The U.S. Border Patrol says agents patrolling near Nogales have arrested 22 men after they were spotted carrying bales of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico.

Border Patrol spokesman Mike Scioli (See-OH’-lee) said Wednesday that the men were spotted by agents who called in a helicopter and additional officers. As the agents closed in, the men dropped their bundles of marijuana and ran away.

Agents captured all 22 of them late Monday and seized 39 bundles of marijuana weighing more than 2,200 pounds. They also found a loaded .45-caliber pistol and 2 loaded magazines for an AK-47 assault rifle.

Scioli says the men were all identified as Mexican nationals who had entered the U.S. illegally.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK — An Ohio man who was peering over the edge of the Grand Canyon and lost his balance was rescued after falling 60 feet.

Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge says the 47-year-old man had planned to hike to a backcountry camping area below the South Rim on Tuesday when he fell.

A visitor heard the man’s pleas for help, and park rangers found him injured on a trail.

He was airlifted out of the canyon and treated for non life-threatening injuries at a Flagstaff hospital. About 20 people were involved in the rescue operation.

Park officials reminded visitors Wednesday to be cautious of their footing when hiking in the canyon or along the rim.

At least 100 firefighters are working to extinguish flames that engulfed 15 acres near the Tonto National Forest.

Two Hotshot crews, three engines, two heavy air tankers and three helicopters were sent to contain the fire, Forest public affairs officer Paige Rockett said.

Fire officials were first called about 6 a.m. Monday to one mile east of Pine, where the fire had spread across steep terrain, she said. No homes surrounding the area were in danger. Pine is about 110 miles northeast of Phoenix.

“They are optimistic they’re going to get the fire under control soon,” Rockett said.

The cause is under investigation.

PHOENIX – The debate over the first statewide speed camera enforcement program in the nation has reached a boiling point following the fatal shooting of a camera operator.

Critics of Arizona’s program condemned the killing but vow they’ll continue to fight what they call unfair and overly intrusive government. Supporters of the program say camera opponents have inflamed the public, and that the speed cameras have made highways safer.

Doug Georgianni, 51, was killed on April 19, as he operated a speed-enforcement van on a Phoenix freeway. Thomas Patrick Destories, a 68-year-old Phoenix man, is being held in Maricopa County jail on a first-degree murder charge in the death. He has declined to comment.

Authorities haven’t said what they believe the motive might be, but said the two men had never met. Many simply assume the killing was the latest and most extreme backlash against Arizona’s photo-enforcement program.

Arizonans have used sticky notes, Silly String and even a pickax to sabotage the cameras since September when they began snapping photos of highway speeders driving 11 mph or more over the speed limit.

State lawmakers have proposed two bills to do away with the cameras, and three separate citizens groups are targeting them in initiatives for the 2010 ballot.

“The conversation on everyone’s mind in Arizona is the photo radar killing. That’s what everyone is talking about,” said Shawn Dow, a volunteer with the citizens group CameraFRAUD.com.

CameraFRAUD.com is the largest and most organized of the groups going after the cameras. Its initiative would ban photo-enforcement cameras throughout Arizona, including those in the statewide program and those run by individual municipalities, such as red light cameras in Tempe.

Dow said the Arizona Department of Public Safety and camera operator RedFlex Traffic Systems Inc. put Georgianni in danger by having him in a marked law enforcement vehicle even though he was a civilian.

“They’re putting these people in marked police vehicles that are civilians that have no training, no way to defend themselves,” Dow said. “We should have trained police officers – cops, not cameras.”

DPS spokesman Lt. James Warriner said the department is working with RedFlex to decide how the vans will operate in the future, and that they may be unmanned.

The speed vans were pulled from Arizona freeways Monday; fixed cameras are still operating.

Warriner said critics have blamed his agency for the killing “when all we’re doing is administering a program that was mandated by state Legislature and the former governor.

“Because of (critics’) vocalness, you could almost say they’ve led to this, too – because of their protests, the encouragement of people to strike out,” he said.

Warriner said Georgianni’s killing will not stop photo enforcement.

Karen Finley, president and chief executive officer of RedFlex, said in a statement that the company is being “deliberative and prudent” in its review of establishing criteria to redeploy mobile speed cameras. She declined to comment further.

Republican Rep. Sam Crump of Anthem, who is seeking to ban speed cameras on state highways, condemned Georgianni’s killing.

“While we don’t know at this time what the motives were for this senseless killing, many have understandably speculated that it was due to anger against the speed cameras,” he said in a statement the day after the killing. “To the extent there is any truth to that, I call on all individuals to reduce the war of words on this topic. Whatever the motives for this crime were, there is absolutely no justification for such a heinous act.”

The photo-enforcement program was launched under then- Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Police have discovered the body of the stepfather of the 30-year-old man suspected of stabbing his grandparents, apparently the victim of stab wounds that matched those of the grandparents.

Officers began contacting other members of the family as part of their investigation into the stabbing of the grandparents, who are in serious condition at local hospitals, and discovered the man’s body inside his residence at the Scottsdale Springs Apartments on Osborn Road.

The grandmother initially called police at 5:30 a.m. to say her grandson Alex Willeford had broken into their Scottsdale home and stabbed her and her husband on east Minnezona Street, north of Camelback Road, said Officer Dave Pubins, a Scottsdale police spokesman.

When officers arrived, they arrested the man without incident in the alley behind the home. The names of the family members are being withheld. Willeford was taken to a local hospital with wounds on his hands and released into police custody.

According to state Department of Corrections records, Willeford served about seven months in prison in 2006 after he was convicted of fleeing from a law enforcement vehicle.

About 150 friends and family gathered in Scottsdale on Saturday to say goodbye to the man killed while operating a photo-radar van.

During the hourlong ceremony at Highlands Church, loved ones talked about 51-year-old Douglas Georgianni’s kindness and good character.

“Doug had a passion and an enthusiasm for whatever it was he was involved with,” longtime friend Ron Jacobsen said.

Georgianni was shot one week ago today while working in a photo-enforcement van on Loop 101. Police arrested Thomas Destories, 68, on Monday on suspicion of murder.

Destories, who later apologized and said he didn’t mean to hurt anyone, was charged with first-degree murder.

At the memorial Saturday, a table adorned with memorabilia such as a wine bottle and a book about Italy stood next to a set of golf clubs.

Those who knew Georgianni spoke of his outgoing personality, hobbies and love for his family.

A former pro golfer, Georgianni was the first coach of the women’s golf program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

He led the team to a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and was coach of the year in 1998, according to the school’s Web site.

Georgianni was born in Syracuse, N.Y., but moved to the Phoenix area with his family. He graduated from Chaparral High School, and attended Arizona State University, graduating with a degree in business.

Jacobsen, a friend of 35 years, described Georgianni as a passionate person who was proud of his 30-year golf career.

Jeffry Georgianni said his older brother was playful but also had a strong sense of right and wrong. He also talked about Georgianni’s love for his wife, Jean.

“Doug was always a happy person but loving and marrying Jean sent him over the moon,” Jeffry said.

The couple married about three years ago.

Brandi Hull, Jean’s daughter, read a written statement on her mother’s behalf.

“It always amazed me that after being single for 25 years, he could be such a good husband,” she said. “No woman could have asked for a better husband.”

Arizona Department of Homeland Security Director Leesa Berens Morrison has announced her resignation.

In late 2006, Morrison took over the department tasked with preventing and responding to natural and man-made disasters in Arizona. Duties for the department’s 17 employees include intelligence gathering and analysis to deter a terrorist strike, as well as work to improve the state’s preparedness for natural disasters. The department also oversees the state’s efforts to acquire federal Homeland Security grants.

Morrison took over the department under former Gov. Janet Napolitano but said the state’s change of leadership in recent months didn’t impact her decision to resign.

“The time was right for me,” Morrison told The Arizona Republic. “The time was just right for me.”

Prior to joining Homeland Security, Morrison was director of the state Department of Liquor Licenses and Control for about three years. She also served 17 years as an assistant attorney general for Arizona and, earlier, spent two years in private practice.

“I had the privilege to work for three attorneys general and two governors, both Republicans and Democrats,” Morrison wrote in an e-mail to co-workers. She called her time with Homeland Security “one of my most cherished responsibilities.”

PHOENIX – A joint effort involving the Arizona Department of Public Safety and U.S. Marshals Service will address a backlog of outstanding warrants in the state while saving on costs, the director of DPS said Thursday.

“This collaboration with DPS and the Marshals Service is in keeping with Gov. Brewer’s desire for increased efficiency, and it will also provide a valuable force to fight the criminal element to make our streets safer,” Roger Vanderpool said.

DPS’ Violent Criminal Apprehension Team is merging with the Arizona Wanted Task Force of the U.S. Marshals Service to better track the 60,000 fugitives in Arizona.

David Gonzales, the U.S. marshal for Arizona, said the effort, bringing together manpower, intelligence and databases, is overdue given the large number of arrest warrants coming from the courts.

“We cannot arrest our way out of this problem,” Gonzales said. “We’re going to go after the real thugs out there that need to be picked up.”

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano called for the creation of the Criminal Apprehension Team last May to reduce the number of outstanding warrants. Since then, the team has arrested 780 fugitives and cleared 666 felony warrants, according to DPS.

The team works with local law enforcement agencies, sharing intelligence and identifying violent fugitives to step up the pace of arrests.

Tom Ryff, chief of police for Tempe, said that with the new partnership, criminals are going to have a tough time trying to outrun the law.

“There will be no place to hide, we will catch you, we are looking for you, we have the resources to do it, and clearly we have demonstrated that we’re on the ball,” Ryff said.

PHOENIX — A Federal Aviation Administration database released on Friday shows aircraft have struck birds or other animals more than 1,200 times in Arizona since 2000.

In six cases, aircraft flying out of Tucson or Phoenix had what the FAA classified as “substantial” damage after hitting birds, and others had lesser damage. At least six commercial jetliners had engines with damaged fan blades needing replacing or repair. In one 2002 case, a propeller-driven commuter plane had to return to Phoenix after a bird struck its wing and punched a hole in a fuel tank.

Passengers evacuated the plane safely as fuel poured onto the runway. Firefighters covered it in foam and plugged the leak.

In all, 1,259 bird strikes or animal collisions were reported from 2000 through 2008. No fatalities were reported.

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On the Web

FAA Wildlife Strike database:

http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public—html/index.html#access

Femmster

Four teenagers were arrested Thursday morning in connection with a string of nine convenience store armed robberies, according to police.

The teens were arrested during a 10th attempted robbery, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department.

Three of the suspects – Gabriel E. Femmster, Anthony J. Minor and Jacob M. Aubry – are 16 years old and the fourth, Brandon R. Frauenfeld, is 15, Pacheco said.

The Tucson Citizen doesn’t usually identify juveniles accused of crimes but is doing so in this article because of the seriousness of the accusations. All four face multiple felony charges of armed robbery, aggravated robbery and aggravated assault, Pacheco said.

Charges for the four vary because police have not sorted out what roles they allegedly played in the robberies.

The teens targeted two of the convenience stores three times in seven days and a third store twice in the same time period, Pacheco said.

On March 29, the Quik Mart in the 3700 block of South Kolb Road was robbed. On April 17 Quik Marts in the 3400 block of South Wilmot Road, the 10200 block of East 22nd Street and the 7600 block of East Escalante Road were hit.

A Circle K in the 8500 block of East 22nd was also robbed that day. Both the Circle K and the Quik Mart on 22nd Street were robbed again on April 21, Pacheco said. The robberies continued Thursday morning with robberies at the Quik Marts on 22nd Street and on Escalante Road.

Police began searching the area for a pickup truck that had been associated with the crimes and found it parked behind the Circle K on 22nd Street.

The suspects fled on foot when approached by police. Three were captured at the scene and the fourth was arrested later in the day, Pacheco said. He said at least one handgun and one pellet gun were used in the robberies.

Destories

PHOENIX – An Arizona prosecutor has decided to charge a man with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a photo radar van operator in Phoenix.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas made the announcement Wednesday that 68-year-old Thomas Patrick Destories will face the most serious charge possible in the killing of the operator.

Destories also was charged with drive-by shooting and firing a gun at a structure.

Authorities allege that Destories shot and killed 51-year-old Doug Georgianni as he operated a state photo radar van on Sunday night.

Destories and his lawyer declined to comment Wednesday.

A court record says that when Destories was arrested on Monday, he apologized to police and told them he never meant to hurt anyone.

Thomas Patrick DeStories doesn’t have a lengthy criminal history, and the Phoenix resident didn’t have a history with the state’s photo-enforcement program.

Yet the 68-year-old is suspected of firing five rounds into a photo-enforcement mobile van Sunday night, killing 51-year-old Doug Georgianni who sat inside. DeStories is being held on a $2 million cash bond after his initial appearance on suspicion of first-degree murder in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Colleagues and relatives paint two images of DeStories: one of a gregarious outdoorsman, and one of a volatile man who enjoyed drinking and guns. DeStories was in his 30s when a bad economy drove him from New Jersey west with his brothers in the late 1970s, said former sister-in-law Alberta Warrington. DeStories found construction work in the Valley and also discovered a love of the desert, Warrington said.

“They were a pretty volatile set of brothers,” Warrington said of Tom and Michael DeStories, her former husband. “I was scared to leave (my son) with them ’cause they used to go out to the desert and shoot and drink and shoot and drink.”

DeStories’ affinity for the desert turned into work by the mid-1980s, with DeStories first taking tourists out to pan for gold along the Agua Fria River.

By the mid-1990s, DeStories founded Arrowhead Desert Tours and took corporate groups and tourists on desert jaunts.

Clay Adair bought the tour company from DeStories three years ago and said the suspect was a master at wooing clients.

“He loved talking to people and showing the desert. He’s just friendly and outgoing and loved chatting people up,” Adair said.

Adair said he was shocked when he saw the news.

“It’s totally out of character for him. He’s like the rest of us: a little bit on the cantankerous side. And nobody I know likes photo radar,” he said. “But he wasn’t anti-government, and he wasn’t a gun nut, either.”

Warrington, however, said she wasn’t surprised.

“Tom was always sort of protesting. He was the first one to bitch and moan about everything coming down, the government in your face and all that,” she said.

Phoenix police say a witness saw a Chevrolet Suburban pull up behind Georgianni’s van parked near Seventh Avenue and Loop 101 about 8:45 p.m. Sunday.

Investigators said Georgianni, a four-month employee of Redflex Traffic Systems, was sitting behind the driver’s seat doing paperwork when the Suburban pulled up and somebody fired the shots.

The witness gave police a description, and an observant Department of Public Safety officer who used to live in DeStories’ neighborhood led authorities to his home.

DeStories knew why police pulled him over Monday morning.

“I’m sorry, I was going to turn myself in. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. I saw it on the news,” he told officers, according to court paperwork. “The gun is in the saddlebag.”

The van was hit five times with large-caliber bullets, according to the report, with three shots grouped in a tight pattern around the driver’s side window, near where Georgianni was seated.

Police found a magazine for a .45-caliber pistol in DeStories’ pocket when they arrested him, according to records.

The shooting prompted Redflex and American Traffic Solutions to pull the mobile units from highways and roads while they reassess security measures. ATS announced Tuesday night, though, that their cameras in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale and Avondale will be back up today.

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Victim’s fund

Doug Georgianni’s family has set up a fund at Bank of America.

Donations can be made at any Bank of America branch to: the Doug Georgianni Memorial Fund.

TOLLESON — A Phoenix-area school resource officer was injured when authorities say he accidentally shot himself in the finger.

Tolleson police say Officer Ray Granillo was standing just outside the front gates at Arizona Desert Elementary School as classes were dismissed Wednesday afternoon when he attempted to open a gate and his gun discharged.

Police Sgt. Lisa Mendoza says Granillo’s gun was in its holster at the time and the shot was fired directly into the ground.

Mendoza says the 57-year-old Granillo was taken to a hospital with a “very serious injury to one of his fingers” on his right hand. He was in stable condition at last report.

Mendoza says it definitely was an accident, but police were trying to figure out what happened.

This sport utility vehicle was packed with suspected illegal immigrants when it rolled over Thursday, killing at least nine people. Authorities said it contained 19 people.

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The Hermosillo, Son., driver of an SUV that rolled over near Florence on Aug. 7 killing 10 people, has pleaded guilty to one count of transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death.

Sandy Raynor, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said Brian Guzman-Ochoa, 39, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Tucson.

He admitted he drove the vehicle that carried 19 illegal immigrants and rolled over on state Route 79, about 15 miles southeast of Florence.

Seven men and two women died in the crash. Another passenger died later of his injuries, Raynor said in a news release.

Guzman-Ochoa will be sentenced July 13 by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake.

A conviction carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or the death penalty, a $250,000 fine or both, according to the news release from Raynor.

The government agreed not to seek the death penalty, the release said. The judge is not bound by the sentencing guidelines, Raynor said.

The dead and injured were trapped inside the vehicle and had to be extricated by rescue crews. The injured were flown to hospitals in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson.

The Chevrolet Suburban was heading north just before 8 a.m. when it ran off the road into a dry wash, slammed into a concrete abutment and flipped.

Attorney general: No evidence of tampering with 2006 transit election results

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard announces results of the ballot recount. To see video of his press conference, click on this story at <a href="http://www.tucsoncitizen.com">www.tucsoncitizen.com</a>.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday that a hand recount of votes in the 2006 Regional Transportation Authority election showed no evidence of criminal tampering with the results.

Goddard said the recounted ballots matched almost exactly the results tabulated by Pima County Elections Division staffers after the election.

“The bottom line of what we’ve shown here is that there was no flip,” Goddard said.

Goddard earlier this year ordered a hand count of ballots from the RTA election, in which county voters approved two ballot items – creation of a Regional Transportation Authority and a half-cent sales tax to help fund projects to be overseen by the agency.

Voters approved a 20-year, $2.1 billion regional transportation plan and the sales tax increase by wide margins, the upheld election results show.

Four major transportation initiatives to be funded by bonds or sales taxes had been strongly rejected by voters over the previous 15 years.

Goddard was trying to determine if the vote was rigged by someone through tampering with electronic vote devices or with ballot tabulating procedures following the election.

“It appeared there was reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed” Goddard said of claims by critics of computerized vote systems that tampering did indeed take place.

Those included illegal printing of early ballot returns five days before the election, and the presence of a crop card, which is a device that can be used to alter results, in the elections division offices.

Although Goddard said the criminal investigation is closed, he would not comment on whether a grand jury has looked or is looking into the conduct of the election.

Goddard ordered the hand recount, done by the Maricopa County Elections Division earlier this month.

His office had probed the Pima County Elections Division and its use of a Diebold-GEMS electronic vote system in 2007. The systems have been widely criticized for being vulnerable to manipulation in several ways.

That probe found serious security flaws in the system and elections division, but no criminal actions.

“I think it proves we’ve been vindicated,” County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, said Tuesday.

The case started in 2007 when the Pima County Democratic Party sought access to the county’s electronic vote databases from previous elections.

Party officials said they wanted to be able to check the reliability of electronic vote systems after widespread complaints from across the country that such systems could be hacked and the results manipulated. Pima County Superior Court Judge Michael Miller ruled in December 2007 the county must surrender some past election databases, the first such court order to a government to turn over electronic vote records.

The order omitted the RTA databases, which were released to the Democrats early last year by the Pima County Board of Supervisors. More than 120,000 ballots were recounted by Maricopa County officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

An election worker prepares voting machines.

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BALLOT RECOUNT

May 2006 RTA election results tabulated by the Pima County Elections Division compared with the Maricopa County Elections Division hand recount

Question 1

“Do you approve of the regional transportation plan for Pima County?”

Pima County election canvass:

Yes: 71,948 – about 60.05 percent

No: 47,870 – about 39.95 percent

Maricopa County Elections Division hand recount:

Yes: 71,626 – about 60.06 percent

No: 47,636 – about 39.94 percent

Difference: 556 votes

Question 2:

“Do you favor the levy of a transaction privilege tax for regional transportation purposes in Pima County?”

Pima County election canvass:

Yes: 68,773 – about 57.64 percent

No: 50,551 – about 42.36 percent

Maricopa County Elections Division hand recount:

Yes: 68,420 – about 57.63 percent

No: 50,306 – about 42.37 percent

Difference: 598 votes