Author: Matthew Lutz

By Rob Curl.  In December 2022, Arizona’s Water Infrastructure and Finance Authority (WIFA) unanimously passed a nonbinding resolution in support of a seawater desalination project in Mexico. The proposed plant would be built by Israel-based company IDE Technologies near Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, where it would process saltwater from the Gulf of California and pipe as much as 300,000 acre-feet of potable freshwater to Arizona. WIFA’s resolution signals growing enthusiasm for desalination as an answer to Arizona’s water woes, but the project has been met with plenty of skepticism. Arizona’s Water Problem Proponents of desalination argue that Arizona’s water supply is dwindling and that this is already affecting the state’s development. Year by year, the drying climate in Western states leaves less water in the Colorado River to sustain Arizona communities.…

By Kirk Nguyen. The city of Phoenix has become a popular destination for domestic migrants. Unfortunately, Phoenix housing is unprepared to support an inundation of transplants. Due to a relatively small supply of homes compared to a sudden influx of homebuyers and renters, housing prices soared upwards from historically affordable rates. The housing shortage in Phoenix is an example of a statewide trend primarily affecting medium- and low-wage workers. Predictably, this shortage generated an explosion of homelessness. Between 2020 and 2022, the national rate of homelessness increased by less than 1%. Arizona saw an increase of 23% during the same time. Of the more than 13,000 people in Arizona experiencing homelessness, 59.2% are unsheltered. In response, the city has increased housing construction, consistently ranking in the top 10 markets in the country for…

By Lauren Krumholz. Bills in the Arizona House and Senate allocate funds to ensure a statewide response to the growing rates of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in Arizona. Alzheimer’s Dementia in ArizonaIn 2020, 150,000 Arizonans over the age of 65 were projected to have suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease. By 2025, Arizona will see the largest percent increase in the country of older adults living with Alzheimer’s as that number rises to 200,000. Adults over 65 make up over 18% of Arizona’s population, making us the 12th oldest state. However, age is not the only risk factor in Alzheimer’s—8.9% of Arizonans over 45 “have subjective cognitive decline.” These devastating rates of Alzheimer’s cost the state millions, but more importantly, cost families invaluable loss.  Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease caused by…

By Morgan Sansone. Those who have recently visited downtown Phoenix have undoubtedly seen several Waymo autonomous vehicles driving and zooming about. For those who are unfamiliar, Waymo is the name of Google’s self-driving car (autonomous vehicle) company. Waymo cars are readily identifiable by their black and white colors and enormous overhead sensors and are just one of a myriad of self-driving cars being tested. Arizona has become a hotspot for autonomous vehicle (AV) testing, in part because of its dry climate and grid-like street systems. As of November 2022, anyone 18 years or older can use Waymo’s ride-hailing service in downtown Phoenix and experience a ride without anyone in the driver's seat. Waymo aspires to foster transportation safety, as 94% of crashes in the United States involve human error. While AV technology…

By Sarah Betz. A Sacred Site Since Time ImmemorialOak Flat, located in Arizona’s Tonto National Forest, is a sacred site for many Native American tribes in Arizona. The site has been the epicenter of Western Apache life and spiritual activity since before recorded history, with some comparing its religious significance to that of Mount Sinai or St. Peter’s Basilica. Now, the federal government is allowing a mining company to destroy this sacred site. In March, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear what is “probably the most important Native American religious liberty case in 15 years.”The Backdoor DealIn the 1870s, the United States government forcibly removed the Apache people from their ancestral land and onto the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation to make way for commercial mining operations. In 1955,…

By Sophie Haase. Governor Hobbs’ Recent Executive Order On January 20, 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs issued an executive order mandating the appointment of an Independent Review Commissioner to review and report on the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry’s (ADCRR) death penalty protocols and procedures. Under the order, the appointed Commissioner shall investigate, review, and provide transparency regarding: (1) Arizona’s procurement of lethal injection drugs, including the source of the drugs, the cost to the State for their procurement, and drug composition, (2) Arizona’s procurement of gas chamber chemicals (as Arizona is the only state to currently have a working gas chamber), (3) ADCRR procedures for conducting executions (i.e., setting lines for a lethal injection, transparency/media access regarding executions, inmate’s access to legal counsel, and contingency planning), and (4) staffing considerations…

By Emma Marek. Is cash still king? Or, has a new era of “cashless businesses” dethroned it? Square, a digital payment company, estimates that the number of cashless businesses has doubled in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic. Some businesses adopted cashless policies to minimize physical contact during purchases in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. Regardless of the medical efficacy of these policies, many businesses have continued to embrace the cashless model for myriad other reasons. Some of the pros of the cashless model include faster transactions, reduced theft and robbery, reduced operational expenses, and improved accounting. However, cashless models negatively affect consumers that may prefer or rely on cash payments. One of the strongest arguments against going cashless is financial exclusion. The FDIC reports that an…

By Zabric Kline. On October 10, 2022, the Mexican government filed a lawsuit against multiple Arizona gun retailers. This is one of many actions, both in and outside of the courtroom, that the Mexican government is undertaking in order to stop the flow of weapons into their country. The Mexican government claims that these gun retailers are systematically participating in the trafficking of guns and ammunition to Mexican cartels. The Mexican government predicates this claim on a pattern of weapons recovered at crime scenes to be traceable to the gun distributors being sued. The Mexican Government Has Made Similar Claims in the PastThis is not the first time that the Mexican government has brought claims against U.S. businesses involved in the firearm industry. On August 4, 2021, the Mexican government brought a…

By Jack Cahill. For decades, people have flocked to Arizona for our abundant sunshine, resorts, and desert amenities. However, as Arizona has grown substantially, it is clear that our water is not abundant. Water scarcity is not a recent problem in Arizona, in fact, questions over who controls our limited and most precious resource have raged since before statehood.These questions are of fundamental importance to the 22 federally recognized tribes within our borders; especially the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe by land and population. The Navajo water needs are serious in light of the persistent drought, and 30% of Navajo households still lack running water, as many residents travel vast distances to collect water from non-potable sources. Despite the nation’s serious water needs, no attempt has been made to quantify the…

By Alyannah Buhman. The first regular session of the 56th Arizona State Legislature opened on January 9th, and House Representative Matt Gress has already proposed a notably progressive bill. Nico Delgado was the bill’s inspiration, a 15-year-old member of the North Valley Republicans Club who actively engages in politics and has a strong sense of civic duty. The Arizona Civic Participation Act, lesser known as HCR 2004, proposes to lower the age requirement to run for an elected office from 25 to 18 years old.Although HCR 2004 is somewhat controversial, legislators from the left and the right at least agree on one thing: the current legislature is not reflective of the general voter population. Representative Gress illustrated this issue by quoting a 2020 study that found that the average house representative’s…