I have been hesitant to write about the so-called fiscal cliff, but it looks as if one of two things will happen: Either we're going off the cliff/curb/ramp, or President Obama will sell out the middle class safety net to get a deal. We don't have a debt crisis. We have an unemployment, opportunity and economic growth crisis, none of which will be addressed by the GOP austerity fetish or Obama's itchy trigger finger on "reforming entitlements." Read more» 1

Sprawled, single-family house subdivision urban Arizona is not sustainable, much less one adding a million people or doubling in size or whatever the latest boosterish nonsense is peddled. The business model of population growth won't work. Read more» 1

I've read that some 43 percent of the city of Phoenix alone is empty land. It would be interesting to know how much of the city is surface parking lots. Read more» 2

Phoenix sure doesn't have enough surface parking lots. And the loss of physical history is an insidious force, a civic carcinogen. Read more»

As every schoolchild once learned, South Carolina precipitated the nullification crisis in 1832 by passing a law that said it could, essentially, pick and choose which federal laws would apply within the state. Today in Arizona, talk of trampled state rights and infringed "sovereignty" helps keep the base agitated and angry. Read more» 3

As the Republicans prepare for their national convention, a tropical storm with the ironic name of Isaac might visit a biblical comeuppance on the party of theocracy. Now wouldn't that be "spaycial," as they say in the South. Read more»

You might be tempted to pass on a story in Sunday's Arizona Republic with the process-y headline, "Case Asks Who Must Pay Taxes for Utility." Don't. It's about a case that's a rare window into how power and influence work in the state. Power, especially, at what insiders call "the fourth branch of government," the Arizona Corporation Commission. Read more»

If all I knew was, as Will Rogers said, what I read in the papers, I'd be pretty depressed. This is ironic considering in Arizona their mission is to most of the time be the cheerleaders for the Everything's Fine! propaganda ministry. Read more»

Guest opinion: What's the biggest danger facing Arizona's second city? According to Roger Yohem, writing in Inside Tucson Business, it is that the Old Pueblo will become Portland-ized. It should be so fortunate. Read more» 3

It's centennial week in Arizona, and the local media are doing their part to play it up. The Rogue Columnist tells you what you really need to know about our state. Read more» 1