SPRING IS IN THE AIR

posted to From the General Manager by Laura McKee

Many exciting things are happening around NPR 89.1 this month. Perhaps you’ve noticed there are now local morning newscasts on Saturday and Sunday. This extended coverage is made possible by listener support and fulfills our strategic intent to provide southern Arizona with the best in-depth news coverage. The popular weekend program Wait…Wait Don’t Tell Me comes to Tucson’s Centennial Hall as a part of UApresents on Thursday, March 15th. This sold-out show will be taped for broadcast to the national NPR audience on Saturday, March 17th.

Join us on March 3rd at the Fox Tucson Theatre for the national premiere simulcast broadcast on ReadyTV of “Amos Lee with Calexico” Live from the Artists Den. Tickets are free to the public. Doors will open at 7 p.m. with the broadcast starting at 8 p.m. The original concert was taped at the Fox Theatre Tucson on August 23, 2011 as part of the fourth season of this innovative music series. Live from the Artists Den airs on ReadyTV on Saturday nights at 8 p.m. on Cox 83, Comcast 201 and Broadcast 6-3.

The Tucson Festival of Books comes to the University of Arizona on March 10 and 11th. AZPM is again proud to be a part of this event. Our theme this year, ReadyTV and its great cooking programs, will be featured in the Culinary Tent as well as the new Science City – Science of Food tent. Come see us at the festival and register to win some great Culinary Gift Baskets from our highlighted ReadyTV chefs; Jacques Pepin, Steven Raichlen, Huber Keller, and the folks from America’s Test Kitchen.

The PBS-HD 6 spring membership drive, “You Make It Happen,” starts March 3rd. Program highlights include “Big Band Vocalists” and “Superstars of the Seventies Soul Live”, the latest installments of the MY MUSIC series, premieres on March 3rd at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively. Great Performances celebrates the 25th anniversary of one of the world’s most spectacular musicals, “Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall” on Sunday, March 4th at 6 p.m. Also, “Tony Bennett: Duets II,” another Great Performances program airs on Thursday, March 8th at 8 p.m. and features the singer’s greatest hits performed by Bennett and today’s biggest stars, including John Mayer, k.d. lang, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban, and more. On Monday the 5th, don’t miss “Dr. Wayne Dyer: Wishes Fulfilled,” as the best-selling author presents his Five Wishes Fulfilled Foundations at 8 p.m. and don’t miss “Celebrating North America’s Steam Railways” premiering on Monday, March 12th at 8 p.m. Last but not least - the ever popular, “Joseph Campbell & the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers” returns on the 18th and 19th at 9 p.m.

As always, our goal is to provide you with a wide variety of programming so you can “vote with your pledge” and let us know the types of shows you’d like to see more of on PBS- HD 6.

On behalf of all of us at AZPM, thank you for your viewership, listenership, and continued support.

Jack Gibson

PERSONNEL REFORM: WHY OR WHY NOT?

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

The yin and the yang of Arizona's state personnel system:

-- Paid leaves of absence for employees appealing disciplinary procedures cost Arizona taxpayers $1.6 million in a two-year period, according to the Goldwater Institute. That's 88,000 paid hours that workers were off the job, the institute said.

-- Existing state law and procedures already cover most of the issues that would be addressed in the new legislation, including speeded-up hiring procedures, merit pay and quick discipline, according to Sheri Van Horsen, president of state employee union Local 3111.

These perspectives come in the midst of the debate over Gov. Jan Brewer's efforts to reform the state personnel system. A bill, HB2571, has passed one committee in the House and will go before the Committee of the Whole soon.

Meantime, small-government advocates are lining up on one side and union and employee association representatives on the other.

We will talk with several of them on Friday's Arizona Week, including:

-- Mark Flatten and Nick Dranias of the Goldwater Institute. Flatten wrote lengthy investigative report on governmental personnel issues in December 2010. Dranias, a lawyer, has made the case for the legislation to change the system.

-- Sheri Van Horsen, president of Arizona Local 3111 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. She has published a "myths and relaities" document that argues against personnel reform.

-- Jimmy Chavez, president of the Arizona Highway Patrol Association, which represents hundreds of peace officers and civilian workers in the Arizona Department of Public Safety. He says any changes in the personnel system need to exempt law-enforcement personnel because the current system works for them.

Those interviews will air Friday, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6, Arizona Week.

MAURICE ANDRE

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Maurice André, the first classical trumpeter to become an international celebrity, has died.

REDISTRICTING COMMISSION ALMOST BROKE

posted to Political Buzz by Michael Chihak

The Arizona Republic *repoets that the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is almost broke.

And there's no relief in sight, despite the commission needing cash to continue operating as it works toward final implementation of the congressional and legislative district maps it has drawn.

Legislators are unsympathetic. Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin says if the commission had cooperated with the attorney general in an Open Meeting Law investigation, it wouldn't have spent big legal bills.

That's despite the commission having prevailed in its legal fight, with a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruling that the commission wasn't subject to the state's Open Meeting Law, because the constitutional provision that creates the commission has its own open meeting provision.

Commission Executive Director Ray Bladine says the commission's only recourse to get more money from the Legislature is to go to court. A commission meeting may be held later this week or next to discuss the possibilities, Bladine says.

REFORM COMING FOR STATE WORKER HIRING, FIRING

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal to reform the state personnel system, allowing greater ease in hiring and firing government workers, is working its way slowly through the Legislature.

HB2571 passed the House Committee on Employment and Regulatory Affairs earlier this month and now goes to the House Committee of the Whole.

The bill would make most state employees "at will," meaning they could be terminated for any reason -- or no reason -- with little or no notice.

Proponents say the change is needed because state government is slow to react to underperforming employees, and the system makes it difficult to get rid of them in ready fashion.

Friday's Arizona Week will look at the proposed change and what it will mean for Arizona state government employees and -- just as important -- for Arizona residents.

What will that mean? More efficient government that saves the taxpayers time and money, as proponents say, or will it mean a return to cronyism in which politicians and their appointed department heads can hire friends and acquaintances and fire people they don't like, as opponents say.

We are seeking interviews with specialists at the Goldwater Institute, which studied the issue and proposes the significant changes that are largely contained in HB2571, and with officials of state employees unions and associations that are opposing the changes.

REVENUE RISE DOESN'T MEAN MORE SPENDING

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Michael Chihak

Arizona state tax revenues are up, but optimism is still minimal in the Legislature for increased spending.

Gov. Jan Brewer's office reports steady and consistent growth that has exceeded projections for the last six months, with the expectation that it will continue. On that basis, she wants to add back some spending for education and prisons.

"Revenues have started to rebound in the state, thank goodness," said John Arnold, director of the Governor's Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting. "We went through a very difficult time where we lost over 30 percent of the total revenues for the state general fund."

Arnold commented in an interview for Friday's Arizona Week.

Arizona Senate President Steve Pierce, also in an Arizona Week interview, acknowledged that revenues are rising, but he said not at the rate the governor's office projects. Thus, Pierce said, saving and not more spending is the prudent approach for jow.

"We would like to be cautious in the money we spend now and hold some over for next year," Pierce said. " ... We don't want to spend it right now or commit it. We want to hold it until next year."

Negotiations between the governor's office and the Legislature are expected to begin soon to work out details of the state budget.

See Arnold's and Pierce's interviews and an interview with Sen. Paula Aboud, a Tucson Democrat, tonight on Arizona Week, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6.