Author: Tommy

By Tommy Acosta — Sedona, AZ – Throughout my entire life, I have always considered myself immune to disease and illness. During the Covid pandemic, I never wore a mask, mixed with people, and did not take the jab. I never even had a sniffle. Then one day, my invulnerability ended abruptly. Seeing a cardiologist because I had had a fluttering in my chest, he turned from a screen showing a CT Scan of my heart, with an extremely worried look on his face, and said the following to me: “Thomas, you are in imminent danger of death.” What??? With…

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Sedona, AZ –Modern warfare has made killing so easy. Young, computer game savants man screens thousands of miles away from the people they kill with drones and other remote-operated weapons. Compact rockets, anti-tank shoulder-mounted missiles, sniper rifles that can kill from a mile away, precision explosives that can take out people riding in the driver’s side of a car while leaving those on the passenger side unscathed, are but a few of the inventive ways one can engage in long-distance killing. Of course, this makes killing much easier. One is not really killing flesh and bone humans from such distances,…

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Sedona, AZ — I support “Safe Place To Park” and commend the city staff and council for this forward-thinking social program. Sedona is a beautiful city but is not a real community because of the imbalance in housing caused by the state of Arizona SB-1350’s ban on local control of STRs and the loss of affordable housing. We should all support Sedona’s effort to start a pilot plan to help with worker housing, even if that housing is a car or van. There will likely be a learning curve, but the city staff can manage and make the necessary changes…

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By Tommy Acosta Sedona, AZ — We are being baited. Iran knows exactly what it is doing; they are luring us in. They want us committed so that they can deplete all of our military resources—what’s left of them, anyway. Once that’s done, they will call for the Arab world to rise up and throw out what they consider their occupiers. We’re not ready for this one. Not like we were for the war with Iraq and Afghanistan. We had time to prepare. We don’t have any time now. We have very few soldiers out there, and our army at…

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by Mark TenBroek, Sedona, AZ –Executive Summary This proposed plan is intended to be actionable with specific elements to help with the effective management of Sedona area tourism.  A first tenet of this plan is to identify and address the root causes of problems that Sedona is experiencing, not just treat the symptoms. Residents, and businesses to a large extent, are primarily concerned with traffic congestion and the resulting overuse and degradation of the environment that takes place during peak visitation periods.  Most seem to think there is no way to effectively control visitation during these peak periods and that…

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By Tommy Acosta Sedona AZ — There is one similarity between Republicans and Democrats that cannot be denied or overlooked. That similarity is called hypocrisy. Yes. Both parties suffer from it even though they would never admit it or perhaps remain blind to it in benevolent ignorance. Let’s start with the Republicans. They claim to be against being told what to do by the government. They don’t want to be told they have to wear masks, or forced to take a vaccine they don’t want. They want to self-govern, and they don’t want Uncle Sam micro-managing their lives. They want…

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Sedona, AZ — The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Northern Arizona premiere of “The Promised Land” showing Feb. 2-8 at the Mary D. Fisher and Alice Gill-Sheldon Theatres. “The Promised Land” — from Denmark — is shortlisted for the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9U1E9cC5is In 18th century Denmark, Captain Ludvig Kahlen (Mads Mikkelsen) — a proud, ambitious, but impoverished war hero — sets out to tame a vast, uninhabitable land on which seemingly nothing can grow. He seeks to start farming crops, build a colony in the name of the King, and gain…

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By Steve Segner – – Sedona, AZ — We agree with the new city DMMO (Destination Management & Marketing Organization) plans to encourage a targeted audience of upscale travelers who will spend several nights in Sedona. But first, let’s look at the numbers – the “facts!” The Sedona Lodging Council is surveying many of the hotels and resorts in Sedona to identify where their overnight customers are coming from. So far, the survey of hotels shows that at least 50 to 60 percent of our overnight visitors come by car from Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. Of that, about…

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By Tommy Acosta — Sedona, AZ –The city is now tasked with managing tourism after crowning itself as the new Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) for Sedona. All eyes are upon the city and its council as they walk a treacherous plank above the stormy waters churning beneath as they try to come up with a plan to curb runaway tourism yet attract visitors who would spend money and stay. Good luck. TripAdvisor just named Sedona as one of the most beautiful places to visit and stay. Everywhere in the travel business world, Sedona is being lauded for its beauty, its…

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By John Rea — Cottonwood AZ — Now that issues regarding the massive black slag pile in Cottonwood, AZ have risen to the surface, it behooves conscientious community members to objectively examine the relevant information available on the subject Revelations are based on empirical scientific data including independent testing, testimonies of affected individuals and precedent setting case law pertaining to toxic contamination; all the aforementioned being willfully ignored or casually set aside to date. On a personal note, I was a victim of environmental poisoning over 40 years ago. It was literally a cover up where a housing project was…

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By Tommy Acosta The city’s heart certainly seems to be in the right place with their consideration of providing homeless people who work in town a safe place to park their cars and sleep through the night. Erecting toilets and showers also seem like a good idea and prove there is compassion in the hearts of the council members who, because of apparent insurmounntabl hurtles, cannot build affordable housing for underprivileged workers in Sedona. We are still waiting, though, for an accurate count on just how many homeless workers are in Sedona and how many would take advantage of the…

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There is a global crisis manifesting that could pose more of a mortal danger to humanity than global warming itself. It’s not the rising seas, the melting polar ice cap, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or tornadoes. It’s something more insidious that if not addressed now could one day end the human race. Yes, you guessed it. Humanity is thinning itself out. The scourge of dwindling birth rates is now threatening the planet. Women are having fewer and fewer babies. More people are dying than being born. And the captains of industry, our leaders, the elite, are worried that one day they…

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By Steve Segner Sedona, AZ –The word around City Hall is that the city funding for the uptown visitor center is in jeopardy and the ramifications of the Chamber ending its contract with the City Hall, with no set plans for the future, are now being felt. Here’s a bit of a history on the topic: The city of Sedona has funded the Visitor Center to the tune of $300,000 to 500,000+ for the last 9 years primarily using funds created by the .5% increase in bed tax in 2014. The .5% tax was created to enhance the marketing efforts…

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Sedona, AZ- The Verde Valley Wine Trail will be holding its Inaugural Fundraising Dinner & Silent auction on Saturday, January 27th. There will be a champagne reception at 6:00 PM dinner to follow. It will be held at Cottonwood community clubhouse 805 N Main St. The event is called “The Repeal” celebrating the repeal of prohibition in 1933. The theme is to “Party Like it’s 1933. Guest are encouraged to dress in 1930s attire, which is optional. The Verde Valley Wine Trail has been carefully planning this event for “90” years and it promises to be the premier wine dinner…

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Sedona/AZ –Once again Sound Bites Grill brings to its Celebrity Showroom Stage yet another internationally renowned performing artist, featuring five-Grammy nominated stylist Ottmar Liebert and his band Luna Negra on Saturday,  June 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and on Sunday, June 2, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Liebert is a world-renowned musician and composer who has won the hearts of millions with his unique blend of flamenco, jazz, and other world music styles. His music is characterized by its intricate guitar work, driving rhythms, and haunting melodies that transport listeners to faraway lands. Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1959,…

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