22 minute read
OPINION
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Goodyear restaurants
Editor:
Bruce Battle makes a valid argument. Having dined all over the Valley, I learned these two facts: Scottsdale and Goodyear are miles apart in the types of employees. Scottsdale employs white-collar and Goodyear blue-collar workers. The difference in the type of restaurants is simple. Scottsdale workers go to lunch, and Goodyear workers bring their lunch. There is a salary difference as well. So, where would you open a nonchain restaurant? It all revolves around economics.
Sig Mueller Goodyear Freedom to thrive
Editor:
I’m a small-business owner who consults with towns and cities on their tourism industries. One of my favorite parts about my job is how it allows me to be innovative and creative while developing websites and apps for my clients. Unfortunately, although they intend to be benefi cial, all too often app platforms make this process diffi cult to navigate.
Many professional app developers face extreme hurdles when dealing with platforms, such as Apple’s App Store. The App Store mandates a 30% transaction fee on all purchases made through in-app payments and practices unfair self-preferencing methods. These monopolistic tactics reduce innovators’ ability to bring products to market and reach a broad consumer audience. Furthermore, these behaviors limit choices for consumers in the app marketplace.
Today, Congress has taken note of these tactics and introduced the Open App Markets Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation would promote a fair app ecosystem and allow developers to innovate while providing choices to consumers. The bill aims to halt anti-competitive tactics and level the playing fi eld by removing forced in-app payment systems, banning self-preferencing schemes, and allowing developers to communicate with their consumers directly.
As a small-business owner, I believe our state’s tech developers deserve the opportunity to grow and prosper. I urge the entire Arizona congressional delegation to support and co-sponsor the Open App Markets Act.
Dave Romako Goodyear Goodyear litter
Editor:
In regard to “What’s Up with Yuma and Cotton?” by Bruce Battle, be careful what you wish for.
The wife and I have lived in the area you mentioned for six years — Estrella Parkway and Van Buren.
We have watched the large empty lots and farm fi elds disappear. On our daily walks, we’ve watched lots of places appear, such as Sonic, Dunkin Donuts, Culvers, QT and Starbucks, plus more. Jack in the Box, McDonald’s and Panda Express were already here.
I understand Goodyear wanting to bring in tax dollars, money, jobs, etc. But at what cost?
These places are massive garbage-generating machines. You can tell which place is closest to your neighborhood. There’s trash everywhere. I guess after someone goes through the drive-thru to pick up food, nobody cares where they throw their trash! More houses, apartments and rental communities make for more mobile people, who thrive on fast food.
When Goodyear puts in a business near you, don’t ask for drive-thru businesses. Goodyear doesn’t seem to care about the trash that is made by people who eat at the drive-thru restaurants!
Please don’t be a litterbug. Goodyear is no longer a litter-free city. It’s amazing that they manage to brand it as a beautiful city. There’s trash everywhere. It belongs in a trash can.
Randy Ferrin Goodyear
SMITH’S OPINION — Las Vegas Sun
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Americans need to be united, be defiant
BY CLINT HICKMAN
District 4 Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
Twenty years ago, as the nightmare of 9/11 unfolded, a World War II veteran from Arizona found himself inside the U.S. Capitol with a critical decision to make.
Bob Stump is a name you might recall if you’ve lived here a while. You may even see his name on your commute if you ever take the Loop 303.
But most of you probably aren’t aware of this former Arizona congressman’s 9/11 story.
A World War II vet who didn’t scare easily, Stump was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee back in 2001. He was in his office in Washington when al-Qaida terrorists flew two commercial airlines into the World Trade Center in New York, and a third into the Pentagon, killing 2,933 innocent people and forever changing the way we view our world. A fourth airliner, United Flight 93, was headed toward Washington, D.C., believed to be targeting the U.S. Capitol. Capitol Hill police told everyone to evacuate.
But Bob Stump said no.
He told the Capitol Hill police he had no intention of leaving his office or allowing terrorists to shut down the U.S. Congress.
After Stump stayed put, others followed.
First, Rep. Jim Saxton of New Jersey, who chaired one of Stump’s subcommittees, showed up at Stump’s office along with one of his staffers. They were soon joined by Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, another subcommittee chairman who was also checking in.
With no one quite sure when the attacks would stop, Stump and Saxton established contact with other members of the Armed Services committee by phone. Committee members understood the world was changing. Our country — and the brave men and women of our military — would have to adapt to the threat posed by al-Qaida and other terrorists.
So, while smoke was still pouring from the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, Stump and his team started discussions about how to redesign our military to meet the needs of a post9/11 world. They knew we would need new ways of thinking, new tactics and new resources to protect our country.
We now know of the bravery of the United 93 passengers who stormed the cockpit and made sure that fourth plane never made it to Washington. Their actions — and thousands of other acts of bravery that day — ensured that the 9/11 terrorists failed in their ultimate goal.
While Bob Stump was a brave man, he would be the first to tell you, what he and the others did was not an act of bravery but of defiance. They simply did not want the terrorists to force them out of one building while brave first responders in New York and across the Potomac River were fighting to get into others.
Twenty years later, we are watching another tragedy unfold, this time in Afghanistan, where American personnel have sacrificed and fought year after year to keep terrorists at bay. What has happened over the last several weeks is heartbreaking. I don’t have all the answers, but I believe Bob Stump had the right approach. In the face of threats to our democracy, we need to show the world we won’t back down. We need to be united, but also defiant. It is the way this country was founded, and it is the way we will survive.
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IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF ARIZONA PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY, IN CONFORMANCE WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES 40-360, ET SEQ., FOR A CERTIFICATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL COMPATIBILITY FOR THE THREE RIVERS 230 KILOVOLT TRANMISSION LINE PROJECT, WHICH AUTHORIZES THE CONSTRUCTION OF TWO NEW SINGLE CIRCUIT 230 KV TRANSMISSION LINES WITH THE INTERCONNECTIONS ORIGINATING AT THE EXISTING APS RUDD-WHITE TANKS 230 KV TRANSMISSION LINE AND THE LINES PROCEEDING WEST AND CONTINUING SOUTH TERMINATING AT THE TS16 SUBSTATION, SOUTH HALF OF THE NE QUARTER OF SECTION 8 OF TOWNSHIP 1 NORTH, RANGE 1 WEST AND NORTH HALF OF THE SE QUARTER OF SECTION 8, LOCATED IN GOODYEAR, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA DOCKET NO. L-00000D-21-0292-00193 Case No. 193
NOTICE OF HEARING
A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD before the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee (Committee) regarding the Application of Arizona Public Service Company (APS or Applicant) for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) authorizing construction of the Three Rivers 230kV Transmission Line Project (the Project) (the Application). The Project consists of two new single circuit 230kV transmission lines. A map of the Project is attached as Exhibit A.
The hearing will be held at Hampton Inn & Suites, 2000 N. Litchfield Rd., Goodyear, Arizona 85395. The hearing will begin on October 4, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. and will continue as necessary on October 5 through October 8 commencing at 9:00 a.m. each day as necessary through the completion of the hearing. If any revisions to the hearing schedule are required, they will be noticed on the Project website at www.aps.com/threerivers, and on the Arizona Corporation Commission (Commission) website at: https://www.azcc.gov/arizona-power-plant/meeting-schedule.
PUBLIC COMMENT WILL BE TAKEN IN A SPECIAL EVENING SESSION ON OCTOBER 4, 2021, AT 5:30 P.M., VIA TELEPHONE, ZOOM, OR IN PERSON AT HAMPTON INN & SUITES, 2000 N. LITCHFIELD RD., GOODYEAR, ARIZONA 85395. PUBLIC COMMENT MAY ALSO BE TAKEN AT OTHER TIMES DURING THE HEARING AT THE DISCRETION OF THE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN.
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT ALL LOCAL AND STATE PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY GUIDELINES REGARDING COVID-19 WILL BE FOLLOWED DURING THE HEARING AND PUBLIC COMMENT SESSION. FURTHER RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC ACCESS, ADDITIONAL SAFETY PROTOCOLS, AND REVISIONS TO THE HEARING SCHEDULE MAY OCCUR DUE TO PUBLIC HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS.
THE PUBLIC IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE BY EITHER WATCHING THE HEARING ONLINE OR LISTENING TO THE HEARING VIA TELEPHONE, RATHER THAN ATTENDING IN PERSON.
At least 24 hours in advance of the hearing, information regarding online and telephone hearing access, as well as any additional details regarding COVID-19 safety protocols or other revisions to the hearing schedule will be noticed on the Project website at www.aps.com/threerivers. The Chairman may, at his discretion, recess the hearing to a time and place to be announced during the hearing, or to be determined after the recess. The date, time and place at which the hearing will be resumed will be posted on the above-noted Three Rivers 230kV Transmission Line Project website and the ACC website.
NOTE: NOTICE OF ANY SUCH RESUMED HEARING WILL BE GIVEN; HOWEVER, PUBLISHED NOTICE OF SUCH A RESUMED HEARING IS NOT REQUIRED.
The Committee may conduct a tour of the Project area. The map and itinerary of any such tour will be available at the hearing and posted on the Project website at www. aps.com/threerivers and the ACC website at: https://www.azcc.gov/arizona-power-plant/meeting-schedule. Members of the public may follow the Committee on the tour in their own private vehicles. During the tour, the Committee may hear brief testimony at stops on the tour from one or more witnesses concerning where the stops are located, what is visible at the stops, and the relevance of the location and view to the facilities in the Application. No other discussion or deliberation concerning the Application will occur during the tour. A court reporter or recording device will record any testimony taken on the tour for transcription.
Copies of each Application contained detailed maps of the Project sites, detailed information about the proposed facilities, and prehearing and hearing transcripts will be available for inspection at the following locations: • Arizona Corporation Commission Docket Control Center, Phoenix, Office, 1200 West Washington Street, Suite 108, Phoenix, AZ 85007 • City of Goodyear Library, 14455 W. Van Buren St., E101, Goodyear, AZ 85338 • Sam Garcia Western Avenue Library, 495 E. Western Ave., Avondale, AZ 85323 • The Project Website: www.aps.com/threerivers.
Continued on page XX
NOTICE OF HEARING
Each county, municipal government, and state agency interested in the Project that desires to be a party to the proceedings shall, not less than ten (10) days before October 4, 2021, file a Notice of Intent to Become a Party with the Director of Utilities, Arizona Corporation Commission, 1200 West Washington Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85007.
Any domestic non-profit corporation or association formed in whole or in part to promote conservation or natural beauty; to protect the environment, personal health or other biological values; to preserve historical sites; to promote consumer interests; to represent commercial and industrial groups; or to promote the orderly development of the area in which the Project are located that desires to become a party to the proceedings shall, not less than ten (10) days before October 4, 2021, file a Notice of Intent to Become a Party with the Director of Utilities, Arizona Corporation Commission, 1200 West Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007.
The Committee or the Chairman, at any time deemed appropriate, may make other persons parties to the proceedings. Any person may make a limited appearance at a hearing by filing a statement in writing with the Director of Utilities, Arizona Corporation Commission, 1200 West Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007, not less than five (5) days before October 4, 2021. A person making a limited appearance will not be a party or have the right to present testimony or cross-examine witnesses.
This proceeding is governed by Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) §§ 40-360 to 40-360.13 and Arizona Administrative Code Rules R14-3-201 to R14-3-220. Substantive communication not in the public record may not be made to any member of the Committee. The written decision of the Committee will be submitted to the Commission pursuant to A.R.S. §40-360.07. Any person intending to be a party to the proceeding on the matter before the Commission must be a party to the proceeding before the Committee.
ORDERED this 25th day of August 2021.
/s/
Thomas K. Chenal, Chairman Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee Assistant Attorney General
Exhibit A
WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | SEPTEMBER 8, 2021
More kids die from other causes than COVID-19
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
West Valley View Columnist
If you go back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, January of last year, you discover that in this state so far, we have lost 36 young people to this stinking virus. Three dozen in 20 months. Every loss like this is tragic, but such losses also demand perspective.
Meaning: As serial killers go, COVID-19 has a deeply ingrained taste for older adults. In all, 90% of Arizonans killed by the virus so far are age 55 or older.
I make this comparison because of late we are hearing about what headline writers and TV news types love to call “a spike” in COVID-19 among Arizona children. These stories teem with fear, because when it comes to kids, the news adores the specter of the Grim Reaper.
My point: Maybe dig a little before you believe the hype. Maybe don’t rush to Amazon quite yet and purchase that kid-sized plastic bubble for your youngest family members. Maybe it’s even safe to send the kids off to school, though in-person learning would create more risk for older principals, teachers and school staffers.
Arizona’s Department of Health Services has publicly made available the full range of pandemic: cases, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccination levels down to the ZIP code.
For me, the numbers produce perspective, food for thought, and a sense of calm. I like to know what we’re up against so I can apportion my concern appropriately.
How risky is COVID-19 for anyone under the age of 20? Not very, according to the numbers.
Our state is home to 1.84 million girls and boys under age 20, according to ADHS. So far, 1 in 10 have tested positive for COVID-19. Of the 182,351 positive cases in that demographic, about 1.4% have required hospitalization.
That’s 2,633 young heads in hospital beds — compared to more than 31,000 people hospitalized age 65 or older.
I’ll say it again: COVID-19 preys on the old and the infirm, especially when they’re unvaccinated.
Keep in mind, vaccines have not yet been administered to those under the age of 12, and to only 19% of kids under age 20. They’re doing just fine without it, at least so far, thank you very much.
And while we’re on the subject of developing perspective, let me add this. Every year, the state does an extensive review of fatalities among minors. It’s sad reading, but edifying. In 2019, pre-pandemic, 777 children died in Arizona, down from 843 deaths the year before.
What kills our kids with the greatest frequency? Car crashes. Murder. Suffocation. Parents high on drugs. Prematurity. Cancer.
Each of these causes kills more Arizona children in a given year than has COVID-19.
The state divides child deaths into two groups — preventable and natural. Among deaths deemed accidental, reckless driving took 61 kids in 2019. Substance abuse by parents contributed to 54 deaths, while unsafe sleep environments killed 52 kids. There were 59 homicides that year among minors, with blunt force claiming 29 lives and guns taking 24 more.
When an Arizona child dies a natural death, it’s almost always one of three causes: Prematurity took 170 infants in 2019, birth defects took 99 children, and cancer took 54 kids from their parents that year.
My hope is not to sound hard-boiled, indifferent to the suffering of children and their loved ones. Rather, my goal is to offer some context. COVID-19 may indeed be spiking among the young, but that surge is mostly numerical, nothing worse than your average case of the flu.
There are spikes, is what I’m saying, and then there’s a deadly spike through the heart. For kids, COVID-19 is absolutely not that.
David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com
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WEST VALLEY VIEW NEWS | SEPTEMBER 8, 2021
President Biden’s time is up
BY J.D. HAYWORTH
West Valley View Columnist
When President George H.W. Bush looked at his watch during the second debate of the 1992 campaign, it probably ensured his “second-place finish” on Election Day. The gesture expressed disinterest, even if that wasn’t the intent.
And it is the reason political consultants of every stripe — Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, vegetarian — advise candidates and officeholders to avoid that action in public or in front of cameras.
Joe Biden followed suit the final Sunday of August at Dover Air Force Base. The commander-in-chief checked his watch during the solemn return of the remains of 13 Americans. Even worse, Biden looked at his watch repeatedly — diminishing the dignity of the ceremony known as the “dignified transfer.”
The father of one of the fallen — Darin Hoover, whose son, Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover was killed along with a dozen others during the terror bombing of Kabul Airport — said Biden checked his watch 13 times.
“That didn’t just happen once; that happened on every single one who came out of that airplane,” Hoover said during a TV interview. “They would release the salute and he’d look down at this watch. On every last one. All 13 — he looked down at his watch.”
Things did not improve when Mr. Biden subsequently met with the new Gold Star families. In an apparent attempt to empathize with the parents of the fallen, the president recalled the passing of his older son, Beau. While Beau Biden served in Iraq, he did so as part of the administrative and legal team in the Army’s judge advocate general’s corps — not as part of a combat unit.
Moreover, he served his tour of duty during portions of 2008 and 2009. The younger Biden was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013 and died in 2015. While certainly tragic, Beau’s death at age 46 occurred under very different circumstances. Taylor Hoover was the eldest at 31; the others were in their early 20s.
Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui died at age 20; his mother’s grief turned to anger during her encounter with Joe Biden. Shana Chappell later posted this on Facebook: “(Y)ou tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and (I)had to tell you, ‘This isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!!!’”
The post became more passionate and profane.
“You do not have the right to tell me how I feel! U then rolled your (expletive) eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me…”
Facebook officials were certainly annoyed with Shana; they censored that post and others on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. Subsequent press inquiries prompted the social media sites to restore Ms. Chappell’s accounts.
The full functionality of the Biden administration is AWOL and has been since inauguration day. The chief executive is cognitively impaired; the vice president laughs often and at inopportune times. But the incompetence has been brought into sharp focus by the debacle in Afghanistan.
The secretary of defense is all for diversity and inclusion — except for Caucasian conservatives. The chairman of the joint chiefs fancies himself an intellectual warrior — but in reality is neither; and Secretary of State Blinken is at least well named, as he often blinks at the first sign of confrontation.
It would be comic were it not so tragic. A departure so disorderly that Americans were stranded, while unvetted Afghans will come to a neighborhood near you.
A plan so poorly formulated that it leaves billions of dollars of sophisticated weaponry and aircraft in the hands of savage warriors who will couple their 6th century sensibilities with 21st century lethality.
A strategy so senseless that it introduces a protective force, not to find and protect American citizens but to spend its time in force protection in a place so indefensible that it attracts a terror attack in which 13 Americans are killed.
The Communist Chinese “president” doesn’t have to worry about debates… or elections. When he checks his watch, he may say about the USA, “Time’s up!”
J.D. Hayworth represented Arizona in the U.S. House from 1995-2007. He authored and sponsored the Enforcement First Act, legislation that would have mandated enforcement of Federal Immigration Law in the 109th Congress.
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