Rep. David Schapira:
The AZ Daily Wildcat (U of A's paper) had an article concerning the passage by a joint legislative committee of a university budget proposal, but turned down some specific funding initiative, including some proposed by Schapira.
From the article by Djamila Grossman:
PHOENIX - Members of a joint subcommittee adopted a university budget proposal for 2008 but voted down several attempts to further increase the funds yesterday.Rep. Ed Ableser:
One motion that failed would have allocated more than $60 million for retention, math and science initiatives, retention programs and several university medical programs.
A scaled-back motion on math and science initiatives by the same representative, Tempe Democrat David Schapira, also failed.
{snip}
Schapira said he had hoped the motions would pass the committee, especially the $3 million for math and science incentives.
The money could be used to fund one of his bills that would pay students' tuition and fees if they accept jobs in districts with a teacher shortage, he said.
"It has a lot of bang for the buck," Schapira said. "For $3 million, we can educate another 500 to 600 teachers a year."
Ableser had an active week, in terms of MSM coverage, though he wasn't quoted a lot.
Most of the coverage concerned a bill to regulate the height of mudflaps on vehicles, and an amendment that Ableser proposed to outlaw "obscene or hateful" images on them.
The amendment failed to pass, but has generated a lot of buzz in the "oddball" news sections of many papers/media outlets.
...One of those was FoxNews. In a move typical of FoxNews, Ableser's amendment was mentioned in a column with talking urinals.
...From WMTW in Maine (but it's from the AP wire):
Tempe Democrat Ed Ableser sponsored the amendment. He said he'd seen a splash guard that used a derogatory term for black children and said he wanted to make sure that people with hateful motives didn't inflict them on others.
...In the AZ Rep's weekly Political Insider column on Sunday, Ableser was given a small mention in the section concerning Arizona Capital Television, a CSPAN-like broadcast of the activities of the AZ legislature. It's under the control of Jim Weiers, so some Democrats expressed concerns about possible partisanship in the programming and coverage.
Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, wondered if the proceedings would be edited.
...Ableser was also mentioned in a Tucson Citizen article on the committee passage of a bill that would grant tuition waivers to family members of fallen members of the armed services.
From the article -
The rewritten bill would also require that the tuition waiver only be applied after "federal financial aid or benefits" had been exhausted.
Committee member Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, said he was worried the new wording would deny the tuition waiver to recipients of federal education aid, such as a Pell Grant.
Murphy said he would work on that section of the bill before it's heard on the House floor to ensure that only the benefits based on a parent's status as a veteran would affect the tuition offer.
"The intent was specifically to say that the waiver was to bridge the gap between veterans benefits and not to supplant any other financial aid," he told the committee.
After Murphy's explanation, Ableser said he was confident that the bill's language would be revised so it would not cause more harm to fallen military members' families.
...In an op-ed piece, also in the Tucson Citizen, Rep. Ableser is cited (in a complimentary way) for proposing a bill to rein in payday lenders.
"Primary sponsors of the most far-reaching House bill include Democrat Edward Ableser of Tempe and Republican Pete Hershberger of Tucson.
That bill, which includes a repeal of the 2000 legislation, describes existing payday storefronts as "public nuisances." "
The piece was written by Kelly Griffith, deputy director of the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity, and Don Carson, vice president of the nondenominational Little Chapel of All Nations.
...A third piece in the Citizen (three mentions in the Citizen, but none in his hometown paper, the East Valley Tribune? What's up with that? :) ) talks about his criticism of Russell Pearce's mandatory flag law that requires a American flag in every public classroom.
At the expense of the school system.
Concerning HB2468, a bill to ease some of the financial burden of the flag law has on schools -
"I feel this is a perfect example of this body jumping to extremes too quickly and playing politics with symbols of our government that shouldn't be played and used for political measures," said Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe.
{snip}
Ableser said he agrees that schools should display the flag properly and that students should recognize its importance. But he said lawmakers should think about the impact when passing such legislation.
"I believe that this bill is just one of the many we'll probably see as the unintended consequences of this body mandating other smaller districts on what they should or shouldn't do in terms of infrastructure or classroom accessories," Ableser said.
...The Business Journal of Phoenix had an article about state legislators who oppose the war in Iraq and their efforts to voice their opposition.
"A group of Arizona legislators will send the letter to Bush opposing the troop surge, worrying it will not help curb sectarian violence and will result in more causalities.
State Rep. Ed Ableser of Tempe and Kyrsten Sinema of Phoenix are among the Iraq war opponents at the state Legislature. The state move follows passage of a U.S. House measure that voices opposition to the troop escalation."
Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill:
...Sen. Burton-Cahill was mentioned in an article about Sen. Thayer Verschoor's bill to stifle free speech in classrooms. The bill would bar "any instructor in a public school or college from advocating or opposing a political candidate or one side of a social, political or cultural issue that is part of a partisan debate."
From the article -
Also, in a class discussion about global warming, Sen. Meg Burton Cahill, D-Tempe, said the bill seemingly would require teachers to include information to support the argument that global warming does not exist.Later!
"I think something like this would be challenged by any student who believes there's not enough time or consideration given to their perspective," she said.
No comments:
Post a Comment