Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will be visiting Arizona today. He has stops planned in Yuma where he will meet the family of the Border Patrol agent who was run over and killed while trying to stop a motor vehicle he thought was carrying drugs. The secretary will tour the San Luis port of entry and then head to Tucson where he will look into the virtual fence project that is planned for the Sasabe area.

Pima County voters had long lines and cold weather for their voting experience on Tuesday. Some who had planned on voting during their lunch hour had to wait close to an hour. Many needed to leave and return to work without the opportunity to vote partially due to only 200 polling places with 400 precincts. Numerous Tucson registered voters wanted to come out and vote because they wanted to see change in the White House on so many issues such as the economy, immigration, the Iraq War, health care and education.

Tucson’s University of Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson filed for divorce close to two months ago. Though his wife’s attorney continues to present her claim that the marriage is not forever broken, they have failed in their reconciliation attempt. One counseling session was required by the courts and after it was over the determination was made to send the case back to divorce court in Tucson.

Northern Arizona is under a winter storm watch until mid-day Monday with the possibility of accumulating a few inches of snow from 3,500 to 5,000 feet. From 5,000 to 7,000 feet there is a possibility of 6 to 12 inches and from 7,000 and above it could be as much as 2 to 3 feet. Green Valley, Marana and Tucson could get some rain as well as snow above 5,000 feet until 7 p.m.

It doesn’t appear that Tucson’s I-10 construction project will hamper the Gem Show much this year because everything went smoothly for the first day. Tucson Police are also promising that they have a plan to secure the Gem Show since there was already a theft of $120,000 in jewelry from a vendor. They are including the use of bicycle, foot and motorcycle patrols knowing that thieves target Gem Show merchants. Tucson Police are also advising the merchants to park in well lit areas, not leave gems in cars, locking them in secure places and to travel in groups.

Tucson Unified School District is now considering closing 10 schools in the district. This topic will be addressed at a community forum on Wednesday held at 6:30 p.m. in the Catalina High Magnet School auditorium. The main reason to close the schools and relocate the students is due to the 2008-09 budget that is already close to $15 million in the red. The district is looking at spending cuts in many departments including the academic as well as the business sides.

The new rules require that anyone without a U.S. passport must present identification plus proof of U.S. citizenship in order to return to this country from Mexico at the Border Entry south of Tucson. In the past one only needed to say that they were a U.S. citizen. If you don’t have a passport, you need to apply for one during and 18 month grace period that ends June 2009. Some are protesting because they say they can’t afford the close to $100 for a U.S. passport.

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.