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

Making Puerto Rico a state would respect the will of the Puerto Rican people, provide true representation for the American citizens on the island, and be of economic benefit for both Puerto Rico and the mainland. Hopefully, Representative Grijalva will support Puerto Rico statehood unequivocally, and move critical legislation out of his committee to help make it happen.

For thousands of years cannabis has been used for food, fuel, fiber, medicine, spirituality/religion, health, and leisure. And now in Arizona we can appropriately call its use recreation. I, for one, believe that this expanded access to legal cannabis for responsible adult “recreational” use – by any definition – is healthy for our communities.

Gaps in our health care system have become more obvious and urgent under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s use this time to think differently about how providers can deliver care and act now and normalize methadone treatment. We all will thrive as a result.

As an attorney and retired judge I have always considered the Arizona Constitution to be the highest law of the state, not a set of guidelines. That’s why I am a plaintiff, along with a top local businesswoman, in the lawsuit brought by Rose Law Group challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 208, potentially the largest income tax hike in Arizona history.

Compared to where our nation stood just 10 years ago, America’s energy revolution is moving further and faster than most people ever dreamed. Arizona played a leading role in this revolution, and thanks to the ACC’s new clean energy rules, we will continue to lead in the years and decades to come.

Police who patrol Arizona communities should focus on criminals, not cash. Current laws encourage the reverse, making everyone a potential ATM for cash-strapped agencies.

There are more than 5 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, including 150,000 in Arizona. Over 16 million Americans provide unpaid care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, including 346,000 in Arizona.

Congress must include strong “Buy America” rules in national infrastructure investment — and update U.S. trade agreements that block them. The United States has long served as the world’s primary consumer. It’s time to bring more of that spending back home, and create much-needed jobs at a pivotal time.

The solution is evident – keep the momentum going and pass a more expansive expungement law in Arizona. My hope is that the Arizona Legislature thinks about these questions, listens to their constituents with the passage of this recent expungement law, and takes the role of forging a path to an attainable end for those who have made mistakes to redeem themselves and become more productive members of society. It’s not only the right thing to do, it is the best thing to do for Arizona.

With the election season almost completed, I thought early and optimistic support of the winners and their obligation to the voters might be a good start.