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Governor Jan Brewer Defies Arizona Conservatives, Rams Through Obama’s Medicaid Expansion

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Photo Credit: State Rep. Jeff Dial

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer won a battle with state lawmakers this week, defying most other conservatives in her party to get a key component of President Obama’s Medicaid expansion through the Legislature.

The Arizona Senate voted Thursday to approve the measure 18 to 11. That followed approval earlier this week by the state House of Representatives.

The issue had inflamed passions and divided the Legislature for weeks. Things came to a head Tuesday when Brewer called lawmakers into the Capitol in Phoenix for a surprise special session.

Brewer — a vocal opponent of President Obama’s healthcare reform law — came out in support of Medicaid expansion for her state in January and ended up leading a contingent of moderate Democrats and Republicans who won over the objections of some conservative Republicans.

“By joining me in extending health coverage to hundreds of thousands of Arizonans, legislators of my own party have come under sharp criticism in some quarters. Some have had threats made not just against their political future, but also their personal livelihood,” Brewer said in a prepared statement.

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Laura Ingraham: ‘I’m Thinking of Moving to Arizona’ to ‘Primary Challenge Sen. Jeff Flake Myself’

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreOn her Wednesday radio show, conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham attacked a number of Republican senators that voted to support the immigration reform bill on Tuesday, saying that she was thinking about moving to Arizona to primary Sen. Jeff Flake, who is up for re-election in 2018.

“Let me tell you — I am thinking of moving to Arizona,” Ingraham said. “You know why? I will primary challenge Sen. Jeff Flake myself, if that’s why this requires. Jeff Flake, living up to his last name, backed down from a previous promise his spokeswoman made to Breitbart. This is just like Marco [Rubio] breaking his promise, basically, that he would consider voting in favor of amendments to the Senate’s immigration bill that would close a loophole of allowing illegal immigrants access to state and local welfare. Jeff Flake voted with the liberals against the Ted Cruz amendment.”

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Federal Court Strikes Down Arizona’s 20-Week Abortion Ban

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Photo Credit: APA federal court Tuesday struck down Arizona’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy absent a medical emergency.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the law violated a woman’s constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. “Viability” of a fetus is generally considered to start at 24 weeks. Normal pregnancies run about 40 weeks.

Nine other states have enacted similar bans starting at 20 weeks or even earlier. Several of those bans had previously been placed on hold or struck down by other courts.

Judge Marsha Berzon, writing for the unanimous three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based court, said such bans before viability violate a long string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings starting with the seminal Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

The judge wrote that “a woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable.”

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Jodi Arias is Guilty; So Are We

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Photo Credit: Bernard GoldbergThere are times, not many thankfully, when I get depressed, brought down by the sorry evidence that we live in a country fixated on shiny objects. This is one of those times.

A jury in Phoenix has found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder. That’s not what gets me down. What I find so depressing is our collective fascination with trivia, with anything that we can follow without having to actually think.

No one ever heard of Jodi Arias until cable TV made her famous. No one ever heard of the boyfriend she killed, you know, what’s his name. The Arias murder trial tells us nothing about anything bigger than Jodi Arias. She wasn’t famous like O.J. Simpson before she was arrested. This wasn’t Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. Those trials had implications. The Arias trial had none.

When it became known that the jury had reached a verdict, cable news went wall-to-wall with Jodi Arias. It would be 90 minutes before the verdict was announced in court, so anchors and pundits spent the time saying nothing – nothing that mattered anyway. But this is a small point. Saying nothing about Jodi Arias gets you more viewers than saying something about the national debt.

But you can’t blame cable TV news, not entirely anyway, because television is a business that gives the people what they want. And if they want Jodi, TV executives will give them Jodi for hours on end. Hell, if she had been found not guilty they might have even given her a show.

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Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill Making Gold, Silver Legal Tender

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Photo Credit: Reuters Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vetoed a measure on Thursday that would have made gold and silver legal tender in the state, saying the legislation could have resulted in lost tax revenue.

The Republican-controlled state legislature voted through the measure last month in a response to what backers said was a lack of confidence in the international monetary system.

The bill called for Arizona to make gold and silver coins and bullion legal tender beginning in mid-2014, joining existing U.S. currency issued by the federal government.

“While I believe the concern over a devalued dollar as a result of an unsustainable federal deficit is justified, I am unable to support this legislation,” Brewer, a Republican, said in an open letter to state Senate President Andy Biggs.

Brewer noted that the “administrative and fiscal burdens” for taxpayers and the revenue department “remain vague.” She also cited uncertainty over whether the legislation would have required the state to exempt transactions involving collectable coins and bills that were authorized by Congress and could be used as legal tender.

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Arizona Lawmakers Pass Bill Making Silver, Gold Legal Tender

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Photo Credit: Reuters The Arizona Senate on Tuesday approved a measure to make gold and silver legal currency in the state, in a response to what backers said was a lack of confidence in the international monetary system.

The legislation cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by an 18-10 vote after being approved by the state House earlier this month. It now goes to Republican Governor Jan Brewer, who has not indicated if she will sign it into law or veto it.

The bill calls for Arizona to make gold and silver coins and bullion legal tender beginning in mid-2014, joining existing U.S. currency issued by the federal government.

If signed into law, Arizona would become the second state in the nation to establish these precious metals as legal tender. Utah approved such legislation in 2011.

More than a dozen states have considered similar legislation in recent years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

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Suspicious Package Containing Explosive Material sent to Arizona Sheriff Arpaio

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Photo Credit: AP

Arizona authorities say a package addressed to Sheriff Joe Arpaio would have exploded if opened, leading to serious injuries or death. Maricopa County Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan made the comment Friday at a news conference in Phoenix.

The package intercepted in Flagstaff late Thursday was addressed to Arpaio at his downtown Phoenix office. It had been left in a parcel locker in a rural part of Coconino County.

U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman Keith Moore said a courier brought it into the main Post Office in Flagstaff, and authorities used a water cannon to neutralize the package.

Arpaio, the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” said this isn’t the first time he’s been threatened. Arpaio is known nationally for his strict treatment of jail inmates and cracking down on illegal immigration.

“Of course you worry. I’m a victim, I’m a witness. When you convict people, the victim has to be somewhat concerned. I’m a little concerned about my family,” Arpaio said at the news conference. “I didn’t ask for all these threats.”

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US Rep Watches 60 Children Leave AZ School and Cross Border to Return to Their Mexican Homes

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Photo Credit: Rick Bowmer

During a tour of the Arizona-Mexico border Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz dispatched a series of tweets and pictures Wednesday highlighting lax security at the border.

According to Chaffetz, the “worst thing” he saw was young children leaving school and crossing the border back into Mexico to return home.

“Worst thing I’ve seen. 60 elementary age kids leave this school in Naco, AZ,” Chaffetz tweeted:

Worst thing I’ve seen. 60 elementary age kids leave this school in Naco, AZ twitter.com/jasoninthehous…
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) April 3, 2013

Then, unaccompanied, they cross the border to “home” in Mexico. No papers checked. Supervisor said it happens daily twitter.com/jasoninthehous…
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) April 3, 2013

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Arizona Could Soon Approve Gold, Silver As Legal Tender

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Photo Credit: digitalmoneyworld

Arizona could soon become the second U.S. state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender if the Arizona House approves SB 1439.

The bill has already won the approval of Arizona’s State Senate and the Arizona House Financial Institutions Committee which voted the legislation out of committee on a 4-2 vote Monday. The measure now goes to a vote of the Arizona House.

Thus far, only the State of Utah has officially recognized gold and silver as legal tender, (See: Gold, silver coins now officially legal tender in Utah) although the issue has been under consideration this year in four states including Arizona. The Arizona bill defines legal tender as a mode of paying debts and taxes.

The measure also states that any coin or bullion that has gold or silver content and is issued by the United States Government can be defined as legal tender. However, no one can be compelled to accept coin or bullion containing gold or silver. The measure would also mandate that coin or bullion containing gold or silver issued by the U.S. Government cannot be taxed as property since it is to be considered money.

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McCain Defends Immigration Plan To Angry Residents

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Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured the state’s border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix.

The presence of the top officials is the latest sign that Arizona will play a prominent role in the immigration debate as President Barack Obama looks to make it a signature issue of his second term.

Napolitano toured the border near Nogales with the highest-ranking official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the incoming chairman of the Senate’s homeland security committee and an Arizona congressman. Napolitano, Arizona’s former governor, said afterward that comprehensive immigration reform will strengthen the nation’s border against criminals and other threats.

Also Tuesday, McCain hosted two town hall meetings in Arizona, during which he defended his immigration plan to upset residents concerned about border security. A bipartisan group of senators — including Arizona Republicans McCain and Jeff Flake — want assurances on border security as Congress weighs what could be the biggest changes to immigration law in nearly 30 years. Arizona is the only state with both of its senators working on immigration reform in Congress, a sign of the state’s widely debated border security issues.

Immigration activists and elected officials say it’s only natural for Arizona to continue to take the forefront in the national conversation on immigration after years of internal debate on the topic.

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