Arizona: Arizona Guardian

by David Safier

From an article in the Arizona Guardian:

State education officials say the worst is yet to come as stimulus funds are depleted and the state struggles to fill a $1.5 billion gap in the 2010 budget.

Last month, Gov. Jan Brewer asked agency directors for proposed 15 percent cuts to their budgets.

The Department of Education identified more than $11 million in cuts to five different programs, from school safety and chemical abuse prevention to family literacy programs, which among other things, helps parents obtain their GEDs.

Tom Horne, Superintendent of Public Instruction, said he picked the five programs that don’t have federal matching funds tied to them.

by David Safier

From the Arizona Guardian (subscription only):

Health care and child care facilities will have to pay thousands more to be licensed in Arizona under new fee schedules released Tuesday that are intended to make businesses shoulder the regulatory cost.

The largest child care centers will see their licensing fees increase 90 times over, while small behavioral health group homes will pay quadruple their current costs.

Across the board, the facilities that care for Arizona’s youngest, oldest and most infirm will over the next three months go from paying some of the lowest regulatory costs in the Western region to the highest. Advocates say that's likely to increase the supply of unregulated care and raise costs as the fee increases are passed on to families.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Guardian (subscription required) reports "Escort client list shakes up political community." Ruh-Roh Shaggy.

At least two prominent Republicans quit an influential GOP organization this weekend because its leader has been linked to one of the state’s biggest prostitution stings.

Charles Jensen, founder of Politics on the Rocks, was one of several thousand names on a list of clients of the Desert Divas, a high-end escort service busted last year by Phoenix police.

Although Jensen denies any involvement with the prostitution ring, Paradise Valley Mayor Vernon Parker and conservative talk-radio personality Mike Broomhead have resigned from the political group's advisory board. Parker last week announced his intentions to explore a run for governor at a meeting of the group at a Paradise Valley resort.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Here is a news item from the past week that, as far as I can find, was not reported in any of the major newspapers in Arizona - with the exception of the online Arizona Guardian (subscription...