Arizona
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5:22 p.m.
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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Last week Politico reported that Sen. John McCain was voted the biggest disappointment by Tea Party conservatives. A POLITICO survey: The tea party's least favorite Republicans: [A] POLITICO survey found tea party activists unhappy with many of......
Blog For Arizona - 1:02 p.m. - 2 clicks 
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Friend of Blog for Arizona Carolyn Classen at the Tucson Citizen reports on this morning's meeting of the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Supervisors appoint Vogt to LD 30 State House seat - Carolyn's Community: ......
Blog For Arizona - 12:40 p.m.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Those of you familiar with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth know that a day without Hayworth saying something offensive or stupid is like a day without -- well, that never happens. The man is a gaffe machine. We......
Blog For Arizona - 10:09 a.m.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Sen. Paula Aboud (D-LD28) writes in the Arizona Daily Star today Republicans ignored alternatives to inhumane budget they approved: I am sorry that we couldn't stop the governor's Republican budget from passing out of the Legislature last......
Blog For Arizona - 6:44 a.m. - 5 clicks
J.D. Hayworth's spokeman Jason Rose quit today. He says it was only business . Hayworth is involved in a heated Republican primary with Arizona's incumbent U.S. Senator John McCain. Rose's resignation had absolutely nothing to do with Hayworth's unbelievably stupid recent remarks that gay marriage could lead to men marrying horses . Hmmn. Could this be why our state legisla...
AZNetroots - Mon 10:02 p.m. - 8 clicks
Just finished watching J.D. Hayworth on Rachel Maddow's program. J.D. looked marvelous, slightly overmadeup, a little to unrumpled, but okay. His toothyness was impressive. ...
DailyKos (Arizona) - Mon 8:46 p.m. - 4 clicks
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: What the...? From the twisted mind of J.D. Hayworth: Gay Marriage Could Lead To Men Marrying Horses: Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), who is challenging Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in the Republican primary, has declared that he......
Blog For Arizona - Mon 4:45 p.m.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, Andrei Cherny, had this opinion published in The Arizona Republic Human capital the ticket to turning economy around: By just about every measure, Arizona's economy is among the worst in the country.......
Blog For Arizona - Mon 12:07 p.m. - 4 clicks
John Thrasher, a veteran and a career educator, is a candidate in CD2, looking to unseat Trent Franks (R-one of our most embarrassing elected officials). Via email, Thrasher's latest campaign update - My name is John Thrasher, and like you, I am disappointed with Congress. Our current District 2 Congressman has not passed a single piece of his own legislation. He has failed to represent your...
Random Musings - Mon 10:20 a.m. - 3 clicks
Posted by Craig McDermott It's the sound of Republican legislators sharpening their knives in preparation for another round of gutting Arizona's future...even before the current round has been finalized by the Senate. From AZCentral.com - The Legislature finished the heavy......
Blog For Arizona - Mon 9:04 a.m. - 4 clicks
It's the sound of Republican legislators sharpening their knives in preparation for another round of gutting Arizona's future...even before the current round has been finalized by the Senate. From AZCentral.com - The Legislature finished the heavy lifting on the state budget Thursday, but returns today to wrap up work on two bills in the Senate. {snip} Brewer won't get the budget bills unt...
Random Musings - Mon 8:28 a.m. - 6 clicks
'Open range' is dangerous in modern Arizona. TUCSON -- The Arizona Game & Fish Dept. has supposedly disciplined someone for the reckless killing of Macho B last year, perhaps the last Jaguar living in Arizona. The problem is AZGFD won't say who, continuing to handle this controversy terribly. People have a right to know. I and other lawmakers are looking at ways to force out-of-touc...
Daniel's News & Views - Mon 8:28 a.m. - 4 clicks
Posted by Craig McDermott As usual, all info from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice... ...The post on this week's Senate committee schedule is here. On the House side of the......
Blog For Arizona - Sun 7:01 p.m. - 5 clicks
As usual, all info from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice... ...The post on this week's Senate committee schedule is here . On the House side of the Capitol quad this week their committees are taking up consideration of Senate bills. - Rules is meeting on Monday at 1 p.m. in HHR4 (that agenda is covering some of the remaining Hou...
Random Musings - Sun 6:43 p.m. - 4 clicks
As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice. ...On the Special Session front, the Senate is expected to complete railroading through passing a budget package. ( AZCentral.com ) ...On the regular session front - The Senate committee schedule and highlights - - Natural Resources, Infrastructure, and Public D...
Random Musings - Sat 11:49 p.m. - 8 clicks
So I'm at the Five and Diner this morning having breakfast and reading the Arizona Republic article about our legislature's most recent attempt to ban human-animal hybrids . I remark to the guy paying for his take-out order at the cash register, "I'm glad our legislature's working on important issues like human-animal hybrids. That's a serious problem these days." The man tells...
AZNetroots - Sat 11:23 a.m. - 8 clicks
I've been invited to live blog a roundtable discussion on civic engagement in border states at ASU. Donna from Democratic Diva and Rachel Alexander from IC Arizona are also here. Donna will do a summary later, while Rachel will be doing a "live blog" sort of report on her site. This post will hereafter be best read from bottom to top. ___________________________________________________ 12:59 -...
Random Musings - Fri 11:21 a.m. - 11 clicks
Nevermind what Congress may do about expanding Medicaid as part of healthcare reform. It won't happen in Arizona, which is going in the other direction. Per this morning's Arizona Republic : $385 million in savings will come from a cutback in the number of people using the state's Medicaid program, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. State officials estimate that reduction...
DailyKos (Arizona) - Fri 8:46 a.m. - 7 clicks
Just things that they've done recently or are planning to do in the next week... - The Senate approved SB1324 , mandating that the state's Department of Administration procure and make available to state employees pre-paid identity theft protection services. The only non-legislator who signed in as supporting the measure was the lobbyist for Lifelock, a firm that claims to provide such servi...
Random Musings - Thu 8:07 p.m. - 8 clicks
Has anyone noticed that the same folks who think Tucson should be forced to have non-partisan elections are the same ones who want to ban independent voters from Republican primaries? ...
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion - Thu 7:22 a.m. - 11 clicks
Zelph alerted me to my name being mentioned on a popular AZ conservative blog. Sorry, but I don’t link to them so find it on your own. The blogger complained that Democrats propose tax increases on the poor to pay for the services that the less-poor and the middle class people use. [...]...
Democratic Diva - Wed 10:10 p.m. - 6 clicks
Progressives recognize House Progressive Caucus leader Raúl Grijalva and they know that Senator McCain is up for re-election in 2010. What they don't know is that there is a young city councilman and U.S. Air Force JAG Reserve Officer from Tucson who has gathered the support of the statewide Democrats. A front man for a community foundation that has brought in over a million ...
DailyKos (Arizona) - Wed 8:41 a.m. - 9 clicks
It's still early and provisional ballots haven't been counted, but it seems that most EV races and ballot questions are going as expected. In Scottsdale, results from early ballots show the amendments to the City's charter passing by a roughly 4-1 margin and that Proposition 200 (bed tax hike) is comfortably ahead (12%+). As for ballots that include actual races for office, it's too early to k...
Random Musings - Tue 10:02 p.m. - 8 clicks
Many municipalities and school districts in Arizona are holding elections today, be they regular or special elections. In Tempe, they're holding a regularly scheduled election for three seats on the City Council with a ballot question about raising the City's bed tax (sample ballot here ). In Scottsdale, the election concerns a number of proposed updates to the City's charter and also a hike to...
Random Musings - Mar 9 - 10 clicks
Cross-posted at Blog for Arizona ... I and others will do a more complete analysis of the bills that the lege is pushing as its budget "solution", but here is a brief bit on each, mostly from the factsheets prepared by legislative staff. I'm using the House bills here, but the Senate has an identical version of each bill posted, too. HB2001 , general appropriations (fact sheet here ...
Random Musings - Mar 8 - 4 clicks
DFA-Tucson presents... A Free Screening of the Academy Award Nominated Comedic Farce IN THE LOOP This FREE Tucson premiere of the 2009 uncommonly funny political satire that blends Dr. Strangelove with Spinal Tap for the Iraq war era will be held: Wednesday, March 10 th at the Ward 6 Community Room 3202 E. First Street Tucson , ...
Democracy for America-Tucson - Mar 8 - 2 clicks
CD5 Congressman Harry Mitchell has been unwavering in his opposition to Congress' automatic pay hikes. Beside annually introducing and pushing bills to forego that raise, he donates those pay hikes to local charities when the pay hikes go through anyway. This year has been no different. From a press release - U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell today announced the local Arizona charities to which he will ...
Random Musings - Mar 8 - 4 clicks
Published Wednesday, March 3, 2010 in Tempe Republic opinions of Arizona Republic (and maybe Ahwatukee Republic) as “‘Yes’ on override would save music.” Do we balance budgets on the backs of children? Not if we care about their future. Recently Kyrene Middle School and Fees Middle School Orchestras performed at Marcos de Niza preceding the orchestra they would [...]...
Make Democracy Work - Mar 8 - 2 clicks
Late breaking updates from Capitol on twitter @RepPatterson UPDATE, Fri. Mar 12: GOP votes to push Arizona further down the wrong track STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX -- Jan Brewer and her fellow Republicans are working behind closed doors away from the public to produce their own partisan and phony budget that only pushes Arizona farther down the wrong track. After failing to even begin...
Daniel's News & Views - Mar 8 - 3 clicks
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Senate President Bob Burns recently appointed seven members to serve on the new Rio Nuevo Board of Directors. They are: Jodi Bain, founder/principal of Bain Investments; vice president and general counsel for Town West Realty. Edwin Biggers, former president of the Hughes Missile Group. Craig Finfrock, owner and broker of Tucson-based Commercial Retail Ad...
Sustainability, Equity, Development - Mar 7 - 2 clicks
As usual, all info gathered from the website of the Arizona Legislature, except where noted, and subject to change without notice (and given the activities expected for this week, short-notice changes are likely)... As noted earlier this weekend, a special session (#7!!) is on tap for the week. Look for more updates as details of that become available. As for the regular session, committee wor...
Random Musings - Mar 7 - 4 clicks
Here in Arizona we get a double dose of Republican indifference to the needs of our citizens. We have Congressmen like Jon Kyl arguing that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting “because people are being paid even though they’re not working” and” … If anything, as I said, it’s a disincentive. And the same thing [...]...
DFA-MC - Mar 7 - 3 clicks
The Governor has called for a 7th Special Session of the 49th Arizona Legislature to address the state's current budget deficit (~$700 million) and to formulate a budget for next year. According to the AZRep article on the matter, the basic framework of the package worked out among the Rs in the lege and the Governor's office is the budget proposal she unveiled in January. The one that inc...
Random Musings - Mar 6 - 5 clicks
Below are the latest Alexa rankings for many Arizona political blogs and a few campaign web sites. The lower the number, the higher the traffic, and that is the only metric, traffic. Rankings involve the entire Internet, so the numbers get big. Unless you are the press (CNN, etc.) to be be ranked in the top 500,000 is a big deal. You can probably guess what site is ranked #1 (Google). Pr...
Sustainability, Equity, Development - Mar 6 - 6 clicks
John McCain is actually coming to Tucson today. And no, I don’t mean Marana or some country club in the Foothills, he’ll be at the U of A basketball game. No word on who he will cheer for. He’ll be bringing Scott Brown with him. I guess McCain is supposed to bask in Brown’s reflective glow. [...]...
Rum, Romanism and Rebellion - Mar 6 - 7 clicks
House Bill 2639; introduced by a Republican Representative from Gilbert may be up for a vote next week. This Bill if passed and signed by Republican Governor Jan Brewer will cut the minimum wage for workers under the age of 22 by 25%. ...
Young Democrats of Arizona Blog - Mar 5 - 5 clicks
They probably will consider the title of the post to be a compliment, even though it really is intended to merely point out that it is considered to be the most influential lobbying group working a legislature that is renowned for its willingness to be swayed by well-funded lobbyists. From an article on AZCentral.com - The Center for Arizona Policy has impacted the daily life of nearly every ...
Random Musings - Mar 5 - 4 clicks
People and pets want Arizona's highway rest areas open. TUCSON -- Read today's article in the New York Times , Closing of Rest Stops Stirs Anger in Arizona . Please contact your State Representatives and Senator to support my bipartisan HB2645 to help open rest areas closed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), all info at azleg.gov . ...
Daniel's News & Views - Mar 5 - 3 clicks
That’s what you’d think from reading the Republic piece on the Center for Arizona Policy today. “There was concern about how public policy impacts families,” said Cathi Herrod, who joined the group a couple of years later and is now president. “We were seeing a need to have someone on-site at the Legislature on [...]...
Democratic Diva - Mar 4 - 3 clicks
As a strategy to avoid closing state parks the Senate has okayed a bill to lease state parks to private concessionaires. In addition to enabling the leasing of state parks the bill outlines what may be in the proposals submitted by potential vendors: Requests for proposals shall be broadly construed to allow for: 1. One hundred per cent privately funded parks...
The Data Port - Mar 4 - 2 clicks
Tires are resources to be recycled, not recklessly dumped in the ground. STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX -- US tire makers have joined me and many other lawmakers in strong opposition to HB2290 from Rep. Russ Jones (R-Yuma), which would unwisely allow tires to be dumped in old mines. Republicans passed this bad bill in the House yesterday, but hopefully it will die in the Senate or be vetoed....
Daniel's News & Views - Mar 4 - 4 clicks
From yesterday’s East Valley Tribune: With state finances evaporating, Gov. Jan Brewer is moving to help those with needs get their services from church and nonprofit groups. In an executive order Tuesday, Brewer created a 20-member task force to coordinate volunteer efforts statewide. The panel also will look for ways to both inform people of the services [...]...
Democratic Diva - Mar 3 - 5 clicks
The AZ Republican primary between JD Hayworth and John McCain further refines the distinction Choir Blogging . Hayworth is such a farce (birther pandering and renouncing ) that even tea party leaders are afraid to endorse him, yet a perusal of the local blogosphere would have one think McCain is about to get trounced. Like talk radio, choir blogging reinforces a point of view in a form ...
Sustainability, Equity, Development - Mar 3 - 3 clicks
Tim Westergren (left) will be holding free a meet-up at the Rialto Theater on Sunday, March 7th, starting at 5:00 pm. According to his e-mailed press release: "It'll be a very informal gathering. I'll share some Pandora history, some background on the Music Genome Project and talk about what's ahead for Pandora. 2010 is already shaping up to be quite a year, so there's a lot to talk...
The Data Port - Mar 3 - 2 clicks
