This year marks 10 years since Arizona tribes signed new gaming compacts with the state of Arizona. These compacts provide an avenue for tribes to share gaming revenues with all Arizonans. As of September 2011, tribes have contributed more than $640 million to benefit education, trauma and emergency care, wildlife conservation and business development through tourism. These are real, hard dollars that have flowed to the state in good times and bad. In addition, tribal contributions fully fund the Arizona Department of Gaming, which is one of three entities that regulate tribal gaming, along with funding programs that work to prevent problem gambling.

I wonder how long it will be before we can have a discussion of immigration and labor issues without it being closed off with the phrases of “border security” and “open border and cheap labor?”

Chiropractic patients in Arizona are being denied benefits and chiropractors are being forced out of business because a law designed to hold the insurance industry accountable is not being enforced.

Recent articles about my proposed education fund and related spent nuclear fuel recycling program have produced some uninformed and negative reactionary responses.  I urge everyone in the media, political arena and the voting public to educate themselves about this important subject.

Let’s celebrate those Arizona K-12 public schools — both traditional and charter — that are advancing their students more quickly than their peers toward college and career readiness. Let’s study their strategies and share those strategies so that similar schools might use them.

As President Obama reflects on his trip to Arizona on Jan. 25, he has some soul searching to do. In recent months, the President has displayed a schizophrenic approach to immigration as he attempts to straddle impossible opposites.

Long before transparency was the catch phrase of government watchdogs, Arizona newspapers have been the primary fighters in the battle to keep government records open to citizens. In the last few years, the transparency fight has moved to protecting the public’s right to know by keeping public notices in newspapers.

While working families struggle to make ends meet in this sluggish economy, there is a bright spot on the horizon for Arizona’s lowest-paid workers: On Jan. 1, the state’s minimum wage increased 30 cents to $7.65, raising wages for more than 130,000 low-wage workers.

The increase not only helps hard-working Arizonans provide for their families, but also boosts the overall economy.

If ever I needed to channel Paul Harvey, now is the time. Since SB1070, I don’t think I have ever witnessed more false statements, misunderstandings and outright lies than I have with the school lunch opt-out bill. So with great respect for a radio legend, here is the rest of the story.

President Barack Obama took a small, but important, first step in eliminating the painful separation of American families because of twisted immigration laws.