Here's a chance to see snow without driving up Mount Lemmon. And there will be fireworks, a Christmas tree and Santa, too:

Starr Pass’ Winter Wonderland weekend kicks off on Friday, December 16 with Santa Claus and his elves arriving by helicopter on the resort’s Tash Lawn. After Santa’s spectacular entrance, children can enjoy a bedtime story — Twas the Night Before Christmas — read by Mrs. Claus in the lobby.

The festive fun will continue throughout the weekend. Kids and kids at heart can enjoy the real snow specially brought in each year for the Winter Wonderland event with sledding down snowy Starr Circle Hill, located at the resort’s main entrance. Horse-drawn carriage rides will be available, and on Saturday kids can create Christmas gifts at Santa’s workshop and get tucked into bed by the elves*. Families can also have their portrait taken with Santa on Saturday morning to capture the holiday memories*. The event will wrap up with a dazzling firework finale lighting up the winter sky.

*Some events require reservations or a nominal fee. There is also a special winter rate associated with the Family Fling & Swing Winter Package, starting at $219 per night.

JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort is located at 3800 W. Starr Blvd. Check out their website here.

Local author William Ascarza's Southeastern Arizona Mining Towns has been recently published by Arcadia Publishing. $21.99, 128 pages, softcover. Here's the press release:

Southeastern Arizona has one of the most diverse mining localities in the state. Towns such as Bisbee, Clifton, Globe, Miami, Ray, Silverbell, and Superior have earned reputations as premier metal producers that are most notably known for their copper. Other mining towns that have made their marks in the region include Dos Cabezas, Gleeson, Harshaw District, Helvetia, Patagonia District, Pearce, Ruby, and Tombstone.

Mining in southeastern Arizona has significantly influenced the development of mines in northern Sonora, Mexico. The foundation of Mexico’s largest copper mine in Cananea was financed by American capital, specifically under the direction of miners and investors from southeastern Arizona. Overall the process of mining has established the economy of southeastern Arizona, making it a viable source of copper-related minerals in the 21st century’s global market.

• Master Sgt. Gary R. Coppage/US Air Force

Keep your eyes peeled: A CV-22 Osprey from the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif., is visiting Tucson for low-level training operations from Dec. 16 to Dec. 18, according to Senior Airman Shane Dunaway.

More to come on this later, I imagine, but the Department of Justice has some deep issues with Joe Arpaio and the way he runs the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department:

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today announced its findings in the ongoing civil rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). The Justice Department found reasonable cause to believe that MCSO, under the leadership of Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio, has engaged in a pattern or practice of misconduct that violates the Constitution and federal law. The investigation, opened in June 2008, was conducted under the provisions of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Title VI implementing regulations.

The department found reasonable cause to believe that a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct and/or violations of federal law occurred in several areas, including:

• Discriminatory policing practices including unlawful stops, detentions and arrests of Latinos;
• Unlawful retaliation against individuals exercising their First Amendment right to criticize MCSO’s policies or practices, including but not limited to practices relating to its discriminatory treatment of Latinos; and
• Discriminatory jail practices against Latino inmates with limited English proficiency by punishing them and denying them critical services.

The Justice Department found a number of long-standing and entrenched systemic deficiencies that caused or contributed to these patterns of unlawful conduct, including:

• A failure to implement policies guiding deputies on lawful policing practices;
• Allowing specialized units to engage in unconstitutional practices;
• Inadequate training;
• Inadequate supervision;
• An ineffective disciplinary, oversight and accountability system; and
• A lack of sufficient external oversight and accountability.

In addition to these formal pattern or practice findings, the investigation uncovered additional areas of serious concern, including:

• Use of excessive force;
• Police practices that have the effect of significantly compromising MCSO’s ability to adequately protect Latino residents; and
• Failure to adequately investigate allegations of sexual assaults.

While no formal findings of pattern or practice violations have been made in connection with these issues, the investigation remains ongoing.

“MCSO’s systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections has created a wall of distrust between the sheriff’s office and large segments of the community, which dramatically compromises the ability to protect and serve the people,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO’s culture, and are compounded by MCSO’s penchant for retaliation against individuals who speak out.”

The Department of Justice plans to seek an enforceable agreement to make reforms within the Sheriff's Office, but if Arpaio refuses, they mention that they won't "hesitate to take appropriate legal action". The full report is available at the Department of Justice's website.

Planned Parenthood Arizona, which had to shut down abortion services at all but three of their 13 health centers in the state in August, announced this morning that it will be able to once again offer abortion service at two additional locations in Maricopa County. But women in rural Arizona will still have to travel to either the Phoenix area or Tucson because the organization is still not able to offer abortion services in Flagstaff, Yuma or Prescott Valley.

The press release from Planned Parenthood:

Planned Parenthood Arizona told reporters this morning at a press conference that the organization is once again ready to meet the need of Arizona women seeking abortion care.

Thirteen weeks ago, women facing unintended or high-risk pregnancies were confronted with enormous challenges when trying to find a health care provider due to new restrictions imposed by the legislature that banned many medical professionals from providing abortion care.

With physicians coming forward to assist the organization in meeting new abortion restrictions that went into effect in September, Planned Parenthood Arizona has succeeded in adding physicians in Phoenix and Tucson, providing abortion care now at five of its 13 statewide health centers.

The organization has worked diligently to identify physicians in rural communities to provide abortion health care, but has, thus far, been unsuccessful. Women in rural communities are able to access prevention care at their local Planned Parenthood health center, but will have to travel to Phoenix or Tucson to access abortion care.

The war in Iraq came to a formal end today. The Washington Post has details on the ceremony:

BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta paid solemn tribute on Thursday to an “independent, free and sovereign Iraq” and declared the official end to the Iraq war, formally wrapping up the U.S. military’s mission in the country after almost nine years.

“After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real,” Panetta said at a ceremony held under tight security at Baghdad’s international airport. “To be sure, the cost was high — in blood and treasure for the United States, and for the Iraqi people. Those lives were not lost in vain.”

The 1:15 p.m. ceremony (5:15 a.m. in Washington) effectively ended the war two weeks earlier than was necessary under the terms of the security agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraqi governments in 2008, which stipulated that the troops must be gone by Dec. 31.

The fact is, the President has consistently called for a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq at the earliest possible date, and he has never deviated from this position as President. Indeed, he has always reaffirmed his campaign promise to end the war in Iraq and withdraw all of our troops. So perhaps it should not have come as a surprise when the President announced in October that he was ending negotiations with the Iraqi government over whether to maintain a small number of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond this year to continue assisting Iraq’s security forces.

I continue to believe that this decision represents a failure of leadership, both Iraqi and American … that it was a sad case of political expediency triumphing over military necessity, both in Baghdad and in Washington … and that it will have serious negative consequences for Iraq’s stability and our national security interests. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but I fear that General Jack Keane, who was one of the main architects of the surge, could be correct again when he said recently: "We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace."

One year ago, Border Patrol Agent Brian A Terry was killed while trying to stop a "rip crew" in Southern Arizona, . Hank Stephenson covered Terry's memorial service earlier this year.

An automatic weapon that had been sold as part of the bungled ATF investigation Fast and Furious was recovered at the scene of Terry's killing, setting off the congressional investigation that led to the resignation of U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and ongoing calls for Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation.

As the Dec. 15 anniversary of Terry's killing approaches, the Terry family has released a statement through their attorney:

December 15th will mark the one year anniversary of the murder of Brian A. Terry. On that day in 2010, our family lost an amazing son, brother, uncle, and friend. Our country lost an incredible young American who was fully committed to his job in keeping our Nation safe and its borders secure. Brian’s life was dedicated to public service as a U.S. Marine, police officer, U.S. Border Patrol agent and finally as a member of the Border Patrol’s elite tactical unit known as BORTAC. Throughout his life, Brian maintained an incredible work ethic that made his many successes possible. We believe that these are the traits that so many people have since recognized. He is remembered as an extremely proud American and a symbol for all that is good.

Brian’s death has been extremely difficult to accept. As most know, we had to learn from the news media that two assault rifles carried by the men that killed Brian and found at the murder scene were linked to Operation Fast and Furious, a failed gun trafficking operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Department of Justice. We find it incomprehensible that members of ATF and DOJ would embark on such an egregious operation and then try to conceal the link between this failed investigation and Brian’s murder. Much to our dismay, no one in ATF or DOJ has come forward to accept responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious.

Our priority continues to be the successful arrest and prosecution of all the individuals involved in Brian’s murder. However, we will continue to press for answers and accountability from our government. Those responsible for such a misguided and fundamentally flawed operation must be held fully responsible for their decisions which allowed so many weapons to flow to the criminal element on both sides of the border. We now believe that if it can be shown that laws were broken, then all those responsible for Fast and Furious should be held criminally liable.

We would like to acknowledge the work conducted by agents from the FBI Tucson Office in the homicide investigation and the continued work by federal prosecutors in the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s Office who are working to bring Brian’s killers to justice. We would also like to thank those members of ATF that recognized Operation Fast and Furious as fundamentally flawed and came forward with information that exposed this foolish operation to the American public. These individuals have continued to speak the truth at great professional risk.

Finally, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to the families of those affected by the violence in Mexico caused by the guns of Operation Fast and Furious. Please know that we, as most Americans, see you as victims as well. We will continue to press our government for justice as we will not allow Brian’s death to be in vain.

Travel website KAYAK provided a shockingly up-front reason on their blog for why they won't be advertising on TLC's "All American Muslim". It wasn't because of the pressure from insane Christian zealots, but because they just don't like the show:

When we decided to give our money to TLC for this program, we deemed the show a worthy topic. When we received angry emails regarding our decision to advertise, I looked into the show more thoroughly.

The first thing I discovered was that TLC was not upfront with us about the nature of this show. As I said, it's a worthy topic, but any reasonable person would know that this topic is a particular lightning rod. We believe TLC went out of their way to pick a fight on this, and they didn't let us know their intentions. That's not a business practice that generally gets repeat business from us. I also believe that it did this subject a grave disservice. Sadly, TLC is now enjoying the attention from this controversy.

[...]

Lastly, I watched the first two episodes. Mostly, I just thought the show sucked.

Based on our dealings with TLC and the simple assessment of the show, I decided we should put our money elsewhere. Apologies again.

When 36-year-old Tina Rieger was struck and killed while crossing Broadway in a crosswalk at 8:15 a.m., Dec. 6, six children were left without a mother. It’s an immeasurable tragedy in any case, but it seems especially cruel in the midst of this festive season.

The kids have gone to live with their grandparents in Marana, but a local program arranges private transportation for them so at least one important aspect of their lives remains constant: They are still able to attend Ochoa Community Magnet School.

The school arranged with Wells Fargo Bank to set up a fund to help the grandparents support the children, who range in age from 4 to 13. Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Branch to the “Tina Rieger Donation Account,” number 2808579466. Arrangements have been made to move the children’s furniture, and all their bedding requirements are met. Ochoa principal Heidi Aranda also is hoping for gift cards to Safeway, Fry’s and Walmart, all of which are nearby the grandparents, and she suggests “things that might help kids cope with something like this — beautiful books, maybe a beautiful journal and something beautiful to write with.” Anyone who would like to donate gifts and gift cards may take them to the school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday, Dec. 15 and 16; and Monday, Dec. 19. The address is 101 W. 25th Street, Tucson, AZ 85713; phone 225-2400.

Aranda already is concerned about what happens after the community arises to the initial shock, and the especially heart-tugging time to lose a mom right before Christmas, so she’s trying to think of things people can give right now that can be useful for the kids’ future. “I’m trying to think creatively outside the box at this point,” Aranda says. “What are they going to need three months from now? Maybe gift cards to Super Cuts. Six haircuts is a lot. Or maybe Payless for new shoes, things those grandparents can’t anticipate right now.”

We’re thinking Range readers might be really helpful in thinking, and donating, creatively outside the box.

This looks like it would be a lot of fun in Rocky Point.