Vernon Hills Animal Hospital is a Cat Friendly Practice!
Dr. Barten was interviewed at the North American Veterinary Conference.
If you have an emergency and your pet needs immediate care, click here.
We have been certified as a Cat Friendly Practice by the American Association of Feline Practitioners. Find out about the extra steps we've taken to ensure we'll meet your cat's unique needs by clicking here. Or read our blog post about becoming a Cat Friendly practice by clicking on the logo below.
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What makes a Fear Free Practice Special?
We're a Fear Free veterinary practice. To find out why that makes for more pleasant visits for your pets, click on the logo below.
Our veterinarians and veterinary staff are confident you'll feel at home at Vernon Hills Animal Hospital, and would love for you and your pet to give us a visit.
Coming soon to your back yard!
Your valued input helps us to continually raise the level of service we offer to our patients and their owners every day. We appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and thank you for your feedback. Criticism is as welcome as praise; we can't change what we don't know.
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Archives and manuscripts (24)
Student dissertations (1)
"History, Ancient" (0)
Electronic books (129)
Pamphlets (24)
AB.AH (1)
Booksellers' advertisements (1)
Exhibition catalogues (1)
Festschriften (1)
Geschiedenis (vorm) (1)
Philadelphia. (1)
Royal College of Surgeons of England (27)
Justinus, Marcus Junianus. (15)
Trogus, Pompeius. (15)
Rollin, Charles, 1661-1741. (11)
Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library (6)
Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727. (6)
Althoff, Jochen (5)
Finlayson, James, 1840-1906. (5)
Föllinger, Sabine (5)
Polybius. (5)
Prideaux, Humphrey, 1648-1724. (5)
Wöhrle, Georg (5)
American Council of Learned Societies. (4)
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine (4)
Adams, John, 1750?-1814. (4)
Galen (4)
Mazzini, Innocenzo. (4)
Royal College of Physicians of London (3)
Adams, Francis, 1796-1861. (3)
Greek, Modern (1453- ) (2)
In the library (120)
remove "History, Ancient"
An introduction to the making of Latin. Comprising, after an easy, compendious method, the substance of the Latin syntax, with proper English examples, most of them translations from the classick authors, in one column, and the Latin words in another. To which is subjoined, in the same method, a succinct account of the affairs of ancient Greece and Rome, intended at once to bring boys acquainted with history, and the idiom of the Latin tongue. With rules for the gender of nouns. By John Clarke, late master of the publick grammar school in Hull.
Clarke, John, 1687-1734.
MDCCLXXXVI. [1786]
Justin's history of the world translated into English. With a prefatory discourse, concerning The Advantages Masters ought chiefly to have in their view, in reading any ancient Historian, Justin in particular, with their Scholars. A few necessary remarks upon Justin are added in Marginal Notes. And to this new translation is also subjoined, an exact chronological table of the affairs of the world from the Creation to the Birth of Christ. Very useful for all Readers of History; Beginners more especially. By a gentleman of the University of Oxford.
Justinus, Marcus Junianus.
MDCCXLII. [1742]
The flowers of ancient history; Comprehending on a new plan, the most remarkable interesting events, as well as characters, of antiquity. Designed for the improvement and entertainment of youth. By the Rev. John Adams, A.M.
Adams, John, 1750?-1814.
MDCCXCI. [1791]
Gate to the sea / a novel by Bryher.
Bryher, 1894-1983.
[1959], ©1959
The chronology of antient kingdoms amended. To which is prefix'd, a short chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe, to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great. With three plates of the Temple of Solomon. By Sir Isaac Newton.
Newton, Isaac, 1642-1727.
Gnathon et Scymnus, deux artistes peintres découverts dans les Épidémies d'Hippocrate : à ce sujet, classification des personnages qui figurent dans les Épidémies et explication de la légende d'Hippocrate / par J.-P. Rossignol.
Rossignol, Jean-Pierre, 1804-1893.
The chronology of ancient kingdoms amended. To which is prefix'd, a short chronicle from the first memory of things in Europe, to the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great / By Sir Isaac Newton.
Philosophy and dietetics in the Hippocratic On regimen : a delicate balance of health / by Hynek Bartoš.
Bartoš, Hynek
A stone foundation plague of Shulgi in Birmingham City Museum / Philip J. Watson.
Watson, Philip J.
The compleat history and antiquities of the antient Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Grecians and Carthaginians. Containing, An account of the original and first founders of each Kingdom. The Revolutions it has undergone, and the Great and Famous men They have produced; likewise The various Wars and Commotions by which these Nations have been Enlarged or Diminished; the curiosities either of Art or Nature, for which They have been most Remarkable; as also, the religion, manners, laws and customs, which, At different Periods of time, have prevailed in them; with many curious Particulars relating to the several Countries treated of in this history. Extracted from the most eminent writers of those different nations; and Methodically Digested: To which are annexed, proper Tables, Indexes, &c. Also Curious Prints of Egyptian Mummies, Deities, Hieroglyphicks, &c. to render this work the most Authentick and Compleat of any Thing ever hitherto published. By Paul Chamberlen, Esq;
Chamberlen, Paul.
MDCCXXXVIII. [1738]
Biot, Jean-Baptiste (1774-1862), French mathematician and physicist
Biot, Jean-Baptiste, 1774-1862.
MSS.7038 & 8316
A companion to Greek studies / edited for the syndics of the University Press, by Leonard Whibley.
Whibley, Leonard, 1862 or 1863-1941.
The origin of laws, arts, and sciences, and their progress among the most ancient nations. Translated from the French of the President de Goguet. In three volumes. Adorned with cuts. ...
Goguet, Antoine-Yves, 1716-1758.
La medicina nella letteratura latina / Innocenzo Mazzini.
Mazzini, Innocenzo.
History of Greece / by George Grote.
Grote, George.
Sleep and dreams in ancient medical diagnosis and prognosis / Maithe Armido Aroesja Hulskamp.
Hulskamp, Maithe Armido Aroesja
Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology, abridged by himself. To which are added, Some observations on the Chronology of Sir Isaac Newton. Done from the French, by a gentleman.
M.DCC.XXVIII. [1728]
La médecine au temps des Pharaons : thèse présentée et publiquement soutenue à la Faculté de médecine de Montpellier le 18 mai 1903 / par Abdel Aziz Nazmi.
Nazmi, Abdel Aziz, 1877-
A dissertation on the chronology of the Septuagint. With an appendix, shewing, that the Chaldean and Egyptian antiquities, hitherto esteem'd Fabulous, are perfectly consistent with the computations of that most ancient version of the Holy Scriptures. By the author of The vindication of the history of the Septuagint, and the Critical Examination of St. Matthew and St. Luke's Gospels. Magna est Veritas & praevalebit.
Hayes, Charles, 1678-1760.
MDCCXLI. [1741]
Historia anttigua del arte de curar / Juan Rodenas Cerdá.
Rodenas Cerdá, J. (Juan)
Falconer, William (1744-1824), physician and author
MS.6156
The history of the arts and sciences of the antients, ... in three volumes. ... By Mr. Rollin, ... Translated from the French.
Rollin, Charles, 1661-1741.
Origines gentium antiquissimæ; or, attempts for discovering the times of the first planting of nations. In several tracts. By the Rt. Revd. R. Cumberland, D. D. late Bishop of Peterborough. Publish'd from his Lordship's manuscript by S. Payne, A. M. Rector of Barnack in Northamptonshire.
Cumberland, Richard, 1631-1718.
MDCCXXIV. [1724]
A new biographical and chronological history of England, from the earliest accounts to the present time.
MDCCXC. [1790]
Mental disorders in the classical world / edited by W.V. Harris.
Harris, William V. (William Vernon)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The first P.A.T.H. home in the U.S.A.
Starck with Riko is to build a 750 m2 P.A.T.H. house on a magnificent private property located in Bedford, just 40 miles north of Manhattan, NY. The two stories 'Montfort' type house with a glass facade and signature corniche roof will serve as a family vacation home.
The majority of the house's internal equipment is being chosen from the high standard or custom sections of the P.A.T.H. catalogue, which features much of Philippe Starck's timeless design.
Starck with Riko is currently in the design stage and is set to start with the construction in October of this year. In preparation for that, all the excavation and earth works have begun already this month.
P.A.T.H. houses are an intricate combination of signature design and intelligent living solutions. The houses are built with ultimate industrial prefabrication methods and offer highly technological solutions that allow to significantly reduce energy consumption. This wide range of benefits took no time to convince the investor to opt for P.A.T.H.


text:
UK manufacturing ends 2016 with growth
By Catharine Paddock PhD Published Feb 12, 2017 at 19:54 PM GMT
The UK manufacturing sector ended 2016 on a strong note, with growth recorded in November and December, despite concerns that the uncertainty following the Brexit vote might hold it back.
The February 2017 figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) "confirm economic activity continued to expand at the end of 2016."
UK manufacturing grew 2.1 percent in December 2016 says the ONS. Image: pixabay-67640
The ONS says strong growth in manufacturing caused production output to rise for the second consecutive month in December.
Production output rose by a further 1.1 percent in December 2016, while manufacturing also increased by 2.1 percent.
However, the government office warns that the growth in UK manufacturing at the end of 2016 is driven by a "strong month for often volatile pharmaceuticals."
UK manufacturing 'compares favourably' across G7
The ONS figures also show that the UK manufacturing position at the end of 2016 'compares favourably' across the G7 economies.
The G7 nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, and United Kingdom – represent around half of global economic output.
Of the G7 economies, Germany is the only one that has ended 2016 with manufacturing output higher than it was in 2007, before the economic downturn of 2008.
Apart from the U.K., the other G7 economies ended 2016 between 5.5 percent (the U.S.) and 20.6 percent (Italy) below their 2007 manufacturing output levels.
However, because of the rise in December, "UK manufacturing output is now only 2.3 percent below levels seen in 2007," says the ONS.
Because of the rise in December 2016, the UK manufacturing position at the end of 2016 'compares favourably' across the G7 economies. Graph: ONS
Brexit not denting UK business optimism?
Meanwhile, new business trend figures published by accountants and business advisers BDO LLP show manufacturing confidence has reached a 20-month high, suggesting that the "Brexit and Trump effect has not dented UK business optimism."
Another recent report also found that UK car manufacturing output reached a 17-year high in 2016.
The Bank of England has also uprated its forecast for UK growth – again. In its February 2017 inflation report, the BoE says its Monetary Policy Committee "has increased its central expectation for growth in 2017 to 2.0 percent and expects growth of 1.6 percent in 2018 and 1.7 percent in 2019."
Rise in construction output
The ONS figures also show that construction output rose by 0.4 percent in November and 1.8 percent in December.
The ONS says the growth in December was mostly driven by private commercial work and brings the volume of output of the sector to just above the December 2015 level.
Overall, construction output grew by 1.5 percent in 2016, not as strong as in 2014 and 2015.


I believe it was W.C. Fields who counseled actors never to do a scene with a child or a dog. The very thought of playing Launce would have driven him to drink a quart of gin—not that he ever needed much provocation. The two scenes with Launce and his dog Crab (probably named for the sour crab apple, not the tasty crustacean) stand out sharply from the rest of the play, as if somebody had dropped two Robin Williams monologues into a Sandra Bullock rom-com.
That may be pretty much what happened. There's a body of scholarly opinion that holds that Launce was added after the rest of the play was written (Clifford Leech, the editor of the Arden Second edition, discerns four stages of composition, Launce's monologues being the third stage). It's plausible to suppose—and for my purposes we'll assume—that Launce was created to provide a role for the new clown of Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Will Kemp. This raises the interesting though subsidiary issue of how much of these speeches is Shakespeare's. I recall a print source—I think it may have been the book version of Michael Wood's BBC miniseries about Shakespeare, but I'm too lazy to check—that insisted that clearly these are just transcriptions of Kemp's routine. I don't see how that can be right. I can see Shakespeare taking input from Kemp and leaving him room to improvise, especially with physical action, but I think that what we have is Shakespeare's responsibility. (If you subscribe to the scholarly theory that Crab is associated with Proteus, that's all the more reason to think that Launce's speeches are carefully composed to reflect other things in the play.) We can't go into any detail, but keep this in mind as an early example of how collaboration is likely to have worked in the Elizabethan theater (and when we look at Hamlet's denunciation of actors' improvisation).
So let us look at the scenes themselves. They are pretty much self-explanatory, especially if you imagine them being performed, so I won't have that much to say by way of analysis. But they are both very long, so I'll devote a separate post to each.


Victorian prisoners are making a real difference in reducing bullying through the creation of Friendship Seats that have been installed in school playgrounds in Melbourne's southeast.
Friendship Seats were an innovative extension of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation's Better Buddies program, designed to create friendly and caring school communities to help reduce bullying.
Friendship Seats are a way for students who feel lonely to make friends in the playground. By sitting on the seat, teachers and other students are alerted that they would like to be included in lunchtime activities.
The idea behind Friendship Seats was to support children who experience feelings of isolation or sadness at school.
Prisoners from Marngoneet Correctional Centre in Lara have spent hours perfecting the seats. One prisoner reported that building the Friendship Seats was "why I get up in the morning".
"I have gained a sense of achievement participating in the program, as it highlights a very serious issue that I feel strongly about. This program will hopefully shed some light on bullying in schools, prevent young children from falling into a life of crime, and even help with things as simple as self worth and happiness," said another participant involved in the program.
The link between bullying and violence in later life was explored in research, by National Centre Against Bullying member, Professor Sheryl Hemphill, which revealed school bullies are twice as likely to become violent adults.
Wayne Harper, General Manager of Marngoneet Correctional Centre, said the prisoners "really enjoyed" working on this project, as it helped them reflect on an issue that many have experienced and provides a valuable way for them to give back to society, whilst learning valuable skills.
"There are a lot of people who come into the prison system who may not have had much experience in long-term, steady employment. This provides another opportunity for offenders to get involved in a worthwhile project on a daily basis and learn skills they can take back out into the real world," he said.
A total of 200 seats have been installed in Better Buddies schools across the South East Metropolitan Region.
Beverley Garratt, Regional Community Work Program Manager at the Department of Justice (DoJ), saw huge value in the collaborative project as it gave "DoJ, prisoners, offenders and partners an opportunity to play a major role to reduce bullying in schools".
The Friendship Seat project was a partnership between the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, Marngoneet Correctional Centre, the Education Department, AVIS Australia and the South East Metropolitan Region Community Work Team.


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AMRA a Finalist in the 2017 Clinical and Research Excellence Awards
LONDON, UK [22 February, 2017] – Finalists for the 2017 Clinical and Research Excellence (CARE) Awards were announced today, and AMRA is shortlisted within the category of Best Patient-Focused Technological Development.
The CARE Awards gathers distinguished leaders from the global biopharmaceutical, CRO and diagnostic industries, with the aim to celebrate the brilliant minds, strategic thinkers, and risk takers who bring the hope and promise of good health to humankind. The awards celebrate the unsung heroes who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference, push for the next breakthrough, find a cure, end suffering, and extend lives.
AMRA is honoured to be recognised among such an esteemed group of finalists and we look forward to sharing in the celebration. Winners will be announced at the State Room in Boston on Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
The Finalists: https://ibiawards.com/careawards/shortlist/


At Loreto, we believe that overcoming challenges can lead to incredible things. It is through these challenges that our school was born.
Four hundred years ago, English woman Mary Ward faced extraordinary opposition to establish the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (IBVM) - also known as the Loreto Sisters. Click the link below to learn more about Mary Ward.
In Australia, the foundation was led by Mother Mary Gonzaga Barry ibvm, who in 1875, established Catholic primary and secondary schools in Ballarat. Today, there are seven Loreto Schools in Australia and over 90 throughout the rest of the world.
Loreto Toorak was established in 1924, and continues this worldwide tradition. In each student, our goal is to foster the foundation for a strong and mature faith – in God, herself and in life. With these values, she will be equipped to embrace all the challenges, joys and the adventures that lie ahead in life.
"Loreto" was the name given to the first house of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ireland at Rathfarnham and originates from a popular place of pilgrimage on the Adriatic coast of Italy.
Loreto had also been a favourite place of devotion for Mary Ward, who had travelled across Italy several times to visit and pray there. Interestingly though, Mother Teresa Ball - the founder of the Institute's Irish branch - was unaware of this when she chose the name "Loreto" for her first foundation.
It is thought that the Loreto Crest was developed by Mother Teresa Ball, in the 1850s as an expression of her spirituality. The basic shield is the Family Crest of our Founder, Mary Ward.
The Cross – The cross reminds us that we love God. And when we see it, we're reminded to always do the right thing - even when it seems hard.
The Sacred Heart - The Sacred Heart reminds us that the most important thing is for us to love God and one another.
The Loving Heart - The loving heart reminds us of Mary, who is very special for all Loreto girls. When we see it, we remember to say a prayer to Mary.
The Anchor - The anchor is strong and steadfast. It reminds us that there's always hope for us when we pray.
What do the words on the Crest mean?
"Maria Regina Angelorum", means Mary, Queen of the Angels.
"Cruci Dum Spiro Fido", means in the Cross, while I breathe, I trust. This means we will always believe in God's goodness and know he will always look after us.
The Loreto shared mission involves thousands of people including sisters, colleagues and volunteers who work in Australia, the Philippines, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
So many within our shared mission carry the responsibility of continuing the legacy of our Founder Mary Ward – in the spirit of Freedom, Justice and Sincerity educating young women and responding to the needs of our time.


Alan Haber's Pop Tunes Deejay Show brought the rain, the mist, the snow, the spring and the sun to you this week in a special show called Your Weather Station!
We hope you enjoyed the show, a real fun one to put together and listen to! Next Monday night, October 26, tune in for our first annual Halloween edition of Pop Tunes, starring Alan's very special co-hosts, the Taters! There will be lots of spooky doings, cool scary songs, and lots of laughter. Don't miss it! (This show also repeats on October 31, Halloween, at noon ET (9 am PT) and 9 pm ET (6 pm PT). See you on the radio!


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Country Music Star Jessica Lynn Films a Television Special in Westchester
Dave Zucker January 31, 2019
Hot off a European tour, another successful holiday show and local toy drive, and cracking country music's Top 40 single charts, singer-songwriter Jessica Lynn is on fire.
The Westchester native is also gearing up to record her third television concert, filmed locally of course, on Saturday, February 23. Lynn previously recorded 2013's This Much Fun – Live from The Winery at St. George and 2015's Jessica Lynn – Takin' Over: Live at the Paramount in Westchester, both of which saw broadcast nationally by PBS. Now, Lynn has her sights on Peekskill's Dramatic Hall for a more intimate, storytelling experience.
We caught up with Lynn to find out why this show is shaping up to be a truly unique experience, both for her and those of her fans lucky enough to score tickets.
How is this concert different from shows you've performed in the past?
The last two shows for PBS were kind of big productions. They had dancers, there were bigger stages, they had a lot of people, and they were full-band. This one is totally stripping down everything and going back to basics, and focusing on who I really am as a person and songwriter.
I'm going to be playing instruments a lot more than I usually do live, and just giving people an inside look into me and what the songs mean to me. It's a lot more intimate than anything we've ever done in the past.
Because it is very intimate, we're going to be doing a lot of crowd interaction and also a lot of crowd shots. So you most likely will see yourself on national television if you attend. It's not like there's going to be 800 people in the back; you're going to be right there.
And we hear you're hoping to showcase a few other local talents?
Yeah! So my friend Dan Zlotnik, who is an incredible singer-songwriter and musician, is joining me for two duets, one co-written by Devon Allman, who is Gregg Allman's son. My friend John Winton is playing saxophone for us and we have a string quartet, and a lot of surprises along the way. Maybe a choir will show! I'm really trying to put an interesting and unique twist on country music and on the songs.
What led you to select Peekskill's Dramatic Hall for your next television special?
I wanted something really intimate and something kind of vintage looking, and I'd heard about it but never really knew it existed until recently. We went in to just look and the vibe was just perfect with the dark woods and the wrought iron balconies. I felt like a songwriter inside there!
It holds the perfect amount of people and the stage wasn't too big so it has that real intimate feel. I'm an independent artist and I've worked really really hard to put myself out there, and this show was important for me to showcase other independent artists that I feel like they deserve, so I thought why not showcase such a cool venue? Bring that into the spotlight and showcase all of Westchester. It's going to look beautiful on camera, I know it.
Photo by Jaso Isolini; courtesy of Jessica Lynn
Your recent single "Let's Don't" broke the Country Music Top 40 this month. (Congrats.) Can the audience expect your big hits at a more intimate event?
Yes, they can, but different versions of them! We're doing acoustic version of my well-known songs, debuting some brand new music, as well as pulling out some songs from my past that people may or may not heard before that played a special in my journey to where I am today.
Lastly, this is going to be one of the last chances for a lot of local fans to catch you before your band jets off to Europe for your next world tour. Any other surprises you'd like to teaser for the show that they might look forward to?
There's going to be a documentary portion that goes along with the show for the DVD and I'm really excited about that. I feel like it's really going to give people an inside look into what we do, and just into who I am. I feel like a lot of my shows are kind of big productions. A lot of people don't even know I play all the instruments that I play, and I think that's what I'm looking forward to the most: showing people that I am the person behind the music, writing it and arranging it, and putting the band and the pieces of it together, the vision of everything. This show is really going to show that, this other side of me that I haven't been able to show people before. As a songwriter and an artist that's something that I'm really looking forward to, and I think it will be a surprise for people.
Spent the whole day today testing props and filming interviews for the filming of my next full-length concert television special! New York – Feb 23! Tix @ JessicaLynnMusic.org ♥ï¸ . . . . . . . #singers #montana #countrymusic #traveler #countryliving #newmusic #hudsonvalley #countrylife #livemusic #country #filming #music #instatravel #touring #instatalent #musician #instamusic #music #countrygirl #countryradio #newyork #touring #hudsonvalley #newyork #ontour #letsdothis #music #west #dreambig #westchester #ny
A post shared by Jessica Lynn (@jessicalynnmusic) on Jan 28, 2019 at 4:05pm PST
Jessica Lynn's Live From Dramatic Hall films on Saturday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m., with a snow date of Sunday, February 24. Tickets are available in extremely limited quantities, so get them while you can and maybe we'll see you on national TV.
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Tees are marked by a landscaping timber in the grass. These tees can be difficult to locate. Baskets are chain baskets in excellent shape. Course varies from wide open shots to tunnel shots between trees.
University of St. Mary is located on 4th Street (Kansas Highway 7) in Leavenworth, KS.


President Donald Trump highlighted his economic policies Thursday at the groundbreaking for a massive $10 billion FoxConn factory complex that may bring thousands of jobs to Wisconsin, a state he barely carried in the 2016 presidential election. At the same time, Trump kept up his running feud with an iconic American company based in the state.
Trump's celebration in the Badger State came against a backdrop of less-rosy economic news: Harley-Davidson recently announced it is moving some motorcycle production overseas to avoid European Union tariffs that are a product of Trump's escalating trade dispute with longstanding U.S. allies.
The president was irked by the Milwaukee-based company's announcement this week and tweeted about it for three straight days, writing that any shift in production "will be the beginning of the end" for the American manufacturer and even threatening retaliatory taxes.
Trump's speech – as his speeches often do – meandered from topic to topic, including riffs about his responsibility to pick a new Supreme Court justice, his close relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping and talk that his 2020 campaign hats will bear the slogan "Keep America Great!" and perhaps be colored green, "representing cash," instead of 2016's trademark red.
July 26, 2017 8:52 p.m.
January 30, 2019 2:13 p.m.


"On balance, the right of Ohio voters to vote in person during the last three days prior to Election Day -- a right previously conferred to all voters by the State -- outweighs the State's interest in setting the 6 p.m. Friday deadline.'"
This treat is an easy winner.
Combine first four ingredients in large bowl; mix well. Press into foil lined 13x9-inch pan.
Microwave chocolate and whipped topping in microwave-safe bowl on HIGH 1 min.; stir. Microwave 15 to 30 sec. or until chocolate is melted; stir until well blended. Spread over peanut butter layer.


In addition to tablecloths, napkins, placemats, table runners and all of the other table linen products we're known best for at Bright Settings, we also sell aprons and bibs. Our aprons and bibs come in over 100 different fabric options, giving you over 500 colors and prints to choose from, in three different styles of apron or bib.
Bib aprons come in either 24″ or 34″ lengths, with the option of pockets. The bib apron will protect you from food splatter while you're cooking or serving.
Waist aprons come in 21″ lengths with three pockets. A waist apron is a great option for a server who needs a few pockets to store pens, straws, and whatever else the guests ask for. If you're looking to coordinate your servers' uniforms with your table settings, order waist aprons in the same fabric or color as the tablecloths, napkins, or placemats on the tables.
Lobster bibs are 15″ wide and 30″ long. If you've ever eaten lobster (or seen someone eat lobster), you know how messy it can get. Give your guests a little extra protection with lobster bibs. Note: Lobster bibs can only be ordered by the dozen.
Whether you're cooking up a storm in the kitchen, waiting tables, or having a seafood feast, we've got the aprons and bibs to keep you clean. If you have additional questions, get in touch with a member of our sales team.


Jo has welcomed a move by the Liberal Democrats to reverse the Council's unpopular decision to cut free school bus services.
The Liberal Democrat group on East Dunbartonshire Council has put forward a motion, to be considered at the Council's 22nd April meeting, to reverse the Council's planned cuts to free school bus services.
Currently, primary school children get free travel if they live more than a mile away from school, and secondary school children are eligible if they live more than two miles away. However, cuts announced in the recent Council budget, effective from August this year, mean the limits will be increased to two and three miles respectively.
In order to reverse the decision, Councillors must first vote to suspend the Council's Standing Orders – which prevent a change of decision within a 6 month period – requiring the support of at least 16 of East Dunbartonshire's 24 Councillors.


8 M. Sc 1ST YEAR (2ND SEMESTER) BATCH 2017.
9 B. PHARM. 1ST YEAR (1ST SEMESTER) SUPPLEMENTARY BACH 2017.
10 B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR BATCH-2017 (7th Notification).
13 M.Sc 1st YEAR BATCH-2017 (Notification No. 03).
14 M.Sc 1st YEAR 2nd SEMESTER BATCH-2017 (5th Notification).
15 M.Sc 1st YEAR 2nd SEMESTER BATCH-2017.
16 B.Sc RADIO IMAGING TECHNOLOGY 1st YEAR BATCH-2017 (4th Notification).
17 B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR BATCH-2017, E-Sep 2018 (6th Notification).
18 B.Sc PHYSIOTHERAPY 2nd YEAR BATCH-2017 (3rd Notification).
19 B.PHARMA. 1ST YEAR - 1ST SEMESTER EXAMINATION RESULT (B-2017).
20 B.Sc MEDICAL LAB TECHNOLOGY 1st YEAR RESULT BATCH-2017 (2nd Notification).
21 B.PHARMA. 1ST YEAR - 2ND SEMESTER EXAMINATION RESULT (B-2017) .
22 D.PHARM. 1ST YEAR EXAMINATION RESULT (B-2017).
23 B.Sc RADIO IMAGING TECHNOLOGY 1st YEAR BATCH-2017 (3rd Notification).
24 B.Sc PHYSIOTHERAPY 2nd YEAR BATCH-2017 (2nd Notification).
25 B.Sc PHYSIOTHERAPY 1ST YEAR BATCH-2017 (1st Notification).
26 P.B.B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR BATCH-2017, E-Sep 2018 (5th Notification).
27 M.Sc 3rd YEAR 6th SEMESTER BATCH-2016 (Notification No. 03).
28 M.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR EXAMINATION RESULT BATCH-2017 (Notification No. 02).
29 B.Sc MEDICAL LAB TECHNOLOGY 1st YEAR RESULT (BATCH-2017).
30 B.Sc RADIO IMAGING TECHNOLOGY 1st YEAR RESULT (BATCH-2017).
31 M.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR EXAMINATION RESULT (N-2017).
32 P.B.B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR RESULT BATCH-2017, E-Sep 2018 (2nd Notification).
33 B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR RESULT BATCH-2017, E-Sep 2018 (2nd Notification).
34 P.B.B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR RESULT B-2017 (E-Sep 2018).
35 B.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR RESULT BATCH-2017 (E-Sep 2018).
36 B.Sc NURSING 2ND YEAR RESULT BATCH-2016 (E-Sep 2018).
37 P.G. DIPLOMA SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATION RESULT (BATCH-2016).
38 B.Sc RADIO IMAGING TECHNOLOGY 2ND YEAR RESULT (BATCH-2017).
39 P.B.B.Sc NURSING 2nd YEAR RESULT B-2016 (E-Sep 2018).


Knead 100g of the black icing until pliable and divide into three equal portions. Take one portion and roll into a ball, then roll it into a cone shape.
Using a pair of small sharp scissors, make two cuts into the cone, one on each side as shown to create the two little wings. Lift the wings away slightly to make the look more effective.
Knead some of the White Ready to Roll Icing until pliable and roll into a small ball, this should be about a sixth of the size of the penguin.
Roll the white icing from a ball into a cone, flatten the cone by hand and attach to the body of the penguin to form the white chest.
Roll out two small balls of white icing for the eyes and use a little black to form the pupils and attach to the head.
Finish the penguin with a small cone of Renshaw Poppy Red Ready to Roll icing that has been flattened slightly to form the beak.
Knead 100g of the Green Icing until pliable and divide into three equal portions.
Take one portion of Green Icing and roll into a ball then a cone shape.
Using a pair of small sharp scissors, cut into the cone of the icing at an angle, starting at the top of the cone working round and down to create the branches.
Lift the branches away from the icing cone to create an angle.
Knead 100g of the red icing until pliable. Take one 50g portion and divide into two – one half will be used for the body and the other is for the arms and hat.
To make the body, roll the red icing into a ball then into a cone. Flatten the top of the cone slightly so that you can easily attach the head and arms. Mark on two lines round the centre of the cone to mark out Santa's belt.
Divide the remaining red icing in two and set one part aside for the hat. Roll the remaining piece into a thick sausage shape to make the arms. Roll the middle part of the sausage slightly thinner and cut in two with your knife. Using a small ball tool, gently make a small hole in the end of the arm shapes to represent the ends of the sleeves. Stick to the body using cooled boiled water.
Roll two small round balls of black icing and stick to the bottom of the cone for Santa's boots, and a smaller ball of black icing for the belt buckle. Secure in place using cooled boiled water.
Combine a small amount of white icing with the red icing to create a pink colour. Roll two small balls and stick these to the end of the arms using cooled boiled water to create hands.
Roll a larger ball of the pink icing for the head, sticking on top of the body using cooled boiled water. Using the ball tools, mark in two small indentations for the eyes. Use a tiny ball of the pink icing for the nose and two small balls of white for the eyes. Dot the eyes with two tiny balls of Black Icing to make the pupils, sticking in place using cooled boiled water.
Using the remaining piece of red icing, form into a cone shape for the hat. Flatten out the base slightly and curl over the top of the icing to add character to the hat, sticking in place using cooled boiled water.
Knead a small amount of the white icing until pliable. Roll out a small piece on a surface dusted with icing sugar and cut a thin strip for the band around the hat. Stipple the band to make it look like fur using a small cocktail stick. Attach the band to the hat using cooled boiled water.
Attach a small ball of white icing to the top of the hat to form the bobble.
Use the remaining rolled out white icing to fashion a beard and stipple to make it look beard-like. Stick to the face using cooled boiled water.


text:
Posted inState Integrity 2012, State Integrity Investigation, State Politics
Transparency missing in Arizona's legislature
by Kathleen Ingley and Maureen West August 1, 2012 January 7, 2022
Arizona legislature Minority Leader Chad Campbell, right, (D-Phoenix) lowers his head as Rep. Steve Court, left, (R-Mesa) and Rep. Albert Hale, (D-St. Michaels) listen as budget amendments are brought to a vote for a new Arizona state budget in the House of Representatives at the Arizona Capitol in May 2012 in Phoenix. Ross D. Franklin/AP
State Integrity Investigation
A comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency.
Only three states score higher than D+ in State Integrity Investigation; 11 flunk
By Nicholas Kusnetz
How does your state rank for integrity?
By Yue Qiu, Chris Zubak-Skees and Erik Lincoln
States flunk at integrity
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State Integrity Investigation brings calls for reform as legislative sessions approach
Former New York Senate leader and son convicted on corruption charges
Click here for more stories in this series
Arizona's legislative session this year was as hard to track as a Stealth bomber, even for many Capitol regulars.
A bill focused on attorney's fees turned into a controversial measure about abortion. Other bills changed subjects too. And the Legislature took just one morning of public testimony about the budget. The real wrangling over state spending was done in two months of private meetings between the governor and legislative leaders. But the details of the blueprint weren't public until lawmakers were on the floor ready to vote.
Technology is in theory giving Arizonans unprecedented access to the Legislature, with documents posted online and meetings captured on video. But lawmakers are short-circuiting the public process, critics say, in two key areas: the budget and "strike-everything" amendments, which completely swap out the contents of a bill, often for something entirely different.
Critics say the "strikers" are the antithesis of transparency, making it harder for Arizonans to follow legislation and bypassing committee discussion. As for the state budget blueprint, more and more, the process of hashing it out has "gone underground," said lobbyist Kevin DeMenna, a former Senate chief of staff for GOP leadership who has personally observed every legislative session since 1979.
The Legislature used to hold extensive hearings before writing a budget plan and then, after negotiating with the governor, wrap up the end product with committee hearings before taking a final vote. But that system has disappeared over the past decade.
The process was so stripped down this year that "the $8.6 billion budget passed with hardly any public comment at all," said Tim Schmaltz, coordinator of Protecting Arizona's Family Coalition. His sole chance to argue for reversing cuts in health care and other services was three minutes in an appropriations committee hearing.
A matter of process
The bare bones of budgeting are the same in Arizona as in most other states: The governor produces a budget proposal early in the year (Republican Gov. Jan Brewer released hers on Jan. 13), the Legislature works on its own budget, and eventually they must agree. In Arizona, Republicans control the governor's office and both houses of the state legislature.
This year, GOP legislative leaders thought they could find common ground with Brewer quickly. When that failed, they decided to throw out a budget package as "an initial offer," said House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican.
The budget bills were introduced on Presidents Day, a working day for legislators, but a holiday for many Arizonans.
The measures were scheduled for appropriations committee hearings at 8 a.m. the very next day.
Average Arizonans and small interest groups without a lobbyist parked at the Capitol in Phoenix complained that they were shut out.
The American Friends Service Committee would have mustered members to speak against proposals to expand and privatize prisons, but with the holiday, the short notice and a two-hour drive from its Tucson office, "there was no way for us to get there in time," said Caroline Isaacs, program director.
By noon, the appropriations committees had both heard and approved the general appropriations bill and nine other budget measures, 204 pages of legislation in all.
The quick turnaround wasn't significant, Kavanagh said, because the bills were intended as an opening move. "So anybody who came down to comment," he said, "would not have been commenting on the actual budget."
But as it turned out, this was the only public discussion until the budget was a done deal and on the verge of a final vote. And it was the only opportunity at all for public testimony. Kavanagh regrets that.
"We should have had a hearing prior to the final budget," he said.
Initially, there was confusion over whether the Senate Appropriations Committee would allow any public testimony on the budget. Committee chairman Don Shooter created a flap when he declined to take public comment in an informational hearing with major agencies because "I heard it last year."
People got the wrong impression, said Shooter, a first-term Yuma Republican who had just become committee chair and was still getting up to speed. He simply didn't want to hear the same arguments "50 or 60 times," he said. "You don't have all the time in the world to listen to everyone's opinion on the budget."
He's personally accessible, he added, and willing to meet individually with anyone.
But that didn't change the fact that the real budget work was done behind closed doors as Gov. Brewer and GOP legislative leaders met to hash out the differences in their budget plans.
That's not necessarily unusual, but lobbysts said this year's negotiations, mostly held in the executive office tower, flew lower than ever below the radar. "You didn't know if they were going on or when," said Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.
The secrecy and dearth of public input continued right up until the budget proposals were ready for floor votes. "It's not a process that respects the public or the people they represent," Strobeck said.
When one party holds an overwhelming two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers, as well as the governor's seat, Strobeck said, "they don't even need to act like they're taking public testimony. They're in power, and they get to make the decisions."
Some legislators see it differently. To House Appropriations Chairman Kavanagh, the process was "probably as transparent as it can be." The public had ample opportunity, he added, to contact legislators and the governor's office, through email or by phone, before the budget was finished.
Both the governor's proposal and Legislature's budget bills were public, he said, and were just being tweaked. Negotiating "on an open stage" wasn't realistic.
That said, Kavanagh himself is receptive to changes that would open up the process, including a mandated time-out between the release of a final budget and the definitive vote on that budget.
As it is, rank-and-file Republican lawmakers, some of whom ran on a pledge of transparency, complain that they were kept in the dark. Legislative leaders pulled them into briefing sessions a few at a time, avoiding a quorum that would trigger open-meeting requirements, and provided only select details.
"Imagine you're going to go buy a horse," said Republican Rep. Vic Williams of Tucson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "Someone gives you a photograph of the rear end and the hoof and the snout and they say, 'What do you think? Do you want to buy the horse?' That's basically what they were doing with us on the budget."
The Arizona Education Association, the state's largest organization representing teachers, was frustrated by the lack of a public forum to talk about restoring money for supplies, building maintenance and 4,500 teaching positions lost to spending cuts.
"You have a legislative process built on closed door deals, obscurity, last-minute deals and not much overt connection to what Arizonans say are their priorities," said AEA president Andrew Morrill.
The notion that legislators need to raise issues in private, because they don't want the public to know, "is just insane to me," said Byron Schlomach, an economist at the conservative Goldwater Institute. "That's not our system of government. They don't have that privilege."
The Phoenix-based think tank hasn't yet tackled the budget process in Arizona. But high on Schlomach's list of recommendations would be a requirement for the public to see all written testimony and material submitted to legislators.
A rush to judgment?
The governor and Legislature announced the budget deal on Friday, April 27, and released broad spending figures by category. Legislative budget staff revealed highlights of the deal when they made presentations to party caucuses the following Monday.
But the actual legislative language and the nitty-gritty details didn't come out until the budget went to the floor of both houses on Tuesday. The changes negotiated by the governor and legislators were introduced as floor amendments, full of cryptic references back to the original budget bill ("Page 5, line 9, strike '3,264,479,100' insert '3,420,887,100'" or "Page 6, line 33, strike 'may' insert 'shall'").
The whole package was approved the same day. Even seasoned experts spent days afterwards trying to unravel the details of what was actually in the state's new budget.
The budget bills include a host of legal and policy changes, and the secrecy around them "was worse this year than it's ever been," said Mike Gardner, a former GOP legislator and Senate chief of staff, who now lobbies for Triadvocates, a Phoenix-based public-affairs firm. His clients range from major corporations, including Intel, to the Tohono O'odham Nation, a southern Arizona Indian tribe.
Just before the floor vote, he learned that the budget package contained a tiny twist — a new negotiations deadline — that threatened future funding for the Tohono O'odham Community College, which mostly serves tribal residents.
Legislators themselves don't have time to read through the budget before voting on it, Gardner said. Last year, he ran into a Republican lawmaker startled by a burst of angry calls from teachers. She had no idea that the budget she had approved the day before included a change in pension formulas that would cut their pay.
At the Arizona Housing Alliance, whose members range from banks to local governments, executive director Val Iverson was stunned when the budget deal was announced and the revenue plans included siphoning off $50 million from a mortgage settlement case. With the package racing through the Legislature, she had no chance to testify about what the funds could do in a state with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.
"I was frustrated and I was disappointed," she said, "in our system that doesn't allow us to have input into the biggest decision our legislature makes, which is the budget."
Some veteran advocacy groups and lobbyists have come to realize that most of their work will be behind the scenes rather than in public testimony.
"The university system has adapted to changes in the legislative budget process," said Christine Thompson, a lobbyist for the Arizona Board of Regents. "Our strategy today consists of more one-on-one meetings with legislators to sell our budget priorities."
But without formal meetings and testimony, said Sen. Ron Gould, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the public never gets to hear the arguments for and against spending decisions.
And lawmakers lose out, too, when they have little chance to go over agency operations and grill department heads. As a conservative, the Lake Havasu City Republican said, "I like to cut, but I want to make appropriate cuts."
Gould has protested, without success, the lack of transparency at the Legislature.
Williams said he fought as much as he could "without incinerating myself politically" to get more time and deliberation into House appropriations. But real change requires group action, and there just aren't enough legislators willing to take the risk.
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Sen. David Lujan of Phoenix worries that "we're starting to get to the point where the public doesn't know any better, that there's a better way of doing things, where you create the budget more out in the open."
A tortured history
It wasn't always like this. Through the 1990s, appropriations subcommittees looked at individual state agencies, held hearings and reported back budget recommendations.
Rep. Lela Alston, who returned to the Legislature in 2011, was on the appropriations committee when she served in the Senate from 1977 to 1995. "You knew it would be time-consuming, and it was," the Phoenix Democrat recalled. "We took days to hear the DES [Department of Economy Security] budget, for example."
Starting around 2003, that open process began disappearing. "It was this slow fade to black," said lobbyist Gardner, who represented Tempe in the House from 1995 to 2001, until "they didn't even try this year."
He and others point to a cluster of reasons for the change. With term limits, legislators have to make their mark quickly and don't want to invest time in committee work. Individual lawmakers don't have to take heat for their positions when discussions are behind closed doors. More members have strong ideological stands on the budget and see less need for public input. Legislative leaders are leery of media coverage when hearings get testy.
Gardner sees tight budgets as an excuse from members who don't want to listen to wailing over cuts. "They can stand the scrutiny," he responded. "That's why they ran for office, to make the tough decisions."
Striking out
The legislative cloak of secrecy, critics say, extends beyond the budget. The amendment process has become a way to obscure what legislators are doing, especially through the use of "strike-everything" amendments.
This maneuver — gutting a bill and completely replacing its contents and subject matter — is a way to introduce new measures after the filing deadline, revive bills and circumvent committee chairs.
No measure is dead, even if defeated on the floor, until the Legislature has adjourned. Sen. Gould has called the phenomenon "whack a mole."
Legislators introduced strike-everything amendments on 183 bills this year, sometimes more than one on a single piece of legislation. Sixty-seven of the bills signed by Gov. Brewer were strikers, a number that has been typical for the past decade.
Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter, combs through committee agendas, even those completely unrelated to the environmental issues she follows, to spot last-minute strikers. "If you're an average person," she said, "you wouldn't even know where to look."
A bill allowing companies to do their own environmental audits, which conservation groups opposed, stalled in the Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee. But then it popped up as a striker, replacing a tax-related bill, in the Border Security, Federalism and State Sovereignty Committee.
"There was nothing in that committee that has anything to do with this bill. The people on the committee have not seen the issue before or anything related to it," Bahr said. The bill passed and was signed by the governor.
Controversial bills can move through the Legislature under the cover of anodyne measures.
Strikers were pivotal in the passage of three abortion bills this year. For proponents, they were valuable tools. For opponents, they were end runs around the public process.
Volunteers and staff members of Planned Parenthood lobbied hard against a House bill banning abortions of fetuses more than 20 weeks old, and it failed to get out of the health committee.
"We had a little time to celebrate a victory, but I knew it would be short lived," said Michelle Steinberg, lobbyist for Planned Parenthood.
The Center for Arizona Policy, which was pushing for more restrictive abortion laws, and sympathetic conservative lawmakers found another vehicle.
Thanks to a strike-everything amendment, the 20-week ban resurfaced word-for-word under another bill number — a measure about attorney's fees — that had already passed the House and was in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It passed in the Senate and then went back to the House for a concurrence vote, without having to go through committees, and was signed into law. The bill was upheld this week by a federal judge in Phoenix.
Two other abortion-related measures also passed as strikers and became law. "They are being used for legislative strategy from the beginning," Steinberg said, "as a way to circumvent the process."
However, the director of communications for the Republican-majority House, Rey Torres, says the striker process "has been a very commonly used legislative tool and has also proven indispensable in getting good bills through the Legislature."
The Center for Arizona Policy declined to comment on strike-everything amendments. But on its website, the group chalks up the abortion bills among its major victories at the Legislature.
Other states have versions of strike-everything amendments, said Brenda Erickson, a senior research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, but many require the new language to be germane to the original bill and may not allow a title change.
Arizona is at the loose end of the spectrum, where strikers can completely change the name and contents of a bill. This year, toll facilities turned into theme-park incentives. Judicial records became transportation.
Strike-everything amendments aren't in and of themselves bad, said Mike Braun, executive director of the Arizona Legislative Council, which prepares bills and amendments during the session.
They can be productive, when a bill has had extensive changes: It's a lot clearer to wipe the slate clean and replace the language. That would have made this year's heavily amended budget bill easier to understand, he said.
Reforms over the past 15 years have put some restraints on strikers, such as prohibiting them as last-minute floor amendments, he said. Proposed strikers are now listed separately on the Legislature's website — and yet they're so hard to track that the list was recently missing five strike-everything amendments that were signed into law by Gov. Brewer.
The use of strikers as standard operating procedure has set off alarm bells across the political landscape. Recent years have brought a surge of bills introduced as legal "technical corrections" — mostly intended as vessels for strikers. In the House alone, there were 135 this year, compared with 28 in 2000.
The Sierra Club's Bahr said strikers give lawmakers a handy bill "just in case some hare-brained idea" occurs to them. For instance, she said, a technical correction on unemployment insurance morphed into an ideologically driven bill targeting the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
Newspapers have editorialized against the use of strikers — the Arizona Republic, the state's largest paper, called for a complete ban in 2007 — and the bills that result from them. The Eastern Arizona Courier, which serves a cluster of small communities, called them a "legislative gimmick" this year. But even a decade ago, the process was so entrenched that The Daily Courier, which covers Yavapai County north of Phoenix, wrote that getting legislators to eliminate strikers would be like getting a drunk to give up booze or smokers to ditch cigarettes.
Forecast: Mostly cloudy
Concerns about transparency cut across partisan lines. Both Republicans and Democrats raise concerns about how strikers and the budget process are shutting out the public.
Arizona Town Hall, a nonprofit civic organization that convenes a cross-section of people to look at statewide issues, has called for reforms in the budget and strikers twice in the past two years.
In Arizona's highly polarized political climate, there is surprising agreement on the potential solutions. Some of these changes require legal and constitutional changes, while others could be adopted by leadership:
Give the appropriations committees more time to review the budget, and revive subcommittees. "In the '80s and '90s, it was a much more open and deliberative process, with subcommittees at the appropriations level," said Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association. "You don't see that now, and it's not a good thing."
Provide real opportunity for public testimony. This could be done, as in the past, in joint committee meetings where votes aren't taken.
Raise the bar on strikers by requiring them to be germane to the original bill and go through full committee hearings in both houses.
Consider eliminating strike-everything amendments. Appropriations chairman Kavanagh, who would support a ban, points out that the Legislature has other tools to introduce legislation after the deadline or pry loose a bill that a committee chair is holding.
Require a 72-hour "cooling-off" period between the introduction of a final budget proposal and the vote.
The system, which seems to work effectively in Florida, is in the "State Budget Reform Toolkit" promoted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. It would need to be a constitutional amendment, Kavanagh said, to keep lawmakers from tinkering with it.
Will anything happen? So far, no significant legislative bloc has picked up the banner on any of the reforms. Other politically charged issues, including the controversial immigration bill SB 1070, have upstaged worries about process. The current makeup of the Legislature reinforces the status quo: Democrats are too weak to have an impact and the Republican majority is large enough to ignore a few restive members.
Despite the Town Hall reports and repeated critical editorials in Arizona newspapers, the public outcry has been too short-lived to build momentum for change. Some say it will take a crisis, such as a budget clause or striker with massive unforeseen costs, to spur reforms.
The bedrock faith in government is at stake, according to David Berman, senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.
"It makes the government look less accountable and legitimate if they don't listen," he said. "People have to have some faith that everything going on is all right. If they don't have any input into it, they won't have any trust or confidence in it."
by Kathleen Ingley and Maureen West, Center for Public Integrity
<h1>Transparency missing in Arizona's legislature</h1> <p class="byline">by Kathleen Ingley and Maureen West, Center for Public Integrity <br />August 1, 2012</p> <br /> <aside class="relation packaged"> <div class="relation-inner grid_4 suffix_desktop-large_3 suffix_desktop_1 stacked float-right" data-sigil="relation"> <h2><a href="/accountability/state-integrity-investigation" title="State Integrity Investigation">State Integrity Investigation</a></h2> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/State-Integrity-Investigation_0.jpeg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <p> A comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency.</p> <h3>Stories in this series</h3> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stateintegrityglobal.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2015/11/09/18693/only-three-states-score-higherd-state-integrity-investigation-11-flunk" target="_self" title="Only three states score higher than D+ in State Integrity Investigation; 11 flunk ">Only three states score higher than D+ in State Integrity Investigation; 11 flunk </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">November 9, 2015</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/pokerchips.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2015/11/09/18822/how-does-your-state-rank-integrity" target="_self" title="How does your state rank for integrity?">How does your state rank for integrity?</a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/yue-qiu" title="Yue Qiu">Yue Qiu</a></span></span><span>, <span class="author"><a href="/authors/chris-zubak-skees" title="Chris Zubak-Skees">Chris Zubak-Skees</a></span></span><span> and <span class="author"><a href="/authors/erik-lincoln" title="Erik Lincoln">Erik Lincoln</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">November 9, 2015</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/state-integrity-2015-map.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2015/11/09/18716/states-flunk-integrity" target="_self" title="States flunk at integrity">States flunk at integrity</a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">November 9, 2015</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_17144734157156.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2017/06/14/20922/vermont-creates-first-ever-ethics-commission-wake-center-stories" target="_self" title="Vermont creates first-ever ethics commission in wake of Center stories ">Vermont creates first-ever ethics commission in wake of Center stories </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/center-public-integrity" title="The Center for Public Integrity">The Center for Public Integrity</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">June 14, 2017</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_819388382853.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2016/01/29/19204/state-integrity-investigation-spurs-proposals-reform" target="_self" title="State Integrity Investigation spurs proposals for reform ">State Integrity Investigation spurs proposals for reform </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">January 29, 2016</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_565832016709.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2016/01/14/19134/ny-gov-cuomo-proposes-changes-ethics-campaign-finance-laws" target="_self" title="NY Gov. 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Cuomo proposes changes to ethics, campaign finance laws </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">January 14, 2016</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/guide1.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2016/01/08/19114/how-use-our-state-integrity-interactive-find-solutions-best-practices" target="_self" title="How to use our State Integrity interactive to find solutions, 'best practices'">How to use our State Integrity interactive to find solutions, 'best practices'</a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">January 8, 2016</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_922285043996.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2016/01/08/19119/ethics-reform-placed-november-ballot-south-dakota" target="_self" title="Ethics reform placed on November ballot in South Dakota ">Ethics reform placed on November ballot in South Dakota </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">January 8, 2016</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_942253534918.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2015/12/16/19041/state-integrity-investigation-brings-calls-reform-legislative-sessions-approach" target="_self" title="State Integrity Investigation brings calls for reform as legislative sessions approach ">State Integrity Investigation brings calls for reform as legislative sessions approach </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">December 16, 2015</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <section> <header> <hgroup> <figure><img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AP_12620977873.jpg?ssl=1"></figure> <figure><img width="100%" src="" alt=""></figure> </p> <h2><a href="/2015/12/11/19005/former-new-york-senate-leader-and-son-convicted-corruption-charges" target="_self" title="Former New York Senate leader and son convicted on corruption charges ">Former New York Senate leader and son convicted on corruption charges </a></h2> <h4 class="authors">By <span><span class="author"><a href="/authors/nicholas-kusnetz" title="Nicholas Kusnetz">Nicholas Kusnetz</a></span></span></h4> <h4 class="pubdate">December 11, 2015</h4> </hgroup> </header> </section> <h4><a href="/accountability/state-integrity-investigation">Click here for more stories in this series</a></h4> </div> </aside> <p>Arizona's legislative session this year was as hard to track as a Stealth bomber, even for many Capitol regulars.</p> <p>A bill focused on attorney's fees turned into a controversial measure about abortion. Other bills changed subjects too. And the Legislature took just one morning of public testimony about the budget. The real wrangling over state spending was done in two months of private meetings between the governor and legislative leaders. But the details of the blueprint weren't public until lawmakers were on the floor ready to vote.</p> <p>Technology is in theory giving Arizonans unprecedented access to the Legislature, with documents posted online and meetings captured on video. But lawmakers are short-circuiting the public process, critics say, in two key areas: the budget and "strike-everything" amendments, which completely swap out the contents of a bill, often for something entirely different.</p> <p>Critics say the "strikers" are the antithesis of transparency, making it harder for Arizonans to follow legislation and bypassing committee discussion. As for the state budget blueprint, more and more, the process of hashing it out has "gone underground," said lobbyist <a href="http://www.demenna.com/staff/kevin.php">Kevin DeMenna</a>, a former Senate chief of staff for GOP leadership who has personally observed every legislative session since 1979.</p> <p>The Legislature used to hold extensive hearings before writing a budget plan and then, after negotiating with the governor, wrap up the end product with committee hearings before taking a final vote. But that system has disappeared over the past decade.</p> <p>The process was so stripped down this year that "the $8.6 billion budget passed with hardly any public comment at all," said Tim Schmaltz, coordinator of <a href="http://www.pafcoalition.org/about-us/">Protecting Arizona's Family Coalition</a>. His sole chance to argue for reversing cuts in health care and other services was three minutes in an appropriations committee hearing.</p> <h4><strong>A matter of process</strong></h4> <p>The bare bones of budgeting are the same in Arizona as in most other states: The governor produces a budget proposal early in the year (Republican Gov. Jan Brewer released hers on Jan. 13), the Legislature works on its own budget, and eventually they must agree. In Arizona, Republicans control the governor's office and both houses of the state legislature.</p> <p>This year, GOP legislative leaders thought they could find common ground with Brewer quickly. When that failed, they decided to throw out a budget package as "an initial offer," said House Appropriations Chairman <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=27&Legislature=48&Session_ID=85">John Kavanagh</a>, a Fountain Hills Republican.</p> <p>The budget bills were introduced on Presidents Day, a working day for legislators, but a holiday for many Arizonans.</p> <p>The measures were scheduled for appropriations committee hearings at 8 a.m. the very next day.</p> <p>Average Arizonans and small interest groups without a lobbyist parked at the Capitol in Phoenix complained that they were shut out.</p> <p>The American Friends Service Committee would have mustered members to speak against proposals to expand and privatize prisons, but with the holiday, the short notice and a two-hour drive from its Tucson office, "there was no way for us to get there in time," said <a href="http://afsc.org/media-kit/bios/caroline-isaacs">Caroline Isaacs</a>, program director.</p> <p>By noon, the appropriations committees had both heard and approved the general appropriations bill and nine other budget measures, 204 pages of legislation in all.</p> <p>The quick turnaround wasn't significant, Kavanagh said, because the bills were intended as an opening move. "So anybody who came down to comment," he said, "would not have been commenting on the actual budget."</p> <p>But as it turned out, this was the only public discussion until the budget was a done deal and on the verge of a final vote. And it was the only opportunity at all for public testimony. Kavanagh regrets that.</p> <p>"We should have had a hearing prior to the final budget," he said.</p> <p>Initially, there was confusion over whether the Senate Appropriations Committee would allow any public testimony on the budget. Committee chairman <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=24&Legislature=50&Session_ID=107">Don Shooter</a> created a flap when he declined to take public comment in an informational hearing with major agencies because "I heard it last year."</p> <p>People got the wrong impression, said Shooter, a first-term Yuma Republican who had just become committee chair and was still getting up to speed. He simply didn't want to hear the same arguments "50 or 60 times," he said. "You don't have all the time in the world to listen to everyone's opinion on the budget."</p> <p>He's personally accessible, he added, and willing to meet individually with anyone.</p> <p>But that didn't change the fact that the real budget work was done behind closed doors as Gov. Brewer and GOP legislative leaders met to hash out the differences in their budget plans.</p> <p>That's not necessarily unusual, but lobbysts said this year's negotiations, mostly held in the executive office tower, flew lower than ever below the radar. "You didn't know if they were going on or when," said Ken Strobeck, executive director of the <a href="http://www.azleague.org/index.aspx?NID=27">League of Arizona Cities and Towns</a>.</p> <p>The secrecy and dearth of public input continued right up until the budget proposals were ready for floor votes. "It's not a process that respects the public or the people they represent," Strobeck said.</p> <p>When one party holds an overwhelming two-thirds majority in both legislative chambers, as well as the governor's seat, Strobeck said, "they don't even need to act like they're taking public testimony. They're in power, and they get to make the decisions."</p> <p>Some legislators see it differently. To House Appropriations Chairman Kavanagh, the process was "probably as transparent as it can be." The public had ample opportunity, he added, to contact legislators and the governor's office, through email or by phone, before the budget was finished.</p> <p>Both the governor's proposal and Legislature's budget bills were public, he said, and were just being tweaked. Negotiating "on an open stage" wasn't realistic.</p> <p>That said, Kavanagh himself is receptive to changes that would open up the process, including a mandated time-out between the release of a final budget and the definitive vote on that budget.</p> <p>As it is, rank-and-file Republican lawmakers, some of whom ran on a pledge of transparency, complain that they were kept in the dark. Legislative leaders pulled them into briefing sessions a few at a time, avoiding a quorum that would trigger open-meeting requirements, and provided only select details.</p> <p>"Imagine you're going to go buy a horse," said Republican <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=53&Legislature=50&Session_ID=102">Rep. Vic Williams</a> of Tucson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. "Someone gives you a photograph of the rear end and the hoof and the snout and they say, 'What do you think? Do you want to buy the horse?' That's basically what they were doing with us on the budget."</p> <p>The Arizona Education Association, the state's largest organization representing teachers, was frustrated by the lack of a public forum to talk about restoring money for supplies, building maintenance and 4,500 teaching positions lost to spending cuts.</p> <p>"You have a legislative process built on closed door deals, obscurity, last-minute deals and not much overt connection to what Arizonans say are their priorities," said AEA president <a href="http://www.arizonaea.org/home/221.htm">Andrew Morrill</a>.</p> <p>The notion that legislators need to raise issues in private, because they don't want the public to know, "is just insane to me," said Byron Schlomach, an economist at the conservative <a href="http://goldwaterinstitute.org/institute">Goldwater Institute</a>. "That's not our system of government. They don't have that privilege."</p> <p>The Phoenix-based think tank hasn't yet tackled the budget process in Arizona. But high on Schlomach's list of recommendations would be a requirement for the public to see all written testimony and material submitted to legislators.</p> <h4><strong>A rush to judgment?</strong></h4> <p>The governor and Legislature announced the budget deal on Friday, April 27, and released broad spending figures by category. Legislative budget staff revealed highlights of the deal when they made presentations to party caucuses the following Monday.</p> <p>But the actual legislative language and the nitty-gritty details didn't come out until the budget went to the floor of both houses on Tuesday. The changes negotiated by the governor and legislators were introduced as floor amendments, full of <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/50leg/2r/adopted/h.2852jk.pdf">cryptic references</a> back to the original budget bill ("Page 5, line 9, strike '3,264,479,100' insert '3,420,887,100'" or "Page 6, line 33, strike 'may' insert 'shall'").</p> <p>The whole package was approved the same day. Even seasoned experts spent days afterwards trying to unravel the details of what was actually in the state's new budget.</p> <p>The budget bills include a host of legal and policy changes, and the secrecy around them "was worse this year than it's ever been," said <a href="http://www.triadvocates.com/mike.htm">Mike Gardner</a>, a former GOP legislator and Senate chief of staff, who now lobbies for Triadvocates, a Phoenix-based public-affairs firm. His clients range from major corporations, including Intel, to the Tohono O'odham Nation, a southern Arizona Indian tribe.</p> <p>Just before the floor vote, he learned that the budget package contained a tiny twist — a new negotiations deadline — that threatened future funding for the Tohono O'odham Community College, which mostly serves tribal residents.</p> <p>Legislators themselves don't have time to read through the budget before voting on it, Gardner said. Last year, he ran into a Republican lawmaker startled by a burst of angry calls from teachers. She had no idea that the budget she had approved the day before included a change in pension formulas that would cut their pay.</p> <p>At the <a href="http://www.azhousingalliance.org/about_us">Arizona Housing Alliance</a>, whose members range from banks to local governments, executive director Val Iverson was stunned when the budget deal was announced and the revenue plans included siphoning off $50 million from a mortgage settlement case. With the package racing through the Legislature, she had no chance to testify about what the funds could do in a state with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.</p> <p>"I was frustrated and I was disappointed," she said, "in our system that doesn't allow us to have input into the biggest decision our legislature makes, which is the budget."</p> <p>Some veteran advocacy groups and lobbyists have come to realize that most of their work will be behind the scenes rather than in public testimony.</p> <p>"The university system has adapted to changes in the legislative budget process," said Christine Thompson, a lobbyist for the Arizona Board of Regents. "Our strategy today consists of more one-on-one meetings with legislators to sell our budget priorities."</p> <p>But without formal meetings and testimony, said <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=3&Legislature=50&Session_ID=107">Sen. Ron Gould</a>, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the public never gets to hear the arguments for and against spending decisions.</p> <p>And lawmakers lose out, too, when they have little chance to go over agency operations and grill department heads. As a conservative, the Lake Havasu City Republican said, "I like to cut, but I want to make appropriate cuts."</p> <p>Gould has protested, without success, the lack of transparency at the Legislature.</p> <p>Williams said he fought as much as he could "without incinerating myself politically" to get more time and deliberation into House appropriations. But real change requires group action, and there just aren't enough legislators willing to take the risk.</p> <p>On the other side of the aisle, Democratic <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=123&Legislature=50&Session_ID=102">Sen. David Lujan</a> of Phoenix worries that "we're starting to get to the point where the public doesn't know any better, that there's a better way of doing things, where you create the budget more out in the open."</p> <h4><strong>A tortured history </strong></h4> <p>It wasn't always like this. Through the 1990s, appropriations subcommittees looked at individual state agencies, held hearings and reported back budget recommendations.</p> <p>Rep. Lela Alston, who returned to the Legislature in 2011, was on the appropriations committee when she served in the Senate from 1977 to 1995. "You knew it would be time-consuming, and it was," the Phoenix Democrat recalled. "We took days to hear the DES [Department of Economy Security] budget, for example."</p> <p>Starting around 2003, that open process began disappearing. "It was this slow fade to black," said lobbyist Gardner, who represented Tempe in the House from 1995 to 2001, until "they didn't even try this year."</p> <p>He and others point to a cluster of reasons for the change. With term limits, legislators have to make their mark quickly and don't want to invest time in committee work. Individual lawmakers don't have to take heat for their positions when discussions are behind closed doors. More members have strong ideological stands on the budget and see less need for public input. Legislative leaders are leery of media coverage when hearings get testy.</p> <p>Gardner sees tight budgets as an excuse from members who don't want to listen to wailing over cuts. "They can stand the scrutiny," he responded. "That's why they ran for office, to make the tough decisions."</p> <h4><strong>Striking out </strong></h4> <p>The legislative cloak of secrecy, critics say, extends beyond the budget. The amendment process has become a way to obscure what legislators are doing, especially through the use of "strike-everything" amendments.</p> <p>This maneuver — gutting a bill and completely replacing its contents and subject matter — is a way to introduce new measures after the filing deadline, revive bills and circumvent committee chairs.</p> <p>No measure is dead, even if defeated on the floor, until the Legislature has adjourned. Sen. Gould <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/04/11/20100411arizona-legislature-striker.html">has called</a> the phenomenon "whack a mole."</p> <p>Legislators introduced strike-everything amendments on 183 bills this year, sometimes more than one on a single piece of legislation. Sixty-seven of the bills signed by Gov. Brewer were strikers, a number that has been typical for the past decade.</p> <p>Sandy Bahr, director of the <a href="http://arizona.sierraclub.org/about_us/index.asp">Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter</a>, combs through committee agendas, even those completely unrelated to the environmental issues she follows, to spot last-minute strikers. "If you're an average person," she said, "you wouldn't even know where to look."</p> <p>A bill allowing companies to do their own environmental audits, which conservation groups opposed, stalled in the Senate Natural Resources and Transportation Committee. But then it popped up as a striker, replacing a tax-related bill, in the Border Security, Federalism and State Sovereignty Committee.</p> <p>"There was nothing in that committee that has anything to do with this bill. The people on the committee have not seen the issue before or anything related to it," Bahr said. The bill passed and was signed by the governor.</p> <p>Controversial bills can move through the Legislature under the cover of anodyne measures.</p> <p>Strikers were pivotal in the passage of three abortion bills this year. For proponents, they were valuable tools. For opponents, they were end runs around the public process.</p> <p>Volunteers and staff members of Planned Parenthood lobbied hard against a House bill banning abortions of fetuses more than 20 weeks old, and it failed to get out of the health committee.</p> <p>"We had a little time to celebrate a victory, but I knew it would be short lived," said Michelle Steinberg, lobbyist for <a href="http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ppaz/who-we-are-1973.htm">Planned Parenthood</a>.</p> <p>The Center for Arizona Policy, which was pushing for more restrictive abortion laws, and sympathetic conservative lawmakers found another vehicle.</p> <p>Thanks to a strike-everything amendment, the 20-week ban resurfaced word-for-word under another bill number — a measure about attorney's fees — that had already passed the House and was in the Senate Judiciary Committee. It passed in the Senate and then went back to the House for a concurrence vote, without having to go through committees, and was signed into law. The bill was upheld this week by a federal judge in Phoenix.</p> <p>Two other abortion-related measures also passed as strikers and became law. "They are being used for legislative strategy from the beginning," Steinberg said, "as a way to circumvent the process."</p> <p>However, the director of communications for the Republican-majority House, Rey Torres, says the striker process "has been a very commonly used legislative tool and has also proven indispensable in getting good bills through the Legislature."</p> <p>The Center for Arizona Policy declined to comment on strike-everything amendments. But <a href="http://www.azpolicy.org/legislative-action-center">on its website</a>, the group chalks up the abortion bills among its major victories at the Legislature.</p> <p>Other states have versions of strike-everything amendments, said Brenda Erickson, a senior research analyst at the <a href="http://www.ncsl.org/about-us.aspx">National Conference of State Legislatures</a>, but many require the new language to be germane to the original bill and may not allow a title change.</p> <p>Arizona is at the loose end of the spectrum, where strikers can completely change the name and contents of a bill. This year, toll facilities turned into theme-park incentives. Judicial records became transportation.</p> <p>Strike-everything amendments aren't in and of themselves bad, said Mike Braun, executive director of the <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/az_leg_council/default.htm">Arizona Legislative Council</a>, which prepares bills and amendments during the session.</p> <p>They can be productive, when a bill has had extensive changes: It's a lot clearer to wipe the slate clean and replace the language. That would have made this year's heavily amended budget bill easier to understand, he said.</p> <p>Reforms over the past 15 years have put some restraints on strikers, such as prohibiting them as last-minute floor amendments, he said. Proposed strikers are now <a href="http://www.azleg.gov/StrikeEverything.asp">listed separately</a> on the Legislature's website — and yet they're so hard to track that the list was recently missing five strike-everything amendments that were signed into law by Gov. Brewer.</p> <p>The use of strikers as standard operating procedure has set off alarm bells across the political landscape. Recent years have brought a surge of bills introduced as legal "technical corrections" — mostly intended as vessels for strikers. In the House alone, there were 135 this year, compared with 28 in 2000.</p> <p>The Sierra Club's Bahr said strikers give lawmakers a handy bill "just in case some hare-brained idea" occurs to them. For instance, she said, a technical correction on unemployment insurance morphed into an ideologically driven bill targeting the United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.</p> <p>Newspapers have editorialized against the use of strikers — the <em>Arizona Republic</em>, the state's largest paper, called for a complete ban in 2007 — and the bills that result from them. The <em>Eastern Arizona Courier</em>, which serves a cluster of small communities, <a href="http://www.eacourier.com/opinion/editorials/can-you-trust-your-government/article_421dd786-72ce-11e1-994b-0019bb2963f4.html">called them a "legislative gimmick"</a> this year. But even a decade ago, the process was so entrenched that <em>The Daily Courier</em>, which covers Yavapai County north of Phoenix, <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20010123&id=_5dOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Hk0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6794,2715124">wrote</a> that getting legislators to eliminate strikers would be like getting a drunk to give up booze or smokers to ditch cigarettes.</p> <h4><strong>Forecast: Mostly cloudy </strong></h4> <p>Concerns about transparency cut across partisan lines. Both Republicans and Democrats raise concerns about how strikers and the budget process are shutting out the public.</p> <p><a href="http://www.aztownhall.org/About.asp">Arizona Town Hall</a>, a nonprofit civic organization that convenes a cross-section of people to look at statewide issues, has called for reforms in the budget and strikers twice in the past <a href="http://www.aztownhall.org/pdf/97th_Recommendations_Report.pdf">two</a> <a href="http://www.aztownhall.org/pdf/100th_Recommendations.pdf">years</a>.</p> <p>In Arizona's highly polarized political climate, there is surprising agreement on the potential solutions. Some of these changes require legal and constitutional changes, while others could be adopted by leadership:</p> <ul> <li>Give the appropriations committees more time to review the budget, and revive subcommittees. "In the '80s and '90s, it was a much more open and deliberative process, with subcommittees at the appropriations level," said <a href="http://www.arizonatax.org/about/staff">Kevin McCarthy</a>, president of the Arizona Tax Research Association. "You don't see that now, and it's not a good thing."</li> <li>Provide real opportunity for public testimony. This could be done, as in the past, in joint committee meetings where votes aren't taken.</li> <li>Raise the bar on strikers by requiring them to be germane to the original bill and go through full committee hearings in both houses.</li> <li>Consider eliminating strike-everything amendments. Appropriations chairman Kavanagh, who would support a ban, points out that the Legislature has other tools to introduce legislation after the deadline or pry loose a bill that a committee chair is holding.</li> <li>Require a 72-hour "cooling-off" period between the introduction of a final budget proposal and the vote.</li> </ul> <p>The system, which seems to work effectively in Florida, is in the <a href="http://www.alec.org/wp-content/uploads/Budget_toolkit.pdf">"State Budget Reform Toolkit"</a> promoted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. It would need to be a constitutional amendment, Kavanagh said, to keep lawmakers from tinkering with it.</p> <p>Will anything happen? So far, no significant legislative bloc has picked up the banner on any of the reforms. Other politically charged issues, including the controversial immigration bill SB 1070, have upstaged worries about process. The current makeup of the Legislature reinforces the status quo: Democrats are too weak to have an impact and the Republican majority is large enough to ignore a few restive members.</p> <p>Despite the Town Hall reports and repeated critical editorials in Arizona newspapers, the public outcry has been too short-lived to build momentum for change. Some say it will take a crisis, such as a budget clause or striker with massive unforeseen costs, to spur reforms.</p> <p>The bedrock faith in government is at stake, according to <a href="http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/researchers-and-staff/david-r.-berman">David Berman</a>, senior research fellow at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.</p> <p>"It makes the government look less accountable and legitimate if they don't listen," he said. "People have to have some faith that everything going on is all right. If they don't have any input into it, they won't have any trust or confidence in it."</p>
This <a target="_blank" href="https://publicintegrity.org/politics/state-politics/transparency-missing-in-arizonas-legislature/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://publicintegrity.org">Center for Public Integrity</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/publicintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CPI-columns-new-color.jpg?fit=82%2C86&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://publicintegrity.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=41577&ga=UA-3383794-4" style="width:1px;height:1px;">


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A Storage Solution That Won`t Break The Bank
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The Portable Tank Group of Sebastian, FL now offers a new storage solution with their large poly tank selection ! From the beginning, they specialized in liquid storage in the form of collapsible pillow tanks . Expanding their variety of tanks, Portable Tank Group recently added poly tanks to provide clients with more options.
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Audio For Drinking: "What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?"
"What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?"
I wore the hell out of the debut Wilco cd when I was in high school after picking it up for a paltry sum at Newbury Comics. Conversely, I can't say I spent much time with the last one and as a result I didn't exactly pounce on Sky Blue Sky earlier this year. I'm glad I did get around to it though because I was pleasantly surprised to hear the group fiddling around less with sonic progressions and returning to their roots. This one had a very soulful seventies rock vibe to it akin to Being There and has one of my new favorite Wilco songs ever, "Hate It Here." Most critics screamed everything from "flat and uninspired" to "straightforward" and "utterly boring," but that leaves me scratching my head as I'm pretty sure it was those same people championing the groups pop sensibilities before Wilco went all Yankee Foxtrot on everyone and skyrocketed into the greater consciousness of music listeners. Too weepy to be commercially viable, too conventional for the critics and hipsters and just right for the music lovers.
Wilco - download "Hate It Here"