There is a Border face-off South of Tucson with public land managers and the feds over the use of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which is the proposed location for part of Homeland Security’s border fence. The Monument’s Land Managers would rather see state-of-the-art surveillance equipment in that area instead of the proposed fence which they think would have an environmental toll in this location bulldozing close to 200 columnar cacti. They appear to be fighting an uphill battle since the environmentalists in the San Pedro River Valley recently lost their fight to shut down the construction of the fence in that riparian area. Perhaps concerned persons could carefully relocate the potentially endangered cacti.

It appears that few businesses in the Tucson and Phoenix areas have signed up for E-Verify in order to check eligibility of new employees so that they won’t be punished under the state’s new employer sanctions law. The records show that just 17,000 of Arizona’s 150,000 businesses have implemented the government’s E-Verify system even though it is the best way to determine if they are hiring an illegal invader or not. This law makes it illegal for employers to knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Prosecutors will not file any enforcement actions before March 1 due to the many questions businesses have concerning whether terminated workers should be paid for the work they have done and if it’s the job of the employers to report their workers to the authorities. Some think that many of the employers know if the workers they are hiring are illegal and just hope to avoid being caught. This puts those businesses who are trying to abide by the law at a competitive disadvantage.

Tucson Unified School District superintendent recommends that four TUSD elementary schools be closed in order to save the district close to $4 million. This would redirect funds and resources to better serve students at other schools where these students would be relocated. The schools up for closure are Corbett Elementary, Ochoa Elementary, Rogers Elementary and Wrightstown Elementary. The school superintendent will make his recommendation to the board Tuesday night where it will be discussed and reviewed for at least 60 days before a determination is made.

Tucson was lucky to receive some rain on Sunday from a Pacific storm in California that combined with subtropical moisture moving inland. Continued light rain is expected through today. Tucson experienced no reports of flooding or severe weather as a result of the storm while January rain totals are still below normal. There is the possibility of another storm system that is now over the Gulf of Alaska, heading southeast, that could bring cold weather and rain to the Tucson area Wednesday night.

It is not now known which is the true cause of apartment vacancies in the Tucson area but many are emptying out. Some may be moving into homes that can be rented now that there is abundance in the market. There are a lot of vacant apartments in the Midvale Park area which has more than twice the rate of foreign born residents than all of Tucson and the thinking is that many of the residents have lost their jobs due to lack of work in construction, moving to other more sympathetic states in this country or moving back to Mexico. Some were vacating without giving notice which may be due to the new employer sanctions law that went into effect on January 1. It appears that Tucson’s South Side has experienced a vacancy rate that has increased to almost 12 percent in the last quarter of 2007 which was just over 7 percent the same time last year.

Protesters as well as supporters were out to greet Sheriff Joe on Friday where he met with the Pima County Republican Women’s Club. The protesters were calling the Sheriff’s procedures inhumane, intolerant and racist yet his supporters think he is just doing his job; what he’s being paid to do by upholding law, order and justice. He is just trying to protect his county from Illegal invaders, thinking that the protesters seem to just overlook the word Illegal. He says that he is not racist and will continue to do his job.

The Earth is going to have a visitor next week. An asteroid that is close to 500 feet wide and about 2,000 feet long will come as close as 334,000 miles to our planet. This is to happen next Tuesday and it should be bright enough to be seen with medium-sized telescopes in Tucson. This asteroid has no chance of hitting our planet but similar sized objects are thought to hit our Earth around every 37,000 years. It is not thought that we will see an object of this size close to earth again until 2027.

The Town Council of Oro Valley and Arizona State Officials met to discuss the possibility of the annexation of Arroyo Grande which includes the community of Catalina, north of Oro Valley. This would mean an addition of 14 square miles that would be added to the existing 32 square miles of Oro Valley. At the meeting, residents expressed their are concerns about the demand for water from the Colorado River, traffic and open space issues that include the riparian areas that would be affected by future development of the area.

Local Tucson Economists and Small Business Association spokesman believe that it is time to prepare for more budget planning for businesses and residents alike. They don’t believe it is time to panic but we will have to tighten our belts. We are all feeling the uncertainty in the market, with the current problems in the financial and housing markets as well as the tremendous increases in food and fuel prices. The thinking is that even though it may not be a declared recession, Tucson has been feeling this downturn for some time, with the good news being that those recessions usually only last around a year before a turnaround begins. Hopefully the economic incentives proposed by the President will happen quickly and be of some relief. So be prepared and tighten your belts during this time period.

The City of Tucson is looking at tough times ahead for it’s government and the need to develop a complete list of discretionary spending from the federal government and Tucson’s general fund. The Council members could use for cutbacks in order to have money for new programs. Some wonder how they happened to have discretionary monies in the first place and the reason cutbacks weren’t made sooner if they had this surplus. The state is feeling the pinch and Tucson is trying to prepare itself for the depressing economic trends ahead.