are investing heavily.

The reality, however, is that McCain is in no danger of losing Arizona and its 10 electoral votes.

McCain has built a network of supporters during his four Senate campaigns and enjoys crossover appeal with conservative Democrats that would be difficult for an outsider to match.

His only challenge is to put Arizona in the win column while spending as little money here as possible, saving his resources for more competitive states.

“He is not ignoring the state,” said Fred Solop, a political science professor and pollster at Northern Arizona University. “He knows he doesn’t have to invest in Arizona. He has invested in Arizona over the years.”

“It would be a long shot for Obama to win here,” agreed Arizona State University pollster Bruce Merrill, whose surveys have shown McCain leading comfortably in the state. He believes the Republican’s numbers are improving with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Daunted or not, the Obama campaign is making a stand, arguing that McCain has vulnerabilities.

Jim Messina, Obama’s chief of staff, said Democrats are gaining momentum and the campaign has lined up thousands of Arizona volunteers.

“We think there are a whole bunch of people in Arizona who want change,” Messina said.

Jim Pederson, a former state Democratic chairman, five years ago pronounced McCain as popular with Democrats as Republicans in the state. But he says that’s changed since McCain adopted a tougher approach on immigration during the primary election season.

“I think the dynamics are such that Obama can make it a race here,” Pederson said.

But the state has long voted Republican in presidential elections. Bill Clinton in 1996 became the first Democrat to prevail here since Harry Truman in 1948. George W. Bush carried the state as the Republican nominee in 2000 and 2004.

The most recent public polls, taken before the political conventions, showed McCain ahead by 6 to 10 percentage points.

Obama’s supporters say the states’ primary results indicate that McCain isn’t as strong back home as expected.

McCain won with 47 percent of the vote and came out 13 percentage points ahead of second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Obama, for his part, finished 8 points behind Hillary Rodham Clinton in the state.

McCain doesn’t sound worried. He has never lost a statewide election. And he won his last two re-election races with better than two-thirds of the vote.

“John is going to do just fine in Arizona,” said Wes Gullett, a top McCain organizer in the state. “Our objective in Arizona is to win, but also to conserve resources for targeted states.”

Neither candidate has spent much time campaigning in Arizona. McCain has appeared at a handful of public events. Obama has made three appearances since the fall of 2006.

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On the WEB:

John McCain: www.johnmccain.com

Barack Obama: www.barackobama.com

Bush talks with Mary Frances Ward after giving her the President's Volunteer Service Award.

Moments before leaving Arizona on Friday morning, President Bush recognized the volunteer service of a teacher from Green Valley who is spending her retirement helping academically lagging children in Tucson improve their reading skills.

Mary Frances Ward, who taught young children for 35 years before her retirement, said her heart pounded as she stood next to Air Force One waiting for Bush and was overwhelmed by the volunteer service award that he gave to her.

“I have been blessed to have a number of small recognitions, but this is really the one at the top of the shelf,” said Ward, who also volunteers at a Presbyterian church.

Bush came to Tucson to attend a $1,000-a-plate private breakfast fundraiser at a home in the Tucson foothills for state Senate President Tim Bee, a Republican who is trying to unseat one-term U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Gifford, a Democrat from Tucson. The president spent about 80 minutes at the fundraiser.

As the president’s motorcade made its way through closed streets, people gathered at roadside, waving and snapping photos as he passed by. Onlookers held up signs that said “Thank God For Bush” and “Tucson Is Blue.”

When he arrived at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for his flight out of Arizona to Texas, Bush spent 10 minutes shaking hands and posing for photographs for some of the 200 military service members and their families who were crowded behind a barricade. Ward’s sister was among those Bush greeted in the receiving line.

When the president approached Ward with his arms extended, she worried whether she’d be able to say something to Bush.

She told the president she appreciated his recognition and extended her condolences for the death of Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary who died July 12 of colon cancer.

“He said, ‘Thank you so much for what you do,”‘ Ward said.

She was nominated for the award by Experience Corps, which places people who are over 55 years into public schools to work with children. She volunteers for the group.

Protestors stand along the Presidential motorcade route Tuesday, May 27, 2008 in Mesa, Ariz. President Bush was in Arizona for a fundraising event with Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain.

MESA — As his motorcade approached its first stop on a brief trip to Arizona, President Bush was greeted by protesters shouting anti-war slogans Tuesday and carrying signs denouncing Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.

While Bush toured a Mesa factory in an appearance to highlight the government’s effort to stimulate the economy, 250 protesters lined a sidewalk near the business, shouting “No more war” and holding up placards with images of McCain hugging Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign.

Virginia Hauflaire, a law firm administrator from Phoenix who wore a necklace made of peace signs, said she believed there was little difference between the leadership of Bush and McCain.

“If McCain is elected president, it will be another four years of the same failed Bush policies,” Hauflaire said. “They are identical in their foreign policy, and I am against that. I think we should come out of Iraq now.”

Jeff Sadosky, a McCain campaign spokesman, said the Arizona senator has a record of standing up for his beliefs. “John McCain has at times clearly but respectfully voiced his disagreement with President Bush on issues such as climate change and the need for a change in policy on the war in Iraq,” Sadosky said.

The president came to Arizona on Tuesday afternoon to tour the business in Mesa and attend a private McCain fundraiser held at a home in Phoenix.

He took a 20-minute tour of the factory floor at Silverado Cable Company, a family-owned business that manufactures electric wiring assemblies for aircraft and military vehicles.

Bush said an incentive in the economic stimulus package approved earlier this year encouraged the owners of the business to invest in new equipment that will increase productivity. He also said Congress should make permanent the tax cuts made earlier in his tenure.

“When you hear these politicians campaign and say we’re going to raise taxes, only just on the rich people, they’re raising taxes on companies like Silverado,” Bush said. “What you don’t want to do is take money out of the treasuries of these small businesses across America. If you’re interested in economic vitality and growth, you want these owners of these small businesses to have more money to invest.”

Down the street from the factory, protester Brandan Spradling, a business owner from Gilbert, zeroed in on the issue of tax cuts and directed her criticism toward McCain. “He, to me, is a flip-flopper. He was against the Bush tax cuts for wealthy. Now he says he’s going to continue those,” Spradling said.

Carrying a sign saying “U.S. Out of Iraq,” Grace Clark, a teacher’s aide in Apache Junction, said her opposition to the war in Iraq and the relationship between Bush and McCain inspired her to attend the protest.

Clark said she approves of McCain’s views on the use of torture, but dislikes his broader policy on the war. “I like him much better than Bush, but I think he is very mistaken on this policy,” Clark said.

Jerry Chvarak, a salesman for a construction company who lives in Gilbert, said he used to hold a favorable view of McCain, but that has changed since he made policy switches in hopes of winning over conservative voters. “McCain has just sold out to the right,” Chvarak said.

President George W. Bush speaks to the media after meeting with employees of the Silverado Cable Company, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 in Mesa, Ariz. Silverado owners, brothers Mitch, left, and Bob Simpson, escorted the President.

Protestors stand along the Presidential motorcade route Tuesday, May 27, 2008 in Mesa, Ariz. President Bush was in Arizona for a fundraising event with Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain.

One half of the Arizona Legislature threw its support Tuesday behind a proposal to fix perceived shortcomings in a state law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Some proposed changes were sought by business groups that felt the law was unclear on many key points, such as whether the law applied to all employees on a company’s payroll or only those hired this year and thereafter.

The proposal also would offer protections for employers who make good-faith efforts to follow a key requirement of the law. But it wouldn’t prohibit prosecutors from pursuing anonymous complaints, which some businesses felt left them vulnerable to swipes from rivals and embittered employees.

“I have every reason to believe (Gov. Janet Napolitano) will sign it,” said Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, author of the law and sponsor of the proposed changes, which were approved in a 41-16 vote by the House.

The Democratic governor has said she welcomes improvements to the bill, but hasn’t committed to whether she’d sign it into law if it reaches her desk.

Similar proposed revisions were being considered by the state Senate, which could take a vote on the bill as early as Thursday.

Intended to weaken the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak across the border, the law requires the suspension or revocation of business licenses of employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

One of the proposed revisions that drew criticism would prohibit all state and local government agencies from giving business licenses to people who can’t prove that their presence in the country is lawful.

“The passage of this bill would essentially make the state of Arizona a police state,” said Democratic Rep. Theresa Ulmer of Yuma, an opponent of the bill who believes the provision would in effect turn agency employees into immigration officers.

Business groups had complained the law was unclear on which employees were affected by the law. The revisions bill would clarify that the law applies to only new hires this year and thereafter.

The law requires businesses to verify the employment eligibility of workers through a federal database.

Legislators also would offer an incentive for businesses to fulfill the database requirement, which only a portion of employers are following.

It would create a voluntary compliance program that would require workers to check the work eligibility of employees through the database.

Under the program, workers who aren’t verified through the database would have their Social Security numbers verified by the employer through the federal government. And participants would have to agree to provide prosecutors with documents showing employees were verified through either method.

The bill said participants wouldn’t be in violation of the law if they acted in good faith in doing the verifications and providing the necessary records.

PHOENIX — The new leader of a federal immigration agency in Arizona said Thursday that a key element in his plans to confront the state’s border woes is cracking down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Matthew Allen, the new chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, said illegal immigrants would be less likely to come to the state if they knew employers wouldn’t offer them jobs.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” Allen said. “No one in the U.S. government — whether that’s (the Department of Homeland Security) or (Department of Justice) — has the capacity to arrest, go out and physically arrest, every alien who is here illegally.”

That’s why it’s important to focus on the root cause of much of America’s illegal immigration — jobs offered to immigrants, said Allen, who previously oversaw such efforts while serving at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Allen investigated drug and immigrant smuggling groups as an agent in Nogales from 2000 to 2004. He said he also plans to take steps to combat drop houses.

Drop houses are where immigrant smugglers hide their customers and collect payments before sending them to spots across the country. Metropolitan Phoenix is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.

Allen said he wants his staff to develop relationships in the real estate industry so they can provide advice on spotting drop house operators.

Other plans include balancing the daily needs of assisting state and local police agencies on immigration calls while continuing the federal agency’s long-term investigations.

Allen replaces Alonzo Pena, who is moving to another post in the Department of Homeland Security.

Pena’s 16-month tenure in Arizona was marked by his efforts to repair the agency’s damaged relationships with state and local leaders.

Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who had been critical of Pena’s predecessor and the federal agency’s staffing levels in Arizona, said the agency’s operations in the state improved under Pena’s leadership.

“We had real problems working with ICE under his predecessor,” Napolitano said. “And (Pena) came in and was very good to work with overall, with the resources he was given. He can only do so much with what Washington, D.C., gives him, but I thought he did a very good, professional job. I enjoyed working with him.”

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Associated Press Writer Paul Davenport contributed to this report.

The Arizona House gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a proposed requirement that city and county police agencies carry out programs for their officers to confront federal immigration violations.

Local agencies could meet the requirement by getting training for their police and jail officers, putting federal immigration agents in units within their departments or cultivating relationships with federal authorities to confront the problem.

“It’s one way of dealing with the immigration problem that lets the cities use the most efficient way that they have to do that,” said Republican Rep. John Nelson of Litchfield Park, author of the proposal.

A small number of local police agencies in Arizona have already sought special training to enforcement federal immigration law.

The training lets police officers make immigration arrests while carrying out their regular duties. It also allows jail officers speed up the deportations of criminal immigrants after they complete sentences on state violations, thus reducing local corrections costs and getting them in the hands of federal authorities quicker.

No lawmakers voiced opposition to the proposal.

The bill also would prohibit county and city governments from having policies that prevent or restrict them from receiving or exchanging information about people’s immigration status in certain instances.

Those cases include determining the eligibility of people for public benefits that are off limits to illegal immigrants, confirming the identity of arrested people and verifying people’s status if the status is required under law.

The proposal now moves to a formal vote in the House.

PHOENIX — The abduction of 13-year-old girl outside a house by men carrying assault-style rifles appears to match a rising trend of kidnappings carried out by drug traffickers, police said Tuesday.

But the kidnapping differs from the abductions by drug and immigrant traffickers because the girl and her family weren’t involved in crime, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.

“We believe that these suspects are associated with drug trafficking, but they took an innocent victim,” Hill said, noting the kidnappers may have mistaken the girl for someone else. She was eventually released with only minor injuries.

Phoenix police reported more than 340 kidnappings last year in which drug and immigrant traffickers and their families were abducted by fellow criminals and held for big-dollar ransoms. Investigators have drawn parallels between the kidnappings in Phoenix and those that have become a hallmark of smuggling groups in Latin America.

Thirteen-year-old Marquesia Thomas, who suffered bumps and bruises on her head after being hit by her captors, was released early Tuesday morning in a nearby suburb more than seven hours after she was snatched. She suffered no other injuries and was reunited with her family.

Thomas was in a southwest Phoenix neighborhood Monday evening with other children and adults when an SUV with a strobe light on its front grill pulled up and two men armed with assault-style rifles and another two with handguns exited the vehicle.

Two of the gunmen had utility belts that witnesses described as resembling the gun belts worn by police officers. Despite the strobe light and belts, Hill said the kidnappers never claimed to be police officers.

One of the four gunman from the SUV grabbed Thomas from behind the head and dragged her away. Two other men inside a sedan also were believed to be involved in the kidnapping, but didn’t get out of their car.

Thomas, whose kidnapping prompted an Amber Alert, told police that her captors covered her head so she couldn’t look at them, drove her around, switched vehicles and sometimes locked her in the trunk of a car.

The kidnappers eventually dropped off Thomas nearly 30 miles away in front of a home in the suburb of Surprise.

No arrests have been made in the case.

Forty-eight people accused of taking part in an immigrant trafficking ring have been indicted on human smuggling and money laundering charges, authorities said.

The group brought in as much as $130,000 a week moving people from Naco, Mexico, to its center of operations in Phoenix and then to destinations across the United States, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday.

Piano said the ring was believed to be one of the biggest operating in Arizona, the busiest illegal entry point into the country.

“It’s not the end of the game, but we believe we have made some very important intelligence directions in the fight against the smugglers,” said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office was prosecuting the case.

Ten of the 48 suspects were arrested. An additional 10 people who are expected to face charges in the future also were netted in the sweep, authorities said.

The investigation led to the discovery of 13 “drop houses” in Phoenix where human smugglers hold customers until they pay up and are sent to their final destinations. The area is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.

Authorities allege that two Cuban immigrants living in the area, 41-year-old Jose Luis Suarez-Lemus and 35-year-old Roel Ayala Fernandez, ran the ring and paid people in Mexico and Arizona to help smuggle immigrants.

“The police just came in the house and found no proof,” said Suarez-Lemus’ stepson, Daril Hidalgo, who answered the phone at the accused smuggler’s home and whose name wasn’t mentioned in the redacted indictment released to reporters. Hidalgo said he didn’t know the name of Suarez-Lemus’ lawyer.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Fernandez had a lawyer. He didn’t have a listed phone number.

The two paid recruiters in Mexico to find customers, Mexican police to allow smugglers to stage their crossings and trail guides to lead immigrants through a conservation area in southeast Arizona, Piano said.

Drivers were paid to bring the immigrants by van to Phoenix, and other drivers were used to spot law enforcement vehicles and protect rival smugglers from forcing them off the road in an attempt to kidnap and extort their customers, he said.

Once the immigrants were in a drop house and payments were made, drivers were hired to bring immigrants to spots across the country, authorities said.

They said the group would move four to six loads of immigrants per day, each with six to 10 people. Smuggling fees averaged $2,500 per person.

John McCain’s difficult relationship with conservatives in his home state created an opening Tuesday for Mitt Romney to put up a fight in Arizona’s Republican primary, according to preliminary results of an Associated Press exit poll.

Romney had strong support from Republicans who described themselves as conservative and those who believe illegal immigrants should be deported.

McCain, who has drawn the ire of some Arizona conservatives for his views on immigration and campaign finance, had overwhelming support from Republicans who described themselves as liberals and had an edge over Romney among moderates.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic primary, Barack Obama drew strength from voters who said the most important quality in a candidate was bringing about needed change.

Hillary Rodham Clinton had strong support among Democrats who said experience mattered most.

The poll of 1,755 voters was conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Results were from interviews of 899 Democratic primary voters and 856 Republican primary voters in 30 precincts across Arizona on Tuesday. Margin of sampling error plus or minus 5 percentage points for each primary. The samples include 304 Democratic voters and 308 Republican voters who voted early or absentee and were surveyed in the past week by telephone.

Donald Stallings, a 63-year-old Republican from Phoenix who supported Romney, said McCain was no different than a Democrat.

“I’m not a John McCain fan, and I tend more toward the conservative side of it, although I don’t think we have a real conservative that has a possibility of succeeding in there, and I think that Romney probably fits the best with my own leanings,” Stallings said.

But retired Air Force Col. Bill Peel, a Republican voter who supported McCain, said the Arizona senator is more conservative than he is given credit for.

“I think he works well with the Democrats,” Peel said.

Romney held a lead among Republicans who believe illegal immigration, one of the most salient political priorities in Arizona, is the most important issue facing the company.

McCain had an edge among Republicans who ranked either the economy and terrorism as their top issue and was leading among those felt the war in Iraq was the top issue.

On a question about the most important candidate qualities, McCain scored well with voters who felt he says what he believes and overwhelmed Romney among those who felt McCain had the right experience and the best chance to win in November.

Romney was leading McCain among those who said the most important candidate quality was sharing their values.

Romney, a Mormon, excelled among voters from his own church, while McCain appeared to be leading among Catholics. Republican Mike Huckabee scored well among Evangelicals.

In the Democratic primary, Obama found support among men, including white men, and won overwhelming support among voters 17 to 29 years old. Obama also was leading among liberals.

Clinton held an edge over Obama among white women and was apparently ahead among voters 60 years and older. She had an edge among moderate Democrats.

More than half the Democratic voters said the economy was the most important issue facing the country, and Obama and Clinton split the voters among that category.

Obama was leading among voters who said the war in Iraq was the most important issue. Voters who said health care mattered the most were split among Obama and Clinton

Eric Heithaus, a 42-year-old guitarist from Tucson, said he voted for Obama because he believes the Illinois senator will end the war. “Of course, human life is the most important thing,” Heithaus said.

Gloria Arellano, an administrative assistant from the Phoenix suburb of Ahwatukee, voted for Clinton.

“Obama to me is just a nice guy. I just think people are going to walk all over him like they did Jimmy Carter,” Arellano said, noting that she believes the country was in better shape when Clinton’s husband was president.

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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., campaigns at a rally at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008.

LAVEEN, Ariz. — Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed to end subsidies for oil companies and said the country needs to be more energy-efficient and less dependent on foreign countries for fuel.

In a speech focusing on the country’s slumping economy, the New York senator said America can create jobs by converting to solar and other forms of alternative energy.

She said Germany, wanting to make itself less dependent on foreign oil, created thousands of jobs by converting some of its energy supply to solar power.

“Arizona has a lot more sunny days than Germany,” Clinton told an energetic crowd of 2,500 inside the gymnasium at Cesar Chavez High School in Laveen, west of Phoenix.

As Clinton promised to squarely confront global warming, a man in the crowd yelled, “Al Gore was right.”

Clinton’s visit came two weeks before the Feb. 5 primary in Arizona, where she is leading in the polls. The event was billed as a town hall-style meeting but turned out to be a stump speech during which Clinton didn’t take questions from audience members.

Clinton struck a theme of addressing problems that she said the Bush administration has handled poorly — a struggling economy, a mortgage crisis, and unaffordable health care and college tuition.

“On a daily basis we are seeing the results of the failed policies of the last seven years,” she said.

She promised to create tax credits that she said would make health care and college tuition more affordable for families. “Young people are coming out (of college) with so much debt, they’re like endentured servants,” she said.

Clinton won the New Hampshire primary and captured the popular vote in the Nevada caucuses. She also won the Michigan primary, in which Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards’ names weren’t on the ballot.

Clinton didn’t win the endorsement of Arizona’s most prominent Democrat, Gov. Janet Napolitano, who more than a week ago endorsed Obama for the Democratic nomination and campaigned in New Mexico for him on Tuesday.

Polls showed that Clinton began 2007 with about as much support in Arizona as Obama, but she started to break away from him about halfway through the year.

A survey released Tuesday found 45 percent of Democrats who had who voted in at least three of the last six elections either supported Clinton or were leaning toward her. The corresponding figures were 24 percent for Obama and 9 percent for Edwards.

Forty-one percent of Republicans either supported Sen. John McCain or were leaning toward him, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 18 percent.

The poll of 741 people who voted in at least three of the last six elections was conducted Jan. 17-20 by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University and Channel Eight/KAET-TV. The survey has a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for both the Republican and Democratic samples.

While McCain enjoys favorite-son status in Arizona on the Republican side, the state is regarded as wide open for Democratic candidates in the Feb. 5 primary.