Fentanyl Popping Up as a Problem in the Valley: Is It At a Crisis Level Yet?

Five years ago, fentanyl was still on the relative fringes of society. Stories of this end-of-life painkiller being abused existed, but it hadn’t yet exploded into the national consciousness. And then Covid hit, and the entire world dealt with isolation and emotional health issues in various ways. This combined with a massive increase of production and importation created the perfect … Read More

Lessons to be Learned in Abject Failure: What to Glean from the Julie Gunnigle Campaign

By Alexander Lomax All things told, this election was extremely positive for Democrats in Maricopa County. Despite her campaign’s best efforts to lose, Katie Hobbs kept Trump-wannabe Kari Lake out of the Governor’s seat, and Adrian Fontes kept unhinged conspiracy theorist and otherwise unhireable former Kalamazoo cop Mark Finchem away from our elections. And even though State Superintendent Kathy Hoffman … Read More

Julie Gunnigle’s County Attorney Campaign Death Rattle: The Price of Listening to Activists Instead of Reason

By Alexander Lomax In her third run for elected office in the last four years, while Julie Gunnigle is now inching towards perennial candidate status, not unlike Rodney Glassman (sans party flipping), she has shown promise at times. Bold, well spoken and physically attractive (which unfortunately matters), she has positioned herself as someone worth watching in the Democratic political world. … Read More

Allister Adel is Out at MCAO, and the Race to Succeed Her is On. How is it Shaping Up?

After a very tumultuous past 6 months, including treatment for alcohol abuse, staff resignations, public calls to resign and numerous reports of significant issues within the department, now-former Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel resigned from her office last week. The ink had barely dried from the resignation statement before the race to succeed her started to materialize however. Since Adel … Read More