Those crazy legislators and their crazy bills
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer It’s deadline time at the Arizona Capitol for lawmakers to submit their bills, several hundred of which will be dead on arrival. Here are examples of measures likely to be ignored by the speaker of the House and president of the Senate HB 2012—Appropriations: Light, Rail Tombstone to […]
Read More →Keeping Pinal County agriculture alive as federal deadline for drought plan nears
How Arizona ended up in this water short situation, experts say, is the Colorado River was over-allocated from the beginning, and as water management policies were drawn in 2000 and 2004, they did not take into account one factor — drought. By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer (STATE CAPITOL) — Numerous witnesses with a […]
Read More →[COMMENTARY] The government shutdown through the eyes of Abraham Lincoln
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer What follows is a column I wrote in 2013. I find no reason to change a word. I look out onto the Reflecting Pool, and there are no reflections of visitors to this Capital. There are no people touching and tracing the names of the soldiers on the Vietnam […]
Read More →News media feel the need to spoon-feed us
From the Rose Law Group Growlery By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer Pick up a newspaper or check a news website and you’ll find training wheels on how to read or understand a story. After all, we’re just like the people who, said a political operative, voted for Kyrsten Sinema: “Dumb asses!” One example is […]
Read More →[SUNDAY FEATURE] Beyond fire: 3 stories of survival
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer Over the past week, there have been local news stories about horribly burned patients who have made miraculous recoveries. Isabella McCune of Phoenix spent her ninth birthday in the Arizona Burn Center, just one of the near 300 days. She underwent more than 100 surgical and medical procedures […]
Read More →[COMMENTARY] The rigged investigation that blew up in NBC’s face
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer (Editor’s note:Opinion pieces are published for discussions purposes only.) As we well know, President Trump calls any news story he disagrees with fake news. First, it should be noted there is a wide difference between an inaccurate story and one that is out and out fake. In the […]
Read More →One in 100 Scottsdale residents willing to take “truth serum” about their high school days, survey finds
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer n the heels of a backlash from a survey stating Glendale and Tempe are among the 10 most dangerous suburbs, comes another survey finding Arizona is among “normal” states. Nerdwallet, a financial research company, and Movoto, a real estate-oriented service, are the two recent sources of such information as […]
Read More →Do you think I could get elected?
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer A sizeable number of newcomers to politics were elected across the nation Tuesday, prompting me to believe I could be a winner too. In that vein, I am submitting a list here of the top 10 reasons you should vote for me in the next election, when I […]
Read More →My would-be interview with Bill Cosby and his theft of property from my alma mater
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer (Editor’s note: Given the sentencing of comedian Bill Cosby today for sex crimes, I thought it was worth reposting my column from Nov. 25, 2014.) After an appearance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre just west of Denver in the 70s, our group laughed all the way home over stories Bill […]
Read More →First Lady’s spokeswoman, who disappeared from the Arizona Legislature, warned by feds about tweet
By Phil Riske | Senior Reporter/Writer Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s longtime spokeswoman, violated the Hatch Act with a tweet containing the acronym for President Trump’s campaign slogan, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) says the tweet was found to be in violation of the Hatch Act, and the Administration was ripped for “repeated” violations […]
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