Month: October 2013

Governor Christie drops appeal on first day of Marriage Equality in New Jersey

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On the first day that same-sex couples can marry in New Jersey as a result of last week's state Supreme Court ruling, Governor Chirs Christie has decided to drop his appeal before the state's high court. The New York Times reports, Christie Drops Appeal of Gay Marriage Ruling in New Jersey:

EqualGov. Chris Christie of New Jersey announced on Monday that he would drop his legal challenge to same-sex marriage, hours after gay couples started exchanging vows in midnight ceremonies across the state.

Mr. Christie’s withdrawal of his appeal to the court decision that
allowed the marriages came on the heels of a ruling by the State Supreme
Court on Friday that rejected his attempt to block the marriages until
the appeal was resolved. His decision effectively removed the last
hurdle to making same-sex marriage legal in New Jersey.

“Although the governor strongly disagrees with the court substituting
its judgment for the constitutional process of the elected branches or a
vote of the people, the court has now spoken clearly as to their view
of the New Jersey Constitution and, therefore, same-sex marriage is the
law,” a spokesman for Mr. Christie said in a note to reporters on Monday
morning. “The governor will do his constitutional duty and ensure his
administration enforces the law as dictated by the New Jersey Supreme
Court.”

Karin Uhlich web ad

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As a follow-up to the previous fact check post, here is a positive message from Tucson Councilwoman Karin Uhlich's campaign.

Tucson: Headed in the Right Direction

Best Cities for Jobs, Forbes

Best Cities to Find a Job, CareerBliss

Emerging Entrepreneurial Hub, Entrepreneur Magazine

Best Housing Markets, BusinessInsider

Best Places to Retire in the U.S., Wall Street Journal MarketWatch

Best Performing Mid-Sized Cities, Headlight.com

Best Public Transportation, Brookings 

Most Bikeable Cities, The Atlantic

Most Pet-Friendly Cities, Examiner.com

Most Hospitable Cities, BuzzFeed

Best Weekend Getaways, U.S. News & World Report 

Video below the fold.

Benny’s ‘Pants on Fire’ attack ad

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tucson City Council election ballots were mailed last Thursday, and timed to coincide with those ballots arriving in voters' mailboxes was an attack ad from Tea-Publican candidate Ben Buehler-Garcia that aired on cable channels in Tucson. (Video below the fold). The ad appears to be the exact same ad that Benny ran in 2009! Seriously, you are recycling four year old campaign ads?

Liar-LiarPer usual for Tea-Publican candidates, the attack ad includes distortions and "Pants on Fire" lies in 2013. Here is what the Arizona Daily Star said four years ago. Star takes closer look in race for seat in Ward 3 – Arizona Daily Star:

The image:

A camera pans over a construction site, while the screen flashes
"Over $150 million wasted."

The screen shows a police car with the words, "No funding for
basic equipment."

The screen cuts to images of closed businesses while the text
reads, "Forbes ranks Tucson worst for business."

Fact check:

• Define "wasted." Of the estimated $600 million in state sales
taxes the project is expected to receive by the time it expires in
2025, about $200 million has either been spent or committed. Since
the project was approved a decade ago with the promise of a host of
museums, a re-creation of Tucson's birthplace and a downtown hotel,
a healthy chunk of the money has been spent instead on plans and
consulting, in some cases for projects that never got off the
ground, like the scuttled Rainbow Bridge and the stalled UA Science
Center. Among the bricks-and-mortar projects: Money has been spent
on restoring the Fox Theatre, helping refurbish the Rialto Theatre,
re-creating a piece of the adobe Presidio Wall and developing
infrastructure for a new downtown subdivision.

Critics say that's not enough of a return on investment — a
sentiment that prompted the Legislature to pass reforms to strip
the city of its oversight.

Comprehensive immigration reform the next battle in Congress

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"President Obama, fresh off a trouncing of congressional Republicans over
the government shutdown, plans to renew his push for immigration
legislation in the House while also pressing ahead with climate change
policies and efforts to fix problems plaguing his signature health-care
program." Obama
plans to renew immigration, climate change efforts.

Earlier this month, House Democrats introduced their own immigration reform bill sans the "border surge" of the Senate's "Gang of Eight" bill, with a positive reception from some Republican House members. House immigration bill — minus the surge – Politico:

The legislation released Wednesday is meant to build
pressure on House Republican leaders who have so far shown little public
urgency on the issue of immigration reform. And already, some GOP
lawmakers — particularly those who hail from competitive districts or
areas with large concentrations of Latino residents — are expressing
some openness to the Democrats’ proposal.

Their plan is to take the comprehensive immigration reform
legislation that passed the Senate with wide bipartisan margins in June,
but without the so-called border surge amendment added in the final
days of the floor debate. In its place, Democrats have inserted a
bipartisan border-security bill whose chief sponsor is House Homeland
Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

[That bill, crafted by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), passed with unanimous bipartisan support in the House Homeland Security Committee in May. It gives the Department of Homeland Security two years to come up with a
plan to apprehend at last 90 percent of individuals who cross the border
illegally.]

“The biggest issue I had with the Senate bill was the border-security
piece. I support the McCaul bill,” said California Rep. Jeff Denham,
one of a handful of House Republicans who have voiced support for
immigration reform. “It sounds very positive, but I will always wait to
see what those details are.”