Online retailer Amazon will no longer be Arizona's duty-free store.

Amazon noted in its latest FEC filing that it's going to start collecting Arizona sales tax on purchases in the state, which currently stands at 6.6 percent.

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The Cato Institute -- a libertarian think-tank -- needed just seven words to sum up its report today on how Arizona's immigration laws are affecting business, and put those words right at the front of its analysis: "Arizona's immigration laws have hurt its economy."

Not only that, but the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio got special recognition for helping hurt business in Arizona.

See also:
-Why Janet Napolitano Should Read the Cato Institute Report on Immigration Reform


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​Hundreds of thousands of impoverished Arizonans with health problems apparently will have to tough it out following a court ruling today that upholds healthcare cuts.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Mark Brain ruled that a group of people suing the state can't forced Arizona lawmakers to keep funding their free health care.

Proposition 204, which passed in 2000 by an overwhelming majority of voters, expanded the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to include residents without children who earn up to 100 percent of the federal poverty limit. Previously, most Arizonans could only qualify if they earned up to 34 percent of the poverty limit.

An AHCCCS document from January states that 238,000 people were enrolled under the expansion in 2009, but by January of this year the number had risen to 377,000.

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"Yes?" No.

​About 40 people have been laid off at the Arizona Republic, which also announced plans to close a Chandler press that prints USA Today and various inserts.

The local pink slips come as part of a 2 percent layoff at Gannett's publishing division nationwide. About 700 people are losing their jobs.

Publisher John Zidich, in a Republic article today, cites weak national revenue at Gannett as part of the reason. As with layoffs at the state's largest newspaper in mid-2008, late 2008 and 2009, the limping economy also is blamed.

Some Republic staffers heard the news well after others -- because they were on mandatory, unpaid furloughs announced last month.

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Congressman Gary Ackerman

​The Arizona Legislature passed a bill late last night that allows for the creation of an Arizona vanity license plate featuring the "Don't Tread on Me" Gadsden Flag, which is an early symbol of the United States Marine Corps and Navy. It also happens to be the adopted symbol of the Tea Party movement that coughed up the cash to create the plates.

Other states, like Nevada and Virginia, have proposed similar plates, with which a New York congressman seems to have a problem (get a rope).

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bustathief.com

​Bryan Prehoda and Luis Belevan were running a pretty unsuccessful Scottsdale-based mortgage-relief service -- so unsuccessful, in fact, as to constitute fraud and a judgment against them for almost $29 million.

 

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge entered the default judgment this week, ordering Prehoda and Belevan to reimburse fees and a civil award to 2,495 people who went to the men's company -- Guardian Group -- to reduce the principal amount of their mortgage loan.

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www.jenerallyspeaking.com

​The Arizona Legislature has a knack for something: ruining the reputation of the entire state via a collection of embarrassing, symbolic bills.

Last week, Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill that makes doctors who perform abortions based on sex or gender criminals, which is fine except there's no evidence to support GOP legislators' claims that abortions performed for either of those reasons is a problem in Arizona.

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​By now you probably know about the Fiesta Bowl's decision to ax CEO John Junker following an internal investigation into how he was spending the organization's money, but it's the alleged illegal contributions to the campaigns of Valley politicos that has Arizona Democrats fuming.

Junker, the report shows, racked up a nearly $5 million bill on the company's credit card over a 10-year period by doing things like picking up the $1,200 tab at a strip club for a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office lieutenant, holding a $33,000 Pebble Beach birthday party for himself, and spending $110,000 at a charity auction for a golf trip -- all on the company's dime.

Read the full report on Junker here.

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Arizona's conservative, anti-immigrant politics help make it a "failed state," says the Boston Review in a lengthy article published today.

The piece makes plenty of good points, but gets watered down by writer Tom Barry's overly simplistic solution. If Arizona simply raised taxes, elected liberal leaders, embraced the federal government as a gentle father-figure and welcomed undocumented workers with open arms, Barry seems to be saying, we'd be doing great.

It's probably tough to understand Arizona's challenges when you're from a state where the poor stay poor and the rich grow ungodly wealthy.

For instance, Barry writes that:

The surge of illegal immigration over the past two decades has in many ways enriched our economy and communities. But--occurring outside the law and in the absence of a shared national plan of sustainable economic growth--illegal immigration contributed to the erosion of our society's sense of community.

In other words, illegal immigration causes only perceived problems -- not real ones.

Barry depressingly concludes: 

 

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Arizona apparently deserves its reputatation as a mecca for low-paying jobs, ranking 40th in an economic analysis among states for per-capita income.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports, according to the Biz Journal this morning, that the average income for state residents if $34,999 -- "well below the national average of $40,584."

It could always be worse. Thankfully, the deep south and other western states keep Arizona from settling to the bottom. Advancing a smidgen up the ladder since 2009, we beat out the likes of Indiana, Kentucky and -- at No. 50 -- the Third World state of Mississippi.

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