Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said complaints about business opportunity scams increased 300 percent since early 2008.

Most of the complaints involved Internet-based “opportunities.” Such schemes require consumers to pay an initial fee – often $500 to $1,000 – with the promise that they will make extra income. When that doesn’t happen, the promoter tries to sell expensive advertising or marketing tools.

Before investing money, make sure the opportunity is genuine and can be validated through a source such as the Better Business Bureau.

And if you do get taken, contact the Attorney General’s Office in Tucson at 628-6504. Don’t let connivers take advantage of others.

Friday, City Manager Mike Letcher chose Assistant Chief Roberto Villaseñor to be chief. The selection is subject to confirmation by the City Council, which is expected next week.

The other finalist for the position was Assistant Chief John Leavitt. Letcher couldn’t go wrong regardless of which man he picked.

Richard Miranda retired as chief in June 2008 and now is assistant city manager. He was replaced by Kermit Miller, who has been acting chief and plans to retire this month.

It appeared the search was almost over last month when the field was narrowed to four finalists – Leavitt and another TPD commander as well as two out-of-state candidates. But the results were tossed out and the search restarted with only local candidates.

Congratulations to Villaseñor. We look forward to a lengthy tenure.

But while the virus has potential to morph into a pandemic – one of the most terrifying words in the English language – it isn’t even an epidemic at this point.

Caution and concern are merited, but full-bore hysteria is not.

Our government declared a national health emergency so it could release about 12 million doses of flu medications to states.

That’s a wise precaution, not cause for alarm. We wish similar efforts were under way in Mexico, where the onslaught of swine flu has not been handled as well as it should be.

As The Associated Press reported Tuesday, two weeks after the first known swine-flu death of the current outbreak, Mexico still hasn’t given medicine to families of the dead.

Our neighboring nation hasn’t determined where the outbreak started, how it spread or how to get frightened ambulance drivers to take sick people to hospitals.

“A portrait is emerging of a slow and confused response by Mexico to the gathering swine flu epidemic,” the AP reports. “And that could mean the world is flying blind into a global health storm.”

Let’s hope not. People need to be careful and follow the instructions issued by health experts: Wash your hands thoroughly and often. Avoid exposure to people who are sick. Stay out of Mexico. And if you get sick, stay home and call a doctor. Don’t share your germs with the masses.

Troops can’t stop virus

Border enforcement activists’ response to the flu outbreak has been unrealistic and counterproductive, however.

Many are calling for troops on the Mexican border, for example, as if a virus can be stopped by brute force.

It can’t. And even if it could, we would need to also shut down several of our own states as well as Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions, all of which now have documented cases of swine flu.

U.S. officials are responding appropriately by screening people at the Mexican border, looking for those who are ill and barring them from entry.

But commerce between Mexico and the U.S. is conducted with thousands of trucks heading in both directions.

Even if all cross-border traffic were stopped, results would be marginal at best in preventing spread of the disease, noted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

We hope that Napolitano and President Obama will make some recommendations to the Mexican government about its handling of this outbreak.

HHS secretary is needed

We also urge the Senate to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the new secretary of Health and Human Services.

That department has been functioning efficiently and professionally, but leadership will be essential as this swine flu outbreak runs its course.

Likewise, we reiterate our request to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to quickly find a replacement for Leesa Berens Morrison, who stepped down as director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.

There is much to be done to safeguard the public health, and so far our government has responded swiftly and logically to try to quell this threat.

The American people must do likewise.

Let’s save the hysteria for a pandemic or at least an epidemic, and let’s shelve the tendency toward xenophobia, recognizing that the U.S. and many other countries are battling the same threat as Mexico.

Our focus should be on staying healthy.

Leesa Berens Morrison, who has served as director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, is stepping down. She was appointed by former governor and current U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Morrison didn’t give a reason for her departure but said the time was right for her to leave. Actually, the timing is lamentable.

The department is responsible for preventing and responding to man-made and natural disasters – such as the swine flu.

The disease has killed about 150 people in Mexico, and more than 40 cases have been confirmed in the United States. Monday, the federal government issued a travel advisory urging Americans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

Gov. Jan Brewer must move quickly to fill this essential state position.

But that plan was undercut by legislators who didn’t understand it.

The Department of Corrections said 300 inmates might be eligible for the program. With taxpayers spending almost $40,000 per year per inmate, the savings would be substantial.

Then, Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, said 50 of the inmates might be dangerous, so the program should be scrapped.

Harper forgot one aspect of the proposal. Each inmate’s case and prison record would be reviewed by the Board of Executive Clemency to see if early release was appropriate.

And state Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, said no one should be released early from prison because those former inmates would compete for jobs at a time when the state unemployment rate is 7.8 percent.

Neither of these legislators understands that the amount we spend on prisons can be reduced – responsibly.

A corrections officer watches from a tower in the old main yard of the Arizona State Prison in Florence. Arizona taxpayers spend $114,000 per hour to run the state prison system.

Arizona legislators have turned their eyes on the state prison system as they struggle to balance a budget deeply in the red.

That’s a reasonable place to look for savings. The Department of Corrections is one of the state’s largest agencies, with one of the most massive budgets.

But if legislators want immediate savings to help balance the budget for fiscal 2010, they are on the wrong track. The only safe and effective way to save money on prisons is to incarcerate fewer people. And that will take time to show results.

Arizonans spend about $1 billion per year to lock up almost 40,000 people. That works out to about $114,000 per hour. Arizona spends a larger share of its general fund on prisons – 9.5 percent – than every state except Oregon and Florida.

There is little doubt that we don’t have to put all those people behind bars. Other states have found that there are less-expensive ways to punish criminals while still protecting the public.

But Arizona has steadfastly stuck to the lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key philosophy. And we are paying an inordinate amount of money as a result – money that could be spent far more productively on education, health care, child welfare and any number of other state needs.

As they looked to cut the costs of prisons, legislators looked in the wrong places.

They first talked about cutting inmate programs, including special treatment for sex offenders and a work-based education program. But those reduce recidivism. Cutting spending there will result in higher costs in future years.

Legislators also discussed running prisons with fewer corrections officers. That would create unsafe environments for remaining officers as well as inmates. That’s not an acceptable way to save money.

It takes time – and it takes thought by legislators – to save money on prisons. There would have to be changes in the state’s criminal code to allow early release of some inmates under very strict circumstances.

There also must be a reduction in the number of mandatory sentences, giving judges more leeway in deciding what is an appropriate sentence, within a given range. Mandatory sentences, mostly for drug-related offenses, have put large numbers of people in prisons with no appreciable reduction in the crime rate.

Money can be saved on prisons. Other states have done and are doing it. But savings are long term and shouldn’t be counted on to fix Arizona’s current budget problems.

“We’ve seen running gunbattles in places like Guatemala and Honduras between rival Mexican cartels,” reports Anthony Placido, chief of intelligence for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Increased U.S. border enforcement likely is a factor in this development, and now nearly 500 more federal agents are en route to the border, along with more X-ray machines and drug-sniffing dogs, thanks to President Obama.

We’re grateful for the help, but the war isn’t over. The cartels haven’t dropped their U.S. trade; they’ve merely expanded their territory.

Only international cooperation with all affected nations is likely to bring this blight to a halt.

Tuffy, a 5-year-old Yorkshire terrier, resides with Tucsonans Brad and Frances Bishop. And when a kitchen vent fan burst into flames about 2 a.m. Thursday, Tuffy knew just what to do.

His furious barking awoke the Bishops and they escaped the fire.

Tuffy was pressed into action because the Bishops had old smoke detectors that they had removed during painting and never replaced. When the fire damage is repaired, two new smoke detectors will be installed.

Smoke detectors save lives – even for families equipped with canine warning systems.

Old, frail and sometimes in the throes of dementia, nursing home residents need intense care, supervision and protection.

Yet in Arizona and around the U.S., they increasingly are put in harm’s way. Some nursing homes, faced with too many empty beds, are housing violent mentally ill patients just across the hall from the often-infirm elderly.

An Associated Press analysis found that 1,357 mentally ill patients ages 22-64 were housed in Arizona’s nursing homes last year – a 39 percent increase over 2002.

Seniors across the U.S. have been beaten, raped and killed by mentally ill patients, the AP analysis found.

It’s not clear if that’s occurred in Arizona; the state’s Department of Health Services refused AP attempts to discuss the issue. But it may be only a matter of time.

“When they take a mentally ill individual and place them with a frail, incapacitated elderly person, that’s a prescription for harm,” notes Phoenix lawyer Martin Solomon, whose firm handles cases of elderly abuse.

Many cities have a shortage of psychiatric beds. And with healthy seniors living independently longer, many nursing homes have beds to fill.

Those institutions are all too willing to house the mentally ill. And as long as they keep that population under 50 percent, Medicaid will foot the bill.

The situation is unfair for all concerned. Elderly people should be safe in nursing homes, of course. But it’s also unfortunate that mentally ill people are warehoused in an inappropriate venue. Many can lead independent lives if given the support to manage their lives and stay on medications.

Arizona and other states must eliminate the financial incentives for nursing homes to house the mentally ill. The populations must be separated.

Just as Arizona’s prison system segregates juvenile offenders from hard-core convicts, so must the state keep predator and prey apart in nursing homes.

Middle school student council elections are more professionally handled than this debacle has been.

The city of Tucson spent months and an undisclosed amount of money – likely tens of thousands of dollars – in a national hunt for the city’s next police chief. How much was spent? The city says it doesn’t know – which doesn’t speak well of accounting procedures.

Then – after candidates had been flown to and lodged in Tucson, after extensive and costly background checks, after meetings with several community groups, after hours and hours of interviews and after the field had been narrowed to four finalists – the search was canceled.

City Manager Mike Hein, who is charged with selecting a chief, said only that a chief would not be selected from that list of finalists, which included two from within TPD and two from outside Tucson. Instead, a new search will be started including only candidates within TPD.

Hein issued a statement saying TPD employees “have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and have made the Tucson Police Department the best police department in the country.”

But that sterling reputation was known before the city launched a national search for the next chief. If Hein and the council thought so highly of TPD and wanted a chief from within the department, why go through the expense and the effort of a national search – and then call it all off when the end was within sight?

The candidates who applied from outside Tucson thought highly enough of TPD to risk endangering their careers elsewhere. Now they’ve been told – with very few specifics – to go back to their lives, it all was a big mistake and Tucson no longer is interested in anyone from outside of TPD.

Memories are long. The next time Tucson needs a chief and decides to conduct a national search, tales of this adventure will be resurrected.

Concerns also were raised that required qualifications varied on different Web sites.

That may not have been a major factor in canceling the search. But it adds to the perception that the city didn’t have a firm idea what it was looking for in a chief – one of the most high-profile positions in local government.

Kermit Miller has been acting police chief for nine months since Richard Miranda retired. Miller has done an admirable job in his temporary position, but is due to retire in May.

It is incumbent that Hein move deliberately to fill the job before Miller retires. TPD needs a new chief, not another acting chief.

There are qualified local candidates. It’s unfortunate Hein and the council didn’t recognize that before now.