Arizona Republic

Former AZ Legislator says US House might impeach Judge Snow

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County is having a less than stellar week, as he stands trial for contempt of court. On Thursday afternoon he was asked by US District Judge Murray Snow if what had been reported by Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times in June 2014 and January 2015, … Read more

In case you didn’t already know, you peons and your petty “getting on the airplane” troubles are an afterthought to Governor Ducey

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real idPhoto: homelandsecuritynewswire.com

Arizona drivers licenses aren’t compliant with new federal Real ID requirements to board airplanes and a change to a state law (passed a few years ago to assuage the fears of the black helicopter crowd) is necessary to correct that. Our conservative-led legislature, naturally, is a averse to this so the AZ Republic ed board was recently reduced to begging readers to contact Speaker of the House David Gowan to relent.

It shouldn’t have come to this. A Legislature that puts Arizonans first would have passed this bill weeks ago. Residents wouldn’t have to cross their fingers that an answer will be found.

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Riddle me this, gun fetishists, why do you need silencers?

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

silencerPhoto: www.atf.gov

Alas, because the annual AZ Legislature session coincides with the busiest time of year for my place of business I cannot keep up with all the bills as the wonderful Craig McDermott does. But I still try to keep up and things going through the lege tend to catch my eye.

One was Sen. Kelli Ward(R) putting forth a floor amendment to SB1460, which originally restored gun rights to people convicted of crimes whose civil rights have been restored. Ward’s amendment expands the bill to allow for nunchucks – excuse me nunchaku – as well as sawed-shotguns and silencers.

I found this development with the bill a tad alarming but AZ Republic editor Joanna Allhands talked me down from the ledge on that:

Let’s all calm down about Senate Bill 1460.

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AG Brnovich should familiarize himself with the Rule of Holes

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Rule of Holes: When you’re in one, stop digging.

herrod brnovich rtIt’s possible that this isn’t an approving retweet by Cathi Herrod but, given her ardent support of Mark Brnovich in the election and her just being an all-around terrible person, I’d say it’s a safe bet that it is.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich decided to lash out at Republic columnist Laurie Roberts by euphemistically calling her a liar (“misleading”). Roberts merely directly quoted what was in the motion to dismiss filed by his office against a lawsuit filed by a rape victim alleging shocking negligence by the state prison. Here are some exact words from the motion:

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Ducey’s “incremental” pursuit of Brownback’s policy is still a load of hooey

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

laffer napkin

Kimber Lanning, founder and executive director of Local First Arizona, delivered a fairly thorough smackdown to Robert Robb’s AZ Republic column whining that the Buy Local movement is a bunch of hooey.

Republic columnist Robert Robb is tired of hearing about the “buy local” movement and would like Arizonans to turn a blind eye to the economy and simply shop wherever they feel most satisfied. (“Shop where you want, guilt-free,” Dec. 19)

He claims the local movement is “hooey,” yet unabashedly has no statistics to back this. He just wants you, dear citizens, to throw the concept out the window.

In his article, Robb questions the countless economic studies released since 2002 but does not offer any substantive reasons for the questioning. Instead of following Robb’s simplistic calculations, let’s turn to the professional economists who back these studies, which have all concluded that an average of $30 more out of every $100 spent will stay in the local economy when money is spent with a local company versus a non-local corporate entity.

A Civic Economics study from 2007 showed the state of Arizona’s then-$5 million contract with OfficeMax was causing the state to lose $500,000 per year in economic leakage.

Definitely read the whole op-ed, since Lanning makes a solid case, bolstered with plenty of stats, for choosing local merchants over national chains whenever possible. I especially appreciated her calling out Robb for tossing out a context-free bit of frippery – “economies of scale” – to make himself look so very chin-stroking and serious.

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