PHOENIX – The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office is rolling out a Web-based campaign finance reporting system designed to make it easier for campaigns to enter information.

Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne said the simplified process will help get the information to the public sooner.

The current system runs on software that can be used only on one computer, something that Tyne said many candidates and political committees found cumbersome. The new online interface, accessed with a user name and password, works on any computer.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Bob Robson, R-Chandler, said he’s glad his campaign staff will have the option of filing reports remotely instead of having to stick to one computer.

“That was troublesome to a large degree,” Robson said. “It was difficult for people to file all that data because you had to be in one place for that.”

Robson said he thinks the change will be a step up for citizens.

“It’s an overall benefit; it’s a better system,” Robson said. “It helps politicians bring the financial process more to light and up to date for the public.”

Candidates and political committees are required to regularly report their contributions and expenditures.

The new system will remind political committees and candidates of approaching deadlines when users log in. It also will send e-mail alerts.

The Secretary of State’s Office is offering free workshops around the state to help candidates and political committees learn the system.

It also is changing the way members of the public can view campaign finance data, starting with expanded search functions allowing different ways of checking each committee’s financial position.

Tyne said the system will add features early next year allowing anyone to compare a candidate or committee’s finances during different time periods and to see how many different candidates or committees a donor has given to.

“It will be more user-friendly to find information, whether someone’s interested in a candidate or a donor,” Tyne said.

Barbara Lubin, who heads Progressive Majority, a partisan group that helps recruit candidates for local and state office, said she hopes the new system will be easier to use.

She found the old system a headache when she ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona Corporation Commission.

PHOENIX – The median household income among immigrants living in Arizona is less than any other state with a large population of foreign-born residents, according to a study released Thursday by a group that favors limiting immigration.

“The low incomes are a result of the low levels of education in immigrant families, especially illegal immigrants,” said Steven Camarota, who directed the survey for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies.

“When people aren’t educated enough, they aren’t getting the high-paying jobs and so their income remains low, making them in turn dependent on the government for health care and education,” Camarota said.

According to the study, which used U.S. Census Bureau data, the median annual household income for Arizona immigrants, legal and illegal, is about $31,000. That compares to a median income of nearly $51,000 for households of those born in the U.S.

The median immigrant household in Texas earned about $33,000, the study said, while one in California earned about $47,000.

The Arizona numbers didn’t surprise Ira Mehlman, spokesman for You Don’t Speak For Me, a national Hispanic coalition that contends illegal immigration harms Hispanics who are here legally.

Arizona attracts illegal immigrants who know they’ll get low-skilled, low-paying jobs, Mehlman said.

Mehlman contended that the taxes paid on $31,000 for a large family do not cover the cost of education or health care. He said that because most low-income jobs do not cover health insurance, illegal immigrants rely on public health care.

“They’re a burden on the system,” Mehlman said.

An immigration expert agreed that the study’s figure for Arizona reflects the low education levels but said that Camarota’s group made no attempt to measure an immigrant’s economic contribution.

“The reason immigrants in Arizona make less money is because economic activity in the state needs low-skill workers,” said Judith Gans, program manager for immigration policy at University of Arizona’s Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy.

“This study ignored the fact that Arizona’s main industries – tourism, agriculture, construction, service – need low-skilled workers,” Gans said. “If not, the industry shrinks and prices go up.”

A demographer said he had no reason to doubt the study’s numbers but said it doesn’t give the complete picture. For example, he said, more than half of Latino immigrants who have been in the U.S. for 20 years are homeowners.

“All they’ve focused on is poverty, health care and low education,” said Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California.

Marina, an illegal immigrant who lives in Mesa, said she has worked as a house cleaner for most of the 15 years she’s lived in the U.S. Speaking on the condition that only her first name be used, she said she and her husband are lucky to earn about $45,000 a year to support their four children.

But Marina said it’s difficult for an illegal immigrant to get any job, let alone a well-paying one.

“People who don’t have no education don’t have much opportunity, don’t have a future,” Marina said.

Rodolfo Carranza said he entered the U.S. illegally as a child but now is a legal resident. Carranza, who owns Los Pinos Pallets in Phoenix, said most jobs for illegal immigrants have low pay and stay that way.

“People without papers won’t leave their jobs to find others because it is very difficult for them to find another one without getting into trouble,” Carranza said.

PHOENIX – Tired of dropped calls, Ashlie West wants to switch cell phone companies. But she’d have to pay a big penalty to get out of her two-year contract.

“I’m stuck. If I’d known the service would get so bad, I would have never gone this route,” West said, clutching her cherry red phone on a recent trip to the mall.

West and other cell phone users unhappy with service providers would have more options if a state lawmaker has his way.

Fed up with what he called “garbage treatment” from his service provider, Sen. Jim Waring, R-Phoenix, is proposing a cell phone users’ “Bill of Rights.” Among other things, it would limit contracts to one year.

“I’ve heard from so many people about their terrible experiences with cell phone providers that I decided something needed to be done to help Arizona’s customers,” Waring said. “Clearly this isn’t just my problem.”

Among the provisions of SB 1010, which Waring introduced for consideration during the upcoming legislative session:

• Customers would be able to cancel service within the first 30 days without penalty.

• Service providers would have to give written notice of changes in rates or terms 30 days in advance, and customers would then have the option of canceling.

• A phone under warranty would have to be replaced without a contract extension.

• Providers would have to give customers information on plans and contract terms, including length, trial periods and start-up fees.

Waring said he had a cell phone stop working after four months. It was under warranty, but Waring said his provider said it had suffered water damage – which he disputes – and that he’d have to sign a two-year contract to get a new one.

The company also told him that 75 percent of warranties are voided because of water damage, he said.

“That’s completely unfair, Waring said. “When you sign a contract, no one mentions these things.”

Susan Bitter Smith, chairwoman of the Arizona Competitive Telecommunications Coalition, said the group doesn’t have an official position yet on the bill. She said the group has met with Waring and is analyzing whether his legislation would create additional costs for consumers.

The coalition successfully blocked an effort last year by Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, to allow customers to get out of contracts if companies violate any provisions.

Congress is debating the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007. That legislation, introduced by two Democratic senators, aims to make contracts transparent, allow customers to end contracts within 30 days without early termination fees and give customers the flexibility to end contracts that don’t meet a customer’s needs.

Charles Acquard, executive director of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, a consumer rights group, said cell phone providers need regulation to protect customers.

“Yearly reports show cell phone provider issues topping consumer complaints,” Acquard said. “Clearly something needs to be done.”

Farley, citing crashes, will renew bid; key legislator, cell phone industry oppose it

PHOENIX – People will continue to die unnecessarily until Arizonans wake up to the danger of driving while using cell phones, a Democratic state lawmaker says.

Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, said he plans once again to seek a law that makes text-messaging while driving illegal. And he isn’t stopping there.

Farley said he wants to ban drivers from talking on cell phones unless they are using hands-free devices. He also wants to ban drivers under 18 from using cell phones even if they use hands-free sets.

“Using a mobile phone and driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving,” Farley said. “As lawmakers, it’s our duty to make our roads safe for everyone.”

During the last legislative session, Farley proposed a statewide ban on driving while text-messaging, but the bill didn’t get a hearing.

Farley’s measure would have made the practice a secondary offense, meaning an officer would have to pull a driver over for something else before issuing a citation for texting.

Farley said high-profile accidents in the past year involving text-messaging drivers, including a crash that killed a Chino Valley woman, will help push legislation during the session that begins in January.

Also in the past year, the city of Phoenix banned text-messaging while driving.

However, Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said there are enough laws against distracted driving. He said further legislation is a waste of time.

“If it comes to my committee I would hold it,” Gould said.

Susan Bitter Smith, chairwoman of the Arizona Competitive Telecommunica-tions Coalition, said the cell phone industry supports using phones safely, but she said the focus should be on all kinds of distracted behavior.

A 2006 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found cell phone use to be the most common distraction while driving.

However, it was less likely to be the cause of a crash or near-miss than some other distractions, such as reaching for a falling cup or being drowsy.

A Cronkite/Eight Poll conducted in September found that 87 percent of voters surveyed favored a statewide ban on text-messaging while driving.

The Rev. Monte Baker points to Vista de la Montaña United Methodist Church's playground, which was built directly over the silo at a decommissioned Air Force Titan II missile base just north of Tucson.

CATALINA – It’s fitting that children at Vista de la Montaña United Methodist Church swing, slide and climb on this spot, the Rev. Monte Baker says, pointing to a covered playground.

The placement speaks to the motto of this church north of Tucson: “Once a Missile Site . . . Now a Church with a Mission.”

Directly beneath the playground, an Air Force Titan II missile once stood ready to deliver a nuclear bomb 600 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

“It’s wonderful to see the site of a weapon of mass destruction turn into something so nurturing,” Baker said.

It’s been nearly a quarter-century since the Air Force decommissioned the last of 18 missile sites around Tucson. One site now houses a missile museum, and some others, their silos and bunkers long buried, have new missions.

Each remains a reminder of southern Arizona’s key role during the Cold War.

In Tubac, 40 miles south of Tucson, people work out at a former Titan site that’s home to Crista’s Totally Fit Health & Wellness Center. Crista Simpson, who runs the gym, keeps a box full of photos, maps and newspaper clippings about the site.

“Hey, how many women get to own a Titan missile silo site?” Simpson said. “I’m just glad it’s now being used to better people’s health, not destroy humanity.”

Robert Gomez runs Acacia Nursery on a former missile site in Marana, just northwest of Tucson.

“Once in a while we get people curious enough to drive all the way to see the site,” Gomez said. “They walk around, but really there’s mostly cactuses and shrubs here now.”

In Sahuarita, just south of Tucson, 1 million people have visited the Titan Missile Museum, which opened in 1986. It’s the nation’s only former Titan II site accessible to the public.

On a recent weekday, Steve Bronson, visiting from southern California, joined those looking with awestruck faces into the museum’s 146-foot silo, which contains a decommissioned Titan II.

“It’s an imposing feeling, very humbling,” Bronson said.

Green Valley resident Lee Laughner said she visits the museum regularly. On this day, she brought a relative visiting from Denmark.

“People need to look beyond their own lives to see what’s happened in our world,” Laughner said.

The site has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

“It’s the most important site in the country depicting this chapter of the Cold War,” said Greg Kendrick, national historic landmark coordinator for the National Park Service’s intermountain region.

Yvonne Morris, the museum’s director, served as a crew commander at the site when she was 23.

“I didn’t think of Armageddon or anything all the time,” Morris said. “But I was trained and prepared to turn the key if we ever got the message to do so.”

The Tucson-area missiles were among 54 Titan II sites. The rest were near Wichita, Kan., and Little Rock, Ark.

Morris said the Titan II sites, activated in 1963, served the country well.

“Just by its sheer presence, our enemies dared not attack us, because they knew we had the power to retaliate – and how,” Morris said.

The Titan sites bring to mind an era that included the Cuban Missile Crisis, Stalin and Khrushchev, Arizona historian Marshall Trimble said.

“Everyone knew if the Russian missiles were coming this way, they’d head to Tucson,” Trimble said.

Few protested against the sites because of the nuclear threat, Trimble said.

Source: Titan Missile Museum

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On the Web

Vista de la Montaña United Methodist Church:

www.vistaumc.com

Titan Missile Museum:

www.titanmissilemuseum.org

Pima Air & Space Museum: www.pimaair.org

———

TITAN II FACTS

• Length: 103 feet

• Diameter: 10 feet

• Warhead yield: About 9 megatons, the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT

• Time from start to liftoff: 58 seconds

• Time to target: 25-30 minutes

• Cost to build each site (in 1963): $8.3 million

• Cost to build each missile (in 1963): $2.2 million

Barbara Householder, owner of FunCity Costumes in Mesa, works in her store on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007. Householder said her family donated to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney because of his stands on the issues, but she also says the fact that he is Mormon makes him even more appealing to her family, which is Mormon as well. While U.S. Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign has raised the most money in Arizona, Romney has raised far more money in Mesa and Gilbert, cities with large Mormon populations.

Barbara Householder said she supports Mitt Romney because of his stand on family values. The fact that Romney, like Householder, is a Mormon makes him even more appealing and is part of the reason her family contributed $500 to his campaign, she said.

“His solid reputation speaks for itself, but knowing he’s from the same religion tells me he shares our core values,” said Householder, who owns FunCity Costumes in Mesa. “It helps me hope and believe that he’ll be the best president for this country.”

U.S. Sen. John McCain’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination leads Arizona in fundraising, bringing in $2.4 million in the first three quarters of 2007. But residents of Mesa and Gilbert have given far more to Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts: $548,000 to the $109,000 raised there by McCain, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Mesa ZIP code 85213, where Householder’s business is located, contributed $136,000, the most of any Arizona ZIP code for Romney, followed by $128,000 in Mesa ZIP code 85205. Romney had raised a total of $1.2 million in Arizona and $62 million nationally through Sept. 30.

Political experts say Mesa and Gilbert are examples of areas with large Mormon populations rallying behind Romney. Nine of the top 25 ZIP codes contributing to Romney are in Utah, where most of the population is Mormon, and Utah also leads the nation in per-capita giving to his campaign, FEC records show.

But Rhett Flake, a Snowflake pharmacist who contributed $370 to Romney’s campaign, said he and other Mormons share more with the candidate than religion.

“Of course he’ll get support from Mormons. But Romney should get support from people of all faiths,” Flake said.

“A lot of people attack Romney because he’s Mormon, but he has the same values most Americans believe in, especially Christians: a strong belief in God and in family values,” Flake said.

Romney has raised $3,635 to McCain’s $220 in Snowflake, where many residents are Mormon.

Five percent of Maricopa County’s population is Mormon, and Mesa and Gilbert have a large share of that group. The area also is home to the Mesa Arizona Temple.

Arizona’s figures didn’t surprise J. Quin Monson, a Brigham Young University assistant professor of political science. He said Romney is having success raising money from Mormons around the country.

“Pockets of LDS areas in Arizona are falling into the Romney fundraising network,” Monson said. “He is drawing on his personal network, especially Mormons and business people.”

Two Arizona political experts said Romney has obvious appeal to Mormons.

“The East Valley is a Mormon bastion,” said Bruce Merrill, a pollster and retired Arizona State University professor. “The thing to see as the election goes on is if Romney can broaden his fundraising from Mormons to others.”

“It isn’t any different from (New Mexico Gov.) Bill Richardson stressing his broad appeal but still getting Latino support,” said Barbara Norrander, a political science professor at University of Arizona.

The two Mesa ZIP codes leading Romney’s Arizona fundraising rank high nationally as well, coming in 29th and 32nd overall and besting even the $122,430 Romney’s campaign has raised in Beverly Hills, Calif.’s famous 90210 ZIP code.

Curtis Clouse, a Mormon and president of a painting contracting firm in Mesa, said he was most attracted to Romney’s skills as a former CEO and leader of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City when he decided to contribute $250.

“I’m a business owner myself, and I feel he’ll be able to run government the way it should be run: like a business, with people expected to perform and produce,” Clouse said.

“Religion should not be an issue if a candidate is qualified to hold office, which Romney sure is,” Clouse added.

Officials with Romney’s campaign said his success to date shows he is an attractive candidate to everyone. The latest polls in Arizona showed McCain with only a slight lead over Romney, with many voters undecided.

“He’s bound to drum up support from those sections,” national spokesman Alex Burgos said of the Mormon community.

Jason Rose, state director for Romney’s campaign, said Romney has done well in Arizona because he has spent a lot of time campaigning here.

“When you go to the doctor with a heart problem or the flu, you don’t ask the doctor, `Are you Jewish or Muslim?’ You ask if you’re qualified,” Rose said. “That’s the same reason why people are responding to Romney.”

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GOP fundraising in East Valley cities

Here is a look at GOP presidential campaign fundraising in East Valley cities where John McCain and Mitt Romney raised at least $50,000 between them. All figures are through the quarter ending Sept. 30:

Mesa: Romney, $425,000; McCain, $81,000.

Scottsdale: McCain, $372,000; Romney, $114,000.

Paradise Valley: McCain, $291,000; Romney, $113,000.

Gilbert: Romney, $124,000; McCain, $28,000.

Tempe: McCain, $75,000; Romney, $24,000.

Chandler: Romney, $36,000; McCain, $32,000.

Source: Federal Election Commission

SELIGMAN – A ranch just outside this northern Arizona town is home to more than cattle and horses. In acclimation pens and in burrows dotting the surrounding landscape, black-footed ferrets are devouring prairie dogs and making baby ferrets as they help return the species from the brink of extinction.

It’s a big turnaround from two decades ago, when the only ferret species native to North America had vanished from Arizona and most of its range from the Great Plains into the West and parts of Mexico and Canada. Its numbers dwindled to fewer than 20.

In 1996, Diamond A Ranch in Aubrey Valley became one of 11 reintroduction sites in the U.S. and Mexico. With the black-footed ferret now numbering in the hundreds at the various sites, officials say the program has been a success.

“It’s huge,” said Carrie King, who leads the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s reintroduction effort. “It’s a classic back-from-the-brink-of-extinction tale.”

The facility here conditions black-footed ferrets to survive in the wild and then releases them. The goal is a self-sustaining population.

About 300 black-footed ferrets have been released onto the ranch. Officials can’t say exactly how many ferrets are out there, but King said they are finding more ferrets that have been born in the wild.

Still, it’s a long road back for the ferrets. While there were at least 665 as of 2006 across the 11 sites, disease poses a threat along with the decline of the ferrets’ staple diet: the prairie dog.

A black-footed ferret eats about 110 prairie dogs annually. But prairie dog numbers have dwindled over the decades as much of the prairie was developed into farmland and towns and people eradicated prairie dogs as pests.

Meanwhile, plague, a disease spread by rodents, and canine distemper have proven deadly for the ferrets.

Listed as endangered in 1967, the black-footed ferret was thought extinct at one point during the 1970s. In 1981, about 120 ferrets were discovered in Wyoming.

Between 1985 and 1987, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service captured the last 18 ferrets and launched a captive breeding program. It also established reintroduction sites in areas with large numbers of prairie dogs.

Federal officials are working with state agencies, including the Arizona Game & Fish Department, American Indian tribes, zoos and conservation organizations.

The groups hope to bring the ferret population to 1,500 by 2010, which would qualify the species for threatened rather than endangered status, said Scott Larson, a biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

At Diamond A Ranch, black-footed ferrets are put in acclimation pens, where they are trained to hunt prairie dogs. Ferrets crawl into their burrows, eat the prairie dogs and live there.

“It’s not pretty,” said Jennifer Cordova, a wildlife technician with Arizona Game & Fish.

PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK – At dusk, Mark Decker walked around a long, reddish-brown rock that 200 million years ago was a towering conifer. Gazing at a landscape studded with petrified wood accented by wildflowers and prickly pear cactus, he sighed.

“It’s simply magical,” said Decker, a Las Vegas resident who stopped here on his way from Colorado. “If I’d known it was this good, I would have come here years ago.”

Flagstaff resident Beth Schreck made her first visit as well despite many trips past the park on Interstate 40.

“I always meant to stop but somehow didn’t. It just seemed too remote,” Schreck said.

At one time, people came here in droves – 1.2 million of them in 1972. These days, this preserve, which includes fossils, ancient ruins and petroglyphs but no actual forest, draws less than half that number.

Greg Caffey, chief ranger at Petrified Forest, said visitors today want picturesque vistas and “ooh and aah” moments. To many, the park’s arid expanse lacks those.

“We’ve come to grips with the fact that we have to reach out to a ‘gee whiz’ kind of audience,” Caffey said. “Here it’s not all instant gratification. You have to seek it out.”

The park is responding by developing podcasts, virtual tours and Web-based programs geared toward what acting superintendent Brad Traver calls the “video game generation.”

“It’s to keep children informed in their own language about this ancient region,” Traver said.

Petrified Forest is receiving some help from neighboring Holbrook, which has long benefited from traffic to the park.

The Holbrook Chamber of Commerce is placing brochures promoting the park and other area attractions in travel centers around the state and has ads on five billboards along I-40, according to Joshua Wenger, the organization’s executive director.

“It’s been pretty flat these past few years,” Wenger said. “We really count on visitors.”

The drop at Petrified Forest reflects a general decline among national parks, said Kathleen Andereck, a professor in the Department of Recreation and Tourism Management at Arizona State University. Nationwide, visitation peaked in 1999, at 287 million. In 2006, visits were down to 272.6 million, a nearly 5 percent decrease. “The fact is, nobody knows what’s going on,” Andereck said.

Annual visitor counts at Arizona’s national parks have declined 21 percent overall since a peak in 1993, according to National Park Service data. The last major peak at Petrified Forest also occurred in 1993, with 936,000 visitors. The park drew 582,000 visitors in 2006.

Kathy Kupper, a National Park Service spokeswoman in Washington, said the overall trend is for people to put the bigger parks on their “to-visit” lists.

“People think of national parks as the Grand Canyons and Yosemites, but not all are big, iconic parks,” Kupper said. Jim Gramann, a visiting chief social scientist with the National Park Service in Washington, said the decline also has to do with families eschewing long vacations, aging Baby Boomers not visiting parks as often and children preferring technology over outdoor recreation. “These days people take three-day-weekend wraparound vacations,” Gramann said.

Traver, the acting superintendent, said part of the problem at Petrified Forest is people not knowing enough about the park’s offerings beyond petrified wood. Researchers here are still discovering dinosaur bones from the late Triassic period. The park is the last place the Zuni and Hopi tribes were known to be united.

Many are surprised to find out that the park is part of the Painted Desert, offering scenic views to the distant horizon.

“It’s an important cultural site, an important piece of history that had been set aside for the wood,” Traver said.

It also doesn’t help that the park lacks overnight lodging and sufficient hiking trails, Traver said.

To help overcome that, the park is focusing on those who still visit: families on educational trips, said Lyn Carranza, chief of interpretation at Petrified Forest. An educational specialist now leads schoolchildren on popular virtual palaeontological trips and mock archaeological and palaeontological digs.

There’s a new theater and updated exhibits about the area’s history.

Yuma resident Beth Masse, on her eighth visit here, said people need to get out of their homes to see this natural wonder.

“Not a lot of people look at the desert and go ‘Wow’ anymore,” Masse said.

PHOENIX – Preparing for a meeting of border governors in Mexico, Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday she plans to ask Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff why a highly touted virtual border fence is “virtually missing.”

Napolitano said she also will focus on business and tourism during the two-day meeting, which begins Thursday in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. Chertoff and Mexican President Felipe Calderón are expected to attend.

The meeting also will include sessions on agriculture and livestock, education, health and energy.

The virtual fence, made up of ground sensors, radar and cameras on nine towers, is supposed to help Border Patrol agents track those crossing illegally along a 28-mile stretch south of Tucson. But technical glitches have delayed the project.

“I’m going to ask when that is going to be up and running,” Napolitano said.

At her weekly press conference, Napolitano said she’ll talk with Chertoff about what she called the “premature” withdrawal of National Guard troops from the border.

In July, the federal government began cutting by half the 6,000 troops stationed in border towns last year as part of “Operation Jump Start.” Arizona contributed 2,400 of those troops.

She also called for more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, particularly in the Phoenix area. Authorities there regularly uncover “drop houses” full of illegal immigrants.

“You got to be thinking of this as the next wave of law enforcement,” she said.

Napolitano said she wants to learn how governors on the other side of the border are collaborating with the Mexican government on border security.

“That will be a session I’m sure we’ll have with President Calderón,” Napolitano said.

She noted that Arizona already has joint programs with Sonora, including one in which stolen vehicles are tracked using a common radio frequency.

Touting “an awful lot of trade” between Arizona and Mexico in agriculture, tourism and other areas, Napolitano said border security measures must provide for an easy flow of legitimate business.

“It’s literally billions of dollars worth of commerce every year, so that border needs to be able to work,” she said.

Susan Shultz, chairwoman of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, said she hopes the governor’s visit will result in freer trade between Arizona and Mexico.

PHOENIX – Do you like running your fingers over those fresh new plates from the Motor Vehicle Division, reveling in the embossed numbers and letters that represent your new identity on the road?

Enjoy it while you can.

Arizona is joining 21 other states in getting rid of raised print on license plates, switching to a digital process that officials say is better for the environment.

The state has already made the change for personalized plates, and regular plates will follow in January.

“As a state, all of us are becoming more environmentally aware and are always seeking ways to improve processes,” said Cydney DeModica, a spokeswoman for the MVD, part of the state Department of Transportation.

Arizona’s license plates are made at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Florence. The facility made 1.6 million plates last year.

Officials say the outgoing process releases volatile organic compounds when the paint is machine-dried on the plates. The amount is estimated at 1,500 pounds a year, said Bill Branson, general manager at Arizona Correctional Industries.

The new process, which works like a high-tech copy machine, eliminates paint from the process, Branson said.

Branson said the new equipment is more expensive but the state is saving on paint and other inventory costs. The flat plates also cost less to ship, he said.

Matt Fraser, associate professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, said the change may not have an earth-shaking impact, but every step to clear the air counts.

“The key thing is to look at all sources, no matter how off-the-wall they may seem,” Fraser said.

Mark Shaffer, communications director for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, said the agency is pleased with the move.

“This is one small step, but we’re happy that the process is more environmentally friendly than what was previously being done,” he said.

Officials in Nevada, which switched to the new technology in 2004, are pleased with the lower operating costs, said Tom Jacobs, a spokesman for that state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

The only unhappy group, Jacobs said, was classic car owners.

“They wanted that embossed look, just like it would be when it was made back in its days,” he said.

Classic and historic car enthusiasts in Arizona needn’t worry, DeModica said. The MVD will continue to offer those vehicles special copper license plates that are embossed.

PHOENIX – One out of 10 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in Navajo County has tried methamphetamine at least once, a figure that highlights the dangers the drug poses to rural Arizona, the first lady of the Navajo Nation said Wednesday.

“This is the highest figure among all Arizona counties. We need to do something fast,” Vikki Shirley said, calling for more money to be devoted to treatment and enforcement.

Shirley, wife of Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., joined state Attorney General Terry Goddard and other leaders at a ceremony honoring youths who have pledged not to try meth. Shirley is co-chair of the Arizona Meth Project, an advertising and anti-meth education program.

Shirley said the Navajo Nation’s size makes it difficult to combat meth abuse through education and law enforcement. Another challenge is that meth is relatively inexpensive.

“Adults can’t deal with the poverty and lack of jobs in our area, and this is an easy way out for them,” she said.

Char James, program project specialist with the Navajo Nation’s Department of Behavioral Health Services, said the reservation has only three treatment centers that can work with meth addicts. But she said those facilities already are struggling to deal with alcoholics and those addicted to other drugs.

Cindy Schaider, coordinator of Casa Grande Alliance, a coalition for substance abuse prevention, said her community can use all the help it can get to fight meth.

Young people in rural Arizona are at greater risk of using meth, a survey conducted by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission suggests. The 2006 Arizona Youth Survey found that eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in rural counties were generally more likely than those in urban counties to have tried meth at some point.

PHOENIX – A large majority of Arizonans approve of a Bush administration plan to curb the hiring of illegal immigrants, and many consider immigration their top issue as they decide on the next president, according to a Cronkite-Eight Poll released Tuesday.

Sixty-nine percent of voters surveyed statewide said they support the administration plan, which will require employers to fire workers if their Social Security numbers are found to be questionable and the discrepancy can’t be resolved within 90 days. Twenty-one percent opposed the rule and 10 percent were undecided.

Poll director Bruce Merrill, a retired Arizona State University professor, said two-thirds of Arizonans invariably will support a measure perceived as tough on illegal immigration.

“It’s a manifestation of how concerned people are about illegal immigration in Arizona,” Merrill said. “They tend to be on a much tougher position in terms of closing the border.”

Earlier this year, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into law a measure that punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. It takes effect in January.

Aldo Castaneda, director of the Phoenix Immigration Center, a nonprofit organization dealing with civil and human rights law, said Arizona’s law and Bush’s plan will hurt Arizona businesses.

“Employees are already moving out of the state,” Castaneda said. “This could have a collateral impact on the economy, on society and on the market.”

Gordon James, co-chairman of Wake Up Arizona!, a group of business leaders opposed to the state’s employer sanctions law, said the organization doesn’t have an official position on the federal rule but favors following the law.

“It’s the system that needs to be fixed so it works better, so people are not able to get away with stolen SSNs and genuine cases get stuck,” he said.

The statewide poll, conducted Thursday to Sunday by ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Eight/KAET-TV, involved 738 registered voters. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

The Cronkite School operates Cronkite News Service.

Of those who felt so strongly on an issue that it would affect their presidential vote, 38 percent cited the war in Iraq and 26 percent cited illegal immigration.

As for who will be the next president, the poll suggested that there continues to be no clear frontrunner among Republicans, even though the field includes U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Of the Republicans surveyed, 24 percent favored McCain. But 19 percent supported former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 18 percent former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and 17 percent former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson. Ten percent backed ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and 12 percent were undecided.

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On the Web

Cronkite-Eight Poll results on KAET-TV

www.azpbs.org