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

After spending 25 years in law enforcement as a sheriff’s deputy, a sergeant, and a federal security adviser, reading the new American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) report on Arizona drug sentences brought some painful memories back.

The facts are that the individual insurance market, where about 7 percent of Americans get their health insurance, is not healthy.

Arizona business leaders speak out on education and how best to prepare the nation's youth.

Overall, the agreement represents incremental progress – but even more significant may be the much-needed spark it provides to re-energize drought contingency discussions within Arizona and across the entire Colorado River Basin.

Ultimately, we believe the best way forward is comprehensive immigration reform that provides permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the shadows today.

Pinal County is asking voters this November to approve a half-cent sales tax to fund regional transportation projects. Notwithstanding the failure to advance legislation that would allow the county to levy the tax at varying rates among different classifications, the county is proceeding with ballot language to do just that.

One in five Arizona eighth-graders is not included in state reported figures of the AzMERIT math exam, a required test for all public school students – district and charter, according to newly released data analysis by the Center for Student Achievement.

The only reason I am able to have such a full life is Medicaid. Medicaid provides vital services to people with disabilities through a state-federal partnership that finances coverage for those who qualify. The program has successfully provided care to the most vulnerable Americans for the past 50 years.

Though it is too often ignored in the criminal justice reform dialogue, treating the mentally ill and drug addicted as patients instead of criminals should be a focal point for reform.

As author of a book documenting the shooting of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a frequent socio-political commentator on issues of local and national importance, I am appalled by the epidemic of violence in political protest sweeping our nation.