If dissatisfaction with the Phoenix City Council keeps growing, it’s safe to bet somebody’s going to suggest tinkering with the district system–the “reform” election system voters approved in 1982. And someone’s bound to suggest Tucson has a better idea. For sixty years Tucson has tried to combine the “best of…

Is Rose Mofford hiding something? The bouffant-coiffed occupant of the ninth floor of the capitol tower doesn’t think it’s any of the public’s business with whom she is meeting and consulting before making decisions. It seems that somehow letting the public know who is bending her ear might, in her…

It wasn’t the fault of Arizona Public Service Co. customers that the Palo Verde nuclear plant wound up with a badly designed pump. But the bean counters hired to look at expenses at the $9.3 billion plant think the customers should pay big bucks because of it. To no one’s…

Cindy Resnick doesn’t think state health director Ted Williams should set himself up as some sort of morality cop. The Tucson Democratic lawmaker is squabbling with Williams over his refusal to record birth certificates when a married woman won’t list her husband as the father of the child. Williams, an…

Can Phoenicians be lured out of their cars? One downtown business has found the answer is yes. But it takes more than just slogans and hoopla. It takes the green stuff. Valley National Bank boasts one of the best records of any Valley company on getting its employees to use…

Conflict-of-interest rules enacted by the Arizona State Legislature in 1984 were designed as window dressing to show that members really did care how things looked to the rest of the world. But even the rules’ sponsors admitted that, when scrutinized, the rules don’t mean squat. Despite that, members of the…

The residents of Sun City and Sun City West just want some equity. But not too much. To hear state Representative Nancy Wessel tell it, the huge retirement communities are being treated unfairly because state lawmakers last year began requiring them to help support public schools. The residents figured they…

Rebuffed in previous attempts at closing down adult bookstores and movie theatres, Representative Leslie Whiting Johnson has reversed field and now says she wants to protect their customers. So the Mesa Republican is sponsoring legislation that would require testing of the machinery that shows dirty movies. Specifically, she wants the…

When is a deal with the Phoenix City Council not a deal? Apparently when the public finds out about it. Bonnie Bartak, aide to Phoenix Mayor Terry Goddard, is unhappy New Times reported earlier this month that the city council had approved a deal with the owners of business properties…

Abortion foes who are counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to make the practice illegal in Arizona may be rudely surprised. Last month, the nation’s high court agreed to review a Missouri law that restricts the right to abortion. Advocates on both sides of the issue believe the justices will…

It’s relatively easy to turn a “2” into a “4” on a piece of paper. Mark Killian thinks he can do the same thing with Arizona law. Four years ago state lawmakers agreed to let Maricopa County voters decide whether to impose a temporary half-cent sales tax to fund freeway…

One inch could be all that decides whether Valley voters are willing to tax themselves for thirty years to build the country’s most ambitious mass transit system. That inch–raising public suspicion Valley-wide–is how mapmakers for the Regional Public Transportation Authority show mile-wide “corridors” in which they want to build a…

Monday’s 10-4 vote by the House Judiciary Committee to declare that life begins at conception–a victory for anti-abortion forces–comes as no real surprise. Two powerful legislators made sure it was preordained. The November election resulted in a net increase in pro-choice legislators. Yet the anti-abortion forces continue to have a…