Cronkite News Christian Lira: an undocumented student whose scholarship is running out. State Republicans can pat themselves on the back: fewer undocumented students are getting educated. Which is what constitutes success in the Arizona Legislature. In spring 2007, there were 1,524 undocumented students in Arizona’s public universities. That number dwindled…
Greg Stanton today turned in petitions with more than 3,000 signatures nominating him as a candidate in the upcoming mayor’s race.While the signatures will go through a vetting process to make sure they are all valid and come from registered voters, Stanton essentially is the first horse officially in the race.Signatures will…
Citizens for Phoenix, a coalition of neighborhood leaders, is sponsoring a mayoral debate on May 3 at the Phoenix Theatre, 100 E. McDowell Road. It is expected to be the first debate with all five mayoral candidates in attendance. Thane Eichenauer, Phoenix lobbyist Wes Gullett, Councilman Claude Mattox, former Councilwoman…
Governor Jan Brewer vetoed Senate Bill 1322, a measure that would have required the state’s large cities, namely Phoenix and Tucson, to open up certain city services to competitive bids from private companies. Brewer said it was “riddled with shortcomings””It’s a good victory for now,” says Luis Schmidt, vice president of AFSCME (American…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne turned over some of the investigation into the Fiesta Bowl corruption fiasco to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office citing a conflict of interest that exists because many of the people being investigated are “clients” of the AG’s office because they’re elected officials.However, he’s hanging onto…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne announced today that he’s turning over some of the investigation into the Fiesta Bowl fiasco to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office because a conflict of interest exists between his office and elected officials who allegedly accepted — and failed to report — gifts and tickets to…
Former TV pitchman J.D. Hayworth’s ego may have met its match — in the form of Congressman Jeff Flake and his well-stocked campaign coffers. We’re told by those in the know that Hayworth has decided to not square off against Flake in what would be a GOP primary for the…
Arizona Legislature Self-promotion is the law in Steve Yarbrough’s perfect world. Jan Brewer again rejected a bill increasing the amount of money Arizona taxpayers can write off on their tax bills and give to private-scholarship charities, denying state Senator Steve Yarbrough’s second attempt to raise the amount of money each taxpayer…
The first person to stand up and address the board at yesterday evening’s Maricopa Community College Board meeting wanted to inform them about the Model UN team’s successes at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. The next 25 were there to condemn the board’s recent tuition hike for “out of state” students, a…
Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams (left) will step down from his post on Thursday as a likely step toward running for Representative Jeff Flake’s seat in Congress. Flake’s planning a run for U.S. Senator Jon Kyl’s soon-to-be-vacant seat, and Adams has been among the possible candidates for Flake’s Congressional District…
News Mild Undocumented students walk through a minefield of laws in pursuit of higher education. Some bills die on the floor of the statehouse. Others die on the governor’s desk. Sometimes, they die in the courts. And then there are those that die in a legislative committee, along party lines,…
Just when you give Governor Jan Brewer a little credit, she takes it way, way too far… Not only does Brewer find the debate over President Barack Obama’s citizenship to be a “distraction,” but she also thinks it’s leading America down a doomsday-ish “path of destruction.”The Birther movement is stupid,…
Maricopa Community Colleges board member Debra Pearson can expect an earful at tomorrow’s meeting in Tempe. The Maricopa Community College Governing Board is meeting tomorrow at the District Support Services Center in Tempe and it’s expecting company — protesters demonstrating against the district’s recent decision to raise tuition on “out-of-state”…
A bill allowing the creation of license plates featuring the Gadsden Flag, the adopted symbol of the Tea party movement, is awaiting the signature of Governor Jan Brewer, and people — a New York congressman, in particular — aren’t happy about it.Anyone who wants a Gadsden Flag plate would have…
Governor Jan Brewer recently pissed off her far-right-wing-nut base by vetoing three bills it desperately wanted, and today she’s trying to make amends by bringing up the issue that got her elected: Arizona Senate Bill1070.The bills Brewer vetoed include the ridiculous “Birther Bill,” which could have required presidential candidates to provide…
Arizona Legislature He doesn’t know when to quit. State Senator Steve Yarbrough is praying for Jan Brewer to sign an amended bill benefiting his side business, which she originally rejected last week as “unbalanc[ing] the budget.” SB 1186, the “2011 tax corrections act,” passed the Arizona House and Senate yesterday…
Phoenix City Councilwoman Peggy Neely has resigned her seat to run for mayor, the Associated Press is reporting.It’s no big surprise, considering she’s been raising money like a fiend through an exploratory committee she stared last year.Because Neely is not in the final year of her City Council term, she…
President Barack Obama is hosting a meeting to outline his views on immigration reform this afternoon with top cabinet officials and national politicians, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Reverend Al Sharpton — but no members of congress are expected to attend…
Former Congressman Matt Salmon announced today that he plans to run to replace Congressman Jeff Flake as the U.S. representative from Arizona’s sixth Congressional district.Flake already has announced that he’s running for the Senate seat being vacated by Senator Jon Kyl.Salmon and Flake have a lot in common: They’re both…
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal apparently is trying to steal some of Arizona’s far-right-wing “birther” thunder. As you’ve probably heard, the sudden rash of “birther” legislation is a ludicrous response to the repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, and is therefore not a U.S. citizen. After…
Phoenix officials have not kept track of who’s been kicking back in the city-owned suite at the U.S. Airways Center watching Phoenix Suns games or rocking out to legends like Elton John. But they’re supposed to, according to their own policy.The shoddy record-keeping, which goes back to at least 2005,…
It pains us, but big props must go out to Governor Jan Brewer, who today vetoed one of the most ridiculous, conspiracy-based, purely symbolic pieces of legislative garbage to pass through the Arizona Legislature: the humiliating “Birther Bill.”Check out some of the other nutty legislation the governor vetoed today here…
