It is urgent — we have only a few days — for all of us to call Gov. Jan Brewer and implore her to reject House Bill 2780. Her telephone number is 602-542-4331.

Regarding dogs involved in herding livestock, this terrible bill attempts to strip away from cities and counties much of the authority they have now to adopt or enforce cruelty laws.

According to HB 2780, such a dog could be punished or abused, and local laws could not be applied to help the dog if the act was supposedly “necessary” for the safety of livestock. This is only one instance of the exemptions from local cruelty laws the bill provides for abusers.

It is ranchers who are lobbying for the passage of this dreadful bill.

We must all call the governor immediately to help defenseless dogs.

— Jane Schweri,
president of People For Animals in the Prevention of Cruelty and Neglect

ONLINE COMMENTS

In response to the April 5 column “Limiting prom dress selection unfair to students”:

Girls that attend the prom are usually 15-18 years old and are impressionable students, unlike the fake Hollywood stars that are older and use their bodies to advance their careers.

These girls do not realize the impression they are giving by wearing such revealing outfits. It is immature and irresponsible opinions such as yours that encourages children to try to look older than they are when they are too young to realize the consequences of their appearance.

As the fashion world and clothing industry continue to throw these revealing outfits at our children at younger and younger ages, is it any wonder that children are kidnapped, molested and murdered at higher and higher rates? Instead of encouraging pedophiles (in a round-about way), you should be supporting parents’ rights to raise their children to appreciate guidelines and respect themselves for who they are, since in the long run the parents are the ones that also suffer the consequences of children’s poor decisions.

— Steve Ballinger

In response to April 12 column “Police justified in utilizing cellphone location tracking”:

Megan, thank you for not being so quick to condemn law enforcement. You rightly mentioned that there was no indication that any eavesdropping of calls was conducted and that operations were limited to location tracking only. In light of this information and the recent Supreme Court ruling disallowing the use of GPS trackers, I am left to wonder if cell tracing will be the next use of technology that is deemed an “unreasonable search.”

— Johnny

Sounds like a typical liberal, give up your rights and freedoms for a government controlled environment. This author actually states we shouldn’t stray away even though it is an invasion of privacy? Do you really think the government will respect any kind of regulations? Have you seen the Patriot Act? No wonder why this country is failing.

— James

In response to April 11 article “Natyazhko to leave school, pursue professional career in Europe”:
That’s not much of a surprise to me. He hasn’t been involved in most of the plays the team ran during his career at UA. I do however hope that he made a good decision about this. I wish him the best in Europe.

—Nethanel Faison

He sucked. We need to free up scholarships this is all a blessing.

— Mont Hoyt