2007 was a newsworthy year in Yuma County

The Yuma area was the scene of many other news events in 2007. Some of the significant happenings over the past year include a new high school, a fallen San Luis soldier, a Yuma band that rose straight to the top, and much more:

Yuma firefighters lend a hand

In October, four members of the Yuma Fire Department deployed with the Imperial Valley Strike Team to fight wildfires in California. The fire captain, an engineer and two firefighters spent a week near the community of Running Springs in an area south of Lake Arrowhead.

---

Thought it was a bomb

An employee at Food City, 16th Street and Avenue B, found a strange object left in a shopping cart and contacted the Yuma County Sheriff's Office, which sent a bomb expert to check it out. The team ended up disabling what turned out to be a battery-operated electronic speaking device.

The $650 electro-larynx belonged to 59-year-old Yuman Richard Currier, who used the instrument to help him speak. He left it in the shopping cart after placing his groceries in his car. Another one was donated to him the following month.

---

Teachers on the move

A lower than expected enrollment at Ronald Reagan School prompted the Crane School District to reassign four teachers to other Crane schools that had more students than anticipated. The shifts led to a petition of protest being circulated by parents of some Reagan students.

---

Charges dismissed

In May, a Yuma County Superior Court judge dismissed an aggravated assault charge against a 10-year-old special needs student accused of assaulting his fourth-grade teacher at Valley Horizon School. Dismissal came after a court-appointed psychologist found the boy to be incompetent to stand trial.

---

New school on the block

Growing student enrollments led to the opening of the Yuma Union High School District's sixth school. Gila Ridge High School joins Yuma, Kofa, Cibola and San Luis high schools, as well as Vista Alternative School.

---

New power lines

Arizona Public Service Co. is pursuing plans to build a new 230 kilovolt power transmission line through Yuma to provide additional power to keep up with growth in the cities of Yuma, Somerton and San Luis, Ariz.

Pending approval by the Arizona Corporation Commission, APS hopes to begin construction of the line by 2010 and have it in service by 2012.

---

Details in family's death released

After an investigation of the deaths of three in a Foothills home, authorities determined in 2007 that the husband killed his wife, their 5-month-old daughter and then himself.

The bodies were found on Nov. 20, 2006, each in a separate room, at the family's home at 11268 E. 25th St. in the Mountain View subdivision during a welfare check requested by the wife's mother. Nicole Saunders, 19, sustained a close proximity gunshot wound to the head. The daughter, Hannah, was stabbed multiple times and Brian Saunders, 22, died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

---

Suspect charged in Corrales murder

Ruben Solorio, 23, of Yuma was charged in May with one count of second-degree murder in the death two years earlier of Amancio Corrales, a female impersonator whose body was found in Paradise Cove.

---

Gang violence on the rise

Police said gang violence is going up in Yuma. It has been on the rise in Yuma since 2006. Some of the crimes gang members have committed recently are criminal damage, graffiti, assault, burglary, theft, drug sales, attempted homicide and probation violation.

---

Smuggling tunnel discovered

U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered a smuggling tunnel one mile east of the San Luis Port of Entry in September, the first such tunnel found in the Yuma sector. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the tunnel was still under construction when it was found and was designed to smuggle drugs. U.S. Customs and Border Protection filled it in so it could no longer be used.

---

Looking at the levees

Yuma County supervisors asked the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to recertify the Colorado and South Gila river levees as providing sufficient protection against flooding in September. Such certification can affect flood insurance rates paid by homeowners.

---

16th Street all better

In an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion, city of Yuma traffic engineers adjusted the timing of the lights on 16th Street. The traffic signals have the longest light cycles the city has ever used - some as long as two minutes and 20 seconds for one light to go from yellow to red to green and back to yellow again. This eased traffic flow somewhat, though the street is still the busiest and most crowded in Yuma.

---

Harrier jet crash details released

In June, a several-hundred page report on the 2005 AV-8B Harrier jet crash in a Yuma neighborhood was released, but it was inconclusive as to what caused the accident.

The report, which was issued by the Naval Joint Law Center in San Diego, found no fault with the pilot, but did conclude the flight leader did not have a clear view of the troubled Harrier when he gave its pilot the call to eject and that it was "premature and a significant contributing factor to the mishap."

It also recommended the base's Harrier simulators be programmed with a simulation that recreates the problems the pilot experienced, which led to the crash.

The Harrier jet crashed into the backyard of a residence in the 1500 block of Kuns Court on June 16, 2005.

---

New Quechan casino

Tribal elders and preservationists around the region failed in their fight against the Quechan Indian Tribe's plans to build a casino on what some consider to be sacred land.

---

Yuma band soars

The Yuma band Pride Before The Fall, comprised of area high school students, was named from among more than 300 bands as the winner of the LATV Battle of the Bands competition.

---

Oil refinery held up

Just when it seemed a major barrier had been cleared for development by Arizona Clean Fuels of an oil refinery in eastern Yuma County with the transfer by the federal government of the land for the project, the Quechan Tribe mounted a legal battle to stop the project.

Even though the site is outside the tribe's reservation, the Quechans claim the land contains important historic and cultural resources that weren't adequately assessed before the land transfer.

---

Speers re-convicted

A jury returned mixed verdicts on five charges against a former second-grade school teacher accused of molesting some of the students in his classroom about seven years ago.

After almost four days of deliberation in Yuma County Superior Court, the 12-person jury reconvicted Philip Gregory Speers in August on two counts of molestation of a child and not guilty on two other counts of molestation of a child and one count of sexual conduct with a minor. Speers was sentenced to a combined 34 years in prison.

It was the second time Speers was sentenced in the case. The state court of appeals overturned his original sentence in 2005.

---

Here-a-Wal-Mart, there-a-Wal-Mart ...

Yuma now has three Wal-Marts and a fourth is under construction. The third store opened in April at the corner of 32nd Street and Avenue 8E to serve residents east of Yuma. The fourth store, slated to open in early 2008, is being built in San Luis, Ariz., at Highway 95 and County 22nd Street.

Both stores will be anchors of commercial centers, attracting other retailers and restaurants to the area.

---

No hogs here

An empty equipment shed and half-built pens on the eastern edge of Yuma County bear testimony to plans for a hog farm that has been stalled because of new state permitting requirements after several area residents protested the project.

The farm, located off Spot Road south of Interstate 8, was to have about 52,800 hogs housed in 12 barns to be raised from piglets to market weight, then butchered and processed in Los Angeles for Farmer John-brand pork products.

---

Fallen soldier

Ismael Solorio, 21, who earned two Purple Hearts for wounds he received in two previous tours of duty in Iraq, was killed in combat in April during his third tour of duty there.

The son of Ismael and Amelia Solorio of San Luis, Ariz., he was one of three soldiers killed April 9 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle.

---

Staff Writers Darin Fenger, James Gilbert, Joyce Lobeck, Sarah Reynolds and William Roller contributed to this report.