[R-sig-Geo] Error in Moran eigenvector GLM filtering ("base correlation higher than alpha")

[Jamie Mihoko Doyle]

Hi everyone,

I could really use your help. I'm doing a study of homicide mortality 
among Foreign Born and US Born Hispanics in the U.S. and using Moran 
eigenvector filtering for the Poisson models. The data are from US 
counties having populations greater than 100,000 people since data from 
smaller counties is not publicly available.

I seem to get the following error when I'm running the model for Foreign 
Born Hispanics only: "base correlation higher than alpha".

Is there a more appropriate method I should use?

Please find my code below. The data that I am using can be found here: 
http://www.jamiemihoko.com/Rquestions.htm

I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thank you in advance for your time,

Jamie

######
##Data
######
# Read in flat data
d <- read.csv("D:/Vital Statistics Mortality/R Version of 
Dataset/homic_mortality_v14_R.csv",header=TRUE)

#Read in shape file
homic<-readOGR("D:/Vital Statistics Mortality/ArcGIS Shapefiles", 
layer="mortality_data2_edited_Disso3")

# Store Coordinates
coords<-coordinates(homic)

##################################
# Create Nearest Neighbor Weights
##################################
homic.nn.cont<- poly2nb(homic)
homic.nn.cont.W<-nb2listw(homic.nn.cont, zero.policy=TRUE)       # Need 
to use "zero.polcy=TRUE" because some areas do not have neighbors

##############################################
# Need to round numbers (5-year average of homicide deaths)
##############################################
d_HispFore.r <- round(homic$d_HispFore)

###################
# Spatial filter 
###################
          sf.HF <- ME(d_HispF5.r  ~ mindistCA2 + median_age + pct_single 
+ pct_male2 +  pct_ling_i +  pct_povert +  pop_densit,
                                     data = homic, family = 'poisson', 
listw = homic.nn.cont.W, alpha = 0.2, verbose = TRUE)

# Data Dictionary- All county-level:
   # d_HispF5.r :     Foreign Born Hispanic Deaths
   # mindistCA2:     Minimum distance from county, population-weighted 
centroids to the U.S.-Mexico border
   # median_age:     Median age of county residents
   # pct_male2:       % male residents
   # pct_ling_i:        % linguistically isolated
   # pct_povert:      % poverty
   # pop_densit:      Population density

-- 
Jamie Mihoko Doyle, PhD
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
423 Guardian Drive
934 Blockley Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
http://www.jamiemihoko.com