|
|
In Focus
Remember when you could count on a low-key race for Arizona State Treasurer (Office Motto: “We haven’t been automated yet!”)?
So much for that. A likely GOP primary for the statewide office got off to a rollicking start this week. First, State Treasurer Jeff DeWit - who’s not seeking re-election in order to join the Trump administration or run for U.S. Senate or something - called a press conference to present state Sen. Kimberly Yee with the inaugural Hero of the Arizona Treasurer’s Office award.
DeWit proceeded to offer a de facto endorsement to Sen. Yee, who hasn’t yet announced whether she intends to run for the office (wink wink), and tore into Corporation Commissioner-turned-Treasurer-candidate Tom Forese.
“I wouldn’t trust him with a dollar of my own, not less $15 billion of taxpayer money,” DeWit said, adding a bit of Trump-ian flare by dubbing Forese “Sleazy For-ee-see.”
Naturally, Forese responded by saying DeWit had made a “slur” and “racist play against my Italian last name.”
The best part: It’s not even 2018 yet. This has the makings of the most entertaining primary of 2018.
Secretary Reagan unveils new real-time voter registration information tool
A brand new tool for monitoring the number of Arizona voters in real-time has been released by Secretary of State Michele Reagan. The Voter Stats Dashboard displays registration data allowing users to observe trends by party and county from 2007 to the most recent report.
The innovative tool aggregates statistical and demographic data of Arizona’s registered voters by county and forecasts future registration levels of partisan affiliation. The forecast is made to January 2021 and the time series is adjusted to consider yearly seasonality effects.
“No longer do people have to wait for each quarterly report to better understand the number of voters in Arizona,” said Secretary Reagan. “The number of active voters changes each day with people registering, moving or when our counties perform routine list maintenance. With this innovative dashboard people can better see what’s happening with the state’s electorate each day.”
The party forecasting function uses a basic time series algorithm called ARIMA. Widely available to the public, it is a moving average from quarter to quarter. Seasonality is a way for the algorithm to take into account patterns that may be found in the data based on outside events. In this case, the forecast takes into account the quarters of an election year which historically see an increase in registrations.
The Voter Stats Dashboard was developed by the Secretary of State’s Election Information Systems team and is hosted on her dedicated elections portal www.arizona.vote.
Read more HERE.
Court sides with restaurants against servers in Arizona wage dispute
The Arizona Republic
Arizona restaurant owners aren't required to pay full minimum wages to waiters, waitresses or bartenders, even at times when such workers are occasionally performing tasks that don't generate tips, a court has decided.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in an opinion filed Wednesday, held that restaurants don't need to separately track the types of tasks performed by servers and bartenders minute by minute, and thus don't need to pay separate minimum wages. Restaurants generally pay lower minimum wages to employees who earn tips.
[...] Requiring employers to track the time employees spend serving customers, as opposed to wiping tables and other tasks, would have been impractical, he added. Selden helped argue the case on behalf of employers in San Francisco in April.
[...] Restaurants may pay a lower hourly minimum wage to servers who earn tips. As noted by the court, an employer must pay a tipped employee a cash wage of at least $2.13 but can make up the difference between that and the federal minimum wage of $7.25 by claiming a credit for tips earned by such workers.
[...] The court found in favor of the employers, dismissing the claims of workers. It concluded that servers can't claim to be engaged in dual jobs if performing side tasks or even unrelated tasks occasionally throughout the day.
But the court left open the question of whether workers could claim dual jobs if performing general maintenance or other non-tip tasks for an extended period.
[...] Read more HERE
Trump administration rescinds Obama-era DACA program for illegal immigrants
Washington Examiner
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday that the Trump administration was rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that began under former President Barack Obama, and defended the move as one aimed at ending the "lawlessness" that Obama created with his unilateral executive action.
[...] Sessions said he advised President Trump and Department of Homeland Security to begin an "orderly, lawful wind down" of DACA.
Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke has since chosen to "initiate a wind-down process," Sessions said, giving Congress time to act on immigration "should it so choose."
Obama created DACA in June 2012 in order to spare hundreds of thousands of people from deportation who were brought into the country as children. The program also lets them work in the United States.
Duke said none of the nearly 800,000 people using the program would be affected for six months, which gives Congress a chance to decide through legislation what protections they should get. Duke also said no new applications would be taken.
[...] Ending DACA will push Congress to establish a "lawful and constitutional immigration system" that Sessions said will make the country "safer and more secure."
[...] Read more HERE.
Veridus clients in the new
Bill Ridenour: Keeping college within reach is a priority for Arizona Board of Regents
Arizona Daily Star
The world changes, the economy evolves and society transforms itself again and again, but education is still “the great equalizer.”
The phrase, coined in 1848 by noted educator and abolitionist Horace Mann, remains true today. For the child of modest means and big dreams, a great education — specifically, higher education — is still the surest path to a better life. It was for me.
RURAL BEGINNINGS
I grew up in the tiny Black Mountains community of Oatman, in northwestern Arizona. A fourth-generation Arizonan, my family came to this state in 1872 as gold prospectors. As a young boy, I attended a one-room schoolhouse where we had one teacher for all eight grades. My educational journey spanned from that schoolhouse to a bachelor’s and, ultimately, a law degree at the University of Arizona.
The lessons I learned along the way — about myself and my life’s work in the law — have never stopped guiding me.
That’s why I’m so adamant that more Arizonans have the same opportunity to achieve a college education. As the new chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents, university access and affordability are priorities that I and the rest of the board will continue to pursue in the coming year. I’m proud to report tuition increases have slowed significantly across Arizona’s public universities, while tuition pledge and guarantee programs are improving tuition predictability for students and families.
Financial aid will remain an important component of college affordability. In fiscal 2016, Arizona’s public universities allocated more than $620 million in financial aid; more than 90 percent of students across all three institutions now benefit from some form of tuition assistance.
ACCESS FOR ALL
But keeping a college degree within reach is about more than affordable tuition. It also means showing compassion and respect to those individuals brought to this country as small children and raised here, and who now seek to better themselves through a university education.
Their story is as old as America itself.
Recently, my fellow regents and I affirmed our decision to enable this small number of Arizona Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to continue attending our public universities as in-state students. While the board awaits word from the Arizona Supreme Court, we recognize the only lasting solutions on this issue can come from our elected leaders in Washington. As officials take action to secure our nation’s borders and facilitate lawful immigration and economic opportunity, let them not forget these students who remain in legal limbo.
TIME OF OPPORTUNITY
For Arizona’s public universities, this is a time of incredible opportunity and great challenge.
Our graduates are earning more; total university-led research now tops $1.1 billion; and a first-of-its-kind analysis found Arizona’s public universities are responsible for more than $11 billion in total economic impact each year. Our presidents work as a unified team, held accountable for the success of their students and institutions.
This year, we’re proud Gov. Doug Ducey and legislators gave a collective endorsement of our plans and strategic direction by approving $1 billion toward capital improvements that will enable universities to meet the needs of future generations.
Our work is far from finished. Educational achievement in our state remains uneven. In 2014-15, half of Arizona students attending college derived from just 11 percent of Arizona high schools; 33 high schools in our state sent not a single student to college anywhere. Arizona also faces a Latino student achievement gap. Latino students are the largest group of students enrolled in K-12, yet success measures among these students lag other demographic groups.
As higher education leaders, we have a responsibility to do more to advance student success for all students in Arizona. Every student should know that a college degree is a real, attainable and life-changing goal.
Just ask the guy from Oatman.
Read more HERE
ABOR President Weighs in on DACA decision
Arizona Board of Regents President Eileen Klein sat down with Arizona Horizon’s Ted Simon this week to discuss President Trump’s decision to rescind the DACA program - and what it means for Arizona university students enrolled in the program.
WATCH: HERE.
The Results are in: Charter Students Top State Performers
For three straight years, charter students outperform state averages
Public charter school students continue to outperform their peers, as AzMERIT results show charter students scored better than the state average in virtually every grade level and subject area for the third straight year.
The AzMERIT scores, released by the Arizona Department of Education on September 6, illustrate the hard work and dedication of Arizona’s charter students, teachers and leaders.
“These results are a strong testament to the great work happening at public charter schools across Arizona, and further validation of our efforts to expand high-quality education options for a rising number of students and families statewide,” said Eileen Sigmund, President and CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association. “Charter schools are raising the bar and improving public education in Arizona. We’re proud of all the wonderful educators, students and families who continue to drive that success.”
AzMERIT Charter Highlights
• Public charter students outperformed the state average of students passing the English/Language Arts test on average by 9 percentage points.
• Public charter students outperformed the state average of students passing the Mathematics test on average 7 percentage points.
• 97 of the top 100 LEAs on the English/Language Arts exam are charter schools, when looking at percent of students passing the test.
• 93 of the 100 top LEAs on the Math exams are charters, when looking at percent of students passing the test.
Arizona charter schools have been providing a choice for families seeking a high-quality public education since the first schools opened in 1995. Since then, parental demand for an Arizona charter school education has skyrocketed. Today, a record 185,000 students now attend one of nearly 556 public charter schools statewide.
Universal Technical Institute to Present at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Back to School Education Conference
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Technical Institute, Inc. (NYSE: UTI) will be presenting at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Back to School Education Conference at the Grand Hyatt New York on Thursday, September 14, 2017, at 4:15 p.m. EDT. Kim McWaters, chairman and chief executive officer, and Bryce Peterson, chief financial officer, will be presenting. A webcast of the presentation will be posted on the UTI investor relations website at http://uti.investorroom.com. An audio recording of the presentation will be archived and available following the event.
Read more HERE
Arizona business leaders say DACA repeal could have millions in economic impact
Cronkite News
PHOENIX – One local business leader said if authorities remove all of the state’s DACA recipients from the economy, it would be the equivalent of removing the population of Kingman in northwest Arizona.
[...] Local business leaders continued to speak out after President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his intention to repeal DACA, putting the future of nearly 800,000 DACA recipients in question. The program, established by former President Barack Obama, protects undocumented immigrants brought into the United States as children from deportation.
In Arizona, this means uncertainty for 28,000 DACA recipients.
[...] About 91 percent of DACA recipients are employed, and 97 percent are employed or in school, according to the Center for American Progress. The Cato Institute found, on average, DACA recipients earn $34,000 annually.
Arizona Bankers Association CEO Paul Hickman said DACA recipients contribute widely to the economy and called their impact impressive. He said he considers the immigration policy a logical one.
“Pushing them into the underground economy is a bad idea,” Hickman said.
Hickman said the repeal could potentially remove 800,000 people from contributing to the mainstream economy and prevent undocumented immigrants from joining it.
“A lot of these folks have good jobs, they’re educated or they are getting educated, and they’re working,” Hickman said. “They’re not a burden on the public-assistance program. They’re contributing back in taxes in terms of income and federal taxes.”
Hickman also expressed concern for the potential deportation of DACA recipients.
“That’s not a country we profess to live in, where we take a young person who is contributing and has no ties to a foreign country and send them back there,” he said. “That’s inhumane.”
[...] In Arizona, immigrants own 30 percent of the 123,000 Hispanic-owned businesses, Garcia said.
[...] Read more HERE.
Teladoc Is Providing Free Health Visits to Those Impacted by Hurricane Irma
PURCHASE, NY, Sept. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teladoc, Inc. (NYSE:TDOC) is providing free, 24/7 telehealth visits to those impacted by Hurricane Irma. Those displaced by or who otherwise cannot access care as a result of the storm can call 855-221-0370 to access treatment by the Teladoc network of board-certified, state licensed physicians for many non-emergency illnesses.
“In the wake of the devastation of Harvey, we are activating quickly to let those in South Florida and other areas expected to be impacted by Irma know that they can access care if and when needed,” explained Lewis Levy, MD, chief medical officer, Teladoc. “An infant’s fever, child’s stomach ache, or adult’s respiratory infection is not going to wait for the storm to pass, and we’re glad we can be there to provide some relief and reliability as these families are facing unfathomable circumstances.”
Teladoc is offering the free general medical care visits to all victims of the hurricane – both Teladoc members and non-members alike. Among those adult and pediatric conditions that can be effectively diagnosed and treated are common conditions including sinus problems, respiratory infections, allergies, cold and flu symptoms and many other non-emergency illnesses. For emergencies, patients should call 911.
For more information visit https://www.teladoc.com/irma.
Read more HERE.
Veridus is proud to represent a true “who’s who” roster of premier members of the business community. The Veridus Weekly has proven to be an excellent opportunity to highlight key announcements, activities, etc. If you would like to feature something in an upcoming issue, reply to this email or send information to info@veridus.com.
In case you missed it . . .
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
