Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Over time, various polls have shown that the public is usually far ahead of the political establishment in seeing through the tobacco industry’s smokescreen of advancing their own interests while seeming to promote a “public health” measure. It’s gratifying to see that we now have legislators of both parties who can see these tobacco industry efforts for what they are: an attempt to secure their future at the expense of public health.

We have work to do to protect women’s health. I spent much of my career caring for pregnant teens, women at high risk for substance abuse and those in poverty. I know first-hand the challenges we face and the work we have yet to do. We must protect the lives of women in Arizona by crafting legislation to address domestic violence and IPV. We must address our provider shortage, which severely impacts care, especially in rural areas. We must work to tackle the increasing maternal morbidity and mortality rates in our country and state, especially for women of color. That should be the one true focus for all who govern and care about women and families in Arizona.

Full access to the Mueller report – or lack of such – will impact a generation of young Americans. Therefore we need all of our elected officials to speak out in favor of the release of the Mueller report, so that we know they are listening to us, the voters, and we can trust them to advocate for us.

The physician community strongly supports Arizona’s participation in KidsCare and hopes that the Legislature will take a strong stand for children by repealing the 2017 law and appropriate the necessary funds to continue to insure children.

The Arizona Legislature is considering Senate Bill 1354 to alleviate the state’s health care workforce shortage. The bill provides support for five programs — Graduate Medical Education, the University of Arizona Medical School, primary care provider loan repayment, medical student loan repayments, and nurse training. All of these programs will move the needle on the shortage.

Electricity is among the most political of commodities, and everyone has her favored form of power, with a constellation of advocates to promote it. Too often, wishful thinking masquerades as fact and political sloganeering substitutes for intellectually rigorous policy analysis. Utility regulators have a challenging set of responsibilities as they sift among the claims of these competing interests.

Congress should codify the basic tenets of net neutrality – a concept with which virtually no one disagrees – without imposing outdated Title II provisions on ISPs. But perhaps more importantly, Congress should pass privacy regulations that govern all Internet companies, including social media platforms, online search engines, content distributors and service providers. Unfortunately, the Save the Internet Act fails on both fronts. It’s time for Congress to scrap this ill-advised approach and start at square one.

Reasonable people can of course differ on whether or in what manner our officials should acknowledge religious holidays and traditions in their public comments. But not every political dispute is a constitutional question, and such disagreements are best addressed through the democratic means of discussion and debate – not unilaterally settled by unelected judges.

I’ve seen colleagues grow from scrappy startups to thriving companies, but I’ve also seen communities hit by scandals and heartbreaks. I want newcomers to know that they are welcome in the vacation rental market, but that we need to share standards of excellence to ensure the continuing success of our industry. Our local governments need to make better rules so that we can all set the bar higher.

Who could have anticipated that there would be reduced flows in the Colorado River and that the water levels in Lake Mead would drop?