While we’re all still in a tryptophan-infused haze, full of leftovers and good cheer, it feels only right to continue being thankful. Herewith, one of Arizonan’s list of people and things that inspire gratitude on a daily basis.

Since Nancy Pelosi became House Speaker in 2007, Republicans have spent an incredible amount of time and energy pushing back against her progressive policy proposals. That’s why it’s odd that the GOP’s newest drug pricing bill is a watered-down copy of one of Pelosi’s worst ideas.

My mother’s father, a dressmaker, was a man I cannot remember speaking a word, though I met him a few times when I was a little boy. 

Voting is a privilege. It also takes time. Even when voting by mail, there is the act of drawing a line in ink and driving or walking to a post box. When the Peoria Unified School District budget override ballot came to my house, I did not hesitate. I mailed mine, and my Yes vote came with m…

This summer, we saw remarkable, bipartisan progress on addressing rising health care costs — an issue voters consistently rank as ‘most important’.

Much of what makes life in this Valley appealing is the state’s rugged desert feel. The landscape is rough hereabouts, all scrub growth and cactus that can tear flesh.

As we move into November, a month of gratitude, the Small Business Association begins the month by celebrating National Veterans Small Business Week (NVSBW).

Now the calendar flips to November and you find yourself offering a prayer for this embattled nation of ours. 

As a kid growing up in Queens, New York, a drive over to the White Castle restaurant on Northern Boulevard was a family tradition. 

“For God’s sake, Tommy, whatever you do, find a cure.” 

In just a few weeks, voters in the Pendergast Elementary School District will have the opportunity to help change children’s lives by a simple stroke of a pen and voting Yes on Pendergast’s upcoming override election.

At last count, Arizona had 4,377 women in its state prisons. You’d be forgiven for thinking there was only one female currently under lock and key.

On the first Sunday in October, the Dallas Cowboys played the Green Bay Packers. The Packers won in a rout, 34-24, but that wasn’t the story.

Thanks, Police!

By now, voters in nearly half the school districts in Maricopa County have received ballots asking them to decide significant local public school funding questions.

He was 22 years old when he left this mortal life, on a dusty road in the township of Yusafiyah, a region of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death.

No business tax breaks

Arizona Helping Hands is the largest provider of basic needs to the 14,000 children in our state’s foster care system. It is truly important to give boys and girls who have been abused and neglected a sense of safety and dignity.  

Did you know that in the United States 129 individuals experience death by suicide each day? Twenty of those occur within our veteran population.

Not long after the first day of school back east, my buddy called with a complaint: His daughter, a brand new fourth-grader, had just participated in her first “active shooter drill,” an exercise meant to prepare kids for the possibility that a psychopath with an AR-15 might one day soon sto…

By now, school children in Arizona have brought markers, scissors, folders and other supplies to class. Although children are bringing items they need to learn and succeed, Arizona is failing to supply safe drinking water in schools across our state. According to the Arizona Department of En…

You move to Arizona to get away from hurricanes, but it turns out massive tropical storms care not at all about geography. 

The Rolling Stones played Glendale last week, and though a friend offered me a ticket, I passed. Don’t get me wrong: The Stones are terrific and by all accounts put on a helluva show. However, septuagenarian rockers aren’t my thing. The thought of 76-year-old Mick Jagger preening about while…

Labor Day

The emails came back to back early Tuesday afternoon, two apologies for canceling meetings on short notice.

You know what affliction never gets the attention it deserves? Fame. That’s a disease I hope never to catch. 

I am pleased to share that again this year the Maricopa County Justice Courts will participate in Glendale Stand Up. This is an annual event that helps veterans with a variety of issues that include, but are not limited to, legal advice by experts, assistance from the city courts and justice…

We all get them. Those annoying calls with a recorded message once you pick up. Or a call from a phone number that looks oddly similar to your own telephone number. These are robocalls. Not only are robocalls inconvenient, but they can also be dangerous, with abusive scammers on the other en…

Red flag laws

Here’s a sad, shameful confession: No longer do I pay attention to news coverage of American mass shootings. 

Glendale has sneaky way to pursue a pay raise

Let me let you in on a professional secret when it comes to managing the news media. 

Republicans and Democrats

When I was a little boy growing up in Queens, New York, in the 1970s, my career aspirations inevitably focused on who got to drive the biggest truck.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on political campaigns, and the 2020 elections will be no different. Many of these dollars are from organized donors assembled as countless political action committees or PACS — private corporations and unions. It can be overwhelming to think about r…

In the ongoing uncivil war between President Donald Trump and Democrat congresswomen like Reps. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, I choose to side with …

You will be pleased to learn that the law limits your liability if you break a window on a car to rescue a child or a pet. However, you must follow the rules very closely for this protection.

We should be finished with Auschwitz by now.

The argument came out of nowhere.

Sometimes the news and life intersect in strange ways. Last weekend, I bore witness to an epic screaming match on the golf course, a skirmish between two fat old guys over pace of play that would have surely turned into an aggravated assault with nine irons had their playing partners not sep…

Last month, 144,278 migrants were apprehended or deemed inadmissible trying to illegally cross our southern border. That’s enough people to fill State Farm Stadium almost two and a half times over. Perhaps a more staggering figure, the United States is on track to apprehend more than 1 milli…

Running an errand this week, I watched two Phoenix police officers offer a bottle of water to a homeless man grabbing some shade outside a local grocery store. 

In Rep. Debbie Lesko’s May 30 article, she stated “Medicare for All strips away health care freedom.” However, just the opposite is true. Everyone benefits: seniors on Medicare, those with employer-based insurance, those with pre-existing conditions, young, old and those in-between. Everyone!

Recently, some business and personal trips prompted me to fly back and forth across the continent several times. Nothing makes a better case for staying home — forever — than traveling in the 21st century.

It was the Sunday after D-Day 75 years ago.

Here’s a simple one-question test to determine whether you’re a realist or a dreamer: What do you believe when it comes to arcade games that offer gaudy prizes in return for a quarter or a buck?

Old library masquerading as new

Does Medicare for All provide free health care to illegal immigrants? That is the question I asked in the House Rules Committee hearing late last month. The disturbing answer was, yes, Medicare for All, the Democrats’ push for a government-controlled, one-size-fits-all health plan, will inde…

When I came to Arizona in the mid-1990s, I found myself fascinated by the Arizona Legislature.

The fastest-growing part of the nation’s fastest-growing county is getting some love from Maricopa County. The county’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget includes a number of wins for the West Valley, including big investments in our regional parks.  Here are the highlights: