I don’t remember my parents being political at all. My Step-Dad was an Army Green Beret and my Mom a naturalized American citizen via Germany. I’m sure they voted, but it wasn’t like we sat around the dinner table discussing geopolitics. Neither of them had attended college while I was still living at home and being politically active wasn’t really congruent with my Dad’s military service.
After I joined the Air Force, that was also the case for me, especially when I became a commander. After retirement though, it was a different story. Since moving to Tucson in 2008, I ran for and won a seat on my local school board and worked on three Arizona campaigns, two Senate and one House, and supported various other campaigns in one way or another. It has been my service as a school board member though, that really led to my activism. Public K–12 education and the children it serves, (as it turns out) is my new passion.
Lots of LOVEly activities to participate in on Feb. 11 on 4th Avenue, while shopping and planning for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14. Buy a lock to place on the sculptures scattered along 4th Avenue. Photos below (courtesy of yours truly) of 2 of the heART shaped sculptures, already full of locks from previous V Day activities.
February 11th
“Lock your love on 4th Avenue! We have SOOOO much fun for you for Valentines weekend!!! 4th Avenue has it all- Shopping and strolling, fine dining, live music, this is the PERFECT place to bring your valentine.
Come see our new HeART sculpture unveiled, show your love to our non-profit partners by buying a lock for $5 (the charity keeps the whole $5- Fourth Avenue Merchants provides the locks)
Lock your love, and throw away the key! Show your love, and love of community with 4th Avenue’s unique and popular interactive public art. Non-profits are here with locks from 2-6pm
We have a fun event in Haggerty Plaza hosted by the fabulous Dee and Y-Not Karaoke! 2-6pm http://www.goynot.com/ https://www.facebook.com/karaokewithdee/
Perform your favorite love song on the stage, the words will be right there for you on the screen-bring your voice and enthusiasm, but be sure to BRING IT!
Play our KEY game!!!
(2-6pm) by shopping with participating merchants!
Get a valentine’s day card, get stickers by shopping- 3 stickers gets you a key to try a special lock. If your key opens one of 6 GOLDEN LOCKS- you win a prize basket! There are 6 prize baskets filled with goodies from your 4th Avenue merchants
Specials, discounts, exciting coctails, Romantic dinner venues- Our 4th Ave merchants want to make your Valentines MEMORABLE!
More details coming! http://www.fourthavenue.org/”
Here is a rush transcript of Scott Pelley’s introduction:
President Donald Trump told a U.S. military audience that there have been terrorist attacks that no one knows about because the media choose not to report them.
It has been a busy day for presidential statements divorced from reality.
Mr. Trump said this morning that any polls that show disapproval of his immigration ban are “fake.”
He singled out a federal judge for ridicule after the judge suspended his ban, and Mr. Trump said that the ruling now means that “anyone can enter the country.”
The president’s claims, whether fabricated or imaginary, are now worrying even his backers, particularly after he insisted that millions of people voted illegally giving Hillary Clinton her popular vote victory. There’s not one state election official, Democrat or Republican, who supports that claim.
Moms are visiting Legislators and supporting my bill HB2172, which offers medical treatment instead of jail during an overdose event.
After the first three weeks of the 53rd Legislature, things are starting to heat up. Hundreds of bills have been filed, and as usual, they run the gamut from boring to hopeful to dangerous.
I want to personally thank Speaker J.D. Mesnard for assigning some Democratic Party bills and some more moderate Republican bills to committee. (In recent Legislatures, bills from these sponsors were never assigned to committee. Of course, it’s up to the committee chair to put the bills on their agendas, but getting assigned to a committee is a welcome first step, in my book.)
Assignment to committee and very orderly and cordial floor meetings are positive notes in what has been a fast-paced time. Last week we shift from third gear to fifth gear and floor debates start on Tuesday, January 31. If you like reality TV, you should watch your Legislature in action. (The Arizona Capitol Television link on the Arizona Legislature’s website will take you to live proceedings and archives.)
All action and inaction on the floor of the House and Senate is televised– as are the Democratic and Republican Caucus Meetings (10 a.m. on Tuesdays, where we discuss the bills with staff, audience members, and paid lobbyists) and all committee meetings. Representatives have TVs on our desks, so we can keep up with the action while doing email, etc. Rep. Randy Friese’s motorcycle bill (HB2046) crashed and burned in the Transportation Committee but not without over an hour of testimony pro and con (bikers vs doctors). It was TV worth watching– as was the lengthy preemption discussion about local IDs and “illegals”.
When a variety of bills are heard, more constituent voices are heard. Here are a variety of bills that are coming down the pike this week (or in the near future). This is by no means an exhaustive list. Every committee meets every week, and agendas can include any number of bills. (Translation: there’s a lot happening.)
My Bills
HCR2012 (Powers Hannley) ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment in Arizona. (Assigned to Judiciary Committee in the House, headed by Rep. Eddie Farnsworth.) We only need three states to ratify the ERA to meet the requirement for a new amendment to the US Constitution. The ERA deserves to be debated in committee and on the Floor of the House and the Senate. Senator Martin Quezada has sponsored SCR1003— a mirror bill in the Senate (assigned to Government, headed by Senator John Kavanagh). Farnsworth and Kavanagh are blocking the ERA in the Legislature. If you think women’s rights should be debated and voted on in the Arizona Legislature, contact those two and your representatives and senators this week to get it on an agenda.
HB2172 (Powers Hannley) offers medical treatment instead of arrest in overdose situations. (Assigned to Judiciary, Farnsworth, again.) Thanks to the Arizona Republic‘s EJ Montini for giving a shoutout to this bill every time it has been proposed. Yes, this will save lives. Unfortunately, Farnsworth told me that he “doesn’t want to offer immunity to criminals” and refuses to hear this. If you think drugs addicts deserve a second chance at life, contact his office and encourage him to allow public testimony on this. There are several Moms lobbying Legislators to hear this bill– including the two pictured with this blog post.
HB2336 (Powers Hannley) allows terminally ill patients to make the decision to take their own lives with the help of their physician and medical team. (Assigned to Health Committee.)
In a letter to the editor today, Linda Horowitz makes a more pointed criticism of Steller’s column:
Tim Steller did not report on McSally’s votes – only her words. She has voted to give guns to the mentally ill in a district that witnessed the attack on Gabby Giffords. She voted against medicare, social security and Planned Parenthood. He ignored her vote to allow medical insurance companies to charge more for women than men.
McSally is not behaving like she feels she is between a rock and a hard place.
Ms. Horowitz is absolutely correct. The GOP-friendly local media in Tucson that routinely portrays Rep. McSally as a reasonable and rational “moderate” Republican is misleading the voting public with their fawning, while ignoring her actual voting record in Congress which demonstrates that she marches in lock-step with the Arizona House GOP Caucus.
The caution is simply this: For the time being, these calculations aren’t based on very many votes. Therefore, they’re likely to bounce around over the next few weeks until more votes are taken. As of Monday, they included just four votes in the House and six votes in the Senate. It’s also important to note that we aren’t tracking all votes — only those on which Trump takes a clear position.2 So they represent a small sample size, for now.
Another unique feature of our dashboard is the plus-minus scores. The basic idea is to compare how often a member of Congress voted with Trump against others where the 2016 presidential vote was similar. For instance, you’d expect members to support Trump most of the time if they come from a state or district that voted for Trump by 30 percentage points, but not very often if they’re from one where Hillary Clinton won by that margin.
These estimates are calculated on a bill-by-bill basis.
