More states following Arizona in push for tougher immigration laws

Defiant Arizona To Step Up War On Illegal Immigration
The Washington Times: Arizona took a public-relations punch to the gut after passing the nation’s toughest anti-illegal-immigration law earlier this year, but anyone who thinks (or hopes) the State Legislature will lower its profile on the border-security issue in 2011 likely will be disappointed. The state is positioned like never before to expand its efforts to combat illegal Immigration. The November election saw Republican Jan Brewer elected to a Second Term as Governor, largely on t...

Costa Rica copes with its own immigration ills
LOS CHILES, Costa Rica — The signs of illegal Immigration aren't hard to find — groups of immigrants hurrying into the high grass, lookouts on street corners, cars picking up migrants. It could be a scene near the U.S.-Mexico border, but this is hundreds of miles south, where Nicaragua meets Costa Rica. Illegal Immigration is not just a problem in the United States. It is here in the sweltering lowlands of Central America, too, as people from impoverished countries try to reach develo...

State Health Care Compact an ObamaCare Repeal Idea
Next year, Republicans in Congress will float their Legislation to Repeal ObamaCare, though some suggest the Legislation is not likely to succeed in overturning the Controversial law. With President Barack Obama still in office and Democrats controlling the U.S. Senate, an expected bill approved by the newly-minted prolife Republican majority in the House of Representatives would place pressure on Obama and Democrats leading up to the presidential Elections but not likely be approved by either o...

New gun law in New Hampshire makes it legal to display a gun during a threatening situation: Free Ward Bird!
  As of the first of the year, a new gun law will go into effect in New Hampshire which states that it is not a Crime for a person to simply display a gun in an attempt to ward off a possible attacker. In reality this is not a new law; the New Hampshire constitution clearly states that a person has the right to use a gun in defense of himself, his property, or his state, this simply would clarify the constitution. (Although one would think that the New Hampshire constitution is cu...

Priorities
Priorities by digby Yikes: State Legislators in 25 states (see list below) planned to introduce SB 1070 clones in upcoming legislative sessions, according to Immigration Impact. Of course, not all — or even most — of these laws will pass. However, Republicans picked up the most seats in the modern era of State Legislatures in 2010 — more than Republicans did in 1994 or Democrats in the post-Watergate wave of 1974. Republicans hold both houses and the governorship in fifteen states (sixt

COL FB: Oklahoma State 36, Arizona 10
SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Justin Blackmon caught two touchdown passes Wednesday to pace Oklahoma State to a 36-10 Alamo Bowl victory over Arizona. Markelle Martin returned an interception 62 yards for an Oklahoma State score, helping the Cowboys finish their season at 11-2. Oklahoma State's only losses this year came against the teams that played for the Big 12 Conference title -- Oklahoma and Nebraska. Oklahoma State turned a fumbled punt into a 6-yard touchdown run by Jeremy Smith 3:59 int...

Neb. abortion ban eyed well past state lines
LINCOLN, Neb. — Mike Flood, the 35-year-old speaker of Nebraska's Legislature, had a problem: He wanted to stop the state's well-known Abortion provider from offering late-term abortions. A long line of U.S. Supreme Court precedents seemed to stand in his way. But Flood believes that a 2007 decision offers hope for him and other State Legislators looking for ways to restrict abortion. Using that decision as a road map, last spring Flood wrote and won passage of Legislation that bans abor...

Advocates call for public defibrillators
By Sarah Bruyn Jones SALEM Ken McCauley knows he is lucky to be alive. And his doctors agree. On Dec. 3, McCauley, 53, was at a spin cycling class at the Salem YMCA. "I was feeling pretty good," he said. It was the 5:30 a.m. class that McCauley had been attending every Wednesday and Friday since the beginning of the year. An avid runner, McCauley began taking the class after his knees started bothering him. He still ran four days a week, and completed a half marathon in November. The c...

Dont Buy The Washington Posts False Choice on Immigration
The Washington Post editorializes today: “In a handful of Southern and Western states, Republican governors and lawmakers are vowing to replicate Arizona’s harshly nativist law or go even further with bills that would outlaw the presence of undocumented immigrants or require police to screen suspects for Immigration status - or both. The assumption underlying such Legislation is that the 11 million Illegal Immigrants in this country, including the 7 million who hold jobs, can...

Congress leaves illegal immigrants out in the cold this winter
Among Congress’ more egregious failures during the Lame Duck session was failing to pass the DREAM Act.  The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act would have provided a path to Citizenship for the Children of Illegal Immigrants.  Granted, it would not have addressed the status of adult Illegal Immigrants.  As usual, it was an attempt by Democrats to Compromise with uncompromising people.  As usual, Republicans took this as license to roll the Democrats....

Will Congress address illegal immigration this year?
Where do you live and does illegal (not legal but illegal) Immigration have a direct impact on you? if yes, post how Where do you live and does illegal (not legal but illegal) Immigration have a direct impact on you? if yes, post how ...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Lifers gain parole at faster rate
The rate at which the state Parole board doled out “get out of jail free” passes to lifers skyrocketed by 50 percent last year — a shocking spike that enraged State Legislators who proposed tough new laws after the tragic shooting death of a Woburn cop. Gov. Deval Patrick’s seven-member Parole board sprang 35 out of 88 convicts serving life sentences in 2009, or 40 percent, a Herald review found. By comparison, the board paroled just 29 out of 108 lifers, or 27 percent, ...

Support builds in fight to dim light pollution
The push to turn down the lights in American cities is gaining broad support from several unlikely allies — from conservationists and builders to city planners and the Military. Dark-sky Legislation — laws that require measures such as shielding outdoor lighting to reduce light Pollution — have been embraced by about 300 counties, cities and towns. More than 50 state bills have been introduced in the past two years and seven were enacted. Eighteen states —Arizona, Arkansa...

Coming Soon: Higher Business Payroll Taxes
The state of Michigan owes the Federal Government $3.8 billion in Unemployment Insurance loans and will have to start making $150 million a year on interest payments if Congress doesn’t extend a waiver by Friday. Governor-Elect Rick Snyder went to lobby Congress recently so it could waive the interest payments on the loan, Mlive.com reported. Snyder’s office didn’t respond to a phone message or e-mail. In Michigan, businesses pay for the first 26 weeks of Unemployment benefit...

The Capture of Wildlife Smuggler Anson Wong - By Bryan Christy
It began almost innocently. A broken lock on a suitcase moving through Kuala Lumpur International Airport this summer led to an odd discovery: nearly 100 baby boa constrictors, two vipers, and a South American turtle, all hidden inside. It was a fairly modest cache for a wildlife smuggler, but the man who claimed the suitcase was no ordinary criminal. He was Anson Wong Keng Liang, the world's most notorious wildlife trafficker. And instead of a slap on the wrist, which he might reasonably have...

Many states look to Arizonas SB 1070 as a model for new immigration legislation
Governor-elect Susana Martinez selected Hanna Skandera, Deputy Commissioner of education in Florida from 2005 to 2007, to head the Public Education Department. Skandera also served as education undersecretary for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., and was an education policy adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., during his unsuccessful 2008 Presidential Campaign. Gov. Bill Richardson announced today that he was “encouraged” after his trip to North Korea, particularly over the coun...

'Tingles' Takes His Truth Serum On Illegal Immigration
What's gotten into Chris Matthews? Yesterday he breathed extra life into the birther Controversy wondering aloud why Obama doesn't just say "send me a copy of my Birth Certificate," and now today he declared that he doesn't trust Democrats on the issue of enforcement of illegal Immigration. Has Hardball ever been this unpredictable? You must login to comment. The Fox Nation is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppr...

Society Of Professional Journalists Claim 'Illegal Immigrant' Is An 'Offensive' Term
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 By Eric Scheiner   Society Of Professional Journalists Logo The Diversity Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have announced an educational campaign against the term “Illegal Immigrant” seeking to inform reporters that the term “Illegal Immigrant” is “offensive” to Latinos.   In the latest issue of SPJ’s magazine ‘Quill’, SPJ’s Diversity Committee member Leo Laurence writes about th

National Review Wonders Who Ron Paul Is
The framing introduction to this National Review chat with Ron Paul does a fairly good job summing up the set of beliefs that Ron Paul combines that give all sorts of folk who are apt to be with him on one thing to be against him on another. He's an anti-abortion and anti-open borders Libertarian, an anti-interventionst far-right Republican, a fiscal conservative for Earmarks, a hyperindividualist dogged with a Racism Scandal, a man the progressive left frequently loves for his views on war and...

Stumbo says gambling dead this legislative session
FRANKFORT — House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Wednesday that the legislature will likely not tackle any gambling related Legislation this session, which begins next week. Proponents of expanded gambling have pushed the legislature to change the law to allow for video lottery terminals or VLTs at the state’s race tracks. However, those efforts have been stymied by the Republican-controlled Senate over the past several years. After November’s election, the Senate Republicans incre...

Megyn Kelly: Rape isn't 'sex' & illegals aren't 'undocumented' (Video)
Incredulous at the call to rebrand Illegal Aliens as "undocumented immigrants" because it's less ' hurtful to Latinos"; today, Megyn Kelly, questioned how Victims of Rape would feel if rapists were rebranded  'non consensual sex partners." Kelly is right. Americans who feel as if they are under siege and overwhelmed by Illegal Aliens would have the right to be outraged  if the term "Illegal Immigrants" was inaccurately flipped by the political correct crowd to "undocumented workers." T...

Heroin smuggler: Drugs were for grandma
DETROIT, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Authorities in Detroit said an airline passenger accused of Smuggling $50,000 worth of Heroin into the country said the drugs were for his ailing grandmother. Federal investigators said Stevan Patong Thao, 53, of Oklahoma, who flew Sunday to Detroit Metro Airport from Narita, Japan, after a trip to Laos, was found by agents at the airport to be carrying 490 Heroin capsules in two pill bottles, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday. Authorities said Thao, who was rel...

Gov.-elect Rick Scott's victory lap brings him to Miami
Rick Scott returned Wednesday to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs: the staunchly Republican Panhandle that played a important role in his winning election as Florida's next Governor. ``This is our time,'' Scott told a crowd of enthusiastic supporters at a popular restaurant in Fort Walton Beach. ``We're going to focus every day on building jobs. Jobs, jobs, jobs.'' He told people to hold him accountable for all of his campaign promises, and seemed to anticipate more clearly the bruisi...

ODU grateful for a chance in national spotlight
Blaine Taylor arrived at the rental-car counter and saw an opportunity for an upgrade. Not of his vehicle, but of Old Dominion's men's Basketball schedule. Taylor was in Las Vegas on a recruiting trip last summer when he ran into Missouri coach Mike Anderson at the airport. ODU had already contacted Missouri about playing a home-and-home series and Taylor pressed the issue. Anderson was sold, and the result is a major opportunity for the Monarchs to raise their national profile tonight, when the...