Over the past several years, Arizona policymakers have debated a number of immigration-related crime control policies. These discussions have ranged from arguments over the wisdom of granting local law enforcement agencies the authority to arrest and prosecute illegal aliens, to enacting legislation that sanctions employers for hiring illegal aliens. The perception that illegal aliens are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime and violence in the state is at the root of many of these policy discussions. This report examines the connection between illegal aliens and crime in Maricopa County, Arizona, using data from the Arizona Arrestee Reporting Information Network.

The Arizona Youth Tobacco Survey is a series of biannual school-based tobacco-focused surveys first implemented in the spring of 2000. The survey is designed to help monitor trends in tobacco use among public school students in grades 6 through 12 and to compare changes in rates over time. The survey also collects data on topics including: tobacco use; tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes and beliefs; access to tobacco products; exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; initiation and cessation; influence of family, friends and the media; and social, school and community interventions.

Adult tobacco use represents an important and ongoing morbidity, mortality and health care cost problem. The Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Tobacco Education and Prevention Program has been working since 1996 to reduce tobacco use in Arizona. This report presents data from the Adult Tobacco Survey on adult tobacco use prevalence rates, cessation behaviors, and Arizonan’s beliefs and attitudes about smoking hazards and tobacco policies. It also provides trends over time on Arizonans tobacco use and other related behaviors, using comparable data from surveys conducted previously in 1996, 1999, and 2002.

Research into the sensitivity and vulnerability of urban water systems in Arizona reveals that managers are more concerned about factors such as population growth projections, economic trends, and revenue flows. Reliance on groundwater resources in many cases obscures recognition of any direct impact of precipitation on water supply. Given the low level of perceived climate risk among many providers interviewed for this study, it would seem unlikely that climate information would be needed. However, pockets of sensitivity and vulnerability to climatic impacts do exist in the four study areas covered in this study.

The study had three main goals: (1) to assess the vulnerability of groundwater-dependent agriculture to climate variability, (2) to identify historical and current processes of adaptation to the vagaries of climate in the region— these refer to both system wide adaptations and individual farmer’s adaptations, and, (3) to assess the use of and needs for seasonal climate forecast information in agricultural decision making. The report is targeted at institutional stakeholders (i.e., agricultural extension personnel), physical scientists (particularly climatologists), and policymakers (at the level of NOAA and other federal agencies). Specific recommendations are made to these groups in order to improve the delivery of seasonal forecasts, set research priorities, and inform public policy.

The research presented here documents institutional and organizational factors affecting fire management on tribal lands. Two case studies of fires occurring on tribal lands in Arizona provide insights into how these factors converged to influence the course of events. This study considers historic as well as current conditions and events because these affect whether or not people are receptive to information, to planning, and to working together. Though it focuses on decision making within tribes and agencies responsible for tribal lands, its findings are relevant for other locations as well.