October 12, 2012 To the Editor: A fair, unbiased and respected judicial system is important to Arizona’s families who must deal with the justice system. At Arizona Save the Family Foundation, we oppose Proposition 115 because politics replaces merit as the most important factor in selecting judges. Save the Family Foundation provides help for homeless and domestic violence victims. The people we serve rely on judges to protect them through orders of protection, disputes with landlords and child support enforcement. Our clients need a fair judiciary free from political influence.
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October 11, 2012 To the Editor: The Maricopa County Bar Association, a voluntary organization comprised of over 3,000 members of the Maricopa County legal community, urges you to vote NO on Ballot Proposition 115, SCR 1001. As local attorneys, we have daily interaction and experience with state court judges in Maricopa County. We believe the current merit selection system is not broken. Merit selection produces the highest quality judicial officers who provide superior and efficient service to our community. In fact, the Maricopa County judiciary is among the most respected in the country.
By Gary Krupa, CPAOctober 11, 2012 Significant tax advantages are available if you qualify as a trader of securities rather than as an investor in securities. Trading would enable you to report trading activities as if you were conducting a business even if you buy and sell securities for your own account.
Project: Sky Ranch Lodge Expansion andSedona Oak Creek Airport Authority To: Mayor Adams and the City of Sedona City Council October 10, 2012 We can not support a Major Amendment to the Sedona Community Plan as proposed because of health and safety concerns. The Airport is not presently attached to the Sedona City Sewer. It is our opinion that increased density of new developments at the airport is creating long term sanitation problems for the greater Sedona area due to increase amounts of discharge of sewage.
To the Editor: Proposition 115 is bad public policy that should be rejected by Arizona voters. The League of Women Voters opposes this dangerous measure because it increases political influence in our judiciary while reducing the quality of the judges selected to our courts.
By Dr. Marta Adelsmanwww.DrMartaCoach.com Verde Valley AZ (September 14, 2012) – Have you ever had the experience of wondering why, when you talk with someone, they suddenly become defensive or reactive in some way? You may actually set up your friends or family to react to you without being aware that you are doing so. Today I’m sharing with you four points from a “Chat ‘n’ Chew” discussion I led at Jerona Café last week on this topic. These should support you to avoid communicating the following: 1) Accusation. The question “Why?” often puts others on the defensive. Perhaps it…
By James Bishop, Jr.September 25, 2012 Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell—Edward Abbey In “Postcards from Ed,” a welcome volume of Mr. Abbey’s thoughts and dreams, hopes and fulminations, the distinguished Terry Tempest Williams writes “I miss you. We all do.” She is not alone. Charles Bowden, Abbey’s friend and fellow author observes that “Ed taught us to see the Southwest as something else besides real estate to butcher. And now we have to see it without him.” Twenty three years have passed since the twentieth-century polemicist and desert anarchist, whose often sardonic,…
By Dr. Marta Adelsmanwww.DrMartaCoach.com Verde Valley AZ (September 7, 2012) – Wouldn’t you know that, almost immediately after I had chosen the topic for this article, I became entangled in my own drama. Since I had lots to do on that day, I asked my husband to walk our dog, Bella. He also had much to accomplish, so he declined my request. As I grabbed Bella’s leash and left the house, I felt resentful and “huffy. As I walked, I observed the martyr complex that created a storm in my emotions. The ego’s pride manifested in a “poor me” attitude.…
By Henry TwomblySedona AZ (September 18, 2012) I disagree with Jim Eaton’s advocacy for medians along 89A in West Sedona (Guest Perspective, Sedona Red Rock News, September 14). He lists many reasons/situations that would occur whether or not there is a center land, e.g., swerving rapidly across oncoming traffic, cars and trucks nose-to-nose trying to turn left from opposite directions. etc.. Some reasons seem so implausible I wonder if they are true. Has anybody seen “semi-trailer trucks using the center lane to park in while unloading deliveries?” Who in his/her right mind would want to dodge traffic while making…
By Dr. Marta Adelsmanwww.DrMartaCoach.com Verde Valley AZ (August 31, 2012) – My husband, Steve, had the video camera ready. I felt pretty good as I trotted and cantered Jasilla around the arena. Jasilla and I have developed a solid rapport during the past three years. I’ve ridden her a lot and have contributed toward her training. As Steve kept the camera on us, I thought to myself, “He’s getting some great footage!” I thought of the reaction my friends would have as they viewed these clips on my Facebook page. “I look really good. I’ve come a long way in…
By James Bishop, Jr.Sedona AZ (September 5, 2012) Weary of dreary jobs and basement beds from Texas to Chicago, and seized with hope for sobriety and a passion to write, a young street poet wandered into Arizona’s red rock rim country before thirty years of his life had passed. For thousands of years human beings had lived there because of water, clear running creeks, blessed life-giving tongues rimmed with Cottonwood trees; because of pine-dotted mountains still wild with lions, deer, and bear. Sacred land said the Indians, a Mecca for the drifting lost penned a British writer; a place…
By Henry Twombly Sedona AZ (August 28, 2012) I hope you, my fellow citizens, have also received the Public Notice flyer. If you didn’t, the Notice was to inform you that the Planning and Zoning Commission is considering a Major Amendment, which would redesignate 4.6 acres atop Airport Mesa. This redesignation would allow Sky Ranch Lodge to expand and build 40 new lodging units, a 6,000 square foot conference center, and up to 4 affordable housing units. There is a public hearing about this issue on Tuesday September 18th at 5:30pm in the City Hall Council Chambers.
By Dr. Marta Adelsmanwww.DrMartaCoach.com Verde Valley AZ (August 24, 2012) – It happens a lot. I get behind a slow driver and I suddenly feel all this pressure to get where I’m going fast! Impatience hangs heavy in my gut. I realize that my hurry-up mode has whisked me out of the present moment into thoughts about the future and “getting there.” It’s fascinating how the mind whips us back and forth between past and future. In the past, it rehashes events and grievances and regrets. In the future, it creates “what if” scenarios. I would imagine the worst in…
By James Bishop, Jr. Technology will tie a tiny fine wire around your soul–Adlai Stevenson From coast to coast, and from Tucson to Dewey, questions are rebounding off the walls of living rooms, city halls, appearing in Op-Ed pages and where teachers gather: Are Americans now focusing far too much on how to use the tools of communication than on ways to better communicate? As a result, are we becoming computer/online gurus who can’t write and think creatively? What’s more, has technology set us back in the field of thinking because we trust gadgets to do our thinking instead of…
By Dr. Marta Adelsmanwww.DrMartaCoach.com Verde Valley AZ (August 10, 2012) – Not long ago, my husband, Steve, made a comment to which I had an intense reaction. I interpreted his comment to mean that he felt superior and wanted to make me inferior. Shame and guilt reared up in me, followed by intense anger. I blamed Steve for my drama and made up that he had deliberately caused me pain. For years, I’ve taught that what upsets us about another really resides in us. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t react. When we experience an emotional charge toward someone or something,…