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

When a person is sued, it’s a given that they should be able to hire legal representation. When you’re an elected sheriff and the ACLU sues you, that need is even more imperative. However, an Oct. 15 article by Arizona Capitol Times reporter Jeremy Duda might give readers the impression that I don’t have that right.

Arizona fought California and the feds to win 1.6 million acre feet of water supplies that we pump into the Valley each year. We can take on these fights and win, but not with a bunch of bureaucrats and watercrats.

I was arrested July 29 for blocking a thoroughfare — demonstrating in the street – against the SB1070 law that went into effect that day. I went to Arizona with 120 Unitarian Universalist ministers at the request of colleagues serving there. We were being called to witness racial discrimination and cultural tension that surrounded the immigration issue. On Oct. 29, my name will be called at the Maricopa County Court in Phoenix and a judge will ask me how I plead.

Affirmative action job quotas, minority contract set-asides and extra points in college admissions are wrong and it’s time to get rid of them. Achieving “diversity goals,” however well-intentioned, often amounts to the functional equivalent of a quota

A group of extreme, partisan, and stunningly unknowledgeable people are trying to take over the Central Arizona Project Board. Why? Because it’s easy, and because they believe that all government is bad and should be cut.

Are those nails scraping across a chalkboard, or is someone asking a small-business owner to do more tax reporting paperwork? It’s the latter, and Congress has mandated it with a 2012 start date.

I will be voting no in November on Proposition 109. This proposition to amend the state Constitution is nothing more than power grab by politicians to take away voter-initiative rights and put all wildlife-management decisions in their hands.

The financial crisis has not only battered home values and investment portfolios, it has exposed major investment frauds. Many of those schemes unraveled as the cash needed to keep the perpetrators afloat dried up and investors began demanding their money. Here’s one story about how attorneys in private practice and working at public agencies have successfully recovered investors’ losses.

This country has not seen such division since the Civil War and Vietnam. Issues such as health care, unemployment, illegal immigration and countless others have brought heated conversations to water coolers all over the country. Politicians are pointing fingers and passing blame, not taking responsibility for the challenges at hand.

If you’ve studied the 14th Amendment and determined that it’s been misinterpreted, then you have plenty of company among those who believe only children of native-born or naturalized citizens should be granted citizenship.