What A Way To End 2015 + Start A New Year! UNhealthy Air > Code Yellow AQI

What a way to wake up today, the last day of 2015, with a "moderate" air-quality warning and be faced again tomorrow the first day of the New Year 2016 with a "severe" air-quality warning . . .

To get down to the local level here in Maricopa County, when are people going to wake up and demand/take action  to the fact that the State of Arizona is failing to clean up the air - just the usual rhetoric and no action for clean healthy air.
It's outrageous that the fossil fuel industries are permitted to contaminate the air we breathe.
The 15% Arizona goal for renewable energy sourcing isn't high enough and won't come fast enough. It's gonna take more than screaming to fix the problem.

Sure we can "monitor" the problem, like the resource image shown in yellow to the right [it's called a yellow alert] . . . it gets worse tomorrow with a severe danger in the air we breathe!There's is more detailed information and infographics on U.S. Air Quality The Smog Blog that had this to report from two days ago:The Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states experienced Moderate, code yellow, PM AQI (AirNow, top left). No smoke has been reported (HMS, top right). The NWS surface analysis shows a high pressure system in the Pacific Northwest that could be trapping in pollutants (bottom left). Cloud coverage limits the GASP AOD image (bottom right).  See this link with images below >> http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/

Set aside, if you can for just a while, so-called terrorist threats, threats to national security, the stalled condition of the local and global economies, and climate change. Unhealthy and dangerous air-quality - not just for "sensitive groups" - is a real existential threat here and now in the air all around us that we breathe.Demand and take action to get the problem fixed. It is an immediate and credible threat here and now [you can believe it's real by all these 'alerts'] to our well-being and health.

No matter how it's called. Let's get real - take action

Comments on this post are invited.

 

 

Media Contacts

Bob Huhn Public Information Officer
Maricopa County Air Quality Department 
(602) 506-6713 desk (602) 526-7307 cell
1001 N. Central Ave, suite 500 Phoenix, AZ 85004

Lucette Gonzalez
Media Specialist Maricopa County Air Quality Department
(602) 506-7396 desk (602) 376-9390 cell
Same address as above
 - See more at: http://cleanairmakemore.com/news-events/press-and-media/#sthash.yZYCzcV4.dpuf

$PORT$ In Arizona = BIG BU$INE$$

Hate to date myself, but nearly-everyday watching "Uncle Walter", extraordinary on-the-airwaves reporter  [way back before streaming or screaming news], really did inspire my latter-day entry into online reporting.
He might be throwing his hands up about how news gets done today . . .
Walter Cronkite now has a "school of journalism" named after him + a Cronkite News program on AZ PBS - not exactly doing the news like he did, but that's the way it goes.
A recent report ties in with a post here yesterday about the sports industry's economic impact
Arizona looks for economic boost from football playoff, other events

By Bill Slane | Cronkite News | POSTED: Dec 29, 2015

The article starts off with what's next on the calendar for sports events - The College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 11  that has the potential to have both short- and long-term effects for the state financially.
According to the results of a study, Super Bowl XLIX brought in over $700 million for the local economy, Combined revenues from College Football Playoff events - one sport for about four days alone - generated by hosting those games reached $646.2 million combined in economic impact, according to studies by W.P. Carey. Those games also reportedly created over 1,400 jobs, according to the same studies.
Then there's Super Bowl in February and Phoenix has been selected as the site of the 2017 NCAA basketball Final Four.

Behind all the industry and public relations hoopla, credit goes to reporter Bill Slane for even bringing up a big bone of contention for taxpayers who are asked to foot the bill for financing big sports complexes when major corporations, developers,  and major sports franchisees reap the benefits when promises and projections of local economic development fall far short of goals. Then there's the issue of "operational expenses" . . . organizing committees for each of these events is responsible for all the fundraising to support some of the operational expenses,. . . That would be the only area that would be a potential issue for our state because it is a significant fundraising endeavor for those host committees on the corporate level.”
Pardon me for saying it, but it's not just a potential issue "on the corporate level" . . . quite cleverly the reporter uses conditional future subjunctive words to describe what might not happen [words in bold type for emphasis]

Long term, hosting these large sporting events has the potential for major economic impact on the cities hosting the events, and ancillary events. During the College Football Playoff National Championship for example, the organizing committee will be hosting 25 to 50 CEOs from companies across the country in an attempt to draw their business to Arizona. The Super Bowl Host Committee used the same tactic during this year’s Super Bowl.
“We do that because of the long-term economic development that will generate,” Wright said.
The hope, as with the previous college football title games Arizona has hosted, is to not only give a quick boost to the economy but also create jobs that can have a more lasting effect.
“If we can use this three-year spotlight, with these three, huge mega-events, to convince a couple of companies that Arizona is a great place to invest, to employ people, to bring jobs, that’s a win-win for all of us,” Wright said.
The committee hopes to draw in that business from outside the state by showing off the best of Arizona, with the help of partners like the Arizona Office of Tourism and its director, Debbie Johnson.
The long-term impact that could come from attracting these businesses to the Valley could outweigh the immediate economic benefit, or cost

HERE'S THE KICKER-PAY ATTENTION: A reality-check by reporter Bill Shane:
A recent report from the city of Glendale said the Super Bowl at best created a financial gain of $13,000, and at worst it caused a loss of $1.2 million. The greater benefit for the city will come from the potential growth in jobs from hosting businesses during the game, . .
Nonetheless, the reporter finishes up like so - with some excellent industry comments about how cities score points in the bidding process [with incentives and give-away in contracts that taxpayers might not know about] 

If it was not clear that Arizona wants to host these events after attracting the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff and Final Four in consecutive years, it was solidified last month when it was announced University of Phoenix Stadium would host games next summer for the 2016 Centennial Copa America, featuring national soccer teams from North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.
Valley leaders have not yet grown tired of hosting these events, and in fact seem to be trying harder to get more of them each year.
Mike Nealy, executive director of the BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl, doesn’t think Arizona has done anything differently in bidding for these events compared to past failed bids. Instead it has just been a perfect storm that has set up these major games coming to Arizona one after the other.
“Many of these events are a bid process and so you take them when you can get them,” he said. “There’s not too many cities that are as fortunate as we are to have hosted so many of these events. And if they keep coming, we are going to keep supporting them, so let them come.”

City of Mesa Diversity and Neighborhood Outreach Office Sends

$PORT$ = Big Biz > Play Ball! The Game Is On, but ...



Marc Garcia/VisitMesa

Amateur sports? Wanna play? Who's gonna pay?
How can The City of Mesa - in a league of its own in many respects - even think about pitching a foul ball to taxpayers to fund the estimated [??] $54-57 Million Dollar cost  for a year-round "youth and amateur sports complex" to be located on part of 1,146.3 acres formerly called Spook Hill Park [anybody else gettin' spooked already] for the larger indoor basketball tournaments and volleyball and cheer and gymnastics and wrestling and  weight-lifting and Taekwondo proposed to a study session of the Mesa City Council recently by Marc Garcia, head honcho for Visit Mesa, a DMO for the City of Mesa?
The operating budget for VisitMesa largely comes from bed-tax revenues [about $1Million] levied on Mesa hotels, motels and short-term lodging for overnight visitors to the area.
It was reported on October 7, 2015 that Grand Canyon University had dropped its plans for expansion in the same area.

Chris Brady, City Manager

Will taxpayers get asked to foot the bill again for floating another municipal bond bill by more increases in sales taxes and increased utility charges?? Probably unlikely since $5.7 Million was pulled designated for parks and recreation and kicked into funding for the Mesa Historical Museum
Short on cash, Mesa stalls parks projects [video and transcript with reporting by Maria Polenta on Oct 20,2015]

The new proposal for youth-and-amateur sports complex got the full press-play last week:

East Valley Tribune
Massive sports complex planned in Mesa by Shelley Ridenour updated on Dec 22
Mesa Independent
Soccer complex proposed by Richard Dyer H. Dyer on Dec 21
KTAR.com
Phoenix suburb getting serious about plans for large sports complex on Dec 28
Arizona Republic
Will Mesa Pay To Play?  by Maria Polletta on Dec 15

The Nations Group whose project groups include charter and private schools, commercial, higher education, and sports-and-entertainment, were hired by VisitMesa to do a
*NEW* City of Mesa Sports Complex Market Feasibility & Economic Impact Study for VisitMesa to promote the DMO's proposal.
Not a surprise - the paid-for study revealed that this project could have significant positive economic impact on the City of Mesa, in part by attracting more visitors and tourism revenues through additional sporting events.
Through multiple interviews and market data discovery, the study recommended:

• 24 soccer fields
• A duel-stadium concept (natural grass and synthetic turf)
• Indoor fieldhouse
• Operations center
• Restrooms
• Parking
• Concessions
• Additional amenities

Probably better to stay on game with professional sports - in just one sport baseball - and in one season - Spring - Last year for MLB Spring Training in Arizona the stats were in and they were good . . .
According to a pair of studies released by Governor Doug Dicey and members of the non-profit Cactus League Baseball Association, spring training baseball has become a driving force in Arizona's economy.
The studies estimate spring training teams and the ballparks they play in now annually generate more than $809 million in economic impact for the state.

Casey At The Bat @ MAC >> Scoring Another Run For The Arts March 2016

Press release today for immediate release: Upcoming Events > March 2016

AT THE MAC: March 2016

Contact: Casey Blake, 480-644-6620, casey.blake@mesaartscenter.com

For immediate release: Dec. 30, 2015

 

Selected Highlights for this post include:

What Works Cities > How's This Going in Mesa?

OPEN : STATES > Information Interface - Please Get to Know + Use It

The idea for the Sunlight Foundation’s, Open States Project, began in 2009. From an initial core of volunteers from several states, the project has gathered volunteer contributors from all 50 staes plus Wash. D.C. & Puerto Rico. With additional contributions of computer expertise and a grant to  build the public web site, the Open States web site is now operational.

The interface allows citizens to locate their state representatives by entering an address or clicking on online maps or entering a legislator’s name.
Short biographical information, plus some news stories are provided. Links to the bills that the legislator has sponsored and recent votes on other legislation are presented.

Summary charts of campaign contributions are provided with links to more detailed data from Use these links
followthemoney.org 
opensecrets.org  .

Bills for the current and several past legislative sessions can be searched by chamber, sponsor, status, type of bill or resolution, and subject ( free text not an index).
The full text of the bill can be called up.
Roll call votes are also accessible.
There is a tracking tool called Scout from the Sunlight Foundation that alerts you when Congress or your state capitol talks about or takes action on issues you care about.

Here's a link to Arizona State Legislature
http://openstates.org/az/

Discover politics in your state

• Find your legislators
• Review their votes
• Search upcoming legislation
• Track bill progress

Recorded webinar: “(Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization”

On December 15, 2015 Smart Growth America released (Re)Building Downtown: A Guidebook for Revitalization, a new resource for local leaders who want to re-invigorate and strengthen neighborhood centers of economy, culture, and history through a smart growth approach to development. The guide lays out in straightforward language seven main steps to help (re)build downtowns and Main Streets, and is designed to be used by any community, no matter where they are in the revitalization process.

As part of the kickoff, SGA hosted an online conversation all about downtown revitalization. Participants heard an overview of the new guidebook, and discussed revitalization efforts in three different communities. A recorded version of the webinar is now available.
http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/2015/12/15/recorded-webinar-rebuilding-downtown-a-guidebook-for-revitalization/

Another Wrap-Up : Smart Growth America > Our Year in Review

Got a nice email from this org two hours ago:

Tim—
This was a huge year for Smart Growth America. So big, in fact, that we wanted to share with you some of our highlights.
Supporters like you make our work possible. 2015 was a banner year, . . Thank you for being part of our work this year. 

Enjoy this look back at some of our highlights from 2016.

Best,

Geoff Anderson,
President and CEO,
Smart Growth America
                  

In Downtown Revitalization, Equity Can Equal Authenticity

By Oscar Perry Abello | December 14, 2015

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/equity-made-explicit-in-new-downtown-revitalization-guidebook

God + Government | Separation of Church-State

Mesa > Have we got a problem?
Hot topic - where do we draw the line?? . . . or is the better question where does the U.S. Constitution draw the line?
This book is a collection of columns, testimony, speeches, and other writings that the author - a Reverend - has done over the past 25 years of "in-trench" engagement for the preservation of the separation of Church & State.
It updates the issues Barry Lynn has written about over the decades and shows where we have made progress, where we have lost ground, and where we have been treading water.
It's not a comprehensive history of First and Second Amendment matters . It's selective and personal and quite funny at times, Of course there are new contested issues coming up practically every day.
[Disclaimer: the author and yours truly both graduated from Georgetown University]
.

If reading isn't your choice to process information, you can listen to an hour discussion about this on National Public Radio's Diane Rohm Show that was broadcast on October 28, 2015
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2015-10-28/rev-barry-lynn-god-and-government



For information about religious exemption from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act ENDA, readers can go here >> http://www.civilrights.org/lgbt/enda/religious-exemption.html


George Washington the new American Republic would give "to bigotry, no sanction".

Is Your Medical Data Safe + Secure ?? Hackers + Open Data



ProPublica came out today with three reports: got enof to worry about??
Policing Patient Privacy
Few Consequences For Health Privacy Law’s Repeat Offenders

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously.

The story was co-published with National Public Radio's Shots blog.Readers can hear and read the entire transcript by going to this link >> https://www.propublica.org/article/few-consequences-for-health-privacy-law-repeat-offenders

Few Consequences For Health Privacy Law’s Repeat Offenders

by Charles Ornstein and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously

Methodology: How We Analyzed Privacy Violation Data

by Charles Ornstein and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

ProPublica followed the paper trail to find out the health care facilities that repeatedly violated patient privacy laws. Find out how we did it.

HIPAA Helper

by Charles Ornstein, Mike Tigas and Annie Waldman
ProPublica, Today, 4 a.m.

Who is Revealing Your Private Medical Information

 

THE GOOD NEWS: You can explore the data

Sometimes, doctors and hospitals have financial relationships with health care manufacturing companies. These relationships can include money for research activities, gifts, speaking fees, meals, or travel. The Affordable Care Act requires CMS to collect information from applicable manufacturers and group purchasing organizations (GPOs) in order to report information about their financial relationships with physicians and hospitals.
Open Payments is the federally run program that collects the information about these financial relationships and makes it available to you. 
Here's the link for payments made to providers in Mesa
https://openpaymentsdata.cms.gov/search-physician?firstname=&lastname=&city=Mesa&state=AZ&zip=&country=&specialty=

 

 



Message from Mesa Chamber of Commerce > Pay-To-Hear The Mayor Talk

What State-of-Affairs in a democracy is this when the public is "invited" to pay $60.00 per person to hear Mayor John Giles give a talk about the State-of-the-City when he's employed and paid a salary by the voters and taxpayers?
... and still NO year-end review or performance evaluation of what he's started and accomplished in the mayor's seat during the last few months. Give it to us in black-and-white, facts and figures.
Is this what works in Mesa?
Voters will be the judge in upcoming 2016 elections for public office, with those seeking to fill the office of public trust responsible for engaging the public, and being available, accountable and transparent to their constituents.

PSA : Happy [ + Safe ] Holidays from Valley Metro

Give those overworked Reindeer a much-deserved rest after making millions of stops . . . and if you're making on-the-ground local travel plans for New Year's Eve, take up a very generous offer from Valley Metro and Coors for safe alternative transportation.

Freeze the Keys on New Year’s Eve PHOENIX (December 15, 2015) – Coors Light® is teaming up with Valley Metro to bring Coors Light Free Rides® back to the Phoenix community on New Year’s Eve. In partnership with Crescent Crown Distributing, Coors Light will provide Free Rides on all Valley Metro bus and light rail routes Thursday, December 31, beginning at 7 p.m. through the end of regular service
 - See more at: http://www.valleymetro.org/pressreleases/detail/freeze-the-keys-on-new-years-eve1#sthash.dDJfIMDc.dpuf

Dark Money And/Or Dark Politics In Mesa? > Shine A Little Light On That Subject, Please

[Harvard Political Review]

Article just out in Harvard Political Review

When All Politics is No Longer Local
December 28, 2015 by Caroline Turvo 4:34 p.m.
 
Ex-Mayor Scott Smith, the subject of a post here on 12 August headlined "Mr.Smith Goes to Harvard", apparently hasn't moved on from his stinging defeat aspiring to become governor of the State of Arizona, getting endorsed by the unpopular Jan Brewer, losing out big time to fellow-Republican Doug Ducey, and handing the Mesa mayor's seat to his hand-picked successor John Giles.



Even though now out-of-office, Scott Smith continues to meddle in state politics trashing the funding for Ducey's successful gubernatorial campaign, and exerting his influence in local politics for the upcoming 2016 Mesa City Council election cycle where he and Giles recruited a fellow Mormon to replace retiring Councilmember and Vice-Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh, with both coming out to endorse their hand-picked candidate - Jerry Lewis - on the same day he made the announcement to run . . . anybody else smell the stinky aroma of the Good 'Ole Boys Crony Political Machine here?

Back to Smith's grumbling for whatever agenda he's holding onto while at Harvard University whose motto is Lux et VERITAS : Light and Truth, even though he's getting into allegations of "dark money" for outside money distorting local politics.
Readers can take the time to read the entire HPR article by going to this link for details >> http://harvardpolitics.com/online/politics-longer-local-independent-expenditures-rising-costs-municipal-campaigns/

The effect of outside money from non-profits and tax-exempt religious organizations in state politics is even more staggering.[Read Caroline Turvo's article in the link provided above].

Nowhere, however, in the article is mentioned the "dark money" that got funneled into California from out-of-state by the Mormon Church for support in 2008 of  Proposition 8 opposing same-sex marriage that sparked heated debate and protest by gay-rights organizations and others. The Supreme Court was asked to clarify the issue and did so, citing the Equal Protection Clause in the U.S. Constitution granting the rights of all protected classes by the enforcement of law.
That is now the law of the land, including Arizona and the City of Mesa.
According to basic tenets the LDS Church will take no partisan role in politics, stating that it will not "endorse, promote or oppose political parties, candidates or platforms; allow its church buildings, membership lists or other resources to be used for partisan political purposes; attempt to direct its members as to which candidate or party they should give their votes to ... or attempt to direct or dictate to a government leader."
How this operates in-practice here in Mesa remains to get looked at and seen with the rising wave of diversity and demographics here, where 80% of the City Council is controlled by 14% of the population.
Mark Twain has this to say about religion:

Reader comments are invited.

2015 = A Great Year for Cultural Coalition

The Cultural Coalition, Inc. fosters community engagement and provides unique cultural programs and processes dedicated to the promotion, education, and development of Indo-Latino arts and artists in Arizona.
Their programmatic activities aim to promote, educate and develop Indo-Latino Arts programs and artists in the Phoenix area, simultaneously preserving, producing, and presenting a culturally significant and rich tradition

The community-based organization believes that supporting our local Native and Latino Artists is an imperative goal.
Artists are the visionaries and communicators of contemporary issues; it is vital to continue telling stories and utilizing the arts as a way to reach new audiences beyond commercial exploitation. They have created an extensive roster of community artists, visual and performing, who are passionate about their crafts and dedicated  to keeping our cultural identity alive in our communities..

Events and performances are the anchor of an educational component which is made available to all the schools in our community. We are focused on offering performances at various Title I schools, as well as community centers. We believe that it is essential to bring theater out of the traditional theater sites and into spaces such as schools and community centers, where family and children with low income resources can have an opportunity to enjoy the arts.

Cultural Coalition is committed to serving the youth in our communities in order to offer educational and cultural performances to Title I schools in the area . . . Your support is most welcome.

CULTURAL COALITION 1202 N. 3rd Street, Suite 101A
Phoenix, AZ 85004
http://culturalcoalition.com/




For information on booking performances or general inquiries please contact:
CARMEN GUERRERO, Executive Director
carmen@culturalcoalition.com
(480)834-5731
Click here to get Cultural Coalition updates:Newsletter Sign-up

Cultural Coalition is Generously Supported By

Hey! Need An Intelligent Personal Assistant?

Google had the first well-received intelligent assistant app with Google Now, but Facebook turned a lot of heads with its flashy AI-powered and human-"trained" Messenger chatbot, M.
Google has raised the stakes with its significant investment in Now and AI technology and will go to war in 2016 against Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and a whole industry that's increasingly obsessed with more "intelligent" software. Go to >> this article today

Way over my simple low-tech head, but here's a 2016 forecast from Re/code Daily for the good geeks out in this world:
Apple is paying more attention to Siri, building its capabilities alongside an intelligence layer, Proactive Assistant, akin to Google Now, and featuring it inside Apple TV. Siri has largely languished and Apple may be handicapped by its decision not to tap personal cloud data fully. Still, Siri could benefit from Apple’s usual advantage: An ability to keep iPhone owners locked in its world.
Microsoft’s Cortana is going up against Now, too. Another threat could come from Facebook, which plans to roll out its virtual assistant tool, M, inside its wildly popular Messenger app. (The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is cooking up a new messaging app that competes with Messenger and the M service. Google isn’t commenting.)
Next year, Google’s personal assistant will also elbow for room on the big platforms after smartphones, particularly the smart home and connected car. Here, Google has a tech edge over traditional manufacturers (the appliance and carmakers), but will need to outmatch Apple, with its home and car software hubs, and Amazon, with its Echo product.
Finally, there are a few startups that blossomed this year, like SoundHound and MindMeld, moving into the intelligence terrain. They feel they can outsmart the tech giants and, perhaps as critically, circumvent them.
MindMeld, which creates speech interaction tools for developers, recently inked a deal with Now partner Spotify. While Now users can conduct voice searches on Spotify, the MindMeld deal allows the streaming app to better tailor its voice experiences without moving through a looming middle man, said Tim Tuttle, the startup’s CEO.

This One's 4 U "Red" > Honoring American War Hero D J Iberling

Image from Janice Dell

We Do Care, "Red" !!
A story about compassion and honoring a World War II American Hero hardly got on the local news radar screen.
It happened yesterday on the tarmac at the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Falcon Field when Boeing B17 Flying Fortress Radioman DJ Iberling climbed aboard history once again - after 70 years - for a sentimental journey.
[see previous post on December 24]
It's a personal human-interest story, not publicized or promoted by press releases hoping to score political points.
The story started a long time ago with a happy new chapter added in the life of one air force veteran to up-date his mission memories of the 398th Bombardment Group 602 Squadron that flew 198 missions over Germany from May 1944 - April 1945.

Let's first step back in time to June of last year, when the sacrifices of US airmen in World War II were recognised in a memorial service at a pub which stands near the site of the now defunct RAF Nuthampstead.
D J Iberling is shown standing left of center in this image
Read more: http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/American-war-heroes-honoured-Nuthampstead-remembrance/story-21992552-detail/story.html#ixzz3vcIVzGiA From April 1944 until the end of the conflict the base was home to the 398th Bombardment Group who flew the iconic B-17 Flying Fortresses.
The 398th lost 70 aircraft and 296 airmen, including their first commanding officer, Colonel Frank Hunter.
A further 298 airmen were shot down and captured by the Germans during the war. "Red" Iberling survived the war. He is the only one in his squadron not deceased and had a distinguished law career. His dear and loving wife Mary passed away last year after contracting pneumonia from the rainy weather at the remembrance in England last year.

Image from Janice Dell

Fortunately, Falcon Field here in Mesa is far from defunct.
It's a valuable large tract of real estate, mostly city-owned, for both establishing an historic district and promoting economic development - industrial, commercial, high-tech, defense, education and residential.
One of two former airmen-training bases started here in the 1940's that have morphed into Aerotropolis - drivers of the local economy and accelerating investment for future smart growth.
At the same time it's good to know that both Airbase Arizona in the Commemorative Air Force Museum and the Falcon Field District join in generosity for the remembrance and honor of one particular war hero, D J Iberling who climbed aboard history once again.
Turns out, "Red", that quite a lot of people do care.

Related posts on this site: May 8, November 11 and 29

Related post on City of Mesa Newsroom 12 December 2015
City celebrates Falcon Field Airport terminal building renovation
http://www.mesaaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/733/

For more information about the terminal ribbon-cutting or other improvement projects, call 480-644-2450 or email Airport.Info@mesaaz.gov.
Contact: Dee Anne Thomas
Marketing/Communications Specialist II
480-644-4233
Dee.Anne.Thomas@mesaaz.gov   

-30-

What Works? >> Open Data from Bloomberg Business: 2015 In Graphics

Image from Bloomberg Business

 

 



Still on hold and pausing for a year-end Wrap-Up from Mesa City Hall . . . inquiring minds might wonder what the head of the  Newsroom for the City of Mesa is doing to earn his $140,000+ annual salary. Any reports to the public in the works from Mayor, City Council, or department heads??

2015 in Graphics

December 18, 2015

Favorite work of the year — so far
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-in-graphics/

Image from Bloomberg Business

An interactive visualization. 411 at your fingertips.
For example, just one item:
STEM jobs, with a few surprises.

The Unlikely Cities That Will Power The U.S. Economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-stem-jobs/

The City of Mesa Newsroom made a big deal about getting to join WhatWorksCities back in August, swearing to engage the public, providing open data, and being transparent and accountable ... how's that working out?

Anyone who reads this post and wants to join the conversation on Twitter you can go here >> https://twitter.com/WhatWorksCities