Pimps for Private Prisons and Profit: The Lobbyists Win Again
May 2, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Details about the state budget approved on Tuesday are leaking out, and it is does not look good for those who care about the outsized influence of lobbyists for private prisons in our legislature.
The one person who is happy is Arizona's "shadow governor" Chuck Coughlin and his HighGround lobbying firm that ran Jan Brewer's campaign and currently runs the governor's office. He also represents the private prison companies who want more private prisons. Surprise, they got what they wanted in spades.
Howard Fischer reports, Legislature gives preliminary approval to $8.6 billion state budget – East Valley Tribune:
The spending plan includes $50 million for a new maximum security prison, a priority of Gov. Jan Brewer. [and shadow governor Chuck Coughlin]
[The budget directs $20 million next year toward the construction of 500 state-run, maximum-security beds, with an additional $30 million to follow the next year.
The budget also authorizes a $16 million private-prison contract for 1,000 prison beds, although no expenditure would happen until fiscal 2015. – h/t Arizona Republic]
“In a year with a surplus, we’ve decided to make funding prisons a higher priority than funding health care for kids who, by no choice of their own, do not have access to health insurance,” Schapira said.
And Brewer, who negotiated the spending plan with the Republican majority, said she agrees with that decision.
“You know, public safety is really important to a lot of people,” she said. “And we certainly are short on maximum (security) beds.”
And House Majority Leader Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, said while there is no net increase in the number of people being sent to prison, the number of inmates who need to be in maximum security facilities continues to increase.
But more than just funding is at issue.
One provision of the budget eliminates an existing requirement that the Department of Corrections do a study of the costs and benefits between public and private prisons. House Minority Leader Chad Campbell said that makes no sense, given that the one study that was conducted shows it actually costs $5 a day more to house a medium-security inmate in a private prison than one run by the state.
There are about 40,000 people in state custody.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, a proponent of private prisons, said the study has “questionable reliability,” saying it did not consider issues like an underfunded pension system for corrections officers.
Ad vs. Ad in the Star: False equivalence, Part 3
May 1, 2012
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by David Safier It's a little late in the day (evening, actually) to comment on this morning's Star, but I don't want to let this go. Summary of this post: the Star's Brady McCombs needs to play some catch-up, and quick, if he wants to be a good political reporter. McCombs has a story in … Read more
Romney Courts Latino Vote with New Sidekick… Not Really.
May 1, 2012
By Michael Bryan
While it isn't exactly what you might term "real", The Onion frequently captures the truth that only satire can capture. Enjoy Romney's new friend Paco the animated parrot after the click…
ALEC, K12 Inc., Connections Academy . . . and more
May 1, 2012
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by David Safier In a comment on the blog, Cheri put a link to a collection of ALEC Task Force materials compiled by Common Cause. In the Education section, a number of names pop up in ALEC documents repeatedly. People from K12 Inc, the largest provider of online education in the country. People from Connections … Read more
What will we tell the children? Part [Sorry, I’ve lost count]
May 1, 2012
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by David Safier High states testing has higher stakes for teachers and administrators than students. Jobs, money and prestige are often on the line. So naturally, teachers and administrators have been caught cheating to boost the numbers even though, in my experience, teachers are an extraordinarily moral bunch. It's inevitable when the stakes are that … Read more
Republicans for Ron Barber
May 1, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I had a conversation with the Barber campaign last week about when they were going to use their Republican campaign co-chairs and supporters in a public event, and well, today was the day. The Tucson Weekly reports CD8: In Giffords' Race, GOP Supporters Rally for Dem Barber: Today, a group of those … Read more
My conversation on the Buckmaster Show
May 1, 2012
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by David Safier To my disappointment, I wasn't able to work "false equivalence" into my discussion with Bill Buckmaster on his radio show this afternoon, since we didn't spend much time on the Barber-Kelly race. But we talked a whole lot about education in Arizona, which is what I know most about, so I got … Read more
Rupert Murdoch ‘is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company’
May 1, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I could not agree more. The question is, what is anyone going to do about it?
A British parliamentary committee said on Tuesday in a scathing report of News Corp.’s handling of the phone hacking scandal that Rupert Murdoch “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” Rupert Murdoch is not fit to run a major company, British panel finds | Washington Post:
The report, which culminates months of investigation by a select committee, was far more condemning of the 81-year-old media titan than expected, saying the chairman and chief executive of News Corp. had “turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness” over the widespread malpractice at his now-closed News of the World tabloid.
“This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International,” the report said.
The committee approved the report six votes to four, with the four members from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party staunchly objecting to the description of Murdoch as an unfit proprietor.
“The issue on which no Conservative member felt they could support the report itself was the line put in the middle of the report that said that Mr. Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run an international company,” said Louise Mensch, a Conservative MP and panel member, at a news conference in central London on Tuesday.
So we're good on everything else, right?
The 121-page report includes a catalogue of criticisms, accusing three senior figures at News International, the British arm of News Corp., of misleading the committee. The three included Les Hinton, the former head of News International, who the panel said was “complicit” in a coverup. The lawmakers also said that Colin Myler, the former editor of News of the World and now editor at the New York Daily News, and Tom Crone, the tabloid’s former legal manager, “answered questions falsely” while testifying before the committee.
