Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Track to Arizona Politics

Recently a benefit was held in Scottsdale dubbed “Dinner with Wolves.” The Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, and many environmental groups want the Mexican wolf returned to what they consider the wild landscape of Arizona. They also want to maintain protections for the Mexican wolf by listing it as “endangered.”

In the world of politics, full of polls and focus groups, “safe seats” and stacked districts, few people ever see fit to take a chance. That’s the opposite of business, where every day entrepreneurs put everything on the line in pursuit of success and happiness.

While Arizona recovers from an economic crisis rooted in predatory lending practices, a bill before the Legislature proposes another round of risky loans not too far removed from the horrific payday-lending loans now mostly a good-riddance memory.

It seems so obvious now. But 25 years ago there was a lot of uncertainty about an idea of mine to create a catalog that would introduce millions of airline passengers with loads of downtime to quirky, unique products they didn’t know they needed (or, in some cases, didn’t know existed).

The recent story on HB 2625 overlooked several important facts and did not provide the proper context for this important piece of legislation (“Victims’ rights bill aims to boost nonprofit’s revenues” 4/7/2014).

From our nation’s capital to state houses to all of our kitchen tables, the cost of health care and health care delivery are important conversations.

On March 8, thousands of students poured into testing rooms armed only with a sharpened #2 pencil, a calculator and the knowledge that these next few hours could make or break their college applications.

When I agreed to chair the Maricopa Integrated Health System’s Bond Advisory Committee, I thought I knew all about Maricopa County’s public hospital and health care system.

From outside the Arizona political process, it can be tempting to bemoan the strident partisanship that creates so much dysfunction around our state’s key issues, from creating jobs to bettering our schools to keeping our communities safe from crime.

Arizona reached some unsettling milestones recently. The state just passed into 16 years of drought. Last year we witnessed the deadliest wildfire in Arizona history, and also produced the hottest summer on record for the city of Phoenix.