Search query: arizona

According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, Mexican immigration has slowed dramatically over the last decade, and net migration may have even gone negative. That’s right, Mitt Romney’s dream has come true and more Mexicans may be leaving America (both voluntarily and involuntarily) than entering. Whether this is happening because of stricter identification laws and immigration enforcement, as Romney would prefer, is still in question: the Pew Center cannot identify for sure why the l

There’s a virtual trade imbalance affecting California’s vaunted state university system that’s the result of both higher costs for public education in the Golden State and a diminution of quality in its college programs. Students are leaving California for out-of-state universities in droves, reported the Sacramento Bee on Sunday. And while the UC and CSU systems are working hard to attract out-of-state students (who pay higher tuitions), a greater number of in-state students are leaving for c

Arizona has declared its independence from two-party politics as a full third of the state's electorate is now “unaffiliated” with either Republican or Democratic parties. Independents now outnumber Democrats and are closing in on Republicans in the Grand Canyon state. While both major parties in Arizona have lost membership over the past 4 years, the Independent bloc grew by roughly a quarter million voters. Since President Obama's election, the number of Arizonans who've registered Independen

The current approval rate for Congress hovers at an all-time low and the political makeup of the Senate chamber is a critically important aspect to this year's election cycle. Dissatisfaction over the performance of incumbents currently serving will place significant attention on the independents vying for their seats. Here is a brief introduction to a handful of independent candidates running for Senate seats across the country in 2012. Jon Ross Barrie-“I am NOT a politician and I have never b

On Wednesday, April 25th, the Supreme Court will host hearings on Arizona's controversial immigration law in Arizona v. United States. SB 1070 was passed in Arizona in April 2010 and has caused controversy due to provisions require police to check the immigration status of a criminal suspect if they believe the person could be in the country illegally. In anticipation of the oral arguments tomorrow, the ACLU compiled the following infographic on the broader implications of SB 1070.

What, you ask, does Nevada and Las Vegas have to do with California water?  Well, water wars aren’t just fought within states. They are also fought between states. Southern Nevada gets almost 90% of its water from the Colorado River. Southern California also gets substantial water from the Colorado, most of which goes to agriculture in the Imperial Valley. The Colorado River has the unenviable status of being the most litigated river in the world. The problem for Nevada is that it agreed to a sm

Following the resignation of Tucson Rep. Daniel Patterson, the search is on for a replacement to fill his empty seat in the Arizona State House. The problem? Arizona independents are decrying actions made by the Pima County Board of Supervisors, claiming independent citizens are being excluded from the process. The Arizona Independent Candidate Coalition is leading the call for the appointment of an independent representative to the seat. The issue has stirred up drama in Arizona, where squabbl

The Blythe Solar Power Project near Blythe, CA was supposed to be the biggest solar power plant ever, at a massive 1 GW. But Solar Trust, who holds the rights to build the plant, filed bankruptcy last week after their parent corporation, Solar Millennium AG of Germany, did the same. Further complicating matters, Solar Trust is the recipient of a $2.1 billion dollar conditional loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, their second largest ever loan. You bet this is going to get political, es

California, Arizona and five other states get substantial amounts of water from the Colorado River, which is rightfully known as the most litigated river on the planet. The water is allocated by the 1922 Colorado River Compact, an agreement that most everyone agrees is outdated. Yet no one really wants to renegotiate it for fear they might end up with less water than they get now.  Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t is the unspoken assumption. You may be startled to learn that C

The Imperial Valley gets 20% of all the water from the Colorado River - more than Nevada and Colorado combined - and produces 80% of the country’s winter vegetables. Virtually all its water comes from the Colorado. The water is pumped in from the massive Imperial Dam on the border of California and Arizona. The dam was completed in 1938. The water rights of the Imperial Valley precede that by decades. This is a primary reason why Imperial Valley agriculture is so productive. One of the key dete