For the southwest, it will continue to get worse.

---Update below---

Our region has already begun to heat up, Overpeck said.

"The warming has already been about 2 degrees Fahrenheit . . . That's kinda scary," he told the audience in an opening statement. "It's affecting the Southwest of the United States more than any other area outside of Alaska."
--------------

We will have more fire and insect outbreaks, erosion from wind and water and competition among plants from non-native species, especially grasses, Breshears said.

One key problem is fire combined with non-native grasses, such as buffelgrass. When buffelgrass burns, it kills native plants, leaving more room for more grass. With each burn, more of the desert dies and more grass spreads.

"We're setting up a feedback that is very difficult to get out of," Breshears said.

Climate change even threatens to eradicate our "megaflora" of the Southwest, such as Joshua trees and saguaro cactuses. Buffelgrass kills young saguaros by blocking sun and sucking up the water the budding behemoths need.

"That's a pretty grim forecast for Tucson," Breshears said.

Despite thousands of scientists studying climate change, major questions about the Southwest remain unanswered, Overpeck said.

"One of the things we can't say is whether the monsoon will get stronger or weaker - the models are all over the place," he said.

Quotes from the Tucson Citizen -- UA prof: Global warming hitting Southwest via Arizona Geology -- Southwest to get more droughts, floods, & fires.
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By the way, the Border Reporter writes that The Tucson Citizen, Arizona’s oldest newspaper
will close unless they find a buyer. March 21 is the date given.
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Update
Not that Bush didn't speed it along with his special form of environmental abuse, Orwellian named Healthy Forests, but western forests are dying on their own as part of Global Warming's steady march across our planet.

An unusual choice of words ...

Congress cut funds to the Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program and the Tucson Citizen comes up with this title:

Area's anti-drug funds hacked

Hacked?

Of course, it's too much to expect that this is the first step in changing the WAR approach to our self made national drug problem and substituting a sane approach instead? Yep, too much to expect.

Tucson Citizen says I-10 motorist had pipe bomb ...

Tucson Citizen

Motorist stopped on I-10 admits having pipe bomb
A traffic stop turned into a bomb scare Tuesday after a male driver of a vehicle traveling eastbound on Interstate 10 between Cortarto and Ina roads admitted to having a pipe bomb stowed in the vehicle, authorities said.

One lane of eastbound traffic has been closed and bomb squads from both Green Valley and Casa Grande have been called onto the scene.

Pending further investigation of this incident, both west and eastbound lanes of traffic on I-10 could be closed.

The driver was arrested and a female passenger has become an investigative lead into the incident.

What GOP operative wrote this Gannett News Service piece that the Tucson Citizen saw fit to pass on to the rest of us?

Gas prices' impact 'fairly limited' --Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Drivers may be griping about record high gasoline costs, but the recent surge in the price at the pump will have little impact on most consumers and will be hardly noticed in the broad economy, say several economists, including those at Standard & Poor's, LaSalle Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Rising incomes will help offset higher gas prices for most Americans, they say. And although gas prices are at unprecedented levels, not adjusted for inflation, the price gains have come over a number of years, giving consumers time to adjust their budgets.

"It's going to slow things down . . . but luckily, consumers' pocketbooks are doing reasonably well," Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss says. "Some people are going to get hurt by this. But the overall impact on the economy is going to be fairly limited."

Low-income households that are already stretched thin are likely struggling to pay their higher gasoline bills, Wyss says.

The nationwide average price of a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.209 on Tuesday, up more than a penny from Monday and 32 cents higher than a year ago, according to motor club AAA.

The average price at the pump is approaching the all-time high even when adjusting for inflation. The inflation-adjusted record was set in March 1981 at $3.223 in today's dollars, according to the Energy Department.

Prices are now above $3 a gallon on average in every state except New Jersey, where the statewide average was $2.95 on Tuesday. The highest price was in Illinois, where it was $3.48 a gallon Tuesday, AAA said.

Retail gasoline prices will likely continue to increase, based on prices in wholesale markets, says Guy Caruso, administrator of the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department.

"Our models indicate that there is still some pass-through that has not reached the retail level," Caruso said Tuesday during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing.

Although gasoline prices have been increasing, incomes have also been rising at a steady pace, as a low unemployment rate has helped push up pay.

Wages and salaries for workers in private industry were up 3.6 percent in March from a year earlier, after a 2.4 percent gain in March 2006, according to the Labor Department.

Offsetting pain at pump

Lehman Bros. chief U.S. economist Ethan Harris expects the job market to remain strong and for wage gains to continue.

"It offsets some of the pain at the pump," he says. Harris expects higher gasoline prices will act as a small drag on consumer spending growth in 2007.

But consumer spending will still grow, he says.

Although higher gasoline prices are adding up, "it's still not enough to take down the consumer," Mesirow Financial chief economist Diane Swonk says.

But some economists are concerned gasoline could spell trouble for the economy.

"We may have been here before . . . but in those instances, increased home prices provided "an offsetting wealth boost," he said. With the housing market in a slump, consumers will not see such an offset in 2007.

Plus, Rosenberg notes the higher gasoline costs have come at a time when prices for food, another staple, are also rising.

Consumers' spending on gasoline accounted for 3.2 percent of disposable income in March, the latest data available, according to Moody's Economy.com.

That was an increase from February, but still lower than the percentage seen when gas prices shot up after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Rate of price rise key

When analyzing the impact on the economy, it's important to look at the pace of change in price, not the level of the price, Stephen Brown, director of energy economics at the Dallas Fed, says.

That's because over time, consumers and businesses adjust to higher prices. It's the sudden jumps that cause problems.

Brown notes that average retail gasoline prices in 2006 were up 30 cents from 2005. This year, the average price is expected to be up between 10 and 15 cents, he says.

"It may not seem gradual, but if we look at the oil price spikes of the '70s and '80s, it was almost overnight," he says.

"People are more accepting now of $3 gas than they were before," A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts President Larry Fine said in a conference call with investors earlier this month, according to Thomson Financial. "I don't think it has the shock value it did to people."

Says Linda Rowell, 47, of Falls Church, Va., when paying $3.11 a gallon to fill up her minivan Tuesday afternoon: "That's just something you have to live with."

Brown estimates higher prices for all forms of energy, not just gasoline, shaved about half a percentage point from economic growth each year in the past few years. This year, the impact will be even smaller, and in 2008, energy prices will have no noticeable impact on the economy, he predicts.

"We're toward the tail-end of the adjustment," Brown says.

There's no doubt that higher gasoline prices are having a significant impact on lower-income consumers and the businesses they frequent.

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott last week told investors that gasoline prices were one of the top three concerns for discount store shoppers after income and other costs, according to Thomson Financial. Officials at Steak 'n Shake and Burger King franchisee Carrols Restaurant Group also expressed concern about rising gasoline prices in investor calls this month.

David Le, 20, a full-time student from Fairfax, Va., who works three part-time jobs, says the current gas price is stretching his already tight budget.

"It's ridiculously high," he says while pumping gas in Falls Church. "I don't get paid enough."

......

So gas prices are going up; food prices are going up. But not to worry, those people who matter are getting raises beyond their needs and those people who are not doing well are already in trouble so they do not matter in our 'money=success' culture.

Corporations are making sure they cash in which ever way the economy goes so by definition the economy is right on track. End of thesis.

Now go shopping with all that extra money you've been hording after you pay for your car and your mortgage and save money for your kids education and pay for you 'health' insurance and ...

Corporate America is depending on you.

Sometimes the Tucson Citizens gets it right ...

Tucson Citizen Our Opinion: Cancer and races

... Together, the Edwardses have decided to continue John Edwards' campaign for the nomination.

Critics have said the family needs to get its priorities straight. Leave the campaign trail. Concentrate on family. Get right with God. (That last one comes from the ever-helpful St. Rush of Limbaugh.)

All of the suggestions are offered with the best of intentions. But they're all variations on the same theme: Go home and wait to die.

Elizabeth Edwards doesn't want to do that. She feels fine, she knows her family better than anyone and she wants to continue the race. She wants to make the same life choices everyone else does. She wants to accomplish something she feels strongly about. ...

Riding while brown ...

The Tucson Citizen has an article titled: Lawyers' advice to migrants: Stay out of cars by Claudine LoMonaco

How does this work? Do they question all the brown colored people in the car?

So the police stop me for a non-working turn signal (which used to happen frequently years ago in my Datsun, 'scuse me, Nissan) and any and all passengers who look like they might have had ancestors from down south get interrogated? But us sorta German/English looking sorts only just get a ticket instructing us to get our car fixed (again).

A ticket for operating an unsafe vehicle is the price of a well regulated society. But interrogation for those riding in a car that got a ticket because you might possibly have entered the country illegally is called a police state. If our society is going to question all passengers in order to identify possible illegal aliens then why not collect ID's on all the passengers and run them through to see if there are any other crimes these people might be involved in. Why don't we set up road blocks every 25 miles and check everyone. Why not have them searched and require that they take their shoes off to check for bombs.

Just think how 'safe' we could be ...

The Tucson Citizen has it backwards ...

This is like saying the police defied the suspect by issuing an arrest warrant:

House defies Bush, OKs subpoenas

A House panel defied President Bush on Wednesday and voted to authorize subpoenas for White House adviser Karl Rove and other administration officials in its inquiry into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

ADDED: The above article is not the only evidence of backwardness at the Tucson Citizen. All I found in the Citizen about Al Gore's appearance before Congress yesterday is an article copied from the Gannett News Service titled: Gore challenged to cut his utility bills.

Tucson Citizen's Robert Robb misrepresents another issue ...

Robert Robb at the Tucson Citizen equates 'depressed construction wages' with 'liberal' immigration policy.

Liberal policy would be concerned that all workers are able unionize should they choose to and negotiate for fair wages.

It is the business sector that benefits and encourages illegal immigrants.

Instead of raiding businesses for the non-documented our policies and laws should ensure that ALL employees are paid at least the minimum wage, that ALL employees can unionize, that ALL employees have rights and are protected from abuse by employers.

Construction is not the only area of depressed wages. The business community has made much progress in eliminating unions, which I assume Robert Robb knows. It is the business community that benefits from the current immigration mess. Not liberals nor 'liberal' policy.
--------------------
Tucson Citizen: Migrants depressing construction wages by Robert Robb

Re-writing a Tucson Citizen Op-Ed ...

My modifications appear in italics and between brackets (e.g. []) and the strike-through symbol is used for deletions from the original editorial.

OUR OPINION: Four-year sink into quicksand has no easy fix
Tucson Citizen

Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of our nation's invasion of Iraq, a war that most everyone now agrees was based on either flawed or misrepresented intelligence [lies, lies and more lies].

The price has been extremely high: more than 3,200 American military men and women killed, more than 24,000 U.S. military wounded, tens [hundreds] of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed and [more than ]$500 billion spent [and still rising].

Most Americans now oppose the war, polls show. But how the United States can extricate itself from this morass is the chief question - and the most complex and controversial one. [Give us a break here, we want to appear rational, unlike that embarrassment in the White House. But like all good Republicans we will follow ower leeeder over the cliff if we can pull the country, and specially Democrats, over with us.]

Many [Most] Democrats in Congress, along with many [most] Americans, oppose President Bush's push for a "surge" of troops. [Please note that we use the President's word-spin 'surge' instead of the term 'escalation,' which would be more accurate. Good Republicans R Us.]

Nonetheless, Bush last week announced that 4,700 support troops will join the 21,500 extra soldiers he ordered to Iraq in January. [Nonetheless, we needed a certain number of words in this article so 'nonetheless' seemed like good filler just here, at this point, appropriate like, you know.]

Even more forces probably will be needed to provide aviation support to the troop surge. An estimated 130,000 troops already are there. [Estimates, shestimates, you probably cannot believe any numbers put out by ower leeeder or his friends or even those who once were his friends.]

While Democrats continue to decry the surge, the infusion of troops is clearly a done deal. [Live with it Dems and stop paying attention to what the voters say. If you didn't pay any attention we Republicans would be just fine. What's wrong with you people anyway?]

Both sides need to stop blathering. The focus for Congress and Bush now must be to carefully craft a unified withdrawal strategy, making the Iraqi government increasingly responsible for the security of its own country. [Right, we need to get out but we are good Republicans and will not suggest that Bush has no intention of getting out and we will definitely not support the Congress utilizing its considerable power of the purse to put real pressure on the administration. No, best to be good followers and just accuse both sides of 'blathering.' Then we can hint that both sides stop acting like children and sit down in their sandbox and be friends.]

As the torch is passed back to Iraqi leaders, our military forces must be protected - with sufficient funding to meet all their needs - and returned home. [Iraq, it's all your fault now. Just forget that we destroyed your country to capture and kill one man who was no threat to us.]

Once home, those who have been wounded in any way must be afforded the best medical and psychological care possible. [We really believe this but we will not follow up and make sure this happens because it may embarrass some of our friends.]

We seriously doubt that the United States ever will be able to honestly declare "mission accomplished" in this troubled region. [If disorder, disarray and the transfer of funds from the tax payers to Bush cronies was the 'mission' then it's been accomplished with bells on.]

When this war was launched, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld clearly had no understanding of the complicated and ancient divisions that torment Iraq. [Even we wish these individuals were more intelligent and rational. Supporting a stupid man for president didn't turn out like we thought it would.]

Although the U.S. did succeed in ousting Saddam Hussein, chaos continues to shake Iraq at every turn. [All the king's horses, and all the king's men ... ]

Now the U.S. must work with top military strategists to ensure that a smooth withdrawal endangers neither our troops nor Iraqi civilians, leaders and infrastructure. [Yes, we know this is a meaningless paragraph. But words cover for our cluelessness.]

We must exit on our own terms, relinquishing control on our own timetable, rather than letting insurgents dictate our decisions. [There is so much wrong with this statement that I don't know where to begin. First, 'we' in the form of Bush, have been doing exactly what anti-US types like bin Laden wish. 'We' in the form of Bush has probably helped them succeed beyond their wildest dreams. Then there's the phrase 'relinquishing control.' Control? We have control? And then there's something about a timetable. We don't even have plans, mileposts and timetables are for weenies according to this administration. And there's the term 'insurgents.' A nice all encompassing, but mostly meaningless, term into which we can lump anyone of a number of factions that do no like 'us.']

But that cannot be done until Congress and the president stop fighting and start strategizing. [And since we know the president has no intention of stopping the war does the phrase a cold day in Hell ring a bell?]