Has anybody noticed...

...that despite Russell Pearce's claims of massive support for him in LD18, his campaign finance reports from the 2010 election cycle show that he received a grand total of 7 contributions from LD18 residents, amounting to less than 2.5% of his total for the cycle?  He actually received more money from Fiesta Bowl-affiliated contributors.

Even more telling was the fact that, as far as I can tell, he didn't receive any contributions from his neighbors in his home precinct, Mesa 16.

Hmmm...

...that Arizona is lagging behind most other areas in the country economically, even in this rather tepid national recovery?   The folks at Brookings Mountain West, a joint effort from the DC think tank Brookings Institute and UNLV have in the most recent edition of the Mountain Monitor (Phoenix snapshot here; Tucson snapshot here; snapshots of 100 metropolitan areas available here).

Some Arizona-specific numbers, courtesy the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, dated today, here.

Simple summary of both:  Arizona's economy, while showing occasional signs of growth, is basically stagnant, and it is stagnant at the bottom of the trough.


...that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R-Half term) has ended/suspended (depending on who you ask) her (in)famous national bus tour...brace yourselves...about halfway through?

Insert your own punchline here.


...that (allegedly) corrupt Republican former Congressman Rick Renzi (R-Mantech) failed in his gambit to block a trial on corruption charges?  He argued that his corrupt activities were Constitutionally-protected and he can't be prosecuted for them.  A federal appeals court disagreed.

...Not really a political topic, at least not to the average Arizonan, but the holder of the number one spot on the FBI's most wanted list (ascending there upon the death of Osama bin Laden), James J. "Whitey" Bulger was finally captured in Santa Monica, California on Wednesday night.

Bulger has numerous bodies on his tally sheet, as well as being the main force behind the near-complete corrupting of the Boston office of the FBI in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Even though by all accounts he had been maintaining a low-profile in Santa Monica, society is a safer place tonight.

Later...