Inadequate school funding the fault of Arizonans, not just the Legislature
The conventional wisdom among public school educators and supporters is that Arizonans overwhelmingly want more money for public education but the state’s conservative leaders at the Capitol are...
View ArticleImpeach Attorney General Tom Horne
The reprehensible behavior of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, as revealed in thousands of pages of FBI investigative documents and several media reports, has led to a smattering of calls from state...
View ArticleCouncil pay-raise committee an effort in futility
Looks like we’re packing our bags for futile-ville again. The City Council has created another committee to study City Council pay. Really? Haven’t we been down this road to nowhere repeatedly the past...
View ArticleColorado River water study a starting point for our water future
We will never run out of water in Tucson. That’s not a wish or a guess; it’s just simple math and economics. Yet whenever desert communities such as Tucson, Phoenix or Las Vegas broach the subject of...
View ArticleDon’t expect much change to come from Newtown massacre; gun violence part of...
The conventional wisdom after the horrific killing of 20 young children in Newtown, Conn., was that this mass killing was finally going to be the game changer in the gun control debate. This killing...
View ArticleAZ medical marijuana law exactly what I expected – a farce
No one likes an I Told You So but every now and then it’s necessary to say, “I told you so.” At the end of last month the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission released results of a study that said about...
View ArticleUPDATED: Why treat machine gun ownership differently than other guns, arms...
In reading some of the comments on Sarah’s Garrecht Gassen’s column today in the Arizona Daily Star, a few absolutists chimed in that the 2nd Amendment is very specific, it prohibits ANY limitations on...
View ArticleText of Gov. Brewer’s State of the State Address
The highlights of the address are the governor seeking more CPS workers, more funding for schools, including a pay-for-performance plan, reform the sales tax code, creation of a few task forces...
View ArticleBrewer picking a fight with GOP legislators a strange way to get AHCCCS...
When it comes to governing, Gov. Jan Brewer is a rather strange governor. On Monday, she stood before members of both houses of the Legislature and their assorted guests to give her State of the State...
View ArticleAmerican women can get combat jobs? Yawn
In case you didn’t notice, something momentous happened this week. In fact, it might even be more momentous that something this momentous happened and few Americans noticed its momentousness. Women can...
View ArticleImmigration reform won’t work unless we crack down on employers hiring...
What if there was a wealthy nation that had an enormous illegal immigration problem in which millions of illegal workers lived in the shadows and in constant fear of being deported? And what if that...
View ArticleNow is the winter of our Rio Nuevo discontent (so don’t screw it up)
Well, the hatchet is officially buried. City of Tucson and Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District officials yesterday signed a settlement that puts to rest more than three bitter years of bickering...
View ArticleRodeo break for public school kids no longer necessary
Some traditions die hard. One Tucson tradition that isn’t in much danger of dying is the public schools rodeo break in which more than 120,000 metropolitan public school children get out of school for...
View ArticleAnnexation is a dead horse, stop beating it
One would think that after more than a decade of Tucson mayors flogging the annexation dead horse they’d give up. That horse just ain’t gonna get up and run. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild last week...
View ArticleDysfunctional Congress the result of dysfunctional districting
So now that there’s going to be no deal on sequestration, some of you will be singing the Sequestration Blues due to all the cuts and their possible deleterious effects on our local and state...
View ArticleTucson can’t cut its way out of its financial hole, a tax is needed
The Tucson City Council last week sat through about three hours of financial reports from city staff, getting both good news and bad news. The good news is that the city’s economy continues to recover...
View ArticleTucson should get out of the golf business
It’s time for the city of Tucson to get out of the golf business. The city has struggled with what to do with its money-losing golf courses for several years. Last year it decided to close the...
View ArticleTucson’s utopian quest for plastic bag blight solution pointless
There is no utopia. Yet that doesn’t seem to be reason enough to prevent politicians from trying to legislate one. Both conservatives and liberals have an ideal vision of the way the world aught to be,...
View ArticleArizona Legislature should vote for Medicaid expansion (fingers crossed)
There are as many reasons for Arizona’s Republican legislators to vote against expanding Medicaid as there are for voting for it. But they should hold their noses, cross their fingers and vote yes...
View ArticleArizona Legislature can put last stake in Clean Elections’ heart with HB2593
Is Clean Elections dead in Arizona? Not yet, but if a bill, HB2593, currently hung up in the Legislature passes, Clean Elections will be as good as dead. And good riddance. Voter-approved Clean...
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