Author: asnsadmin

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Sebastian Ionescu got lost on his first day of college at the University of Arizona.

Ionescu took 3-hours to journey back home instead of the normal 20-minutes. Perhaps he could have asked for directions, but Ionescu was still making his unfamiliar transition not only as a freshman but also as an international student from Braila, Romania.

“I was overwhelmed and scared,” Ionescu said. “I was not so confident with the language.”

Ionescu is a part of a rising trend of international enrollment that has brought more tuition dollars to the three Arizona universities. The increase in international admissions is also contributing to campus culture diversity that presents learning experiences for both American students and international students.

State legislators want voters to scuttle the power of their own initiatives.

Legislators crafted a number of constitutional amendments that subjects voter initiatives to periodic re-authorization, audits their effectiveness, subjects them to legislative appropriation and repeals certain initiatives altogether.

GOP legislators say voter initiatives limit their ability to appropriate funds from a tight budget and call the process an outright threat to a “republican, small r, form of government,” said Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Vail.

Critics call the push to water down voter initiatives a legislative intrusion into the peoples’ lawmaking process.

GOP legislators tout the reforms as essential to maintaining Arizona as a state governed by a legislature, not direct democracy.

Now, citizens can put laws to a vote by collecting signatures from 10 percent of the electorate—around 100,000 signatures—and change the state constitution by collecting 15 percent—around 150,000 signatures. If approved at election, the initiative becomes law and cannot be repealed or vetoed by the legislator or the governor. That initiative remains law unless voters gather the necessary signatures to repeal the measure.

Special Olympics Arizona needs support for its non-state funded organization in order to hold yearly programs for the 12,800 athletes involved.

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Click the pie chart for percentages.

The organization is funded statewide by donations from charitable organizations and private donors. 

According to Tracy McCarty, the grants manager of Special Olympics Arizona, there is about an 8 percent increase in athletes per year.