The Arizona Game & Fish Commission has extended a moratorium on killing mountain lions on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge until July 31, but conservationists said Thursday they aren’t satisfied.

Federal and state officials put the ban in place a year ago after state officials killed two of the cats because they were feeding on bighorn sheep in the refuge outside Yuma.

Conservationists objected and wildlife officials said they would study whether the mountain lions were responsible for declines in sheep herds. The moratorium expired last Friday, but a day later the state commission that directs the Arizona Game & Fish Department voted to extend it.

“It’s a national wildlife refuge, not a state game farm, and it needs to be run as an ecosystem, and that includes protecting these lions,” said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER.

The cats, which are also called cougars or pumas, are rare in low-desert, low-elevation environments like the Kofa refuge. But neither they nor the desert bighorn sheep population found on the Kofa are listed as endangered.

The mountain lions were targeted after the refuge’s once-robust sheep population plunged by more than half, from a high mark estimated at 812 in 2000 to 390 in a 2006 survey, Game & Fish spokesman Doug Burt said.

The die-off was attributed to factors including drought, readily available food and predation.

The refuge population was estimated at 438 as of last fall’s survey, he said.

By law, Game & Fish manages the state’s wildlife, including on national refuges, unless a species becomes threatened or endangered, Burt said.

“While sheep are not endangered, they are at a very low number,” he said. “Our goal is to repopulate the sheep in those areas where they once were . . . They’re an iconic animal and they’re very important to us and they’re very important to the Southwest.”

The Kofa herd is one of the strongest available for repopulating other areas, he said.

PEER threatened court action last year to stop the killings. It said Thursday that neither the study nor an environmental assessment for a refuge mountain lion management plan has been completed.

“We believe there would be a serious legal problem if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues to permit Arizona Game & Fish to continue to go after these lions if they don’t have this environmental assessment done.

“That’s why we’re concerned about the short extension,” said Patterson, an ecologist and Southwest director for PEER, which is representing some concerned Fish and Wildlife employees on the issue.

Fish and Wildlife regional spokesman Jose Viramontes in Albuquerque, N.M., said the agency has been working closely with state officials. He said the assessment might not be completed by July 31 but that the service intends “to move forward as quickly as possible on completing” it.

Patterson also said environmental organizations are concerned about what he called a loophole for Game and Fish that might allow a lion on the 665,000-acre refuge to be killed if it kills a sheep and it leaves the refuge.

The worry is that if the area’s mountain lion population is wiped out, it will be difficult to get the animal re-established.

He said a solution can be reached but would require a recognition that there is a national interest and responsibility at the refuge and that Game and Fish must recognize that there is room for lions to exist on it.

A deputy sheriff checks a student who participated in a re-creation of a DUI crash. The event was staged at Cholla High School on Monday. Cholla senior Chris Durazo, 18, said, "It impressed me a lot. It shows me this stuff is real."

Jesus Escarcega Jr. recalled the death of his son, the “little prince.” He choked up as he told Cholla High Magnet School juniors and seniors what the cost of drunken driving can be: a child’s bloody body on a gurney.

Art Lopez told the some 600 students what it cost him: a younger brother in a coma for the last 10 years. Emotion overcame Lopez as he told the tale.

The men spoke at a school assembly Monday morning aimed at telling the Cholla students about the dangers of drinking and driving. The presentation at the school at 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd., included a mock driving under the influence fatal collision, staged by public safety workers on the school’s athletic field.

Drexel Heights firefighter and paramedic Beau Bickenese said telling family members of a loved one’s death is “heartbreaking.”

His partner, Scotti McKenzie, also a Drexel Heights firefighter and paramedic, told the students DUI crashes don’t always end in a fatality. “Sometimes you get put in a wheelchair.”

McKenzie described a DUI crash to which he was sent two or three years ago.

“When we got on scene, it looked like someone had thrown a grenade; it was terrible.”

In that rollover crash, McKenzie said, all seven people in an SUV were thrown from the vehicle after it collided with a suspected drunken driver. One of the seven victims is spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Two days later, the suspected drunken driver, overtaken by remorse, hanged himself, McKenzie said.

In the death of Escarcega’s son, Gaston F. Nido, then 24, pleaded guilty in Superior Court here to two counts of second- degree murder in the deaths of Manuel Escarcega, 9, and his friend, Valeria Riley, 10, according to Tucson Citizen archives.

Drunk, driving a stolen SUV and fleeing police, Nido slammed into a family van on Oct. 20, 2001, according to archives.

Nido received a 30-year prison sentence.

But, Escarcega told the students, his voice quavering, “What do I get? A lifetime of not seeing my son again.

“He was always excited about school,” his father said, “always making people laugh.”

Lopez, a 1993 Cholla High graduate, told the students how, 10 years ago, he and his younger brother decided to ride with a friend who had been drinking.

The friend crashed and “I have lost the last 10 years of my life because of that decision.”

The crash left Lopez’s younger brother in a coma from which he has yet to emerge.

His voice choking up, Lopez told the students, “A lot of this is very emotional; you don’t understand the impact this has on you.

“All I’m left with now are memories,” Lopez said.

After Escarcega, Lopez, and the two firefighters spoke, the students watched sheriff’s deputies, Tucson police, Drexel Heights firefighters and a helicopter ambulance crew stage a mock fatal collision. Students played the parts of six victims in the crash.

One of the victims “died,” while others were injured and had to be cut from the wreckage with power tools.

Sitting in the athletic field bleachers, watching the mock crash, senior Sikili Flores,18, said the presentation will have an impact on him. His uncle was killed 10 years ago when he was hit by a drunken driver as he walked along an area roadway.

Elizabeth Gonzales, 17 a senior, hopes it will have an impact on her classmates.

A number of them “go out and party,” drink and then drive.

“It impressed me a lot. It shows me this stuff is real,” said Chris Durazo, 18, another senior.

The presentation came just days before the school’s prom, scheduled for Saturday.

A new online arts directory started Monday at showup.com gives Tucson its first comprehensive Internet listings controlled by the arts community.

For people looking for a show, showup.com lists what’s going on in theaters, music venues, museums and art galleries around town, and people can buy tickets at the site.

One click can take shoppers to a specific organization’s ticket site for regular tickers or to showup.com‘s Ticket Marketplace.

“We make the decision of what tickets go up there (at the marketplace),” said Kevin Moore, managing director at Arizona Theatre Co.

The marketplace mostly carries last-day tickets that were not sold or tickets that were returned. They typically are discounted, said Matt Lehrman, executive director of Alliance for Audience, which started showup.com in Phoenix in 2004 and added a dedicated section for Tucson.

Ticket Marketplace has attracted theater newcomers as well as theater veterans expanding their entertainment options, Lehrman said.

People from dozens of arts organizations showed up for the site launch event at the Tucson Museum of Art, playing right into Lehrman’s selling point that showup.com in Phoenix led to arts organizations getting to know each other and collaborating more to build audiences – the key objective for the arts community, Lehrman said.

Arts and cultural organizations can e-mail listings and promotional art to events@showup.com to have them posted at the site.

The Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau provided $50,000 to begin and operate the Web site for its first year. The bureau collaborated with the Tucson Pima Arts Council, which listed an online directory as the first priority for the Pima Cultural Plan.

Says city needs better public safety, planning

Buehler-Garcia

Ben Buehler-Garcia wants to represent the North Side on the Tucson City Council because he’s heartbroken at Tucson’s recent path.

“It wasn’t just one thing. It accumulated,” the 47-year-old Republican said. Rio Nuevo, crime, keeping up the city’s appearance – “We’ve lost our way.”

But don’t take Buehler-Garcia for a cynic or a pessimist.

That’s what he says he’s campaigning against, other than Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, the Democrat who holds the seat representing Ward 3, an area roughly north of Grant Road from Interstate 10 to North Alvernon Way.

“So much of it comes down to the will for positive change,” he said. “I’m doing this because I love this community.”

Buehler-Garcia moved to Tucson in 1979 to get a University of Arizona bachelor’s degree in public administration.

He worked for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and for the past 12 years has been a self-employed consultant.

The focus of Buehler’s consulting is economic and community development, small-business advocacy and nonprofit management, he said.

That’s meant he’s spent most of his career working with government and with businesses, something Buehler-Garcia thinks puts him in a good position to advocate for change.

At the top of Buehler-Garcia’s list are improvements to public safety, aggressive recruitment of new industry and a new land use code, which he hopes will make doing business in Tucson easier.

The council, led by Uhlich, has been working on revising the land use code, but Buehler-Garcia thinks it might be easier to start over.

Buehler-Garcia is executive director of the Tucson chapter of Stand Up for Kids, a nonprofit working with homeless teens.

He’s also been on the city’s Industrial Development Authority board and the National Bank of Arizona nonprofit advisory board.

Issue: Ensuring equal opportunituy for children whose first language is not English

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the English-language learning case Horne vs Flores.

A lawsuit was filed in 1992 on behalf of Miriam Flores, a third-grader from Nogales who is now in her early 20s. Her parents said she was not learning properly in a classroom where the teacher taught only in English.

In 2000, U.S. District Judge Alfredo Marquez ruled in favor of the family and the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, which filed a class-action lawsuit.

The state and the plaintiff have argued over what that means in terms of what the state must do to adequately create and fund a program for English-language learners. The plaintiffs before the Supreme Court, state lawmakers and the state secretary of education, have appealed, seeking to be freed of federal court oversight of ELL programs. Arguments will be presented by lawyers Ken Starr and David Cantelme, representing the lawmakers. A decision is expected later this year.

Steve Kozachik is campaigning for the midtown City Council seat on what he describes as “a dysfunctional council with a dysfunctional mayor.”

The Republican’s run to represent Ward 6 – which stretches from downtown to Wilmot Road between Grant Road and 22nd Street – will have no flashy start, Kozachik said.

The closest to a formal announcement will be a picnic May 3 at Himmel Park, he said.

“I’m not your cookie cutter, party regular type of politician,” he said in explanation. “I’m not a politician.”

He views that as an asset.

Kozachik, 55, has worked for the University of Arizona for more than 20 years, now as associate athletic director for facilities and capital projects.

He recently oversaw the design and construction of the new practice facility near McKale Center, an experience he thinks bodes well for the city’s planned construction of an arena downtown.

Kozachik said that within hours of filing his papers to run for the seat held by Democrat Nina Trasoff, he called southern Arizona’s state legislators about Rio Nuevo and to introduce himself.

While downplaying political associations, Kozachik plays up ties to business owners.

To create jobs, he advocates cutting red tape and speeding up bureaucratic practices, and espouses a policy of clear delegation of responsibilities.

On City Manager Mike Hein’s recent firing, Kozachik said: “It never should have come to a situation where we’re playing brinkmanship. Nobody can claim the moral high ground for letting it get to that point.”

He cites his job experience “forming teams of professionals with varying skill sets, setting egos at the door” as a model of potential change.

“The philosophical orientation needs to change,” he said. “They’re in this circular firing squad where they’re all just shooting each other.”

Kozachik also puts public safety high on his list of priorities.

“I will not vote for a city budget that cuts the operating budget for police and fire,” he said.

Arizona’s budget crisis could temporarily eliminate the essay exam in the AIMS test for about half of the state’s elementary- and middle-school students.

It’s likely the essay section in the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards would be suspended for fourth-, fifth- and eighth-graders, but a final decision will be up to the State Board of Education when it meets April 27.

“We had to renew our testing contract this year, and bids have come in higher,” said Tom Horne, state superintendent of public instruction. “Given the state of the economy, I don’t feel it’s right for me to ask the Legislature to appropriate more money.”

Students in grades 3 through 8 and in high school now take an annual statewide AIMS reading, math and essay exam. Under the proposal, all students would continue to take the reading and math sections, but only students in Grades 3, 6 and 7 and high school would continue to take the essay section. Horne said the change would be temporary.

“If it lasts more than a year or two, it will damage the education of the students because the teachers will teach less writing if they (students) are not being tested in it,” he said.

TUESDAY

FINANCIAL RECOVERY WORKSHOP: Learn skills needed to take control of your finances, repair your credit, save for the future – even recoup the cost of the workshop. Attendees at this three-hour Money Awareness Program will receive a complete do-it-yourself guide to financial recovery. A second person sharing materials attends at half price. Registration required. When: 5:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Tucson Medical Center, 5301 E. Grant Road Price: $30 Info: 400-8304, MoneyAwarenessProgram.com

STARTING A BUSINESS? THEN – START SMART!: This free SCORE seminar outlines the ins and outs, do’s and don’ts of going into business, including: • Ways of going into business • Types of business structures • Licensing requirements • Scams • Marketing considerations • Funding. Please arrive 15 minutes before the start time to register. When: 6-7:30 p.m. Where: Wilmot Library, 530 N. Wilmot Road Price: free Info: 670-5008, southernarizona.scorechapter.org

WEDNESDAY

FREE PUBLICITY – IS YOUR BUSINESS GETTING IT?: This fun, informative, hands-on workshop is for those wishing to learn how to write a press release. Participants will learn the basics on how to write, format and send a press release, as well as how to develop relationships with the local media. Advance reservations required. Please note: No-shows will be billed. When: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: BBB of Southern Arizona, 434 S. Williams Blvd. Price: $10 general, free for BBB members Info: 888-6161, tucson.bbb.org/events

GRANT SEEKING FOR NON-PROFITS WORKSHOP: Pima County Public Library’s free orientation to resources for nonprofit and community organizations. Learn how to research grants opportunities for nonprofits. Learn about the grants databases, Foundation Directory Online and Arizona Guide to Grants. Registration is required. Register online at library.pima.gov/grants or call 594-5500. When: 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Where: Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. Price: free Info: 791-4010, library.pima.gov/grants

INSIDE CONNECTIONS: “Building your Net Worth through Networks.” This group allows one person per profession to join, meets for education and to pass referrals and supports word-of-mouth advertising. The group meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. When: 7 a.m. Where: HomeTown Buffet, 5101 N. Oracle Road Price: $87 quarterly, includes breakfast Info: 979-1696

INTRO TO MICROSOFT EXCEL CLASS: The Introduction to Microsoft Excel class is designed to introduce basic computer concepts applicable to the workplace. When: 1-5 p.m. Where: YWCA, 525 N. Bonita Ave. Price: $25

SCORE BUSINESS COUNSELING: Free one-on-one counseling for small-business owners or for anyone contemplating starting a new business, provided by SCORE counselors. Sessions are held 9 a.m.-noon Wednesdays and Saturdays, by appointment. Where: Oro Valley Public Library, Study Room, 1305 W. Naranja Drive Price: free Info: 229-5300, orovalleylib.com

THURSDAY

CASH SAVING TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW: This workshop, presented by the Better Business Bureau, is intended to help you become a confident and cash-savvy consumer, especially when it comes to buying a car. What to expect when negotiating a deal, the best time to buy, and how to research beforehand will be covered. Participants will also learn about online shopping safety, ways to avoid identity theft, and common scams circulating today. Advanced reservations required. When: 5-7 p.m. Where: BBB of Southern Arizona, 434 S. Williams Blvd. Price: $10 general, free for BBB members Info: 888-6161, tucson.bbb.org/events

FRIDAY, APRIL 24

HEALTHCARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR: This seminar will outline the foundation technologies for medical practices, as well as discuss the common setbacks in implementing electronic medical records technology. The seminar will also cover new stimulus package funding for practices with EMR systems. Refreshments will be provided. Register at NextrioMedical.com. When: 7:30-8:30 a.m. Where: Sabino Executive Suites, 5215 N. Sabino Canyon Price: free Info: 519-6309

HOW TO SURVIVE IN TOUGH TIMES: For companies of all sizes. Learn how to position your business for a strong future. The speaker will address audience concerns with powerful data explaining the huge shift in consumer activity that is now affecting the future for businesses. Speaker: Jacqueline Ottman, a consultant to more than 60 Fortune 500 companies, is the nation’s leading expert on Green Marketing. Luncheon and keynote (noon-1:30 p.m.) Informal Q&A (2-4 p.m.) Registration required. Where: The DoubleTree Hotel, 445 N. Alvernon Way Price: $40, luncheon with Q&A; $150, workshop (seating limited). Info: 749-5845, gmatucson.com

SMALL BUSINESS TOWN HALL: Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman presents speakers including city department heads Albert Elias, Ernie Duarte, Mark Neihart and Liana Perez. Bring questions and ideas. Lunch provided. Reservations required. When: noon-1:30 p.m. Where: Eastside City Hall, 7575 E. Speedway Blvd. Price: free Info: 791-4687

SATURDAY

FINANCIAL RECOVERY WORKSHOP: Learn the skills needed to take control of your finances, repair your credit, save for the future – even recoup the cost of the workshop. Attendees at this three-hour Money Awareness Program will receive a complete do-it-yourself guide to financial recovery. Second person sharing materials attends at half price. Registration required. When: 9 a.m.-noon Where: Tucson Medical Center, 5301 E. Grant Road Price: $30 Info: 400-8304, MoneyAwarenessProgram.com

Find more Calendar listings online at tucsoncitizen.com/events.

Piracy, corruption, Islamic insurgents plague 6-nation area

A yellow ribbon in the Underhill Country Store in Underhill, Vt. has messages of support from local residents for their neighbor, Capt. Richard Phillips, who is being held hostage by Somali pirates.

NAIROBI, Kenya – The pirate standoff with the U.S. Navy has burned Somalia into the West’s consciousness as a base for lawlessness and terror, but the hostage crisis illuminates a potentially dangerous picture confronting a far greater area.

Much of the Horn of Africa, which is made up of six countries covering roughly half the area of the United States, is beset by a rare set of disadvantages that makes it ripe for chaos. Poverty, hunger, corruption and lawlessness has made the region a haven not only for pirates, but for arms smugglers and Islamic insurgents.

“The situation in the Horn is the most explosive on the continent,” said Francois Grignon, head of the Africa program for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a think tank.

Home to about 165 million people, the six countries that make up the Horn – Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya and Djibouti – are seen by observers as the next possible front in the war on terrorism.

The footpaths, rutted roads and steamy coastal dens along the Horn may seem a world away to many in the West – but the conflicts that fester here have hit home before.

Americans have been targeted in the region in the past, although it is not clear if the pirates who launched a failed effort to capture the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday knew they were attacking an American ship. The U.S. was negotiating with the pirates Friday for release of the ship’s American captain, the only hostage after the crew overpowered the bandits.

U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were the targets of deadly twin bombings by al-Qaida in 1998. An Israeli airliner and hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, were targeted by terrorists in 2002.

The attacks emanated from neighboring Somalia, which has had no effective central government since 1992 and has a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement. And in 2006, Kenyan police caught a smuggler trying to bring in an anti-aircraft missile.

The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden declared his support for Islamic radicals there. Bin Laden himself has ties to the Horn, having once lived in Sudan.

The U.S. has stationed 1,800 troops in Djibouti to keep terror networks in the Horn of Africa in check. The country, which has close ties to the West, is located at a strategic point where the Red Sea opens into the Indian Ocean.

The Horn of Africa is notorious for corrupt governments, porous borders, widespread poverty and discontented peoples, creating a region ripe for Islamic fundamentalism.

When hijackings spiked off the coast of Somalia last year, counterterrorism officials pressed for any evidence that the country’s extremist factions, or even al-Qaida militants operating in East Africa, might be using piracy to fund their violence. But the complicated clan structure and Somalia’s ungoverned black market – there is no functioning banking system – have made it difficult to trace the cash transactions.

U.S. officials have found no direct ties between East African pirates and terrorist groups. But piracy is believed to be backed by an international network that runs from the Horn of Africa to as far as North America. It is made up primarily of Somali expatriates who offer funds, equipment and information in exchange for a cut of the ransoms, according to researchers, officials and members of the racket. With help from the network, Somali pirates brought in at least $80 million last year.

Ethnic Somalis are the common denominator in the Horn of Africa, and their large presence in neighboring countries has long been a source of conflict. In the mid-1970s, then Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre advocated expanding the country’s borders to unite all Somali-speaking people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Despite Somalia’s disastrous and short-lived invasion of Ethiopia in 1977 and political anarchy since 1992, Somali nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists still advocate for a Greater Somalia. An ethnic-Somali insurgency continues in eastern Ethiopia. And many Somalis were angered when Ethiopia sent troops at the request of Somalia’s weak transitional government to oust Islamists who controlled the capital at the end of 2006 and were expanding their influence.

The Islamists’ ascent was marked by a dramatic decline in piracy. The Ethiopians withdrew in January as part of an intricate U.N.-mediated peace deal.

Analysts are warning that the increasingly brazen piracy and its toll on shipping companies is going to lead to higher prices for commodities headed to the West. In addition, more than 10 percent of the world’s petroleum supply is shipped past Somalia and into Gulf of Aden, the shortest route between Asia and Europe.

Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau in London, said piracy is now becoming a global issue because the pirates are targeting foreign ships further afield from Somalia, in part to avoid international naval forces stationed in the Gulf of Aden.

“The worrying issue is that what was originally a Somali problem has spilled over,” Mukundan said. “If you look at what is available, in Somalia itself, nothing can be done. There is no government. It is a failed state.”

As for help from nearby, he said: “The neighboring countries don’t have the resources.”

BELLMORE, N.Y. – A stolen $3,000 Chihuahua puppy has been returned to a Long Island pet store with an apologetic note.

Nassau County police say they haven’t identified the man who took the 14-week-old dog back Tuesday to Worldwide Puppies & Kittens in Bellmore, just east of New York City.

Store manager Christina Ingoglia says the man ran away after dropping off the pup in a shoe box. She says he left a note saying the puppy’s abductors were sorry they stole it and didn’t have the money to buy it.

Police have been looking for four suspects, apparently teenagers, in last week’s theft. A surveillance image shows one of the teens smuggling the Chihuahua out of the store in his clothing.

Ingoglia says the dog is doing fine.

City workers prepare to hang Mexico and U.S. flags from street lights in Mexico City's main Reforma avenue on Wednesday in preparation for the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama in Mexico City. President Obama will travel to Mexico on Thursdy for an official visit to meet with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon.

MEXICO CITY – When President Obama lands Thursday in Mexico City, there will be one main subject on Mexican officials’ minds.

“For Mexico, the No. 1 priority is guns. The No. 2 priority is guns. The No. 3 priority is guns,” Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora told USA TODAY in a recent interview.

The Mexican government wants Obama to take more steps to stop arms sold in the United States from flowing across the border, where they are frequently used by cartels in Mexico’s drug war. That issue and a number of other contentious subjects, including a brewing trade dispute, will be on the agenda as Obama makes his first official trip south.

Ties between the United States and Mexico are generally friendly, and the countries have pledged to work together to combat drug-related violence, some of which has spilled onto U.S. soil. But Mexican President Felipe Calderón and other officials have expressed frustration over several topics including:

• The slow pace of promised U.S. anti-drug aid. Medina Mora has called for the United States to speed up disbursement of a $1.4 billion anti-drug aid package first discussed by Calderón and President George W. Bush at a summit in March 2007.

Congress cut the first installment of aid to Mexico from $450 million to $300 million, and about $7 million of that has been spent. The package also includes aid for Central American countries.

Obama is aware of Mexican concerns and is pushing to get the aid to Mexico as soon as possible, Denis McDonough, one of Obama’s national security advisers, said Monday.

• Concerns over protectionism. In March, Obama signed a budget bill that cuts funding for a pilot program allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to operate on U.S. highways. Mexico says that violates the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, and it retaliated by imposing tariffs of 20 percent to 45 percent on about $2.4 billion worth of U.S. exports.

“We are convinced that always, and particularly in difficult times, protectionism is not the right response,” Calderón told American businessmen last month.

McDonough said Obama was working on a trucking program “that lives up to our obligations under the (NAFTA) agreement.”

• American gun sales. Cartel members buy hundreds of assault-style rifles, handguns and even .50-caliber sniper rifles – some capable of downing helicopters from a mile away – at U.S. stores and gun shows, Medina Mora said.

Mexico’s murder rate has soared as the cartels fight each other and the army for control of smuggling corridors. About 1,960 people died this year in drug violence as of Sunday, said Monte Alejandro Rubido, an analyst with Mexico’s National Security Council.

Some of the turf wars have spilled over to U.S. cities, including Phoenix, Atlanta and Houston, the U.S. Justice Department said. Alan Bersin, a former federal prosecutor, was named the Obama administration’s “border czar” Wednesday.

Medina Mora has called for the United States to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, which prohibited sales of semiautomatic weapons with certain combinations of military features such as folding stocks, flash suppressors and large magazines. The ban expired in 2004.

During a visit to Mexico last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said reviving the ban would face “a very big hurdle in our Congress.”

Obama will depart Friday for the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago. There he will meet with 33 other heads of state, including U.S. antagonists Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Ahmadinejad says his nation is willing to forget past, start a new era

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s president on Wednesday sent the clearest signal yet that the Islamic Republic wants warmer ties with the U.S., just one day after Washington spoke of new strategies to address the country’s disputed nuclear program.

Taken together, the developments indicate that the longtime adversaries are seeking ways to return to the negotiating table and ease a nearly 30-year-old diplomatic standoff.

President Obama’s administration has sought to start a dialogue with Iran – a departure from the Bush administration’s tough talk.

Iran had mostly dismissed the overtures, continuing to take hard-line steps like putting an American journalist on trial on espionage allegations.

But in his speech Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad changed his tone, saying that Iran was preparing new proposals aimed at breaking an impasse with the West over its nuclear program.

“The Iranian nation is a generous nation. It may forget the past and start a new era, but any country speaking on the basis of selfishness will get the same response the Iranian nation gave to Mr. Bush,” Ahmadinejad told thousands in the southeastern city of Kerman.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed Ahmadinejad’s comments during a meeting Wednesday with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

“With respect to the latest speeches and remarks out of Iran, we welcome dialogue,” Clinton said. “We’ve been saying that we are looking to have an engagement with Iran, but we haven’t seen anything that would amount to any kind of proposal at all.”

She said the six nations trying to lure Iran back to the negotiating table would have more to say in the coming days. Those countries, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, asked Solana last week to invite Iran to a new round of talks.

Solana said Iran has not formally responded to the invitation, and he declined to comment on Ahmadinejad’s remarks.

Can electric cars make it, even with a White House push?

President Obama tours the Edison Electric Vehicle Technical Center during a March 19 trip to Pomona, Calif. His energy goals could help revitalize the U.S. automakers.

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s campaign pledge to put 1 million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 is fraught with difficulties, from technical and engineering hurdles to the realities of the economy and the price of gasoline.

It took eight long years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, and even a White House task force says one of the leading new plug-in cars being developed is too expensive to gain popularity any time soon.

Obama’s goal could help revitalize the struggling U.S. auto industry and begin shifting motorists away from the gas pump. But to many, it’s overly optimistic.

“The economics won’t make sense for the majority of Americans in the next several years,” said Brett Smith, who studies plug-in hybrids at the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research.

Plug-in hybrids allow motorists to drive a limited number of miles on battery power before the engine switches over to run on gasoline or other fuels. A driver can plug the car into a conventional wall outlet at night and be ready to go electric again in the morning.

The cars could dramatically reduce gasoline use because many commuters drive less than 40 miles a day.

Obama last month toured a California electric car facility where he announced $2.4 billion to develop advanced batteries and electric cars.

“Even as our American automakers are undergoing some painful adjustments, they are also retooling and reimagining themselves into an industry that can compete and win,” Obama said in Pomona, Calif.

During his campaign, Obama promised $4 billion in tax credits to automakers to revamp their plants to build plug-ins, and a $7,000 tax credit for consumers who buy early versions of the cars. He even pledged to convert the White House vehicle fleet to plug-ins within a year, as security permits, and require half of the cars bought by the government to be plug-in or all electric by 2012.

To automakers, battery makers and utilities, the pledge was akin to one made by President John F. Kennedy generations ago. “That’s a ‘Go to the moon’ kind of goal,” said Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of hybrid vehicle programs. She said it would demand “unparalleled collaboration” among the government, the industry and academia.

Automakers are already committed to plug-ins and electric vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp. will produce a few hundred plug-in Prius hybrids later this year as a test fleet, General Motors Corp. plans to release an extended range electric plug-in called the Chevrolet Volt in limited numbers in late 2010, and Nissan Motor Co. is planning to sell an all-electric car next year. Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG are all developing plug-ins and electric cars.

But numerous questions remain about the cars. One of the biggest hurdles is whether their large lithium ion batteries are ready for mass production. Some analysts have pegged the cost of the batteries at $1,000 per kilowatt hour, which could add about $16,000 to the cost of a first-generation Volt and thousands of dollars to a plug-in Prius.

Conventional gas-electric hybrids account for less than 3 percent of the car market and it took about eight years to get 1 million hybrids on the road in the United States, according to consulting firm R.L. Polk & Co.

Obama’s own auto industry task force casts doubt on the Volt in a March 30 report which says while the car “holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term.” GM has not announced pricing for the Volt, but it’s expected to cost between $30,000 and $40,000.

The industry will also need a smooth transition for plug-ins to take off. Any hiccups along the way could hurt the vehicles’ image.

“They’ve got to be commercial-ready,” said Tom Stricker, Toyota’s director of technical and regulatory affairs. “You do risk having a negative response from the consumer if the technology doesn’t meet their expectation in terms of durability, cost and performance.”

The Chevrolet Volt

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IN THE PIPELINE

Several automakers are developing plug-in hybrid vehicles and electric cars that could help meet President Obama’s goal of putting 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015. Many industry officials say the goal is a worthy one but will be difficult to meet. A look at the work by some auto manufacturers:

GENERAL MOTORS CORP.: General Motors is set to produce the Chevrolet Volt, an extended range electric plug-in, in late 2010 in limited numbers. The Volt is the centerpiece of GM’s attempt to take the lead in electric vehicles and will have a lithium-ion battery and electric motor that can take the car 40 miles on a single charge. A gasoline engine will kick in to power a generator to extend the Volt’s range beyond the 40 miles. GM has not yet announced the price of the car, but the cost is expected to be $30,000 to $40,000.

TOYOTA MOTOR CORP.: Toyota will start global delivery of 500 Toyota Prius plug-in hybrids powered by lithium-ion batteries later this year. Of those, 150 will go to U.S. lease and fleet customers. The plug-in is expected to operate in a similar fashion to the current Prius model by using both gasoline and electricity to propel the vehicle. Toyota is also developing the FT-EV, an all-electric vehicle that is expected to have a range of 50 miles and be on U.S. roads by 2012.

CHRYSLER LLC: Chrysler has shown off five different electric-drive vehicles developed by its high-tech ENVI unit and said it plans to start selling one of the five models next year. The electric car prototypes include a Dodge sports car, a Jeep Wrangler and Patriot, a Chrysler minivan, and a concept version of an electric-powered sedan. The automaker is testing the vehicles simultaneously and recently announced that Massachusetts-based A123Systems will supply the lithium-ion batteries for the company’s extended range gas-electric cars and its all-electric cars.

FORD MOTOR CO.: Ford is planning to produce a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle beginning in 2012 and has been testing a fleet of vehicles through partnerships with several utilities around the nation. Ford has said it intends to bring a battery-electric van to market in 2010 for commercial use, a small battery-electric sedan developed with Magna International by 2011 and a plug-in electric car by 2012. Ford has said Johnson Controls-Saft will supply the battery system for their first production plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

NISSAN MOTOR CO.: Nissan has outlined plans to mass-market electric vehicles by 2012, and to make the cars available on a wide scale in Israel and Denmark in 2011. Nissan’s all-electric car will be sold in late 2010 and have 100 miles of pure battery range. Nissan has developed partnerships with states and utilities to promote and develop electric vehicle charging networks.

TESLA MOTORS INC.: Tesla is selling the Roadster, an electric sports car which starts at $109,000 and can travel 244 miles on a 3.5-hour charge. The California automaker is developing the all-electric Model S sedan, which is expected to sell for $60,000 by mid-2011.

FISKER AUTOMOTIVE: The California automaker is releasing its $87,900 Karma plug-in luxury sports sedan, a four-seater with solar panels, in October. The plug-in can drive gas-free for 50 miles. Fisker is also developing the Karma S, a convertible expected in 2011.

Study says kids born in U.S. face greater odds

WASHINGTON – Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, an independent research group says.

The study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center highlights a growing dilemma in the immigration debate: Illegal immigrants’ children born in the United States are American citizens, yet they struggle in poverty and uncertainty along with parents who fear deportation, toil largely in low-wage jobs and face layoffs in an ailing economy.

The analysis by Pew, a nonpartisan research organization, estimated that 11.9 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S. as of March 2008. Of those, 8.3 million, or 5.4 percent of the U.S. labor force, worked primarily in lower-paying farm, construction or janitorial work.

Roughly 3 out of 4 of their children – or 4 million – were born in the U.S. In 2003, 2.7 million children of illegal immigrants, or 63 percent, were born in this country.

“One of the most striking features is that it is a population largely made up of young families,” said Jeffrey Passel, an author of the report. “This is a different picture than we usually see of undocumented immigrants – of young (single) men, the day laborers on street corners.”

Children of illegal immigrants hold a delicate place in the U.S.

On the one hand, the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that these children – whether they were U.S. citizens or not – were entitled to a public school education. California and a few other states also provide in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants.

At the same time, the immigrants and their families are among the poorest people in the U.S., easily exploited by employers and subject to arrest at any time. Children who are U.S. citizens cannot petition for their parents to become legal U.S. residents until they are at least 21.

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AMONG THE FINDINGS

• One-third of the children of illegal immigrants live in poverty, nearly double the rate for children of U.S.-born parents.

• The 2007 median household income of illegal immigrants was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for U.S.-born residents.

• About 47 percent of illegal immigrant households have children, compared with 21 percent for U.S.-born residents and 35 percent for legal immigrants.

The Associated Press

VEVAY TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A Michigan farmer whose ewe gave birth to twins found himself carefully counting sheep when he later discovered three more lambs.

The Lansing State Journal reported Tuesday that one of Paul Oesterle’s Suffolk-mix ewes gave birth to quintuplets last week. Michigan State University sheep expert Alan Culham says the chance of that breed bearing the multiple litter is one in 10,000.

Oesterle, whose farm is southeast of Lansing, says he thought the ewe had given birth to twins but he found three more lambs when he checked the next day.

Oesterle says the ewe can’t produce enough for all five babies so he has to help feed them every six hours.