Month: October 2018

Voter Approval of Prop. 126 will Cut Education and Road Funding

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If voters approve Prop. 126 on Nov. 6, the state will lose $250 million annually in current funding for education and counties will have a dramatic shortfall in money for road improvements. The Grand Canyon Institute estimates that the education sales tax renewal will lose one-third of revenues if Prop. 126 passes, which would currently … Read more

In Memoriam: Carolyn Warner (Updated)

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It is with great sadness I have to post that a cherished member of the Democratic Party family has passed away. Carolyn Warner was one of the nicest, warmest and funniest people you would ever meet. She will be greatly missed.

The Arizona Republic reports, ‘She was a giant’: Education leader Carolyn Warner dies at 88:

Carolyn Warner, an education leader and advocate who nearly became Arizona’s first female governor, died of cancer Tuesday.

She was 88.

“Arizona has lost an icon,” Phoenix Mayor Thelda Williams said in a statement Wednesday. “A trailblazer in her own right — Carolyn Warner leaves a legacy of tireless dedication and advocacy for public education that will always be remembered.”

The chairwoman and founder of Corporate Education Consulting began her political career nearly 50 years ago as a Phoenix Union High School District board member. The mother of six said she was approached to run after moving to Phoenix from Oklahoma in 1953.

She became the first non-educator elected as state superintendent of public instruction, a post she held for 12 years. She ran for U.S. Senate in 1976 but lost the Democratic primary to Dennis DeConcini.

A decade later, Warner became the second woman in Arizona history to win her party’s nomination in the governor’s race, only to lose in the general election to Republican Evan Mecham.

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Will politicians talk about climate change now?

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The United Nations scientific panel on climate change issued a terrifying new warning on Monday that continued emissions of greenhouse gases from power plants and vehicles will bring dire and irreversible changes by 2040, years earlier than previously forecast. The cost will be measured in trillions of dollars and in sweeping societal and environmental damage, including mass die-off of coral reefs and animal species, flooded coastlines, intensified droughts, food shortages, mass migrations and deeper poverty.

President Trump’s uninformed climate skeptic response? Who drew it? Trump asks of dire climate report, appearing to mistrust 91 scientific experts:

Who drew it? The president wanted to know.

Ninety-one leading scientists from 40 countries who together examined more than 6,000 scientific studies. Specialists such as Katharine Mach, who studies new approaches to climate assessment at Stanford University; Tor Arve Benjaminsen, a human geographer at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; and Raman Sukumar, an ecologist at the Indian Institute of Science.

They are among the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to make recommendations to world leaders. Their report, issued Monday, warns of environmental catastrophe as early as 2040 and advises that the worst can be staved off only if civilization is transformed more profoundly than at any point in recorded history.

President Trump, in comments to reporters Tuesday on the South Lawn, seemed unaware of the IPCC, as the body is known, and expressed doubts about its determinations. The remarks put him at odds with most world leaders, as well as with scientific fact — a familiar position for the brash former businessman who has long ridiculed climate concerns.

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Lots of good reporting on the Russia investigation

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While Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues working quietly behind the scenes, there have been several excellent pieces of investigative journalism in recent days following leads on the Russian collusion thread of the investigation. These are lengthy investigative reports that I will not attempt to parse out here.

Luckily, Andrew Prokop at Vox.com has already posted an excellent summary. The past 48 hours in Mueller investigation news, explained (paragraphs reordered for clarity):

New reports over the past two days have brought increased attention to three long-simmering subplots in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

First, the Wall Street Journal revealed new details about GOP operative Peter W. Smith’s quest to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers during the 2016 campaign — including that he raised at least $100,000 for the effort and then pitched in $50,000 of his own money. (Smith was found dead last year, and local authorities ruled his death a suicide.)

Peter W. Smith: what happened when he sought Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers?

What we already knew: During the 2016 campaign, 80-year-old GOP operative Peter W. Smith recruited a team to try to obtain Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 deleted emails from “dark web” hackers — including hackers he thought were “probably around the Russian government.” It’s not clear if Smith had any success, but we know he tried because he freely admitted all this to reporter Shane Harris in May 2017.

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The Kirkpatrick v. Marquez-Peterson CD2 Congressional Debate at a Glance

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Democratic candidate Ann Kirkpatrick debated Republican rival Lea Marquez-Peterson at the Arizona Congressional District 2 Debate on October 9 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center hosted by Arizona Public Media.

Voters have a clear-cut choice: Marquez-Peterson would be a clone of Martha McSally, who abandoned the district, and Kirkpatrick would bring back progressive values for the first time in 4 years.

The chart below displays each candidate’s answers to questions from a panel of news reporters. An empty box indicates that the question was directed to one candidate only.

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