A “Republicans in the News” update

by David Safier

Two updates of previous posts:

1. I posted that Rich Crandall, who left the state senate to be Wyoming's education head, asked for his tenure in the senate to be extended a few weeks so he could keep his health insurance until his Wyoming insurance started  up. I was called on the carpet by the Arizona Daily Independent (which has no great fondness for Blog for Arizona or Rich Crandall) for getting the facts wrong, along with the AZ Cap Times story where I got the information. Well, credit where credit is due. It looks like the Independent got it right.

Now the Cap Times is saying Crandall was trying to pull a fast one by extending his senate tenure, and Senate President Andy Biggs pulled the plug. According to Biggs, Crandall will get his health care coverage until August 31 regardless. Could it be Crandall wanted a few extra weeks for a bit of double dipping? Since there's a He said, He said going on here, I'm not sure what the final verdict will be on this story, but right now, it looks like Crandall has some serious egg on his face.

2. Back in March, state Senator Don Shooter went into a Yuma charter school, burst into a classroom and berated the teacher for the way she treated Shooter's grandson. He was charged with criminal trespass. Considering our current state of anxiety about deranged people shooting up schools, he should have been prosecuted. But it's not gonna happen.

On Friday, the Yuma city prosecutor’s office agreed to basically drop the case. It’ll “defer prosecution” of Shooter, provided he stay out of trouble for a year, pay a $1,500 in restitution to EOC Charter High School and a $1,000 “deferred prosecution fee” to the city of Yuma.

I imagine someone else who barged into a school and basically threatened a teacher while class was in session — someone without friends in high places — would have been dealt with more harshly. But verbal abuse from Republicans is such an ordinary occurence these days, I guess you can't blame Don for invoking the IOKIYAR (It's OK If You're A Republican) rule.