Governor Symington has spoken of helping needy kids and improving the welfare system. His welfare agency, the Department of Economic Security, is famous for astonishing incompetence and children who die.
Mary Menacker, site director for the Phoenix Catholic Social Services center, seemed kind of surprised to find out her organization was reportedly detaining 14 immigrants for the government.
"We don't detain people," Menacker tells New Times. "We're not part of the legal system."
The information about the detainees came from the December 26 edition of the New York Times, which ran an interactive map that accompanied an article about immigrant detention facilities. One of our eagle-eyed readers
Public schools send some disabled kids to private schools -- but parents can't do the same thing with state money, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled today.
The state's high court struck down two voucher programs that intended to give a combined $5 million in taxpayer funds to private schools chosen by parents. Helping disabled kids seems like a "well-intentioned" plan, but there's little problem called the state constitution, writes Justice Michael Ryan (at right).
A professional Phoenix woman wanted to help one poor, "at risk" family. It was the type of private initiative that both political parties say will ease the harsh impacts of welfare reform.
Her three-year experiment in personal responsibility rescued an 1
Joe ForkanArizona, kicking ass? We really couldn't believe it either.Yet that's the word from Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, who's long been an outspoken critic of Child Protective Services here. We've gotten to know Wexler in the course of reporting some pieces about CPS overreach -- and suffice to say, he's not usually the guy we turn to when we need a soundbyte about how great the current system is. Which is why we were delig
