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.

When asked whether he'd advise members of his family against traveling to Mexico, Vice President Joe Biden offered this: "It's not just going into Mexico. If you're anyplace in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. . . . That's me. I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway."

The White House, commendably, seems to be trying to quiet the hysteria building around swine flu, but apparently the vice president didn’t get the memo.

Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden told Americans to stay out of airplanes, subways and other “confined spaces” on NBC’s “Today Show.”

When asked whether he’d advise members of his family against traveling to Mexico, he offered this: “It’s not just going into Mexico. If you’re anyplace in a confined aircraft and one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. . . . That’s me. I would not be at this point, if they had another way of transportation, suggesting they ride the subway.”

The vice president’s office spent the rest of the day trying to downplay the boss’s irresponsible comments.

Biden’s staff claims the vice president was telling family members: “If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways.”

But the fact is, words matter and that is not what Biden said on TV. He wasn’t telling sick people to stay home; he was instructing healthy people to do so out of simple, ignorant fear.

It’s one thing for cable news – whose business model depends on whipping up public frenzy to drive ratings – to behave irresponsibly. It’s quite another for the vice president to do so.

Biden’s foot-in-mouth disease could turn out to be more dangerous to Americans than the H1N1 virus.

At this point, swine flu is only a theoretical danger to most of us. The cases in the U.S. so far have been mild, and according to most experts there is little reason to believe this will change.

Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from the flu, and yet the media and Joe Biden can’t help but spread panic about swine flu, which has killed one person here in America so far.

But what would happen if the public decided to take the vice president’s advice and stay off public transportation? We have actual experience on this front and know the consequences.

The anxiety that kept people off airplanes and generally frightened people into staying home after the 9/11 attack made it difficult to recover from a mild recession in 2001 – and that was at a time when we had a relatively healthy economy.

Imagine what would happen in the U.S. if similar fears were to drive Americans into their bunkers now when we are in the midst of the worst recession in almost 30 years?

GDP declined 6.1 percent in the first quarter 2009, following a decline of 6.3 percent the previous quarter. Can you guess what would happen to the American economy if everyone stayed home for the next three months?

We are all going to die sometime and from some cause, natural or otherwise.

In 2005, the last year for which data are available, more than 45,000 Americans died from automobile accidents, and nearly 20,000 died from simple falls of one sort or another. Should we never set foot in a car or bathtub again for fear it might kill us?

Communicable diseases are scary. But common sense and good hygiene are the best protection.

This is not 1918 – when the so-called Spanish flu, which may well have been a variant of swine flu – killed more 50 million people worldwide. We have antibiotics and antiviral drugs.

People are more educated and understand how disease spreads. And we have ways to communicate real threats when they occur, and to do so almost instantaneously.

But we also have the ability to spread misinformation and terror more broadly than at any time in history. The media make matters worse by screaming headlines and nonstop cable coverage on each new case that breaks out.

This is the time for cool heads and genuine leadership. President Obama has shown both. Unfortunately, his second-in-command hasn’t.

Perhaps the most constructive thing the White House could do until swine flu blows over is quarantine the vice president.

Linda Chavez is chair of the Center for Equal Opportunity and author of “An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal.” E-mail: lchavez@ceousa.org

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.

Arizonans are outraged by photo radar, those ubiquitous gizmos that snap pictures of speeders who are cited by mail.

I wasn’t around for the Boston Tea Party, so I can’t describe how riled up those colonial types were 235 years ago when they defied the government and chucked a bunch of tea into Boston Harbor.

The history books describe it as “a direct action protest” in which individuals take things into their own hands.

Had I been at the original Boston Tea Party – not the unrelated Tax Day re-enactments Wednesday – I might have a better understanding of what is going on now with photo radar – those ubiquitous gizmos that snap pictures of speeders, red-light runners and other traffic scofflaws so they can be cited by mail.

I can understand that people nabbed by the units aren’t all that happy with them. But the anti-photo radar movement is made up largely of people who have not been ticketed.

They nonetheless feel the systems are unfair or a violation of their right to privacy or something like that. And they are revolting – in Arizona and around the nation.

I really don’t get it.

Unfair? Is it unfair for cops to have cars with lights hidden behind the grille? Or unmarked cars? Or for them to hide on a side street with a radar gun? This isn’t a game. It’s enforcing laws.

Privacy violation? What right of privacy do you have while speeding or running a red light on a public street? None at all.

Violation of your constitutional rights? I don’t think so. The Founding Fathers were forward-thinking guys, but I can’t find any mention of cameras, radar or even cars in the Constitution.

Nonetheless, I can’t remember anything else the government has done recently that has made people so upset. I’m trying to understand. I really am.

So I asked Joe Scott, marketing director for a Pennsylvania-based outfit called PhantomPlate.com.

Scott’s company has an entire business devoted to beating photo radar in all sorts of ways. Its main product is a database of all known photo radar locations that you can download into your GPS navigation device.

Then when you approach a photo radar location, the thing beeps and you slow down. Keeping the database current costs $39.99 a year.

There also are sprays and plastic covers for your license plate that are supposed to reflect the flash of photo radar and make your license plate unreadable.

Scott tried to explain why photo radar is so objectionable: “Usually when you get pulled over by a police officer, you’ve been doing something wrong,” Scott said. “It’s fair and that’s the way it is.”

Fair. That seems to be the key word used by the anti-photo radar crowd.

Scott said cameras can’t be talked out of issuing a ticket if, for example, you’re speeding on your way to a hospital – something I can’t believe is common.

But there is an irony in Scott’s business. While he makes money defeating photo radar, he doesn’t want to totally defeat it. No photo radar, no business.

Ryan Denke is king of the Arizona anti-photo radar crowd with his Web site, photoradarscam.com.

He’s an unemployed electrical engineer from Peoria who spends his time circulating petitions to put an initiative on the November 2010 ballot to ban photo radar in Arizona.

He says he is “more than confident” he’ll collect enough signatures.

Denke is quick to note that he has “a clean driving record” and has not been nabbed by a radar camera. But his objections center on the fairness issue.

When a human officer nabs you, you can plead your case to the officer and then have the opportunity to face your accuser in court, Denke said.

But when a photo radar-issued ticket arrives in the mail a couple of weeks after the violation, “By then, you don’t know if you were driving that fast,” Denke said.

He also says it’s unfair that as many as half of the vehicles are, in effect, exempt from photo tickets.

Drivers of commercial vehicles can’t be identified and mailed a ticket personally, so companies can ignore citations, he said.

If a plate is obscured – for example, with Scott’s spray – there is no ticket. And drivers from Mexico or another state can ignore photo radar tickets because Arizona won’t track them down, Denke said.

But unless something happens, fighting photo radar is a losing proposition.

At the end of 2006, there were 155 jurisdictions using red-light cameras; two years later, that had more than doubled to 345.

There are 3,000-plus speed and red-light cameras in the nation, up from 2,500 a year ago. The figures are from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

There is, of course an easier and cheaper way to avoid photo radar tickets: Don’t speed or run red lights.

Call the cameras unfair if you like. But also call them omnipresent. And probably here to stay.

Mark Kimble appears at 6:30 p.m. Fridays on the Roundtable segment of “Arizona Illustrated” on KUAT-TV Channel 6. He may be reached at mkimble@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4662.

The manufacturer claims its spray will reflect the flashes from photo radar cameras, making your license plate unreadable.

One Web site provides photo radar locations than can be downloaded into GPS units.

THOMAS C. WALTON

While audiences loved “Mall Cop” and likely will line up to see the upcoming “Observe and Report” starring Seth Rogen, real-world contract security companies who serve malls see more fiction than fact in these comic portrayals.

How does the reality of life as a retail security officer compare with what is depicted in these comedies?

As a vice president for AlliedBarton Security Services, America’s leading physical security company, which works with many of our country’s leading shopping centers and malls, we oversee thousands of hardworking retail security officers.

I believe that their commitment to their jobs and the people they serve deserves our applause and respect.

These movies provide lighthearted fun and entertainment, but in no way personify the real world of mall security officers on the job.

These hardworking, highly trained men and women are our country’s first responders who have a wide range of skills – from the sensitivity to deal with lost children to the ability to respond to and effectively address criminal activity.

Security officers often are put in high-risk situations as they confront and detain criminals engaged in theft, trespassing, gang activity and every other manner of unlawful behavior that occurs where thousands of consumers congregate on a daily basis.

While “(Paul Blart:) Mall Cop” and “Observe and Report” portray security officers as “wannabe” police officers, real world security officers work in partnership with local law enforcement, with some security officers having previously served in law enforcement and military positions.

In the shopping center sector, physical security requirements are continually evolving and require security professionals who can meet the seemingly incessant bombardment of unexpected challenges.

The current state of the economy and the pressures it places in the retail workplace demands that a vigilant security team is in place.

Today’s retail security teams engage in ongoing, comprehensive employee training and enhanced security protocol to ensure that the worst-case scenarios are prevented and that a pleasant and safe shopping experience can be had by law-abiding consumers.

There is an emotional benefit for property owners who invest in securing their premises. Customers, employees and visitors are comforted by seeing security personnel, along with integrated video monitoring, on the job.

Keeping shoppers safe and secure during volatile economic times requires a partnership between security providers, the property owners and managers, and the communities served.

Next time your path crosses with a security officer at your local mall, consider thanking him or her for keeping your shopping environment safe and secure.

While Hollywood continues to paint security officers as comedic caricatures with delusions of grandeur for entertainment purposes, real world shoppers find comfort and satisfaction in knowing that trained security professionals are on the job and watching out for their safety.

Thomas C. Walton is a vice president for AlliedBarton Security Services and is responsible for the development of shopping center services nationwide. E-mail: Thomas.Walton@alliedbarton.com