PHOENIX — Some convicted criminals could be released from probation early and others could see probation officers less frequently under a plan court leaders are considering in response to state budget cuts, Arizona’s top judge told lawmakers Monday.

In her annual State of the Judiciary address, Ruth V. McGregor, chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, said leading judges are studying whether the cuts can be made safely. But she warned lawmakers that further cuts to court funding would force harsh reductions in probation services with potentially dangerous consequences for Arizonans.

“Reducing the level of supervision unwisely can impact public safety,” she said.

Substantial savings can’t be achieved without cutting the costs of probation services, which account for 80 percent of the money courts receive from the state, McGregor said.

While other state agencies have seen their budgets increase since 2000, the judicial branch’s state-funded operations have decreased by 13 percent during that period, she said.

McGregor, who also used the opportunity to announce her retirement as of June 30, said economic downturns tend to increase caseloads. Court officials expect civil case filings to increase by 50 percent over fiscal-year 2007 levels. Contract lawsuits are expected to increase 90 percent, and juvenile abuse and neglect cases are on track to increase by 53 percent during that period, she said.

Increased caseloads mean longer delays for defendants awaiting trial, victims seeking prompt resolution of their cases and businesses resolving disputes, she said.

“Delay prevents the placement of abused and neglected children in permanent homes after parental rights are severed,” she said. “Delay increases, sometimes to nearly unbearable levels, the stress experienced by those awaiting child custody or child support decisions.”

McGregor, who has served as a justice since 1998 and as chief justice since 2005, said courts are hoping to increase revenue by expanding a program to enforce court orders and collect fees, fines and restitution.

Arizona courts are co-funded by state and county governments. Courts are a constitutionally mandated branch of government that cannot be eliminated, so budget cuts at the state level simply transfer the cost burden to counties, said Elizabeth Hegedus-Berthold, a research analyst with the County Supervisors Association of Arizona.

Inadequate court funding makes it difficult to enforce laws, she said.

“People typically just think of law enforcement when they think of public safety, but the courts are a critical element of that,” Hegedus-Berthold said.

PHOENIX — Arizona can better protect women who find themselves in abusive relationships by applying domestic violence laws to dating couples, stiffening penalties for repeat offenders and making choking a felony, advocates told lawmakers Monday.

“There are significant gaps in the system when it comes to domestic violence,” said Kendra Leiby, a lobbyist for the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “The cost of not having an effective system in place that protects victims and hold perpetrators accountable is way too high.”

While briefing the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leiby said her coalition counted 126 Arizonans who died last year in domestic violence-related murders and suicides.

Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, the committee’s chairman, has introduced three bills to try and cut down on the number of deaths.

SB 1068 would classify choking, which includes strangulation or suffocation, as aggravated assault, a Class Three felony. Under current law, choking can only be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

Paton said many domestic abusers choke their victims because the punishment is lenient and strangulation or suffocation often doesn’t leave marks that would be evidence of assault.

Kathleen Mayer, an assistant Pima County attorney, said choking is one of the leading causes of domestic violence-related deaths in her area.

“That’s a huge red flag for future homicides,” she said. “Until we can afford ourselves of some felony intervention in that kind of conduct, we’re going to continue to see women die as a result of strangulation and suffocation.”

SB 1087 would allow prosecutors to file felony charges on a second domestic violence offense instead of a third, as the law currently provides.

Rebecca Baker, an assistant Maricopa County attorney, said her office was unable to pursue felony charges in 40 percent of domestic violence cases it handled last year because prosecutors couldn’t prove that defendants had two prior convictions. She said it is often difficult to document convictions in other states.

Paton said, “We want to stop the repeat offenses because we know they lead to murders and other heinous crimes.”

SB 1088 would expand domestic violence laws to cover romantic or sexual relationships in which the victim and abuser have never married, lived together or had a child together.

Victims of crimes classified as domestic violence can more easily obtain protective orders against their alleged abusers. Victims of dating violence have to show a series of events in order to obtain an injunction.

“I think that when these bills get heard there’s going to be a huge reaction from the community and it’s going to be positive,” Paton said. “I’m convinced of that.”

None of the measures has been heard because the Senate isn’t hearing bills while lawmakers work on the state budget.

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Domestic violence bills

Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has introduced three bills aimed at protecting women from domestic violence:

• SB 1068 would classify choking as aggravated assault, a Class Three felony. Under current law, choking can only be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

• SB 1087 would allow prosecutors to file felony charges on a second domestic violence offense instead of a third, as the current law provides.

• SB 1088 would expand domestic violence laws to cover romantic or sexual relationships where the victim and abuser have never married, lived together or had a child together. The change would make it easier for women with abusive boyfriends to obtain protective orders.

PHOENIX – Rep. Doug Quelland, R-Phoenix, rides his bike 17 miles to and from the State Capitol each day, and he pedals across whole states during his time off. That experience gives him a unique perspective on the needs of Arizona’s bicycling community, he says.

But neither that perspective nor the cycling garb he wore before a House committee Wednesday could convince lawmakers that bicyclists should be allowed to roll through stop signs if no traffic is coming. Quelland said a similar law in Idaho has created safer roadways for bicyclists.

“Other states have treated their bicyclists much more sanely than we have in Arizona,” he told the House Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.

Quelland added that it is harder to control a bicycle and avoid a collision if the rider is starting from a stop.

Arizona law requires bicyclists to come to a complete halt at stop signs but doesn’t specify what constitutes a complete stop. Quelland and Rep. Daniel Patterson, D-Tucson, complained that law is applied too harshly in the Tucson area.

“We have cities and counties, at least in southern Arizona, that are using technical stop sign violations as a moneymaker where there’s no safety issue,” Patterson said.

Despite those arguments, members of the panel declined to advance the bill, voting against it 5-3 along party lines.

House Bill 2479 would allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs. They would have to yield to vehicles but wouldn’t be required to stop if there are no cars approaching an intersection.

At Patterson’s suggestion, the bill was amended to apply only to those at least 16 years old.

Quelland and Patterson said police officers in the Tucson area sometimes write $200 citations to cyclists who don’t completely stop and put both feet on the ground before proceeding through stop signs.

Officials from the Tucson Police Department and the Pima County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Democratic Reps. Pat V. Fleming of Sierra Vista and Barbara McGuire of Kearney joined Patterson in supporting the bill. Republican Reps. Jerry Weiers of Glendale, Ray Barnes and Carl Seel of Phoenix, Sam Crump of Anthem and David Gowan of Sierra Vista voted against it.

Barnes said it would send the wrong message for children to see older bicyclists failing to stop at stop signs.

“I am not in a position where I want to set bad examples for kids, and I’m afraid that’s what this is doing,” Barnes said.

Crump said he worried the proposed law would heighten the danger when drivers at stop signs ignore bicyclists who have the right of way.

“It seems like it muddies the situation,” Crump said. “Under existing law, at least you’ve stopped, despite the negligent driver.”

PHOENIX – Several rest areas may close and wait times for driver’s licenses may increase as the Arizona Department of Transportation scrambles to cope with state budget cuts and declining revenues, the agency’s director told lawmakers Monday.

“We are absorbing a lot of cuts in an era of unprecedented demand,” Victor Mendez said while briefing members of the Senate Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt Committee.

Revenue in the Highway User Revenue Fund, the primary source for highway construction and maintenance, is projected to be down 7.8 percent for the fiscal year that ends June 30, Mendez said. The fund includes gasoline taxes, driver’s license and vehicle registration fees and revenue from some smaller sources.

In addition, ADOT faces a $295 million cut for the current fiscal year as part of the Legislature’s plan to close a $1.6 billion budget deficit.

After the meeting, Mendez said ADOT may close five rest areas beginning as early as next month.

He said ADOT isn’t ready to announce which rest areas would close, but he said most will be on federal highways.

Some Motor Vehicle Division offices, where residents apply for driver’s licenses and auto registrations, may close, he said, and others will see longer wait times as a hiring freeze leaves vacant positions unfilled.

The hiring freeze also may mean longer waits for commercial trucks entering Arizona at ports of entry, Mendez said.

ADOT also is cutting back on routine maintenance, such as litter removal, street sweeping and tree trimming. It may reduce preventative pavement maintenance on roads as well, Mendez told lawmakers.

In deciding which rest stops and MVD offices to close, Mendez said the department must consider federal guidelines that restrict the number of hours truck drivers can be on the road as well as the availability of voter registration and Selective Service forms, which are offered at MVD sites.

Rep. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, said she would like to see ADOT pursue partnerships that would allow private companies to build and maintain rest stops and charge fees to drivers who use them.

“The public has always thought that it was free, but it’s not,” Gorman said. “They’re paying for it in other taxes.”

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (center) stands between the new Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (left) and Dr. John Brewer, her husband, during inauguration ceremonies on Jan. 21 in Phoenix.

PHOENIX — Former Republican lawmaker Ken Bennett was sworn in Monday as Arizona’s secretary of state, saying he welcomes Gov. Jan Brewer’s call for him to expand the office’s duties by helping develop and promote her policies.

“Governor Brewer has asked me to really be part of the administration and to help her, maybe even with the budget,” Bennett said after taking the oath of office in the old State Capitol building.

Brewer, also a Republican, appointed Bennett to succeed her as secretary of state after she took over for Democrat Janet Napolitano, who left to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Bennett, who is from Prescott, served in the state Senate from 1998 until term limits forced him to leave in 2007. He was Senate president for four years, from 2003 to 2006.

Among other duties, the secretary of state, an elected office, serves as Arizona’s chief elections officer, reviewing petition signatures for candidates and initiatives and certifying election results. But Brewer has said she wants Bennett to take an active role in her administration.

“I look forward to working very closely with Mr. Bennett in the coming years as he joins me in uniting and restoring the shine to the state of Arizona that we all love so deeply,” Brewer said.

Bennett said his first task replacing senior staff members who followed Brewer to the governor’s office, including former deputy secretary of state Kevin Tyne, who became Brewer’s chief of staff.

“Every ounce of energy that I don’t give to my family I will give to the state of Arizona to make sure that the responsibilities of this office are conducted in a manner that’s befitting to the great citizens and history of this state,” Bennett told several hundred people who attended Monday’s ceremony.

Bennett served as CEO of Bennett Oil Co., a family fuel distribution business, from 1985 to 2006. Since leaving the Senate, Bennett has worked with companies to develop alternative energy and efficient building technologies and serves as chairman of the board of Global Building Systems Inc. of Prescott.

Bennett’s political career began on the Prescott City Council in the 1980s. He served on the Arizona Board of Education from 1992 to 1998 and was president of the board from 1996-1998.

The Secretary of State’s Office also enforces campaign finance law, tests and certifies voting equipment and maintains a database of registered lobbyists.

The office also performs business and government functions, such as commissioning notaries public, granting trademarks and trade names and registering charitable organizations. It makes certified copies of government documents and public records.

PHOENIX – Advocates and Republican lawmakers said Wednesday they hope Jan Brewer’s rise to the Governor’s Office will mean a better chance of success for legislation aimed at restricting abortion.

“Gov. Brewer has made it clear that she has different views than Gov. Napolitano did on a number of issues, including the life issue,” said Cathi Herrod, president of Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative think tank.

Herrod made her comments by phone after the House Health and Human Services Committee approved a bill dealing with an abortion procedure sometimes characterized as partial birth. Later in the day, Brewer, a Republican, took the oath of office to replace Democrat Janet Napolitano as governor.

HB 2400 would make it illegal for a doctor to perform the procedure unless it is necessary to prevent a woman’s death or disability. It also would establish a maximum prison term of two years for physicians found guilty of performing the procedure.

Napolitano, who supports abortion rights, twice vetoed similar bills last year. In six years as governor, she also vetoed six other pieces of legislation dealing with abortion, including a bill that would have required a 24-hour waiting period before a woman receives an abortion and another that would have required that parental consent forms for minors to have abortions be notarized.

Bryan Howard, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, said in a statement that it was the committee’s first meeting under new Republican leadership in the House and Senate as well as the start of Brewer’s term as governor.

“If this is a signal about the weeks and months ahead, our children and our families are going to suffer,” Howard said.

Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, a primary bill sponsor and chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, criticized Napolitano’s vetoes and said that she is confident Brewer would sign the bill.

“Any reasonable governor would have signed the bill and will sign the bill,” Barto said after all six Republicans on the committee recommended approval.

The panel’s three Democrats were not present. Tucson’s Phil Lopes and David Bradley were at the presidential inauguration, Barto said. Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, wasn’t present.

Rep. Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, the House majority whip and a primary sponsor, called the bill “the ultimate health care bill for children.”

“This is a black-and-white issue to me and most Arizonans,” Tobin said. “Let’s be clear: There is nothing that is extreme about this bill. What’s extreme is this procedure.”

Napolitano twice vetoed similar bills, saying they would duplicate federal law. Former President George W. Bush signed a federal ban on the procedure in 2003.

Proponents of HB 2400 say it allows local prosecutors to file charges instead of relying on U.S. attorneys, who must follow the direction of the attorney general.

The federal law also requires prosecutors to establish that the procedure involved interstate commerce.

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On the Web

Center for Arizona Policy:

www.azpolicy.org

Planned Parenthood Arizona:

www.ppaz.org

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HB 2400

Here are key provisions of HB 2400, which deals with a type of abortion sometimes characterized as partial birth:

• Specify a maximum of two years in prison for physicians found guilty of performing the procedure except when it is necessary to prevent a woman’s death or disability.

• Allow a defendant facing trial to request a hearing in front of the state’s physician licensing boards to determine whether the procedure was medically necessary.

• Ban prosecution of women who receive the procedure.

• Allow fathers married to a mother who undergoes the procedure to sue for psychological and physical harm as well as three times the cost of the abortion.

PHOENIX – Arizona’s student testing model is flawed, and the state’s top education official is exaggerating student success on standardized tests, a conservative researcher charged Thursday.

“It’s a bit like watching Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa beating these baseball records,” said Matthew Ladner, vice president of research at the Goldwater Institute. “It could be that they’re just better baseball players. Or it could be that the ball is juiced or the players are taking steroids.”

Ladner debated Tom Horne, Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction, at an annual meeting of education researchers held at Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix Campus.

Horne called Ladner a “demagogue” and said the Goldwater Institute is selective with facts and spreads false information as a scare tactic.

“They can’t stand the idea that there could be anything good in public education,” Horne said.

The Goldwater Institute is a Phoenix-based think tank advocating limited government and individual responsibility.

Ladner said Horne uses questionable statistics to claim that Arizona students score well above the national average in college entrance exams and standardized tests such as the TerraNova, which replaced the Stanford 9 in 2004 as a measure of student achievement that can be compared nationally. It is taken by all second- and ninth-graders in Arizona.

He pointed to a letter in the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson in which Horne said that Arizona students are scoring 8 percent above the national average on the TerraNova exam.

“Parents are out there making very important decisions based on these data,” Ladner said. “I can no longer be certain my decision is based on data I can rely on.”

Horne later said Arizonans score about 1.9 percent above the national average on TerraNova.

Ladner didn’t dispute the number but said the TerraNova exam is an imprecise method for comparing students nationally.

He said Arizona’s TerraNova results may be artificially high because some scores from third- through eighth-graders are merely estimates based on results from another test, Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS).

“If there’s teaching to the test going on with AIMS, that would inflate TerraNova scores,” Ladner said.

Horne responded with a graph showing relatively consistent results between students who took the TerraNova test and those whose scores were estimated from AIMS.

Ladner advocated another exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Arizona students score below the national average on that test, known as The Nation’s Report Card.

Congress created the Report Card in 1969 to measure student performance over time. It tests a representative sample of students in all 50 states and is often used to compare results between states.

Horne has been a sharp critic of the test, saying Arizona’s scores are low because the test doesn’t align with the state’s curriculum.

He said it’s not a measure of student achievement, but rather “a measure of how well as state has aligned its standards” with the test.

Arizona’s schools are performing well but the results have been diluted by attacks from the media and “ideologues,” he said.

“We’d like to see the Diamondbacks win the World Series,” Horne said. “But that’s not going to happen if people falsely think they’re in ninth place.”

Veterinarian Pam Clark examines Princess at the North Valley Animal Clinic in Bullhead City.

BULLHEAD CITY – At times, veterinarian Pam Clark is too busy with surgery and routine appointments to treat pets needing emergency care at her North Valley Animal Clinic.

Things often aren’t any better at the half-dozen other animal clinics serving this fast-growing area in northwestern Arizona.

Frantic pet owners are left to find emergency care elsewhere, and sometimes that’s 100 miles away in Las Vegas.

“We try to save a few slots every day for sick animals,” said Clark, the only veterinarian in her clinic.

“It doesn’t always work,” she said.

Clark said she has advertised continuously for help over the past eight years but has been able lure only two veterinarians.

They didn’t stick around long, she said.

Until another veterinarian joins her practice, she isn’t accepting new clients, and current clients have to wait two months for appointments.

“I have to set limits,” Clark said. “I’m not going to kill myself over it like I used to, working 24/7.”

Communities statewide are short of veterinarians, officials said.

The problem is most acute in rural areas.

“A veterinarian can go pick and choose wherever they want to work because there is such a shortage,” said Karter Neal, supervising veterinarian at the Humane Society in Tucson.

“You could probably walk into Tucson as a vet and get a job within a day,” she said. “We really need vets to focus on those rural areas.”

Neal chairs a task force created by the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association to find ways to attract more veterinarians to rural communities.

The state has 1,700 licensed veterinarians and needs about 300 more to meet demand, Neal said.

Many veterinarians in rural areas have stopped caring for horses and other ranch animals to keep up with demand for cat and dog care, Neal said.

There’s a serious risk of losing a horse, she said. “It could die of its illness in the three to four hours to get to a vet.”

In Bullhead City, the unincorporated area of Mohave Valley to the south and across the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nev., the number of veterinarians hasn’t kept pace with the population.

It has doubled since 1990 to more than 60,000.

Brenda Bentley, owner of the grooming business Pet Palace, said some pet owners have to go as far as Las Vegas for emergency help.

Bentley said she had to travel 45 minutes to Kingman one evening when she needed a veterinarian to take care of an overheated puppy.

“I wasn’t able to get a vet here to answer a phone or deal with it, so I had to drive it up there in a very quick fashion because its brain was swelling out of its head,” Bentley said.

In rural areas, fewer veterinarians means more work for each, including night and weekend calls in communities without a round-the-clock emergency center.

Jeri Dioguardi, a veterinarian at Foothills Animal Hospital in Yuma, said she gets called into the office almost every other night, plus weekends and holidays.

“There isn’t an emergency hospital in three hours driving distance, and that puts a lot of strain on the few vets who work here,” Dioguardi said.

Neal said rural communities are less attractive to young veterinarians.

New vets in rural areas increasingly come from cities and often have big student loan balances.

“Veterinarians are graduating with huge debt loads, and the economics of surviving in a rural area is challenging for them,” Neal said.

Neal’s task force is looking into financial incentives to attract vets to rural areas.

TEMPE – At a liquor store in the shadow of Arizona State University, Attorney General Terry Goddard on Tuesday launched a week-long public awareness campaign to combat underage drinking.

It’s part of a national campaign created by the Federal Trade Commission called “We Don’t Serve Teens Week,” targeting adults who serve alcohol to minors.

“This is appalling,” Goddard said. “Parents feel very strongly about this, but it’s other adults who are providing alcohol to their children.”

Goddard spoke at Top’s Liquors, which is known for its tough stand on sales to would-be buyers under 21. Owner Greg Eccles displayed dozens of fake driver’s licenses confiscated at the store.

Sixty-five percent of underage drinkers report getting alcohol from a friend or family member, according to a study by the Century Council. The council is a Washington-based organization funded by alcohol producers that is sponsoring the campaign.

“It’s not too late to sit down and talk to your son and daughter,” Goddard said. “Make sure that they know that what they’re doing is wrong and that it’s illegal.”

The campaign includes posters and stickers for retail stores that sell alcohol, as well as a series of public service announcements that will air on cable television and radio stations in Phoenix and Tucson.

The TV commercial addresses parents.

“You don’t have to see it to know it’s happening,” the screen reads as a young man coaxes an intoxicated young woman into having another drink.

A print advertisement reads, “Don’t give them an excuse. Talk to your teen about underage drinking. If you don’t, it’s just as irresponsible as putting a drink in their hands.”

Sixteen other states are participating in “We Don’t Serve Teens Week.”

Bill Weigele, president of the Arizona Licensed Beverage Association, said retailers are constantly struggling to keep up with technology as young people find innovative ways to get past liquor store controls.

“In an age when a fake ID is prevalent and easy to get, it’s not easy for a retailer (to recognize them),” Weigele said.

Weigele cited data from the Century Foundation, which says that 7 percent of underage drinkers report getting their alcohol from inattentive liquor store clerks.

Tempe Police Chief Tom Ryff said underage drinking is a serious community problem.

“We continue to experience tragedy in our roadways, and it’s simply unacceptable,” Ryff said.

“It’s our responsibility and it’s your responsibility to take this seriously.”

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ON THE WEB

We Don’t Serve Teens Week:

www.dontserveteens.gov

Arizona Attorney General:

www.azag.gov