Goodby Number Six

'Prisoner' actor Patrick McGoohan dies in LA

By ANDREW DALTON – Jan 14, 2009
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Patrick McGoohan, an Emmy-winning actor who created and starred in the cult classic television show "The Prisoner," has died. He was 80.
McGoohan died Tuesday in Los Angeles after a short illness, his son-in-law, film producer Cleve Landsberg, said Wednesday.
McGoohan won two Emmys for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama "Columbo," and more recently appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film "Braveheart."
But he was best known as the title character Number Six in "The Prisoner," a surreal 1960s British series in which a former spy is held captive in a small village and constantly tries to escape.

From our friends at southsiders-mc.blogspot.com:

"Where am I?"

"In the Village."

"What do you want?"

"Information."

"Whose side are you on?"

"That would be telling…. We want information. Information! INFORMATION!"

"You won't get it."

"By hook or by crook, we will."

"Who are you?"

"The new Number Two."

"Who is Number One?"

"You are Number Six."

"I am not a number — I am a free man!"

Funding Arizona Education

GOP Budget Proposal Slashes Funds For Arizona Education
by Mary Jo Pitzl - Jan. 16, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

In the GOP options plan, education is targeted for the biggest cuts over the next year and a half. The K-12 system is penciled in for a nearly $1 billion cut for this year and next.

"That's $1,000 a kid in Arizona over 17 months," said Rep. Rich Crandall, R-Mesa. He predicted that the proposed deep cuts to education won't win enough votes to pass.

Education, from kindergarten to the state universities, could take the biggest hit as lawmakers try to resolve the state's looming budget deficits, under a plan unveiled Thursday by Republican budget leaders.

The proposal to cut $1.5 billion from education budgets over the next year and a half drew immediate protests from education advocates, Democrats and some skeptical Republicans.

"What we shouldn't be doing is looking at education first," said House Minority Leader David Lujan, D-Phoenix. "It should be the last thing we do."

Education advocates were quick to cry foul.

The Arizona Board of Regents called the proposal to cut nearly $500 million from university budgets over the next year and a half "cataclysmic in the depth and breadth of devastation they will cause to our higher-education system in Arizona."

For the current-budget year, university spending cuts would be the largest contributor to the budget solution: 16 percent of the total, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Next in line: The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, Arizona's alternative to Medicare. The plan proposes a $160 million cut this year.

Even prisons would take a hit: $22 million this year, which would reduce the deficit by 2.3 percent.

My Opinions: Typical Republican thinking, there is ‘no relation between spending on education and performance test scores’. Right. There's those test scores again.

Look out, the ‘Health Care Cost Containment System’ is next. Just the name tells you what it is. That ought to encourage retirement to Arizona.

Increased Property Values

Mormon temples boost property values
Home values often rise near LDS sites
by Chelsea Schneider - Jan. 8, 2009
The Arizona Republic

Homeowners near the proposed site of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Gilbert could see their property values increase, even in this depressed real-estate market.

As the focal point of the Mormon faith, a new temple tends to raise property values because church members like to live nearby. And for those outside the faith, temples have a reputation of being good neighbors and can anchor the long-term quality of an area.

The newest LDS temple in the U.S. opened in August in Twin Falls, Idaho. As has happened elsewhere, lots around the temple are now bringing higher prices than other places in the city.

Twin Falls' experience
When the site of the Twin Falls temple was announced, property values of houses across the street doubled overnight, Idaho developer Ken Edmunds said. This "temple effect" on a real-estate market is typical, Edmunds said.

Temples are considered houses of the Lord, and many of the Mormon faithful like to live in the shadows of their most sacred religious buildings.

In addition to raising home values, the temple has attracted three new major chain hotels in the area and plans for a fourth. About 160,000 people came to Twin Falls for a two-week public open house of the temple before it was dedicated. Now, 500 Mormons visit the temple every day, and weddings are held almost every weekend.

Twin Falls' previous claim to fame was being the site of Evel Knievel's unsuccessful 1974 motorcycle jump across the Snake River Canyon.

Like The Energizer Bunny, This Story Just Keeps Going, And Going...

Palin's future son-in-law quits job for not having diploma
From USA Today On Deadline

Last week Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sought to clear the record regarding the educational status of 18-year-old Levi Johnston, her future son-in-law and the father of her new grandchild. She told The Associated Press that he is not a high school dropout; he's taking a correspondence course while working as an electrical apprentice up in the North Slope oil fields, where Johnston's father and Palin's husband work.
Sunday, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News questioned how Levi could get an apprenticeship without a diploma, which the federal government requires.
Yesterday, Levi quit his job with ASRC Energy Services Inc., a major North Slope contractor, the Anchorage Daily News says.
Palin denied she had anything to do with his getting the position, as did his father, a construction engineer for ASRC.
"He felt it was the best thing to do to kind of calm the waters, so to speak," said Keith Johnston. He said his son flew home late last night.
Johnston has said he intends to marry Palin's daughter, Bristol, who gave birth December 27 to a son named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston.
Meanwhile, Levi's mother and Keith's wife, Sherry Johnston, pleaded not guilty yesterday to six felony counts of possessing and selling the painkiller OxyContin. She was arrested Dec. 18.
She said in court she is in the middle of a divorce with Keith Johnston and is living on disability payments and child support, the Daily News reported. Trial is scheduled for March.

Arizona's Budget Problems

State Budget Woes Worsen
Up to $5.7 billion loan may be needed, treasurer says
by Mary Jo Pitzl - Jan. 6, 2009 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Arizona would have to borrow between $2.5 billion and $5.7 billion as early as February to bridge the state budget through a cash-flow crunch caused by a shortfall.
That's the estimate of State Treasurer Dean Martin (Republican), who on Monday said that the state may have to borrow money for the first time in decades.
"It's like . . . using your Visa to pay off your MasterCard," Martin said at an afternoon news
He said he hopes to convene a meeting this week of the state Loan Commission, the first step to securing the short-term loans needed to literally keep the lights on in state fovernment.
The loans would add to the state's financial woes. The current $9.9 billion budget is already $1.2 billion in the red, and many expect it to worsen. Any borrowing would have to be repaid, with interest, a circumstance that is not contained in the current budget.
Martin said he will ask legislators for two changes to state law that could delay borrowing until April.
But, he added, borrowing appears inevitable.
Even if lawmakers make deep budget cuts when they start work next week, the savings won't pile up fast enough to avert the need for borrowing. Likewise, any tax increases - highly unlikely in the Republican-controlled Legislature - wouldn't be able to bring in enough money fast enough to reverse the state's upside-down trend of spending outpacing tax collections.
The only hope, as Martin (Republican) sees it, is a federal stimulus program that would send cash to the states.

My Comment: Wait a minute – this Republican sees the only way out of Arizona’s problems is a Federal stimulus program that would send cash to the states? I wonder how the Republicans on the other end of this deal would feel abut this? How would Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee respond to this?

Our Troops Wanted McCain