Fronteras

A class action lawsuit that goes to trial in Phoenix today will bring more attention to the tactics of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The Arizona sheriff has been vocal that cracking down on illegal immigrants is among his top priorities. Plaintiffs claim Arpaio and his deputies discriminate against Latinos.

Every Latino motorist who has been stopped by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office since 2007 or will be stopped in the future is included in the class action suit.

In a law review article, ASU professor Adam Chodorow warns that the state and the nation are ill prepared for a zombie apocalypse.

It's not the public health issues that concern Chodorow.

It's that the nation's tax laws are woefully inadequate to deal with the undead.

And part of the problem is that there's no consensus of when someone is truly dead. Even Arizona law is not very specific, saying only that a determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, the legal battles continue in the five other states that passed similar laws. Georgia and Alabama's immigration enforcement laws are back before a federal appeals court.

While New Mexico has received enough rain to lift some fire restrictions, other parts of the southwest are still dry. That makes them vulnerable to lightning sparked fires, as well as human caused fires.

Humans start about half of the fires in the southwest. In southern California it’s a lot more -- about 90 percent are caused by people. Fire managers say the closer you get to a big city, where the population is dense, the more human caused fires. The top causes are unattended campfires, trash pile burning and arson.

On an average day, some 200,000 people cross the border north and south between Tijuana and San Diego, making the San Ysidro port of entry the busiest in the world -- and for commuters, a frustrating one. The wait to enter the U.S. regularly approaches three hours or more.

Now, as part of an ongoing multi-year expansion project at the port, the U.S. government is more than doubling the number of inspection booths, with the hope of cutting that wait down to 30 minutes tops.