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November 2005

Helena, Montana -- Conrad Burns could be re-elected to the United States Senate in Montana, according to a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling.

At least 46 per cent of respondents would support the incumbent in head-to-head contests against two prospective Democratic rivals.

Burns—a Republican—was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, and earned new terms in 1994 and 2000. In the last election, Burns defeated Democratic candidate Brian Schweitzer with 51 per cent of all cast ballots. Schweitzer went on to win the Treasure State’s gubernatorial race in November 2002.

Burns holds a six-point advantage over state auditor John Morrison, and a 14-point edge over state Senate president Jon Tester. The two Democrats have narrowed the gap since May.

The 71-year-old Burns has come under intense scrutiny over a bribery and corruption probe of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Burns—who chairs the subcommittee that oversees the budget of the Bureau of Indian Affairs—allegedly supported an appropriation that benefited Indian tribes represented by Abramoff.

Phoenix, Arizona -- Many adults in the Grand Canyon State believe Janet Napolitano should remain as their head of government, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports.

At least 50 per cent of respondents in Arizona would support the incumbent governor in head-to-head contests against three prospective Republican rivals.

Napolitano—a Democrat—has acted as Arizona’s governor since January 2003. The former state attorney general defeated Republican Matt Salmon in the November 2002 election by just over 20,000 ballots.

Napolitano holds a 20-point advantage over GOP activist Don Goldwater, a 33-point lead over former state Senate president John Greene, and a 27-point edge over retired judge Jan Florez

The next gubernatorial election in Arizona is scheduled for November 2006. Since 1951, Arizona has had six Republican and seven Democratic heads of government.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Reaction to a final report by Gov. Linda Lingle's Economic Momentum Commission, which contains recommendations aimed at sustaining the state economy over the longer term, is as diverse as the panel itself.

Many members of Hawaii's business, social and political communities praised the panel for looking beyond the current robust economy to the future.

Most agree that the recommendations, which covered 11 areas ranging from housing to taxation, education, work-force development, tourism, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, health care, the environment and Native Hawaiian issues, are a good starting point.

The 30-member commission was formed this summer to develop an action plan for the state. Its members include the leadership of the Legislature as well as representatives from businesses, labor unions, nonprofits, environmental, cultural and educational organizations, government and the military.

The commission's report is being delivered to Lingle, leaders of the state Legislature and county governments and policymakers at the Department of Education and University of Hawaii.

Lingle's administration is already looking at some of the initiatives supported by the commission.

Many of the recommendations will be picked up by the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan Task Force, which was created by the Legislature last year despite Lingle's veto.

Denver, Colorado -- Even though Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has repeatedly said that he won't run for governor, local political insiders can talk of little else.

The mayor is being pressured to run by bigwigs in the Democratic Party who fear that the current front-runner, former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, couldn't win.

One confidant of the mayor says he is "struggling" to make a decision, and talking it over with friends and family.

The mayor, who has charmed voters both inside and outside the city limits with his celebrated geekiness, is widely regarded as one of the state's most popular politicians.

Hickenlooper had an unprecedented 91 percent approval rating in Denver one year ago in a poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies.

But if Hickenlooper joins the governor's race, he might face a problem.

Historically, many voters outside of Denver are suspicious of the city and especially its mayor.

For decades, no Denver mayor has gone on to be elected governor.

Denver is politically and culturally out of sync with the rest of the state. Denver voters passed a liberal marijuana law and voted for John Kerry by 2 to 1.

Politicians outside Denver, especially Republican ones, doubt that Hickenlooper's success would hold statewide

Lincoln, Nebraska -- With a new legal challenge likely of voter-approved term limits on state lawmakers, a majority of those senators are firm in their support of overturning the restrictions.

Under the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000, senators are limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms.

Twenty members of the 49-seat, one-house Legislature are barred from seeking re-election next year.

Sens. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, Dennis Byars of Beatrice and Marian Price of Lincoln were joined by six voters in filing a lawsuit challenging term limits directly with the state Supreme Court.

The high court recently refused to hear the case, meaning it will now likely be filed in a state district court.

The lawsuit alleged that term limits violate their First Amendment free speech and association rights and 14th Amendment equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Nebraska is one of 15 states that limit the terms of state lawmakers.

Supporters say term limits eliminate the “good ol’ boy” system they say is rife with back-room deals and open to corruption.

During the peak of the term limits movement in the 1990s, 21 states moved to restrict lawmakers’ tenure.

But courts in Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming threw out term limits, and lawmakers in Idaho and Utah repealed them.

Nebraska voters approved term limits for state senators and members of Congress in 1992 and again in 1994.

Both were thrown out after legal challenges.

As for lobbying, only five lawmakers said there should be a restriction on how soon after leaving office a former state senator can work as a lobbyist.

Last year, just two days after leaving office, former Speaker Curt Bromm of Wahoo registered as a lobbyist with the Clerk of the Legislature.

Bromm wasn’t the first Nebraska lawmaker to go from senator to lobbyists seemingly overnight.

Sen. Ron Withem of Papillion resigned as speaker of the Legislature in 1997 to become the University of Nebraska’s main lobbyist.

Speaker Dennis Baack of Kimball resigned from the Legislature in 1993 to lobby for the Nebraska Community College Association.

Olympia, Washington -- Convicted sex offenders should face a tougher registration system, including stricter penalties for scofflaws and fewer loopholes for those who move to Washington, according to a state task force.

Authorities hope those changes and others will make it easier to track offenders who dodge registration rules — particularly those who are homeless, or claim they live on the streets to avoid scrutiny.

The task force’s report previews some of the sex crime-related measures lawmakers are preparing for the 2006 Legislature, which convenes Jan. 9.

Sex offenders from other states have as long as 30 days before they are required to report their whereabouts to police, while Washington state convicts must register within 24 hours of moving.

For those who fail to register, the punishment can include as much as 12 months behind bars.

But officials say little jail time is often served on a first offense.

Carson City, Nevada -- Nevada's $4.6 million statewide voter registration system will not meet the federal deadline for completion according to Secretary of State Dean Heller.

Currently, Nevada counties use four separate computer systems to compile voter registration information, with each county responsible for keeping its own registration numbers.
Exchanging the information among systems is not easy and Nevada has no statewide registration list.

All states are mandated to have statewide voter registration systems by the Help America Vote Act of 2002, intended to prevent fraud allegations that came out of the 2000 presidential election.

Nevada's Aug. 15 primary and Nov. 8 general elections will not be threatened by the delay, Heller said.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- A Bureau of Land Management proposal to apply herbicides to nearly 1 million acres in 17 Western states is drawing fire from environmentalists and organic food producers.

Verlin Smith, BLM branch chief for renewable resources in Utah, said the weed killer is needed to combat the rise of cheat grass, tamarisk, Russian olive and other invasive species, which he says are strangling rangelands and wildlife habitat and sucking up precious water resources.

The proposal, which is in a public comment period through Jan. 9, has generated opposition from those who fear the unknown consequences of the aerial spraying of herbicides in a wide array of areas, including national monuments and conservation areas.

BLM officials said they have gone to great lengths to ensure the herbicide program is safe, and the agency has the backing of ranchers and the Legislature in Utah.

"This program has taken a long time to develop, and the reason it has is because the risk assessment took a long time," Smith said. "We spent a long time analyzing the true risk of using herbicides at that level. We can do it, and do it safely so long as we follow the label directions and apply the appropriate mitigation processes. "

Carson, City, Nevada -- Supporters of a new law allowing Nevadans to buy lower-priced prescription drugs from Canada were hit Tuesday with an adverse state attorney general's opinion that favors this country's pharmaceutical industry.

Attorney General George Chanos said in the 19-page opinion that his office supports the idea of low-cost drugs - but it's clear that state lawmakers "also intended to ensure that the prescription drugs provided to the citizens of Nevada were both safe and effective."

Legislators tried to balance the need for affordable drugs with the need for quality and safety of those drugs, and their policy decisions "now serve as insurmountable legal obstacles to the importation of virtually any drugs from Canada," Chanos said in the opinion sought by the state Board of Pharmacy.

Nevada's Canadian drug program had been put on hold while the attorney general studied the new law that states a Canadian pharmacy shall not sell to a Nevada resident a drug that hasn't been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, and Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, who had key roles in developing the new law, pressed unsuccessfully for an opinion that would reflect lawmakers' intent to help Nevadans get safe, affordable drugs.

Denver, Colorado -- Bill Owens is about to begin his final year as governor of Colorado. Owens says he will end his 24-year career in statehouse politics "pushing right through the tape and running hard" - as hard as if it were his first campaign for the legislature in 1982.

A lot has changed in the eight years since Owens was elected Colorado's first Republican governor in nearly a quarter-century. When he took office in 1999, Republicans controlled both houses of the legislature. He leaves office with Democrats in charge and longtime nemesis Rep. Tom Plant of Nederland chairing the powerful Joint Budget Committee.

Owens says he intends to work with Democrats in his final year.

Meanwhile, longtime Colorado politicos say they don't remember anyone being courted for political office as intensely as John Hickenlooper, who obviously loves being Denver's Democratic mayor and has continued to resist.

The main Democrat in the race is former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who is opposed in some quarters for his anti-abortion stance.

Private surveys show Ritter defeating everyone but Hickenlooper. One prominent Democrat said last week he'll toss his support to Ritter soon, regardless of who else is running.

Tucson, Arizona -- A self-proclaimed cigar aficionado is launching an initiative drive to help preserve his ability and that of other smokers to light up in restaurants and bars.

The measure would let business owners decide whether their establishments have to be smoke free. But those who choose to permit customers to indulge would have to post a "conspicuous sign" that smoking is allowed inside.

These businesses also would have to tell would-be employees that smoking is allowed, permitting them to decide if they want to work there anyway.

Backers need 122,612 signatures on petitions by July 6 to qualify for the November ballot. Sponsors say they are negotiating with representatives of the restaurant and bar industry, as well as at least one major tobacco company, to finance the cost of the campaign.

Juneau, Alaska -- Alaska's ballot initiative deadline is just around the corner -- and sponsors are hustling to collect enough signatures from around the state to meet new requirements.

With a January 9th deadline, sponsors of just two of six active petitions say they have more than the 31,451 signatures they need for their initiatives to be considered for the general election next November.

To land a place on the ballot, signatures must be submitted to the state Division of Elections for certification by the start of the legislative session.

Signatures must still total at least ten percent of the last election's turnout. But now -- under a measure approved by voters last year -- the signatures must come from three-quarters of the state's 40 House districts, instead of two-thirds.

And within each of those districts, signatures must come from at least seven percent of those who voted in the last election for that district. The Division of Elections will have 60 days from January 9th deadline to certify the signatures.

Olympia, Washington -- A Washington state lawmaker plans to propose tax breaks for biotech companies that manufacture drugs or medical devices in the state, two years after the Legislature renewed a series of tax incentives for high-tech and biotech research and development.

Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, said he will sponsor a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would give biotech companies business-and-occupation (B&O) tax credits for manufacturing expenses and job training.

The goal, he said, is to create a "seamless" tax policy "that would encourage biotech research organizations to consider manufacturing in the state, as well."

Under a law renewed last year, high-tech and biotech companies are entitled to sales-tax deferrals and exemptions for qualified investments in research-and-development facilities, and a business-and-occupation tax credit for some R&D expenses.

All companies in Washington are also entitled to certain tax breaks for manufacturing, including sales tax exemptions for qualified investments in machinery and equipment, and a sales tax deferral and waiver program for investing in rural areas and community empowerment zones.

Jack Faris, president of the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, had a cautious reaction to the biotech manufacturing bill's chance of success in the short, 60-day legislative session that begins Jan. 9. But he said the WBBA, the state's leading biotech trade group, supported any efforts to "nourish" the state's biotechnology industry.

Olympia, Washington -- Two lawmakers are proposing a law that would require cigarettes to be self-extinguishing - they go out if they are not puffed regularly.

The bills would ban the sale or distribution of any cigarette that's not "fire-safe."

"We want to avoid fires caused by people smoking in bed or what-have-you," said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who is sponsoring the Senate bill. "I think it's something that makes a lot of sense."

Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington, has proposed similar legislation in the House.

Three states - New York, California and Vermont - already require self-extinguishing smokes. Tobacco companies last year rushed to market cigarettes wrapped in special ultra-thin paper with "speed bump" bands that inhibit burning unless a smoker draws in air.

Some smokers in New York, the first state to require the cigarettes, have complained about their cigarettes going out.

Spokesman Dana Bolden for Philip Morris USA said there should be a single, nationwide standard for such cigarettes. "We're afraid that there might be a patchwork of various state regulations," he said.

Helena, Montana -- Republican U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns' lead over two top Democrats has eroded, with a majority of Montana voters voicing concern over his taking campaign funds from indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients, a new poll shows.

One Democratic challenger, state Auditor John Morrison, is within striking distance of Burns.

If the election were held today, Montana voters favored Burns over Morrison by a 46 to 40 percent margin, with 14 percent undecided, the poll showed. In a poll conducted in May, Burns enjoyed a 49 to 34 percent lead over Morrison, with 17 percent undecided.

Burns leads the other top Democrat, state Senate President Jon Tester, by a 49 to 35 percent margin, with 16 percent undecided, in the December poll. The May poll showed Burns over Tester by a 50 to 26 percent margin, with 24 percent undecided.

Burns is among four members of Congress being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department over the Abramoff affair.

Burns is seeking his fourth six-year term in the Senate.

Cheyenne, Wyoming -- Fred Parady, former speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, says he's considering running for state treasurer.

Parady, a Rock Springs Republican, retired last year after 10 years in the Legislature. He said Friday that he's putting together a committee to explore the possibility of running for the treasurer's post next year.

Incumbent Treasurer Cynthia Lummis is finishing her second term and is barred from running again under state term limits.

Parady said Wyoming's investment portfolio has increased significantly in recent years. Maintaining returns on the state's investments is critical to preventing the state from having to impose an income tax, he said.

Phoenix, Arizona -- The intent of an Arizona law providing public campaign financing could be thwarted if a legislator is allowed to pursue a legal appeal that could extend his court case past the next election, lawyers for the state told an appellate court recently.

Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-Scottsdale, missed the chance to go to court to challenge the Citizens Clean Elections Commission's order that he must forfeit his District 7 seat because he overspent in his publicly funded 2004 primary election campaign, the state lawyers said in papers filed with the Court of Appeals.

Smith's legal challenge asking the courts to overturn the commission's action isn't allowed under state law because he originally filed it before the commission took the final administrative action in his case and because he then missed a 14-day deadline to file an appeal after the fact, the lawyers said.

Now, the 1998 campaign finance law approved by voters would not be enforced and its public policy of providing public campaign financing under certain conditions would be blocked if Smith were allowed to delay his case beyond the 2006 elections and the swearing-in of the next two-year session of the Legislature, the state's response to Smith's appeal said.

Smith filed an appeal on Dec. 13, asking the Court of Appeals to let him stay in office although the commission found that he overspent in his primary campaign by at least 10 percent.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel said it will rule by Jan. 17, then put that ruling on hold for five days so the losing side has time to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court while a stay remains in effect.

Denver, Colorado -- State Rep. Mark Larson's surprise decision to withdraw from a November showdown with incumbent Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, for the state Senate's 6th District seat all but ends Republican hopes of recapturing the Senate, according to a GOP leader.

"This was our best hope," Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, the assistant minority leader, said Thursday. "Even then, it would have been an uphill battle."

Democrats now hold an 18-17 edge in the upper house.

Larson, who announced his run for the Senate in June, apparently had second thoughts.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Larson said he learned after he won the job of representing the 59th District in the Colorado Legislature in 1998 that he was trading the 24-7 truck-stop business for another 24-7 job.

Realizing that unseating Isgar in November would mean more of the same was only part of the reason he dropped from the race, Larson said.

Portland, Oregon -- Two men from a wealthy Portland suburb made their push to build the state's first private casino official, filing an initiative petition that seeks to change Oregon's constitution.

Investment adviser Bruce Studer and attorney Matt Rossman, both of Lake Oswego, have until July to collect the thousands of signatures needed to put their proposal for a $490 million gambling and entertainment complex at the currently inoperative Multnomah Greyhound Park in Wood Village onto the November 2006 ballot.

The ballot measure would amend the clause in Oregon's constitution that prohibits non-tribal casinos, and would authorize Studer, Rossman and their investors to open a single commercial, taxable casino.

The proposal is virtually certain to draw heavy opposition from Oregon's Indian tribes, which operate nine casinos on reservations throughout the state and contribute a percentage of profits to public funds.

Portland, Oregon -- At least three people gathering signatures for four initiatives backed by prominent Oregon conservatives said Thursday that they were paid by the signature, instead of by the hour, in violation of state law.

The three plan to file complaints with the state Bureau of Labor and Industry, and have asked the Elections division of the Secretary of State's Office to investigate, according to Patty Wentz with Our Oregon, a progressive political advocacy group.
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But Brian Platt, a director of Portland-based B&P Campaign Management Inc., the firm that dealt directly with signature gatherers for the four initiatives, dismissed those making complaints as "disgruntled employees.''

Portland, Oregon -- A state commission voted Thursday to adopt car and truck emissions rules modeled on California's, extending the stringent standards to the entire Pacific Coast.

The rules were adopted temporarily. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission now has 180 days to make them permanent, which is expected.

When that happens, the tougher rules also will take effect in Washington state. The Washington Legislature approved the stricter standards but conditioned implementation on action in Oregon.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski had recommended the stricter standards beginning with the 2009 model year.

Tahlequah, Oklahoma -- Cherokee officials say they will request arbitration in their dispute with state authorities over a tobacco compact.

The tribe reports they considered going to an independent arbitrator back in August, but decided against it at the time because negotiations were continuing.

The tribe is asking an arbitrator to rule that the state broke the compact when it repealed the sales tax on cigarettes, which the tribe says was forbidden under terms of the compact.

The compact has been in effect since January 2004.

The tribe says that according to the compact, the arbitration process will ask that each side select one arbitrator and then these two will select a third arbitrator that is approved by the other two.

Portland, Oregon -- Gov. Ted Kulongoski is urging the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission to adopt tough new rules on car and truck emissions that will extend California standards to the entire Pacific Coast from Mexico to Canada.

Kulongoski has recommended the stricter California standards for cars and light trucks beginning with the 2009 model year to help reduce pollution blamed for global warming.

The Washington Legislature has already approved the stricter standards, but they will not go into effect unless Oregon agrees to them as well.

"The threat of global warming is real," Kulongoski said. "It's fact, not just idle speculation."

Opponents have gone to court to challenge the request, but Marion County Circuit Judge Mary James is not expected to rule until mid-January on the lawsuit filed by Republican Senate Leader Ted Ferrioli, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and more than a dozen car dealers.

Lincoln, Nebraska -- The Nebraska Supreme Court denied a request to hear a legal challenge to term limits placed on state lawmakers by voters in 2000.

The court, without comment, declined to hear a lawsuit filed by Sens. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, Dennis Byars of Beatrice and Marian Price of Lincoln and six voters.

They allege that term limits violate their First Amendment free speech and association rights and 14th Amendment equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.

That likely means that the lawsuit will have to be filed in a state district court or federal court.

Under the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000, senators are limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms.

Twenty members of the 49-seat, one-house Legislature are barred from seeking re-election next year.

Seattle, Washington -- The way beer and wine is sold in Washington is going to change -- though it isn't known how just yet -- after a federal judge said in two separate rulings that Washington's system for distributing beer and wine violates the Constitution and the Sherman Act.

Costco Wholesale Corp. won a battle against the Washington State Liquor Control Board, when U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled Washington's three-tier system for distributing beer and wine breaks federal antitrust law.

Among other things, Pechman said, Washington state law improperly requires that producers and distributors of beer and wine mark up prices at least 10 percent above cost.

In a separate ruling on Costco's case, Pechman agreed with the Issaquah-based discount retailer's claim that the state law that allows in-state beer and wine producers to ship directly to retailers but prohibits out-of-state producers from doing so, violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.

Boise, Idaho -- The state's method of funding schoolhouse construction is unconstitutional, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled.

"We don't know that it will immediately help schools," said, Jim Cobble, Jerome School District superintendent. "It would be a knee-jerk reaction to say that it would."

The 21-page ruling scolds the Legislature for quibbling over the details of a few crumbling schools while failing to look at the big picture -- that the local bonding system established by lawmakers to pay for school buildings is insufficient under the Idaho Constitution, leaving many students without a safe place to learn.

State Rep. Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, speaker of the House, said the ruling is not a decision, rather, it identifies a problem within the state's system for funding schoolhouse construction. He said the ruling suggests, though not explicitly, that school administrators and the Legislature must work together to identify solutions to the problem.

Bismarck, North Dakota -- Raising North Dakota's share of school aid to 70 percent of districts' educational cost would require almost $300 million in increased spending rise by 2009, a Department of Public Instruction analyst said.

The increase, supplied by increased sales and income taxes, would be accompanied by $300 million in local property tax cuts to rejigger school aid ratios in favor of state money, said Jerry Coleman, the agency's assistant school finance director.

Coleman spoke to the Legislature's interim Finance and Taxation Committee, which is exploring ways to reduce local schools' dependence on property taxes.

Two members of the panel, Reps. Gil Herbel, R-Grafton, and C.B. "Buck" Haas, R-Taylor, sponsored a proposal during the 2005 Legislature to increase school aid by boosting North Dakota's sales and income taxes.

Pierre, South Dakota -- South Dakotans will vote next year on a proposal that would limit real-estate values for local tax purposes.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson said Wednesday that a petition drive to put the measure on the 2006 general election ballot has been successful. Supporters gathered far more than the 33,456 signatures that are needed for a proposed constitutional amendment, he said.

"We reached that point, and we quit counting," Nelson said, adding that 670 petition sheets with about 20 names each were left over once the required number of signatures had been verified.

Stacks of petitions were dropped off at Nelson's office on Nov. 3.

State Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, is behind the property-tax measure. He has said property taxes are becoming too high in many places because valuations are updated each year on the basis of inflated sales prices for comparable property.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- A politician's dream of handing out tax cuts and at the same time increasing government spending in an election year might well become reality as Hawaii's revenues are projected to exceed expectations.

As they prepare for the legislative session that begins in January, Governor Lingle and state lawmakers see a flush economy providing that rare opportunity.

Prudence would dictate some restraint, but having deferred improvements and trimmed back important projects during lean years, officials should line up spending priorities with an emphasis on education and school repairs.

Phoenix, Arizona -- A federal judge has set a January deadline for Arizona to find a way to adequately pay for programs for English-language learners or face fines of up to $2 million a day.

U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins gave the state until Jan. 24, or just 15 days following the start of its 2006 legislative session, to resolve the issue of paying for English-language learners or be fined $500,000 per day for 30 days. The fines would increase up to $2 million per day if the state continued to miss the court's deadlines.

The ruling is the latest in the Flores v. Arizona school-finance lawsuit, which was filed in 1992. Six years ago, the U.S. District Court of Arizona ruled that the state did not sufficiently fund the education of English-language learners.

In the latest decision, the court added that English-language learners do not have to pass the state's high school exam to receive a diploma until the state proves it has fixed the funding problem. Phoenix, Arizona -- A federal judge has set a January deadline for Arizona to find a way to adequately pay for programs for English-language learners or face fines of up to $2 million a day.

U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins gave the state until Jan. 24, or just 15 days following the start of its 2006 legislative session, to resolve the issue of paying for English-language learners or be fined $500,000 per day for 30 days. The fines would increase up to $2 million per day if the state continued to miss the court's deadlines.

The ruling is the latest in the Flores v. Arizona school-finance lawsuit, which was filed in 1992. Six years ago, the U.S. District Court of Arizona ruled that the state did not sufficiently fund the education of English-language learners.

In the latest decision, the court added that English-language learners do not have to pass the state's high school exam to receive a diploma until the state proves it has fixed the funding problem.

Lakewood, Colorado -- With the 2005 elections over, candidates and voters have turned their attention to the 2006 vote, in which the 7th congressional district is shaping up to be one of the most competitive races in the country.

The five candidates for the 7th - three Democrats and two Republicans - have been hustling to gather support, recruit volunteers, raise money, hire staff, open headquarters, pick up endorsements and generally do everything they can to get ahead before the race really begins.

The coming election season is expected to bring national political attention rarely seen in Colorado. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report places the Colorado 7th among the nine most competitive House races in the nation. Chris Cillizza, who writes the political insider The Fix blog on Washingtonpost.com, ranks it at No. 1.

Already, political big-wigs have taken note.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert and Vice President Dick Cheney have flown to Colorado to raise money for GOP candidate Rick O'Donnell. More high-profile visits and out-of-state money are on the horizon.

Since incumbent Bob Beauprez announced he would run for governor, his departure has had Democrats salivating at the chance to grab the seat and has many people expecting a battle.

Phoenix, Arizona -- A state appellate court on Tuesday put on hold until mid-January on a commission's order ousting a legislator from office for overspending in his publicly funded 2004 primary election campaign.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel scheduled Jan. 9 oral arguments in the case of Rep. David Burnell Smith, a Scottsdale Republican who is challenging the Citizens Clean Election Commission's order that he leave office and also pay monetary penalties.

The commission found that Smith's primary campaign overspent by approximately $6,000 by incurring costs that weren't paid until he received his general election funding.

It also ruled that he didn't provide enough details on how he spent the money. He was ordered to forfeit his office, pay a $10,000 civil fine and reimburse his public campaign funding of $34,625.

Smith contends his campaign didn't overspend, that he cooperated with the state's investigation, that the commission doesn't have the authority to oust him and that he wasn't given his day in court.

Juneau, Alaska -- The Alaska Democratic Party says official results from the 2004 general election are riddled with mistakes and discrepancies.

The party is asking the Division of Elections for the electronic data file of voting results, the record of who voted in the 2004 general election, and paper results from machines used in early voting.

Party spokeswoman Kay Brown says the results are impossible for the public to easily read and should be corrected as soon as possible. The former Anchorage legislator says questions have been swirling ever since the polls closed about how the results were tabulated.

In one example, when district-by-district vote counts are totaled, President Bush received more than 292-thousand votes. But his official total was just under 191-thousand votes. Elections officials dispute that vote results published on the state's Web site have mistakes. But they acknowledge that the average person can't make sense of how results are reported without help.

St. Paul, Minnesota -- A judge struck down Minnesota's new 75-cent-a-pack charge on cigarettes Tuesday, saying the fee violated a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty, who crafted the charge on the wholesale price of cigarettes, called for an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Lawmakers had been counting on more than $400 million over two years from the "health impact fee."

But several major cigarette companies - including the makers of Marlboro and Camel brand cigarettes - claimed the charge violated the 1998 tobacco settlement.

That deal funneled billions of dollars to the state to cover health costs caused by smoking, and banned future claims on tobacco companies.

Ramsey County District Judge Michael Fetsch ordered the state to pay refunds or give credits to the tobacco companies for fees paid since the law took effect in August.

Pawlenty, a Republican, has called the charge a fee - not a tax - a move that allowed him to continue to claim he hadn't broken a pledge to raise taxes. That tactic may have backfired, critics say.

"This is what happens when you get cute with the truth," said state Rep. Matt Entenza, a Democrat.

Under the 1998 settlement, the state promised not to pursue future health-cost claims against the tobacco companies. Pawlenty's critics say the current problem could have been avoided by simply calling the charge a tax instead of a "health impact fee."

Carson City, Nevada -- A revised version of a plan to limit government spending and give Nevada voters the final say on state or local government tax increases was filed Tuesday with the secretary of state.

Secretary of State Dean Heller's office confirmed receipt of the updated version of the proposed constitutional amendment that state Sen. Bob Beers, running for governor next year, had filed last week.

Backers of the Tax and Spending Control, or TASC, proposal must collect 83,157 signatures, or 10 percent of the voter turnout in the 2004 election, to get the plan on the 2006 ballot. The plan also would need voter approval in 2008.

Beers, R-Las Vegas, said last week that changes in the initiative petition were needed to clear up confusion that "a couple of different people" had with the first version. He also predicted that voters will understand the proposal despite its complexity.

Pierre, South Dakota -- South Dakota needs to join a regional tracking system that will supervise the trading of credits for electricity generated by wind and other renewable energy sources, members of the state Public Utilities Commission said Monday.

After a meeting with officials of utility companies, the three PUC members said they will ask the state Legislature to approve a measure that would allow the commission to take part in such a tracking system.

A similar bill was rejected by the South Dakota House in the final days of the 2005 legislative session.

Energy credits are earned by the production of electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar or hydroelectric power.

Those credits then can be sold to coal-fired plants or other operations that need the credits to comply with regulations, such as those that require them to produce a certain amount of their power by renewable energy. Some states impose such requirements for the use of renewable energy, but South Dakota does not.

Some companies also buy renewable energy credits to show they are using energy that does not harm the environment.

The money paid for the credits supports wind-powered generators and other operations that generate electricity from renewable sources.

A tracking system for renewable energy credits would benefit not only South Dakota developers of wind power, but also the general public, said PUC Commissioner Dusty Johnson.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- The Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce says it will likely endorse an increase in the statewide minimum wage, a change from last fall when it brought a court challenge against an increase in the local minimum wage, to $9.50 an hour, set to be implemented on Jan. 1.

The New Mexico Appeals Court ruled in November that the city council did not exceed its authority in dictating the wage employers must pay its employees. The chamber said this week it will not pursue the matter in front of the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- A state senator has plans to try to raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7 an hour, a move that would give Utah the fifth-highest minimum wage in the country if the Legislature approves it.

Sen. Ed Mayne wants Utah to join 17 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting a minimum wage that is higher than the $5.15 federal minimum.

If Utah approves Mayne's bill it would become the first state in the Intermountain West to exceed the federal minimum and one of only a handful outside the Pacific Coast and Northeast to do so.

Congress last increased the federal minimum wage in 1997, and Mayne believes the state's workers deserve higher pay to deal with inflation and fight poverty.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Governor Linda Lingle's latest budget adds about $529 million in operating expenses onto to state's two-year budget. The budget also includes a plan for $300 million in tax reductions.

According to the state Department of Finance, Hawaii is projected to have a surplus of about 570 million dollars at the close of fiscal year 2006, ending June 30th.

With a plan including new dental care funding for Medicaid recipients, 40 million dollars for public school repairs, the administration would whittle that balance down to about 77 million at the end of 2007.

While Democratic lawmakers have balked at the idea of big tax cuts this session, Governor Lingle said she can't imagine why anyone would not support cuts. That's because the local cost of living is continuing to rise while Hawaii's economy remains healthy.

Austin, Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry on Monday made official his bid to become the longest-serving governor in Texas history.

“I’ve looked forward to this day for a long time,” he said. “I relish the chance to again lead the Republican ticket to victory.”

Perry, 55, said he was proud of governing as a fiscal conservative, ordering an additional $10 million spent on border security and fighting for increasing funding for education.

“I am going to articulate a clear vision for the future that is based upon the same conservative convictions that the people of this state have seen me act upon during my first full term in office,” he said.

While Perry has been governor, the Legislature – controlled by his party — has failed for two regular sessions and at least two special sessions to fix the broken school finance system. Now they are under court order to change the system by June 1.

Perry said he did by executive order what the Legislature did not accomplish. He ordered schools to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets on classroom instruction.

“When the Legislature didn’t act, I did,” he said.

Perry is the third Republican to file for governor in the March primary. Earlier this month, North Texas consultant Larry Kilgore and South Texas security expert Rhett R. Smith filed for governor with the party.

A spokesman for Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said on Monday that Strayhorn plans to run on the Republican ticket. Strayhorn is considered to be Perry’s greatest challenge in the March primary.

St. Louis, Missouri -- A second group in Missouri launched an effort Monday to raise cigarette taxes, but its plan for the taxes has a different target.

The Missouri Alliance for Health and Justice, made up of advocates for the poor, filed a petition with the Secretary of State's Office Monday proposing an increase in cigarette taxes to 80 cents a pack on the November 2006 ballot.

The group proposes to spend $61 million of the tax revenue on smoking cessation programs and $198 million to restore Medicaid coverage to those who lost it earlier this year. The Medicaid spending would draw federal matching funds.

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan must approve the petition and write the ballot language. If approved, the group would have until May 9 to gather about 145,000 valid signatures to qualify the issue on the ballot.

Earlier this year, the Committee for a Healthy Future proposed raising cigarette taxes to 80 cents per pack, up from the current 17 cents per pack in Missouri, which is the second-lowest cigarette tax in the nation.

It also calls for increases in other non-cigarette tobacco products. The funds would be put into a trust fund to be used for smoking prevention and health-care programs. The Secretary of State already approved that petition and the group is collecting signatures to qualify the issue for the ballot.

Missouri currently uses 13 of the 17 cent-tax for public education and 4 cents for the health initiatives fund.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Today Hawaii is gripped by the politics of personality. Gov. Linda Lingle has learned to manage her image through the nightly news and more effectively through multiple daily personal appearances.

Not since former mayor and erstwhile candidate for governor Frank Fasi has one politician's personality so dominated the local public consciousness.

Her press conferences are wonders of advanced planning with special backdrops, lots of flags and scores of invited guests. The seamless presentations might not make much news, but the news-watching and news-reading public cannot escape the onslaught of Lingle's media events. As a result, in Hawaii when you think leader, you think Lingle.

If elections were decided only on personality, there would be little rationale for the 2006 governor's race.

Every day that goes by without the Democrats finding a candidate to oppose the governor makes the eventual Democratic nominee that much weaker, according to conventional wisdom.

But Democrats are still planning a campaign, although who will slip into the runner's shoes is still unknown.

Within a matter of a week, Democrats held two more planning meetings to discuss strategy for next year. Hawaii's senior Sen. Dan Inouye headed up the first meeting and the isle unions conducted a separate meeting on Friday.

The meetings produced neither a breakout plan nor a candidate who can light up a room.

It is apparent that the Democrats are going to rely on party, not personality, next year. This does not overly concern Democrats, who can see a race based on "Democratic loyalty."

Republicans, however, worry that a popular personality has almost no coattails. Two years ago Lingle's GOP was smashed in local elections. In the House, the GOP has dwindled from 18 to just 10.

With Lingle unable to grow a GOP base, the battle next year is likely to be between Lingle and the entire Democratic Party.

Juneau, Alaska -- A $1.2 billion surplus and not a penny of it set aside just in case it might be needed should the price of oil tumble or some other calamity befall the state.

That's the plan Gov. Frank Murkowski outlined on Thursday when he presented Alaskans with his proposed budget for fiscal 2007.

Now he needs to tell Alaskans why he believes this is the smartest course.

Not saving some of that cash windfall will surely, and rightly, be an idea put under great scrutiny by the Legislature as it debates and revises the governor's budget proposal.

In wanting to spend all of the surplus, the governor must be banking on the state being in a solid financial situation in the years before a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope is built and begins to feed the state treasury.

Alaska does have its $30 billion permanent fund, but political and practical obstacles bar its easy access.

The state does have the Constitutional Budget Reserve, but the $2.2 billion it presently holds is not as much as it might seem. In one year during the Knowles administration, half of that amount was withdrawn in one year to make up for a plummet in oil prices.

Drawing from the budget reserve also comes with an added cost due to the political bartering necessary to obtain the three-quarters vote to tap it.

Olympia, Washington -- After urging lawmakers last week to refrain from spending the $1.4 billion budget surplus, Gov. Christine Gregoire has rolled out a list of new initiatives that would cost the state nearly $200 million.

And now that Gregoire has paved the way for spending, it appears lawmakers plan to follow her lead and disregard her call for fiscal restraint.

Conservatives predict that by March, when Democrats finish rewriting the budget, much of the surplus will have melted away.

Gregoire said she plans to work with the Legislature much like she did this past session to hammer out the budget. At that time the Legislature doubled -- and passed -- Gregoire's proposed tax increase.

Helena, Montana -- The special legislative session was short and left either a sweet or sour aftertaste, depending on your perspective. It set the stage for the 2006 elections, if not a possible return to court over school funding.

Lawmakers took only two of the expected four days to muscle through Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s school funding package and a partial bailout of pension funds. Few, if any, special sessions have wrapped up early.

Lawmakers appropriated $71 million on public schools — $36.7 million in ongoing expenses and $34.5 million in one-time spending. They pumped $125 million of one-time money into state retirement systems that face $1.46 billion in potential deficits.

Schweitzer ran circles around Republicans, who wouldn’t hang together in the House to block his proposals. Last week and last winter, Schweitzer and Democrats picked off a couple of House Republicans on key votes, while all 50 House Democrats stood united.

During the 2004 campaign, some wondered how the greenhorn Schweitzer would deal with the intricacies of the Legislature. The verdict so far: Just fine.

Many of the other 65 Republicans left town fuming. Some GOP leaders hardly spoke on the floor. Their hearts didn’t seem in it. The fight was out of the dog.

House Republicans passed up one golden chance last week when three of them joined Democrats on the House Education Committee to kill Republican Rep. Bill Glaser’s school funding bill. It would have spent far more than Schweitzer and won support from most key education groups. Pushing this bill to the floor would have put Democrats in a political vice, but they escaped.

Republicans seem vexed by Schweitzer and still haven’t figured out how to deal with him effectively. Democrats know the feeling. They were in the same boat a decade ago when popular Republican Gov. Marc Racicot confounded them.

After more than a decade in power, Republicans don’t yet know how to act as a minority party. Their duty is to stick together, hold Democrats’ feet to the fire, offer strong alternatives and take their message across Montana. That doesn’t seem to be happening now.

Republicans need to quit moping about the 2004 election and whining about legislative reapportionment. They need to get their heads screwed on right, find their missing mojo and unite, or they’ll be in worse shape in 2007.

Salem, Oregon -- Oregon is ready to join the ranks of states with a statewide database of registered voters.

One-third of the states could miss the New Year's Day deadline to meet the federal requirement, which was set by a 2002 law known as the Help America Vote Act.

The law required states to upgrade their registration and balloting systems. It was prompted by problems during the 2000 presidential election with ballots cast and counted, especially in Florida.

Under Oregon's old county-by-county system, a voter could have an active registration in two counties -- and possibly receive two mail-in ballots -- until elections officials in the voter's new home county cancel the old registration. A voter can cast only one ballot.

Investigations in Oregon turned up few instances of duplicate voting in 2000, the state's first general election conducted entirely by mail, despite critics' assertions of widespread abuse.

Boulder City, Nevada -- A project that would be the largest solar power plant built anywhere in the world in the last 15 years is set to get under way in Boulder City.

The plant would take advantage of Southern Nevada's abundant sunlight and bring the state's largest electric utility into compliance with the solar power component of the state's aggressive renewable energy mandate through 2009.

North Carolina-based Solargenix Energy said this week that it will break ground in January on its 64-megawatt solar power plant, dubbed Nevada Solar One.

"It's moving forward very well," said John Myles, president and chief executive of Solargenix, which was still operating as Duke Solar when the project was first proposed in 2001.

Myles said construction would take 12 to 14 months. One megawatt is estimated to be enough power to serve about 750 homes. The plant is expected to cost more than $100 million.

Juneau, Alaska -- Fairbanks businessman and former state Sen. John Binkley announced Monday that he is running for governor.

Binkley will face former Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin in the Republican primary in August. The rest of the field is up in the air.

Would-be candidates, donors and professional political operatives are all anxiously waiting for Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski to say whether he is running for re-election.

Binkley said last month that he was going to wait for Murkowski's decision. But Binkley said Monday that he has since concluded Murkowski isn't running.

"Any serious candidate would have filed for office by now," Binkley said.

Pierre, South Dakota -- A campaign to collect 16,728 signatures so South Dakota voters can decide if a retail tax should be tacked onto alcoholic beverages is struggling.

If enough signatures are turned over to the secretary of state by May 2, the proposed retail tax on alcohol will be decided in the 2006 general election.

Existing alcohol taxes, which are levied on wholesalers, raise about $10 million a year, with 75 percent going to the state and 25 percent to cities. Counties get none of those revenues.

County officials have clamored for increased alcohol taxes for years, arguing that they need the money to help pay for alcohol-related costs of law enforcement, jails, prosecutions, treatment programs and other services.

However legislators have rejected proposals to buoy county finances by boosting alcohol taxes. The alcohol industry has adamantly opposed those measures.

South Dakota taxes a gallon of liquor at $3.93.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- Gov. Bill Richardson favors boosting the statewide minimum wage above the federal level, but he still hasn't decided by how much or whether the state should stop local governments from setting even higher minimums.

Some opponents of raising New Mexico's $5.15-an-hour minimum want legislation that would pre-empt local governments from imposing their own wage rules -- as Santa Fe has done.

A coalition of labor, religious and community groups pushing for a statewide increase -- to $7.50 an hour -- is expected to do battle with business groups over including a pre-emption clause in any minimum-wage bill next year.

Representatives of the New Mexico Restaurant Association and the Association of Commerce and Industry have said they will fight to keep employers from having to deal with wage laws at the municipal level.

New Mexico House Speaker Ben Luján, who plans to sponsor a bill to raise the state minimum wage to $7.50 an hour, said that he does not want to deal with the pre-emption issue in his legislation.

Albuquerque voters this year narrowly rejected a proposal that would have raised that city's minimum wage to $7.50. The ballot measure also included a workplace-access provision that opponents claimed would allow the public to disrupt businesses.

Luján said if wage-increase opponents want pre-emption legislation, they would have to introduce a separate bill. Attempts in the Legislature to prohibit local governments from establishing their own wage minimums have failed in recent years.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- A state judge has ruled in favor of thousands of substitute teachers who brought a class-action lawsuit claiming the Hawaii Department of Education illegally underpaid them over several years.

The ruling could end up costing the state an estimated $13-$15 million unless it appeals successfully to the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Circuit Judge Karen Ahn agreed with the plaintiffs that, under a 1996 law, substitute teachers should have been paid the same daily rate as full-time, licensed teachers.

The period of underpayment is from November 2000 to June 2005.

The 1996 law had tied substitute teacher’s pay to a certain class of full-time teacher.

Substitutes say the department has never honored that linkage, adding that subsequent changes made by the department to its teacher classification system effectively severed it, placing substitute pay on a lower trajectory.

The teachers had originally sought an estimated $25 million in back pay starting from 1996. However, according to the statute of limitations, the teachers could claim back pay beginning no earlier than November 2000, two years before the original suit was filed.

There was no word on whether the state intended to appeal.

Juneau, Alaska -- The governor's budget plan for the next fiscal year would spend most of the projected $1.12 billion surplus on education and equity in a natural gas pipeline.

About $565 million is marked for future education needs and $400 million would be set aside for the construction of a gas pipeline expected to cost at least $20 billion.

Another $130 million is planned for deferred maintenance, public safety and corrections needs, while the remaining $32 million would be available for emergencies.

The governor also designated $45 million for a highway from Juneau to a planned ferry terminal near Skagway.

The total budget spends $3.62 billion in the state general fund, about $500 million more than this fiscal year's plan.

The Alaska Department of Revenue announced the state's revenue forecast for fiscal year 2006, which figures the price of Alaska North Slope crude oil to be an average of $57.30 per barrel.

The department's estimation is a 32 percent increase over this year's level of $43.43 per barrel. It foresees oil to decline to $40.95 per barrel in fiscal year 2007 and $25.50 per barrel for 2008.

Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said political instability in the Middle East and Venezuela, low U.S. oil supplies and effects from Hurricane Katrina are some of the reasons why oil will remain high over the next year.

The state collects royalties, production taxes, property taxes and corporate income taxes from the oil industries' activities in Alaska.

Juneau, Alaska -- Negotiations have been halted for the next few weeks between Alaska and three oil companies on terms for $20 billion deal to build a natural gas pipeline in the state's North Slope region.

Gov. Frank Murkowski described the suspension as a holiday break in the talks with BP PLC, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Negotiations are to start up again next month in Juneau as the Legislature prepares to meet for its 2006 session.

Murkowski also said there are some points the two sides have not been able to close on, and the break will allow the participants to re-energize for what he hopes will be a final push for a deal, which could cost $20 billion.

Murkowski's negotiators are trying to close a deal with the three North Slope oil producers on long-term fiscal goals for a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope, through Canada and to markets in the Midwest. ConocoPhillips has agreed to the state's base terms; BP and Exxon Mobil have not.

The companies say long-range tax and royalty issues must be resolved before the project can continue. The Legislature must also sign off on any contract after it goes through a public comment period. If a deal is reached, it is expected to take about 10 years to complete the pipeline.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Registered nurses at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics have ratified a three-year contract that provides a 23 percent pay raise and language ensuring safe staffing levels. Approximately 500 of 780 eligible nurses voted in the two-day election, which concluded Wednesday; approximately 91 percent of them voted to accept the contract.

The vote came as some Kaiser nurses demonstrated this week to replace the Hawaii Nurses Association with the California Nurses Association as the Kaiser nurses' collective bargaining representative.

Aggie Pigao Cadiz, executive director of the Hawaii Nurses Association, said yesterday that the high turnout among nurses and overwhelming vote in favor of the contract shows that Kaiser nurses are pleased with the association's performance.

"We have continued to build on the gains we made in the last contract and look forward to doing so in the future," Pigao Cadiz said.

Denver, Colorado -- Republican Gov. Bill Owens and the Legislature’s top Democrats continued to try to lower expectations Thursday about how far $3.7 billion can be spread among state services.

That’s the September estimate of what Referendum C — the measure Colorado voters approved in November — will allow state government to keep and spend over the coming five years.

Owens said that by the time Referendum C money is used to restore some of the spending cut back in recent years and replace money that was borrowed from various budget accounts, there won’t be money left.

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, and Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, who joined Owens earlier this year in crafting the budget-stabilization compromise that advanced C to the ballot, agreed with the governor.

Despite their Referendum C alliance during the election campaign, Owens and the Democratic leaders still appeared Thursday to differ in their post-election positions about how that additional money can and should be spent.

Omaha, Nebraska -- Nebraska's ban on corporate farming limited the amount of outside investment in the state's agricultural businesses over the past 23 years and forced some farmers to adopt onerous ownership structures.

Supporters also say that the ban made Nebraska's agriculture industry more responsible because farmers couldn't use corporate structures to shield themselves from liability.

But it's difficult to quantify what the ban has meant to the state because the answer depends on a person's perspective.

"The whole debate has been 'Can Nebraska farming be viable if corporate farming can't come in, or is Nebraska farming viable because corporate farming hasn't been able to come in?'" said Brad Lubben, an agricultural policy specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the ban, known as Initiative 300, is unconstitutional because it violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and the Americans With Disabilities Act. The lawsuit challenging the ban was filed by several ranchers, including former state Sen. Jim Jones of Eddyville. The plaintiffs said that the ban prevented them from setting up corporations to keep their operations within their family or from combining resources with neighbors to control costs, among other things.

Attorney General Jon Bruning plans to appeal that ruling.

Rapid City, South Dakota -- They each have their own ideas on how to tackle the issues facing the 2006 South Dakota Legislature, but many West River lawmakers agreed Thursday that education funding will top the list of debates.

Thirteen legislators gave a preview of the session at the annual Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce pre-legislative crackerbarrel held at Camp Rapid. Along with education, lawmakers mentioned proposals aimed at drunken drivers and setting limits on eminent domain, among others.

Denver, Colorado -- Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has made it known to his Cabinet officers that he has not ruled out running for governor, but said that so far he has not found a compelling reason to enter the race.

The mayor told his top appointees that perhaps he should listen to the political activists and supporters who are pressuring him to run, said people who attended the meeting.

"A number of people from both sides of the political aisle continue to encourage the mayor to consider running," said Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, Hickenlooper's spokeswoman. "He has learned nothing so far to convince him to run, as he absolutely loves being mayor of Denver."

The pressure on Hickenlooper to get into the race is rising because candidates need a year to raise enough money to mount a statewide campaign. Hickenlooper was scheduled to meet with a prominent Democratic fundraiser Saturday, a source said Friday.

In recent weeks, privately commissioned polls found Hickenlooper was popular with voters statewide.

Some Democrats want Hickenlooper or another candidate to get into the race because they are unsatisfied with former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter's opposition to abortion rights.

Phoenix, Arizona -- Gov. Janet Napolitano could run for president, says the January issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. It lists Napolitano as one of six women in politics "who could give it a shot."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin; and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, are also named. The White House Project, a group that wants a female president, compiled the list.

The nod comes weeks after Time magazine named Napolitano one of the country's top governors. O Magazine called eight weeks ago to do research but didn't say why, Napolitano spokeswoman Jeanine L'Ecuyer said. Napolitano isn't shopping for Oval Office curtains, though. "She is really enjoying being governor of Arizona," L'Ecuyer said, "and is completely focused on that."

Phoenix, Arizona -- A federal judge gave Arizona an ultimatum Friday: Improve instruction for non-English-speaking schoolchildren now, or it's going to cost you.

U.S. District Judge Raner Collins ordered lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano to come up with a financial plan by late January to help educate students struggling to learn English or be fined $500,000 a day. The penalty could rise to $2 million a day if they fail to act.

Salem, Oregon -- Gov. Ted Kulongoski is urging the conversion of Oregon's entire coastline into a national marine sanctuary to head off oil exploration and other activities that could harm natural and scenic values.

In a letter to Oregon's congressional delegation, Kulongoski said the move would allow state and federal agencies to work with fishermen, tribes, recreational users and others to protect the ecosystem.

Oregon's jurisdiction extends three nautical miles from the beach. The sanctuary proposal would extend protection an average of about 25 miles to cover the continental shelf.

It would be the nation's first such sanctuary.

Lakewood, Washington -- A teenage Moroccan girl who came to Washington state in hopes of getting a good education and becoming a dentist was instead kept as a slave by her aunt and uncle, who pulled her out of school and forced her to work without pay at the family's espresso stand, the FBI says.

Abdenasser Ennassime, also known as Sammy, was arrested at Lake City Park in Lakewood, and his wife, Tonya, was arrested at their home Friday morning, a day after a federal grand jury indicted them. Tonya Ennassime is charged with harboring an alien while her husband is charged with one count of harboring and one count of forced labor. The girl, now 17, has been living in a safe house.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Utah's congressional delegation achieved a significant, hard-fought victory Friday in its effort to block a nuclear waste storage site in the state, winning approval of a wilderness area aimed at blocking a rail line that would deliver the waste.

The Cedar Mountain wilderness language was approved by leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees after a weeks-long push by Utah members of Congress who were aided by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., environmental groups and Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid.

Austin, Texas -- The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday it would hear oral arguments on constitutional challenges to Texas' redrawn congressional boundaries on March 1.

That means the court will consider whether the current districts are legal just six days before the state's March 7 primaries. A decision is expected by the end of June, before the court's summer recess.

If the high court finds Texas' existing congressional districts unconstitutional, it could send the redistricting map back to the Texas Legislature. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has said elections will go forward under the existing districts.

The court will hear arguments from four separate appeals by critics of the Texas map that have been consolidated in one case.

The Texas Legislature redrew its congressional districts in 2003.

Aspen, Colorado -- Voters overwhelmingly ousted District Attorney Colleen Truden in a recall election just 11 stormy months after she took office, and chose one of her former deputies to replace her.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Truden said Tuesday night as the votes came in, "and if you guys (the press) hadn't been printing all these things since April, I wouldn't be in this position."

Critics accused Truden of dishonesty, nepotism, mismanagement, wasting money and failing to prosecute enough cases. Seven prosecutors, including five held over from her predecessor, have resigned.

Truden defended her record and said the complaints came from people who didn't like her strict management style and from her opponents in the 2004 election.

A Republican in a majority GOP district, Truden is only the second district attorney in Colorado history to face a recall vote and the first one to lose.

Truden's district -- Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties in the western Colorado mountains -- voted her out by a 4-to-1 ratio.

Former Deputy District Attorney Martin Beeson, who resigned from Truden's staff in April, was elected to replace her.

Phoenix, Arizona -- Lawyers for the state and a legislator facing possible ouster in a campaign finance case proposed that an appellate court act on the lawmaker's appeal by mid-January while letting the lawmaker stay in office at least until that court rules soon after.

A joint stipulation, filed late Thursday by lawyers for Rep. David Burnell Smith on one hand and the state on the other, asked the Court of Appeals to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 13 under accelerated-appeal rules that would require the court to issue a ruling the next week.

Smith, R-Scottsdale, filed an appeal Tuesday asking the Court of Appeals to overturn the Citizens Clean Elections Commission's decision that he forfeit his office because of overspending by his publicly funded 2004 primary election campaign.
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A trial judge's stay temporarily blocking enforcement of his own order upholding the commission's decision expires Dec. 21, but the joint stipulation by Smith and the state asked the Court of Appeals to issue a new stay through five days after it rules.

That would give Smith time to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court if he loses at the Court of Appeals.

Anchorage, Alaska - Education and the gas pipeline are the areas of state government that should benefit most from the state’s $1 billion windfall, according to Gov. Frank Murkowski.

When it comes to federal dollars, the governor is still pushing for the controversial Knik Arm and Ketchikan bridges. These topics were covered at the governor’s annual budget address.

With more than $1.1 billion in extra state money to spend, Murkowski proposes to dedicate all but about $150 million of the surplus to an education fund and to a future equity investment in a natural gas pipeline. But whether that’s saving or spending is a matter of debate.

State general fund spending would increase under the governor’s budget, from the amount approved for the current fiscal year number of just over $3.1 billion, to $3.6 billion in the fiscal year that begins next July. While that’s about a 16 percent increase, Murkowski says half of it would be set aside now for next year’s K-12 expenses.

Meanwhile, $400 million would constitute a down payment on an eventual $1 billion cash investment in a gas pipeline.

Despite all the extra cash, Murkowski told the group Commonwealth North that he still wants to see a long-term fiscal plan based on a Percent of Market Value payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund.

Pierre, South Dakota -- South Dakota's current strong economy could help shrink its budget deficit to zero by the budget year beginning in July 2007.

Gov. Mike Rounds told lawmakers during his annual budget address Dec. 6 that he wants to use $5.3 million in reserves to balance the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in July 2006. But he thinks the deficit will shrink to nothing by the following year. State revenues are growing at a faster rate than expenses.

"We are on track to eliminate that deficit and be in the black by next year," Rounds said.

High production and prices for agriculture crops and livestock and continued growth in housing construction helped contribute to the state's strong economy, Rounds said.

Consumer demand also is up and the state gained 5,100 new jobs in the last year. Sales tax revenue for the last two months also grew more than expected, Rounds said. Investments in research and economic development are starting to pay off as well.

Rounds plans to give schools more money to deal with increased heating costs projected for this winter.

Education funding for K-12 and higher education will increase by $18.7 million for fiscal year 2007, including a $6.1 million increase in the K-12 funding formula. That is roughly the amount not used in educating K-12 students last year. The amount is the difference between estimated students and those that actually enrolled.

For fiscal year 2007 Rounds proposed spending $4,364 per student. Schools with an enrollment less than 200 will receive $5,238 per student

Rounds will address lawmakers again during his annual state of the state address during the first day of the Legislature Jan. 10. The main run of this year's session ends on Feb. 28.

Phoenix, Arizona -- As Gov. Janet Napolitano prepares to run for re-election next year and propose a new state budget to the Republican-led Legislature in January, the first-term Democrat is signaling that she wants to use part of a projected budget surplus to undo several major maneuvers used to avoid red ink during hard times earlier this decade.

But Republican lawmakers and others have already been floating tax cuts and other ideas on how to use a projected surplus that by the June 30 end of the current fiscal year could be double the $357 million figure projected in October by legislative budget analysts.

Now, Napolitano is starting to offer her own proposals that could account for much of the surplus.

Napolitano also said the improved economy means the state can afford to put more money in its rainy day fund, but it wasn't clear whether she was referring to a deposit mandated under the current budget or proposing another one. The reserve was virtually drained to balance the budget.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- Amid lingering suspicions from the 2004 elections , New Mexico officials are trying to address issues of secrecy, accuracy and transparency in vote counting.

A task force that includes lawmakers and county clerks Wednesday finalized recommendations for how the state should clean up election laws approved by the Legislature in a rushed session early this year.

It was the group’s last chance before lawmakers convene Jan. 17 to recommend changes that would be implemented in time for the primary election in June.

But because there are so many needed improvements that committee members and public activists have identified, the group decided to continue evaluating the election code after the Legislative session ends.

“There are things that won’t be addressed during the session that we need to work on,” said Rep. Ed Sandoval, D-Albuquerque , task force co-chairman .

Included in two bills that will be introduced next month is a request to give county clerks until Dec. 31, 2007, to comply with the state’s new requirements for “voter verified and auditable paper trail,” unless money becomes available sooner. The current rule calls for compliance by the end of 2006.

Chief among the concerns of a dozen county clerks who serve on the task force is getting help with the additional costs of complying with new state laws. “Implementing all of this ... is going to put an undue burden on the county clerks,” said Sen. Dianna Duran, R- Tularosa, a task-force member.

Denver, Colorado -- Loveland Republican Rep. Jim Welker says he and fellow members of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado want to make it harder for illegal immigrants to live in this state.

That group, which includes about 18 of the Legislature’s 47 Republicans, is expected to introduce seven or eight bills targeting illegal immigration, Welker said in an interview.

He said, for example, that he is working on a bill to prohibit anyone who’s living in the United States illegally from making electronic “wire” transfers of money from Colorado to other countries.

Nationally, “illegal aliens are sending something like $16 billion back to Mexico” each year, Welker said.

Welker acknowledged, however, that “I’ve run into some snags” because his proposed Colorado law may conflict with federal laws about wire transfers, “so the bill may not go anywhere.”

If that’s the case, “I’ll grab onto something else,” Welker said, as part of the Republican Study Committee’s anti-illegal immigration efforts in next year’s session.

Welker’s comments came after he and more than two dozen other Colorado state lawmakers spent much of Monday listening to various public policy experts’ takes on immigration issues.

Denver, Colorado -- A proposal to be introduced in the Colorado Legislature next month will attempt to keep residents from falling victim to mortgage and foreclosure fraud.

Rep. Tom Massey, R-Chaffee, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Adams, have signed on to sponsor the legislation.

The idea for the legislation comes out of the Colorado Attorney General's Office. Attorney General John Suthers on Thursday announced the findings of his mortgage and foreclosure fraud task force that was formed in July.

"Earlier this year, the FBI identified Colorado as one of the top 10 mortgage fraud 'hot spots' in the country," said Suthers. "This is unacceptable and thanks to the work of the Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud Task Force, we are making efforts to remove Colorado from this list."

The task force recommended legislation that would require foreclosure consultants and equity investors to have written contracts with homeowners. The contracts should spell out in detail the services to be provided and the conditions of any transfer of ownership in a property, the task force suggested.

The proposed legislation would allow for prosecution under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act as a misdemeanor.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Saying the Hawaii Nurses Association has failed to protect the interest of nurses and patients, nurses at Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center and Kaiser clinics are attempting to remove the local nurses union as their collective-bargaining representative and replace it with a California-based union.

The majority of the approximately 800 Kaiser nurses represented by the Hawaii union have signed a petition requesting to replace the Hawaii nurses union with the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association, said Michelle Paik, a registered nurse at Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center.

The push to break from the Hawaii Nurses Association comes as Kaiser nurses are voting to finalize a new contract with Kaiser. Votes were scheduled to be counted last night after press time.

Paik said the attempt to defect from the Hawaii Nurses Association follows years of dissatisfaction with the organization. The Hawaii union, she said, has enabled hospitals throughout the state to provide inadequate numbers of nurses to care safely for patients.

Lynn Kenton, a spokeswoman for Kaiser, said the hospital receives consistently high marks for patient satisfaction, which she said was a sign that the hospital is properly staffed.

Idaho Falls, Idaho -- Opponents want to repeal a new law that will require permits and inspections to install home entertainment systems, phone lines and other low-voltage electrical devices, saying it could cost Idaho consumers millions of dollars.

The law, passed nearly unanimously by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne in April, requires installers to obtain a permit to do the work and to have an inspector check the work.

Opponents say that means a licensed electrician would be needed to install cable television, home movie theaters, phone systems, speaker systems, wireless Internet broadband, surveillance systems and other low-voltage gear.

Opponents estimate more than 500,000 such installations are done each year in Idaho. They say that with the new law, the fee for each service would run from $10 to $180, depending on the cost of the installation.

Mark Norviel, manager of networking and communications at Idaho State University, said he estimates the law could cost the school up to $250,000 next year in licensing, maintenance and repairs.

When the Legislature convenes in January, it will be asked to approve the rules created under the law. Opponents say if the law isn't repealed, the rules should at least exempt low-voltage devices.

The Independent Electrical Contractors of Idaho told lawmakers the law would update the National Electrical Code.

"They are concerned with their own pocketbooks," Norviel said.

Bob Corbell, lobbyist for the electrical contractors, said the law was needed to make sure that people installing satellite dishes or wireless Internet know their way around electricity.

Boise, Idaho -- Sales have gone up by about 15 percent a year for the past three years.The Idaho Liquor Dispensary attributes the increase to population growth in the Treasure Valley and northern Idaho.

But no matter how much liquor is sold in Idaho, the amount of tax revenue the state gets is capped by state law at $8 million. The rest of the tax revenue goes to city and county governments.

Now some state lawmakers want to change that. They don't want to raise liquor taxes. They just want to raise the cap so the state will get a bigger slice of an already growing pie.

As it is now, cities and counties are getting 65 percent of the money.

If the plan is approved, Idaho's cities and counties would not receive less money annually. The state would simply get a larger share of the increased revenue that has resulted from the boom in liquor sales.

Helena, Montana -- Democrats rammed their $71 million school funding plan through the Legislature Thursday, wrapping up in two days a special session convened to pump money into schools and public employee pension funds.

Democrats used their majority muscle to enact a plan mostly reflecting the wishes of Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who called it a good, affordable step toward addressing a Montana Supreme Court ruling last year that said state funding of public schools was inadequate.

Republican leaders, however, blasted the plan as a slapdash effort that threw money at schools without offering any real reforms of a system that had been declared unconstitutional.

They also ripped Democrats as "rubber stamps" for Schweitzer, accusing them of squelching any real attempts to modify the governor's funding plan.

A spokesman for the group that organized the lawsuit leading to the Supreme Court ruling also said it's not satisfied with the session results.

The Democrats' plan increases annual state funding for schools by nearly $37 million next year, a 6 percent increase, which comes on top of a 7 percent increase approved for the current school year.

It also adds $34.5 million in one-time money next year for building maintenance, energy costs and Indian Education for All, a program to teach American Indian culture to all students in Montana.

Money for the plan will come from an unprecedented state treasury surplus that's expected to exceed $400 million next year. The surplus is the result of higher-than-expected tax revenue from income and oil-and-gas taxes.

Republicans tried several times Thursday to add more money to the plan, particularly to help smaller schools, but were repeatedly rebuffed by Democrats voting as a bloc in the House and Senate.

Schweitzer made it clear he did not want to spend more than the $71 million proposal, saying the money will be needed for future expenses such as a growing prison population, programs for the needy and bailing out the state's debt-ridden employee pension plans.

Democrats also said the bill is a good start toward resolving years of neglect on state funding of schools.

Schweitzer also said the plan doesn't raise taxes, although it could lead to slight property tax increases to cover higher teacher retirement costs in the future.

If ongoing funds lead to higher teacher salaries, county property taxes will have to pick up a portion of higher pension costs caused by that salary increase.

Republicans said the plan also missed an opportunity to actually reduce local property taxes.

Reno, Nevada -- The Nevada State Board of Pharmacy agreed to defer to the state Legislature a decision about whether pharmacists in the state should be allowed to refuse to fill a prescription based on moral or religious beliefs.

The board in October in Las Vegas debated a proposal that would have allowed pharmacists in the state to refuse to fill a prescription because it violates a "genuine principle or tenet of conscience," which some advocates say could limit access to birth control and HIV/AIDS-related medications.

Nevada law and pharmacy board regulations do not address so-called "conscience clause" regulations for pharmacists.

Under the proposal, pharmacists refusing to fill prescriptions would have been required to arrange to have them filled by another pharmacist "without delay" and would not have been allowed to discuss their objections with patients.

In addition, a pharmacy could not have disciplined pharmacists for refusing to fill a prescription as long as they reported their objections to their employers in advance.

Nevada Assembly member Sheila Leslie (D) appealed to the board to allow the Legislature to address the issue.

Lincoln, Nebraska -- Two groups asked the Nebraska Supreme Court for permission to intervene in a legal challenge to term limits placed on state lawmakers by voters in 2000.

U.S. Term Limits and Don't Touch Term Limits asked for permission to file a so-called friend-of-the-court brief in the case, which three state senators and a group of voters filed directly with the high court earlier this month.

Under the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000, senators are limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms.

Twenty members of the 49-seat, one-house Legislature are barred from seeking re-election next year.

Don Stenberg, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate who served three terms as Nebraska's attorney general, is helping represent the term limits groups.

"The people of Nebraska have spoken," Stenberg said. "They want term limits. They want citizen legislators. The voice of the people should and must be respected."

Stenberg also criticized state lawmakers fighting term limits.

"They think Nebraska voters don't know what they are doing," Stenberg said. "They think Nebraska voters don't understand the `complexities' of this issue. And, most importantly, they don't want to give up their power."

Senators Ernie Chambers of Omaha, Dennis Byars of Beatrice and Marian Price of Lincoln were joined by six voters in filing the lawsuit.

They allege that term limits violate their First Amendment free speech and association rights and 14th Amendment equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.

Olympia, Washington -- Washington would become the second state in the country to allow online voter registration under a measure proposed Wednesday by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

Reed said the plan - currently used only in Arizona - would be a "significant innovation" for the state, and urged lawmakers to sponsor the idea in the upcoming legislative session.

The new statewide voter registration database going online next month will already be connected to the state Department of Licensing, which has people's signatures and photos on file. Voters would be able to fill out an application on the Secretary of State's Web site.

Las Vegas, Nevada -- By submitting a short stack of papers to the secretary of state on Monday, state Sen. Bob Beers fired the first salvo in a political battle that will be unlike any seen in recent Nevada history.

Sen. Beers, a Republican candidate for governor in next year's election, launched a petition that could place constitutional caps on state and local government budgets, bolster emergency reserves, let voters decide tax and spending issues and refund surplus revenue to taxpayers. If his network of staff and volunteers can collect the signatures of 83,184 registered Nevada voters by June, the Tax and Spending Control initiative -- TASC -- will qualify for the November ballot.

And if voters approve the question next year and again in 2008, the era of runaway government growth in the Silver State will end.

TASC would restrict budget growth to the combined rates of population growth and inflation, unless voters agree to waive the cap. Had this TASC restriction been in place over the past decade, state spending still would have increased 93 percent. Instead, the budget grew by a nation-leading 147.5 percent.

Juneau, Alaska -- State Sen. Gene Therriault will introduce a bill to issue the one-time checks as a way to help citizens meet rising energy costs. The checks could be used on anything.

Therriault has gotten mixed feedback from colleagues in the state Legislature.

Oil prices are the reason for the state's expected $1.2 billion surplus -- since most of the general fund is from taxes and royalties on oil.

Therriault's plan includes more than the $250 checks, including sending $6 million to the rural energy subsidy program and $10 million to the Low Income Weatherization Program.

A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski said the governor hadn't formed an opinion on the plan.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- The Hawaii Legislature did the unofficial math on the eve of the official arithmetic by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.

The gas cap is based on New York Harbor, Los Angeles and Gulf Coast spot market prices, averaged together over five trading sessions through Tuesday. The cap rose 7 cents this week after several weeks of incremental declines.

Cheyenne, Wyoming -- A key legislative committee has voted down a proposal to give Wyoming's five top elected officials $10,000 annual pay raises.

The Management Council, the administrative arm of the Legislature, on Tuesday voted 7-6 not to endorse draft legislation to increase the salaries of the governor, auditor, treasurer, secretary of state and superintendent of public instruction.

Salaries for the posts were last increased in January 2003. The governor earns $105,000 a year and the other four officials earn $92,000 a year each.

Tucson, Arizona -- Someone is about to get a promotion or a fast-track seat in the Arizona Legislature.

Paula Aboud and state Reps. Ted Downing and David Bradley are vying for the District 28 seat former Sen. Gabrielle Giffords left this month to run for retiring U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe's seat in Congress.

Kolbe is a Republican. Giffords will seek the Democratic nomination in September's congressional primary.

Her appointed replacement in the Senate must be a Democrat.

Last night, Democratic precinct committee members from throughout the legislative district approved the three candidates.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors will choose one to replace Giffords.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Utah state government is losing some of its most veteran and senior workers this month — nearly all early retirements coming because of a new law that on Jan. 1 cuts back health-care insurance for retired state employees.

The Utah Public Employees Association, the main state union, last week lost a court battle to stop the provisions of HB213 from taking effect.

The law changes how workers can convert unused sick leave into post-retirement health insurance. State workers with 30 years or more must retire by the end of the year or lose free insurance coverage for up to 10 years.

Denver, Colorado -- Lawmakers from five states discussed national immigration issues Monday but found little common ground other than their dissatisfaction with the government’s policies.

The fiercest critique of U.S. immigration policy came from Russell Pearce, a Republican in the Arizona Legislature who termed the flood of illegal immigrants an “invasion.”

“We have a national crisis, and we have a massive failure in government,” Pearce told the audience in the packed Old Supreme Court Chambers in the Capitol.

Lawmakers from Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Texas also attended the forum, the second immigration-related event this year organized by Colorado lawmakers along with national organizations.

Immigration issues are certain to surface when the Colorado Legislature starts its 120-day annual session in January. Among the proposals up for consideration is one from Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, to ban the state government from providing services to illegal immigrants. A citizens group is pressing to put a similar measure on the ballot.

Most government agencies do not ask clients for proof of legal residency.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma -- Nearly all the money raised by an organization pushing a taxpayer bill of rights is from out-of-state groups, despite a grassroots direct mail plea for money.

Oklahomans in Action Inc. reported raising more than $350,000, most of it in large donations from groups such as the Colorado Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.

When its next campaign finance report is filed today, Oklahomans in Action will likely report spending and raising about $500,000, the group's chairman said.

"The groups from out of state? Thank God for them," Oklahomans in Action Chairman Rick Carpenter said. "If someone wants to come in and help Oklahoma solve some of its governmental problems, then we'd be stupid not to take it."

Wasilla, Alaska -- Before each meeting, Wasilla Planning Commission Chairman Stan Tucker calls on one of his fellow commissioners, Greg Koskela, to pray.

"I think we need all the help we can get," Tucker said.

Koskela commonly closes his prayers with a phrase like, "We ask this in Jesus' name."

That's the part that caught the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU wrote the commission Nov. 2, asking the chairman to stop opening and closing the meetings with sectarian prayer.

Singling out Christ, according to the ACLU, amounts to sectarianism.

Olympia, Washington -- The group that wants to build a NASCAR race track near Bremerton will make its pitch to state lawmakers next month when the Legislature convenes.

But the head of the Senate budget committee, Margarita Prentice of Renton, says there's no support for the plan to pay about half the cost through tax-backed bonds.

Supporters say the $345 million project would bring money to the area from high-profile racing.

The Speedway Corporation wants to make the sport truly nationwide. It also plans to build a race track at New York, where it would pay the entire cost.

Jefferson City, Missouri -- Election officials in four Midwestern states have reached an agreement aimed partly at making sure people aren't registered to vote in multiple states.

The agreement among secretaries of state in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska calls for the creation of a task force to study ways of cross-checking voter registration rolls in the various states.

The task force also is to study joint training of election officials, testing of election systems and ways to improve election security procedures, as well as the creation of standard rules for international election observers.

The agreement comes less than a month after the U.S. Justice Department sued Missouri claiming the state had failed to take reasonable steps to keep its voter rolls up to date. As a result, the Justice Department claimed, Missouri's voter rolls may include some people who have died or moved and exclude others who should still be eligible to vote.

Des Moines, Iowa -- Population shifts to warmer weather could result in Iowa losing one of its U-S House seats after the 2010 census.

That's according to a Washington-based consultant that specializes in redistricting.

Election Data Services predicts Iowa, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania will lose seats, based on 2004 census population estimates. Arizona, Florida, Texas and Utah would gain seats.

If it happens, it would be the second House seat Iowa has lost since the 1990 census. Officials with the state's Democratic and Republican parties say there has been no discussion yet among their leaders on the implications of losing another congressional seat.

Portland, Oregon -- For the first time since hinting that he might consider a run for re-election, former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber is talking about why he wants to get back into politics.

Kitzhaber was one of Oregon's most popular governors, known for wearing jeans and for his down-to-earth attitude.

He still has not decided whether to run or not, but he did tell KATU News in an exclusive interview that he is seriously considering it and even called the current governor to let him know.

He said the main reason is that he wants to completely revamp the health care system and not just in Oregon.

Carson City, Nevada -- State Sen. Bob Beers, running for governor next year, filed paperwork Monday for a proposed constitutional change to limit government spending and give Nevada voters the final say on state or local government tax increases.

The Tax and Spending Control, or TASC, proposal was filed with the secretary of state. Backers must collect 83,157 signatures, or 10 percent of the voter turnout in the 2004 election, to get the plan on the 2006 ballot. The plan also would need voter approval in 2008.

Asked whether he hoped to bolster his bid for governor by pushing the ballot plan at the same time, Beers said TASC "is more important than who's governor."

While a governor would have at most two four-year terms to try holding down taxes and government spending, "This will permanently take the decision out of the hands of special interests and politicians and put it in the hands of taxpayers," he said.

Beers added that fiscally prudent government entities "will have no problem complying with this. They won't even notice this."

Beers also predicted that voters will understand the proposal. "The polls show it's popular," he said, noting an October survey conducted for the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed 58 percent support for the plan.

Under the Nevada proposal, most state and local governments would need voter approval for any new tax or rate increase, extension of an expiring tax or a tax policy change that would produce a revenue gain.

Any increases in state spending would be limited by the percentage changes in the consumer price index and population growth, unless voters allow spending above that level.

The plan also would return excess revenues to taxpayers if those revenues are higher than the constitutional spending limit and the ceilings of new emergency reserve and budget stabilization funds.

Denver, Colorado -- Lawmakers from Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Arizona convened a regional conference on immigration Monday, saying they need to find solutions to the problems they share.

"I don't think the status quo is defensible or sustainable," said Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver.

He said lawmakers need to study the benefits of illegal immigration as well as the costs.

Texas state Sen. Leticia Van De Putte, a Democrat from San Antonio and president-elect of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said lawmakers need to get past the emotional issues swirling around immigration reform.

"What we see is a lot of the emotional response and not some clear thinking," she told a crowd packed into the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the Colorado Capitol.

Texas was not an official participant in the conference sponsored by NCSL and the Colorado Legislature. Officials from New Mexico were also invited, but did not attend.

Colorado Republicans, who have made immigration reform a key part of their agenda next year, said the forum was put together by Democrats without their input.

The Republican Study Committee of Colorado held its own hearings on immigration Nov. 16. The committee includes 18 of the Legislature's 47 Republicans.

Williston, North Dakota --  Officials from nine school districts argue that North Dakota's Legislature has not provided enough money for schools to achieve the state constitution's education quality standards. The lawsuit, filed in Northwest District Court in Williston, contends the aid provided by the state is unfairly distributed among schools.

Last week, Northwest District Judge David Nelson denied a state motion for summary judgment, which would have dismissed the suit without a trial. The trial is now scheduled to begin Feb. 27.

Whether the state's education funding system is ultimately changed or not, at least supporters of changes will have the chance to prove their case in open court. Supporters of the current system say any changes should come about through the legislative process, but that's been tried and has failed through the years.

Supporters of the lawsuit contend that all they want is children in Edgeley to have the same chance at a quality education as the children in Minot. They seek a uniform education for all students, and the current system doesn't allow that.

Austin, Texas -- Criminal charges against Rep. Tom DeLay hinge on prosecutors' efforts to apply a money laundering law intended to hinder the drug trade to state campaign finances.

DeLay is accused of laundering $190,000 in "dirty" corporate money - corporate money is generally illegal in Texas elections - through his political action committee to the national GOP and back to seven Republican candidates for the state House. The swap was an effort to conceal the source of the money, prosecutors contend.

Houston attorney David Berg, an active Texas Democrat, called the charges "a very odd application of the money laundering statute."

"What the Legislature wanted was to attack drug dealing. There was no intent for the statute to be applied this wide," Berg said.

One count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to launder money remain the only charges against DeLay after a judge dismissed another conspiracy charge last week.

To get a conviction against DeLay and two associates, Travis County prosecutors will have to prove the men knowingly raised or converted corporate cash with the intent of getting around the state's ban on using such money in campaigns for elective office.

The case against DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro essentially is an alleged campaign finance violation focused on a state law that prohibits corporate money from being used in campaigns for elective office.

Corporate money can be legally raised by a political committee to pay for administrative expenses.

Phoenix, Arizona -- The debate over Arizona's immigration woes will get more aggressive in the coming year as state lawmakers facing re-election campaigns feel pressure to fix problems long thought of as the sole province of the federal government.

Beginning in January, the Legislature will consider proposals to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, fund a new 50- to 100-person squad of the state police to crack down on border problems and prohibit immigrants from receiving state-funded job training, key lawmakers said.

That's just the start of the proposals legislators will consider.

Republican Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the Legislature's most vocal proponent for restricting immigration, said he will propose buying a $50 million radar to spot illegal border-crossers and a measure to cut off shared state income tax revenue for cities that discourage police officers from inquiring about people's immigration status.

Republican lawmakers said they expect Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who enjoys a strong job approval rating as she moves into an election year, to veto some of the new measures as she did after the last session.

If a measure gets vetoed, there's a good chance it might end up on the ballot for a vote of the people, who are frustrated with Arizona's huge health care and education costs for illegal workers and their families.

Juneau, Alaska -- Gov. Frank Murkowski doesn't sound worried about his dismal poll numbers.

The Republican governor's potential challengers have problems as well, if polls are to be believed. The Democratic field is in flux until former Gov. Tony Knowles makes up his mind about whether he is running.

But in the November SurveyUSA poll, Murkowski had just a 26 percent approval rating.

Murkowski's approval ratings have been in the dumps since shortly after he took office in 2002. He has made decisions that angered identifiable pressure groups: cutting out the longevity bonus for many of the elderly, dropping direct state payments to local governments; raising oil taxes. Controversial acts like insisting on buying a state jet probably haven't helped.

Murkowski is well aware of his poll numbers. But he said the state is in good shape and he thinks he does have a strong support base.

"Incidentally, I'm moving up in the polling. I'm ahead of my friend from California, Schwarzenegger," Murkowski said last month.

That was true at the time. Murkowski rose to 46th in the October SurveyUSA poll -- one position above California's movie-star governor. Schwarzenegger has gotten into politically bruising battles with union nurses and teachers.

But Murkowski was back in the 49th position in November.

Huron, South Dakota -- Ron Volesky, Lakota, says he will be the next governor of his state and he has an important agenda to work with tribes.

Volesky, a Democrat and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, made a run for governor in 2002 but fell short in the primary elections. He was tagged by the state Democratic Party to run for attorney general.

South Dakota is primarily a Republican state, with the Legislature, governor's office and attorney general's office occupied by Republicans. Only four legislators are American Indian, and with the current set districts there will never be more American Indian legislators.

Volesky says he would not only work to put more American Indians in state jobs, but would appoint American Indians to the judiciary.

Volesky proposes a positive change in state government toward American Indian issues, including improvements in race relations, he said. Volesky served for 16 years in the state Legislature and introduced numerous bills regarding racial profiling and economic development, none of which passed.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Governor Lingle wants to bring back the tax cut bills that foundered last year.

With revenues up for the state Lingle issued an announcement late this summer pushing for a revival of the host of tax relief bills that were tabled last session.

But House Majority Leader Marcus Oshiro says the state also needs to look ahead and prepare for less federal money coming to Hawaii as the result of federal cuts.

He says those cuts could include Medicaid, Medicare, public education as well as transportation. Higher fuel costs will also boost construction costs for the state.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- Gov. Linda Lingle returned this week from a transcontinental fundraising and politics trip, including stops in California for a Republican Governors Association meeting and fundraisers in Houston, Philadelphia and New York City.

Packing a campaign checkbook that already boasts $2.4 million, Lingle has concentrated on raising more money for her 2006 re-election campaign.

According to reports filed with the state Campaign Spending Commission, Lingle has held 125 fundraising events in the last four years. Since becoming governor, Lingle has held 17 mainland fundraisers, with ticket prices ranging from $500 to $6,000.

According to Lingle's reports filed with the Campaign Spending Commission, Lingle took in $1.8 million from all donors this year. Of that, she has picked up $475,540, or more than 26 percent, from mainland contributors.

The most money, $290,000, came from California. New York and Washington, D.C., donors were the next most generous, giving a total of $34,000 each.

Olympia, Washington -- Washington's graying government work force expects to get a comfortable pension when retirement rolls around in the next decade, but the state pension system faces a "time bomb" — a $4 billion unfunded liability.

In recent years, lawmakers have financed pensions on the cheap, skipping payments and relying on Wall Street investments to keep the system relatively healthy. It was a painless, if imprudent, way to help balance state and local budgets during the post-9-11 recession that hammered Washington.

Now that the state economy has rebounded and a robust $1.45 billion surplus is projected, Gov. Christine Gregoire and lawmakers have decided to contribute hundreds of millions to chip away at the problem.

Helena, Montana -- Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's school funding proposal would hike annual state funding by $31.2 million next year, an approximate 5 percent increase. He also is proposing another $33.5 million in one-time funds, primarily for building maintenance and jump-starting Indian Education for All, a program to instruct all students on Native American culture.

The money is in response to a Montana Supreme Court ruling that said state funding for schools has been unconstitutionally inadequate.

The coalition of school groups that sued the state have said if Schweitzer’s plan is considered the final solution, it will be back in court, arguing that it falls short of what’s needed.

But, regardless of any future court action, Schweitzer’s plan will be front-and-center at this week’s special session of the Legislature, which must decide whether to approve, reject or modify the governor’s plan. The session begins Wednesday.

Austin, Texas -- Battling the freezing weather, author and humorist Kinky Friedman joined a handful of supporters outside the Texas Secretary of State's office Thursday to celebrate his official filing as an independent candidate for governor in next year's election.

"I'm on my way to the Governor's Mansion," Friedman said.

Because he's running as an independent, he must collect 45,539 signatures from registered voters who do not participate in the Republican or Democratic primaries. He cannot start the petition drive until after the primaries.

Friedman said people all over Texas have embraced his campaign.

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn has said she will challenge incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary.

Former Houston Congressman Chris Bell plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Gammage said he probably will join Bell in pursuit of the Democratic nomination.

Houston, Texas -- The display of the King James Bible at the Harris County Courthouse isn't the largest of memorials. But its nearly 50-year presence there once again is sparking larger-than-life questions: Should religious symbols have a place in public life? If so, under what conditions?

Arguing before a three-person federal appeals panel, attorneys for Kay Staley, a self-described "humanist," said the Bible display at the civil courthouse in downtown Houston amounts to government endorsement of religion and, as such, violates the First Amendment principle of the separation of church and state.

Attorneys for the state and for Harris County countered that the display is secular in nature and was built as a memorial in 1956 to a Houston philanthropist and man of faith, William Mosher.

The case before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Kay Staley vs. Harris County, has sparked intense passions over the role of religion in public life.

Kahului, Hawaii -- Two Maui gas retailers aren’t happy that next week’s wholesale gasoline prices will be rising 7 cents a gallon after an eight-week period of falling prices.

“Any increase I don’t like. Anything that makes the product higher, I don’t like. It’s not good for the business,” said Paul Hanada, owner of Aloha Shell and Ilima Shell in Kahului.

Alvin Makimoto, owner of Uptown Chevron Foodmart and Car Wash, said simply that the price hike is “junk.”

“I don’t know what else to say. Everyone is better off with the lower gas prices,” Makimoto said.

The state Public Utilities Commission posted the new cap prices Wednesday, setting the weekly maximum wholesale price at $1.5364 – 7.09 cents higher than this week’s price.

Anchorage, Alaska - For the first time since he lost last year’s contentious race for the U.S. Senate, a Democratic Party press release touted a public appearance by former two-term governor Tony Knowles.

Gov. Frank Murkowski remains the second least popular governor in America, according to tracking polls by the firm Survey USA. Murkowski often says that Knowles’ eight years in office were a time of malaise and drift.

Knowles is noncommittal about a contest to see which governor Alaskans prefer.

“I believe Alaskans think we need a change, and I’m going to participate in one way or another on getting Alaska back in the right direction,” said Knowles.

So while Murkowski falters in polls, he also could face a test from Knowles. Murkowski has not yet said whether he is running for reelection. The only declared candidate on the Republican side is former Wasilla mayor Sara Palin.

Juneau, Alaska -- A recent estimate shows the state could net a jaw-dropping $1.5 billion budget surplus because of a spike in oil prices.

Some legislators, such as Sens. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole and Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, are eyeing the state's projected surplus as a way to help Alaska residents with their skyrocketing fuel bills this year.

"It's kind of nice, going into a session when you have lots of money ... and the opportunity to do something good," Kookesh said.

Legislators may consider a couple of ideas: a one-time $500 fuel "dividend" for all Alaskans who received a permanent fund check in 2004; or creating a permanent endowment, using half of the $1.5 billion surplus to provide long-term energy-cost relief to Alaskans.

Another idea from Senate Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz is to use part of the budget surplus to fund alternate energy projects - such as wind and hydroelectric power - to reduce remote villages' reliance on expensive diesel.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) is calling for $60 million in tax cuts next year as part of "reforming" the state's income tax and removing or reducing the sales tax on food.

"Our feeling is a tax cut comes as lawmakers tie into income tax reform and as they tie into reducing or eliminating the sales tax on food," said Mike Mower, deputy chief of staff and Huntsman spokesman.

That likely means Huntsman, who campaigned on taking the sales tax off food, will end up backing either reducing the state sales tax rate on unprepared food or offering an income tax credit or rebate to low-income Utahns for the food tax they pay each year.

Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis said GOP House leaders want a bigger tax cut than what Huntsman will suggest. "I don't think that $60 million is sufficient tax relief. We think it should be more like $100 million, with half going to removing the sales tax from food."

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who has called for getting rid of the food tax, said "a more cautious approach might be better than a more aggressive approach" because he believes the growth in tax revenues might be slowing.

Utah is seeing near-record tax surpluses this year — perhaps as much as $300 million by the time the state's fiscal year ends June 30. In the first four months of this fiscal year, taxes are already coming in $90 million above estimates.

Over the past 10 years, the state budget has grown by 62 percent. And conservative legislators want tax cuts to slow the growth of government.

Bismarck, North Dakota -- A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against North Dakota's education finance system, ruling that a group of schools should have a chance to prove their claims that it is inadequate and unconstitutional.

Nine school districts, including Williston, where the lawsuit is filed, argue North Dakota's Legislature has not provided enough state money for local schools to meet the state constitution's education quality standards. The lawsuit contends the state aid that is provided is distributed unfairly among schools.

In a two-page order, Northwest District Judge David Nelson denied a state motion for summary judgment, which would have dismissed the lawsuit without a trial.

The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 27. Nelson listened to dismissal arguments during a Nov. 23 hearing in Williston.

Cheyenne, Wyoming -- After six weeks of trial, both sides rested Tuesday in the case in which school districts accuse the state of underfunding them.

Judge Nicholas Kalokathis must now decide whether the school districts are correct in their claim that the state has failed to abide by past court orders to provide adequate funding.

Most of Wyoming's 48 school districts as well as the Wyoming School Boards Association and the Wyoming Education Association are pressing the lawsuit. They maintain that the state has failed to follow court orders on funding.

The coalition maintains that the state system doesn't do enough to cover costs, including hiring and training teachers and maintenance of buildings.

The state has asked the judge to dismiss the coalition's case, saying any dispute over school funding will be moot when the Legislature adopts a new funding formula early next year.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- The Utah Legislature doles out spectacular benefits for its part-time employees, i.e. lawmakers.

Legislators who work for six years get 60 percent of their health care paid for in retirement. If they work for 10, it’s free. That includes supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare doesn’t in old age.

Utah’s lawmakers provide themselves with that insurance using taxpayer dollars. And that’s raising some hackles now that those same lawmakers have axed retirement health care for state employees.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Utah schools are expected to take in another 14,700 students next school year, and it's going to cost nearly $67 million extra, the State Office of Education reports.

But that's just a fraction of an unprecedented $3.1 billion budget the State Board of Education is seeking from the Utah Legislature. To make that dream come true, the Legislature would have to hand over an extra $347 million — a 12.7 percent increase over last year's funding.

The budget request mostly hinges on a 5 percent increase in the weighted pupil unit, the state's basic per-student funding formula. That would cost $101.6 million.

Growth also is a big part of it. Of the nearly 14,700 new students expected next fall, 6,000 would be moving in from out of state, state education finance and budgeting specialist Patty Murphy said.

The rest of the budget would fund various programs, including $16 million to make sure fourth- through sixth-graders master pivotal math concepts introduced at that age, and $6.1 million to help high school students struggling to pass the basic skills test required for high school graduation.

Laramie, Wyoming -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) says he expects to run for a second term, but will not make a final decision until after the forthcoming legislative session.

“I think we will; I expect to,” Freudenthal said in response to a question at a University of Wyoming political science class attended by students and others.

“I think I’ll cross that bridge in some reliable fashion after the legislative session,” said the governor, who will be up for re-election next year.

He said he did not want to go into the lawmaking session as a “lame duck” governor with diminished political power, so “even if I wasn’t planning on running, I would want to act like I was.”

He said he has no interest in running for federal office, and “when I’m through with this I expect to go back and practice law. It remains the thing I like to do best in my life.”

Phoenix, Arizona -- Advocates for early childhood services launched an initiative campaign Wednesday asking voters to dramatically increase the state's tobacco taxes to fund preschool programs, health screenings and other services.

The "First Things First" initiative, if it qualifies for the November 2006 ballot and is approved by voters, would increase by 80 cents the state's current $1.18 tax per pack - an increase of nearly 68 percent. Tax on other tobacco products also would rise.

Supporters say the tax would raise a projected $150 million annually, with most of the money distributed as grants by regional boards according to each region's needs.

Some money would be allotted on a statewide basis and up to 10 percent of the total money could be used for administrative costs on the state and regional level.

"All children deserve to have the opportunity to start school on an equal footing and science is telling us that we can't wait until kindergarten to prepare them," said Nadine Mathis Basha, a state Board of Education member who is chair of the initiative campaign and wife of supermarket magnate Eddie Basha.

Supporters must collect approximately 122,612 signatures of registered voters by July to get the measure on the ballot.

State law requires that initiative backers include a financing method in any proposal that would incur costs, and campaign spokesman Steve Roman said supporters considered other ways such as raising taxes on alcohol to raise the money but decided after conducting polling that a tobacco tax increase was "the avenue of the least resistance."

Cheyenne, Wyoming -- The number of illegal immigrants is growing in Wyoming because of the upsurge in the state's energy and construction industries, according to labor and sociology experts.

However, reliable figures are hard to come by, they say.

"We just know there's a growing number of people who work here but have not formally come to establishing a residence here," said Tom Gallagher, a sociologist with the Wyoming Department of Employment.

Agency research indicates that nonstate residents, legal or otherwise, make up 23 percent of the workforce.

Pierre, South Dakota -- Next year's proposed state budget unveiled Tuesday by Gov. Mike Rounds won general praise from both fellow Republicans and from Democratic legislators.

As explained by the chief executive, the spending package should finally eliminate the financial pinch that has plagued the state for several years. In short, revenues have fallen short of expenditures, and state reserves have been used to plug those holes.

"It looks like he's trying to do the best he can with the money we have available," said Rep. Jim Putnam, R-Armour, head of the House Appropriations Committee.

Rounds' priorities of education and efforts to help the needy are solid, Putnam said.

Senate Democratic Leader Garry Moore of Yankton said the governor's budget plan is reasonable. But Moore said he believes the Legislature can do more for schools than Rounds has proposed for the next fiscal year.

"I see no reason why we can't give education another $130 per student, over and above the $127 increase the governor is proposing," Moore said.

Salem, Oregon -- A citizen panel that's taking a look at what ails the Oregon Legislature heard a plea Tuesday from State Treasurer Randall Edwards to have lawmakers meet in annual sessions, rather than every other year, with deadlines to prevent runaway sessions.

Edwards, himself a former House member, said Oregon's biennial system, dating back to 1858, no longer effectively serves a state that has experienced major growth and where state government has become a multibillion-dollar enterprise.

Plus, he said the every-other-year arrangement prevents the Legislature from quickly responding to important issues that can crop up, such as a judge's recent ruling that struck down the voter-enacted Measure 37 property rights law.

The next regular session of the Legislature doesn't convene until January 2007, he noted, and "no one seems interested in calling a special session" of the Legislature to tackle the thorny property rights issue.

Denver, Colorado -- The state government of Colorado has canceled a $10.5m contract with IT services and consulting provider Accenture Ltd, and has threatened to terminate another deal valued at $40m.

Earlier this week, Accenture's contract to build a new computer system to track voter registration was ended, with Colorado's election officials saying that the company's work "did not meet the state's expectations".

Accenture had already received $1.5m from Colorado for its work under the deal, and the state will now miss the January 1 federal deadline to have the new electoral system in place.

Accenture hit back by claiming that Colorado officials had delayed making decisions on changes to the system, and had terminated the deal before testing the latest updates submitted by Accenture. The company also pointed out that it was working on, or had already completed, similar voter registration databases in Wisconsin, Wyoming and Pennsylvania.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based Accenture's separate contract with Colorado's Department of Labor and Employment is also reportedly in trouble. Under the terms of the deal, Accenture is creating a new system to track unemployment taxes and benefits in the state.

However, the project is now running approximately two years behind schedule, and last month the client threatened to kick Accenture off the contract. Colorado officials are said to be particularly concerned that the key aspect of the system, namely bringing together the tax and benefits aspects of the unemployment records, is still unfinished.

Salem, Oregon -- The state AFL-CIO has filed a pair of initiatives asking voters to change the Oregon Constitution to pare back or end the kicker tax rebate for corporations.

Separately, Sen. Ryan Deckert, D-Beaverton, who leads the Senate Revenue Committee, said he may try to broker a deal to end the corporate rebate in exchange for a pledge to businesses that the Legislature would put the money into a rainy-day fund or spend it on projects such as higher education upgrades that businesses favor.

Olympia, Washington -- Citing what she calls "pretty egregious impacts" of cigarette smoke to the health of Native American women and youth, Gov. Christine Gregoire has quietly asked the state's Indian tribes to turn their casinos into tobacco-free zones.

The governor's request was received respectfully at a dinner she held for Indian leaders in Olympia last month. They promised to take it up with tribal governments.

"It is on the agenda," said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe and president of the Washington Indian Gaming Association.

Under Initiative 901, which took effect Thursday, cigarettes are off-limits in bars, public places and card rooms.

Indian casinos, which are not subject to state law, are the only public places where smoking is still permitted.

Cigarette smokers and cigar afficionados aren't the only ones fuming over the recently passed statewide indoor smoking ban.

Hookah lounges - where people gather to smoke flavored tobacco out of elaborate hookahs - say they will likely be forced out of business under the ban, the most stringent in the country.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- The governors of New Mexico and neighboring Chihuahua say they will prod federal officials to approve a new border crossing and lift the ban on importing U.S. cattle into Mexico.

Govs. Bill Richardson and Jose Reyes Baeza reached the agreements during a meeting of the New Mexico-Chihuahua Commission, which was created two years ago to boost trade.

The governors will send a joint letter of support to the U.S. secretary of state and Mexico's secretary of foreign relations in support of a proposed border crossing between Sunland Park and Anapra, Mexico.

Carson City, Nevada -- Nevada Appeal editor Barry Smith is leaving the paper to serve as executive director of the Nevada Press Association.

Tony Hughes, NPA president and publisher of the Mineral County Independent-News, said Tuesday that Smith will start as director by March 1. He replaces Kent Lauer, director of the press association for 10 years, who recently resigned to accept a position in Idaho.

The association represents member newspapers at the state Legislature on issues such as freedom of the press and open government. It also operates the Nevada Classified Ad Network, a cooperative venture among its members.

Lincoln, Nebraska -- A Lincoln senator took the first public counter-punch at Gov. Dave Heineman’s tax cut proposal Tuesday, laying out a plan he said would be more visible to more Nebraskans and better respond to economic downturns. Proposed tax cut plans
Landis

Sen. David Landis wants to cut car and truck taxes at least in half, instead of the property, sales and income tax relief Heineman proposed Monday.

Doing so would help a broader range of taxpayers, ensure cuts didn’t go to out-of-staters and give people relief they could feel, said Landis, chairman of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee.

It also would be cheaper by maybe $60 million a year, according to rough estimates, and be adjusted based more on revenue streams than political factors, Landis said.

His proposal would cut the tax by half or three-quarters, Landis said, while a piece of the governor’s would reduce income taxes by about 3 percent.

Asked Landis: “Which one will taxpayers notice?”

The response from Heineman’s camp. “The governor continues to support his comprehensive proposal, and he is confident that his proposal enjoys significant support from a number of senators.”

Des Moines, Iowa -- House Speaker Christopher Rants, who stood in the way of the governor's proposed cigarette tax increase during the last legislative session, looks poised to do the same this January.

Rants, a Republican, said Tuesday there's not enough support in the Iowa House to pass an 80-cent per pack increase.

Gov. Tom Vilsack wants the increase, in part, to pay for a new insurance program that would help pay for the most expensive medical care for employees of small businesses and schools.

"Here's the reality: Do you want to save lives? Do you want fewer kids to smoke? The research is pretty clear. Raise the cigarette tax. That should be enough of a reason," Vilsack said.

Republicans appeared set to oppose a tobacco tax increase, which was contentious during the last legislative session.

Pocatello, Idaho -- Mining, timber and agriculture groups in Idaho say they're watching the debate over property tax reform closely.

They're concerned any efforts to change the system could result in a shift of taxes to them.

Some residents have been calling for tax relief, arguing their share of the overall tax burden has grown faster than it has for other taxpayers, including business.

An interim committee of the Idaho Legislature has made recommendations for the upcoming session, including a proposal to increase a tax break for homeowners.

Honolulu, Hawaii -- The Supreme Court of Hawaii overturned the manslaughter conviction of Tayshea Aiwohi. The 32-year-old woman had been previously found guilty for causing the death of her newborn son by smoking crystal methamphetamine three days before his birth and on the morning he was delivered.

The State's High Court unanimously ruled that Aiwohi's son was an unborn fetus at the time she abused crystal meth, and therefore not a person.

According to the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Hawaii's penal code states that a person is defined as "'a human being who has been born and is alive.'

Most states allow for the prosecution of a person for violence against a pregnant woman resulting in the death of her child after birth.
Thirty-four states have 'fetal homicide' laws allowing prosecution of a person for causing the death of a fetus. Most infamously, Scott Peterson faces the death penalty in California for his conviction of two counts of murder for the deaths of his wife, Laci, and their unborn child."

Juneau, Alaska -- The Reagan legacy of the Teflon Republican is alive and well in Alaska.

Both the House speaker and Senate president were fined this week by the state commission that oversees financial activities of elected officials. It's the latest in a string of Alaska GOP scandals, misdeeds and missteps that stretches back to 2003, when party chairman Randy Ruedrich broke ethics laws by using his state Oil & Gas Conservation Commission office to conduct party business.

But while next year is an election year, Republican leaders and political watchers alike say not to expect a backlash at the polls.

"I think if we ask folks a couple of weeks from now, 90 percent of them aren't even going to remember it happened," Ruedrich said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

Ruedrich was speaking of the penalties levied against House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, and Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage, by the Alaska Public Offices Commission for breaking state laws regulating campaign contributions and financial disclosures.

Democratic pollster Ivan Moore said Ruedrich's point was well taken.

Mesa, Arizona -- The state Board of Education invoked a new Arizona law for the first time Monday, approving the financial takeover of a school district in a secluded community dominated by a polygamist sect.

The board voted 8-1 to approve a settlement between the Colorado City Unified School District and state officials to immediately place the district under the financial oversight of an appointed receiver.

Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that practices polygamy and broke away from the mainline Mormon church.

Phoenix, Arizona -- A judge ruled Wednesday that state Rep. David Burnell Smith must leave office because of campaign finance violations.

If the state prevails on appeal, the Scottsdale Republican would be the first legislator removed for violations of a state's public campaign finance funding system law.

Judge Mark Aceto of Maricopa County Superior Court granted a motion filed by Attorney General Terry Goddard to force Smith from office based on an order by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

Aceto also granted the commission's request to dismiss Smith's lawsuit challenging the order that he leave office because of approximately $6,000 overspending by his publicly funded 2004 primary election campaign. And he denied Smith's motion to dismiss the state's request to oust him.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- After opposing proposed minimum wage laws in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, the New Mexico Lodging Association says it might support efforts in January to enact a new statewide minimum wage.

Randy Randall, a Las Cruces hotel owner and chair of NMLA's government affairs committee, says the association thinks the federal government has been remiss in not raising the federal minimum wage.

But since that has not happened since 1997, Randall says NMLA would rather New Mexico's wage be increased statewide than one city at a time.

Phoenix, Arizona -- There is only one intellectually honest and informed argument against the Arizona Legislature enacting an income-tax reduction next session: That, instead, there should be a massive increase in state spending.

The state sang the fiscal blues so long and so mournfully that the extent of its remarkable turnaround is still not fully appreciated or accepted.

Last year, state revenues grew 19 percent. Between surpluses and a deposit to the state's "rainy day fund," the state collected $800 million more in taxes than it spent to run state government.

This fiscal year, which began in July, continues the same trend. For the first four months, revenue growth has been nearly as robust at 18 percent. Legislative budgeters have raised their revenue growth forecast for the year to 9 percent, which will undoubtedly get blown by very quickly.

Even with that modest boost in anticipated revenues, the state expects to collect nearly $750 million more than it will spend on state operations. An additional $200 million is more likely than not.

Even with the tax-cutting in the 1990s, state revenues grew at an average of 7 percent a year. Looking back over several decades, they have trended at around 10 percent annual growth.

Denver, Colorado -- The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family says it is withdrawing its funds from Wells Fargo because of the bank's support of gay organizations.

"Focus on the Family has elected to end its banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank's ongoing efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda," according to a statement on the group's Web site dated Thursday and attributed to the Focus president and chief executive, Jim Daly.

Austin, Texas -- The shortage of proven Democratic candidates willing to run statewide suggests that the party remains unable to compete with Republicans up and down the ballot, even though Republicans in Texas and Washington suffered numerous political setbacks this year.

"It's important for us to see how the filing period goes," said Ruben Hernandez, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. "We're optimistic that credible candidates will present themselves."

By this time four years ago, Democrats already had drawn seasoned politicians to run in several key races. Now, the party appears to be focused on down-ballot races and peeling off a handful of legislative seats.

"Democrats might win an isolated election due to peculiar circumstances related to that one election," said Thomas Myers, a political science professor at Baylor University. "But as far as making any kind of systematic comeback across the state, I don't see that happening."

The most visible Democrat running statewide so far is gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell of Houston, a former one-term congressman. Bob Gammage, who won statewide office as a Texas Supreme Court justice but has been out of office and the public eye for years, also is weighing a bid.

Democrats have not won a statewide election since 1994, and there is little reason for up-and-coming mayors or legislators to give up good jobs for expensive, draining campaigns when recent history is not on their side.

During that time, Republicans have seized on Texans' conservative views on economic and social issues.

Pollster Mike Baselice, whose Republican clients include Gov. Rick Perry, says Republicans in statewide races have drawn no worse than 52 percent of the vote in recent elections, with some Democrats plunging below 40 percent.

Baselice said Republicans hold an approximately 10 percentage point advantage among voters, an advantage that could dwindle over time should Hispanic population growth continue and Republican candidates fail to draw more than 30 percent of the Hispanic vote.

Phoenix, Arizona -- Lobbying by Western Democrats could spur the party to embrace a proposal for an eight-state Western regional presidential primary in 2008, a move that many say would elevate regional issues onto the national agenda during the next presidential campaign.

Proponents circulated petitions for the regional primary and talked it up among the more than 300 party activists attending the three-day Democratic National Committee meetings in Phoenix.

Party strategist Michael Stratton of Colorado said there was a "good likelihood" it would emerge in recommendations due next weekend from a party commission examining presidential primary issues.

The regional proposal calls for simultaneous primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5, 2008, in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

It would fall shortly after the Iowa and New Hampshire events, yet early enough that presidential hopefuls would have to visit Western states and tackle issues of interest there to win support.

The plan was endorsed last year by the bipartisan Western Governors' Association and is backed by Democrats for the West, an organization founded by prominent Western party members.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, have joined forces to promote it.

The issue is not new. Westerners of all political persuasions have long complained of "fly-over" syndrome, where candidates bounce between Eastern or Midwestern states and California without stopping to address voters in the states in between.

Arizona GOP Chairman Matt Salmon said the state party has not taken a position on the matter, but he expressed concern that it would dilute the attention Arizona gets with one of the nation's earlier primaries.

Noting that Bush has visited Arizona 13 times, Salmon said Arizona "has finally become a state with some clout. There's no question in my mind that we'd be diluted."

Arizona Democratic Chairman Harry Mitchell countered that the regional primary would increase Arizona's clout with the rest of the West by forcing candidates to spend more time in the region.

Cheyenne, Wyoming -- While other states struggle with budget deficits, Wyoming's budget gives the state a more peculiar problem how best to use a massive surplus.

State budget officials are projecting a one point eight billion dollar surplus next year. That means the major fight between Governor Dave Freudenthal and the Legislature of the budget probably will be over how much to save.

The governor's budget proposal, released yesterday, would sock away one point two billion dollars. House Speaker Randall Luthi and other Republicans say even that's not enough.

That puts Wyoming in an enviable position.

Bill Pound is executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. He says Wyoming's surplus is just half of California's projected surplus. But California has more than 33 million people, while Wyoming has just over half a million.

Salt Lake City, Utah -- Another state legislator will pick up this year where Rep. Jim Ferrin left off in an effort to help Utah families pay for private school.

Rep. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, announced Friday that he will sponsor a bill in the legislative session that begins Jan.
16 that would provide vouchers to parents who choose private schools for their children. Ferrin, R-Orem, sponsored similar tuition tax credit bills that were defeated in the Legislature for the past two years.

"I think it's a superior product, and there's more legislative support for a voucher," Adams said.

Parents would receive quarterly disbursements, which they would sign over to schools, and like last year's tuition tax credit bill, the amount would be determined on a sliding scale based on income.

Last year's bill died with a 40-34 vote on the House floor, but Adams said legislators are primed to pass a bill this year.

Watertown, South Dakota -- South Dakota public schools need an extra $820 per student on top of current education spending to reach an adequate level, the preliminary results of a study commissioned by a group of 127 school districts says.

The South Dakota Alliance for Education, made up of several education groups, hired a Denver consulting firm with a history of recommending spending increases to find out how much a minimum education costs.

At $820 per student, the state would have to provide an additional $102.1 million for education. That number comes from the first part of the study, which collected data from 41 South Dakota school districts that already were performing at a high level, said Wayne Lueders, president of the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.

The ASBSD is one of six advocacy groups that created the South Dakota Alliance for Education to push for increased school funding. The organization, which also includes School Administrators of South Dakota, South Dakota Education Association, ESD+6, Mid-sized School Coalition and the South Dakota Coalition of Schools, is preparing legislation to fill the financing gap by phasing in extra funding over a period of years.

Higher taxes?

State lawmakers who attended a meeting in Watertown, where the study was released, voiced support for additional education funding but also wondered where the state would get the extra money.

"I totally agree with the fact that you need more," said Rep. Paul Nelson, R-Watertown, an educator for three decades. "The question is where to come up with that money."

Rep. Bob Faehn, R-Watertown, said he was expecting a larger gap.

Salem, Oregon -- Shortly before former Gov. John Kitzhaber left office in January 2003, he said the state had become "ungovernable" because excessive partisanship was standing in the way of real solutions to problems like a growing lack of access to health care.

Now, nearly three years later, Kitzhaber says he's come around to the view that being governor again might help him "jump start" a renewed debate over health care — and maybe even bring Republicans and Democrats together in the process.

"The question I'm asking myself at age 58 is, where can I make the biggest difference, and how can I get the most traction on moving the health care debate forward?" Kitzhaber said in an interview Saturday.

For weeks, Kitzhaber has been mulling over a possible challenge to Gov. Ted Kulongoski — a fellow Democrat — in the 2006 governor's race.

Kitzhaber notched things up on Thursday when he personally phoned Kulongoski to tell him he's "seriously" considering running against him and that he plans to announce a decision sometime after Jan. 1.

It wouldn't be the first time Kitzhaber has taken on a sitting Democratic governor.

In 1994, Kitzhaber, then the former Senate president, announced he would challenge Gov. Barbara Roberts, whose standing in the polls had plummeted. Roberts dropped out of the race shortly after that, and Kitzhaber went on to win the first of two terms as governor.

More recently, Kitzhaber in 2003 considered taking on Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, but decided against making a Senate bid.

The latest talk of a possible political comeback by Kitzhaber is intriguing to many. But it's a dismaying prospect to Kulongoski's supporters, given that Oregon has begun to emerge from an economic recession during Kulongoski's first term, says Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts.

Part of the reason Kulongoski is getting lukewarm support from Democratic voters — and creating a possible opening for Kitzhaber — is that some of Kulongoski's traditional allies in the labor and environmental movements are unimpressed with his performance so far, Hibbitts said.

"There clearly is some dissatisfaction with Gov. Kulongoski," he said.

Bismarck, North Dakota -- Minnesota's recent tobacco tax increase has been a boon for North Dakota's treasury, which has seen its expected collections jump 13.6 percent in four months.

The state Office of Management and Budget, in a monthly report on tax collections, reported $7.6 million in North Dakota tobacco tax revenues from July through October. The sum is $915,272 ahead of what was forecast when the Legislature finished work on the state's two-year budget.

"This appears, in part, to be a result of cross-border buying by Minnesota residents avoiding the comparatively higher cigarette and tobacco tax rates in their own state," the agency said in its report.

North Dakota has a 44-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes. On Aug. 1, Minnesota's tax on a pack rose to $1.23, a 75 cent increase that Minnesota officially terms a health impact fee.

Las Vegas, Nevada -- Republican Danny Tarkanian launched his campaign for Nevada Secretary of State on Thursday, calling for voters to show photo identification at the polls -- a controversial proposal challenged by civil rights groups across the country.

Tarkanian, 44, is the son of former University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and Las Vegas City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian.

In his bid to become the state's chief elections official, Danny Tarkanian said he is making his call for a voter identification card the centerpiece of his campaign.

"I really firmly believe we've gone overboard in trying to make the political process open," he said. "We have made it conducive for voter fraud."

Tarkanian said he would push the Legislature to require showing proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID when voting.

A similar proposal failed before the Nevada Legislature this year.

Las Vegas, Nevada -- A proposal that would extend health benefits to Nevada university system employees' domestic partners is stirring debate among regents.

Some regents voiced concerns over the plan being recommended by Chancellor Jim Rogers and the system's eight college and university presidents. The schools' faculty senates also back it.

Regent Michael Wixom said he was uncomfortable setting a precedent in Nevada government by defining domestic partners.

"If we're extending these benefits," Wixom said, "we're recognizing a new relationship for which there is no precedent. We have to carefully investigate that, because we're dealing with the very relations that go to the heart of who we are as a society."

Regents said they wanted more time to consider the proposal and would revisit it in March for a possible vote.

Under the proposal, couples would swear under penalty of perjury that they are faithful and monogamous "life partners" who share a residence and are unmarried.

The system also would develop a partnership certification and require notification when couples break up.

System officials estimated it would cost 2 percent of the current benefits' expense - a figure some regents said was grossly underestimated.

Domestic partners make up 7.2 percent of all Nevada households. About 6.5 percent of such households consist of opposite-sex partners and 0.7 percent consist of same-sex partners.

Lincoln, Nebraska -- Constituents of Sen. Dennis Byars of Beatrice have filed a lawsuit challenging Nebraska’s voter-approved legislative term limits.

Byars will not join the suit, but he will support the citizens who do, he said. They also have the support of Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, an ardent opponent of term limits.

The limits, given the go-ahead by voters in 2000, restrict senators to only two consecutive terms, or eight years, in office. Once that time is up, they can’t run for re-election.

Byars and Chambers tested the constitutional provision when they filed for re-election. Secretary of State John Gale rejected the filings, saying they were unconstitutional.

Twenty members of the 49-seat, one-house Legislature are barred from seeking re-election next year.

Helena, Montana -- Lawmakers have mixed feelings about holding a special Legislative session in January to tackle school funding and other issues, and their opinions don't necessarily fall along party lines.

House Republicans are requesting a special session starting Jan. 10 to take up school funding, provide property tax relief and divvy up funds for the Montana Water Court, which is based in Bozeman.

The proposal is at odds with plans by Gov. Brian Schweitzer to call a special session the week of Dec. 12.

Schweitzer has said he will only call a special session if bipartisan agreement can be reached on a school funding solution.

Tucson, Arizona -- State Sen. Gabrielle Giffords is leaving the state Legislature and will run for U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe's seat in Congress.

Giffords, a 34-year-old Democrat, is the first candidate to enter the race since Kolbe said that he would not seek a 12th term in 2006.

Her resignation is effective immediately.

Giffords is a Fulbright Scholar who grew up in Tucson and owns Giffords Capital Management, a commercial property management company here. She has served two terms in the Senate and one in the House.

Phoenix, Arizona -- Arizona university students and some legislators may think that putting a lid on tuition is a great idea, but the Board of Regents doesn’t.
The board responded to state legislators’ demands to study possible outcomes for limiting tuition for continuing students to no more than inflation.

The board, which regulates the three state universities, unanimously approved a study on the issue, compiled by regents’ officials and university representatives, sending it to the Legislature for consideration.

Regents and universities said they would prefer to have leeway to set tuition as needed. They cited several reasons for needing flexibility, such as skyrocketing enrollments, state funding cuts, and larger salary offers to invite faculty and staff to fill vacancies or remain at the universities.

Spokane, Washington -- Mayor Jim West faces recall Tuesday over a sex-tinged abuse-of-office charge that he offered a City Hall internship to an 18-year-old he met in a gay chat room.

But the young man West offered a job -- allegedly in anticipation of sex -- never existed. The Gay.com profile West knew as "motobrock" was a ruse used to track the mayor's online activities.

A local newspaper has published more than 175 articles, editorials and columns accusing West of pedophilia and using his city-owned computer to look for dates with men in cities he planned to visit. West has acknowledged having relationships with young men but has denied doing anything illegal.

Anchorage, Alaska -- House Speaker John Harris was fined nearly $700 Wednesday for illegally using $7,000 in campaign contributions to help elect other Republicans and to enhance his bid to lead the state House.

In assessing the penalty, the Alaska Public Offices Commission unanimously overruled its staff, which had investigated the spending and recommended no fine.

Anchorage, Alaska - Senate President Ben Stevens received a mild fine from the state's election watchdog today for an incomplete financial disclosure statement.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission declined to investigate allegations of influence-peddling against Stevens.

Sacramento, California -- The Committee to Save Merry Christmas announced this week that Macy’s Department Stores has agreed to return the phase “Merry Christmas” to store signage and advertising.

“On behalf of every American who celebrates the real meaning of Christmas, we applaud Macy’s decision and hope other retailers will follow their lead,” said Manual Zamorano, chairman of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas. Macy’s letter of agreement can be found at www.savemerrychristmas.org.

On the heels of this major victory, the Committee to Save Merry Christmas has announced a national boycott against Sears Department Stores for the 2005 Christmas season. “Pro-Christmas Americans should avoid the ‘Bah, Humbug’ attitude of Sears this Christmas shopping season,” said Zamorano.

Sears has rejected several requests that “Merry Christmas” signs be returned and posted in their stores and that their advertising both acknowledge and respect the time-honored phrase “Merry Christmas.”

“Sears is in need of an extreme makeover in regards to their discrimination and bias against Christmas,” said Zamorano. “Over the past several years, Sears has systematically removed references to Merry Christmas.

Inviting us to shop for Christmas gifts yet eliminating Merry Christmas is offensive to the sensibilities of millions of average Americans. Eliminating ‘Merry Christmas’ is plain wrong. It’s time to remove Sears from your Christmas shopping list.”

The Committee to Save Merry Christmas is asking Americans to boycott Sears and shop elsewhere. Americans should contact Sears and urge them to respect to “Merry Christmas”

“It’s the height of hypocrisy for Sears to make tens of millions of dollars selling Christmas presents, yet coldly refuse to acknowledge Christmas,” said Zamorano. “What’s the holiday all about, anyway? Politically-correct phases like ‘Seasons Greetings’ and ‘Happy Holidays’ are no substitute for the real thing.”

Salt Lake City, Utah -- A bill that would create a legal framework for Utah's energy future met with resistance Tuesday - from lawmakers who want the state to investigate nuclear power, and from Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who doesn't want the Legislature to create a Cabinet-level position to oversee energy policy.

Two interim committees - Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, and Public Utilities and Technology - advanced the bipartisan draft bill crafted after hundreds of hours of meetings last summer organized by Reps. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake; Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, and David Ure, R-Kamas.

The bill's key components include the philosophical and the practical, and would designate a state energy officer to encourage development and promotion of the state's energy resources. The energy officer would report to the governor and earn up to $115,700 per year.

Bismarck, North Dakota -- A coalition of public health organizations ranks Minnesota 9th and North Dakota 22nd nationally in funding programs to protect kids from tobacco.

The report, called "A Broken Promise to Our Children," was released today by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

North Dakota needs to spend between $8.2 million and $16.6 million a year "to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention campaign," according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the state invests about $3.1 million, only 38 percent of the CDC's minimum recommendation, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the report said, the tobacco companies are spending a record $32.1 million a year on marketing in North Dakota alone, or about 10 times what the state spends on tobacco prevention.

North Dakota's spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 7.4 percent of the $42 million in tobacco-generated revenue collected by the state each year in tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- The New Mexico Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Santa Fe’s minimum-wage law, rejecting arguments that the City Council exceeded its authority by dictating pay rules for private businesses.

In a case that has drawn national attention, a three judge panel ruled against business groups and some local restaurants, who now must decide whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The ruling comes two weeks before the City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to allow a scheduled minimum-wage increase to $9.50 an hour to take effect Jan. 1.

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- Vickie Perea has started her campaign to become secretary of state in 2006.

So far, she is the only Republican to announce candidacy for the position. A few Democrats, all women, are testing the waters.

Sacramento, California -- The California Energy Commission has decided that due to the state's desire to curb green house gases that the state's investor owned utilities (IOUs) will not import any electricity generated by coal from out of state sources.

While this does not outright ban electricity generated from coal plants, the requirements that coal fired plants emissions be as clean or cleaner that combined cycle natural gas fired plants pretty much ensures that there will be few coal plants that meet the condition.

This could be bad news for planned coal plants in Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho.

Given the higher prices for natural gas due to increased demand and the problems along the Gulf of Mexico, it is likely that electricity prices in CA (already some of the highest in the nation) will go even higher.

Carson City, Nevada -- State legislators say Nevada's property tax limit law is better than California's Proposition 13 because when a home is sold, the new buyer gets the same tax relief as the former owner.

"It makes it in my view a better deal than Proposition 13," Assemblyman Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, said Tuesday.

Hardy and other members of the Subcommittee to Study the Taxation of Real Property will have several meetings during the next year as they review Nevada's AB489, passed in April, which limits property tax increases on owner-occupied homes to 3 percent per year. The new law also places an 8 percent limit on commercial and other types of property.

Austin, Texas -- A Texas lawmaker who wants to legalize slot machines at racetracks in Texas is keeping a close eye on Florida where the Legislature next week will consider a similar issue.

State Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Mission, had considered traveling to Florida to take lessons from gambling proponents on how to pass the bills in the face of opposition, specifically from religious interests who are also vocal in Texas, he said.

“I was looking for the strategy on how they dealt with the Bible Belt, the churches,” Flores said.

And like Texas, Florida is struggling to find ways to pay for public education and Medicaid, both of which could be helped by expanding gambling, he said.

Republican leaders in Texas have not openly supported gambling, and some Democratic lawmakers have voiced opposition to using gambling to pay for schools and health care.

Denver, Colorado -- This week's meeting between the legislature's Joint Budget Committee and Gov. Bill Owens was a mutual admiration session, with lawmakers thanking the governor for his leadership on Referendum C fiscal reform and Owens praising lawmakers who participated in shaping the measure and getting it passed.

For the first time since 2000, state officials will have money to fuss over. Owens is promoting a budget proposal that would flood the state with transportation dollars. Legislators surprised by voter rejection of Referendum D will surely tilt another way, perhaps emphasizing education or health programs.

Denver, Colorado -- Voters may be asked next year to decide whether Colorado should deny state services to undocumented workers.

The proposed constitutional amendment failed to make the 2005 ballot, but supporters aim to gather the necessary signatures to get it on the 2006 ballot.

Republican lawmakers who support barring illegal immigrants in the state from getting such government services as food stamps say the time is right to change the way the state handles undocumented workers within its borders.

“The political climate wasn’t there (last year),” Rep. Ray Rose, R-Montrose said.

He and other lawmakers foresee a slew of immigration-related bills on the horizon for the Colorado Legislature to work through next year.

Helping to lead that charge is Rep. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, who met this fall with Arizona lawmakers who pushed through Proposition 200, which prohibits undocumented immigrants from receiving government services and benefits.

Schultheis said it’s too early to give details about legislation he intends to push in 2006 to crack down on illegal immigration.

Denver, Colorado -- Voters’ approval of Referendum C was “good news” for K-12 education, although the money will not help Colorado schools fully recover from 10 years of underfunding under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, according to some Coloradolawmakers.

Four state legislators, who represent areas served by the St. Vrain Valley School District, told the St. Vrain Valley Board of Education at a special meeting recently that the funds retained through Referendum C would, however, prevent further program cuts. The money also will help restore programs that were cut in prior years and help schools keep up with growth, they said.

Referendum C allows the state to retain a projected $3.7 billion of tax revenue collected over the next five years to pay for transportation projects; health care for low-income, disabled and elderly Coloradans; preschool through 12th grade public education; and higher education institutions.

Gov. Bill Owens proposes spending an additional $80 million from the overall budget’s general fund for transportation projects this 2005-06 fiscal year, money available because Referendum C passed.

Denver, Colorado -- Colorado officials on Wednesday canceled a contract to build a new computer system to track voter registration and have threatened to cancel a second contract with the same company to rework the system the state Labor Department uses to track unemployment benefits.

Both contracts, worth a combined $50 million, are with the global technology giant Accenture. Both involve the creation of massive new computer systems that would create more centralized databases that, in theory, would streamline the work of state government.

Efforts to implement both, state officials say, have been fraught with problems, including missed deadlines and serious programming flaws.

Phoenix, Arizona -- The nation's attorneys general are putting finishing touches on a proposal to create a nationwide price-gouging law.

Meeting in Phoenix, the top law enforcement officials from across the country spent part of Wednesday morning discussing the finer points of how to define "price gouging" and debating which circumstances should trigger it.

But there appeared to be little debate about whether there should be a federal law.
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"All of us agreed this is a necessary piece of legislation, as long as there's not pre-emption," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said. That means individual states need to be free to pursue their own remedies against price gouging.

Twenty-eight states have price-gouging laws. Goddard has pursued a similar law in the Arizona Legislature, but the bill has not made it out of committee. He promises to be back in 2006 with another attempt.

Juneau, Alaska -- Three times they've busted, but the sponsors of a plan to legalize video gambling in Alaska aren't ready to fold.

Lt. Gov. Loren Leman for the third time this year denied certification of a ballot initiative to legalize video lottery terminals, machines that allow players to wager on such games of chance as poker, slots and keno.

The sponsors, headed by Victoria Scott, the mother of a Las Vegas investor in casinos and racetracks, have been rejected each time for the same reason: The initiative is unconstitutional because it would create a special law for one area of the state.

Seattle, Washington -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens might ask himself how he'd respond if Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell wanted to change the way oil tankers operate in Prince William Sound, especially if her bill went against the wishes of most Alaskans.

So he shouldn't be too surprised that Washington politicians have quickly spoken in a resounding "no" to his efforts on behalf of BP and an increased oil supply for the company's Puget Sound refinery at Cherry Point. Initial press reports indicate most Washington state politicians -- and the public, too -- oppose the proposed refinery expansion and increased tanker traffic in the Sound.

Democratic Sen. Cantwell has promised to fight Republican Sen. Stevens' bill using his own weapons -- the rules of the Senate. "I will use every procedural option granted to me as a United States senator to stop this unfortunate and misguided legislation from becoming law," she said. Though more subtle than the Alaska senator's loud voice in delivering an ultimatum, her message is clear.

She also is scoring big political points on the home front for taking on the popular cause. Even her likely Republican challenger for re-election in 2006 has told Sen. Stevens the proposed refinery expansion is a dead issue in Washington.

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