Voices

Great article on library

Thank you for your recent coverage of the Oro Valley Holiday Parade.  I feel that it is important that your readers know some of the back story that defines this event.  First and foremost, the Oro Valley Parade Committee, Inc., is comprised of two members—Jackie Devery and Pat Jimenez—who volunteer countless hours to ensure that this piece of Americana successfully arrives in our town the second Saturday in December.

As many of you recall, I stopped making New Year’s resolutions years ago because, 1) I had a propensity for breaking most of them within hours after entering the newly arrived annum, and 2) by the end of the first week of the fresh year I realized I really didn’t give a rip about whether or not any of them came to fruition, so the list was tossed into the trash can and forgotten. This ideology seemed to be a valid stress reducer.

As Chairman of Transportation for the Arizona House of Representatives, I feel compelled to weigh in on the decision from the NTSB to recommend a complete ban on PEDs (personal electrical devises) being used in the operation of a motor vehicle.

Explorer is liberal trash

Not happy with Voices in Explorer

Is a chimichanga a tropical fruit?

In 2000, Arizona voters wisely decided it was time to stop Legislative incumbents from drawing their own districts and unfairly guaranteeing their own re-election. We enacted an Independent Redistricting Committee to return that power to the people, ensuring that politicians have to work to earn our vote.

Recently, Tucson City Council members Steve Kozachik and Karin Uhlich proposed banning texting while driving in town limits. If passed, Tucson drivers who deem it OK to multi-task by driving and sending that all-to-important text could be fined hundreds of dollars at a time.

How many times have we heard someone say, “I’m not perfect but I’m basically honest.” It reminds me of an example provided during my ethics training of a man who had loaned $20,000 to each of three friends. The man told his friends that if he died before they repaid him, each of his friends were to put the payment in his coffin.

Most of the rhetoric we’ve heard from Republican Presidential candidates can be boiled down to one theme. They want to take government apart, piece by piece, and move its services over to the private sector, where their rich contributors can make a profit.

Most of you know a reasonable amount about Veterans Day. But how much do you know about an organization that was founded in 2005 in response to misguided, reprehensible protests at the funerals of fallen heroes, the Patriot Guard Riders (PGR)?

One of Marana’s strongest assets as a community is that we have created a culture of strategic planning. While we always make sure the services we provide — police, water, parks and roads, for example — are top-notch, we also take time to dream about the town’s future and how we will grow to become a community known for its extraordinary long-term vision.

Most reporting about the current redistricting plans for both the Arizona legislature and the nine seats in the U.S. House put forward by the Independent Redistricting Commission failed to cover the system’s obvious flaws.