Arizona: Bennett

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the "Sham-Wow!" budget deal on a 6-3 vote Monday, setting up a crucial vote on Tuesday.

The Arizona Guardian headline today says "Do or die time for Senate budget today and its not looking good" (subscription required). "The Senate's chances for smooth passage of a budget including a sales tax referral were dimming late Monday as Sen. Carolyn Allen continued to be a no vote."

Secretary of State Ken Bennett told The Arizona Republic over the weekend that he had to have the matters to be referred to the ballot by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday for he and county elections officials across the state to have enough time to prepare for a Nov.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

H/t to masaccio at firedoglake.com for this post UnitedHealth Group Gets Millions from Federal Subsidy, Spends Millions Against Public Option

UnitedHealth Group (symbol UNH) has paid its shareholders $1.5bn so far this year, through its stock repurchase program, and an additional $55mn from its paltry dividend of $.03 per share. That compares nicely with its reported earnings of over $1.8bn in the first six months. Shareholders’ equity is at $21.5bn, so there is a return on equity of 7.2% in the first half.

UNH has four business segments: healthcare services, Optum, Ingenix, and prescription services. Ingenix has the distinction of owning the Lewin Group, described by the

 The state-budget impasse continues, but Secretary of State Ken Bennett says fear not. Even if legislators and Gov. Jan Brewer haven't reached a deal by June 30, the end of the fiscal year, Bennett said Arizonans probably aren't looking at a total state shutdown."It's just unnecessary," Bennett said. "There's no need to shut down government."Some of my colleagues at The Republic wrote astutely Wednesday about the implications of a state shutdown.In the event that no deal is reached by the end of the month, he said, legislators could pass a series of continuing resolutions to maintain government on a month-by-month basis. ...

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For the first time, Arizona has three million registered voters, according to new figures released today. Figures also show the Democratic Party increasing its share of voters at the expense of Republicans.
Arizona now boasts 3,070,654 voters, Secretary of State Ken Bennett said in his first official press release. The state now has 1,140,609 registered Republicans and 1,047,126 Democrats. The number of total voters has increased by 83,203 since the November election.
"This increase in voter registration reflects the efforts taken by the county recorders, the political parties, and the Secretary of State's office to educate and register citizens to vote," Bennett ...

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