The Arizona economy is not in good shape mainly due to its reliance on housing and tourism – neither of which is generating much revenue these days. Phoenix Business Journal reported on Thursday that the city’s unemployment rate jumped half a percentage point in August from 5.1 to 5.6 percent. This demonstrates a frightening trend considering that the unemployment rate in July was reported at 4.6 percent. Loss of jobs has been reported in retail, construction, and trade-related fields in the month August.

“We held an election, and nobody came,” said Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, who oversees the county’s Elections Department. “Whether it was because they weren’t interested or didn’t have time, I don’t know.”

My dear Helen Purcell, people didn’t come because they didn’t know. They didn’t come because they didn’t realize that the election was the day after a major holiday. They didn’t come because they didn’t feel they had any choices in their district. They didn’t come for many reasons that need to be examined and dealt with.

I have voted in every election since I was 18. It is something I am very proud of. What I didn’t realize was that everyday people can get involved in the political process instead of just bitch about it. Last major election cycle, I attended a town hall featuring Harry Mitchell and Wes Clark. It was put on by PACE, which is an arm of NASW-AZ. Meeting and speaking with the candidates was exciting, but much more exciting was meeting all the everyday people who put it together. Legislative days, spending time at the state capitol and working with PAFCO has made it easier to see the political process as something accessible.

I wonder if more people thought our system was accessible, would they participate? Does the average person even understand our process? Do they realize that you can make an appointment and meet with your councilman, legislator, governor and air your concerns and priorities?

“The World is run only by the people who take the time to show up”
- unknown

My heart goes out to him and being in a family that is separated by divorce. Being away from our family, it’s hard to raise my daughter without grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. I can’t imagine what this poor child is thinking about when he is walking by himself in the wee hours of the morning and what kind of man he will grow up into without that cohesive family core.

Mark Goudeau has been arrested as a suspect in two of the assaults in the Baseline Killer series. This shot was released by Phoenix Police. People are commenting on the resemblance. Is there one? Or are we seeing what we want to see?

Of course Quiznos isn’t the only place in Tempe to get a good sammich. Dilly’s Deli (414 W. University Drive) and Bison Witches (21 E. 6th Street #146 aka ASU Brick Yard) also know how to make a mean sandwich. Yum!

Where’s your favorite place for a good sandwich?

The house I used to own back in California has now double its worth. I cringe everytime I check out the stats at a cool website called Zillow. But still, the houses here are much more reasonable than the ones in California even during the time of the housing boom. What I didn’t like about it during that time was the fact that communities selling their houses had a very snotty mentality about their fortune and made people sign up for lotteries to vy for a home.

I went back to the main office to take photos of landscaping ideas for our backyard project a couple of weeks back and found the place rather dead. The people working there were extremely nice though, even though most of them were new hires, they were much more pleasant than 2 years ago.