Homeless in Arizona

Kyrsten Sinema still undecided about bombing Syria???

Looks like alleged anti-war activist and Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema is still undecided about bombing Syria.

I suspect Kyrsten Sinema wants to be see both as an anti-war activist who is against bombing Syria and a war monger who supports bombing Syria so she can grab both of their votes in the next election.

I suspect that Kyrsten Sinema will vote to give her hero Emperor Obama permission to bomb Syria. That's just my opinion. I don't have anything to back it up.

That differs from her former anti-war buddies who are all 100 percent against bombing Syria.

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Speech gets tepid response from Ariz.’s D.C. delegates

By Dan Nowicki The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Sep 10, 2013 10:33 PM

President Barack Obama’s high-stakes speech on Syria received a lukewarm response Tuesday from Arizona’s Washington delegation.

Supporters of his call for military intervention said Obama’s argument wasn’t forceful enough, and those skeptical of his plan said he failed to change their minds.

Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake agree with Obama on the need to use military force against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons, but they were underwhelmed by the president’s argument for strikes.

The two Arizona Republicans are skeptical of a proposal from Russian President Vladimir Putin that would allow Syrian President Bashar Assad to avoid a U.S. attack by surrendering his regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons to international authorities, but both said the president is right to pursue that option. Obama announced Tuesday that he had asked House and Senate leaders to postpone voting on a resolution to authorize military action until the Russian plan is explored.

“We appreciate the president speaking directly to the American people about the conflict in Syria,” McCain said in a joint statement with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a fellow member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We regret, however, that he did not speak more forcefully about the need to increase our military assistance to moderate opposition forces in Syria, such as the Free Syrian Army. We also regret that he did not lay out a clearer plan to test the seriousness of the Russian and Syrian proposal to transfer the Assad regime’s chemical weapons to international custody.”

McCain and Graham called for the United States and its allies to introduce “a tough U.N. Security Council resolution that lays out what steps Syria would have to take to give up its chemical weapons, including making a full and accurate declaration of all of its chemical weapons and granting international monitors unfettered access to all sites in Syria that possess these weapons.” Serious consequences for Syria’s failure to comply also would have to be part of the deal, they said.

Flake, in an interview with The Arizona Republic, called the president’s speech anticlimactic given the fast-moving events of the past 48 hours. He agreed that evidence against Assad is compelling, but Flake said Obama’s separate appeals to the political right and left in his speech weren’t effective because the issue doesn’t clearly split along party lines.

Obama would have been better off launching a targeted strike against Syria in response to the alleged Aug. 21 chemical-weapons incident, which killed more than 1,000 men, women and children, and reporting to Congress later, Flake added. That way, Obama would not have had to convince war-weary Americans and lawmakers that the engagement would be limited.

“I think that a lot of people have made up their minds, and they’re skeptical that this would be a limited strike,” Flake said. “I think there’s a lot of skepticism, and the president correctly said that people view it through the prism of Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s a tough thing to break out of.”

McCain and Flake both sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and on Sept. 4 voted in favor of a resolution authorizing the use of military force against Assad. However, public and congressional opinion has leaned strongly against U.S. action.

On Monday, the situation shifted again after Putin proposed that Syria relinquish its chemical-weapons stockpile, which Assad previously had refused to even publicly confirm possessing.

“It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments,” Obama said during the 16-minute address he delivered to the nation from the East Room of the White House. “But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force.”

Meanwhile, McCain is working with a group of senators on an amendment to the resolution that cleared the Foreign Relations Committee to ensure the latest development is not just a stalling tactic. In a Tuesday appearance on “CBS This Morning,” McCain said the revisions “would require strict timelines and strict guidelines that would have to be met as part of the authorization for the president.”

Obama’s speech did little to sway members of Arizona’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives to support his call for intervention in Syria.

Republican Rep. Matt Salmon said he remained opposed to military action. “I do not believe (Obama’s) speech won over the Congress or the American people,” Salmon said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C., following the president’s prime-time speech to the nation.

The president failed to explain why Syria poses an immediate threat to the U.S. and didn’t lay out a credible strategy, according to the Mesa congressman.

Salmon supports the diplomatic alternative that Obama has agreed to pursue, of negotiating for Syria to hand control of its chemical weapons to the United Nations. But Salmon said Obama is taking credit for an option that he “stumbled into” when Secretary of State John Kerry floated it hypothetically Monday.

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Prescott said the speech showed Obama “just got bested at geopolitical chess.” The president asked to delay congressional votes to authorize military action, in Gosar’s estimation, because he saw he did not have enough support.

“(The president) has not changed my opposition to military action. He made no convincing argument that a military strike is in our nation's interest,” Gosar said.

The president has lost credibility on Syria, he said, and overall on foreign policy.

Republican Rep. David Schweikert has been skeptical of the president’s call for military strikes, as has Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who has called for international cooperation. Neither answered The Republic’s request for reaction to the speech.

Nor did Arizona’s members who have said they haven’t made up their minds on the president’s plan: Republican Rep. Trent Franks and Democrats Kyrsten Sinema, Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatick and Ed Pastor.

Republic reporters Rebekah L. Sanders and Erin Kelly contributed to this article.

Colorado recalls dealt a serious blow to gun-control advocates

Kyrsten Sinema is a gun grabbing politician that needs to be recalled????

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The Colorado recalls dealt a serious blow to gun-control advocates. Here’s why.

By Sean Sullivan, Published: September 11 at 6:30 am

Something pretty remarkable happened in Colorado on Tuesday night. John Morse, the Democratic president of the state Senate, was recalled from office. So was Democratic state Sen. Angela Giron.

Taken together, the losses arguably represent the biggest defeat for gun-control advocates since the push for expanded background checks failed in the U.S. Senate earlier this year.

Morse and Giron appeared on ballots Tuesday in the culmination of a recall campaign that largely shaped up as a referendum on the state’s recently passed gun-control laws, for which both Morse and Giron voted. Out of state money poured in on both sides. On one end, the National Rifle Association dished out six figures. On the other, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did too.

It’s not every day that you see an incumbent recalled from office, let alone someone as high-profile as a state Senate president. The message the defeat of Morse and Giron sends to legislators all across the country is unmistakable: If you are thinking about pushing for new gun-control laws, you could face swift consequences.

“You could almost call it the bellwether state as far as what’s going to happen down the road as far as gun-control and Second Amendment rights,” Republican George Rivera, who will fill Giron’s seat, told The Fix late last month.

The particulars of Tuesday’s elections prompted some gun-control advocates to argue that the results shouldn’t be over-read. For one thing, voters didn’t receive mail ballots automatically, a substantial change of protocol in a state where the majority of voters cast their votes via mail. For another, the losses don’t mean Republicans will control the Senate; nor do they mean the gun laws that Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) signed into law will be repealed.

“This election does not reflect the will of Coloradans, a majority of whom strongly support background checks and opposed these recalls,” said Bloomberg in a statement distributed by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group he co-founded. “It was a reflection of a very small, carefully selected population of voters’ views on the legislature’s overall agenda this session.”

But it shouldn’t go overlooked that registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the two districts where voters cast ballots (though Morse’s district is more of a swing district than Giron’s more Democratic-leaning territory). And the anti-recall side easily outraised the pro-recall interests. The Democratic losses are a reflection of the fact that enthusiasm was squarely on the opposite side of Morse and Giron.

“The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) is proud to have stood with the men and women in Colorado who sent a clear message that their Second Amendment rights are not for sale,” the NRA’s political arm said in a statement.

While the long-term significance of the election will assuredly be be debated, it’s hard to argue against the proposition that lawmakers in other states will have Colorado somewhere in their minds the next time a push to tighten gun laws begins ramping up.

In the larger debate over gun laws, Tuesday was another victory for the NRA and its allies, who earlier this year demonstrated the power they wield in the campaign to prevent the passage of tighter gun restrictions in Congress.

Two Colorado state legislators lost on Tuesday and two Republicans won the chance to replace them. But make no mistake, the effects could be felt well beyond the borders of the Centennial State.

How do you spell revenue??? Legalized marijuana!!!

On the light rail yesterday I talked to a number of Colorado baseball fans who were returning from a Diamondbacks baseball game.

From talking to them I got the impression that the government rulers in Colorado don't thing of Colorado's legalization of marijuana as ending years of government tyranny against marijuana smokers.

Instead they seem to think of it as a new way to shake down the serfs they rule over for money.

They told me that pot is selling in government stores in Colorado for over $300 an ounce. It looks like the government rulers in Colorado want to shift the outrageously high profits the drug cartels make to themselves.

Considering that marijuana is a stinking weed that is easier to grow in tomatoes, if pot prices were driven by the free market, a pound of marijuana wouldn't cost any more then a pound of potatoes.

They also told me that you couldn't just walk into a marijuana store in Denver and buy pot. You had to get a stinking pot license.

They told me that it costs $60 for the permit and by the time you add all the taxes it costs a little less then $100.

They showed me one of their licenses, which looked a lot like an Arizona auto title, but was about half the size.

Sadly it looks like our government masters are viewing legalized marijuana as just a lame excuse to shake us down for more money.

Remember the Boston Tea Party was about a lousy one and three quarter percent tax on tea. These government bandits in Colorado seem to think it's OK to slap a 300,000 percent tax on marijuana. They make King George look like an honest ethical guy.

For that matter they make Arizona politician and U.S. Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema look like a politician who supports low tax rates with her ridiculously high 300 percent tax on medical marijuana.

Aaron Alexis approved to buy a gun despite mental problems

Gun grabber Kyrsten Sinema's says that people shouldn't be allowed to have guns unless the government gives them a permit.

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- Require a license for gun possession.

- Maintain and strengthen the enforcement of existing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns.

- Require background checks on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows.

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Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis heard voices

By Richard A. Serrano, David Cloud and Molly Hennessy-Fiske

September 17, 2013, 9:39 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Six weeks ago, Aaron Alexis told people someone had threatened him at an airport in Virginia. A few days later, in Rhode Island, he heard voices. He thought people were speaking to him through "the walls, floor and ceiling" of the Navy base there, where he was working.

In his hotel room, the voices used "some sort of microwave machine" to send vibrations through the ceiling and into his body, a police report shows him saying. He could not sleep.

Alexis frequently moved as part of his contract work at military installations from New England to North Carolina; he arrived in Washington on Aug. 25. He switched hotels several times until Sept. 7, when he finally settled into the Residence Inn — a mile from his new workplace at the historic Washington Navy Yard on the capital's waterfront.

On Saturday he visited a gun shop in the Virginia suburbs. He practiced firing a rifle, then purchased a Remington 870 shotgun and 24 shells. The short-barrel weapon, known popularly as a "riot gun," is commonly used by police and the military.

On Monday he reported to work with that shotgun. The FBI says he had a valid pass to enter the base. At 8:15 a.m., in Building 197, the most crowded structure there, he opened fire, grabbed a pistol along the way, and killed 12 people, shooting at police until they killed him in a gun battle that lasted about half an hour.

A day later, Alexis' history of mental problems, his extensive disciplinary record from his time in the Navy, and his three arrests over the last decade — two of them for gun-related incidents — have generated numerous questions.

Many are reminiscent of past mass shootings: How had police, the military and the company he worked for missed the accumulating signs of trouble? Why was the 34-year-old loner and drifter given an ID card that would allow him to easily come and go from military bases around the country without a security check? How could he so readily pass a background check to buy a shotgun?

Amid those questions, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to order a review of security procedures at all Defense Department installations in the U.S., a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

At the company Alexis worked for, the Experts, an information technology firm based in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Chief Executive Thomas E. Hoshko said that despite having paid another company to conduct a background check on Alexis before hiring him in 2012, to Hoshko's knowledge his company was "never made aware of any criminal or health issues."

"I have more questions than you, and I am working to find out what can be done to improve security on bases, as well as the security process," he wrote in an email.

Alexis' secret-level security clearance, which he originally received in 2008 after joining the Navy, made him a valuable hire for an IT company with contracts to work on classified computer networks. And it allowed him entry to the Navy Yard without being searched.

Like most military personnel, Alexis got his clearance as a routine matter so he could access the computers that he might use on a daily basis in his job as an electronics expert on C-40 cargo planes at Fort Worth Naval Air Station, Navy officials said.

The clearance was good for a decade, officials said. Although his Navy record included several unauthorized absences from duty, instances of insubordination and disorderly conduct, one case of being absent without leave and several failed inspections, none of the problems rose to a level that would have jeopardized his clearance, they said.

When Alexis was discharged in 2011, his clearance became inactive, but it was reinstated without the need for additional investigation when he went to work for a contractor, officials said.

"The security clearance system is not foolproof," said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy and security expert with the Federation of American Scientists. "But what is reasonable to expect is that evidence of past criminal activity and a propensity to violence should be detected, and in this case the process failed to do that."

Navy officials said that because of his disciplinary problems as a sailor, they had considered giving Alexis something less than an honorable discharge. But since he had never been convicted of a crime and had glowing fitness reports, they eventually granted him an honorable separation.

In evaluations from 2007 to 2011, first reported by Fox News, Alexis was described as "an eager trainee" with "unlimited potential" and a "get-it-done attitude." A 2008 report called him a "talented technician" on aircraft electrical systems who should be promoted.

An arrest in Georgia in 2008 for disorderly conduct stemming from an incident at a bar, however, prompted a negative review.

"He has had a severe lapse in judgment on a number of occasions and has been counseled several times for inappropriate conduct," the review said in spring 2009, noting that he had been reduced in rank and had his pay docked.

When Alexis appealed the punishment, it was overturned. Subsequent reviews were once again positive.

The system of background checks for gun purchases also failed to pick up Alexis' problems.

J. Michael Slocum, an attorney for the Sharpshooters Small Arms Range and gun store in Lorton, Va., said that "Mr. Alexis' name and other applicable information, including his state of residency, was provided to the federal [Naval Criminal Investigative Service] system, and he was approved by that system."

The shotgun purchase appears to have complied with Virginia's laws, which are less stringent than those in some other states. In 2007, after 23-year-old student Seung-hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech, then-Gov. Tim Kaine signed an executive order requiring that the names of all people involuntarily committed to mental health facilities be provided to a federal database that licensed gun dealers are supposed to check before they sell anyone a gun.

But Alexis does not appear to have been committed. In Rhode Island, when he reported hearing voices, police told him to stay away from the people he thought were bothering him, but otherwise took no action, according to a police report released Tuesday. Rhode Island, like most other states, sets a fairly stringent standard for what officials must prove in order to involuntarily commit a person.

As a result, when Alexis reported to the Navy Yard, he "had legitimate access … as a result of his work as a contractor, and he utilized a valid pass to gain entry to the building," Valerie Parlave, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Security at the base already has been reviewed. A Defense Department inspector general's report released Tuesday said that a computer database system the Navy had adopted to reduce costs while controlling contractors' access had allowed convicted felons onto bases 52 times.

Several members of Congress quickly leapt on the report, saying it pointed to problems. "This apparent security lapse — permitting people with criminal records to freely access military bases and facilities — is deeply troubling," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Alexis arrived at the base with the shotgun, and "may have gained access to a handgun once inside the facility and after he began shooting," Parlave said. Investigators believe he may have shot and killed a security guard and taken his weapon. Contrary to previous accounts that were widely reported Monday, Parlave said Alexis had not used an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

Cathy Lanier, chief of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, said police officers were at the Navy Yard within two minutes of the first calls for help. Within four or five minutes, she said, seven police units were on the scene, trying to determine where the gunfire was coming from.

"There were different buildings, different calls and different building numbers," she said. After a short time, she said, "we had units outside the building where the shooter was, and they could hear another round of gunfire. They entered immediately and two of them started giving lookouts and passing information along.

"There were multiple engagements with the suspect with multiple agencies before the final shots were fired," and this "saved numerous lives," Lanier said.

Parlave said the FBI believed Alexis acted alone. Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. attorney in Washington, said federal prosecutors nonetheless were investigating whether others assisted him in any way, even inadvertently. "We're not going to stop until we get answers to these questions," he said.

Melinda Downs, 44, a close friend from Alexis' days in Fort Worth, said she wished someone had helped him in other ways. Although he stayed with her and her husband during part of August, Downs said she had no clue that he had been hearing voices while in Rhode Island. She said he did not mention being followed or frequently changing hotels, nor his previous arrests for firing a gun through the ceiling of his apartment in Fort Worth and shooting the tires of a person's car in Seattle.

But, Downs said, she wished police had done more when he called them in distress.

"Did they try to get him some kind of help?" she wondered. "Take him to a counseling center?"

"When someone calls in with this type of mental instability, and you do nothing and yet he has access to all these weapons — the police who took that call have some kind of accountability," she said. "Why didn't they get him help?"

richard.serrano@latimes.com

david.cloud@latimes.com

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Serrano and Cloud reported from Washington and Hennessy-Fiske from Fort Worth. Times staff writers Tina Susman in New York and Richard Winton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

The DEA, CIA, FBI and NSA were reading my email

Of course I was paranoid and wonder was someone else really reading my email.

Of course my first guess was that it was one of my enemies like David Dorn.

And of course the second guess was that it was the government.

Of course now after Edward Snowden released his information that the government was spying on it that I realized that the government probably was involved with illegally reading my emails several times.

I also wondered why on Earth government would waste their time cracking my passwords.

Well again from the recently released information about government spying it turns out that the government wasn't cracking my passwords.

The NSA was simply twisting the arms of Google and Yahoo and getting them to give the government the passwords and email addresses of people the government considers to be criminals like me.

Of course the government's definition of a criminal seems to be any body that "thinks they have Constitutional rights" or anybody that expects the government to obey it's own laws.

And I guess by those definitions I am a criminal because I do think I have "Constitutional Rights" and I do expect the government to obey it's laws.

Of course I an not a criminal by the standards most normal people think of criminals being.

I don't steal stuff. I don't vandalize stuff. I don't destroy property.

$5.4 million jobs program for cops

Arizona police departments get $5.4 million to hire more officers

By D.S. Woodfill The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:07 PM

Police departments across the state will get $5.4 million in federal grants to hire more officers.

For some departments, the hirings will be first since the recession hit Arizona and the rest of the nation.

The grants from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Police Services were announced at a Thursday news conference by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, whose city got the lion’s share – nearly $1.9 million.

“Today is a great day for public safety,” Stanton said.

He was joined by Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia, law-enforcement leaders from around the state including Yuma, Glendale and Peoria, and Joshua Ederheimer, acting director of the Justice Department’s COPS program.

Phoenix’s share will pay for 15 officer positions. Officers will be assigned to schools as part of the department’s School Resource Officer Program.

“We worked hard for this grant,” Stanton said. “Councilman Valenzuela and I personally went to Washington and visited with the Department of Justice to make the case why this particular grant in the city of Phoenix (was) incredibly important for our young people.”

Like departments around the Valley, Garcia said the Phoenix Police Department has made sacrifices to help the city keep a balanced budget since the economic downturn. That’s forced leaders to find other ways, such as grants, to maintain staffing.

“These grants from the DOJ will allow us to continue ... adding much needed officers in our community,” he said.

Other funds will go to the department’s Business and Economic Stability Team, which is a group of officers who focus on catching criminals trafficking stolen goods and counterfeit merchandise, he said.

“Some of these funds will help pay for their training, overtime and software that will help us find and prosecute those who are causing great economic loss to our city,” Garcia said.

Ederheimer said the agency has awarded $14 billion to cities, counties and tribal governments since 1994, facilitating more than 124,000 law enforcement jobs.

About 7,000 of those jobs were added in the past three years.

“They’ve been delivered during a time when cities have had to make tough choices as it relates to public safety,” Ederheimer said.

Ederheimer said the COPS program takes into account criteria such as a city’s fiscal need, crime rates and effectiveness of their community policing efforts.

“It’s not just about delivering money,” he said. “It’s about providing valuable resources to agencies with a legitimate need and the ability to achieve ... solutions.”

Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter Jr., whose department got $375,000 to hire three officers, said the funds are sorely needed. The funds will help the department create its first new positions since the economy tanked.

“This is huge for us, and it’s huge for the city,” he said. “We have been and continue to be one of the fastest-growing cities here in the West Valley, so it’s important for us to continue to maintain a high staffing level.”

Minter said the officers will be assigned to the department’s community-policing program. Those patrol officers are assigned to specific parts of the city and are intended to form strong relationships with business owners and residents when not tending to regular duties.

The Glendale Police Department got the second largest grant, about $1.3 million, which will pay for 10 officers.

“These will be patrol officers, and we are going to use them to continue to fight violent crime in Glendale,” spokesman Jay O’Neil said. “That’s going to be their main focus.”

Tempe housing complex for deaf under fire

Tempe housing complex for deaf under fire

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:05 PM

State officials and advocates for the deaf are ramping up the pressure in a legal dispute with the federal government over fair-housing policies and a Tempe housing complex that accommodates deaf, deaf-blind and hearing-impaired senior citizens.

For nearly two years, Apache ASL Trails and its hearing-impaired residents have been in the middle of a disagreement between state and federal officials over whether the complex violates anti-discrimination laws and regulations for federally funded housing programs. ASL stands for American Sign Language.

State officials say the complex was built with features specifically to assist hearing-impaired residents, but federal officials say it violates federal housing discrimination rules because it does not do enough to also attract non-hearing impaired residents.

Arizona’s members of Congress have joined the movement to urge U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to make a decision on the issue, meeting with HUD officials and sending letters urging them to act.

“We’re really interested in reaching out significantly to HUD to, frankly, demand that they take action to protect this really important facility,” said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat whose congressional district encompasses Tempe. “What I know is the reality of my constituents who live at Apache ASL Trails. They love their community. They want to stay there. They’re grateful to have a community that welcomes them and their various ability levels.”

Sinema is working with other delegates and gathering their signatures for a joint letter to HUD, though it is unclear how many of them will sign it. A draft of the letter argues HUD is wasting taxpayer money by asserting that Apache ASL Trails violates federal anti-discrimination laws while leaving Apache ASL Trails’ residents under a “cloud of uncertainty that has persisted for more than a year.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in June also sent a letter to Donovan urging resolution.

HUD officials say congressional authorization would be needed to continue providing federal funding for Apache ASL Trails, citing laws prohibiting HUD-funded programs from denying or limiting access to people on the basis of a disability or to those without disabilities.

HUD spokesman Jerry Brown told The Arizona Republic the agency’s fair-housing staff and attorneys are looking at options to resolve the issue in a “win-win conclusion,” including legislation, regulatory policy or a change in federal law. He said Apache ASL Trails remains on the priority list for HUD.

“What is the best route, the fastest route, to go get this done? That’s what we’re exploring now,” Brown said.

There are legal requirements for federally funded programs like Apache ASL Trails, Brown said, and the agency is looking for a waiver or exemption to allow the complex to exist as is.

But state housing officials and advocates for the deaf say the dispute is bigger than the Tempe complex. They warn the outcome of this dispute could affect other housing complexes designed with accommodations for tenants with special needs, such as homeless veterans or people with mental illnesses.

Fair-housing laws and the conflict over Apache ASL Trails were key issues discussed at the Arizona Department of Housing’s annual conference this month.

Dispute

The 75-unit apartment complex opened in summer 2011, with about $2.6 million in HUD grant and stimulus funding. The $16.7 million project was developed by Cardinal Capital Management Inc. and the Arizona Deaf Senior Citizens Coalition.

Records show that HUD was aware of the project’s purpose when it authorized grant funds in February 2008.

“I thought it was pretty obvious they were going to design these housing units to assist the hearing-impaired. ... I was like, ‘Come on, guys, you knew what was being built,’ ” said Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, who has been talking with HUD officials about the complex.

Apache ASL Trails is at full capacity, with a waiting list. Among current residents, 85 percent have hearing disabilities — in many cases, multiple disabilities.

In January 2012, HUD conducted a civil-rights review to determine whether the complex complies with a federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in federally funded programs and projects.

HUD released its findings in June 2012. It alleged the state violated federal non-discrimination law by marketing to and giving preference to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and because only a small minority of tenants aren’t hearing-impaired.

HUD officials said while they do not plan to kick existing tenants out, they want 75 percent of Apache ASL Trails’ residents to be seniors who are not deaf or hearing-impaired.

The same federal non-discrimination law prohibits segregated housing, but makes an exception for programs that provide people with disabilities a housing option that is “as effective as” housing for others without disabilities.

State housing officials and the project’s developers deny the discrimination allegation, and argue Apache ASL Trails is “as effective as” housing for people without disabilities.

The complex has amenities designed for deaf, deaf-blind or hearing-impaired tenants to live safely and effectively, said Erich Schwenker, Cardinal Capital Management’s president. For example, there are flashing lights for the phone and doorbell, signs with braille, and a clinic with staffers who use ASL.

Advocates for the deaf say integration further marginalizes the deaf or hearing-impaired, who already live in isolation because of their communication needs and often face housing discrimination and unsafe living environments where even fire alarms are not designed to alert deaf residents.

Current status

Donovan, the HUD secretary, in May told The Arizona Republic’s editorial board that his agency is looking at policies that apply to Apache ASL Trails. He said HUD officials need to answer whether there needs to be a different set of standards to distinguish the needs of people with hearing impairments from those with other disabilities.

Donovan had said he anticipated a decision within weeks.

Four months later, state and federal officials are still locked in controversy.

When asked last week for a time line for resolution, Brown, the HUD spokesman, said: “This is Washington, D.C. ... As much as we’d like to get this done, as much as the deputy secretary would like to get this done, it’s a matter of getting people to focus on it, take a serious look at it.”

“This whole week, we’re working on shutdown plans,” Brown said recently. “Yeah, this is important. But we’re not going to make any changes until we come to a resolution here.”

Arizona Department of Housing Director Michael Trailor said he wants HUD to change its interpretation of its non-discrimination law, agree it approved funding for the project in 2008, and that the complex is not discriminating, as evidenced by the mix of disabled and non-disabled tenants.

Cardinal Capital Management and the state Housing Department have spent $450,000 on legal fees in the past year on this dispute, Trailor said.

“What would resolve this is really quite simple: You would tear up the findings (by HUD) ... because they’re not worth the paper that they’re written on,” Trailor said. “There’s nothing that they have determined that’s defensible. We’re not backing down.”

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