Arizona's Continuing Crisis

The truth about the emerging calamity in my onetime home. Also be sure to follow the follies of the reactionaries and thugs in power in Kookocracy Watch.

• My interview with Blooming Rock about the future of Phoenix
• NEW: GOP candidate for Gifford's seat benefited from stimulus he criticizes || Arizona Republic
• Militias thrive despite lack of authorizing law || Arizona Daily Star
  
• 500 requests for medical pot dispensaries || Arizona Daily Star
  
• Ancient tree-ring records suggest today's Southwest mega-fires are truly unusual || SMU
  
• Bennett goes birther, may try to keep President Obama off the ballot in Arizona || Talking Points Memo
  
• Arizona prisoners rarely granted clemency || Arizona Republic
  
• Navajos, Hopis not happy with "renegotiation" of water settlement || Arizona Republic
  
• Blaze devastates part of Prescott's fabled Whiskey Row || Arizona Republic
  
• J.T. Ready's rampage sheds light on rising extremism in state || Arizona Republic
• Downtown Urban Market and Wine Bar closing || Arizona Republic
  
• Gilbert massacre suspect's pal Pearce || Salon
  
• Palin sells Maricopa tract house || In Maricopa blog
  
• Phoenix No. 7 among most polluted metros in U.S. || TreeHugger
• Metro Phoenix workers earn less than national average || East Valley Tribune
• Babeu target of $2.1 million claim || Arizona Republic
  
• Larry Dever is a real Arizona sheriff || New Times
  
• State failing to adequately support pre-school programs || East Valley Tribune
  
• Brewer signs the nation's most extreme anti-abortion law || Daily Beast
• The top five negative effects of SB 1070 || Center for American Progress
  
• How climate change will fracture Sonoran Desert species || Arizona Republic
  
• Uranium mines dot Navajo land, neglected and still perilous || NYT
  
• As state keeps cutting school funding, an exodus of the best teachers || Arizona Republic
  
• The craziest Legislature in America || AlterNet
  
• Arizona among four states with worst job markets || Phx Biz Journal
  
• Sheriff Joe's new anti-Fed crusade || Salon
  
• Housing crash left Tucson economy $2 billion poorer || Inside Tucson Business
  
• Extremists go to 'war' in the Arizona desert || Talking Points Memo
• Report: AZ schools still struggle with graduation rates || East Valley Tribune
  
• Phoenix, Lake Havasu posted nation's biggest losses of construction jobs || AZ Capitol Times
  
• Study: Arizona has high corruption risk || Arizona Republic
  
• Solving the bus strike by giving private operator a pass on performance fees || New Times
  
• Unsustainability with lessons for the world, courtesy of Phoenix || Fast Company
  
• Proposed bills in Legislature give cities heartburn || Arizona Republic
• Ahwatukee, Chandler riders plea to save express bus route || Arizona Republic
  
• Council warned: Fix or close Tucson Convention Center || Arizona Daily Star
  
• Owners of historic pecan groves near Tucson get permits to build subdivisions || Arizona Daily Star
  
• Legal troubles dogged Mass. private school led by Paul Babeu || Arizona Republic
  
• Classroom spending, already low, falls to worst level in 11 years || East Valley Tribune
  
• Funding gap grows between 'have' and 'have-not' school districts || Arizona Republic
  
• Suburban facility cannabalizes events that were once staples at Tucson convention center || Az Daily Star
  
• Program cuts put strain on families || Arizona Republic
  
• Arizona debate — conservative chickens come home to roost || Taibbi/Rolling Stone
• Huge development weighed near Grand Canyon || NY Times
  
• ALEC's Arizona escort service || In These Times
• Big sports events come with big cost || Arizona Republic
  
• State ranks high in numbers of people receiving government benefits || NY Times
  
• Brewer has history of getting facts wrong || TPM
  
• The air we breathe: A special report on metro Phoenix air pollution || Arizona Republic
  
• Long-vacant Fiesta Center again violating Mesa city codes || EV Tribune
• Glendale in penalty box over Coyotes' finances || Wall St. Journal
  
• Judge orders candidate struck from ballot over English skills || NY Times
  
• Metrocenter sells for a mere $12 million || Arizona Republic
• Valley districts battle for students, state dollars || Arizona Republic
  
• Why are the feds coddling Arpaio? || New Times
  
• Is Kyrsten Sinema electable? || New Times
  
• Why Arizonans still love Sheriff Joe || GOOD
• Desert Ridge falls short of original 'master plan' Arizona Republic
  
• In bruised West, Tucson is faring worse than most || Arizona Daily Star
  
• Arpaio criticized over handling of sex crimes || NY Times
  
• Rise in heroin adds to state's massive illegal drugs problem || Arizona Republic
  
• Arizona economy ranked 4th worst in nation || Atlantic Cities
  
• Real-estate disaster writ small: McCain manse finally sold in short sale || Arizona Republic
  
• Mining vs. sprawl building in the desert || Wall Street Journal
  
• A glimpse at how corporate interests influence the Legislature || Arizona Republic
• Phoenix's house-price puzzle: How to rise from the ashes? || Wall Street Journal
  
• Metro Phoenix stacks up poorly against peer metros, including lack of venture capital, lack of young college grads || Arizona Republic
  
• As economy struggles, land slated for development returns to agriculture || EV Tribune
  
• Phoenix real estate faces avalanche of foreclosures in 2012 || Arizona Republic
  
• Jon Kyl's search-and-destroy mission || Washington Post
  
• Phoenix among America's most polluted cities || TreeHugger
  
• Arizona tax cuts greatly benefit corporations || Arizona Republic
  
• Bird on Fire takes on the growth machine || Design Observer
• Study: Megadroughts may be recurring feature in Southwest || EV Tribune
  
• Commerce Authority chief's first order of business: $300,000 for himself, and $40,000/month on new offices || Phoenix Business Journal
  
• Jan Brewer's power grab || NY Times
  
• Valley citrus farmers face host of challenges || EV Tribune
  
• Phoenix ranks No. 8 among America's dirtiest cities || Yahoo News
  
• Phoenix among worst metros for unemployed || Arizona Republic
  
• The low-tax, no-regulation miracle? Arizona is now the sixth poorest state in America.
  
• Arizona cities badly trail national peers in economic performance || East Valley Tribune
  
• More in Arizona lack health insurance (as state cuts back Medicaid help) || Arizona Republic
  
• Moody's downgrades Arizona highway bonds || East Valley Tribune
• Phoenix-area house prices hit a decade low || Arizona Republic
  
• Prison-Industrial Complex: private prison operators are big campaign contributors || Arizona Republic
  
• Commerce Authority boss wins $3 m. compensation || Arizona Republic
  
• Gawker survey: Ariz. ranks as America's worst state
  
• Legislature slashes $30 million from vocational training programs || Arizona Republic
  
• State's children among worst off in the nation in social well-being || Arizona Republic
  
• Phoenix gets second-worst spot among major metros for credit delinquencies || Arizona Republic
  
• Phoenix is 8th most dangerous metro for pedestrians || Arizona Republic
  
• State suffers record year for wildfires || Arizona Republic
  
• Tucson tops list of sick housing markets || Arizona Daily Star
  
• The kind of companies looking to profit from Arizona's private prison industry || Arizona Republic
• Almost half of all mortgages in Arizona are under water || East Valley Tribune
  
• The disturbing habits of Russell Pearce || Salon
• Rural Arizona hospital prepares for future cuts || NPR
  
• State's job outlook continues to lag forecasts || Arizona Republic
  
• Arizona lawmakers, armed and dangerous || NY Times
  
• Gun lobby has firm grip on state || Arizona Republic
  
• Mega-fires may change Southwest forever || Wired
  
• Arizona wildfires leave bitter aftermath || Arizona Republic
  
• For want of a word, Arizona jobless lose unemployment benefits || NY Times
  
• Global warming is burning down the American West || Salon
  
• Aiming low: A writer wonders if Las Vegas should be envious of Phoenix || Vegas Inc.
  
• Book excerpt: Life and death in Arizona's immigration war zone || Rolling Stone
• Economic forecasts find little reason for optimism about Tucson economy || Arizona Daily Star
  
• Arizona among states at greatest risk of water shortages by 2050 || On Earth
• Militarized law enforcement: Arizona cops fatally shoot former Marine in botched pot rail ||Huffington Post (watch the video)
  
• With local probes rolling, Arpaio settles with the feds || The Atlantic
  
• Schools forced to divert funding for building repair || Arizona Republic
• Reports: Arpaio knew of problems and corruption || Arizona Republic
  
• Financial cost to taxpayers from Sheriff's Office scandal become more clear. || Arizona Republic
• Arpaio's bookeeper tells all. || New Times
  
• Census paints a bleak picture of Arizona housing. || East Valley Tribune
• Pearce, Arredondo and the Fiesta Bowl scandal. || Arizona Republic
  
• Gunsmoke USA — Arizona as seen in documentary film. || YouTube
  
• Experts see long slog ahead for Arizona's economic recovery. || East Valley Tribune
  
• Middle class further out of reach for state's young. || Arizona Republic.
• How the LDS helped cover up the Susan Brock case. ||Arizona Republic.
  
• Boycotts, recession nag at Arizona's economy. ||Arizona Republic
• Metro Phoenix feels loss of migrant money. ||Arizona Republic
  
• Arizona becomes first state to pass Kook birther bill.
• Recall elections add to chaos on Phoenix City Council.
  
• Fiesta Bowl board looked the other way — or worse — as scandal gathered steam.
  
• Pinal County sheriff caught in a fib about human trafficking.
• Paint the lawn green: The NYT's Phoenix reporter finds another Arizona freak-show story.
  
• Arizona and Mesa paid steep price for a mere 600 First Solar jobs.
• Suburban-controlled Kookocracy's policies will further hurt Arizona cities.
• The sleazy dealings behind the Fiesta Bowl scandal cut to heart of state power structure.
  
• Phoenix ranked as America's "most miserable" metro area.
  
• A tragedy for Phoenix history and taste: Mary Coyle's may close. Bad economy to blame.
  
• Securing Arizona — what Americans can learn from their rogue state.
  
• One-fifth of Arizonans have no health insurance at all, as rest of low-wage workforce struggles with premium hikes.
  
• Legislature wants to further hamstring cities' ability to pay for side-effects of development and population growth.
  
• The slime factor behind Scott 'family values' Bundgaard's domestic abuse.
• 'Angry Arizona, Again': International recognition you can't pay for.
  
• One month after Giffords shooting, Arizona moves to name a 'state gun.'
  
• Tucson firefighter refused to respond to Giffords call because of politics. (really)
• The New Republic looks at Arizona's 'hothouse of legislative extremism.'
  
• Yet another study warns of climate-change consequences for the Southwest.
  
• New York investigates loose-law Arizona gun show.
  
• Daily Kos summarizes Arizona: Sinking and deck chairs arranged.
  
• L'affaire Susan Brock and what it says about East Valley power, the LDS (and the dystopia of suburbia).
  
• Brewer seeks to cut 280,000 from Medicaid coverage.
  
• A return to old Tombstone? Actually, the gun laws there were tougher than in today's Arizona.
• The Republic's series on Arizona's middle class in crisis.
  
• Mental health in Arizona: A case study of declining services.
• Will we remember Tucson? Was it enough? Is anything enough?
  
• Fearing Tea Party violence, four Republicans resign posts.
• Talk-radio hosts reject any blame for Giffords shooting.
  
• Arizona ranks No. 2 among deadliest gun states.
  
• Arizona's us-vs.-them brand of politics.
  
• Our permanent culture of political violence.
  
• The theats that came before the Giffords shooting.
  
• Why he did it — Arguing Tucson.
  
• The view from London: Arizona on the brink.
  
• The Giffords attack and the media.
• The big national right-wing money seeking to buy Arizona and Phoenix politics.
• One more Kook: Bristol Palin buys crapola exurban metro Phoenix house.
  
• Double dip looming for metro Phoenix house prices.
  
• New Times investigation into the shameful death of Deborah Braillard, as Sheriff Joe's goons ignored her agony.
• The long fall of Andrew Peyton Thomas. And why he should be in prison, not just disbarred.
  
• Legislature's ACCCHS cuts also slash private-sector health sector.
  
• The dismal performance of Arizona high-school graduates.
  
• National exposure you can't buy, II: Class warfare in Arizona, against the poor.
  
• National exposure you can't buy, I: Gail Collins on the Legislature's cruel defunding on health care for Arizonans.
  
• Republican Death Panels thanks to budget cuts in Arizona.
  
• How the Democrats did themselves no favors in their Arizona shellacking.
  
• Climate-change won't end the world, just certain real-estate markets (hint-hint).
  
• Arizona ranked America's 48th worst-run state.
  
• Grand Canyon's future at 'grave risk,' report concludes.
  
• Already lacking enough primary care doctors, Arizona faces worse crisis because of funding cuts.
  
• Inside the brutal world of America's kidnapping capital.
  
• While state obsesses over the border, the real cause of crime is career criminals.
  
• Metro Phoenix is a laggard on exports — and it would be worse without the legacy Intel plants.
  
• Even more transit cutbacks hold back nation's fifth-largest city.
  
• Businesses suffer as people flee from fear of anti-immigrant law.
  
• SB 1070 tints a neighborhood dispute.
  
• Funding crisis will wipe out at least a quarter of the transit and road projects in Tucson.
  
• Stanford study sees bleak future for Arizona because of rising temps.
  
• Two Arizona 'colleges' make top 10 list of highest student loan defaults.
  
• Why is Phoenix continuing to lose its dwindling number of historic houses to fire?
  
• State headed into record territory in number of migrants likely to die in the desert.
  
• Immigrants, 'feeling like prisoners,' flee Arizona.
  
• Pinal County's 'solution' to the foreclosure crisis? Hope for more 'growth.'
  
• Hoover Dam's 20th century infrastructure faces 21st century challenges.
  
• Jackson Street entertainment district that never was files for Chapter 11.
  
• For the first time in memory, Phoenix lags Intermountain West cities in recovery.
  
• With closing of last citrus plant, Phoenix loses the remnant of the miles of groves that made it so magical (and kept it cool).
  
• Glendale light-rail link pushed back to 2026 (i.e. never).
  
• Iconic Encanto Park a victim of Phoenix fiscal crisis.
  
• Housing slump prolonged by owners' 'strategic defaults.'
  
• Mission accomplished: Illegal border crossings into Arizona actually on the rise.
• Mexico's universities cancel exchange program with Arizona.
  
• Housing speculators clean up with tax credit as state coffers run dry.
  
• Violence along the border has been flat for a decade.
  
• Ethnic studies classes banned; teachers with accents can no longer teach English.
• Worst in class: How education in Arizona became an economic casualty.
  
• Arizona Burning — the new police state.
  
• Light-rail extensions all but dead. Enjoy $10-a-gallon gasoline.
• ASU, the Havasupai, DNA research: Another story of sophistication and context you won't find in the Infomation Center.
  
• Hopi ruins at risk as Arizona closes state park.
  
• Metro Phoenix foreclosures hit record in March.
  
• Arizona's already low per-capita income fell at one of the fastest rates in the U.S.
  
• NYT looks at microcosm of housing crisis in exurban Phoenix. But why help these people who hate gub-ment?
  
• Shadow inventory means house values likely to fall even further.
  
• New York Times singles out Phoenix as ground zero of commercial real-estate collapse. Worst out on the fringes.
  
• Demise of MPAC means Phoenix arts giving and organizations will continue to struggle, operate at levels far below similarly sized metros.
  
• 'Zonies complain about rest-area closings — but they want their tax cuts. (AZ has worst budget gap in U.S.).
  
• Depression crushes Goodyear's hopes for city center, universities.
  
• State can't afford to run state parks — and can't afford to secure those it closed.
  
• 44 Monroe, soaring hope for downtown Phoenix, headed into foreclosure.
  
• Finally, a glimpse of solar's dirty secret for AZ: water consumption.
• In another blow for downtown, Bashas' wants to void CityScape lease.
  
• Two-thirds of Arizona state parks will be closed. (Who will protect them from vandalism and artifact thieves?).
  
• Who gets hurt worst in state budget cuts? The most vulnerable citizens.
  
• Misbegotten sprawl engine CityNorth ends in foreclosure.
  
• Arizona bankruptcies surged 77 percent in 2009, leading nation.
  
• Continued magical thinking is exemplified in this Info Center story on "where we are headed" in 2010. Biggest Laff Riot: Calling isolated, exurban Gateway an "infill" project. Indeed, the Info Center info brokers call it "the biggest urban infill project on earth." Even though it's not infill, it's sprawl. And it's not urban. And by these standards, the Sahara Desert would be a larger urban infill project and just as likely to succeed.
  
• Suicidal tendencies: The disaster of state's juvenile corrections system.
  
• Arizona, land of 'gated communities,' rates low for civic engagement.
  
• 10,000 children on waiting list for child-care help for working poor.
  
• WP Carey economic forecast meeting on Dec. 2: 'Clearing wreckage...will take years.' And this from the boosterish bunch that kept pumping the bubble all those years. Imagine how bad it really must be if they're bearish.
  
• Phoenix near the bottom of 200 metros in high tech.
  
• Global warming-caused pollution soared 61 percent between 1990 and 2007.
• NEW: Arizona seen in second-worst fiscal peril in nation.
  
• Urban Land Institute: Phoenix still 'poster child' for national real-estate crash.
  
• Forget about your romantic notion of 'Native Americans' loving the land. The Navajos want a coal plant, global warming be damned.
  
• Arizona's adjusted unemployment rate hits 17.2 percent.
  
• DeCiccio stands to profit big from Loop 202 extension.
  
• Arizona compassion: 3 cars hit woman; only 1 stops.
  
• Top problem for Phoenix: Abandoned tract houses.
  
• Dreamland -- faced with climate change, fiscal collapse and rising oil prices, Arizona planners foresee 400 miles of additional freeways for a population increase that will never come.
  
• Study shows how heat island is worst for the poor and vulnerable. Doesn't even get into how many of the the wealthy don't even "summer" in Phoenix.
• Freeze on development fees sets cities even further behind.
  
• 10,000 working families losing health coverage this month.
  
• The Badged Ego tarnished again as Arpaio's command staff caught in serious trouble.
  
• Phoenix suffers worst commercial real estate market in U.S. Too much building, no real economy to fill the space.
  
• Arizona faces 'financial tsunami' over Medicaid.
  
• NY Times: Phoenix has become "one of the nation's economic disaster areas."
  
• The scam that is the tax-credit tuition aid program for private schools. The poor gets screwed. And the way the "school choice movement" buys influence. (Read the more extensive investigation by the Pulitzer-winning East Valley Tribune here.)
  
• Giant empty warehouses dot Phoenix sprawl awaiting business that never came.
  
• Arizona's dismal showing in child well-being. (Watch the "Goldwater" Institute and its Info Center sock puppet say the facts have a liberal bias).
  
• NEW: "Global warming is a hoax": Phoenix suffers its hottest July in history.
  
• Uranium contamination haunts Navajo country.
• Gannett finds new way to screw laid off Republic employees.
  
• Arizona No. 2 in nation for foreclosures for first half of 2009.
  
• At the confluence of the Gila and Salt rivers, a promising riparian habitat turns into a vile trash dump.
  
• The headline says "Data center could boost Valley's technology base." Actually, it's a sign of a dwindling base of innovation, talent and decision-making. At best, this spec reuse of a building will attract the kind of server farms that go to poor, rural areas and create few jobs.
• NEW: Phoenix's already struggling non-profits face more pain.
  
• Already strapped for infrastructure, metro Phoenix faces new crisis as Prop 400 funds dry up, east side fights with west.
  
• Phoenix Museum of History to close.
  
• Report ranks Phoenix economy among nation's weakest.
  
• Metro Phoenix economy becomes even less diverse as GM closes proving ground. (Oh, somebody will build more houses and a "resort" as both sectors are in the toilet).
  
• Again, "the Valley" makes national news, as a hotbed of gangs preying on Mexican immigrants.
  
• Casa Grande loses neglected but lovely railroad depot to fire, continuing the list of Arizona's historical casualties.
  
• Grady Gammage and I discuss "the Valley's" future -- he's downbeat, too. (EV Tribune's more complete story here).
  
• Phoenix bears the brunt of hotels' steep downturn.
  
• Nearly $1 billion in state land sales have been canceled or at risk (from Pulitzer-winning East Valley Tribune).
  
• Somehow missed by the Information Center, but picked up by the LA Times and New York Times, Phoenix's only major industry tries to get back to "normal."
• My April 29, 2009, KJZZ discussion with Grady Gammage about Arizona's growth the future.
• Phoenix leads the way down in house prices (with priceless photo).
• 10,000 abandoned mines in a now-populous, urbanized Arizona.
• Surprise! The rise and fall of an Arizona exurb.
• Just in time for light rail, Phoenix sees largest migration of jobs outward of any U.S. metro area.
• Developer of subdivisions in parched Mojave County seeks bankruptcy protection.
• Next foreign crisis may be on doorstep of an ill-prepared Arizona.
• Phoenix homeless count up 20 percent from 2008.
• The disaster that is Maricopa.
• Low taxes and few regulations -- and lots of sun -- fail to lure solar industry to Arizona.
• Incredible story of undercover agent inside Arizona's Hell's Angels.
• Phoenix is epicenter of arms smuggling to Mexico's brutal drug cartels.
• USA Today on Phoenix area's grim real-estate market.
  
• Even boosterish Republic begins to admit depth of calamity from busting of sprawl bubble.
• Arizona's lousy economy drags down newly relocated Dodgers' spring training.
• Phoenix has second worst kidnapping problem in the world.
• Looming property defaults will further depress Ariz. economy.
• Needy flood already strapped charities.
• Phoenix loses another chip plant, some of the last of Motorola legacy.
• Another coup for Phoenix in the eyes of the nation.
• Brutal county jails stripped of health-care accreditation.
• Arizona food-stamp requests rise at twice national rate.
• Phoenix budget hit harder than those in other big cities.
• Development at Desert Ridge paralyzed by bubble collapse.
• Arizona rated worst in disaster preparedness.
• State's population growth drops dramatically.
• Avondale, from hot suburb to urban blight.
• Kookocracy halts efforts to curb greenhouse gases.
• In latest data, bankruptcies soar in state.
• Libraries face deeper cuts, including closing one day a week (in the "nation's fifth largest city."
• ASU, facing money shortfall, slashes nursing enrollment even as state faces critical nursing shortage.
• Arpaio ordered by federal judge to improve shameful condition of jails.
• More evidence of local warming in metro Phoenix.
  
• Maricopa County jails lose health accreditation.
• State's 21st century economic hope: cage fighting.
• In ranking of "green" cities, Phoenix falls even below Detroit.
• Tempe's grand hopes for Centerpoint highrise project turn to dust.
• Recession costing Sky Harbor millions, setting back long overdue projects.
• The Wall Street Journal uses Phoenix as prime example of real-estate schemes gone wrong.
• Legislature headed even further to reactionary extreme.
• Your Tax Cuts at Work V: Cities can't even find funds to fix crumbling roads.
• Ten million tires dumped in desert, with risk of toxic fires.
• Maricopa County jail inmates die of ailments that could be treated.
• Metro Phoenix air quality gets an 'F' -- again.
• Historic Gila on list of country's endangered rivers.
• Arizona's temperature rise outpaces the planet's warming.
• Your Tax Cuts at Work IV: The most recent budget train wreck.
• The hyped and "once booming" West Valley now one of the epicenters of foreclosures.
• Your Tax Cuts at Work III: No school libraries.
• Sprawling fringes of metro Phoenix are ground zero in subprime crisis.
• Your tax cuts in action II: Tucson cuts staff and increases school class size.
• Uranium exploration sneaks in near Grand Canyon.
• Arizona next to bottom in school funding -- again.
• Your Tax Cuts at Work I: Crumbling state parks.

• Read Jon's columns on Phoenix and Arizona.

Comments

[George Buddy]

Wow, I've never seen a list so extensive for the negative features of a city that truly has bad karma.

Great information to balance all the "positive" tourist chamber stuff.

I love it!

[Mr Elkan]

This may not mean much, but have you seen this?

http://www.streetsblog.org/2010/04/21/arizona-to-other-states-take-our-transit-funding-please

[James]

Arizona is a worry i hope it recovers soon. http://www.mediafiretorrent.com

[Michael]

But looking at the bright side, it's still a DRY heat ... right?