Arizona

As newspapers decline and die, it’s good to see other opportunities opening up to support investigative journalism. Along with wire services, which are beefing up their staffs and seeing growing profits as their content is syndicated to more and more places including websites and broadcast media, think tanks are also getting into the business. (There are also other nonprofits that support investigative journalism, such as the Center for Public Integrity.) The Goldwater Institute has hired investigative reporter Mark Flatten from the Tribune to investigate and report on cases of government corruption, abuse, and waste. Flatten is an award-winning reporter who has covered state government for nearly 20 years in Arizona, including covering the impeachment of former Gov. Evan Mecham, the AzScam corruption scandal, and the alternative fuels fiasco. Flatten is the only reporter who has ever been banned from the floor of the state legislature, which occurred at the order of former Arizona Speaker of the House Don Aldridge (R-Lake Havasu City) because of Flatten’s reporting on links between Aldridge and Max Dunlap, who was convicted for his part in the 1976 murder of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. In 1976, Aldridge was a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and he accompanied Dunlap to the law office of Neal Roberts on June 2, the day a bomb went off under Bolles’ car, allegedly about a runway paving problem at the Mohave County Airport (as reported in the Kingman Daily Miner, June 28, 1976). On June 3, Roberts and Dunlap met at Durant’s Restaurant to discuss raising $25,000 for the defense of Bolles’ killer, John Harvey Adamson, who was at the time facing a minor criminal charge and had not yet been caught for the murder. A May 10 NPR story describes the Goldwater Institute’s job ad for this position and raises concerns about political bias infecting any stories produced. While I think that’s a real concern, I think it’s often better to have stories come from an advertised bias rather than pretend objectivity. In any case, Flatten’s stories have gone after abuse regardless of party (Mecham was a Republican, the alternative fuels fiasco was caused by a Republican, and AzScam caught both Republicans and Democrats taking bribes). I look forward to seeing what he will investigate and write about in this new role. UPDATE (October 19, 2009): Flatten has published his first major investigative piece since being hired by the Goldwater Institute, and it’s an account of how a federal program designed to provide business opportunities to the disadvantaged is being used by political insiders for their own benefit, including County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. Wilcox obtained the Chili’s Too franchise in Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor Airport as an Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE), which requires that the owner participate in the day-to-day operation of the business, which she does not (though perhaps her co-owner does?). She also received a $450,000 loan from Host International which meant she didn’t have to bring any money to the table, a loan which violated city policy (the City of Phoenix owns and operates Sky Harbor). Flatten’s “High Fliers” report may be found here.

I’ll be giving a talk during the pre-conference workshop sessions at this week’s American Humanist Association conference, which is being held June 5-7 at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel. My talk is on Thursday, June 4, from 4-5 p.m. in the Palm F room. While there is ordinarily a $20 charge for the pre-conference workshops, readers of this blog may attend for free (but donations to the AHA are appreciated). My talk is entitled “Lessons learned from 25 years of battling creationists, Scientologists, and fundamentalists online." I’ll also be representing the Arizona Coalition of Reason at a press conference on Friday morning about a new billboard campaign. More about that on Friday. UPDATE (June 4, 2009): My presentation (Keynote format) is here, published with a Creative Commons license (noncommercial, attribution, no derivative works). UPDATE (June 8, 2009): Friday’s press conference was held by the American Humanist Association, the United Coalition of Reason, and the Arizona Coalition of Reason. Roy Speckhardt of the AHA introduced the press conference, Fred Edwords of United COR announced his new group and that it plans to start up about 20 COR groups throughout the country by the end of the year, and I spoke on behalf of ArizonaCOR. We have a billboard up at 44th St. and Washington, on the southbound route into Sky Harbor airport. We got press coverage from ABC Ch. 15, Fox Ch. 10, and independent Ch. 3, from the Arizona Republic and New Times, and from KTAR radio. ASU’s State Press will also be running a story. Most spun the issue as a big controversy, but that seems outlandish to me. Fox’s “man on the street” interviews ended up with two atheists out of five interviewed, and most didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. The owner of the business near the billboard made some strange argument about how the billboard should have required special regulatory approval, since he needed to get approval for his own business’s signs–but apparently didn’t recognize that such approval would only be needed for the billboard itself (unless it was grandfathered), not for its content. UPDATE (June 21, 2009): Here’s my presentation, embedded via SlideShare: UPDATE (June 29, 2009): Leslie Zukor of the Reed Secular Alliance at Reed College gives a recap of the AHA conference. ...

On May 19, 2005, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) spoke out against filibustering judicial nominations of President George W. Bush, and said he was willing to give up the tool permanently, and not block future Democratic presidential nominees: “Republicans seek to right a wrong that has undermined 214 years of tradition - wise, carefully thought-out tradition. The fact that the Senate rules theoretically allowed the filibuster of judicial nominations but were never used to that end is an important indicator of what is right, and why the precedent of allowing up-or-down votes is so well established. It is that precedent that has been attacked and which we seek to restore…. My friends argue that Republicans may want to filibuster a future Democratic President’s nominees. To that I say, I don’t think so, and even if true, I’m willing to give up that tool. It was never a power we thought we had in the past, and it is not one likely to be used in the future. I know some insist that we will someday want to block Democrat judges by filibuster. But I know my colleagues. I have heard them speak passionately, publicly and privately, about the injustice done to filibustered nominees. I think it highly unlikely that they will shift their views simply because the political worm has turned." ...

The American Religious Identification Study 2008 has been published, and the only group to grow across the entire country is the “no religion” group. Here’s how Arizona’s religious identifications have changed in the last decade: 1990: 24% Catholic, 57% other Christian, 3% other religions, 13% none, 3% don’t know/refused to answer. 2009: 29% Catholic, 44% other Christians, 5% other religions, 17% none, 5% don’t know/refused to answer. The states with the highest percentage of persons identifying themselves as having no religion in 2008 are: Vermont, 34% New Hampshire, 29% Wyoming, 28% Maine, 25% Washington, 25% Nevada, 24% Oregon, 24% Delaware, 23% Idaho, 23% Massachusetts, 22% Colorado, 21% Montana, 21% (Via the Secular Outpost.) ...

Today is the big day for SkeptiCamp Phoenix, starting at about 12:30 p.m. this afternoon. Magic Tony, one of our presenters, will be live-blogging the event at his blog, and there may also be twittering at #skepticamp. No live video this time, but there will likely be video of at least some talks put online after the event, along with photos, presentations, and recaps. I received the t-shirts last night (the back of which is shown in the photo) and the official SkeptiCamp 2009 banner earlier in the week, and I’ve got boxes of Skeptic magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and some books for distribution to participants. Thanks to the generous contributions of our sponsors, the Skeptics Society/Skeptic magazine, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry/Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and the James Randi Educational Foundation, who provided the materials and funds for the t-shirts (which will also defray a portion of our dinner tonight after the event at Tempe’s Rula BulaBoulders on Broadway). It looks like we’ll have about twenty people physically present at the event, and twelve or thirteen presentations, some 30-minute presentations and some 10-minute presentations. The current list of presentations: Tony Barnhart, Methods of the Pseudo-Psychic Abraham Heward, What’s the difference between skepticism and denial? (led discussion) David Jackemeyer, Henry Hazlitt’s Thinking as Science Don Lacey, Words Important to Skepticism (PowerPoint 2007) Jim Lippard, Positive Side-effects of Misinformation (SlideShare) John Lynch, Academic Freedom and Intelligent Design (SlideShare) Shannon Rankin, Skepticism for Dummies David Weston, Creating Skeptical Happiness (PowerPoint) Jack Ray, Skeptical Dating Mike Stackpole, Practical Techniques for Street Skepticism Charlie Cavanaugh Toft, Teaching Critical Thinking Xarold Trejo, Why I am a Skeptic SkeptiCamp Phoenix will be the first live-blogged SkeptiCamp event, and this is also the first day on which there will be two SkeptiCamp events in the same day–the other one going on today is SkeptiCamp Vancouver, which is occurring this afternoon at Langara College, with the sponsorship of the BC Skeptics. UPDATE (April 2, 2009): Don Lacey of the Skeptics of Tucson, who participated in SkeptiCamp Phoenix, offers his thoughts at the James Randi Educational Foundation’s Swift blog. ScienceBlogger and SkeptiCamp Phoenix participant John Lynch gives a recap at his blog. ...

On our dog walk this evening, we found that two neighborhoods to the south of us have been targeted by a new sort of marketing technique–in each yard was a bag containing a few rocks and a business card, apparently dropped by someone driving by who was too lazy to deliver them to the front door. In one neighborhood, these were like the ones pictured, in a ziploc bag with a card advertising a landscaping service. In another neighborhood, they were in twist-tied baggies with a piece of paper advertising a cleaning service. This doesn’t seem to me like a very effective method of advertising. The door hanger flyers are annoying already, but these are worse–it’s like tossing trash into people’s yards. ...

On March 28, SkeptiCamp Phoenix 2009 will take place at Arizona State University in Tempe. Participants include Mike Stackpole of the Phoenix Skeptics on “Practical Techniques for Street Skepticism,” John Lynch on “Academic Freedom and Intelligent Design,” and Tony Barnhart on “Methods of the Pseudo-Psychic." The event is sponsored by the Skeptics Society/Skeptic magazine, the Center for Skeptical Inquiry/Skeptical Inquirer magazine, and by the James Randi Educational Foundation. It will be the fifth SkeptiCamp, after two in Colorado, one in Vancouver, and one in Atlanta. For more information on the event, see the SkeptiCamp Phoenix 2009 wiki page, the SkeptiCamp Phoenix registration site, or the SkeptiCamp Phoenix Facebook page. For more on SkeptiCamp, see Reed Esau’s “The Skepticamp Bargain” in JREF’s Swift and his article “Raising Our Game” (PDF) published by the Skeptics Society. (Previously, previously, previously.) ...

The Arizona Republic reports: 2 fatally killed after fight near house party by Ofelia Madrid - Feb. 28, 2009 07:51 PM The Arizona Republic Two men are dead after an early morning shooting in south Phoenix, police said. Officers responded to a shooting near 36th Avenue and Broadway Road a little after midnight Friday, police said. Officers arrived to find numerous people fleeing and were directed to a 27-year-oldman who was dead in the alley from gunshot wounds, police said. ...

$10.1 billion in federal stimulus money has been released to the states by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Arizona is receiving more than $150 million of that. And what is that money to be used for, in a state where there are tens of thousands of homes for sale with few buyers (50,000+ in Maricopa county alone)? Building more housing. The Arizona Republic reports that Millions of dollars more will go to state and local programs. That includes $32 million to begin construction of affordable rental housing, $22 million to prevent homelessness and $12 million to build or repair public housing across the state.To the extent this money is used to build new homes, as opposed to repairing deteriorating ones, it’s just going to accelerate the decline of home prices, putting more homeowners underwater and providing them with more incentive to walk away from their mortgages. Now, I think that a further decline in home prices is inevitable, no matter what the stimulus money tries to do, but it’s ridiculous to throw additional money at accelerating that process. It makes about as much sense as using federal stimulus money to give grants to investment bankers to develop more complex collateralized debt obligations. Now, this isn’t actually quite that bad, since it does apparently focus on some particular communities–a third of the money is for Native American communities that didn’t get a housing bubble of speculative buying. Some of it is also for families that need short-term help with utility bills, rent, or other expenses (something that the Modest Needs Foundation has been doing for years with private donations). And Tucson is apparently using it to improve energy efficiency of existing public housing units. Those are all much more reasonable uses of the money than building more houses. ...

We found this dog–some kind of Spaniel?an Aussie sheepdog–at 20th St. and Euclid, where he appeared to be wanting to get into a mini-van with a group of mariachis. They just drove off and ignored him, so we stopped our dog walk to pick him up. He had a collar, no tags. This dog is a neutered male, unusual for the strays we find. This could have been our seventh stray of 2009, but the pack of three dogs we saw running along the canal yesterday morning wouldn’t let us near them. UPDATE: We’ve been contacted in email by the owner; this dog’s name is Woody and the owner will be going to pick him up at the pound. ...