Tillman, migration among '04 top stories
Arizonans also recall O'Brien's conviction, state prison standoff
 
By Joseph A. Reaves
The Arizona Republic
 
The death of a hero in a faraway land.

Child brides and plural wives.

A bishop convicted of a fatal hit-and-run accident.

And the longest prison hostage standoff in U.S. history.

This year's top news stories in Arizona were mostly tragic and troubling.

But political developments and social change drew attention as well.

Arizona voters approved Proposition 200, touted as a way to curb illegal immigration, then watched as the courts put the act into limbo and later into law.

Jerry Colangelo, the godfather of professional sports in Phoenix, was ousted from the Diamondbacks front office.

And a fire at a Phoenix-area transformer station forced utility executives to plead with the public to conserve power to avoid rolling blackouts.

Here are the Top 10 news stories in Arizona for 2004, ranked in an unscientific, informal poll by respondents to www.azcentral.com.

Pat Tillman

The Arizona Cardinals safety who gave up a lucrative career in the NFL to serve his country pays with his life when he is shot in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. Tillman became a national hero. Both the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University retired his jersey numbers. The Cardinals announced they would dedicate the Pat Tillman Freedom Plaza outside their new stadium, scheduled to open in 2006.

Bishop's trial

Thomas O'Brien, former head of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, is convicted of hit-and-run and sentenced to probation, becoming the first Catholic bishop in the United States to be found guilty of a felony. O'Brien was sentenced to probation and 1,000 hours of community service. He resigned as head of the Phoenix Diocese shortly after the 2003 accident, but remains a bishop in the Catholic Church.

Prison hostages

Two inmates take two guards hostage at a state prison, touching off the longest U.S. prison hostage situation in decades. One of the inmates, Ricky Wassenaar, is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 19, a year and a day after he and his cellmate took hostages at Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis near Buckeye. The cellmate, Steven Coy, pleaded guilty in return for being transferred to a prison near his family in Maine. He was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences.

Polygamy

Authorities in Arizona and Utah step up their years-long investigation into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamist sect that dominates the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

The head of the sect, Warren Jeffs, hasn't been seen in months and faces two civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse and ruining the lives of young boys who were chased out of the twin communities because they were considered a threat to older men seeking plural wives.

In 2005: Expect authorities in Arizona and Utah to continue their investigations.

Power crunch

Fires at Phoenix-area transformer stations create a power crunch in the metro area, where utility officials plead with customers to conserve power to avoid blackouts.

In 2005: Expect the Arizona Corporation Commission to work toward developing rules that would set reliability standards for APS and other utilities.

Proposition 200

Arizona voters approve a measure aimed at stopping illegal immigration by attempting to cut migrants off from public services. Also required was proof of citizenship to vote. The measure was temporarily stalled, but became law on Thursday, pending future court challenges. It was met with confusion by cities and agencies that were unclear on how to define public benefits.

In 2005: Expect an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Also, the Justice Department has to sign off on the voting provision. A lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court will attempt to expand the definition of public benefits.

Immigration

The federal government floods Arizona with agents and technology in an attempt to control of the border. By year's end, the patrol has made more arrests but the migrants keep coming in near-record numbers. Attempts include aerial drones to spot border crossers.

In 2005: Expect more border patrol agents to arrive in Arizona under a law that adds 2,000 more agents nationwide each of the next five years.

Colangelo ousted

Arizona sports mogul Jerry Colangelo, who was largely responsible for bringing major league baseball to Arizona, is ousted from the Arizona Diamondbacks by the franchise's new ownership group. Since his departure, a new management team has moved quickly to revamp a team that lost 111 games in 2004.

In 2005: Expect the Diamondbacks to be competitive again.

Immigrant smuggling

Immigrant smugglers start infiltrating new neighborhoods as they try to find new ways to hide human cargo from federal authorities. Hundreds of immigrants are found in drop houses throughout Phoenix. The smuggling operations begin to move to other parts of the state as the federal government cracks down in the metro area.

In 2005: Expect President Bush to push Congress to adopt a guest worker program that he says will help take pressure off Border Patrol agents by allowing foreigners who want to work in the United States to enter the country legally instead of sneaking across the border.

Border deaths

Despite the efforts of the Border Patrol and human rights groups, migrants continue to die in record numbers while crossing the Arizona border. In August, five undocumented/ immigrants die after running out of water while trekking through southern Arizona's treacherous desert in the state's deadliest border crossing in three years.

Reporter Daniel Gonzalez and the Associated Press contributed to this article
 
azcentral.com
Originally published December 26, 2004
 
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