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Four adults whose discipline of an 11-year-old boy with special needs included rubbing his face in ketchup on a wall and holding him down on a kitchen table while two of the adults paddled him with a plastic cutting board have been indicted by a Parker County grand jury on charges of injury to a child.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05...#storylink=cpy

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Arizona lawmakers at this moment are in conference committee to reconcile differences in bills coming out of the House and the Senate.

One of those is Senate Bill 1449, which spells out proposed changes in election law, including changes in recall election law.

Sources are telling our reporters at the Capitol that conference committee members include allies of former Senate President Russell Pearce. Among those lawmakers are Republicans who have argued that Pearce ought to be reimbursed $260,000 for expenses incurred during his recall election last year.

Let's make something plain: Those Pearce "expenses" are almost entirely dollars he raised during the recall, for the recall, and much of it from contributors from out of state.

If these Pearce supporters connive at this 11th hour to "reimburse" Pearce, let it be known they are fooling no one. They are using scarce state funds to hand Russell Pearce a pay package of more than a quarter million dollars for the inconvenience of having experienced a recall, and to help finance his return to office when he runs again this fall.

That includes making changes to the law that allow him to get a payoff somewhere down the line.

That, simply, is an outrage that cannot stand.

The state Legislature declined yesterday to consider a tiny increase in funds for the developmentally disabled.

The Legislature decided yesterday to leave over 100,000 poor kids without access to health care, languishing instead on waiting lists.

The Legislature yesterday left highways untended, needed schools unbuilt, and uncounted other state services grievously unfunded.

Don't you dare, in the security of your back rooms, use the confusion of the 11th hour of the legislative session to cut a check to Russell Pearce.

Don't you dare.

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Republican politicians like to wear their faith on their sleeves and talk about their Christian values. But when it comes to practicing what you preach, the GOP has a long way to go.

Republicans don't have any more respect for the Bible than they do the Constitution. Conservatives talk about their dedication to the Constitution but they support the Arizona anti-immigration law which is a mockery of our founding document. Right wingers talk about their the importance of their faith but they completely ignore the biblical injunctions to help the poor.

On Tuesday, 90 faculty members and priests at Georgetown, the Jesuit University in Washington, criticized Mitt Romney's budget buddy, Rep. Paul Ryan, for saying his budget plan which includes cuts in antipoverty programs and school lunches and tax breaks for bankers and billionaires—was inspired by his Catholic faith. The letter to Ryan reads, "Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ."

The letter goes on to say, "We would be remiss in our duties to you and our students if we did not challenge your continuing misuse of Catholic teaching to defend a budget plan that decimates food programs for struggling families, radically weakens protections for the elderly and sick and gives more tax breaks to the wealthiest few."

The New Testament chronicles Jesus Christ's concern for the poor. In his haste to devour "The Fountainhead," Ryan apparently didn't have time to read it. So here are some of the highlights for Congressman Ryan courtesy of Jim Wallis, the author of God's Politics.

In the Magnificant, Mary discusses the meaning of the coming of Jesus when she says, "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly: he has filled the hungry with good things; and sent the rich empty away."

In his gospel, Matthew writes, "Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me."

You get the idea. A little more Bible study and a lot more compassion for the poor would go a long way for Romney, Ryan and other Republicans.

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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) tried to send the message this week that, contrary to "urban legend," he is not obsessed with philosopher and author Ayn Rand.

"I reject her philosophy," Ryan told National Review on Thursday. "It's an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person's view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas. Don’t give me Ayn Rand."

Best known for her novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged," Rand advocated a philosophy that emphasizes the individual over the collective, and viewed capitalism as the only system truly based on the protection of the individual. She has been a significant influence on libertarians and conservatives.

Ryan, whose name has been floated as a possible running mate for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, appeared to be distancing himself from Rand in response to a public letter he received this week from nearly 90 faculty and administrators at Georgetown University. In their letter, they criticize him for misusing Catholic social teaching in defending his budget, which hurts the poor by proposing significant cuts to anti-hunger programs, slashing Pell Grants for low-income students and calling for a replacement of Medicare with a voucher-like system. They also invoke Rand's name.

"As scholars, we want to join the Catholic bishops in pointing out that his budget has a devastating impact on programs for the poor," said Jesuit Father Thomas J. Reese, one of the organizers of the letter. "Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her call to selfishness and her antagonism toward religion are antithetical to the Gospel values of compassion and love."

But any urban legend about Ryan's affinity for Rand surely started with Ryan himself, who, prior to this week, had no qualms about gushing about Rand's influence on his guiding principles.

"The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand," Ryan said during a 2005 event honoring Rand in Washington, D.C., the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in April 2009.

During the 2005 gathering, Ryan told the audience, "Almost every fight we are involved in here on Capitol Hill ... is a fight that usually comes down to one conflict -- individualism versus collectivism." The event was hosted by The Atlas Society, which prominently features a photo of Rand on its website and describes itself as a group that "promotes open Objectivism: the philosophy of reason, achievement, individualism, and freedom."

Ryan also said during a 2003 interview with the Weekly Standard, "I give out 'Atlas Shrugged' as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it. Well ... I try to make my interns read it.” He noted that he "looked into" Rand's work when he was younger, but reiterated that he is a Christian and reads the Bible often.

In 2009, Ryan posted two videos on his Facebook page raving about the importance of Rand's views.

"If 'Atlas Shrugged' author Ayn Rand were alive today, here's the urgent message I think she'd be conveying," Ryan wrote alongside the first video, titled "Ayn Rand's relevance in 2009."

He says in the video:

What's unique about what's happening today in government, in the world, in America, is it's as if we're living in an Ayn Rand novel right now. I think Ayn Rand did the best job of anybody to build the moral case for capitalism. And that morality of capitalism is under assault. And we are going to replace it with a crony capitalism, collectivist, government-run system which is creeping its way into government. And so if Ayn Rand were here today, I think she would do a great job in showing us just how wrong what government is doing is. Not the quantitative analysis, not the numbers, but the morality of what is wrong with what government is doing today.

In the second video, titled "Ayn Rand & 2009 America, Part 2," Ryan says it doesn't surprise him that sales of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" have "surged" since President Barack Obama took office.

"It's that kind of thinking, that kind of writing, that is sorely needed right now. And I think a lot of people would observe that we are living in an Ayn Rand novel right now, metaphorically speaking," Ryan says. "The attack on Democratic capitalism, on individualism and freedom in America is an attack on the moral foundation of America. And Ayn Rand more than anyone else did a fantastic job of explaining the morality of capitalism, the morality of individualism. This, to me, is what matters most."

Some of Ryan's critics took a shot at him for suddenly distancing himself from Rand.

"Not pure enough on entitlement cuts @philipaklein @robertcostaNRO Paul Ryan on Ayn Rand: 'I reject her philosophy,'" Austan Goolsbee, the former chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, tweeted Thursday.

UPDATE: 5:14 p.m. -- Ryan spokesman Kevin Seifert downplayed the lawmaker's apparent change of tune on Rand.

"I wouldn't make too much of this one way or another. Congressman Ryan was not 'distancing himself' from Rand, merely correcting several false storylines that are out there, such as the myth that he requires all of his staffers to read Atlas Shrugged. Saying he 'rejects Ayn Rand's philosophy' was simply meant to correct a popular falsehood that Congressman Ryan is an Objectivist -- he isn't now and never claimed to be," Seifert said in a statement to The Huffington Post.

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By: Deborah Stocks
By: ABC15.com staff

GILBERT, AZ - Sources tell ABC15 that a prominent former neo-Nazi is among five people shot and killed Wednesday in a Gilbert neighborhood.

Police say the victims in the Wednesday shooting are two men, two women, and a young girl between 1 and 2 years old.

Sources say J.T. Ready, who was running for Pinal County Sheriff, was involved in the shooting, however it is not clear if he was the gunman or a victim.

Ready was known to be a member of the National Socialist Movement who advocated using violence to stop people from crossing the border. In a 2010 interview with ABC15 he discussed his beliefs and showed off his cache of high-powered weapons.

Authorities have not yet confirmed the identities of the victims and suspect.

Air15 video from the scene near Cooper and Warner roads showed a portion of the street blocked off by police crime tape Wednesday afternoon.

Nearby Mesquite Junior High School and Gilbert Elementary School were placed on lockdown for a short time but that has been lifted, according to a district officials.

The shooting happened around 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Police say a man fatally shot four people before being found dead in what is believed to be a domestic situation. Police have not yet confirmed if the shooter committed suicide.

Police say officers recovered two handguns and a shotgun at the scene.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has responded to the scene to assist Gilbert police in their investigation. Ready's connection to the home where the shooting happened isn't entirely clear at this time.

A motive in the shooting is unknown.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

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