Glendale’s Community Newspaper
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Vol. 75 No. 39
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OPINION ........11 Human connection needed for suicide prevention
FEATURES .... 24 Monster trucker Todd LeDuc is ready to roll
OPINION..................... 10 BUSINESS.................. 12 SPORTS ...................... 16 CALENDAR ................ 22 FEATURES.................. 24 RELIGION ................... 28 YOUTH........................ 32 CLASSIFIEDS ............. 34
September 26, 2019
State reps push to increase refugees via GRACE BY ALLISON ENGSTROM
Glendale Star Contributing Writer
With the support of volunteers, students and state representatives, attendees at a Sept. 17, event made phone calls, wrote postcards and signed petitions in an effort to get the Guaranteed Refugee Admission Ceiling Enhancement Act (GRACE) passed. The act would set a mandatory minimum of 95,000 refugee admissions into the United States every year. Arranged by the Phoenix chapter of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the event was held at Arizona College in Glendale. Aaron Rippenkroeger, executive direc-
tor of the IRC, feels strongly about this act as the number of refugee admissions has been dwindling under the current administration. “If the GRACE Act were to get passed it would be a game-changer for 95,000 lives a year,” Rippenkroeger said. Rippenkroeger explained how the number has continued to shrink from 110,000 annual refugees to 30,000. He worries there’s only so much lower it can go. Arizona House Minority Leader Democratic Leader Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, State Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Temp, and Rep. Athena Salman, D-Temp, worked alongside attendees. “We are facing the worst human mi-
Glendale officer drives WWII vet cross-country
gration crisis, the worst refugee crisis in modern history,” Salman said. “It is now that we need to take more people in because that is what we owe to our sisters and brothers around the world.” Salman is confident the message of the GRACE act will be heard. “We know that if we continue to put the pressure if we continue to keep the heat going, this administration can’t completely abandoned those values and promises,” Salman said. Over 360 bipartisan officials, across over 40 states, recently released a letter in support of the GRACE act. Of the 360 signatures, 36 were from SEE REFUGEES PAGE 3
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BY TOM SCANLON
Glendale Star Associate Editor
There are two phrases people commonly use, both powerfully effective at deflecting responsibility: 1. “It’s not my job”; and 2. “It’s not my problem.” Sgt. Jeff Turney of the Glendale Police Department doesn’t know the meaning of either phrase. “We’re in it for the people,” he says of his job — which, it seems, is free of boundaries. At the end of August, Turney went to Howard Benson’s home near 75th Avenue and West Camelback Road. A Florida man called 911, frantic about Benson, his 93-year-old father. SEE VETS PAGE 2
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