PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Public Safety has released inspection results of the Tierra Santa charter bus that crashed on Interstate 10 near Sacaton on Friday.

After conducting an inspection of the bus, the DPS Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Bureau has determined both the vehicle and drivers would have been placed out of service for the following:

• The driver would have been placed out of service for not being able to read and speak English sufficiently to converse with the general public;

• Not having a prior seven days record of duty status;

• The co-driver also did not have a prior seven days record of duty status;

• The number of defective brakes is equal to or greater than 20 percent of the service brakes on the vehicle.

Read the rest.

The company that owns a tour bus that rolled over Friday on Interstate 10, killing six people, has a history of safety violations, no federal record of insurance and could not legally carry passengers in Arizona, The Arizona Republic has learned.

Obama Release Your Records published:

Over the past week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has rolled out a list of blue-chip GOP political endorsements in his primary contest against challenger J.D. Hayworth — and his campaign said more are on the way.

By Alan Korwin

People Lining Up for McDonald v. Chicago

 

Gunlaws.com

Washington, DC - -(AmmoLand.com)- This case was way more complicated than Heller.

Both attorneys faced hostility from the bench. Chicago’s lawyer got hit from all sides with little in the way of what you might call support. But the surprise was the way Alan Gura got blasted, even by the best friend gun-rights has up there, Justice Scalia.

Whoever or however we believed the Court might be ready to review the Privileges or Immunities clause of 14A was totally wrong. Every Justice had problems with the scope of such a decision, and poor Gura had to withstand withering assaults on his reasoning and approach.

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Last week, the House Committee on Natural Resources and Rural Affairs approved HCR 2040, a measure that would refer yet another tax increase to Arizona voters. The proposal would require every Arizonan to pay an additional $12 for each license plate registration. The money would be directed to the state parks agency in an attempt to reopen some sites and to fund improvements at others.

HCR 2040 would establish this new tax at a time when few can afford the luxury of paying for other peoples’ recreation. Not everyone benefits from the state parks any more than everyone benefits when my family dines at a restaurant.

This new funding mechanism would place state parks in a position of unaccountable financial independence somewhat similar to the state transportation department and the new Early Childhood Development & Health Board. Self-funded agencies often are not particularly responsive to those they are supposed to serve.

One of the biggest complaints from legislators as they work on the state budget this week revolves around Proposition 105, the 1998 initiative that protects voter-approved spending. The repeated excuse for failing to respond to falling tax revenues has been that much of the spending is off-limits to legislators.

HCR 2040 would make this problem worse, placing more of a financial burden on Arizonans that cannot be easily offset and would further erode our tax-paying capacity. Tax revenues should be spent according to current circumstances and constitutional limits, not momentary whims that later become inflexible mandates.

There is another solution on the table to keep parks open: let private companies manage them and pay the state for the privilege. Last week Fox News commentator Glenn Beck interviewed a local business owner who wants the opportunity to keep our parks open. Until the legislature gives this idea a fair shake, a tax increase shouldn’t even be discussed.

Dr. Byron Schlomach is an economist and the director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute.

Learn More:

Goldwater Institute: Private companies can manage state parks

Arizona Republic: Cost to close parks eats into savings

Arizona Legislature: HCR2040

Follow all current bills on the Arizona ALIS system.

Visit the Life, Liberty and Freedom website.

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/4480

Follow all current bills on the Arizona ALIS system.

State lawmakers voted Wednesday to force public schools to count how many students are in this country illegally, the first step toward challenging federal law that requires schools to educate all, legal and otherwise.