ACCUSATIONS CONTINUE UNABATED AS MORE
PEOPLE ARE ATTACKED/MALIGNED:
Those who are
participating in the
defamation of character efforts in
Quartzsite should do a fast review of the legal
fallout of such a move. Lawsuits are expensive
to defend when innocent people are attacked
simply because they hold a different opinion or
refuse to align themselves with the attackers,
as the Town, already inundated with suits, can
attest...
READ MORE

LA PAZ COUNTY HIRES BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY IN
LAST DITCH EFFORT TO
DEFLECT $12.3 MILLION DOLLAR JUDGEMENT DEBT
The La Paz County
Board of Supervisors have just announced their
intent to investigate filing bankruptcy with the
hiring of a bankruptcy attorney. This
would reject Willett's request to own the
landfill in exchange for relief from the debt
owed him. County officials can face more
problems than they might suspect as bankruptcy
limits even further their ability to pay -- as
evidenced by this case against
Orange County
for failing in their duties will attest.
Quartzsite businessman Richard Oldham had
offered to pay off Willett, without the risk
of bringing sludge through the area -- but
that offer was effectively prevented from even
being heard, and misrepresentations of Oldham's
offer were erroneously published and openly
discussed -- all without interviewing Oldham
concerning the details...
READ MORE
LESSON IN JOURNALISM: THE
REAL THING
Professional
journalism involves reporting real facts: not
paraphrasing announcements or providing
information simply on the basis of 'hearsay.' It
is for this reason there must be a place for the
free press, for First Amendment Rights which are
designed to hold our leaders accountable, as
well as laws in place to demand they provide
substantiating documentation upon demand...
READ MORE
PINAL
COUNTY SHERIFF PAUL BABEU
TURNS TO ALTERNATIVE MEDIA TO WARN OF ESCALATING
DANGER ON ARIZONA'S BORDER
VIDEO
WATCH MORE

Sheriff Babeu has
discovered he's been tar-geted by Mexico's drug
cartels and has taken a position along side Jan
Brewer to warn Arizonans of risks they may not
have realized existed this side of the border...
FOSTER SUCCEEDS IN FORCING
THE
TOWN COUNCIL TO FACE
REFERENDUM
IN EFFORT TO DISEMPOWER MAYOR...

Once more, town
officials have publicly failed in efforts to
withhold power -- and documents -- from
Quartzsite's new Mayor, Ed Foster. In an
unprecedented move to again carry the issues
before voters, Foster's supporters easily
obtained the number of signatures required to
force a referendum, effectively preventing the
proposals to undermine Foster's Mayoral
authority from even taking effect...
READ MORE
ARIZONANS WEIGH IN ON
BREWER'S BATTLE:

Jan Brewer has no shortage of fans in
Arizona where polls prove her constituents --
including Hispanics who have legally come to the
U.S. -- admire and support her challenges to
those who would hand over the State of Arizona
to illegal immigrants. In fact, her staunch
dedication to listening to her constituents has
earned her a large following across the U.S.
Look out, Obama!
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT to FILE SUIT AGAINST STATE OF
ARIZONA

Critics charge Obama is
allowing border issues to escalate to press
through immigration amnesty program -- but both
the State of Arizona and Governor Brewer are
named in the lawsuit brought by the Justice
Department, which accuses both of overstepping
authority that is actually under the purview of
the Federal government...
READ MORE
BP CONTINUES TO STALL WHILE SPILL WORSENS...
READ MORE
WAR CRIMINAL BLAIR GETS PEACE MEDAL --
STUNNED REACTION WORLDWIDE...
READ MORE
CITIZEN'S COALITION
CONFUSION OVER MIX OF COMMENTS BY WINSLOW CAUSES
CONCERN...

The Citizen's Coalition -- with Foster as past
Director -- has a stated goal: Education. The
'Reform Slate' is a separate,
independent group with no affiliation whatsoever
with the Citizen's Coalition, past or present.
VIDEO HERE
READ MORE
SHE'S NEVER TRIED
A CASE, SHE'S NEVER
BEEN A JUDGE: WILL
KAGAN PREVAIL?

Kagan's manipulation of the facts on
partial birth abortion are challenged as her
appointment is considered -- critics proclaim
she will 'rubberstamp' Obama's agendas...
READ MORE
WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN THE GULF?
CRITICS SPEAK OUT

There is a
solution:
READ
MORE -- VIDEO HERE
APPEAL'S COURT
VERDICT IN: COUNTY LIABLE IN YAKIMA DEAL --
JURY'S AWARD STANDS
READ MORE
COUNCIL'S MEETING DISRUPTED AS THREE
COUNCILMEN [2 ALREADY UNDER RECALL] WORK TO
UNDERMINE NEW MAYOR...

Under FOSTER'S reign, the citizenry can finally
have their say in Quartzsite's town Hall
meetings. But a few citizens took the
opportunity to make long diatribes, most of them
critical of the council's perceived inability to
'get along.' COWELL and WINSLOW are cur-rently
under recall, with efforts pending against
LUKKASSON, LIZARRAGA and KELLEY.
When the
meeting was finally underway, Councilmen
LUKKASSON, COWELL, and WINSLOW criticized
Foster, each making various unsub-stantiated
claims, with LUKKASSON and WINSLOW asking newly
elected Foster to resign his post, drawing angry
outbursts from the crowd that had assembled.
READ MORE
GOVERNMENT INACTION IN BP
SPILL BRINGS FIRESTORM OF CONTROVERSY
FOSTER DENIED ACCESS TO
PAYROLL RECORDS:
PER ALEX TAFT
After repeated efforts by both
Mayor Foster and Councilman Robert Kelley to
secure the documentation pertinent to four
questioned payroll expenditures [take home
pay totaling $8,977.31 during a two week
period] Foster resorted to filing a public
records request that should have brought the
Town Manager into compliance.
REQUEST AND RESPONSE HERE
In the past, a document
request has resulted in such information being
disseminated. This time, however, Taft simply
refused to comply.
Providing evidence of a document request
subsequently rejected by Town officials will
bring the State Ombudsman's office
into the issue, and lend credence to those that
complain that Taft is not abiding by the law in
such instances. More than a simple document
request, Foster cannot perform his duties as
Mayor if he is prohibited from seeing
documentation pertinent to the town's
expenditures.
RECALL EFFORT MOVES
AHEAD: BOTH COWELL AND
WINSLOW'S COMPLETE

A series of decisions unpopular
with voters have now resulted in Petitions for
Recall on Joe Winslow and Barbara Cowell. Both
councilmen's petitions needed at least 61
signatures to succeed -- and circulators
reported that both petitions contained over 100
signatures, due to voter discontent over issues
with the two.
READ MORE

Recall
workers gather petition signatures. Enough
signers are already in on Cowell & Winslow's
recalls.
Once a
peaceful small town known for tourists and an
unparalleled rock vending trade, Quartzsite is
now embattled, embittered and fighting for
solvency amidst a series of controversial moves
by Town Manager Alex Taft while new Mayor Ed
Foster seeks advice from those more than
familiar with Quartzsite's reputation for
it's volatile political climate...
Two weeks ago, the Town Hall meeting during
which Foster was sworn in deteriorated into
virtual mayhem when Taft's proposals to
disempower the new Mayor were passed by four
council members in spite of strong public outcry
demanding the new Mayor have a chance to prove
himself before officials sought to withdraw his
powers.
Four of them [Winslow, Anderson, Cowell and
Lukkasson] immediately went ahead with the
decision to vote for the withdrawal of powers
from Foster --and without a single word of
discussion between them during the meeting. But
the move wasn't without a swift and strong
backlash from Quartzsite's voters, who promptly
began requesting and signing recall papers
against those that challenged Foster's rights as
Mayor.
Both Winslow and Cowell's positions were already
under fire from previous actvities undertaken by
the two who are not newly elected and, thus,
accessible under recall.
The remainder of the officials have just now
taken their seats. Lizarraga abstained, and
Kelley voted against the measures to limit
Foster's powers.
Foster's Mayoral rights
are stipulated under Arizona Law and this week
the battle lines are being drawn between those
that would challenge Foster -- and may soon
discover they have problems they've not even
considered. Councilmen that choose to
break the law in order to do what they wish --
or what they are ordered to do by another
official -- are not protected against suits
brought by those effected by those choices.
Quartzsite is already in an insurance pool
[provided insurance only because an insurer is
forced to take them] through the Arizona branch
of the League of Cities and Towns.
Because of a series of poor choices, the town is
virtually 'uninsurable.' Were Foster to
challenge those individuals that comprise the
sitting council in court, anything they've done
that resulted in the breaking of a law would
leave those individuals at risk of a suit
against them personally, with their personal
assets at risk.
Some of the officials with oversight
responsibilities concerning Quartzsite have
already expressed concern over these pending
issues.
READ MORE
A political battle has ensued since four sitting
councilmen sought to disempower Quartzsite's
newly elected Mayor Tuesday, in spite of strong
public outcry...
SEE:
DISEMPOWERED
READ MORE
Foster has
addressed the issue of Tuesday's council meeting
here, in The MINESHAFT, his local
publication.

The
already established and required emergency
protocol
communities are to have in place in the event of
an emergency [CLICK
FOR THE PUBLIC HEALTH SECURITY AND BIOTERRORISM
PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE ACT]
that would have prevented the problems that
resulted in Quartzsite's dilemma... Citizens, in
fact,
have the RIGHT to know
[Click for the RIGHT TO KNOW ACT]
if there is a problem that may effect
the safety of their drinking water.
[Click for the SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT.] Read
here for
UNDERSTANDING THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT.]
READ MORE

Steve Bennett's pool [shown here] was the focus
of concerns about drinking water over the
weekend. ADEQ will arrive Monday to test the
water for contaminants and see what, exactly, is
in the water.
The 'public' meeting of the town's incumbents
has already created a flap:
attendees have indicated that the acting Mayor
stated that the town would have to learn to get
along without vendors...
and he now denies he made that statement.



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