3 council members pitch challenge to bill
Three Tucson City Council members are calling for the city to bring a legal challenge against the state for Senate Bill 1070, contending the bill is unconstitutional.
Council members Karin Uhlich, Regina Romero and Richard Fimbres are asking the other council members to join them to approve a legal challenge. The three council members need another vote to pursue a legal challenge.
The council spoke about the issue in closed session on Tuesday but didn't take any action because the item wasn't on the agenda for action.
Now it is on the agenda for Tuesday. The council will also be appointing a seventh member that day to replace Rodney Glassman, who left earlier this month to run for the U.S. Senate.
Councilman Steve Kozachik didn't back the call for a lawsuit, but did issue a call to Gov. Jan Brewer to immediately release $8 million in discretionary federal stimulus dollars to the Tucson Police Department "to help offset the additional operational burdens she has imposed on that agency as a result of her signature to SB1070."
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UA president: Bill affecting enrollment
University of Arizona President Robert Shelton said a few families from other states contacted him to say they are sending their honors students to colleges outside Arizona.
"This should sadden anyone who cares about attracting the best and brightest students to Arizona," he said in a memo to faculty and staff on Thursday.
Shelton said he wants to help people understand the law, and said university police officers will be trained on the new law. He is listening to people's concerns about racial profiling and "unwarranted detainment," he said.
He also said foreign students are an important part of the university and are responsible for part of the nation's economic prosperity. About 6 percent of UA students are international students and they come from more than 100 other countries.
"We must do everything possible to ensure that these students continue to feel welcomed and respected, despite the unmistakably negative message that this bill sends to many of them," Shelton wrote.
A student group, called UAgainst SB1070, has sprung up to pressure Shelton to publicly condemn the new law. Go to the Star's higher education blog at azstarnet.com/news/blogs/campus-correspondent to find the group's response to Shelton's memo.
Flagstaff police look into e-mail threats
FLAGSTAFF - Flagstaff police launched an investigation after an e-mail threatened members of the City Council over their opposition to the state's new immigration law.
The author of the e-mail suggested council members should be "arrested, tried in court, found guilty of treason and hanged from the nearest tree!"
The e-mail writer suggested the council cared more about "foreign nationalists" than the safety, jobs and future of its citizens. The author ended the e-mail "Death to traitors!"
The Arizona Daily Sun reports the death threat was one of many messages sent to the Flagstaff City Council critical of their opposition to the new immigration law.
Shakira in Phoenix to discuss new law
PHOENIX - Colombian singer Shakira visited Phoenix on Thursday, meeting with the city's police chief and mayor over concerns that a sweeping new state law cracking down on illegal immigration will lead to racial profiling.
The Grammy winner said she wanted to learn more about how the law will be implemented if it goes into effect this summer and to meet with Phoenix's Latino community.
"I heard about it on the news and I thought, 'Wow,' " Shakira told The Associated Press after meeting with city officials. "It is unjust and it's inhuman, and it violates the civil and human rights of the Latino community. … It goes against all human dignity, against the principles of most Americans I know."
Shakira also sought to meet with Brewer during her visit to Phoenix but was told the governor's schedule was booked.
Diamondbacks feel backlash in Chicago
CHICAGO - Immigrant-rights activists chanting "Boycott Arizona" and "Reform, Not Racism" demonstrated Thursday outside Chicago's Wrigley Field as the Cubs opened a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Activists have called for a boycott of Arizona tourism and businesses, including its athletic teams. A small plane carrying a banner criticizing the law also circled over Wrigley.
Protesters said they've faxed a letter to Cubs management asking that the team's spring training be moved out of Arizona. The team would not comment.
Meanwhile, at least one member of Congress, Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., was urging Major League Baseball to change the site of the 2011 All-Star Game, now set for Phoenix.
Boxing council issues ban on Ariz. matches
MEXICO CITY - The Mexico-based World Boxing Council will not schedule Mexican fighters for bouts in Arizona to protest what it called the state's "shameful, inhuman and discriminatory" immigration law.
WBC president Jose Sulaiman said Thursday that the ban on Arizona fights involving Mexican fighters has also been approved by the Federation of Boxing Commissions of Mexico. The ban starts Saturday.
Staff and wire reports
Becky Pallack
