Paradise Valley is moving closer to addressing its flooding vulnerabilities with a comprehensive stormwater infrastructure master plan. After recent storms highlighted the town’s susceptibility to flooding, officials have developed a strategic roadmap to prioritize improvements and protect properties across the community. The Scope of the Problem Working with the Kimley-Horn engineering firm, the town identified 19 particularly flood-prone areas, categorized … Read More
Leadership Lessons: When Maricopa County Stood Up to Corporate Power and What Scottsdale Can Learn From It
This week, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors delivered a masterclass in political courage. Led by Supervisor Debbie Lesko, the board voted 5-0 to reject Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s request to develop a massive 4,000-acre freight rail facility near the rural community of Wittmann. The decision wasn’t about opposing economic development; it was about standing up to a corporate … Read More
Scottsdale joins statewide coalition to safeguard Arizona’s water future
Under the leadership of Mayor Lisa Borowsky, the city of Scottsdale has joined the Coalition for Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline, a nonpartisan alliance of municipal leaders committed to advocating for Arizona’s continued access to Colorado River water and the Central Arizona Project, the state’s largest water delivery system. The Coalition, which includes mayors from across Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties, was … Read More
When Results Speak Louder Than Politics: SUSD’s Academic Success Story
By Alexander Lomax Scottsdale Unified School District has found itself under intense scrutiny lately, particularly from Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. But when the latest state test scores arrived, the numbers told a story that’s hard to dispute: SUSD students are thriving academically. With 62% of students passing English Language Arts assessments and 58% passing math across grades … Read More
Arizona’s Silicon Renaissance: Why Nvidia’s Manufacturing Announcement Changes Everything
Arizona being a hotbed for the tech industry has been a common theme; shoot, we just wrote about it last week. But a recent development shows that we may have been understating how critical our state is becoming with an entire global industry. When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took the stage at the company’s first-ever Washington D.C. conference this week, … Read More
Tom Horne vs. SUSD: When Education Policy Meets Political Theater
By Ronald Sampson Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has once again trained his sights on Scottsdale Unified School District, this time criticizing a community flyer for a “Girls in Gear” cycling event that invited girls, nonbinary, and gender-expansive youth to participate. His diagnosis? SUSD is promoting “woke ideology” that’s driving families away and causing declining enrollment. Let’s be … Read More
Scottsdale Drivers Have It Good (Despite What Your Neighbor Says About the Roads)
Let’s be honest: in Scottsdale, complaining about the roads is practically a civic pastime. Right up there with debating roundabouts and grumbling about cyclists. But here’s a plot twist: Scottsdale just ranked as the fourth-best city in the country to drive in, according to financial website WalletHub. Yes, you read that correctly. Fourth. In the entire nation. Before you dismiss … Read More
Guest Editorial: Scottsdale Voters Win, Again
By Scottsdale City Council Solange Whitehead Last November’s resounding Prop 490 victory was challenged – yet again – by the Goldwater Institute. On Tuesday morning we prevailed in court. To be clear, voters in every Scottsdale precinct approved both Propositions 490 and 491 this past November. Despite frivolous legal challenges and an egregious misinformation campaign to defeat Prop 490, Scottsdale voters stuck … Read More
Is Phoenix Becoming the Capital of AI? Further Expansion Demonstrates Its Importance in America’s Hottest Sector
It’s been a big few years for Arizona, and more specifically the tech sector. They have been able to land a number of massive new developments and headquarters, but a more recent news story has us wondering something which would have sounded absurd only 5 years ago…is Phoenix becoming a capital city for Artificial Intelligence? Phoenix’s transformation into a global … Read More
A Legendary Season Snuffed Out: The Tragic Case of Cam Skattebo
Every once in a while football will remind you that it is a game built on violence…that it only takes one play to negate a brilliant season or to end a legend. That it can be cruel in its randomness, that someone can seem invincible one moment and on their way to the hospital the next. This past weekend we … Read More