« February 2011 | Main | April 2011 »
By Michael Bryan
Well, that was hardly as trivial an undertaking as I expected, but I think we finally got the BfAZ FB Page working. Try it out on the sidebar to the left and at the address www.facebook.com/BlogForArizona.
Thanks for all your feedback and suggestions while we got this thing up and humming. After this experience I have to question why a company with non-existant tech support and a balky web site that is basically a bunch of buggy scripts is valued at $50 billion.
Cheers!
by David Safier
Florida says to Arizona, "I'll see your guns-in-the-classroom and raise you no-gun-questions-in-the-examining room."
Florida clearly wants to do Arizona one better in the Guns R Us competition. Two legislators have put together bill HB155 that prohibits doctors from asking a patient about guns stored in the patient's home.
A pediatrician explains why she asks parents if they have guns at home and how safely they are stored.
I have been asked why pediatricians — why I — ask parents and patients about whether they have a gun. I come to the answers on a daily basis. The answers are real — life and death.
I ask because of Trevor, age 4, who died after he stood atop his toy chest, reaching the shoe box above, pulled out the handgun that belonged to his mother’s boyfriend and fatally shot himself.
I ask because of 3-year-old James who, not strapped in his car seat, was able to reach forward under the driver’s seat and pull out the sawed-off shot gun his daddy kept for protection, fatally shooting himself.
I ask for Ana, who at 13 ended up in a wheelchair and was hospitalized six times related to a bullet in her spine from an accident when her brother was handling the family’s gun.
I ask because of Jared, age 11, who was expelled from school when he brought in his parents’ gun — to impress his friends.
I ask because of Danny, a typical teenager, who was distraught after his girlfriend broke off their relationship, and in an impulsive moment, pulled the trigger to send a bullet through his own face.
I ask because of Misha, now in foster care, whose mother was shot by her father, after years of domestic abuse.
I ask because any one of my patients could be at risk. I ask because firearm injury is a leading cause of death for children and teens. I ask because even responsible parents may underestimate risk.
It does seem reasonable that someone whose job is to inquire about the health of a child might want to know if guns are in easy reach in the home, doesn't it?
by David Safier
I just got a personal call from Mike Huckabee -- if by "personal," you mean listening to his actual voice recorded and robocalled to who-knows-how-many homes. In that marching-as-to-war voice of his, Huckabee told me we have to repeal the health care act, and he wants to circulate all kinds of petitions in my area. Oh, and he needs $65,000 to put ads on the air here to tell everyone the horrors of the health care bill.
I had to press one to get my name put on the petition and two if I didn't want it there. When I did nothing, a computer voice that shouldn't have been there gave the name and code number of the call, or something like that. I suppose if I pushed one, a live fundraising voice would have come on the phone and tried to reach into my wallet.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Regular readers know that I am not enamored with Blue Dog Conservative Democrats - why would any voter choose a knock-off (Republican-Lite) when they can choose the genuine article? Give them a real choice.
It's not a trick question, but Blue Dog Conservative Democrats can't seem to understand the question. Wha?
So I only half-heartedly report that former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick wants a rematch with Hermey, er, Paul Gosar, the dentist who defeated her in 2010 (h/t Hermey the misfit elf who wanted to be a dentist). AZ/DC Blog - Kirkpatrick: I'm running for Congress again, and Arizona Capitol Times » Ann Kirkpatrick announces plans to run again:
Former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick has confirmed she is running for the U.S. House of Representatives. Kirkpatrick served one term in the House before losing last fall to Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar.
The Flagstaff Democrat tells The Associated Press she is running because the district needs a moderate representative in Congress.
Yeah, see the introduction to this post above. But Rep. Paul Gosar is even more out-of-touch:
Gosar’s campaign released a statement Wednesday saying voters have already rejected Ann Kirkpatrick’s liberal voting record and they will once again in 2012.
A "liberal"? Seriously? I know that Tea-Publicans are to the right of Attila the Hun, but that does not make a Blue Dog Conservative Democrat a "liberal." That makes you, Mr. Gosar, a radical extremist on the political spectrum.
Mr. Gosar, as he has been taught by the right-wing media, is using "liberal" as a pejorative slur.
My personal favorite for this race, and I have not had any conversations with him about it, this is only my opinion, is former state representative Chris Deschene, who ran a good race for Secretary of State in a tough year in 2010. It is long past time that Arizona, for the first time, send a Native American to Congress. This district represents the Nation. Think about it, Marine. Oorah Semper Fi! Let us know what you decide.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The cavalier attitude Tea-Publicans in Wisconsin have shown for the rule of law and valid court orders has been truly disturbing. Twice now Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi has restrained the implementation of Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget-repair bill" and twice now Tea-Publican assistant state attorneys general and Tea-Publican legislators, "the Fabulous Fitzgerald Brothers" and others, have given the Judge the metaphorical middle-finger salute by publicly stating they would implement the law despite the Judge's lawful orders. It's teabagger tyranny in Wisconsin.
Judge Sumi held another hearing this morning, and again made her displeasure with the Tea-Publican assistant state attorney general known, "What part of 'no' do you not understand, counselor?" Judge: Wisconsin Anti-Union Law Not Validly Published, Not In Effect:
Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi issued an amended restraining order, declaring that the law has not been validly published in order to take effect -- following efforts by the state Republican leadership to sidestep her earlier orders against publication by going through different agencies.
The key quote from Sumi's newly amended temporary restraining order, via The Wheeler Report:
FURTHER, based on the briefs of counsel, the uncontroverted testimony, and the evidence received at the March 29, 2011 evidentiary heaving, It is hereby DECLARED that 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 has not been published within the meaning of Wis. Stats. §§ 991.11, 35.095(1)(b) and 35.095(3)(b), and is therefore not in effect.
This followed a declaration on Wednesday by Secretary of Administration Mike Huebsch, stating that the law was still in effect, despite two different orders by Sumi to block it, and maintaining that the law was validly published and that Sumi's order did not apply to his department.
Well that settles that! These Tea-Publicans are lucky the Judge has not held them in contempt of court and ordered them to cool their heels in the Dane County Jail and imposed a fine. I know I would have.
After today's court order, Gov. Scott Walker has finally agreed to comply with the Judge's lawful orders. Walker Administration Suspends Implementation Of Anti-Union Law, After Judge's Third Order Against It:
In a major development in Wisconsin, Secretary of Administration Mike Huebsch (R) has announced that the Walker administration is suspending implementation of its new law curtailing public employee unions -- after Dane County (Madison) Judge Maryann Sumi declared that the law was not validly published and thus had not taken effect, in the wake of Republican efforts to circumvent her previous orders against publication.
Late Update: The Wisconsin Democratic Party has released this statement from chairman Mike Tate:
"Perhaps Judge Sumi's third court order was the charm for Scott Walker. We are pleased that Scott Walker has finally recognized that he is not above the rule of law."
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic today continues its reporting on the legal fallout from the release of the Fiesta Bowl Scandal Report on Tuesday. Fiesta Bowl report: Trouble may lurk for Arizona officials:
Arizona lawmakers who accepted tickets from Fiesta Bowl lobbyists to attend football games in Chicago, Boston, Pasadena and other cities may have violated state law.
Since 2000, state statutes have included an "entertainment ban" that prohibits state employees and elected officials from accepting tickets or "admission to any sporting or cultural event" for free.
The law includes an exception allowing lawmakers to attend "special events" if broad categories of lawmakers, such as the entire Arizona Senate, or a committee, were invited. However, a 276-page investigative report into the Fiesta Bowl's financial, political and lobbying activities, and interviews with lawmakers themselves, suggest that that loophole may not apply to out-of-state games attended by legislators in recent years.
* * *
It is unclear from the Fiesta Bowl's internal investigative report whether lawmakers received free game tickets as part of those excursions. Fiesta Bowl records contain no evidence that any lawmaker reimbursed the airfare, hotel costs or other expenses from those junkets. If they did get free tickets, that would seem to violate state statutes.
* * *
Lawmakers are required to report any single gift or accumulated gifts in excess of $500 or more in personal financial-disclosure statements. However, in many cases they did not appear to properly follow those reporting rules.
* * *
Chuck Coughlin, whose firm HighGround lobbied on behalf of the Fiesta Bowl, said trip participants from both political parties were selected based on their support of the Fiesta Bowl and the bowl's legislative priorities and plans, among other criteria.
* * *
The Fiesta Bowl report documented a scheme to improperly reimburse Fiesta Bowl employees for more than $46,000 in campaign donations to 23 candidates since 2002. However, there was no indication that politicians who received the donations knew of the reimbursements, the report said.
Coughlin said he also was unaware of the practice. "I had no knowledge of that," he said. "I never knew about it."
Chuck Coughlin and HighGround are the "shadow governor" of Arizona. He and his lobbying firm run the governor's office. That is a scandal in its own right. Coughlin's denial of any knowledge in this report appears to be questioned by this report from the AP in the East Valley Tribune. Arizona politicians figure in Fiesta Bowl scandal:
In another political tentacle of the scandal, the report identified several lobbyists and political consultants who are close associates of Brewer [i.e., HighGround] as shepherding the officeholders on the out-of-state trips. The lobbyist-consultants until recently worked as retained lobbyists for the Fiesta Bowl.
The report linked a different Fiesta Bowl lobbyist to the contribution reimbursement arrangement [i.e., Husk Partners].
Chuck Coughlin has his fingers on the pulse of everything political in Arizona. I don't accept his denial at face value. Investigators and reporters should keep digging.
What kind of legal jeopardy do lawmakers face? Experts: Fiesta Bowl misconduct could bring felony charges:
Political and financial misconduct at the Fiesta Bowl could produce a plethora of criminal prosecutions, not to mention lawsuits and regulatory actions, according to experts who analyzed the bowl's internal report.
* * *
At least two law-enforcement agencies - the Arizona Attorney General's Office and Internal Revenue Service - have acknowledged investigations of the Fiesta Bowl for alleged violations of laws governing political-campaign contributions and tax-exempt organizations. According to the bowl's report, FBI agents also have conducted at least one interview of a bowl employee regarding federal-campaign donations.
* * *
[E]xperts said misconduct described in a 276-page investigation for the bowl's special committee could bring serious felony charges from federal, state and tribal prosecutors.
Depending on what evidence and testimony are produced, they said, the list of possible offenses might include: conspiracy, wire and mail fraud, obstruction of justice, unlawful political donations, tax evasion, kickbacks, money-laundering, and bribery of public officials.
* * *
Aside from criminal violations, experts said they can envision the IRS and other government regulatory agencies cracking down. The Fiesta Bowl could lose its non-profit status. Employees, contractors and politicians might face back taxes and penalties if they failed to declare bonuses, gifts and personal expenses charged to the bowl. Politicians may be fined for failing to declare benefits in financial-disclosure statements.
Meanwhile, the scandal almost guarantees a slew of civil actions. The Fiesta Bowl could sue employees or contractors who unlawfully benefited, or who failed to fulfill fiduciary duties. The attorney general could sue bowl directors for a breach of duty.
There are, of course, ethics complaints which can be filed in the House and Senate Ethics Committees when the investigations lead to charges being filed.
This is just the legal jeopardy. The political jeopardy lawmakers will face has only just begun.
h/t graphic Arizona Guardian
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Reminder: Please RSVP to this event so the sponsors can plan to have enough food and drinks on hand. Laura Hogan thanks you.
Progressives, labor, faith communities and social justice organizations will come together in solidarity in defense of worker's rights and to "Defend The American Dream" in a national day of action on April 4. You can learn more about your local activities and RSVP here. We Are One April 4 (http://www.we-r-1.org/):
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: The right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.
“This is a day when people from all walks of life will stand together for what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for,” said Linda Hatfield, Chair of the Pima Area Labor Federation. “Today, we carry on the dream by supporting the rights of all workers to bargain for a middle-class life, our right to a voice in the political process and the respect that all people deserve.”
“On April 4th, just as in Memphis in 1968, teachers, firefighters, civil and human rights activists and small business owners are standing together against attacks on the middle class,” said Hatfield.
Beginning with worship services over the April 1 weekend, and continuing through the week of April 4, unions, people of faith, civil and human rights activists, students and other progressive allies will host a range of community and workplace-focused actions.
Join us in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for. It’s a day to show movement. Teach-ins. Vigils. Faith events. A day to be creative, but clear: We Are One.
We Are One events statewide: http://local.we-r-1.org/weareone/events/search/state/AZ
Here in Tucson (FB) Labor Action Center | Solidarity Rally and BBQ:
Hosted by Laura Hogan
Contact: 520-388-4139
Event Description:
WHAT: Solidarity Rally and Barbeque in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Hosted by the Pima Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
WHO: Working families, people of faith, civil and human rights activists, small business owners.
Open to the public: The public is invited to attend the rally and the free barbeque dinner.
Speakers: Linda Hatfield, Chair, Pima Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
Clarence Boykins, President, Tucson-Southern Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce
Elwood McDowell, Reverend, Trinity Missionary Baptist Church
Rubén Reyes, District Director, Office of Congressman Raúl Grijalva
WHEN: Monday, April 4th, 2011
WHERE: 4:00 PM – Solidarity Rally
Veinte de Agosto Park, Corner of Broadway Blvd & Church Avenue, Tucson, Arizona
5:00 PM – March to Armory Park
Route: East on Congress, South on Sixth Avenue on city sidewalks
5:15 PM – Barbeque at Armory Park
221 S. 6th Avenue, Tucson, Arizona
Visuals will include rally signs, march along city sidewalks, families sharing a meal, speeches by community leaders.
###
UPDATEDPosted by AzBlueMeanie:
An annual post, like the annual right of Spring, continues...
In an unusual scheduling move to keep the World Series from creeping into November (here's an idea: with the expanded playoff schedule, schedule weekend doubleheaders - yes, baseball used to do this - or go back to the 146 game regular season schedule - yes, baseball used to do this also), Major League Baseball's Opening Day is on Thursday, March 31 this year, with a full schedule of Opening Day games on April 1.
There are six games on tap for Thursday, less than half the number from Opening Day last year and the fewest since 1986: Atlanta Braves v. Washington Nationals (1:05), Detroit Tigers v. New York Yankees (1:05), Milwaukee Brewers v. Cincinnati Reds (2:10), Anaheim Angels v. Kansas City Royals (4:10), San Diego Padres v. St. Louis Cardinals (4:15), and the World Champion San Francisco Giants v. Los Angeles Dodgers (8:00) (all times Eastern Standard Time).
This year baseball's All-Star Game will be played at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamonbacks, on July 12.
Much has occurred in recent years to damage the reputation of major league baseball. (Barry Bonds is currently on trial for perjury in the investigation into his steroid use). This asterisk* era of baseball has made it difficult to remain a dedicated fan of America's pastime.
But there is hope for renewal of the game. Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. Will this be the year that baseball breaks the gender barrier? Ng Disappointed at Lack of Women in MLB | FanGraphs Baseball:
We’ve seen a lot of changes in baseball in the last few decades, but more than a half-century after the end of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the sport still often feels like an old boy’s club. In 2011, we’re seeing mixed signals pointing forward. Kim Ng, the highest-ranking baseball executive for nearly a decade, Assistant General Manager of the Yankees and then the Dodgers, recently accepted a job to work for Joe Torre as the Senior Vice President for Baseball Operations in the Commissioner’s office of Major League Baseball. And Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a professional men’s baseball team — the 2009 Brockton Rox in Brockton, MA, unaffiliated with MLB or MiLB — this year became the first woman to throw batting practice in Major League spring training. (emphasis added).
* * *
The current problem for women isn’t interest, but opportunity. “The fact that Justine Siegal is now, in 2011, the first women to throw batting practice for a major league team is amazing but sad,” says Notgraphs blogger Bethany Heck. “Baseball is one of the few sports that a woman could theoretically play at the same level as a man.” Siegal agrees, and has founded an organization called Baseball for All that sponsors girls’ baseball clinics, tournaments, and all-star teams. “There are so many girls, they don’t want to just be sitting and watching, they want to be in the game,” says Siegal. “And when you see me throwing BP, you see me in the game.”
But MLB may not yet think of women that way. Although a 2002 Gallup poll revealed that 37 percent of women followed baseball, MLB outreach to women thus far has been spotty at best.
I believe that if the legendary Bill Veeck: A Baseball Mastermind were still alive today we would have already seen the gender barrier broken. The first woman to play in Major League Baseball is guaranteed to be a relief pitcher. And it is almost certain that she will pitch for an American League team where the use of a designated hitter means she does not have to bat.
The fans love the power pitcher who can throw a fastball at 105 mph. When the radar gun speed is flashed up on the scoreboard, it's all ooohs and aaahs. But as a broken down old catcher, let me tell you the best pitchers that I ever saw didn't have an impressive fastball.
These pitchers understood the three keys to being a great pitcher: ball movement, change of speed, and location. These guys made the ball move in ways that defied the laws of physics; they could throw the same pitch at 85 mph or 65 mph - whiff!; and they were masters of the location of their release point and hitting the target set by their catcher. Give me a pitcher who can throw good junk any day.
This is why women will have an opportunity to break into Major League Baseball as a relief pitcher. If you have ever been on the business end of a Lisa Fernandez or Jennie Finch riser high and tight, you know what I am talking about. I don't know who will be first to break the gender barrier, but baseball's female fan base will celebrate this historic milestone by financially rewarding the first team to break the gender barrier. And baseball today is all about making money.
Opening Day remains to this day an almost religious experience for me. It is the one day of the year when every team is tied for first place and everything is possible. The failures of the past season are forgotten and forgiven, and the hopes and dreams of every fan are that "maybe this year our team will win the pennant and go to the World Series." There is a sense of possibility and hopeful optimism, a sense of renewal and rebirth with the coming of Opening Day.
Anticipation of Opening Day begins in late winter and grows stronger with each passing day. To this day, the four sweetest words in the English language are for me "pitchers and catchers report" to Spring Training. Childhood memories of playing Little League baseball and sandlot baseball can be triggered by the faintest scent of fresh cut grass on a warm spring day, the smell of a sun-warmed leather baseball glove, and the smell of popcorn and hot dogs wafting from a nearby vendor's cart.
Despite the many failings of this asterisk* era of baseball, it has not diminished my love for the game. Nor can anyone ever take from me my memories of some of baseball's greatest legends who I had the distinct privilege to see play, or my memories of some of the greatest games ever played which I can replay over again in my mind as if it were only yesterday.
James Earl Jones (as Terrence Mann) in the movie Field of Dreams said it best, American Rhetoric: Movie Speech from Field of Dreams - "People Will Come" (video link). Go Twins!
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Oh dear God, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is teh stupid.
With just nine days to reach a crucial budget deal, the number two Republican in the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, shocked the world by admitting that he has no idea how to solve the budget problem... because he has no idea how a bill becomes a law. Cantor on how laws are (not) made:
In a press conference today, Cantor promised to present the "Prevention of a Government Shutdown Act" on the House floor on Friday. He said, "that will say to the American people: the Senate's got to act, prior to the expiration of the CR. If it doesn't not act, HR 1 becomes the law of the land."
Errrr...as School House Rocks or any other American kid can tell you, that's not how it works. A bill cannot become the "law of the land" unless passed in word-for-word, identical form by the House and the Senate and then signed by the President of the United States. Sorry, buddy.
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
Transparency be damned! Stoke the boilers with textbooks, civil rights, and the state's future! Keep the railroad running at full speed!
Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Kirk Adams formally introduced ("First Read") the 13 budget-related bills passed by the Senate earlier this month and referred them to the House Appropriations Committee for consideration.
Thursday at 9 a.m., the House Appropriations Committee will hold a special meeting to consider the package of budget bills from the Senate.
Place: HHR1, State House of Representatives, 1700 West Washington, Phoenix.
On the agenda, which indicates that strike-everything amendments will be offered for each bill:
SB1612, general appropriations, striker not available as yet
SB1613, capital outlay, striker not available as yet
SB1614, budget procedures, striker not available as yet
SB1615, consolidation, state agencies, striker not available as yet
SB1616, revenue, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1617, K-12 education, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1618, higher education, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1619, health, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1620, welfare, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1621, criminal justice, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1622, general government, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1623, regulation, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
SB1624, environment, budget reconciliation, striker not available as yet
Even if they pass the bills "as is," the short notice all but blocks any coherent response to the measures from the people affected by the bills. On top of that, if strikers are offered, as indicated by the agenda, there will be absolutely no opportunity for analysis of the proposals before they are heard in committee, and that will be the one and only opportunity for the public to weigh in on the measures.
Convenient, huh?
by David Safier
Advocates for private school vouchers sell them as a way for students to leave lousy, union run, bureaucracy laden public schools -- or "government schools," as they call them -- for what they claim are the much, much greener pastures of private schools.
Except that, in study after study, students attending private schools do no better than similar students in public schools.
And here is the latest blow to the voucher myth: In Milwaukee, where a low income voucher program has been in effect for 20 years, voucher students in the private schools scored significantly worse than their counterparts in Milwaukee public schools.
Students who received vouchers to attend private or religious schools in Milwaukee performed worse on statewide reading and math tests than their counterparts in public schools, according to test scores released Tuesday.
[snip]
The test results show that for all grades, 34.4 percent of voucher students were proficient or advanced in math compared to Milwaukee public schools' 47.8 percent average and the 43.9 percent average for low-income Milwaukee public schools students. Statewide, 77.2 percent of public school students scored proficient or advanced in math.
On reading scores, 55.2 percent of voucher students were advanced or proficient compared with 59 percent of Milwaukee public school students. Among Milwaukee's low-income public school students, 55.3 percent proficient or advanced. Overall, 83 percent of public school students in Wisconsin hit those marks.
Honest man that I am, I have to admit, I'm not convinced the comparisons were done carefully, so the lower scores of students in private schools may be exaggerated.
But I do know a careful 2010 study comparing public and voucher students in Milwaukee found no appreciable difference in achievement between the two groups. One of the researchers, Jay Greene, is a senior fellow at the Goldwater Institute, so this isn't some liberal anti-voucher hatchet job. And Frederick M. Hess, a well known educational scholar who supports vouchers, commented about the study's findings that voucher supporters really have to stop pushing the idea that private schools boost student achievement.
With that kind of data, you would think voucher advocates would lay low, right? Wrong.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker -- yes, that Gov. Scott Walker -- wants to expand Milwaukee's voucher program to include all students regardless of income.
Indiana Republicans are pushing a proposal "that would be the nation's broadest use of school vouchers, allowing even middle-class families to use taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools."
Florida is trying to reinstate its voucher program that was shot down by the state supreme court by creating something it calls "Education Savings Accounts."
And last legislative session, Arizona added 50% to the amount people can contribute to that classic backdoor voucher, the Tuition Tax Credit. Meanwhile, our Republicans have a different name for the Education Savings Account idea: "Arizona Empowerment Accounts."
By any other name, vouchers smell just as rotten, and are just as ineffective at raising student achievement.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Announcement from Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' Cactus Roots Connectors:
Announcing:
National Alliance on Mental Illness
NAMI Walk 2011
Giffords' Cactus Roots Connectors'
NAMISA Walk Team
Saturday April 2nd, 2011
7:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Tucson Electric Park
2500 E. Ajo Way Tucson, AZ
The Giffords' Cactus Roots Connectors are excited to walk as a team to raise money and awareness for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Southern Arizona. Gabrielle served as honorary co-chair for NAMISA's walk in 2008, and has always been a strong supporter of NAMI's work to provide education and improve the quality of life, advocate for and support all those affected by mental illness.
This year, our Cactus Roots Connectors team will be walking in honor of our friend and colleague, Gabe Zimmerman, who was also a strong and active supporter of NAMISA. Gabe and Gabrielle will both be honored during the Opening Ceremonies at this year's walk.
To join our team and walk with us, or to help raise funds to support our team, please sign up.
If you prefer not to walk, bring a chair and come and cheer our team on or volunteer to assist at the walk.
You can sign up here: http://www.nami.org/walkTemplate.cfm?section=NAMIWALKS&template=/customsource/namiwalks/teampage.cfm&teamID=23896
Feel free to contact Jessica Schultz with any questions at jessica@giffordsforcongress.com
###
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Two related news stories today. The percentage of Americans who hold an unfavorable opinion of the Tea Party movement rose to an all-time in a new CNN poll released today:
In the poll, 47% of adult Americans said they viewed the Tea Party unfavorably, compared to 32% who said they viewed it favorably.
The latest finding continues a trend of the Tea Party losing popularity as it has became more well known.
* * *
The latest CNN poll also found that 46% of Americans now view the Democratic party favorably, compared to 44% who view the Republican party favorably. Forty-eight percent of Americans view each party unfavorably.
The CNN poll was conducted March 11-13 among 1,023 adults nationwide. It has a margin of error of 3.0%.
Awww, so sad. And after CNN went "all in" with the Tea Party Express as a partner to host a Republican presidential primary debate scheduled for Labor Day week 2011, in Tampa, Florida, CNN and Tea Party Express to host first-of-its-kind Tea Party presidential primary debate; and CNN hired a bunch of teabagger commentators to become "TeaNN." CNN: All Tea Party, All the Time (Our new tag on Twitter is #TeaNN instead of @CNN. It's just more descriptive).
That scheduled debate may not come off as planned. The first "official" Republican presidential primary debate to be sponsored by Drudgico Politico/NBC News scheduled for May 2 had to be postponed due to the lack of declared Republican candidates. First Presidential Debate Pushed Back To September Due To Lack Of Candidates:
The two big media titans announced today that they will push the debate back to the fall because so few candidates have officially announced their plans to run.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation was scheduled to host the debate May 2nd, but in a press release today NBC Universal announced that the event will be rescheduled for September 14.
Fox News is scheduled to hold its own debate just a few days later, on May 5.
Well that's perfect! I suggested back when the debate schedule was announced that FAUX News should host a reality show version of the Republican presidential primaries like Survivor where every week one of them gets voted off the island. They are all on FAUX News' payroll anyway (the reason why they are waiting to officially declare -- free television time to promote themselves for which they should be paying for political advertising).
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Introduction: AzScam
In February 1991 a major political scandal rocked the state of Arizona as a grand jury charged seven legislators, five lobbyists and five others with felonies including bribery, money laundering and filing false campaign statements. Scandal In Phoenix - TIME:
The product of a 16-month, $1.4 million investigation by the Phoenix police and the Maricopa County attorney's office, the indictment charged the accused with accepting $370,000 from an undercover agent posing as a Las Vegas "gaming consultant" building support for casino gambling. Police say the sting began as an investigation of an illegal gambling network that had attracted the interest of organized crime. "We didn't know at the time how earth shattering it would be," said Phoenix Police Chief Ruben Ortega, "until the evidence began to grow."
* * *
At the center of Arizona's sting operation -- quickly dubbed AzScam -- was a flamboyant Las Vegan who called himself J. Anthony Vincent. According to the indictment, Vincent assuaged the legislators' fears about hidden cameras and once reportedly stripped in front of a lobbyist to show he wasn't concealing a microphone. In fact, Vincent was an undercover agent named Joseph C. Stedino. Ortega says that 95% of the evidence comes from audio-and videotapes. In one police videotape, state representative Don Kenney, who faces 28 counts, is seen stuffing $55,000 in cash into a gym bag and joking about cameras being in the room.
AzScam eventually resulted in seven legislators indicted. Six reached plea deals; a seventh was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery and filing false campaign statements. Several other legislators resigned or chose not to seek reelection.
(h/t open.salon.com for the graphic)
Today: The Fiesta Bowl Scandal Report (h/t graphic Arizona Guardian)
Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic dropped a bombshell with an investigative report into the Fiesta Bowl back in 2009. Fiesta Bowl employees say bowl repaid political contributions:
Over the past decade as the Fiesta Bowl worked to maintain its elite position as one of the top postseason college-football games, employees made contributions to politicians friendly to the bowl, including some donations that may violate campaign-finance laws.
Past and present Fiesta Bowl employees have told The Arizona Republic they were encouraged to write checks to specific candidates and were reimbursed by the bowl.
Such reimbursement would violate state and federal laws that prohibit funneling corporate campaign contributions through individuals. Participants could be charged with misdemeanors and felonies.
* * *
The Arizona Republic, acting on a tip that Fiesta Bowl workers were reimbursed for campaign donations, pulled 10 years of local, state and federal campaign-contribution records and contacted 10 past and present employees who have had high-level positions with the bowl.
Five said employees made contributions at the urging of Junker and were reimbursed a few weeks later. The reimbursements, they said, came in the form of bonus checks.
Three of the five said they received bonuses after making contributions to specific candidates. Records show those donations were made.
An investigation was commenced by former Republican Attorney General Grant Woods. His investigation is being called "half-hearted" and a "white-wash" to protect "pillars of this community" by the Arizona Republic in an editorial opinion today We must not let corruption kill a tradition following the release of a subsequent Special Committee investigative report by an independent panel on Tuesday.
The New York Times also reports on the investigation today. Fiesta Bowl Spending and Donations Questioned - NYTimes.com:
Top executives at the Fiesta Bowl funneled campaign contributions to local politicians, flew other Arizona elected officials around the country at the bowl’s expense, racked up a $1,200 bill at a strip club and even spent $30,000 on a birthday party for the chief executive, according to an investigative report commissioned by the bowl’s board of directors.
The most serious revelations involve nearly a dozen employees who told investigators that the chief executive and others working for the bowl, the host of one of the nation’s pre-eminent college football games, encouraged them to make political contributions, then reimbursed them with sham bonus payments. Some said they were then pressured to lie about the practice.
* * *
The report was made public Tuesday (.pdf - 283 pages) after The New York Times published an online article about the investigation’s findings. Many of the people cited in it either would not comment or did not respond to messages seeking comment.
* * *
The Fiesta Bowl executives did not limit their political activity to campaign contributions. The Fiesta Bowl sometimes paid to cater political fund-raisers at the Fiesta Bowl Museum, including one in 2007 for State Representative Jim Weiers, who was then the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, and one in 2009 for W. J. Lane, the mayor of Scottsdale, who is known as Jim. Junker apparently knew that hosting such events was forbidden because he warned his assistant against sending out invitations using a Fiesta Bowl e-mail address, the report said.
* * *
The report highlighted several trips to Chicago, Boston and elsewhere that the Fiesta Bowl hosted for several Arizona politicians and their families... A beneficiary of the trips was Russell Pearce, the State Senate president, a Republican who has gained a national profile over the past year for writing Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Pearce and his wife, LuAnne, traveled to Chicago in 2005 to attend a Northwestern-Michigan game and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. He and his wife also traveled to Boston on a similar trip with his son in 2008, according to the report.
* * *
The report uncovered many new details about the campaign contribution practice. Most of the contributions were to Arizona state lawmakers and local city councilors, although Junker and his wife, Susan, were reimbursed for two contributions totaling $4,200 to Senator John McCain of Arizona in 2007, investigators found.
The report outlined several ways in which executives at the bowl attempted to disguise the reimbursements. Wisneski, the chief operating officer, told investigators that Junker would instruct her to also give bonuses to employees who had not donated. For those who had made contributions, Junker asked her to give them a false explanation of why they were receiving a bonus[.]
* * *
Investigators also raised questions about an initial inquiry that was conducted by the Fiesta Bowl in December 2009, which concluded there was no credible evidence of campaign reimbursements. The board hired Grant Woods, a former Arizona attorney general, to conduct the investigation, but asked that it be completed quickly, before the Fiesta Bowl game took place in January. Woods hired as his assistant Gary Husk, a lobbyist who had been working for the bowl and who, investigators now say, had played a key role in collecting political contributions from employees.
Six Fiesta Bowl employees later told investigators that Husk approached them before their interviews and discussed the issue of campaign contributions with them. Wisneski told investigators that Husk invited her to his house and coached her on how to answer the questions that Woods would ask.
Husk denied any knowledge of the reimbursements and said he never discussed the issue with the employees or steered employees away from Woods, according to the report.
* * *
Woods has since said he believes he may have been misled during his initial investigation.
Continue reading "AzScam Redux: The Fiesta Bowl Scandal Report Released" »
by David Safier
This is a very long story, but I'll try to make it short. Washington D.C. school administrators and/or teachers may have cheated big time on standardized tests over a period of years. It's possible to probable the city's test score "gains," which helped push former D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee to national conservative prominence as the savior of public education, were the result of massive erasures of students' wrong answers and bubbling in the right ones.
USA Today, which has done the hard work on the "Erasure-gate" testing scandals around the country (who would have thought USA Today would do all that investigative work and take the national lead on this story?), published an exhaustive series of articles with strong evidence pointing to the probability that many D.C. schools faked their test score improvements.
One school the series spotlights is Noyes Education Campus. Twice, teachers got $8,000 bonuses and the principal pulled down a $10,000 bonus for the school's stellar scores. Rhee regularly cited Noyes school as the standard of excellence at the same time the school's tests had been flagged for their abnormal pattern of erasures.
In 2007-08, six classrooms out of the eight taking tests at Noyes were flagged by McGraw-Hill because of high wrong-to-right erasure rates. The pattern was repeated in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, when 80% of Noyes classrooms were flagged by McGraw-Hill.
On the 2009 reading test, for example, seventh-graders in one Noyes classroom averaged 12.7 wrong-to-right erasures per student on answer sheets; the average for seventh-graders in all D.C. schools on that test was less than 1. The odds are better for winning the Powerball grand prize than having that many erasures by chance, according to statisticians consulted by USA TODAY.
To repeat: The potential cheating problems were hushed up while Rhee & Co. bragged about the school's "successes."
When the first indications of cheating arose, Rhee stopped an investigation in its tracks. Even some parents complained about their children's scores being higher than they should have been. (One father said his daughter tested proficient in math in the third grade at a time she was still struggling with addition and subtraction. After he complained, he was barred from the school.) The current Superintendent, who had served under Rhee, also refused to look into the possible cheating. But now, thanks to the articles, D.C. may finally take a look at what was going on.
It's hard to prove cheating in the past. The best thing to do now is, carefully monitor this year's tests. Don't give the tests to schools beforehand. Have a neutral party hand the tests to the students, sit quietly in the back of the room, and pick up the tests when the students finish. If students do as well on the monitored tests as they did in the previous years, that would indicate there probably wasn't wholesale cheating. If the scores drop significantly, the fix was probably in.
THE ARIZONA CONNECTION: An Arizona charter school in Yuma, Carpe Diem, has its own test erasure problems. But the school happens to be the darling of conservatives like Ed Supe John Huppenthal and the Goldwater Institute's serial exaggerator, propagandist and liar, Matthew Ladner. So Huppenthal isn't calling for Carpe Diem's testing to be monitored. He doesn't want to know that his poster child may deserve to have its picture on a Wanted Poster.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The ideological holy grail of the far-right -- the flat tax -- has been pulled from a final vote in the Arizona Legislature by the bill sponsor, Steve Court (R-Mesa). Mesa lawmaker drops flat-tax proposal - for now:
Calling it too much to sell in a short time, the author of a flat income tax system for Arizona has dropped his plans.
“I don’t think we have enough time to educate members and the public as to the pros and cons of the bill,” Rep. Steve Court, R-Mesa, said Tuesday. He also noted that he has received various calls and questions since the measure was approved by the House about what they saw as unintended consequences of making such a radical change.
Court said he remains committed to the change.
But of course he is. It is ideological dogma. It is a matter of faith on the far-right, economic data and reality be damned. The public must be "educated" (indoctrinated) by far-right media to convince them that giving all their wealth to their über-rich plutocrat masters will "trickle down" and benefit them.
It is Mr. Court who needs an education in economics and reality. I recommend that readers read the entire report, Wealth for the Common Good » Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Wealthiest Americans, but this short excerpt from the report addresses this "flat tax" nonsense:
Many conservative critics of our current federal tax system are calling for a “flat tax,” a system that applies the same tax rate to all taxpayers, no matter how high their income may be. To a distressing degree, our overall tax system — federal, state, and local — has already “flattened.”
This great tax shift is exacting a high price. We see that price in America’s staggeringly unequal distribution of income.
In 2007, America’s top 400 averaged $344.8 million in income. A half-century earlier, in 1955, the top 400 averaged, in 2007 dollars, only $12.7 million. The bottom line: The incomes of America’s top 400 have multiplied, after inflation, by 27 times since 1955. But 1955’s top 400 paid over three times more of their incomes in federal income tax.
The top 1 percent’s share of total U.S. personal income, in the meantime, has jumped from 9.96 percent as recently as 1979 to 23.5 percent in 2007. The top 1 percent income share has, these figures show, more than doubled. The share of their income the top 1 percent pay in total federal taxes, over that same stretch, has dropped by a third.
We also see the high price that tax cuts for the wealthy exact whenever a “we-must-live-within-our-means” elected leader claims we have no alternative to cutting the programs that benefit low- and middle-income American families.
And our children and grandchildren will see even more of that high price tomorrow, when they will be asked to pay back, with interest, the trillions our federal government has been borrowing to offset our loss of tax revenue from wealthy taxpayers.
We can — and must — do better by our future generations.
[A]fter 50 years of promising broad based tax cuts, middle class taxpayers have little to show. With rising deficits and long-deferred investments in public infrastructure and education, there is an urgent need for additional revenue.
Below is our proposed “Economic Recovery Tax Program.” Taken together, these policies would:
-Collect over $450 billion in revenue from those with the greatest capacity to pay.
-Discourage financial speculation.
-Strengthen the overall economy.
-Generate revenue for deficit reduction and investments in infrastructure and job creation.
-Introduce greater transparency, fairness, and simplicity to the tax code.
Read the entire report, Wealth for the Common Good » Shifting Responsibility: How 50 Years of Tax Cuts Benefited the Wealthiest Americans.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Time once again for the Farley Report from Rep. Steve Farley (D-LD 28):
From my Capitol office window I have been noticing small groups of Republicans going in and out of the front doors of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) all day.
That means only one thing -- we are nearing a House budget. On the House floor this afternoon the Senate budget bills were first-read, meaning that we could do a final vote on the House budget as early as Thursday.
There is no indication yet of what kind of a deal was reached (if any), but Speaker Adams and President Pearce and Governor Brewer met all day yesterday and say they are getting closer. The goings-on at JLBC mean that Republicans are being shown some of the details in small groups. Their leadership is likely also taking the opportunity to twist their arms by offering to free up some of their bills that are currently being held up as leverage for budget votes.
The Governor has publicly dug in her heels at any further K-12 cuts, but the Speaker and President want to make hundreds of millions in cuts to education. It is entirely possible that the Legislature may give the Governor a budget with massive cuts (satisfying their far-right base) that she can then line-item veto to eliminate K-12 cuts (satisfying K-12 advocates). We would end up with a budget that is as much as $300 million out of balance--something that might later be solved in a special session, possibly after Pearce and Adams have resigned their posts to run against each other for Congress (their prospects in their primary being boosted by their record of massive budget cuts).
Short-term indications are that the Senate budget bills will be amended in the House Appropriations Committee, which will then go back to the Senate for further amendments and possibly after that to Conference Committee, a process wherein any of the bills can be changed in almost any way with no public notice. There may be as little as five minutes to review hundreds of pages of amendment language before the vote.
This budget is going to hurt us all, and we will likely only have a chance to comment after the legislative majority have voted it through. This could be the most closed-door, no-public-input budget in history. I will be watching it as closely as I can and keeping you informed.
Speaking of ideological hurt, I want to draw your attention to HB2636, the Flat Tax proposal by House Republicans that I discussed a few weeks ago. You'll recall that I pointed out the testimony of Walter Dudley, the director of the Arizona Society of CPAs, in which he demonstrated that every one of six sample households (for which he projected the flat tax rules) would pay more income taxes. Republicans on the floor dismissed his numbers as not credible because they claimed his fellow CPAs would lose business on a "simpler" flat tax without deductions.
I had ordered a Fiscal Note on HB2636 at the time it passed my Ways & Means committee. Fiscal Notes can be requested by any member. They are prepared by JLBC -- that same non-partisan group of legislative economists who oversee the drafting of budgets whose offices are currently being occupied by small groups of Republicans.
House Republican leadership did not wait to find out what my Fiscal Note would say before they passed the Flat Tax out of the house by a 40-20 party-line vote. But the Note did arrive just before the vote on the bill in Senate Finance Committee. JLBC determined that the Flat Tax as proposed would raise taxes on 88% of Arizona households -- every single taxpayer who earns less than $100,000 a year.
So that is the worst of all possible options -- it raises taxes on almost all of us without raising any revenue for our state. And yet, the bill passed out of committee with every Republican in support -- 4-2. The explanations of vote were instructive. Each yes vote admitted that, yes, it was a problem that the Flat Tax will raise taxes on almost every Arizona taxpayer, but that he or she liked it "philosophically."
This explains the passage of many bills this session, and the consideration of massive cuts to healthcare and education despite the obvious damage to our economy that will result. Ideology trumps pragmatism and facts. Neither good arguments nor clear economic data prevail in this Legislature. Bills are passed because they "feel" right. Because they "ought to be" right. Because they fit in with the "beliefs" of the majority.
Right in line with this mode of thinking, Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) resurrected, and the Senate Appropriations Committee approved on a party line vote, his personal attempt to turn the Arizona monument to 9/11 into a monument to censorship.
Longtime Farley Report readers will recall this bill as the former HB2700 from the 2008 session, which started out with 81 co-sponsors out of the 90 legislators. Due to my legislative combat inside the Capitol and hard work on the part of dedicated citizens like former firefighter Billy Shields and arts advocate Shelley Cohn, we were able to stop that bill in April of that year in Senate Appropriations committee, with two Republicans voting with Democrats to defeat it.
Mr. Kavanagh personally disagrees with several of the statements inscribed into the memorial, so he wants the statements removed and replaced with statements he deems to be sufficiently "patriotic," or else simply melted down. He ignores the facts that the monument went through years of public meetings, received numerous approvals of the design at many levels (including approvals from victims' families), and satisfied very well the original intent, which was in part to create "a place for thought-provoking experiences that invite open dialogue."
In 2007, after the politicization of the 9/11 Monument by Matt Salmon in his gubernatorial run against Janet Napolitano, the Memorial Commission agreed to changes to some of the phrases, and added contextualizing panels to explain the intent of the monument. All these changes went through a full public process. The controversy had disappeared until Mr. Kavanagh decided to strike his 2008 bill onto his HB2230 this afternoon, with little public notice.
I took notice however, and was able to arrive at the committee in time to testify against the bill, re-reading my 2008 explanation of vote and explaining how free and open dialogue and diversity of opinion are the cornerstones of our democracy. They should be a vital part of any monument documenting our experiences as a country in times of peril like 9/11. The excellent track record of public meetings and public dialogue that created the monument was testament to the dedication and hard work of the Commission.
I am disturbed by the implications if seven Republican members on one Senate committee with no public notice can decide for themselves what they want in a monument, regardless of what the public thinks. It seems to me that is the way things are done in countries that do not enshrine freedom of speech in their Constitutions. In those countries, a few government officials can decide for themselves what constitutes "appropriate" speech on the part of the public. Thank God that's not our country.
Finally tonight, a Jon Stewart-esque Moment of Zen from the Arizona Legislature:
Senator Don Shooter (R-Yuma) brought a bill through my Transportation committee last Thursday that would celebrate the Tea Party's crusade for smaller government by having that government spend $32,000 to create and sell Tea Party Special License Plates and then give the proceeds to the Tea Party so that they can expand their crusade against wasteful government programs, like Special License Plates.
I see the November 2012 elections as Arizona's Last Stand. Please help us take this state back for the rest of us.
Thanks for your continuing faith in me as your Representative.
Steve Farley
By Craig McDermott, crossposted from Random Musings
...at first glance, it appears he may be serving as the hatchet man for the Goldwater Institute, but to give Rep. John Kavanagh his due, he's a smart man and could have thought of this all on his own.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Rep. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), will consider a strike-everything amendment (aka - "striker") to SB1116.
That proposed amendment reads, in part -
...universities under the jurisdiction of the Arizona board of regents may not:
1. Provide taxpayer funded programs, scholarships or courses if the purpose of the program, scholarship or course is to advocate public policy.
2. Allow taxpayer funded organizations, institutes or centers to operate on the campus of the university or on behalf of or in association with the university if the purpose of the organization, institute or center is to advocate public policy.
Based on a cursory examination of the websites of ASU and U of A, at least two possible targets of the measure seem obvious -
U of A's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy
ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy
The Udall Center focuses on immigration and indigenous peoples, while Morrison tends to focus on economic and governance issues.
The institutes serve as a reasoned counterweight to both the Goldwater Institute and the nativists in the lege (of which group Kavanagh is a leading light).
And neither of those groups like the competition.
Other institutes that could also be targeted, or at least caught up as collateral damage include:
The National Institute for Civil Discourse at U of A
The Global Institute for Sustainability at ASU
I'm guessing neither one of those is the main target here, but none of the Rs in the lege will complain if they go away.
Anyway, the meeting will be Wednesday (tomorrow as of this writing) at 2 p.m. in HHR1 at the state capitol.
by David Safier
The Goldwater Institute is at it again, mixing lies and half truths with conservative/libertarian theology to come up with a "nothing" that sounds like "something."
Take this statement in G.I.'s big, wet, sloppy kiss on the lips of the flat tax:
It is certainly true some people currently pay little or no taxes under the current system and they would pay at least something with a flat tax.
And this:
The requirement that all Americans pay at least something in taxes may not seem as onerous . . .
Some people pay no taxes? Wrong. Everyone pays sales tax in Arizona. Everyone. Anyone with a job, no matter how low the wage, pays Social Security taxes. Everyone who owns a home pays property taxes. Everyone who rents pays, as part of their rent, the taxes the owner pays on the property. Income tax is only one of many taxes people pay.
Then there's this:
Taxpayers in the middle and high income brackets – many of which are investors and small business owners – pay a progressively higher rate for each additional dollar they earn or invest. Economists generally agree that sort of tax system hinders income and job growth for all, and particularly for those at the lower end of the income ladder. [boldface added]
Economists generally agree? Um, no, they don't. A correct statement would be, "Economists who believe progressive taxes hinder job growth agree that progressive taxes hinder job growth." G.I.'s statement is a meaningless tautology. If you only accept the opinion of economists who agree with you, then it's true, economists agree with you.
The bottom line is, G.I. and the Arizona Republican political ideologues think higher taxes are just fine so long as the people paying them aren't the same people who, if they're politicians, fund their campaigns and are likely to pay them high salaries once they're out of office, and if they're the G.I. brain trust, fund the Institute to the tune of $5 million-plus a year and help them earn their $150,000-plus salaries.
by David Safier
I wrote yesterday the fix may be in to make the Mexican American Studies program into a series of elective courses rather than courses which fulfill core graduation requirements in history and English. My sources say Superintendent John Pedicone, who has taken a neutral stance on the elective issue in public, has three votes lined up on the TUSD School Board and may be pushing for the change behind the scenes.
Let me explain why I think making the courses into electives is a terrible idea. But first, it's important to understand what the change would mean.
Right now, students can opt to take one or two history courses in the MAS program starting their junior year which will satisfy their junior and/or senior history requirements. They can do the same thing with two English courses offered by MAS.
In an op ed, TUSD Board President Mark Stegeman proposed the MAS courses be turned into electives rather than courses fulfilling core credit requirements. If his recommendation were put into effect, all high school students would basically take the same two history and English courses their junior and senior years. If any of them wanted to take the MAS courses, they would take them as electives on top of the required courses. In other words, instead of taking, say, art or shop or band or choir, they would take MAS courses.
Here's why I think making MAS courses into electives would negate their most positive effects on the students who most need the program and very possibly sound the death knell for the program.
Imagine yourself back in high school. Imagine you're either a student who doesn't like school at all, or you're someone who maybe likes it a bit but isn't wildly enthusiastic about it.
Now, imagine you're faced with this decision: if you want to take an MAS history course, that means you'll be taking two history courses that year. Twice the reading, twice the writing, twice the studying, twice the test taking. If you want to take an MAS English course, you'll have to read twice as many novels, write twice as many papers, etc.
How many students who already don't much like history and English -- or who just don't want to double their academic workloads -- will elect to take the Mexican American Studies history and English classes on top of the ones they're required to take? Be realistic, folks. The answer is, not many. And yet those are the students who get the biggest boost from the courses. They're the ones who are turned on by their reading and the study of history and their essay assignments in those classes. They're the ones who understand, maybe for the first time, that schooling can be relevant to who they are, that it can actually be interesting, even exciting. They may not finish high school, or attend college, without the extra push those classes and the teachers give them. They are the main reason the program is in existence. But if MAS becomes an elective program, most of those students won't participate.
The only students who will take MAS as electives will be those enthused enough about the curriculum that they're willing to double up on their book-heavy academic coursework. I doubt that will be enough to keep the program going.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Wisconsin Tea-Publicans' disregard for the lawful court order of Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi pissed off the judge. "What part of my order did you not understand?"
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel rfeports on today's copurt hearing. Judge again blocks implementation of collective bargaining law - JSOnline:
"Further implementation of the act is enjoined," said Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi.
Sumi noted her original restraining order issued earlier this month was clear in saying that the state should not proceed with implementing the law. The Walker administration did so after the bill was published Friday by a state agency not included in Sumi's earlier temporary restraining order.
"Apparently that language was either misunderstood or ignored, but what I said was the further implementation of Act 10 was enjoined. That is what I now want to make crystal clear," she said.
But minutes later, outside the court room, Assistant Attorney General Steven Means said the legislation "absolutely" is still in effect.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) balked at that statement.
"It's just startling that the attorney general believes you should not follow court orders anymore," he said.
The restraining order is in effect until Friday, when more testimony will be taken. At that point, Sumi could rule on whether the law should be suspended for a longer period.
Judge Sumi noted the Legislature could resolve the matter by passing the bill again. Andrew Welhouse, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), said there are no plans to try to pass the bill again.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who like Walker is a Republican, last week appealed a decision by Sumi to block La Follette from publishing the law. An appeals court said the matter should be taken up by the state Supreme Court, but the high court has not yet said whether it would take it.
On Monday, Van Hollen asked to withdraw the appeal after a separate agency, the Legislative Reference Bureau, published the law last week. The reference bureau was not named in the original restraining order.
On Tuesday, the appeals panel declined to do that, saying it didn't have the authority to allow Van Hollen to withdraw it because it had certified the case to the Supreme Court.
Shortly afterward, the Department of Justice tried to halt the hearing in Sumi's court, saying the law is now in effect and legislators are immune from civil proceedings. But Sumi said the case must continue for now.
"I think the court has a duty to proceed at this point," she said.
The next hearing is scheduled on Friday.
by David Safier
So far as I can tell, this hasn't made the state papers [NOTE: Yes it has. See Update below]. I found it on Forbes and in the Columbus, Indiana, Republic.
You know that new group the Republicans set up to replace the Arizona Department of Commerce? It's the Arizona Commerce Authority, a quasi-public entity with lots of power to spread money around which is supposed to promote economic growth.
So they hold their first meeting, and what do they do? They say cuts in education will create a climate that will discourage business from coming here.
[B]usiness leaders serving on the authority's board raised concerns about the state education system's ability to provide companies with trained work forces.
Former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett said the high-tech company chose to expand in Arizona largely because it leverages on Intel's existing big presence in the state.
But he said it might be different if Intel were starting from scratch on a site decision.
"I hate to say it (but) I think Arizona would not be in the top 10 to make that investment," he said
Compared with foreign competitors, the U.S. education system — and particularly that of Arizona — "is not particularly attractive," Barrett said.
And Arizona's current budget battle, including its likely impact on education, "doesn't bode well for the future," he said.
Let me repeat what the Intel guy said. Republicans have been high fiving over new Intel investments in Arizona, but Barrett said if the corporation weren't already here, he would discourage setting up an Arizona operation.
But . . . But . . . I thought all these corporations were going to hightail it out of California and settle in good old low-corporate-tax Arizona, bringing jobs and prosperity with them. At least, that's what Al Melvin, Russell Pearce and the whole gang led me to believe.
UPDATE: Howie Fischer is on the story. It's a better article than the one I cited. Let's hope it makes tomorrow's Star.
by David Safier
FixGunChecks.org has put together a two-and-a-half minute video of yesterday's downtown rally. At the end of the video, they ask you to go to the site, sign the petition to enforce gun check laws and encourage your friends to sign as well. I encourage you as well.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
"What the first amendment protects is freedom of speech, not freedom from rebuttal. What the plaintiffs are really complaining about is that somebody else gets to speak in addition to them." - Todd Lang, Executive Director of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission
"[T]he 'burden' created by the Act is that Plaintiffs’ speech will lead directly to more speech. Given that the purpose of the First Amendment is to 'secure the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources,' it seems illogical to conclude that the Act creating more speech is a constitutionally prohibited 'burden' on Plaintiffs." - Arizona U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver
These correct arguments fell on deaf ears in the United States Supreme Court on Monday. Five members of the court accept Justice William Rehnquist's false premise in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) that "money equals speech" and those who have more money are entitled to more speech - in order to drown out the speech of their less-funded opponent. In short, the First Amendment protects money, not speech.
Our political system has entirely broken down as a result of conservative activist judges and Buckley and its progeny, in particular, Davis v. Federal Election Commission, 128 S. Ct. 2759 (2008) at the heart of this case.
I previously addressed Judge Roslyn Silver's opinion in Arizona Clean Elections matching funds to be held unconstitutional in which she was highly critical of the U.S. Supreme Court and its decision in Davis:
Judge Silver next is critical of Davis v. FEC, suggesting her disagreement with the Supreme Court, but conceding she is bound by precedent.
Determining that matching funds constitute a cognizable burden does not end the inquiry. The weight of that burden must also be assessed. Unfortunately, Davis provided no guidance on how the statute at issue constituted a “substantial burden” on the plaintiffs’ rights. After explaining its holding that discriminatory fundraising limitations constituted a burden, the Davis court jumped to the conclusion that the burden was “substantial.”15 This ipse dixit was announced “without the slightest veneer of reasoning to shield the obvious fiat by which it [is] reached.” Francis v. Henderson, 425 U.S. 536, 552 (1976) (Brennan, J. dissenting). But the lack of reasoning does not free this Court to ignore the conclusion. If lifting a candidate’s opponent’s fundraising limitations constitutes a “substantial burden,” awarding funds to a candidate’s opponent must constitute a “substantial burden” as well. Accordingly, Arizona’s matching funds constitute a substantial burden and are permissible only if they are supported by a compelling government interest and are narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.
The "matching funds" provision of Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections was before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in the cases of AZ Free Ent. Club v. Bennett and McComish v. Bennett. Lyle Denniston at SCOTUS Blog has the play-by-play. Argument recap: Kennedy shows his hand : SCOTUSblog:
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who definitely seems to hold the deciding vote on the newest test of the Supreme Court’s skepticism about campaign finance laws, made repeated comments on Monday suggesting that he is very wary of Arizona’s attempt to offset the impact of wealthy candidates paying their own way. Among a variety that could be noted, no remark was more telling than what seemed almost to be a rhetorical question: “Do you think it would be a fair characterization of this law to say that its purpose and its effect are to produce less speech in political campaigns?”
I would refer Justice Kennedy to Judge Silver's well-reasoned opinion above to refute the false premise of his leading question.
That, of course, is the whole point of the challengers of the 1998 state law that provides subsidies with public funds for candidates who forgo private fund-raising, if their self-financed candidates spend more than a specified minimum. And, in response to Kennedy’s leading question, the challengers’ lawyer, William R. Maurer of Seattle, predictably responded: “The entire motivation of this was to limit spending in leveling the playing field. Limiting spending indicates that they wanted less political speech in the state of Arizona, and that’s what they’ve got.”
"[I]t was more than evident on Monday that the Arizona system — which the Court did block in a temporary order, stopping the subsidies during last year’s campaign — was in deep constitutional jeopardy."
"Four of the members of the Davis majority (all but Justice Clarence Thomas, who said nothing) left little doubt Monday that they probably accept the challengers’ basic logical premise. As their attorney, Maurer, put it early in his argument: “What this case is about is whether the government can turn my act of speaking into the vehicle by which my political opponents benefit with direct government subsidies.” In short, the First Amendment protects money, not speech.
Noting that the law in Arizona triggers subsidies not only when a self-financed candidate spends beyond a limit, but also when an independent group supporting a self-financed candidate helps exceed that limit, the Chief Justice remarked: “If you knew that a $10,000 expenditure that you would make that would support a candidate would result in $30,000, $40,000, $50,000, depending on how many opposition candidates there were available for them, wouldn’t you think twice about it?”
When Arizona’s lawyer, Bradley S. Phillips of Los Angeles, countered that “thinking twice is not a severe burden,” the Chief Justice retorted: “Well, if you’re thinking twice and one way you’re thinking is not to do it, that sounds like a sufficient burden.”
Not to be outdone by Chief Justice Roberts in dystopian logic:
Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., the author of the Davis opinion that struck down discriminatory treatment of self-financed candidates, bluntly suggested that the Arizona system actually works as a regulation of political speech based upon its content — the worst constitutional sin under the First Amendment.
There is nothing - NOTHING - in the Citizens Clean Elections Act that regulates the content of speech. Justice Alito demonstrates the depths of disingenuousness to which conservative activist judges will go in creating legal fictions out of whole cloth to advance the interests of the wealthy elite plutocracy.
Davis v. Federal Election Commission and Citizens United v. FEC are two of the worst Supreme Court decisions of all-time because they stab at the very heart of our democratic republican form of government. This Supreme Court is adjudicating law to pave the way for an entirely new form of government not contemplated by the Founding Fathers in our Constitution. They are husbanding the birth of the corporatocracy.
The transcript of Monday morning’s oral argument in Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club Pac v. Bennett is here.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The editors of the Arizona Republic want to believe, they really want to believe in Jan Brewer, who they endorsed for governor in 2010. They want to believe in her humanity despite all evidence to the contrary.
I warned you about Gov. Brewer's Tinkerbell Tax Plan: Just clap your hands and believe! back in December (Tinkerbell Tax Plan: just clap your hands and believe! - the essence of faith based supply-side "trickle down" conservative economic policies). And again in January, 'It's only make believe':
As Conway Twitty sang, "It's only make believe." The governor's budget and tax plan are based upon false assumptions and faith in a politico-economic theory that has been entirely disproved and discredited over the past decade. She only offers more of the same. It is destined to failure.
So it is disheartening that the Jan Brewer Fan Club at the Arizona Republic is doing such a disservice to the residents of Arizona with nonsense like this: Brewer's agenda can put state on the fast track. Um, sorry but no. Put down the Kool-Aid and check yourselves into rehab.
Unfortunately, the Arizona Republic is still drinking the Kool-Aid and doing a disservice to the residents of Arizona.
The Arizona Republic reports today that Governor Grim Reaper hinted at the possibility during a trip to Prescott Valley last week that her GOP death panels for organ transplant patients could be addressed during the upcoming battle over the state budget.
"There is a possibility that that issue can be addressed," Brewer told The Republic. "I would hope that there could be a solution, an agreeable solution. That doesn't mean that's going to happen (emphasis added), but we're working to find a solution." Brewer works to restore transplant coverage. "But it's not clear what kind of support there is for the plan among legislators. Any plan to restore funding would require Legislative approval, Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson [former Arizona Republic reporter] said."
The mere hint that Governor Grim Reaper, who has already presided over the deaths of two organ transplant patients might now be willing to restore funding for the remaining 96 transplant patients, after having repeatedly rejected the idea for months, was enough to make the editors of the Arizona Republic clap their hands and say "I believe!" in this editorial opinion today. Brewer moves in right direction:
A tiny ray of hope is finally glimmering for 98 [actually 96, but who is counting?] Arizonans who need lifesaving treatment.
Gov. Jan Brewer is looking at restoring transplant funds that [she] cut off Oct. 1.
There's no reason to hesitate. The compassionate decision and the smart decision are the same: Restore funding. As soon as possible.
* * *
Brewer refused to resume transplants because the state Medicaid program, AHCCCS, faces a huge shortfall. But now, there are ways to fill the gap, including a proposal from health-care organizations that would bring in more federal dollars through a special assessment (structured to keep them from taking on additional costs).
* * *
Brewer should restore the transplants. And legislators should join her in doing the right thing for Arizona.
Got that? Governor Grim Reaper is now the champion of organ transplant patients that she consigned to death back on October 1, 2010. That's some Kool-Aid the editors of the Arizona Republic are drinking.
The true champion of the transplant patients and the only voice of reason at the Arizona Republic regarding the GOP death panels has been columnist E.J. Montini, who gave Jan Brewer the moniker "Governor Grim Reaper." Montini writes today, No choice: Transplant funds must be restored:
Gov. Jan Brewer no longer has a choice.
She must restore funding to the transplant patients that she and the Legislature essentially condemned to death last year.
The governor no longer can string along the 96 suffering patients and their anguished families.
She can't simply drop hints about how she might restore funding and then not do it.
"There is a possibility that that issue can be addressed," Brewer told The Republic. "I would hope that there could be a solution, an agreeable solution. That doesn't mean that's going to happen, but we're working to find a solution."
Not good enough.
It was inhumane and unnecessary to have cut off transplant funding to begin with.
It would be grotesque and unspeakably cruel to dangle a possible solution in front of those gravely ill patients and their families and then to snatch it away.
And yet, this is the likely outcome of the budget battle about to be joined. GOP legislative leaders have consistently refused to consider restoring funding for organ transplant patients.
I told you earlier this year about Illinois state Rep. Steve Daglas who went through the Arizona state budget line by line looking for alternative sources of funding. He created a website for the transplant patients called www.arizona98.com and listed 26 different ways the funding could be restored. His plan fell on deaf ears in the Arizona legislature - and in the governor's office.
Democrats Rep. Anna Tovar, herself a transplant recipient, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema have also proposed alternative funding methods. Their proposals did not get a committee hearing - under instructions from the governor's office, as previously reported.
As E.J. Montini said,"It would be grotesque and unspeakably cruel to dangle a possible solution in front of those gravely ill patients and their families and then to snatch it away." This is precisely what Governor Grim Reaper is doing. And yet the editors of the Arizona Republic who want to believe, they really want to believe in Jan Brewer, giver her kudos for her hint of humanity for what in reality is her stone cold cruelty.
by David Safier
We've gotten complaints from readers that it's difficult to comment on BfA, so we took down the hurdles for a month to see how it works.
It's not that we wanted to discourage you from commenting. Really. We love our readers, and we love to see your thoughts and feelings in the Comments section. It's just that we were experiencing regular Attacks of the Trolls, and we thought it was dragging down the level of discussion.
We took down the roadblocks, so comment away! And as Mike says, Please Don't Feed the Trolls. Crazy-base comments are posted to get you to react. Ignore them and they go away.
If things go smoothly, we'll leave the easier-to-use Comments procedure in place.
By Michael Bryan
Exclusive to BlogForArizona, here's Paul Eckerstrom, former Chair of the Pima and (briefly) Arizona Democratic Parties, advocating for the 51st State: Baja Arizona. Paul spoke to fellow Bajaians at Drinking Liberally in Tucson.
Learn more about the movement or join up at the Website or Facebook Page.
By Michael Bryan
You might note that we have made a slight alteration to the site banner. We are now acknowledging the de facto split between Baja and Alto Arizona. Of course, the split is not yet de jure, and may never be, but we thought it time to recognize that Baja and Alto are two different states of mind, if not two different states. Yet. Until the people of Baja have a chance to voice their choice through a non-binding referendum on continued union with Alto, our new banner will fly.
You can learn more about the movement to create Baja Arizona south of the Gila at the movement's Facebook Page, or their new homepage, StartOurState.com.
We thought it might be fun to ask BlogFor(Baja&Alto)Arizona.com readers to help design our new State Flag. The mock-up they have on the banner at StartOurState.com isn't exactly inspired.
Basically, just Arizona's flag inverted and with the pizzaz drained out of it. We'd like to see what you come up with. So we are going to have a little contest.
Please submit your designs, or design ideas (we don't expect everyone to be a graphic designer) to BlogForArizona@gmail.com with the subject line 'FLAG CONTEST' (or something reasonably similar) by June 1st, 2011 and our staff, in consultation with the leaders of the Start Our State movement, will select a winner.
A prize? You want a prize as well as the honor of designing the flag of the 51st state? Sheesh. OK. The winner gets their very own BlogForArizona.com bumper sticker. If you want to donate additional incentives to the eventual winner, we're open to that, too. Let us know what you want to pony up for the contest winner and we'll add it to the kitty.
Here are some resources to get you started and help you make your design not suck: NAVA (the North American Vexillological Association) has a good site on flag design; Design My Own Flag has a nifty online doodad for making mockup flags; and, of course, Wikipedia has a nice entry on vexillology. Get designing!
by David Safier
The good folks at Mayors Against Illegal Guns already put out a Media Release with quotes from today's gathering in front of the downtown library.
Here is a sampling of the quotes:
NOTE: Dr. Peter Rhee wrote on Huffington Post today: One Gun in the Wrong Hands, Six Innocent Lives Lost
You can read the entire Mayors Against Illegal Guns media release, which includes longer quotes, after the jump.
Continue reading "Quotes from today's Mayors Against Illegal Guns event in Tucson" »
by David Safier
I'm not always successful at keeping my inner English teacher in check. Right now, if I don't let him out, he might do damage to some vital inner organ.
Admittedly, the emerging vocabulary of the blogosphere is still very much in flux. However . . .
What I am writing here is a "post": short, I supposed, for a "posting." I am writing it on a "blog": short for a web log. The "blog" is the whole. The "post" is the part.
When people say about something I wrote, "That was a great [or lousy] blog you wrote the other day," that's wrong. I even see bloggers write, "The blog I wrote yesterday about . . ."
No. You write "posts" on a "blog." You write on a blog, or maybe in a blog. I won't get all in your face about the proper preposition to use. But you don't write a "blog."
Thanks. I feel better now.
by David Safier
What is it with conservatives and anger management problems? (No need to answer. Rhetorical question.)
Remember that substitute, Anthony Hill, who wrote an angry letter about the gang-members-in-training (or so he characterized them) he had in a Glendale Middle School? It looks like his wife and eight kids could write a far more scathing letter about their husband and father. Kudos to the Phoenix New Times for doing the research.
Hill and his wife are legally separated. Apparently he was verbally and physically abusive:
A few years ago, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda awarded the wife sole custody of the minor children (that's unusual), writing, "Father has a history of exploding by verbally calling the minor children vulgar names and using intimidating gestures towards Mother and the children...Father choked Mother at one point and physically abused the family pet in front of the children."
The judge said Hill has "mental health and anger management issues...[his] erratic and violent behavior, [and his] long history of domestic violence against Mother and the children."
Paul Rubin at the New Times ends with:
Who the hell are our substitute teachers, and what kind of vetting process do they go through before being allowed into the classroom?
A partial answer is, Hill was hired from a teacher substitute agency. The district needs to look into the background checks the agency does on its employees.
And on The Range, Jim Nintzel reminds us:
And remember: Republican Sen. Al Melvin of the Catalina Foothills and Oro Valley praised Klein's courage in reading this letter.
by David Safier
The Fix Gun Checks mobile truck made it to Tucson today after starting in New York on February 15 and traveling across country to big cities and small towns, holding events and talking with gun victims as well as people who are "survivors" -- family and friends of people who were killed by gun violence.
Karin Uhlich introduced the speakers. Since there is no way I can choose which speakers were more important, here is a composite photo of all of them.
Starting at top left, they are: Patricia Maisch (at Jan. 8 shooting, grabbed the second bullet magazine before Loughner could reload), Dr. Peter Rhee (Chief of Trauma at University Medical Center), Randy Gardner (at Jan. 8 shooting), Ross Zimmerman (Gabe Zimmerman's father), Ann Nichols (Gabe's teacher at the School of Social Work and family friend), Tony Baccerra (shooting victim), Carol Gaxiola (daughter killed by someone who bought a gun at a gun show), Omar Samaha (sister was killed in the Virginia Tech shooting. He's been traveling across the country with the Fix Gun Checks truck), Yuhass family (mother and daughter. Daughter lost her husband and her daughter to gun violence 10 years ago), Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Vince Rabago (former Assistant Attorney General), Terry Goddard, Tom Volgy (former Tucson mayor), Brett Klein (read a statement for Tucson police chief Roberto Villasenor), Byron Gwaltney (Spoke for Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik), Tony Estrada (Santa Cruz County Sheriff), Rev. Jan Flaaten and Pastor David Wilkinson.
I'll let the real journalists out there give a rundown of the various speeches when they cover the event on television and in the papers. It looked like all the media were there. If I think they left anything out when I see their coverage, I'll fill in the blanks.
UPDATE: More coverage of the event from Carolyn Classen,(h/t to Carolyn for getting all the names right so I could correct my post) and background information from Hugh Holub. The progressive blogosphere is leading the coverage.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Even as a kid I loved 60 Minutes. In its early days it was "ambush" investigative journalism. Every week there was some crooked evil bastard who would answer his door only to be confronted by Mike Wallace - "Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes, can we talk to you?" The look of fear and dread on the face of the crooked evil bastard getting caught on tape by Mike Wallace was the best entertainment.
But over the past decade or so as new correspondents have been added and 60 Minutes has become more staid - and stale - it has lost its edginess. Case in point, Leslie Stahl's report last night on A look at the world's new corporate tax havens. It was if the Chicoms Chamber of Commerce handed her the talking points and said "here, read this."
Here's the talking points that Leslie Stahl did not get any opposing opinion to rebut. She couldn't find an economist (Paul Krugman) or a tax expert (David Cay Johnston) to ask about the chamber's talking points? A look at the world's new corporate tax havens:
[Over $60 billion] in tax money not coming in to the IRS from American corporations. One major way they avoid paying the tax man is by parking their profits overseas. They'll tell you they're forced to do that because the corporate 35 percent tax rate is high in relation to other countries, and indeed it seems the tax code actually encourages companies to move their businesses out of the country.
* * *
"We are dealing with a tax system that is a dinosaur," Cisco CEO John Chambers told Stahl.
One CEO who would talk to us was Chambers. Cisco is the giant high tech company headquartered in San Jose, Calif. He says our tax rate is insane. It's forcing companies into these maneuvers, especially when many other industrialized countries including Canada are busy lowering their tax rates in order to lure our companies and our jobs away.
"Every other government in the world has realized that the U.S. has it wrong. They're saying, 'I'm going to have lower taxes, period.' That's what you see all across Western Europe, that's what you see in Asia in the developed countries," Chambers said.
* * *
"Well, if you have a 35 percent rate in the United States and, for example, a 12.5 percent rate in Ireland, there's a incentive to move your factory to Ireland," [Economist Martin Sullivan] explained.
"Six hundred American companies are in Ireland and they employ 100,000 people," Stahl pointed out. "Those are jobs that aren't here. And they moved to Ireland because of taxes."
"The U.S. Treasury in effect is subsidizing investment in Ireland," Sullivan said.
"Why isn't everybody in Ireland if it's that great?" Stahl asked [with a big smile].
* * *
If they bring the money home, it's taxed the full 35 percent. If they leave it overseas, the IRS can't touch it. In other words, the tax law all but forces companies to keep their money out of the country, indefinitely.
"We leave the money over there. I create jobs overseas; I acquire companies overseas; I build plants overseas; and I badly want to bring that money back," John Chambers told Stahl.
* * *
The total amount of money U.S. companies have trapped overseas is $1.2 trillion. Chambers is advocating for a one-time tax break to allow them to bring that money home at a rate of, say five percent. That would, he says, stimulate the economy and create jobs.
* * *
"My answer's very simple: every other developed country in the world has already done this. I'm not asking to give me a favor, or a hand out," Chambers replied.
"You know what: it sounds like it," Stahl remarked.
Chambers replied, "All we're asking is: Give us a level playing field. Get us close."
Let's take that last statement, "give us a level playing field." International corporations prey on weak governments that they can use their financial leverage to "negotiate" a low tax rate on the promise of bringing economic development and jobs to that country. (Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.) Then the company turns to other countries in which it operates, e.g., the U.S., and says "give us what we want or we are taking our corporate operations and jobs elsewhere." Where I come from that is called extortion, not a "level playing field." This race to the bottom played out over time could eventually result in a corporate tax rate approaching zero.
It never occurred to Leslie Stahl to examine just who are corporations, and who will actually benefit. Fortunately, Dave Johnson at Campaign for America's Future knows to ask the right questions. Today's Plutocracy Post: GE Doesn't Pay Taxes -- Taxpayers Pay GE | OurFuture.org:
The use of the general term "corporations" to describe the beneficiaries of these policies is really a smokescreen that masks the fact that really a very few people are benefiting. Yesterday's post, Lobbyists Admit Corporate Tax "Holiday" Didn't Work, But Demand It Again, pointed out that it is a very few actual people that we are really talking about here,
Corporate wealth is really just personal wealth, held at arms length from the person to mask what is going on. The wealthiest 1% own 50.9% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual fund assets. The wealthiest 10 percent own more than 90 percent. The bulk of us own less than 1 percent. When you hear about "corporate" holdings, think about this chart from the Working Group on Extreme Inequality:
These benefits accrue to the wealthy few at the expense of the rest of us. What many people don't understand is that it is also at the expense of other companies. Our infrastructure and public structures - roads, education, courts, customers - are the soil in which good companies can grow. When tax dodgers are able to avoid contributing to our communities and country, the overall environment for the rest of our businesses deteriorates and our worldwide competitiveness declines.
What prompted the ire of Dave Johnson? This report in the New York Times last week, G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether:
The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.
Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.
So not only did GE, the highly-profitable recipient of federal contracts and bailout money, not pay taxes, we paid them $3.2 billion!
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has compiled a "top ten" list of corporate tax avoiders. Bernie Sanders on The Ten Worst Corporate Tax Avoiders: It's Time for Them to Pay up and Share the Sacrifice:
Sanders compiled a list of some of some of the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings.
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion.
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS.
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009.
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year.
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction.
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department.
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury.
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2007 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction.
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.
You will note that many of these corporate tax avoiders are also the recipient of federal TARP bailout money and special low interest fund rates from the Federal Reserve Board. These corporations are abusing the American taxpayer.
As Dave Johnson noted, "In 1983 NY hotel-chain-owning billionaire Leona Helmsley said, 'We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes...'" Leona Helmsley eventually went to jail for tax evasion. Today, not one of the banksters of Wall Street has been prosecuted or gone to jail. Therein lies the problem.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Press Release from the Arizona House Democrats:
House Democrats call out GOP plan to steal from public safety officers
STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – House Democrats are holding Republicans accountable for voting against public safety officers’ lifetime service.
House Republicans voted in committee to steal retirement from firefighters, police and correctional officers in Arizona with passing Senate Bill 1609, which now goes to the House floor.
“House Democrats support the men and women who protect our families every day by putting their lives on the line, and it is unconscionable that government could vote to make their lives even harder after serving our communities,” said House Minority Leader Chad Campbell. “Now more than ever, we need to hold government accountable to We the People.”
SB 1609 would:
“Once again, state government is stealing money away from our hard-working Arizonans to pay for their own tax breaks to their rich and special interest friends,” said Assistant House Minority Leader Steve Farley. “Instead of working with the men and women who risk their lives every day to preserve our communities and protect and serve our families, Republicans dishonor them with their disregard for our officers’ families.”
Firefighters, police and correctional officers took a balanced approach to fix the bill and have offered amendments, but Republicans voted against them and passed it. Police stated that Republicans’ claims that law enforcement pension systems are on the verge of collapse are incorrect.
“The state constitution already protects public safety officers’ retirement through a voter-approved measure and this bill undermines the will of Arizona voters,” said Rep. Lynne Pancrazi, D-Yuma (District 24). “These are the people on the front lines, protecting our citizens every single day, and they deserve retirement where enjoying basic necessities of life like health care does not turn into a luxury.”
###
Since last Wednesday, you may have seen this televsion ad air from www.rescuetherescuersaz.com:
By Michael Bryan
The crew here at BfAZ are getting more involved in using social media to reach out to our readers and especially to find new ones. See the new doohicky on the left sidebar? Touch it. Really. Go ahead. I'll wait...
Tell your networks about us, and you can read more about the changes here.
New posts will continue below this one, so keep reading!
by David Safier
Last week, TUSD school board president Mark Stegeman wrote an op ed in the Star recommending the Mexican American Studies courses be removed from the core curriculum and be turned into electives.
Now, I hear Superintendent John Pedicone is also pushing to change the program into a series of elective courses, and he's pretty sure he has the three votes on the Board to make it happen. In public, Pedicone is maintaining a neutral position on the core/elective issue, but statements he has made in less public circumstances make it sound like the fix is in.
Turning the Mexican American Studies courses into electives is a bad idea which will most likely gut the program or end it entirely. More on that in a later post. But right now, I have to ask, why?
Changing the MAS courses into electives sounds like out-and-out capitulation or, to use a less loaded term, politically motivated compromise. If TUSD dials back the MAS program a notch, the calculation may be, then Huppenthal will call off the dogs and not end the program entirely. That may make be the political calculation, but it defies logic.
Imagine all the MAS courses were turned into electives but the classes remained essentially the same. That would have nothing to do with their compliance with A.R.S. § 15-112. Either the classes promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote racial resentment, etc., or they don't. Their standing as core or elective courses is irrelevant in the eyes of the law.
Have Pedicone and Huppenthal already cut a deal? If so, someone should blow the whistle, because it exposes the law and the pressure on TUSD for the purely political maneuvers they are.
If Huppenthal has offered Pedicone a deal, Pedicone is the one who should be blowing the whistle to expose Huppenthal's blatant hypocrisy.
And if there's no deal -- if Pedicone and the three members of the board think throwing a bone to Huppenthal will make him back off -- they have not learned the lessons of recent Arizona political history.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
It's sadly comical when Tea-Publicans talk about the "rule of law" and say that America is "a nation of laws." They only say this about laws with which they agree. Tea-Publicans are quick to dismiss the rule of law and the validity of court orders with which they disagree. Laws are for everyone else to abide by; Republicans are exempt from the rule of law. IOKIYAR.
Case in point: on March 18, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a restraining order to prevent Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing Gov. Scott Walker's so-called "budget-repair measure" rammed through the Tea-Publican Wisconsin legislature by dubious procedural irregularities. Judge Sumi made it very clear that she was blocking the further implementation of the law:
"I do, therefore, restrain and enjoin the further implementation of 2011 Wisconsin Act 10. The next step in implementation of that law would be the publication of that law by the secretary of state. He is restrained and enjoined from such publication until further order of this court."
What was the Tea-Publican response to a valid court order restraining the state from publishing Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair measure" to deny the law from having any legal force or effect?
"In a stunning twist, Gov. Scott Walker's legislation limiting collective bargaining for public workers was published Friday despite a judge's hold on the measure, prompting a dispute over whether it takes effect Saturday." Collective bargaining law published despite restraining order - JSOnline:
The measure was published to the Legislature's website with a footnote that acknowledges the restraining order by a Dane County judge. But the posting says state law "requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish every act within 10 working days after its date of enactment."
* * *
Laws normally take effect a day after they are published, and a top GOP lawmaker said that meant it will become law Saturday. But nonpartisan legislative officials from two agencies, including the one who published the bill, disagreed.
"I think this is a ministerial act that forwards it to the secretary of state," said Stephen Miller, director of the Legislative Reference Bureau. "I don't think this act makes it become effective. My understanding is that the secretary of state has to publish it in the (official state) newspaper for it to become effective."
* * *
It hasn't been printed in the Wisconsin State Journal, the official state newspaper, as other laws are. Late Friday, State Journal publisher Bill Johnston said in an e-mail that the notice for the law had been scheduled to run but had been canceled. He did not elaborate.
La Follette urged caution Friday, saying the measure has not been published yet by his office. He said he believes the law cannot go into effect until he directs the State Journal to publish it, which he has not done.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said it didn't matter that it hasn't appeared in the paper.
"It's published," Fitzgerald said. "It's law. That's what I contend."
The "Fabulous Fitzgerald Brothers" 'FitzWalkerstan': The Republican Brothers And The Wisconsin Showdown | TPMDC who rule Wisconsin by authoritarian fiat and disregard for the rule of law and valid court orders are, of course, WRONG.
In a memo to Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), an attorney for the nonpartisan Legislative Council said that the legislation would not become law based on Friday's action. That's because although state law provides for a separate role for both the reference bureau and the secretary of state in publishing laws, the section in state law on when legislation takes effect refers only to action by the secretary of state, the memo said.
Last Thursday, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals - without weighing in on the merits of the case - said the state Supreme Court should take up the matter. The Supreme Court has not decided whether to take jurisdiction.
Howard Schweber, a professor of political science and legal studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Friday's actions amounted to "entirely uncharted waters."
He said that the action Friday didn't remove the possibility that the Supreme Court could take up the question of the restraining order against La Follette. He questioned how the justices would react to a publication step being taken before they had made any decision.
"No matter what happens next, it's going to be one heck of a show," he said.
Also on Friday, another suit was filed over the law, bringing to three the total number of cases now pending.
Madison firefighters and public works employees filed suit in Dane County Circuit Court against Walker and the state seeking to block the law from taking effect, saying it had been passed in violation of the state constitution.
The Madison workers allege that the law treats some union workers unfairly compared with other workers. The law also violates constitutional provisions requiring that three-fifths of lawmakers be present to vote on certain financial bills, the lawsuit alleged.
We have a political party in this country, the Tea-Publicans, who believe they can rule by fiat and are exempt from the rule of law and valid court orders. That is is the very definiton of tyranny.
by David Safier
If it were possible to be amused, if the obfuscation around the nuclear power plant catastrophe in Japan weren't so dangerous, I would call this my "favorite" line yet:
[C]hief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano repeated today that the contaminated water in Unit 2 appeared to be due to a temporary partial meltdown of the reactor core. [boldface added]
A temporary meltdown? My understanding is, when something melts down, it can't be un-melted.
The startling information in two articles in today's Star -- here and here -- highlight the problems with governments or corporations messing around with unbelievably dangerous technologies: they tend to understate the possibilities of dangers and downplay the damage when it occurs.
Some examples from the two articles.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin started a blog, “Scholar as Citizen,” devoting his first post to the role of the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council in pushing hard-line conservative legislation at the state level. BforAZ included a link to his richly detailed post in The Devil's Workshop For The Corporatocracy.
Cronon then he published an opinion piece in The New York Times, Wisconsin’s Radical Break, suggesting that Wisconsin’s Republican governor has turned his back on the state’s long tradition of “neighborliness, decency and mutual respect.”
That's when the ghost of Joe McCarthy and McCarthyism reared its ugly head in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Republican Party demanded copies of all e-mails sent to or from Mr. Cronon’s university mail account containing any of a wide range of terms, including the word “Republican” and the names of a number of Republican politicians. This FOIA request is clearly motivated by retaliation for Cronon exposing the inner workings of ALEC and the web of right-wing think tanks with which it works, and his critical opinion of Gov. Scott Walker. The purpose of the Wisconsin GOP is the "politics of personal destruction." Tail Gunner Joe still haunts Wisconsin.
Paul Krugman writes today, William Cronon and the American Thought Police:
If this action strikes you as no big deal, you’re missing the point. The hard right — which these days is more or less synonymous with the Republican Party — has a modus operandi when it comes to scholars expressing views it dislikes: never mind the substance, go for the smear. And that demand for copies of e-mails is obviously motivated by no more than a hope that it will provide something, anything, that can be used to subject Mr. Cronon to the usual treatment.
The Cronon affair, then, is one more indicator of just how reflexively vindictive, how un-American, one of our two great political parties has become.
The "politics of personal destruction" has been with us for a long time, but its practitioners reside almost entirely on the political right. They still regard Joe McCarthy as an exemplar of power politics, not the destructive demagogue he was.
Now, in this case they’ll probably come up dry. Mr. Cronon writes on his blog that he has been careful never to use his university e-mail for personal business, exhibiting a scrupulousness that’s neither common nor expected in the academic world. (Full disclosure: I have, at times, used my university e-mail to remind my wife to feed the cats, confirm dinner plans with friends, etc.)
Beyond that, Mr. Cronon — the president-elect of the American Historical Association — has a secure reputation as a towering figure in his field. His magnificent “Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West” is the best work of economic and business history I’ve ever read — and I read a lot of that kind of thing.
So we don’t need to worry about Mr. Cronon — but we should worry a lot about the wider effect of attacks like the one he’s facing.
Legally, Republicans may be within their rights: Wisconsin’s open records law provides public access to e-mails of government employees, although the law was clearly intended to apply to state officials, not university professors. But there’s a clear chilling effect when scholars know that they may face witch hunts whenever they say things the G.O.P. doesn’t like.
Someone like Mr. Cronon can stand up to the pressure. But less eminent and established researchers won’t just become reluctant to act as concerned citizens, weighing in on current debates; they’ll be deterred from even doing research on topics that might get them in trouble.
What’s at stake here, in other words, is whether we’re going to have an open national discourse in which scholars feel free to go wherever the evidence takes them, and to contribute to public understanding. Republicans, in Wisconsin and elsewhere, are trying to shut that kind of discourse down. It’s up to the rest of us to see that they don’t succeed.
Posted by Michael Bryan
The team here at BfAZ have decided that it is time to address social media a little more systematically. People love their Facebook, so we've decided to do our best to provide as much of our content as possible the way Facebooker's 'Like' it: on Facebook. So while we've had a FB Page for BlogForArizona for a while, we've now actually syndicated our feed to that Page's Wall. If you want, you can now see what's up at BfAZ just by adding our updates to your FB notifications. And you can comment on FB, as well as directly on the blog. Oh, and we have a new little doodad on the sidebar to the left regarding the blog's Page. If you have suggestions or comments about our new approach, we want to hear it.
That brings me to another topic: there have been several complaints about the hoops that Typepad makes you jump through to comment here. We hear you. For the next month (at least) we are going to turn off verification requirements for commenting. We hope that everyone will cooperate in not feeding any trolls that turn up.
Of course, you are also encouraged to connect with us through our personal pages: Mike, David, Craig, Jenn, and BlueMeanie (coming soon) want to hear from you and be your FB Friends. If you have suggestions, stories, events, would like to become more involved in helping to build a community of liberal Arizonans on social media, or want to promote your own liberal cause or group here in AZ, feel free to let us know. We appreciate your readership and we love it when you recommend us to your social networks.
In closing (for now) let me just pass on the following gem about reasoned discussion for you to judge the quality of the (newly 'liberalized') comments. I hope it will guide you in how you choose to respond to discourse here:
by David Safier
A tip of the hat and the tastebuds to Adam Borowitz on The Range for his recommendation of Taco Fish, a cart on Grant just to the west of 6th Ave, south side of the street. It shares a dirt lot with a Caribbean food cart which I haven't tried. Look for the big ol' flag that proclaims, "FISH TACOS."
I'm not a food blogger, but I love me some good street food, and I'm delighted to see the Tucson cart culture coming of age. Last summer in Portland, I ate from an amazing selection of carts, and I've been waiting to find good stuff here (Sorry, no Sonoran hot dogs for me. I hear they're great, but I don't eat red meat.)
For $2.50 to $3.00 each, you get a soft corn tortilla with breaded and fried pieces of fish or whole shrimp -- or you can get marlon (I've never had it before. Very tasty and tangy, and not fried) -- on top. Then you take a few steps over to the condiment bar. There's a large container of delicious fresh cut salsa, another of tasty cole slaw, smaller containers of onions and so on, and two or three choices of hot sauce. Pile on what you want, grab a few napkins and enjoy. Hot, fresh and individualized by you. Eat there or take it to go.
There are other choices on the menu which I haven't tried . . . yet.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
"Joe, Jr.," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, claims the effects of cross-border smuggling are "far worse" in his county than in Arizona's border counties, and that's why his county merits $5 million in special border-security funding from the Legislature.
The fact that Joe, Jr. is the darling of the anti-immigrant hate mongers in the Arizona Legislature and may be a kingmaker in the congressional sweepstakes between "King" Russell Pearce and House Speaker Kirk Adams has nothing to do with it, nosiree.
Brady McCombs of the Arizona Daily Star fact checks Joe Jr.'s claim and calls bullshit. The $5M question: Babeu vs. the stats:
[A] county-by-county breakdown of apprehensions and drug seizures carried out by the U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona suggests an entirely different picture.
More than 95 percent of all apprehensions and pounds of marijuana seized in Arizona from Oct. 1, 2007, through March 17, 2011, have occurred in Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show.
Yuma and Pinal counties each account for just 2 percent of all apprehensions and pounds of marijuana seized over this 3 1/2-year span.
(scanned graphic, not online)
The concentration of arrests and seizures in Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties is not surprising considering that the three border counties are in the heart of what has been the busiest drug- and people-smuggling corridor along the U.S.-Mexico border for the last decade.
But it might be surprising to legislators and voters who've heard Babeu's discussion of the droves of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers trekking through his county, located 80 miles from the border.
"It's far worse than Pima County, Cochise County or Santa Cruz County," Babeu said in an interview this month. The Border Patrol, he said, "are the ones who've said that all roads lead to Pinal County."
Yeah, tbese guys who like the attention from the conservative media and believe their own hype tend to be world-class liars. It's all about self-promotion.
The federal statistics suggest Pinal County is quiet compared with Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.
Since Oct. 1, 2007, there have been 19,457 apprehensions of illegal immigrants in Pinal County. By comparison, there were 303,634 in Cochise County and 301,844 in Pima County in that time span.
In that same period, there were 74,945 pounds of marijuana seized in Pinal County. That was a fraction of the 1.69 million pounds seized in Pima County and the 1.2 million pounds seized in Santa Cruz County.
Broken down per square mile, Pinal County still accounts for far fewer arrests and seizures than the other counties. There were 3.6 apprehensions and 14 pounds of marijuana seized per square mile in Pinal County, which pales in comparison to the three busiest counties.
Yep, a world-class liar. Yet the anti-immigrant hate mongers in the Arizona Legislature just made Joe, Jr. the "$5 million dollar man" because they all have their nose in a snit over Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik pointing a finger at them and stating the obvious truth that "Arizona is a mecca for hate and bigotry" because of our GOP legislature.
The fact that "King" Russel Pearce and House Speaker Kirk Adams are both courting Joe, Jr. for their possible runs for Congress -- and trying to convince Joe, Jr. not to run against them in the GOP primary -- had nothing to do with it. "Nothing to see here folks, move along."
by David Safier
I've been told the turnout for this event is growing:
Mayors Against Illegal Guns comes to TUCSON
On the National Drive to Fix Gun Checks
www.FixGunChecks.org
Monday, March 28th, 1pm, 101 N. Stone Ave: Jacome Plaza, outside the main library.
Lots of people will be featured, including Dr. Peter Rhee (Chief of Trauma, UMC), Sen. Dennis DeConcini, Tom Volgy, Terry Goddard, Clarence Dupnik, Tony Estrada and Karin Uhlich. Local religious leaders Pastor David Wilkinson (St Francis in the Foothills) and Rev. Jan Flaaten (Arizona Ecumenical Council) are also on the progam.
Also in attendance will be Patricia Maisch, who, on January 8, managed to get the second magazine of bullets away from Jared Loughner before he could reload, Ross Zimmerman, father of slain Giffords aide Gabe Zimmerman and Omar Samaha, whose sister Reema was killed at Virginia Tech.
Though Arizona's Republican legislators and governor are hellbent on taking our state in the wrong direction on gun regulation, progress is being made on the national level, and this Mayors group is at the center of what's happening.
For more information, read the Press Release from Mayors Against Illegal Guns after the jump.
Continue reading "Reminder: Mayors Against Illegal Guns event Monday downtown" »
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
As usual, all info gathered from online sources such as the website of the Arizona Legislature, and subject to change without notice.
And given the time of year, unexpected changes should be expected. :)
- There's a rumor that the House will be doing budget work this week, but I haven't been able to track down anything more. It may not happen this week, but traditionally, when the calendar turns to April, legislators start pressing leadership for the end of the legislative session. Expect budget matters to heat up in the next few weeks.
Senate committee agendas can be found here; House committee agendas here. Check back frequently for revisions.
All floor calendars can be found here. Generally speaking, calendars are posted the day before they're scheduled for consideration.
All bill proposals can be found here.
On the Senate side of the Capitol -
Rules will meet Monday at 1 p.m in Caucus Room 1. It serves as a preview of the week's floor action, but other than that, it's a rubber stamp.
Appropriations will meet Tuesday at 2 p.m. in SHR109. As none of the other committees meet any longer, this one becomes the focus of attention for legislators who are trying to keep a favored proposal alive - either by getting a particular bill assigned to and heard in Appropriations or by getting them to hear a strike-everything amendment, or "striker" to a bill that has been assigned to it.
Right now, Sen. Andy Biggs, the chair of Senate Appropriations, is the most popular man in the Senate building.
On the agenda:
...A striker to HB1254, privatizing all correctional health services and removing a cap on costs from existing statute
...A striker to HB2289, making changes to the qualifications to be, and the authority of, county school superintendents. Two of the big changes in the measure are taking the power of the county superintendent to make appointments to fill vacancies on local school district governing boards and giving it to the boards themselves, and to reduce the qualifications to be county superintendent by removing the requirement that superintendents hold a teaching certificate to simply being a "qualified elector" in Arizona.
Murphy is running for the Peoria Unified board, and his background is in real estate, not education.
Hmmm... :)
...A striker to HB2341, exempting aircraft sold to foreign governments from taxation
...A striker to HB2362, mandating that the Arizona Department of Education contract with a private insurance provider to offer liability insurance to teachers (currently, most teachers have liability insurance through their school districts or union). Failed as a stand-alone bill in Senate Education last week, brought back as a striker by Murphy this week.
Hmmm... :)
The Senate's Committee of the Whole, or COW, calendar for Monday is here.
On the House side of the Capitol -
Rules will meet Monday at 1 p.m. in HHR4. As with Senate Rules, this is a rubber stamp that best serves as a preview of the week's floor activities.
Appropriations will meet Wednesday at 2 p.m. in HHR1. As with Senate Appropriations, the chair of this committee, Rep. John Kavanagh, is the most popular member of the House, especially with members who are trying to keep their favorite proposals alive.
On the agenda:
...a striker to SB1012 (no text available yet) for "lakes; non-motorized watercraft; rulemaking exemption" - not sure what this one is about
...a striker to SB1116 (no text available yet) for "universities; taxpayer funded programs; restrictions" - don't know what this one is yet, but it's probably really bad (not that I'm a cynic or anything :) )
...a striker to SB1404 (no text available yet) for "civil actions; attorney fees; recovery" - not quite sure, but the subject line is similar to that of dead bill HB2409, which would have barred the award of attorneys' fees to the state, counties, or municipalities in civil actions related to legal actions to enforce or challenge provisions of laws, regulations, or ordinances.
The House's Monday COW calendar is here.
The lege's Capitol Events calendar is here.
The Arizona Capitol Times' Capitol Calendar is here. Highlight: If you've got $250 and a lot of brain cells that you don't mind wasting, the Center for Arizona Theology Policy is holding a fundraising event on Saturday. The scheduled feature guest is James Dobson.
Later...
by David Safier
I've been waiting to see if any local press or TV news program would cover the Thursday screening of "Precious Knowledge," the documentary about TUSD's Mexican American Studies program. After reading the Sunday Star and searching Google, I've decided the screening was a media non-event. So far as I know, Mari Herreras of the Weekly was the only member of the press there, and I don't know if she's planning to write about it.
True, the Star had a rather nice article announcing the film a few days earlier. Also true, the screening of a documentary, even one shot in Tucson, isn't a momentous event. But the Mexican American Studies program was a huge issue before, during and after the 2010 statewide races. The controversy over the program continues to be covered locally, across the state and in major publications around the country. Any event related to MAS, especially one like the screening at The Fox, is newsworthy. Hell, Tom Horne got all kinds of coverage and a Page 2 story in the Star when he complained a bunch of people he wrongly labeled as "thugs" yelled while he was trying to do a television interview in Phoenix. That's news, but this isn't?
Here's why screening of "Precious Knowledge" was newsworthy.
The Fox Theater holds 1200 people, and on a Thursday evening with a UA March Madness basketball game on television, the Fox Theater had people sitting in the aisles, and a few hundred people were turned away. The vast majority of the people who showed up were members of the community most affected by the MAS program -- students along their friends and families and members of the neighborhood, all of whom apparently believe these courses are worth saving. Fourteen hundred people traveling to downtown Tucson during a televised UA game on a school night to see a documentary? That shows a significant, newsworthy level of community support for the program.
And there was more to the evening than the film. It was a celebration of culture and community. TV film crews really missed out by not showing up. As we walked into the theater, we were serenaded by a high school mariachi band, dressed to the teeth, playing and singing and carrying themselves with the poise of professional musicians. Inside, before the film, students performed traditional dance numbers, introduced and explained to the audience by the students. The performances were practiced and polished. The students danced with spirit, grace and pride. Then, right before the film began, a student drum line marched down the aisles to the floor in front of the stage and got the audience's pulses pounding in anticipation of the main event: the film.
And the film itself was an education. I gained lots of nuts-and-bolts knowledge about how the classrooms look and feel, how the fight over the program has played out, and the history of the anti-MAS legislation that made it into law. Any interested journalists would have walked out of the film with a deeper understanding of the whole Mexican American Studies issue. Hearing and feeling the audience's passion would have let the journalists know how important this fight is to the local Hispanic community.
If the Tea Party gets a hundred people on a street corner, apparently, that's news. But when a normally quiet Hispanic community comes out, over a thousand strong, to show its community pride and its devotion to a TUSD program which could be cut with a stroke of John Huppenthal's pen, somehow, that's not considered important enough to deserve coverage.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Political Calendar is posted on Sundays. Please send us notice of your political events prior to the Sunday before your event (7 days would be most helpful). See the calendar icon in the right-hand column of the blog page for easy access to the calendar.
Congratulations to the Arizona Wildcats for a great NCAA Tournament run. They came up a basket short of advancing. Like every close loss the Wildcats have suffered over the past 30 years, it came down to one thing: missed free throws. The Cats were 11 of 16 from the line. That just kills me. You gotta make free throws.
Political Calendar For The Week of March 27, 2011
Sundays, 6:00 p.m.: Drinking Liberally, at The Shanty, 401 E. 9th Street (at 4th Avenue). An informal, inclusive progressive social group, and lively discussion. Rep. Bruce Wheeler (D-LD 28) is our guest speaker. Contact: www.livingliberallytucson.org.
Sunday, March 27, 1:00 p.m.: Training for new PC's, and refresher for current PC's, at Pima County Democratic Party HQ, 4639 E. First Street (one block South of Speedway, West of Swan.) For more information and to RSVP please contact Mohur Sidhwa at msidhwa@cox.net.
Sunday, March 27, 5:30 pm.: Gov. Howard Dean event "Energizing Arizona for 2012," at The Orpheum, 15 W. Aspen (Flagstaff). Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; Brothers Gow play at 6:00 p.m.; Gov. Dean speaks at 7:00 p.m. Gov. Dean rallys Flagstaff and Arizona for the upcoming elections. Tickets Are $35 For Main Floor Seating, $20 For Bar & Balcony Area, and $10 For for Students. Tickets available at Animas Trading, Rainbow’s End, Bookmans, and online at www.OrpheumPresents.com. For more information please contact The Coconino County Democrats at (928) 214-0393 or E-mail at info@CCDem.org.
A private champagne reception with Gov. Howard Dean precedes the rally, Energizing Arizona for 2012, at the Flagstaff Photography Center (Located in downtown Flagstaff on the east side of Heritage Square) from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Located in a distinctive art gallery off Heritage Square in historic downtown Flagstaff and catered by simply the best Flagstaff caterer, Simply Delicious, this event will be a party to remember! Preferred seating at the rally is included in the $150 ticket price. For more information please contact The Coconino County Democrats at (928) 214-0393 or E-mail at info@CCDem.org.
Monday, March 28, Noon: Democrats of Greater Tucson luncheon, Dragon's View Restaurant (400 N. Bonita, South of St. Mary's Road between the Freeway and Grande Avenue, turn South at Furr's Cafeteria), buffet lunch costs $8.50. Featured speaker is former Rep. Pat Fleming (LD25) on the the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission and redistricting. Visit DGT's web site at www.tucsondemocrats.org. Next Week: Paul Eckerstrom, Co-founder of Start Our State, on Baja Arizona.
Monday, March 28, 1:00 p.m.: Mayors Against Illegal Guns event, at Jacome Plaza (outside the Main Library) 101 N. Stone Avenue (Tucson). Parking garage underneath the plaza, enter on Alameda). Mayors Against Illegal Guns is crossing the country with our National Drive to Fix Gun Checks, building support for critical gun reforms and raising awareness of the 34 Americans who are murdered with guns every day. Join us this Monday in Tucson to rally support for the Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011, which will help get the records of prohibited buyers into the national database and close the loopholes that let dangerous people buy guns. You can make this event an enormous success. Please come out and support victims of the Tucson shooting who will be speaking out and calling on Congress to fix the broken background check system immediately. For more info about Monday's event, contact David Higuera at (520) 907-2080 or davideh@simginc.com. To sign the National Petition to Fix Gun Checks, go to www.fixgunchecks.org.
Monday, March 28, 3:00 p.m.: Democratic Women of Southeast Arizona (DWSEA) Sponsored Focus Group Discussion, at Cochise County Democratic Party Headquarters, 1010 E. Fry Blvd. (Sierra Vista) BYOC (Bring Your Own Coffee). DWSEA members have expressed deep concerns about Middle Eastern women. In response, we have invited Becky Orozco, Director, Center for Lifelong Learning, Cochise College, to share some of her experiences with us. Becky will discuss cultural diversity and women s issues across the Middle East. Becky has vast experience in the countries she has visited such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. Please bring a friend, and your coffee, for an afternoon of great conversation. For more information please contact Perrie Barnes, DWSEA President, mjb3@cox.net or (520) 378-1874, or Pat Fleming, DWSEA Programs Chair, pvfleming@cox.net or (520) 378-4386.
Monday, March 28, 6:00 p.m.: Legislative District 29 meeting, at the Main Library, 101 N. Stone Avenue (parking in basement under library). For more information please contact Greg Wagner at (520) 784-8355 or gregory.m.wagner@gmail.com.
March 29 - April 3: Yuma County Fair, at Yuma County Fairgrounds, 2520 E. 32nd Street (Yuma). This year the theme is "good Old Fashioned Fun." Admission: Tuesday - Dollar Day - $1.00; Wednesday - Sunday - $5.00 Adults - $3.00 Children 6 -12; Children Age 5 and under FREE. Parking: FREE. For more information call (928) 726-4420 or see Yuma County Fair.
Wednesday, March 30, 9:00 a.m.: Arizona Democratic Party Women's Caucus hosts the 2011 Women in Blue Breakfast and Lobby Day, beginning at 9:00 a.m. with breakfast at Oaxaca Restaurant, 1516 W. Van Buren Street, with former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick as keynote speaker; followed by Lobby Day Kickoff on the Capitol lawn at 11:00 a.m. Students: $35, Supporter: $75, Sponsor: $100, Friend: $250, Silver Sponsor and Gold Sponsors: $1,000 and $2000. To RSVP and to register for Lobby Day, please contact Katy June at kjune@azdem.org or (602) 234-6803.
Wednesday, March 30, 6:00 p.m.: Pima County Working Young Democrats Meeting, at A Whole Lot of People for Grijalva Campaign office, 452 S. Stone Avenue (Tucson). For more information please contact Greg Wagner at (520) 784-8355 or gregory.m.wagner@gmail.com.
Thursday, March 31, 5:30 p.m.: Southern Arizona LULAC hosts its 22nd Annual Youth Leadership Conference, and its Educators' Banquet at the Copper Ballroom, Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Avenue (Tucson). No host cocktails at 5:30, dinner at 6:30. We will be honoring outstanding community leaders and will present them with LULAC's most prestigious award, the National Presidential Community Service Award. Our Student Art and Writing Contest winners and their parents will also be our guests at the Banquet.Tickets are $75 per person or $750 for a table of ten. For more information about the Youth Leadership Conference and to RSVP for the Educators' Banquet please call (520) 903-2838 and visit the web site at Southern AZ LULAC Youth Leadership Education Banquet. (http://www.sazlulacylc.org/Documents/2011%20Proposal.pdf)
Thursday, March 31, 7:00 p.m.: Dove Mountain Heritage Highlands Democratic Club meeting, at the Heritage Highlands Clubhouse. Featured speaker is former Rep. Harry Mitchell.
Saturday, April 2, 10:00 a.m.: Legislative District 30 meeting, at Corona de Tucson (location TBA). For more information please contact Andre Mixon at (520) 990-1682 or andre.mixon@gmail.com.
Saturday, April 2: Tombstone Rose Parade. Cochise County Democratic Party will have an entry in this annual celebration of the “World’s Largest Rose Bush.” Please join us to ride and wave and register voters. For anyone who is thinking about running for county or legislative office next year, this is a good opportunity to meet the people IN the parade. Most of the watchers are tourists from all over the world. Ken Davis will be the coordinator. daviskennethr@hotmail.com, (540) 419 0790 (yes, 540 not 520).
Note: for additional Democratic Party events around the state see http://azdem.org/events/Calendar/
Special Announcements:
Monday, April 4, 6:30 p.m.: Pima County Democratic Party Executive Committee meeting.
Monday, April 4, 7:00 p.m.: Douglas Area Democrats meeting, at Los Obreros Hall, 406 8th Street (Douglas) - call to verify location. Election of officers meeting. For more information please contact Corny Munoz (520) 227-7125 or douglasrfl@hotmail.com.
Tuesday April 5, 5:30 p.m.: Greater Huachuca Area Democratic Club meeting, at Cochise County Democratic Party Headquarters, 1010 Fry Blvd. (Sierra Vista). For more information please contact Margaret "maggs" Burkert-Smith at (520) 378-0152 (home) or (480) 650-7657 (cell).
Wednesday, April 6, 7:00 p.m.: Legislative District 28 meeting, at the Pima County Democratic Party HQ, 4639 E. 1st Street (one block South of Speedway, West of Swan). For more information pleae contact Ted Prezelski at (520) 326-3716 (leave message) or prezelski@aol.com.
Saturday, April 9, 10:00 a.m.: Mule Mountain Democratic Club meeting, at the Bisbee Senior Center on Collins Road (behind the Safeway and off Naco Road). For more information please call John Viverto at (520) 432-2366 or email Vivertos@aol.com.
Saturday, April 9, 1:00 p.m.: Democratic Club of the Santa Rita Arera (DCSRA) meeting, at Room 248, 2nd Floor, Safeway Continental Plaza (Green Valley). For more information please contact Jane Wood at (520) 398-4367.
Sarturday, April 9, 3:00 p.m.: Saddlebrooke Democratic Club meeting, at the Saddlebrooke Clubhouse. For more information pleae contact Holly Lyon (703) 989-0764 or email pinaldemocrat@gmail.com.
DCSRA Discussion Group
Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m.: Democratic Club of the Santa Rita Area hosts a Current Events Discussion Group at Democratic Headquarters - Green Valley, Continental Shopping Plaza, 240 Continental Road (Green Valley). Join us at the weekly meeting of the Democratic Headquarters Current Events Discussion Group. We'll talk about some of the major events of the previous week, including but not limited to political topics, and try and go behind the news for a deeper understanding. For more information please contact Kathy at thekilleens@gmail.com.
'We Are One' National Day of Action
Monday, April 4, 11:00 a.m.: Arizona AFL-CIO Day of Action honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez, at IBEW LU 640 hall, 5808 N. 7th Street (Phoenix). Join us to make April 4, 2011, and the days surrounding it, a day to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin and dozens of other states where corporate-bought politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King and Cesar Chavez fought so hard to protect. Lunch will be provided, donations are accepted. Please RSVP via this webpage by March 31st. For more information please contact Beverly Fox Miller from the AZ AFL-CIO with any questions, Office: 602-631-4488 x232.
Monday, April 4, 4:00 p.m.: Join the Pima Area Labor Federation in honor of Martin Luther King who was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis. Dr. King went to Memphis to stand with sanitation workers demanding their right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. Stand in solidarity with the workers in Wisconsin, Arizona and dozens of other states where workers' rights and dreams are still being attacked today! Solidarity rally and BBQ: rally at the statue of Pancho Villa at Broadway and Church then march to Armory Park, 221 S. 6th Avenue for the BBQ. Bring Blankets or lawn chairs for the BBQ. Please RSVP here: We Are One April 4 (http://www.we-r-1.org/).
Tuesday, April 5: College campuses will hold teach-ins on “Debt, Austerity and How People Are Fighting Back,” with a national teach-in led by Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West live-streamed from Judson Memorial Church in New York City (go here for an organizing guide).
Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona 18th Annual Luncheon
Wednesday, April 6, 11:00 a.m.: Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona 18th Annual Luncheon, at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Avenue (Tucson). Emerald Celebration honoring co-founders Harriet Silverman and Melody Robidoux. 11 a.m.-12 p.m. Registration & Grantee Expo, 12-1:30pm Luncheon Program. For more information or to make a reservation by phone, please contact Kesha Dawson at (520) 622-8886 or kdawson@womengiving.org. To register by secure PayPal online, 2011 WFSA Luncheon | Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona.
Dobson Ranch Democrat Club Kickoff
Wednesday, April 6, 6:00 p.m.: Dobson Ranch Democrat Club kick-off meeting, at Dobson Ranch, 2345 S.Saratoga - Saratoga Rec Hall (Mesa). Featured speaker is Todd Swartz on Redistricting. Tentative: former Rep. Harry Mitchell. For more information please contact cbaker@azdem.org.
Yuma County Democratic Party Spring Fling
Friday, April 8, 5:30 p.m.: Yuma County Democratic Party Spring Fling, at the Yuma Art Center 245 S. Main Street (Yuma). Join us to kick off the 200 for 200 Liberty Campaign! Introducing the 30 second rant! Amazing door prizes! Cocktail hour begins 5:30 p.m. Catered by Da Boyz. Tickets are $25.00 per person and are available now at the Party Headquarters (the Crescent Center, Southwest corner of 4th Avenue and 24th Street). For more information please contact Sarah Lydick shlydick@gmail.com.
Maricopa County Fair
April 13 - 17: Maricopa County Fair, at the State Fair Grounds, 1826 W. McDowell Road (Phoenix). Admission: General $8, kids under eight FREE. Weds. is Free Seniors Day (55+). Gates open 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Weds, Thurs & Sun; 1:00 a.m. to Midnight Fri. & Sat. Parking: $10 per car. For more information call (602) 252-0717 or see Maricopa-County-Fair.
Pima County Fair - Centennial Celebration
April 14 - 24: Pima County Fair, at the Pima County Fair Grounds, 11300 S. Houghton Road one mile South of I-10 (Tucson). This year the theme is "Centennial Celebration." Admission: General $8, children 6-10 $2, children under 5 FREE. Parking: $5 per car. Gates open weekdays at Noon, weekends at 10:00 a.m. Carnival midway opens weekdays at 3:00 p.m., weekends at 11:00 a.m. Details regarding entertainment and concerts TBA. For more information call (520) 762-9100 or see Home of Pima County Fair.
Arizona Democratic Party Spring State Committee Meeting
Saturday, April 16, 9:00 a.m.: Arizona Democratic Party Spring State Committee Meeting at Hotel Tucson City Center, 475 N. Granada Avenue (Tucson). The Pima County Democratic Party has once again graciously volunteered to coordinate donor housing for out-of-towners who would like a place to stay while visiting beautiful Tucson, Arizona. Elaine Lim of the PCDP will coordinate this effort. Elaine can be reached at (520) 795-3909 or etl@u.arizona.edu. We thank Pima County for this generous display of support for our Democratic family! State Committee Members that wish to stay overnight at the Hotel Tucson will receive an Arizona Democratic Party group rate of $69.00. Please call the Hotel Tucson City Center to make reservations at 1-888-784-8324.
Pima County Democratic Party's Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik Tribute Dinner
Saturday, April 16, 5:00 p.m.: The State Committee Meeting is followed by the PCDP Clarence W. Dupnik Tribute Dinner, honoring a career of courage and commitment. Keynote Speaker is Congresswoman Pat Schroeder, special guests Congressman Raul Grijalva, former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, and emcee for the dinner, Fred DuVal, Arizona Board of Regents. 5:00 p.m. Registration, cocktails,Catalina Democrats Reception, 6:00 p.m. Dinner. Price: $65 Precinct Committeepetsons, $75 General Admission. Please call (520) 326-3716 to buy tickets, or pay secure online at https://secure.actblue.com/page/dupnik. Event table and program sponsorships are available. For more information please contact Adam Kinsey at director@pimadems.org or (520) 834-6384.
An Evening in The Provence
Wednesday, April 20, 6:00 p.m.: Legislative District 18 Democrats host their "Evening in the Provençe" fundraiser event, at the Wright House-Provence, 636 West University Drive (Mesa). Price: $20.00 in advance or $25 at the door. Dinner includes: Chicken Provençal Green Salad with Honey Dijon Vinaigrette Rice Pilaf Green Beans Almandine Dessert Speakers and Live Musical Entertainment. To RSVP or for more information please call Sarah Moorhead at (480) 962-6227.
Campaign Training Day
Saturday, April 23, 11:00 a.m./1:00 p.m./2:30 p.m.: Campaign Training Day, at Pima County Democratic Party HQ, 4639 E. First Street (one block South of Speedway, West of Swan). Join ADP Communications Director Jennifer Johnson for Media Training (11:00 AM), ADP Elections Director DJ Quinlan for Voter File (VAN) Training (1:00 PM) and ADP Treasurer Rick McGuire for Campaign Finance 101 (2:30 PM). Candidates, staff, treasurers and other party leaders are all encouraged to attend what is sure to be a fun and informative afternoon! Please RSVP to director@pimadems.org.
Eat, Drink & Thank Harry
Tuesday, April 26, 6:00 p.m.: You are warmly invited along with multitudes of fellow friends of Harry to celebrate Harry Mitchell and his legacy of service to our community with food, laughter, and of course beer, at the Tempe Center For The Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado (Tempe). Cost: Sponsor $1,000, Co-Host $250, individual $50 per ticket. Proceeds to benefit the Arizona Democratic Party. Click here to purchase tickets or RSVP to Reed Adamson at radamson@azdem.org or (602) 234-6836.
Verde Valley Fair - Cowboy Boots and Country Roots
April 27 - May 1: Verde Valley Fair, at 800 E. Cherry Street (Cottonwood). This year the theme is "Cowboy Boots and Country Roots." For more information call (928) 634-3290 or see Verde Valley Fair.
LD 19 Democrats Arbor Day Celebration
Friday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.: LD 19 Democrats Arbor Day Celebration, at Tia Rosa’s Restaurant, Back Lawn Area, 3129 E. McKellips Road (west of Arboleda), Mesa. Delicious Buffet; Raffle Prizes; Music. Please join us for a beautiful evening under the trees with musical guest Rodney Glassman. Come and meet your local officials, former & future candidates and your Mesa neighbors and help raise funds to get “eco- friendly” candidates elected in 2012. Tickets are $25 each and include dinner. Please RSVP to: Connie Finneman at connie@ld19dems.org or Kit Filbey at kit@maxion.us by April 15th.
Coconino County Democratic Party's Annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Dinner
Saturday, April 30: Coconino County Democratic Party's Annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Dinner fundraiser, at the High Country Conference Center, 201 E. Butler Avenue (Flagstaff). For more information please contact Kelsey Blakley at (928) 214-0393 or kelseyb@ccdem.org.
Emerge Arizona Annual Fundraiser
Friday, May 13, 6:00 p.m.: Emerge Arizona Annual Fundraiser in central Phoenix, with keynote speaker Gloria Feldt. "Gloria Feldt is a nationally renowned activist and author, whose passion for social justice has propelled her life’s work. Her new book, No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power... reveals why women are stuck at 18% of top leadership roles and through both inspirational stories and practical tools, shows how women can redefine power, lead themselves with intention, and reach parity..." Additional event details forthcoming! Sponsorship Opportunities are available. Please email EmergeAZ@gmail.com or (602) 697-4905 for more information.
LD 15 May's Just Desserts
Saturday, May 14, 6:30 p.m.: LD 15 May's Just Desserts fundraiser, at 910 W. Willetta Street (Phoenix). May’s Just Deserts is our annual fund raising event where we all get together with special guests and eat lots of tasty deserts. If you like chocolate and such you won’t want to miss this event. Our Special Guests this year will be, LD 15 Representatives Katie Hobbs and Lela Alston. State Senator Kyrsten Sinema and Mayoral Candidate Greg Stanton. Cost: General $15, Seniors, Students, Veterans $10. For more information see the LD 15 Event and Meeting Calendar.
Cochise County Democratic Party Picnic - Save The Date!
Saturday, May 14: The tradition of the Cochise County Democratic Party Picnic returns at the home of Victor and Susan Walker (Sierra Vista). More details TBA.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Friday marked the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, a turning point in American labor and workplace safety regulations. It barely received a mention in the mainstream media, but one cartoonist paid tribute to the memory of the young women who lost their lives in the fire.
The big story of the past week, however, has been yet another military intervention in an Arab country because its leader is a "bad guy" who is abusing his own people. If this is the standard for U.S. military intervention, then there are a whole lot of countries out there in need of the "politically correct" police to intervene in their internal political disputes to set them straight.
It was John Quincy Adams who articulated that "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."
Do we really want to be the world's super cop? And if so, then bring back the military draft and start drafting rich kids, because there must be "shared sacrifice" if we are going to engage in perpetual war.
By Karl Reiner
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings
- The big news at the legislature this week didn't concern pending legislation, it concerned possible pending charges against Sen. Scott Bundgaard stemming from a February domestic violence incident.
- In other news, of interest to most of the counties, the measure that would have inserted the legislature into county-level redistricting, the striker to HB2289, was held by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, almost certainly killing the idea. Thursday was the last day for most legislative committees to consider bills.
If they are really serious about foisting off this measure on the state, there are still a few tricks left (consisting mostly of running the measure through Appropriations, which is still meeting), but it seems highly likely that this one fell in the face of some quickly-organized opposition from most of the counties affected, even the Republican-heavy ones.
From an Arizona Republic story by William Hermann and Mary K. Reinhart -
Phoenix police say state Sen. Scott Bundgaard likely had been drinking, twice refused a sobriety test and cited legislative privilege to avoid arrest in their full report on his February altercation with his then-girlfriend along a Valley freeway.
The final report, released Thursday, recommends filing a domestic-violence assault charge against Bundgaard. It largely contradicts a series of public statements the senator has made since the incident.
Legislation-related stuff:
They're starting to get sneaky with the strikers, springing strikers to previous strikers, running proposals on short notice and more, as this past week was the last full week of committee meetings. Many bills died for lack of consideration, but a few died because of votes. Many also stayed alive because they received committee consideration before the deadline.
- Bill passed by both chambers and moving to the governor's desk:
HB2443, banning the seemingly nonexistent practice of abortions for race and/or gender selection, passed the Senate on a party line vote. The governor is expected to sign the measure.
- Bills failing in one chamber or the other -
SB1411, limiting the ability of county supervisors to oversee the expenditure of county resources by compelling them to appropriate annual budgets to the other county electeds in a lump sum, meaning people like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio wouldn't have to explain their budget requests to anyone (not that he does now), failed on reconsideration by a 12 - 17 margin, 1 not voting. All Democrats in the Senate were joined by 8 Republicans in defeating the measure for a second time. This particular bill is now dead, though the language could come back as a strike-everything amendment to a bill that is still alive.
SB1554, mandating that the Arizona Department of Education contract with a private insurance provider to offer liability insurance to teachers (currently, most teachers have liability insurance through their school districts or union), failed in the House Education Committee. Already returning as a striker to HB2362, scheduled for next Tuesday's meeting of Senate Appropriations. Being pushed hard by State Sen. Rick Murphy (R-LD9)
A striker to SB1354 banning all use of photo radar in Arizona failed in the House Transportation Committee
- Bills passing one chamber or the other. Most are probably dead since they haven't been heard in committee in the other chamber, but the rules are rather flexible in that regard when it comes to bills favored by legislative leadership. Look for some interesting items on Appropriations agendas for the next few weeks -
SB1409, expanding the application of Arizona's "English only" law, passed the Senate on a party line vote
SCR1045, a proposed amendment to the Arizona constitution to remove professional evaluations from the appointment process to the commissions to select judges, passed the Senate 20 - 6, 4 not voting. One R crossed over to oppose this measure
SB1548, tying Arizona school funding to the construction of nuclear waste facilities here, passed the Senate on a party line vote
Actually, that was it as far as significant bills moving from one chamber to the other - the House had a quiet week as far a final passage sessions go.
A number of measures to watch (aka - "bad bills") stayed alive by passing committee before the deadline for committee consideration. A number of these bills will need to return to the originating chamber because they were amended to be reapproved, which may or may not happen -
SB1166, exempting self-dealing corporations from paying municipal sales taxes on leases with itself (House Ways and Means)
SB1553, school vouchers under the name "Arizona empowerment accounts" (House Ways and Means)
SCR1024, a postcard to D.C. proclaiming AZ has supreme authority over Arizona-located waters (House Energy and Natural Resources)
SCR1033, a resolution supporting coal-fueled power plants in Arizona (House Energy and Natural Resources)
SB1453, a measure to let parents cite "religious belief" to excuse their children from particular assignments and activities in school (House Education)
SB1593, allowing out-of-state insurers to sell health insurance coverage in Arizona mostly free of Arizona regulation and oversight (House Banking and Insurance)
SB1591, giving employers access to employees' medical private medical information through insurers (House Banking and Insurance)
SB1157, now a birther bill (amended by House Government, so some work will need to be done by the Senate if this one passes the full House)
HB2177, now a birther bill (amended by Senate Government reform, so some work will need to be done by the House if this one passes the full Senate)
Look for a move to "substitute" one of these measures for the other on the floor of one of the chambers
SB1188, giving a preference in adoptions to married couples. Softened from the original language, but still, single people will have to jump through some serious hoops and same-sex couples need not apply (House Government)
SB1286, imposing a 60 day time limit on municipalities and counties to approve/disapprove a permit/license request; after 60 days, the request is automatically approved (House Government)
SB1322, mandating that Tucson and Phoenix put out their municipal services to private bidders (House Government)
SB1379, removing most of the ability of municipalities to regulate consumer fireworks (House Government)
SB1525, restricting municipalites' ability to impose and collect development fees (amended by House Government, so the Senate will need to do some work if this one passes the full House)
SB1598, restricting the ability of municipalties and counties to regulate business and development activities within their jurisdictions (extensively amended by House Government, so the Senate will need to do some work if this one passes the full House)
SB1282, exempting religiious entities that engage in political activities from having to register as a political committee (House Government)
SB1610, solving one of the state's most pressing problems by naming a "state firearm" (House Judiciary)
SCR1028, a proposed amendment to the Arizona constitution barring the use of payroll deductions for political purposes. Aimed at unions, but as passed by the Senate, its provisions also applied to corporations. (House Government)
SB1169, as amended by House Employment and Regulatory Affairs, barring the State Board of Nursing from having any authority to regulate scope of practice regarding abortion. If passed by the entire House, the Senate will have some work to do before it can be sent to the governor
SB1495, establishing a "state guard" force that the governor can utilize for any reason he/she desires, and funded with monies siphoned from the Arizona National Guard (House Military Affairs and Public Safety)
SB1365, barring payroll deductions for political purposes without an annual authorization, exempts public safety personnel (police, fire, corrections) (House Commerce)
SB1222, removing adherence to federal standards in Arizona's ID requirements for public assistance and mandating the eviction from public housing all residents of a public housing unit if one of those residents allows an undocumented immigrant to reside there (House Commerce)
SB1561, allowing the legislature to sweep and reappropriate non-custodial federal monies as it sees fit (House Appropriations)
SB1200, as amended by House Transportation, changing the state's statutes regarding ignition interlock devices (will need some work by the Senate if it passes the whole House)
SB1589, mandating that ADOT/MVD privatize many of its functions (amended by House Transportation, so the Senate will need to do some work if this one passes the whole House)
SB1095, as amended by House Judiciary, essentially banning abortions in rural Arizona (criminalizing the performance of an abortion by a doctor who doesn't have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles), will need work by the Senate if it passes the whole House
SB1201, easing all sorts of firearms laws (amended by House Judiciary, so the Senate will need to do some work if this one passes the whole House)
SB1167, as amended by House Judiciary, imposing a severe time limit on filing legal challenges to referenda referred to the ballot by the legislature
SB1363, protecting employers from the horror of labor actions (yes, "horror" is sarcastic :) ) (House Judiciary)
SB1466, turning justices of the peace into quasi-prosecutors by giving them veto power over prosecutors' decisions to defer prosecution (House Judiciary, on reconsideration)
SB1467, barring educational institutions from adopting or enforcing rules that prohibit the lawful possession of a firearm in a public right-of-way (House Judiciary)
SCR1001, a proposed amendment to the Arizona constitution, as amended by House Judiciary, that would increase political influence over the state's highest courts (too many ways to summarize in one sentence; if you are interested, read the measure at the link)
SCR1002, a proposed amendment to the Arizona constitution, as amended by House Judiciary, that would increase political influence over the state's superior courts (county)
Both of the above will have to go back to the Senate if they pass the whole House
SCR1020, a proposed amendment to the Arizona constitution immunizing crime victims from civil liability for "causing death or injury to a person" involved in a felony; aimed at cases where would-be vigilantes have been found liable for damages when they've violated the rights of undocumented immigrants (House Judiciary)
HB2023, as amended by Senate Finance, would change current law to require that ASU East and ASU West be considered as part of the same budget unit as ASU Main in the general appropriations act of the budget. No sure why this is being done, but since the Democrats on the committee supported it and Sens. Ron Gould and Scott Bundgaard opposed it. I don't understand the purpose of the measure, but with this combo, I'm pretty sure it isn't all bad. If passed the whole Senate, must return to the House for work
HB2619, as amended by Senate Finance, would require employers to pay a special assessment to pay down loans to the Unemployment Insurance Program. Also must return to the House if passed by the Senate
HB2636, lowering taxes on the wealthiest 12% of Arizonans while increasing taxes on the poorest 88% under the guise of establishing a "flat income tax." Fiscal note from JLBC here. Amended by Senate Finance, so if passed by the whole Senate it will need to return to the House
HB2002, barring school districts from expending money to join an organization that attempts to influence the outcome of elections. Amended by Senate Government Reform, so if passed by the whole Senate, it will need to return to the House
HB2644, barring municipalities and counties from accepting federal funds for a project if those funds are conditioned on giving any preference to the use of union labor (Senate Government Reform)
HB2718, a $5 million dollar gift of taxpayer money to Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu for "border security," One problem: Pinal County doesn't share a border with Mexico. Guess it beats appropriating money for transplants...or not (Senate Appropriations)
HB2707, establishing a lower revenue expenditure limit for the state (think: TABOR). Amended by Senate Appropriations so it will need to return to the House, if passed by the whole Senate
HB2301, amended by Senate Appropriations, relating to allowing school districts to use "soft capital" money (books, desks, etc.) for other expenses. If passed by the whole Senate, will need to return to the House
HB2706, amended by Senate Education, requiring "SBE [State Board of Education] to implement guidelines for supplementary training in reading instruction for teachers in an underperforming school who teach grades one, two, three or kindergarten as part of an improvement plan." If passed by the whole Senate, will need to return to the House
HB2604, amended by Senate Judiciary, barring "the enforcement of foreign law if doing so would violate a federal or state constitutional right or conflict with U.S. or Arizona law," exempting businesses from its provisions. If passed by the Senate, will need to return to the House
HB2102, requiring that proof of "authorized presence" be presented before a license to operate a business or perform a service, or a fingerprint clearance card, can be issued (Senate Judiciary)
HB2484, taking the authority to make appointments to fill legislative vacancies away from county boards of supervisors and giving it to the precinctcommitteemen of the same legislative district and party of the vacating member of the lege (Senate Judiciary)
by David Safier
I doubt anyone is resting easy after Russell Pearce's 5 anti-immigrant bills were defeated, but if you were, Pearce is putting you on notice in an op ed in Politico.
The Arizona Senate on March 18 voted down five immigration bills I supported — most notably, one addressing the issue of birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.
While I was disappointed with last week’s votes, it was not the last word on illegal immigration in Arizona. I am not backing off from in demanding our laws be enforced.
I know that the Arizona-led battle to enforce U.S. immigration laws cannot be won overnight.
Pearce cites his perserverance in pushing through SB1070 after earlier failed attempts.
No one can say he didn't warn us.
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