Legislative Update

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Arizona Republic Capitol reporter Matthew Benson joins us to go over the stories making news at the Legislature this week.

José Cárdenas:
Tonight on Horizon, Governor Napolitano talks about a bill at the state legislature to spend state dollars to put more National Guard troops at the border. Now there really is an instruction manual of sorts for new parents in Maricopa County. And retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor tells the story of her first day on the high court. That's next on Horizon.

Announcer:
Horizon is made possible by contributions from the friend of Eight, members of your Arizona PBS station. Thank you.

José Cárdenas:
Good evening and thanks for joining us tonight on horizon. I'm José Cárdenas. U.S. Airways is dropping its bid to acquire delta airlines. This came after Delta's creditors committee said it favored delta's reorganization plan. U.S. Airways decision ends a ten week hostile takeover bid.

José Cárdenas:
Governor Janet Napolitano held her weekly press briefing today to talk about issues ranging from immigration to transportation to the state budget. The governor responded to a measure floated at the legislature to provide about $10-million in state funding to place Arizona National Guard members at the border. Under the proposal the guard would have a more active enforcement role at the border.

Janet Napolitano:
I don't think that's a wise use of our guard. Our guard is there, it's being employed in a useful way. It's freed up hours and hours of border patrol time and it is working. There are lots of things this legislature should be talking about. This should not be a session focused solely on immigration. This should not be a press conference solely focused on immigration bills. We have transportation, water, education, Healthcare. These are all major issues that state legislatures and governors are responsible for. Immigration is primarily a federal issue.

José Cárdenas:
Joining me now to talk more about that issue and the governor's response as well as a couple other topics at the state capitol is Matthew Benson, capitol reporter for the "Arizona Republic." Matthew, welcome to horizon.

Matthew Benson:
Great to be here.

José Cárdenas:
what's the motivation behind Representative Nichols' bill?

Matthew Benson:
This is driven by the January 3 incident we saw around the border around Sasabe where a handful of guardsmen along the border were confronted by some armed gunmen who came from Mexico and basically the guardsmen stood down when confronted, instead calling the border patrol. The gunmen escaped back into Mexico. And in the wake of this incident we've kind of seen a lot of controversy regarding how did this happen.

José Cárdenas:
The governor didn't like the proposal. Why?

Matthew Benson:
Well, this proposal follows something we've seen in Texas recently from Governor Perry. He's using state money to fund Texas guardsmen and put them in a primary role, actively enforcing immigration law on the border, allowing them to confront and detain undocumented immigrants as they come upon them. That's something that's not allowed under the current arrangement of operation jumpstart.

José Cárdenas:
Now, why does the source of funding make any difference in terms of what the guard does at the border?

Matthew Benson:
Last spring President Bush in announcing operation jumpstart said as the federal government we will pay for the guards men on the border, but the agreement, the rules of engagement signed by the president, the feds, the four border governors and the other states stipulated that they be in a secondary role, backing up border patrol, not arresting, not detaining.

José Cárdenas:
But it's not so much the source of the funding but the use of the funds, right? The straight dollars would go to hire more guardsmen? Is that right?

Matthew Benson:
Well, the guardsmen are already hired. But this would be using Arizona dollars to fund guardsmen in a different capacity outside of operation jumpstart. So the governor would say, "We're going to use our own money, our own guard, and we're going to give them a different mission than operation jumpstart."

José Cárdenas:
But it's additional bodies out there.

Matthew Benson:
Absolutely.

José Cárdenas:
Now, the governor seemed to suggest that immigration's important but it's a federal issue and we've got other important things to talk about.

Matthew Benson:
Yes. You know, the governor made it pretty clear she doesn't want this to be a legislative session devoted to immigration. Much of last session was on immigration. The governor would prefer to talk about healthcare, transportation, growth, some issues that she considers are more the state's responsibility.

José Cárdenas:
Now, last legislative session the suggestion was that the G.O.P. controlled legislature was passing these measures because there was an election coming up. What's the motivation to continue to pursue the immigration measures?

Matthew Benson:
If we continue to see these same bills, I think that will show it's not purely political since this is obviously not an election year. We'll have to wait and see. We haven't seen a flurry of immigration bills just yet but it's obviously early. Last session as well it was deep into the session before we start today see bill after bill after bill on border issues.

José Cárdenas:
Now, we have seen one bill that's been dropped to deal with a problem created by a measure favored mostly by democrats, liberals. And that's the minimum wage bill. What can you tell us ant that?

Matthew Benson:
Well, the issue that most folks said they didn't foresee going into the election was some members of the disabled community who work for some of these companies that were paying them less than the minimum wage. And these companies saying, gee, if we have to pay the minimum wage we can't afford to do it. Obviously no one's intention in approving a minimum wage hike was for these folks to go without jobs. So a bill we're seeing from representative Michelle Reagan would basically provide a loophole allowing some of these companies to pay these disabled workers less than the minimum wage. We saw it pass out of committee today.

José Cárdenas:
Is there any opposition?

Matthew Benson:
Well, the disabled community is not of one mind on this issue. There are some of them who believe no matter how profoundly disabled someone is, they deserve to be paid the minimum wage just the same as anyone else.

José Cárdenas:
Matthew, last topic. There's some news about the departures from the state G.O.P.? What can you tell us about that?

Matthew Benson: Randy Pullen took over as chairman of the state G.O.P. on Saturday on the state convention. Going into that race for chairmanship there was a lot of concern about his ability to unite the party, raise money and do the things you want from a chairman. Right off the bat, two days after he took over on Monday we saw the general counsel and the chief fundraiser for the party step down, resigning, and two remaining full-time staffers will leave next week. Which would leave Randy Pullen with no paid full-time staff.

José Cárdenas:
Is that unusual when you have a change of leadership at the top that you would have a change in staff?

Matthew Benson:
You're going to have some turnover anytime from one chairman to the next. Not unusual at all. However a complete cleaning of house so to speak is unusual. It means a lot of that institutional knowledge, folks who have been around for years and years and years are walking out the door. A lot of that know how will be gone. And Randy is going to be I think struggling to put everything together and get his own staff up to speed.

José Cárdenas:
Now, it's a little unusual, too, isn't it where you have some of the party leaders regarded among more of the conservatives, Congressman Shadegg and Congressman Flake expressing concern?

Matthew Benson:
You mentioned congressman franks, for example. He spoke on behalf of Randy Pullen's opponent for the chairmanship on Saturday. He supported Lisa James. And it will be interesting to see what members of the congressional delegation remain opposed to Randy Pullen and what of them decide, okay, he's got the chairmanship. We're going to come onboard with him, help him raise money. That is the main responsibility of the party chairman. And that's really the main thing to watch going forward. If you see that state G.O.P. is not able to raise money, you'll know it's in trouble.

José Cárdenas:
Matthew Benson, "Arizona Republic." thanks for joining us on Horizon.

Matthew Benson:
Appreciate it.

José Cárdenas:
For many new parents expecting a baby, the first years of taking care of a child could be a difficult and challenging time. Now, there's a new parenting tool that could help answer questions and make things easier. The Virginia t. Piper charitable trust has joined other community resources to develop the Arizona parents kit. It's being called a free baby instruction manual and it is being distributed at most of Maricopa County's birthing hospitals. Recently Horizonte's Feliciano Vera spoke with two people behind the kits. First a sample of what you can see on one of the DVD's from the kit.

Feliciano Vera:
From the moment your baby is born, his brain is incredibly active. And growing minute by minute. In fact, over 90% of brain growth happens in the first three years. And the way it grows is through experience.

Dr. Bruce Perry:
In the process of making that 100 billion neurons and each one of those neurons making hundreds of more connections, nerve cells are activated because there's been some sort of stimulation from the outside world.

Feliciano Vera:
And in the beginning, your baby's world is you.

Dr Bruce Perry:
If you provide consistent, predictable nurturing and enriched experiences for little infants, little babies, that that has profound impact on how their brain organizes and how they function when they get older.

Feliciano Vera: What are those experiences? And what can you do to make sure that your baby's getting what she needs? New science has discovered that your opportunities start a lot earlier than you might think. And that healthy brain connections depend on healthy human connections.

Feliciano Vera:
Joining us to talk about the Arizona parent kit is Marilee Dal Pra who is a senior program officer from the Virginia G. Piper charitable trust. Also with us from Phoenix Baptist Hospital is Davina Garcia, a lactation consultant- Davina, Marilee -- welcome. Now both of you are parents but both of you are involved with this program in different ways. Now, let's talk a little bit about your experience. Marilee, Virginia G. Piper charitable trust five years old. Can you tell us a little about the trust and how it got involved with this program?

Marilee Dal Pra:
Absolutely. The trust is a private foundation. As you said he we're about five years old. Our mission is to really improve the quality of life for the residents of Maricopa County. We do that through a variety of areas, healthcare, medical research, education, children, older adults, arts and culture and religious institutions. And so over the past, since we began our operation in 1999 we have invested about $142 million in our community.

Feliciano Vera:
Davina, you have some experience with a similar program out in California. Can you talk about your experience there and about how the program here in Arizona is working out?

Davina Garcia:
Sure. About two years ago I lived in San Diego and they had actually started passing the kits out. So when I came here and they started doing the same thing I was familiar with the program. So it was really nice to see it follow through all the way to Arizona where we are having a large growth. So it's greatly needed.

Feliciano Vera:
Marilee, how was the idea developed? We saw in the piece the germ for the idea was in California. How was it developed in Arizona? And where is the trust taking it?

Marilee Dal Pra:
The trust is really committed to looking at how we can help parents overall. We understand that early childhood is such a critical time period in the development, and that parents have a unique role in ensuring their children's health and well-being. So in addition to supporting lots of wonderful nonprofit that is do excellent work in supporting parents we also looked at national models. California actually a few years prior to the trust opening had developed the kit for parents. They invested a lot of money in development of the kit as well as researching the kit's impact. They looked at whether parents use the kit, if they gain knowledge as a result of the kit, and most importantly did they change their behavior as a result of that usage. So we modeled the kit here, did an one-year pilot study at two birthing hospitals in the valley, St. Joseph's as wealth as Banner Desert Medical Center. We found the parents very much liked this resource. And the hospitals found it to be a valuable resource for parents. So we're very delighted to be able to provide support for the kit. And our trustees have funded the distribution of the kit to all parents of newborns over the next two-year period, 21 of the 22 birthing hospitals in the valley are distributing the kit and we're excited about that and working with the last hospital to bring them online and then we'll move on to the birthing centers. We hope all parents have this valuable resource to them.

Feliciano Vera:
Davina, babies don't come with instruction kits. Oftentimes the work you do as a lactation consultant, it ends right when the newborn is taken out of the door with the parents. Where does this kit come in? How does this help new parents?

Davina Garcia:
Well, it's interesting. When you least hospital you think you've asked all the questions that you needed to ask. Then you get home and you realize that baby is going to do things that you probably didn't think to ask. So it's a nice thing to be able to pull out the videos and challenge or watch certain topics that you actually are interested in, or even look up the resources that might be helpful to you. So it's really nice just to be able to fall back on something just in case you have that need to know more about what's actually going on once you do go home.

Feliciano Vera:
What exactly does the kit contain when it's delivered to parents?

Davina Garcia:
You have the video set, and then the resource kit. It comes with a nice gift book for the baby. And so the booklet actually have what's on the video. So if the parent wants to tackle something they've actually watched on the video they actually can go to the resource book and find websites or phone numbers that can help them.

Feliciano Vera:
Marilee, the trust is partnering with the birthing hospitals throughout the state. Now, there are also other partner agencies involved with this. Can you talk a little bit about their role in the program?

Marilee Dal Pra:
Yes. We invited experts throughout the valley to participate in the development of our kit, specifics for Arizona. And although we can only distribute the kits to folks in Maricopa County, the kit really is designed to be able to provide wonderful resources for parents throughout the state of Arizona. We actually have some other partners that are looking at funding the kit to other areas of the state. We're really excited about that. The governor's office is also looking at the feasibility of providing the kit statewide. And we're really delighted that medical community has embraced the kit as a very valuable resource to parents.

José Cárdenas:
A new PBS documentary debuts tonight. It's called simply "The supreme court." It promises to explored history, impact and drama of America's highest court. The program features interviews with Chief Justice John Roberts and retired justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Justice O'Connor is as many of you know a native Arizonan and has been a frequent guest of horizon. Last year she was a featured speaker in our Barry M. Goldwater lecture series. In this excerpt she talks about her struggle to find work as a lawyer in Arizona and her first day on the Supreme Court.

Sandra Day O'Connor:
It was a very good choice. I loved it. I wanted to work as a lawyer. I really did. That's why I had gone to law school. I could not get a single interview with a law firm in California because I was female. They had all these notices on the placement board at Stanford law school. Come call us. We want to talk to you. They didn't want to talk to me. And I finally asked a young woman friend of mine from undergraduate base at Stanford whose father was a partner in Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher headquartered in L.A. if she could get her father to get me an interview in the firm. She asked him and he did. And I went to Los Angeles to have an interview with the partner who did that. We had a pleasant little visit. Not too long. And he said, "Miss Day, how do you type?" and I said, "Well, I'm medium. I'm trying to get by." he said, "Well, if you could type well enough I might be able to get you on here as a legal secretary. But Miss Day, we've never hired a woman lawyer and I don't see the day when we will." So I mean, that was the best I could get. And I heard that the district attorney in San Mateo County, California, had once had a woman lawyer on their staff. And I thought, well, if he had one he could maybe hire another. And I went to see him. And you know how politicians are. They generally tend to be very pleasant and nice. And he was. And oh, Miss Day, I'm glad to meet you. And oh, you have a fine record. It would be wonderful to have you here in my office. But I have no funding for another deputy. And I don't have an office. He walked me around the office. And sure enough there wasn't any vacant space. And I still thought that was my best bet. And so I went back to the lazy b ranch because John and I were planning our wedding there in December. And I wrote him a long letter and gave him all the reasons why I thought he should have me in his office. And all the way I said -- ways that I said I thought I could be helpful. I said, I know you don't have any money but I could work there for nothing for a time until you could persuade the supervisors to give you a little money. I know you don't have any space but I met your secretary and she's wonderful. And if she'd let me have a desk in her office, I'd be glad to sit there. And he went for it. [laughter] that's how I got in the door. And I hadn't been there very long until he was appointed judge for the County of San Mateo County. So he had to move up and out. And my supervisor was made the district attorney. And that opened space and money and everything was lovely. So that was how I got a foot in the door. And then we married. And after a time, John got drafted. It was the Korean War. And we had to leave California. I mean, he was assigned. He got moved in the general's corps and he had to go to Charlottesville to go to school. We hadn't been married that long and I thought I should go along. And I had to give up that job that I had worked so hard to get. Broke my heart to give it up. But he was sent not to Korea but to Germany and I got a job with the quarter master market center as a lawyer in Germany, a lawyer for the federal government. And that was fun. I enjoyed it. And he enjoyed his work. And when we came back to Phoenix it was 1957. He was discharged. And he went looking for work. And he met Walter Craig and Mr. Fennemore in Fennemore & Craig and they offered him a job. He really liked the people in that office. I don't think they had more than 12 lawyers at the time. And he wanted to take that. And I thought that was okay, although I lived in Arizona. I didn't know people in Phoenix. We knew two couples here. And they were classmates in law school. One named Bill Rehnquist and his wife Ann, and the other was Fred Steiner and his wife Jackie. And all four had been at Stanford, their wives. And I had known all of them, wives and husbands alike. And so we settled here. And again, none of the firms in phoenix had women except firms where the daughter could work with her father or the sister could work with her brother. They were not in the firms. And I couldn't get a job here. So we took the bar review course down in Tucson. It was given at the time by some -- I think Chester Smith. I don't remember. Anyway, studying for the bar, I met a young man named Tom Tobin who was coming from the east. He didn't know anybody. And the two of us decided to open a little neighborhood law office. And we went out to Maryville and rented space in a shopping center. And we opened our doors, and we took whatever came in the door. And it was landlord-tenant, collection work, it was domestic relations, it was you know write a will. Not the kind of problem usually solved by the U.S. Supreme Court. [laughter]

Sandra Day O'Conner:
I had a wonderful colleague on the court. His name was Byron White. Remember Byron White? Now, there were a lot -- yes. He was the first and perhaps only ever member of the Supreme Court to have been a professional athlete. He was a professional football player. He had played for Colorado was a star in college. And then he played professionally to help put himself through law school. In those days the pros didn't earn very much. But he did manage to put himself through law school. Then he got drafted in World War II and he was in the navy. And he was quite a little hero. And that's how he met -- or how he and John F. Kennedy met. It was during the navy and those perilous times. And that's how he ended up on the Supreme Court, was because of his personal acquaintance with President Kennedy. And Byron White was a marvelous man. And he used to go up to the gym, which is the space above the courtroom. There's space. And the law clerks and Byron White would use it to play basketball. And every year some of these law clerks would come back injured. [laughter]

Sandra Day O'Connor:
He had no idea how strong he was. My first day on the Supreme Court, when I was sworn in in September, 1981, I went back to the room where all the justices meet each time before we go on the bench to shake hands. And in those days I wore a ring on this finger. And I came to Justice White, and we shook hands. And I thought I was going to die right on the spot. [laughter]

Sandra Day O'Connor:
I mean, he had no idea how strong he was. My hand was pulverized. Have you ever had somebody do that to you with a ring on? Well, when you have somebody like Byron White do it. And I just couldn't bear it because my first day on the court here were the tears streaming down. Glad to meet you, Justice White.

José Cárdenas:
The Supreme Court airs tonight at 9:00 here on eight.

Mike Sauceda:
Its tax time again. Find out about new laws and new information about filing your taxes from representatives of state and local tax offices. Also for 100 years now the Arizona news service which publishes the Arizona capitol times has been providing information about what's going on at the state capitol. Find out more Thursday at 7:00 on Horizon.

José Cárdenas:
Friday don't forget to join us for the journalists' roundtable. That's the Wednesday edition of Horizon. Thanks for watching.

Matthew Benson:Capitol reporter, Arizona Republic;Marilee Dal Pra:Senior program officer, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust;

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