Commentary
Shelters can help homeless people by providing quiet and privacy, not just a bunk and a meal
The city of Phoenix set heat records in summer 2023, with high temperatures that topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit for 31 consecutive days and at least 54 days in total. In such conditions, providing basic services – including cool spaces – for people experiencing homelessness is lifesaving. In 2022, 420 people – many of them unsheltered […]
Arizona seniors are cheering for lower health care costs
Thanks to the work of President Joe Biden and Congress, seniors are finally starting to get the lower drug costs they deserve. August 16 marked the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which lowers prescription drug and health coverage costs for millions of Americans. And finally, after 20 years of waiting, Arizona seniors are […]
Trump’s trial will be televised. That transparency comes with a cost.
The first of the televised sessions in former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy trial in Georgia aired Sept. 5, and it was dull as a butter knife: Two of the 19 alleged conspirators arguing to have their cases separated from the mob and from each other. It was an inauspicious start to what is potentially the […]
Phoenix’s onerous parking requirements are stifling affordable housing projects
Phoenix’s working families are struggling to afford decent, safe housing, and the problem has been amplified over the past decade. Every Phoenician knows someone struggling to find a home or worried about being priced out — if not directly experiencing this distress themselves. Phoenix’s shortage of affordable housing is a full-scale crisis and needs immediate […]
Tom Horne is targeting LGBTQ students, and putting them at risk in the process
If anyone had told me when I started advocating on behalf of my peers in a racially diverse school district in downtown Phoenix several years ago that, rather than focusing on the worryingly low number of school counselors or the mold I saw growing on the boys bathroom ceiling, we would instead see elected officials […]
Young Arizonans cannot afford to skip the 2024 election
As the 2024 election approaches rather quickly, we should take time to reflect on the 2022 midterms. For the first time in a long time, students came out in record numbers to vote, breaking turnout records and creating change in Arizona. This shift in turnout was not a sudden thing, though. Back in the 2018 […]
Our climate crisis looks bleak on social media, but there’s hope in the IRA
As a recent sustainability graduate of Arizona State University, I’m excited to join the workforce and dedicate myself to protecting and maintaining the health of our state’s landscapes and people. At 22 years old, the prospect of having my whole life ahead of me should fill me with hope. But as a climate justice organizer […]
The impact of the Department of Child Safety’s document failure on parents
On Aug. 21, a letter from the state attorney representing the Department of Child Safety (DCS) went out to all presiding judges across Arizona requesting that they “suspend any trials and severance proceedings” set in the next two weeks after a review revealed thousands of documents were not made discoverable in more than 3,800 cases. […]
Kansas newspaper raid draws plenty of attention, but journalists defy threats across U.S.
After Kansas Reflector reported on the ignominious and unconstitutional raid of the Marion County Record on Aug. 11, news outlets and commentators from across Kansas and the nation followed suit throughout the weekend. The voices of those who value a free press and free expression were overwhelming in their force and intensity. Eight days later, […]
Universal ESA vouchers: Arizona’s $1 billion failed experiment
Recent weeks have brought an unrelenting torrent of bad news around Arizona’s universal school voucher program, the largest and least accountable in the country. And what has been the response from our state legislature? Republican leaders concluded the longest legislative session in state history without even so much as a token attempt to create any […]
Wedding website, affirmative action cases show widening inequality in access to justice
A civil lawsuit is a means to prove one has been harmed and who bears responsibility. A less-considered component is the demand: What remedy would justly resolve the harm? To use a familiar example, E. Jean Carroll sued a recent president of the United States. She proved at trial that she had suffered the harms […]
Americans suffer when health insurers place profits over people
The COVID-19 pandemic put our health care system through a stress test that it barely survived. Doctors, nurses and health care workers put their lives on the line to treat millions of Americans battling a highly contagious and deadly disease. Those same front line workers are increasingly burned out because of the burdens they had […]