Teachers and admins cheating? What will we tell the children?
by David Safier USA Today put together a research story about teachers and administrators cheating on high stakes tests, and the results, while perfectly predictable, aren't pretty. In the six states studied, including Arizona, the researchers found whole classes and whole grades at some schools where the students made unbelievable — literally, statistically unbelievable — … Read more
G.I. sued by Glendale? G.I.’s Ladner says bye-bye
by David Safier Two unrelated items in the news about Goldwater Institute. First: I haven't followed the G.I./Glendale dustup closely, but it may be reaching a head. Basically, Glendale is trying to keep the Phoenix Coyotes. G.I. says the deal would be a government giveaway, a gift to the current owners, and it is fighting … Read more
Krugman: The Truth About Pensions
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: What Paul said. The Truth About Pensions – NYTimes.com: Dean Baker has a deeply enlightening analysis of state pension shortfalls (pdf), containing a lot of stuff I didn’t know. The basic moral is that the official story these days — of years and years of huge giveaways to unions, resulting in gigantic, … Read more
Unions are critical to the survival of the American middle class
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Tea-Publican plan is simple: kill the unions, and thus kill the American middle class. "All hail the new serfdom of the corporatocracy and our benign (sic) plutocratic leaders!" These batshit crazy loons hate government (and by government I mean "We the People" democracy) so much so that they would rather trade democracy … Read more
Republicans taking away Arizona women’s political clout
by David Safier As I posted earlier, SB1365, the bill that would take automatic payroll deductions that might be used for political purposes from unionized workers (every member would have to give express written permission) was amended to take "public safety employees" out to the mix. If you're a union member who works in policing, … Read more
Arizona Legislature week in review
By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings For lege-watchers, it was a colorful week, with a LOT of bad bills gaining passage in one of the chambers, and one going to the governor… …State Sen. Scott Bundgaard's domestic violence incident kept him in the news all week, as did the fact that he used legislative … Read more
Governor Grim Reaper in Alaska: You can find your ‘death panels’ in Arizona
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Well now we know for certain that our de facto governor, "King" Russell Pearce, really is the governor of Arizona because our lame-duck governor Jan Brewer is off to Alaska on a northern exposure vacation — in the middle of the legislative session, leaving the lunatics to run the asylum, and no … Read more
