POLITICS & LEADERSHIP
Judge suspends GA voter ID law

GOVERNORS
Govs just say no to federal disaster control
 
 

The week in session
Bird's eye view
Hot issues
Upcoming elections
In the hopper
In case you missed it
Once around
 
 
 

The 2002 No Child Left Behind law was supposed to greatly improve student test scores and close the gaps between white and minority student achievement. Based on its first real assessment, NCLB's grade is still incomplete. 

Test scores show mixed results for NCLB

American schoolchildren have improved only slightly in math and virtually not at all in reading since 2003, with almost 70 percent still scoring below grade level in those subjects, according to a new report from federal education officials. Although the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) examination -- the first such assessment of U.S. student achievement since the implementation of  President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law in 2002 -- did not indicate that students were necessarily going backwards, it still came as a major disappointment for NCLB supporters hoping to see significant gains in student achievement. 

"No one can be satisfied with these results," said Ross Wiener, policy director for Education Trust, a Washington D.C.-based education advocacy group and a long-time supporter of No Child Left Behind. "There's been a discernible slowdown in progress since `03, at a time when we desperately need gains. The absence of particularly bad news isn't the same as good news." 

The NAEP, also known as "The Nation's Report Card" and conducted under the auspices of the US. Department of Education, is a comprehensive reading and math test that has been given to a sampling of fourth and eighth graders every two years since 1990. Student achievement is tracked across several categories, including race, gender and income. This year's test was administered to around 660,000 students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and on U.S. military bases worldwide.

In reading, both test groups scored at 31 percent proficiency this year,  virtually identical to scores from 2003. Both groups improved slightly more  in math, with the younger students gaining four percentage points (from 32 percent to 36 percent proficiency) and the older kids adding a single point (from 29 to 30 percent). No state increased its 8th grade reading scores, while seven -- HAWAII, ILLINOIS, INDIANA, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH CAROLINA, UTAH and WEST VIRGINIA -- dropped precipitously in that  category. 

"To me, this goes beyond disappointing," said former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, now the president of the Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which lobbies for high school education reforms. "It shows we are failing to gain ground on the very conditions we need to reverse to improve our graduation rates and produce more students who are ready for college and the workforce."

President Bush and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings disputed that sentiment, with Bush calling the report "encouraging" and saying that "It shows there's an achievement gap in America that is closing."

White and Asian students, however, continue to consistently outscore Hispanic and African-American students, although Grover J. Whitehurst, the acting commissioner for the National Center for Educational Statistics, said the traditional achievement gap between some groups, such as fourth grade math students, has narrowed considerably since 1990. But Gage Kingsbury, research director for the OREGON-based Northwest Education Evaluation Center, which carries out NAEP testing in 1,500 school districts, says the gap is not closing fast enough to reach full proficiency by No Child's stated goal of 2014. He noted that at the current pace, black and white fourth graders would reach equal math proficiency levels only by 2034. Eighth grade reading equality, he said, would take more than 200 years.

"The change is moving too slowly," Kingsbury said. 

Education Trust's Weiner agreed, calling the scores "meager progress,"  adding that "Students of color and low-income students continue to be educated at levels below their affluent peers." 

Spellings sounded undeterred by the mixed results, calling the incremental gains confirmation that "we are on the right track with No Child Left Behind." She also took care to point out that the No Child law is still not fully implemented in every state, and reasoned that some of the particularly poor results are understandable in light of what she said are large numbers of immigrant children being assimilated into the nation's school systems. 

"We have more non-native speakers, there are lots of so-called at-risk, hard-to-educate students, and in spite of that, progress is being made," she said. 

But Spelling also added that marginal gains are not going to get it done in regard to hitting the 2014 target, saying that "It does show us that we're going to need to accelerate our progress at all grade levels and with all kids if we're to meet our goal." (NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, STATELINE.ORG, U.S. COMMISSION OF EDUCATION STATISTICS)
 

-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN

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Bird's eye view

Chronic diseases are the nation's biggest killers

According to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 90 million Americans live with some form of chronic illness, from heart disease to cancer and diabetes. These chronic diseases account for 70 percent of all deaths in the U.S. every year, and up to 60 percent of the nation's annual medical care costs. They also account for one-third of the years of potential life lost before age 65, and chronic disease is among the leading causes of disability among U.S. adults. Many of these long-term illnesses can be prevented or diminished through not smoking, better nutrition, regular exercise or physical activity and frequent detection screening. The accompanying map shows the percentage of deaths in each state annually due to chronic illness. For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov. 
 

-- By RICH EHISEN

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Budget & taxes

BIG TAX CHANGES AHEAD? Last week, a presidential advisory panel proposed a plan to dramatically simplify the federal income tax system -- by limiting or eliminating virtually every current tax deduction, including the ones for state and local income and property taxes. Among other things, the plan would replace the federal deduction for home mortgage interest -- one of the biggest write-offs for many taxpayers -- with a tax credit, and do away with the alternative minimum tax, a levy introduced in the 1960s to keep the nation's wealthiest citizens from using deductions and loopholes to avoid paying taxes altogether, but which has increasingly impacted middle-income taxpayers. The plan would certainly simplify the process of filing; IRS Form 1040, for instance, would be reduced from 75 lines to 32, and the number of schedules and other attachments would be cut from 50 to about 10. Charles Rissotti, one of the members of the panel and a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said the plan would allow most people to "pay on one page at one rate." Furthermore, panel members said that although there would be fewer deductions, the majority of taxpayers would pay no more in taxes. Still, the proposal has drawn plenty of opposition. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of NEW YORK said, "It is hard to conceive of something that could hurt New York more than the elimination of state and local tax deductibility," adding that "It would impose a new $12 billion tax on the people of New York." CALIFORNIA state Treasurer Phil Angelides (D) suggested the plan was an attack on the blue states in last year's presidential election, which generally have high taxes and housing costs. "These recommendations are good for TEXAS, but bad for California," Angelides stated in a press release. But the proposal also found critics across the aisle. Thomas Wright, executive director of Americans for Fair Taxation, which supports replacing the income tax with a national sales tax or a single-rate "flat tax," said, "The tax panel will only tinker with the system and repeat the errors of the past. True reform has been taken off the table." Henry Aaron, an expert on tax policy at the Brookings Institution, said he doubts the plan will ultimately become law because those who stand to lose from the proposed changes will fight harder than those who view those changes favorably. "It is a political law of life that those who think they are going to lose fight like steers," he said. But panel members said they would continue to "refine" their plan before submitting it to the president Nov. 1. (COX NEWS SERVICE, DESERET MORNING NEWS (SALT LAKE CITY), SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) 

PUBLIC COLLEGES HEADING TOWARDS PRIVATIZATION? Taxpayer dollars made up only 64 percent of the nation's public university revenues last year, 10 percent less than they comprised a little over a decade ago. That decline has some college presidents warning of "public higher education's slow slide toward privatization." And they point to some of the country's top public universities as further evidence of that trend: the University of MICHIGAN at Ann Arbor, for instance, which derives only about 18 percent of its revenues from the state, and the University of VIRGINIA, where the state percentage is only about 8 percent. Katharine C. Lyall, a president emeritus of the University of WISCONSIN, says, "At those levels, we have to ask what it means to be a public institution." As Lyall sees it, the mission of public colleges "used to be to serve the public good. But if private donors and corporations are providing much of a university's budget, then they will set the agenda, perhaps in ways the public likes and perhaps not." Others dismiss the doomsday talk of privatization. Patrick M. Callan, president of the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, for example, says that state appropriations for higher education really haven't changed much in recent years; they were about $67 billion in 2001, $70 billion in 2002, and $69 billion in 2003 and 2004. The percentage of state tax revenues devoted to public universities, however, has declined over the last several decades, from about 6.7 percent in 1977 to 4.5 percent in 2000, according to a study by the Urban Institute. Stanley O. Ikenberry, a president emeritus of the University of ILLINOIS, said he believes that decline is not the result of any fundamental change in states' commitment to higher education, but rather the political reality that in tight budget times, it is an easier part of the budget to cut than programs like Medicaid and K-12 education. "The higher education budget serves as the default place to make the cut," he said. (NEW YORK TIMES) 

BUDGETS IN BRIEF: Last Monday, MISSISSIPPI Gov. Haley Barbour (R) signed the onshore casino bill (HB 45) passed during the emergency legislative session held earlier this month. The law, which will allow casinos to build on land within 800 feet of where gambling barges had previously been sited, had been held up at one point in the Senate by an effort to leverage a deal on another bill concerning tideland leases that many of the casinos pay the state. That bill (HB 44) also ultimately passed and was signed by the governor (ASSOCIATED PRESS, SUN HERALD [BILOXI]). * New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has abandoned his controversial plan to make a downtown casino zone a key element of his hurricane-recovery strategy for the city. Testifying before Congress last week, Nagin said that LOUISIANA Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) "didn't much like the idea, so it is pretty much dead" (TIMES-PICAYUNE [NEW ORLEANS]). * LOUISIANA's governor was a bit more amenable to state lawmakers, heeding their calls to let them take up budget issues associated with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in a special session scheduled for Nov. 6. Blanco had been planning to hold off on addressing the $1.5 billion hole the hurricanes have punched in the state budget until January (ADVOCATE [BATON ROUGE]). * According to projections released last week, WYOMING could end the 2005-06 biennium with a $1.8-billion budget surplus, surpassing last biennium's record $1.2-billion surplus by a sizeable margin. The increase is attributed primarily to the surge in natural gas prices (BILLINGS GAZETTE). * Despite a Powerball jackpot that grew to a record $340 million last week, lottery officials in INDIANA said ticket sales were running about 30 percent below projections. They suspected that high gas prices might be the cause (INDIANAPOLIS STAR).
 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK

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Politics & leadership

JUDGE SUSPENDS GA VOTER ID LAW: GEORGIA attracted national attention earlier this year when it passed a law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls -- the toughest voter ID law in the country. The Peach State was in the spotlight again last week when a federal judge declared that the new law amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax because it did not do enough to minimize the burden of its provisions on several voting groups. "The photo ID requirement is most likely to prevent Georgia's elderly, poor and African-American voters from voting," wrote U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy, in a 123-page ruling issued last Tuesday. "For those citizens, the character and magnitude of their injury -- the loss of their right to vote -- is undeniably demoralizing and extreme." Supporters of the law contend that it is needed to curb voter fraud and that it allows anyone who cannot afford a voter ID card -- which costs $20 or $35, depending on whether it's valid for 5 years or 10 -- to sign an affidavit declaring they are indigent and obtain a card for free. They also maintain that residents can vote by absentee ballot without having to present photo ID at all in most cases. But Judge Murphy addressed those arguments in his decision, stating that there has been no report of voter impersonation fraud in Georgia in the past nine years, that "many voters simply may be too embarrassed over their inability to afford a photo ID card to request and complete an affidavit for a free card," and that most voters who lack a photo ID "likely are unaware" they can vote absentee without one. Murphy's ruling actually only granted a temporary injunction barring the state from enforcing the voter ID law until he issues a final decision about its constitutionality, but his harsh words strongly suggest the direction he is leaning. The law's backers are urging the state to appeal, pointing out that it has already received federal approval and suggesting that Murphy's decision is simply another case of judicial activism. "The U.S. Justice Department reviewed and approved this law," said Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R). "Despite this review and approval, a Jimmy Carter-appointed judge has now ignored that decision, thwarting the best interests of the people of this state." (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, LOS ANGELES TIMES) 

STATE WEB SITES TURN TEN: This year marks the 10th birthday of state government Web sites. Although there is some debate over which state actually launched the first site -- CALIFORNIA, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN and WASHINGTON all claim that title -- the few that appeared in 1995 and 1996 were fairly rudimentary, in some cases consisting of nothing more than an Internet homepage. As the popularity of the Internet grew and the cost efficiencies it offered became more apparent, other states rushed to establish their own Web presence. Now, all 50 states offer Internet sites, some of which are at the leading edge of Web site design and content. For example, the top finisher in the Center for Digital Government's Best of the Web awards this year --DELAWARE -- offers "podcasting," which allows users of Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music players to obtain automated notices of breaking state news. Other Best of the Web award winners included INDIANA, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA and WASHINGTON. But Paul Taylor, chief strategy office for the Center, said the disparity between the best state sites and the rest is narrowing. "What we've got now is a few states that are really, really good, and below them we have a critical mass that a year from now could be among the top five." (STATELINE.ORG) 

POLITICS IN BRIEF: ARIZONA's Court of Appeals ruled last week that legislative district maps drawn in 2000 by an independent redistricting commission do not contain too few competitive districts, as a coalition of Democrats and Hispanics had contended and a lower court affirmed last year. The coalition has vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. In the meantime, the existing legislative boundaries -- which gave the Republicans an 18-12 majority in the Senate and a 38-22 edge in the House after the elections in 2002 and 2004 -- will remain in place (ARIZONA DAILY STAR [TUCSON], ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES [PHOENIX]). * Early voting got under way last Monday for COLORADO's Nov. 1 election, which will determine the fate of the state's high-profile referendums C and D. The first would suspend the spending restrictions imposed by the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and the second would allow the state to borrow $2.1 billion to pay for roads, schools, health care and pensions (DENVER POST). * Also in COLORADO, Attorney General John Suthers (R) issued a ruling last Tuesday declaring Senate president Joan Fitz-Gerald (D) ineligible to run for re-election because she has reached the state's two-term limit, despite the fact that the first of those terms -- which began in 2001, following the death of Sen. Tony Grampsas (R) -- was only half the usual four-year length. Fitz-Gerald claimed the AG's ruling was politically motivated and vowed to fight it (DENVER POST). * Last week, ARIZONA Rep. Cheryl Chase switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP. In a statement to the media, Chase said the Democratic party had fallen under the control of the "liberal left" and no longer reflected the "rural Arizona values I hold dear." Her move gives Republicans a 39-21 majority in the House, only one vote short of the 40 needed to override a veto by the state's Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano (ARIZONA CAPITOL TIMES [PHOENIX]).
 

-- Compiled by KOREY CLARK

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GOVS JUST SAY NO TO FEDERAL DISASTER CONTROL: A trio of governors -- ARIZONA Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), TEXAS Gov. Rick Perry (R) and FLORIDA Gov. Jeb Bush (R) -- told Congressional leaders last week that they strongly oppose a recent Bush administration proposal to allow the federal government to pre-empt their authority in emergencies such as the hurricanes that have wracked the Gulf Coast each of the last two years. The governors' testimony came before the House Committee on Homeland Security, which is considering President Bush's suggestion that the United States military be made the lead agency in dealing with catastrophic events like Hurricane Katrina. Perry was particularly adamant, telling the Committee that they needed to "let Texans run Texas" and adding that "the military is not a fire department, a police department or a hospital. Leave first response to the first-responders." Perry was even more direct during a speech at the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation the day before, saying that such federal intervention would only "add another layer of bureaucracy, create indecisiveness, lead to rampant miscommunication and cost lives." Bush echoed that sentiment during his Congressional testimony, saying that states know best how to manage their individual situations and pointing to the preparations his state was undertaking for the impending onset of Hurricane Wilma. "If this responsibility is federalized," Bush said, "It will be as much of a disaster as any natural disaster." Napolitano and Perry also used the occasion to chide Congress for, in their view, not doing enough to control illegal immigration. The governors said the federal government's inability to control the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border has drastically undermined confidence that it could adequately manage epic disasters. Napolitano, who said an average of 1,500 people are apprehended every day tying to sneak across the Mexican border into her state, said the Bush administration should focus on getting the illegal immigration problem under control before taking over disaster management from states. The resistance displayed by Bush, Perry and Napolitano echoes what several other governors -- including many Republicans -- have been saying for weeks. During a recent interview on Larry King Live, MISSISSIPPI Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said, "People could have taken the impression that we in Mississippi need the federal government to come in and take over what we're doing, that we need some kind of czar to tell us how to run Mississippi. We don't need that. In fact, that wouldn't help us. That would hurt us." ALABAMA Gov. Bob Riley (R) also chimed in, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee that "In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many have concluded that all the answers are to be found in Washington, DC. As a former member of Congress, I recognize that the federal government has a unique and critically important role to play in responding to catastrophes -- but state and local leaders must retain the primary role in planning and acting as first responders." DELAWARE Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) has also called for continued local control, saying "When Governor Barbour needed our help, I was able to send resources...Within 24 hours, we were one of the first on the ground in Mississippi, a fact which I can say is due to my ability to call up state assets. Governors must continue to be afforded this ability." Those sentiments seem to be reaching friendly ears in Congress, which many observers doubt has the desire to take over top disaster responsibility from the states. Rep. Lamar Smith, a San Antonio Republican, said that the governors "were very clear in their opposition, and that sends a message to us in Congress." (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION, STATELINE.ORG, DALLAS MORNING NEWS, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT GAZETTE, ARIZONA REPUBLIC [PHOENIX])

GOVERNORS IN BRIEF: A new poll shows ALABAMA Gov. Bob Riley (R) with a double-digit lead over each of the Democrats seeking to unseat him in 2006. The Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll showed Riley with 46 percent of the potential vote compared to 31 percent for former Gov. Don Siegelman and 33 percent for Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley (MOBILE REGISTER). * RHODE ISLAND Gov. Don Carcieri (D) declared a state of emergency after excessive rains caused extensive flooding across the Ocean State (BOSTON GLOBE). * LOUISIANA Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) formed a 23-person steering panel to guide the Pelican State in its effort to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Louisiana Recovery Authority will be responsible for developing 30-day, 100-day and long-term rebuilding plans (TIMES-PICAYUNE [NEW ORLEANS]). 

-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN

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BUSINESS: A NORTH CAROLINA court orders major cigarette-makers to pay tobacco farmers in 14 states $106 million that those companies withheld from growers last December. The companies had argued that a recent $10 billion federal government buyout of tobacco quotas to be financed by assessments against cigarette-makers should have relieved them of making the payment (WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL). * MISSISSIPPI Gov. Haley Barbour (R) signs HB 45, legislation that will allow casinos to rebuild their operations on shore rather than only on barges in the waters of the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico. The new buildings must be located within 800 feet from where those barges were previously sited. Casino gambling produces approximately $500 million in annual state tax revenue for the Magnolia State (SUN HERALD [BILOXI]). 

CRIME & PUNISHMENT: The TENNESSEE Supreme Court unanimously rejects a claim that the three-drug combination used for executing condemned prisoners causes extreme pain and thus constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiff in the case has vowed to appeal in federal court (LOS ANGELES TIMES). * The MASSACHUSETTS House endorses a bill that would require people convicted of multiple drunken driving offenses to have Breathalyzer devices installed in their vehicle. Those systems prevent a legally inebriated driver from starting the vehicle. The measure moves to the Senate (BOSTON HERALD). * The U.S. Supreme Court rules that death row inmates do not automatically have the right to a jury trial to determine their mental competence for execution. The high court decision overrules a 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling that ordered ARIZONA officials to grant a condemned inmate a jury trial on his claim of mental retardation. The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that states cannot execute legally retarded prisoners, but the new order leaves determination of that status in the hands of individual states (WASHINGTON POST). * NORTH DAKOTA becomes the 33rd state to join the national sex offender registry Web site, which allows users to track convicted sexual offenders across all linked states (GRAND FORKS HERALD). 

EDUCATION: In WASHINGTON, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the Seattle Public Schools' use of race as a tiebreaker in assigning students to popular high schools. Similar court verdicts were recently reached in MASSACHUSETTS and KENTUCKY. The plaintiffs vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court (SEATTLE TIMES).

ENVIRONMENT: A WYOMING court says landowners do not have the right to prevent waste water from coalbed methane wells from flowing through established waterways on their property. The court ruled that the state retains control over all waterways regardless of whether they cross private land (BILLINGS GAZETTE). * Still in WYOMING, a federal judge upholds National Park Service rules that limit snowmobile use in that state's Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. The Cowboy State's lodging industry wanted to overturn the current regulations, which limit snowmobile activity to 720 per day at Yellowstone and 140 combined at Grand Teton and on the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway (IDAHO STATESMAN). 

HEALTH & SCIENCE: Acting NEW JERSEY Gov. Richard Codey (D) announces that the Garden State will fund a statewide public bank to store umbilical cord and placental blood designed to be used by both stem cell researchers and transplant patients. Codey also signed an executive order establishing two pilot programs to help new parents donate placental and umbilical cord blood. The institute is expected to cost around $150 million (NEW YORK TIMES). * WISCONSIN Gov. Jim Doyle (D) vetoes legislation that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions they feel violate their personal or religious beliefs. Doyle also vetoed a similar bill last year (CAPITAL TIMES [MADISON]). * FLORIDA receives federal permission to move thousands of Medicaid patients into a pilot managed care program that could eventually be expanded to cover the 2.2 million Sunshine State residents currently receiving health care coverage from the government. Gov. Jeb Bush (R) plans to call a special session in December to consider the plan, which must be approved by lawmakers (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES). 

SOCIAL POLICY: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses a request from MISSOURI Gov. Matt Blunt (R) to prohibit a Show Me State prisoner from obtaining an abortion. A lower court had previously ordered the state to provide transportation for the woman, but Blunt argued that taxpayers should not have to pay for the costs associated with the transport. Blunt has vowed to appeal, although the abortion was ultimately performed three days after the decision (JEFFERSON CITY NEWS TRIBUNE, KANSAS CITY STAR). * The ARIZONA Supreme Court adopts new rules that allow couples who have agreed to divorce to forgo ever appearing in court. The new regulations also allow couples to hire attorneys for only certain parts of the process. They take effect in January 2006 (ARIZONA DAILY STAR [TUCSON]). 

POTPOURRI: The PENNSYLVANIA Senate unanimously endorses a measure that would ban Internet hunting -- which allows paying customers to use a computer mouse to remotely sight, point and fire a rifle at deer or other game roaming at a real fenced-in preserve -- in the Keystone State. The bill moves to Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who is expected to sign it. Eleven other states have banned the practice this year (PATRIOT-NEWS [HARRISBURG]). 
 

-- Compiled by RICH EHISEN 

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Once around the statehouse lightly

NO THANKS: It's never a good sign when allies squabble, and a particularly bad sign when those allies are from the same political party. But in CALIFORNIA last week, the chilly relations between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and George W. Bush degenerated into an ice storm. The reason, reports The Associated Press: the president paid a visit to the Golden State to raise money, and the timing couldn't have been worse for the governor. Schwarzenegger is embroiled in a special election campaign to pass ballot initiatives critical to his governorship at the same time that his popularity has reached subterranean levels. In fact, only one major politician is more unpopular than Schwarzenegger in California: George W. Bush. As a result, the governor and his political team are less than enthusiastic about Bush's visit. Ostensibly, the president came to help dedicate a new exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, but the backstory is a fund raising sojourn through fertile California fields. Since Schwarzenegger needs every Republican nickel he can mint to support his initiative campaigns, Bush's effort is seen as draining away vital cash. The governor could not find time in his schedule to meet with Bush during the president's two-day visit. Yeah, and he couldn't find time to set fire to a puppy either, which would have had about the same impact on his poll ratings as a photo op with Bush.

KATRINA RELIEF: The city of San Antonio wants to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and the good TEXAS neighbors have come up with a novel approach. According to the San Antonio Express-News, the state has nearly $150 million available in the Texas Enterprise Fund -- money meant to help economic development. And at least one state senator wants to use the cash to provide a new home for some from LOUISIANA cast adrift by the storm. The poor and downtrodden, you ask? Depends on how you think about the New Orleans Saints, the city's professional football team. Republican Sen. Jeff Wentworth, who represents San Antonio, wants the money to pay for a package of incentives to lure the team away from New Orleans, where its previous home -- the Superdome -- became a symbol of all that went wrong in the wake of Katrina. Now, that's neighborliness.

WINDFALL: In some states, serving in the legislature is a part time gig. And so it is for Democrat Larry Molloy, a member of the VERMONT House. Molloy has to work two jobs to make ends meeting, supporting himself as a barber and store clerk. That latter job, notes The Boston Globe, put Molloy in the right place at the right time to buy a Powerball lottery ticket from the store where he works. His ticket came home last week, providing the legislator with a tidy $200,000 supplement to his legislative salary.

THE WORLD'S SHORTEST JOY RIDE: Jess Vilsack didn't have far to go to retrieve his stolen car. The son of IOWA Gov. Tom Vilsack was between apartments and so was staying at the governor's mansion last week when someone commandeered his car. As The Associated Press explains, the Toyota Corolla was found right across the street -- although not in the best condition. Seems the thief drove off the mansion grounds, sped straight ahead and slammed into a building. Since the perp made a run for it, no suspects have been identified.

NO GOOD DEED DEPARTMENT: As the governor's crime adviser, Bob Schwartz was instrumental in creating a new law that cracks down on dog owners in NEW MEXICO. According to the Free New Mexican, Schwartz' law allows owners of dangerous dogs to be charged with a felony if that dog severely injures a person or animal. Apparently, that law didn't go down well around the Schwartz household. Seems Schwartz' own dog attacked him, biting him viciously enough to require hospitalization. No word on whether charges are pending.
 

-- By A.G. BLOCK

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Editor: Rich Ehisen
Associate Editor: Korey Clark
Contributing Editor: A.G. Block
Editorial Advisor: Lou Cannon
Correspondents: Richard Cox (CA), Steve Karas (CA), 
Bruce McKeeman (CA), Linda Mendenhall (IL), 
Lauren King (MA) and Ben Livingood (PA) 
Design: Richard Hansen, Heather Conway 

Copyright 2005 State Net
ISSN: 1521-8449