Author: asnsadmin

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<iframe width=”550″ height=”350″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ src=”http://www.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=210241846679700030916.0004b906637f14b767496&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;ll=37.020098,-96.152344&amp;spn=48.413726,96.679688&amp;z=3&amp;output=embed”></iframe><br /><small>View <a href=”http://www.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&amp;msid=210241846679700030916.0004b906637f14b767496&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;ll=37.020098,-96.152344&amp;spn=48.413726,96.679688&amp;z=3&amp;source=embed” style=”color:#0000FF;text-align:left”>Where Snowbirds come from</a> in a larger map</small>
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Nancy Bale and her husband last owned a home in Colorado before they decided to sell and travel state to state, so where do they go in the winter? Arizona, of course.

Welcome to the snowbirds.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, they suddenly seem to appear in large numbers and take over the road, shops and RV parks. With them comes something good for the state: money.

Statistics on snowbirds cannot be easily found. Data of winter visitors in Tucson are kept but are not separated into a separate snowbird database. According to a study done by Arizona State professors, during the 2002-2003 winter season, more than $600 million was put into the Arizona economy by snowbirds living in RV/trailer/mobile homes.

In the battle for Old West dominance, the town of Tombstone wasn’t even invited to the fight.

True West Magazine’s seventh annual ranking of Old West towns across the country, did not include Tombstone in the Top 10, while Prescott, Ariz., was named No. 1.

The towns’ ranks were based on three things, according to Bob Bell, the magazine’s executive editor.

[caption id="attachment_123" align="alignleft" width="600"]Planned Parenthood/Angelina Bravo[/caption]The battle to control abortion access rages within the Arizona Legislature and some critics charge that bills under consideration unfairly target rural, poor women and could leave them and their families without crucial health services.

The bills create a number of barriers to care for even basic sexual health services provided by Planned Parenthood—in addition to increasing the required number of visits for an abortion and increasing medical liability for doctors and clinics who perform abortions.

The most controversial bill, H.B. 2838, included a wide range of changes to abortion procedure in the state.

Currently, women already have to get an ultrasound before an abortion, but the bill’s new requirement states this must occur 24 hours before the procedure. Critics argue this unfairly targets rural women.

Because abortion clinics are concentrated in Phoenix and Tucson, women outside those cities have to drive hours to receive abortion services. Now they would have to stretch their travel time over days—for previous visits as well as follow-up appointments.

The Arizona Department of Health Services released a statement claiming that Arizona had the lowest cancer rates in the nation. Although this is a tremendous accomplishment for the state, many health professionals worry that there may be disparities in the data based on rural polpulations and under-reporting. However, there are programs in the rural communities…