REVEALED: NEW STEALTH BOMBER PLANS FROM GERMANY || WARTHOG 2017

Following the American lead

Published on May 2, 2017

Views: 3,692

Germany hopes to develop a new strike aircraft to replace its aging Panavia Tornado bombers. Berlin expects to hold preliminary discussions with its European partners about the nascent project in 2016, according to a report from Reuters.

According to a draft German defense ministry document obtained by the newswire, it is not clear if the new warplane would be manned, unmanned or optionally manned. However, according to the Reuters report, an optionally manned aircraft is a distinct possibility. But what is clear is that Berlin views the project as a collaborative European effort similar to the Eurofighter Typhoon or the Tornado before it.

You Have Been Warned >The Surveillance State

Techdirt Podcast Episode 120: The Surveillance State

Relax and take the time 1:10:57 

LISTEN BY GOING TO THIS LINK > https://www.techdirt.com/blog/podcast/articles/20170502/12491237290/techdirt-podcast-episode-120-surveillance-state.shtml

In the post-Snowden era, we don't have to tell you how important it is to stay engaged with (and vigilant about) the surveillance state in America. Jennifer Granick is the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and author of the new book American Spies — and this week she joins us for an in-depth discussion about the surveillance state today. Of course, shortly after we recorded this podcast, the NSA made major changes to one of its surveillance programs, so Jennifer returned to record an addendum examining this latest news, so make sure you listen to the end!

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via iTunes or Google Play, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

 

Today's Monthly Meeting: City of Mesa Economic Development Advisory Board

Today's meeting started promptly at 7:30 a.m. with a few empty seats but nonetheless promptly got into the board business that was at-hand with Jaye O'Donnell, shown far left, sitting in for Economic Development Director Bill Jabjiniak. In the middle is Chairman Jeff Pritchett and three other voting members appointed to the Board. Two ex-officio and non-voting members were present on the other side.

Overcoming a hesitancy to speak in public, yours truly did take the opportunity to express some comments and make observations about the glaring lack of public participation in governance of the City of Mesa, as well issues about the official role of city planners and private developer interests in the regeneration of New Urban Downtown Mesa. While the chairman of the board did acknowledge and express appreciation, there was no follow-up by members who were present today, or by Jeff McVay for Item 6 on this meeting's agenda: 
Downtown Mesa Development Update.
Since the published agendas for EDAB meetings rarely, if ever, include the links to the presentations or updates scheduled beforehand, it is difficult or nearly impossible to have the information the public needs when items on economic development are considered at this level of open public meetings.

Item 4. Achieve 60AZ- Education Advances Everyone   Christine Thompson   

The presentation for Item 4 was excellent, highlighting some workforce and higher education issues prevalent throughout both the State of Arizona and the City of Mesa that have impacts not only the culture and quality of life but also for raising standards and improvement strategies for workforce development and economic development.

For more details Go to this link >> http://achieve60az.com/

Item 5. Mesa Red Mountain High School– Bioscience Program  Katy Gazda
An upbeat and notable presence of three outstanding high school students to highlight what can be done on the secondary school level. It elicited and excited high praise from nearly every EDAB member, among them Mike Likens, Deb Duvall, Jeff Pritchard and the two GPEC members.
 

Item 6. Downtown Mesa Development Update   
Jeff McVay
A somewhat 15-minute rushed presentation going through some of the projects in-the-works or in-progress or in-talks for Downtown Transformation.
For more information please go to
Website for the City of Mesa


Meeting Agenda
1. Chair’s Call to Order       Jeff Pitcher
2. Items from Citizens Present
3. Approval of Minutes from April 4, 2017 meeting   Action Item
4. Achieve 60AZ- Education Advances Everyone   Christine Thompson
5. Mesa Red Mountain High School– Bioscience Program  Katy Gazda
6. Downtown Mesa Development Update    Jeff McVay
7. Discuss and take action on a formal recommendation 
    Jeff Pitcher/Lori Gary      regarding the Falcon Tech Center.
8. Director’s Update       Jaye O'Donnell
9. Other Business
Next EDAB Meeting- June 6th  

Meet Blaise Caudill: Outstanding Graduate in Public Service

. . . and as noted on this blog site back on February 28, 2017 on a post on three new faces elected to the Mesa City Council, he's been the council assistant to District 2 Mesa City Council member Jeremy Whittaker for a few months already ahead of Caudill's getting named as Outstanding Spring Graduate 2017 in the article quoted from here.
It's refreshing to have a qualified and talented individual with high achievement standards join the workforce here.
Service to local government and community motivates School of Public Affairs Outstanding Graduate
Taken from ASU Now . Written by Bryce Newberry, contributing writer 
If there’s a checklist for a career in public service, Blaise Caudill has all the boxes marked with three asterisks next to his name.
Caudill is an exemplary graduate student with a 4.0 GPA. He has considerable experience working on local government issues as a student and an intern. He’s active as a leader in student and community organizations. And he brings a level of enthusiasm that separates him for his peers.

That’s why the School of Public Affairs, in the College of Public Service and Community Solutions in downtown Phoenix, has named Caudill the spring 2017 outstanding graduate.
While pursuing a master’s degree in public administration, Caudill volunteered as student chapter president of the International City/County Management Association and served as a management intern for the city of Goodyear. He was also one of a handful of students selected each year to serve as a Marvin Andrews Fellows, a program designed to train the next generation of municipal leaders. The fellowship included working as a paid research and management intern for the Alliance for Innovation.

George Pettit isn’t surprised. As director of the Marvin Andrews Fellowship in Urban Management, he said what sets Caudill apart from others is his energy and passion to make a difference.“It’s just a desire to serve and listen to others in order to make government responsive,” Pettit said.[Caudill @ left representing millennials on an ACMA panel discussion]Caudill credits his mother, who as a single parent and school teacher, instilled the value of public service and education. His mom pushed Caudill and his siblings to earn their college degrees. As an undergraduate student majoring in international relations and affairs at Northern Arizona University, Caudill was heavily involved in school and community organizations and was recognized with the President’s Prize, the highest recognition awarded to graduating students. Caudill has continued his legacy of involvement at ASU. He serves on the national board of governors for the Human Rights Campaign, the world's largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.Blaine Caudill was also featured in this YouTube video, seen on the center-right

 “As part of my service to ensure equal protections for all people, I connect Arizonans with opportunities to volunteer with the organization and provide the tools and training necessary for volunteers to feel prepared and a part of a larger movement,” Caudill said.The Tucson native considers graduate school much like a dress rehearsal for his career. And a successful one at that. After graduation, he will begin his professional career as an assistant to Mesa city councilman Jeremy Whittaker.  “I know my studies and the connections I made through ASU and the School of Public Affairs provided me with the tools I will need to succeed in my new position with the city of Mesa,” he said. “I love Arizona — we are one of the most diverse, beautiful, and unique states in the nation. I am looking forward to serving our Arizona community in any way that I can.” 
ASU Now Editor’s note: This is part of a series of profiles for spring 2017 commencement. See more graduates here.

Wake Up Mesa! You Elected Kelly Townsend To State Office???

It's hard to believe that a woman like this [or a guy named David Farnsworth] could both be so out-of-touch with supporting equal rights for women.
Yours truly published a post on this glaring topic back on April 28 asking what year is this forty-five years after the Equal Rights Amendment was passed by Congress in 1972.

WELCOME TO THE TWILIGHT ZONE

Link : MesaZona

When in doubt - or just can't do it - AZ House takes a recess!

Quotes included from East Valley Repubs Townsend and Farnsworth. Believe It or Not!

Kelly Townsend is a member of the Arizona House of Representatives representing District 16 since January 14, 2013.

Yesterday reporter Antonia Noori Farzan in Phoenix New Times published this and included the featured image above

Arizona Still Hasn't Ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, Because Republicans Took a Lunch Break Instead

[Speaker of the House J.D. Mesnard and House Whip Kelly Townsend argue against equal rights for women]

In the year 2017, you would think that saying that women should have equal rights would be a fairly nonpartisan, uncontroversial statement.

Not in the Arizona legislature, apparently. For more than 50 years now, Arizona has failed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, stating that all citizens have equal rights regardless of their gender. And on Thursday, House Republicans chose to take a lunch break rather than debate the Democrat-backed bill, which means that it's effectively dead. . .
Powers Hannley requested a vote on the bill, which she described as "a simple, one-statement sentence."
(Here's that sentence, by the way: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.")
A bunch of white dudes in suits — who knows which ones, they all look the same — huddled together nervously for a few minutes and tried to figure out what to do. After a few minutes of consultation, Mesnard motioned for the House to recess, which is legislative speak for "Let's talk about this later, and by later, I mean never."
His fellow Republicans followed his lead and voted to recess. Then Representative Bob Thorpe, a Tea Partier from Flagstaff best known for hanging out with Cliven Bundy and making questionable comments about black people, got up to talk about why the legislature shouldn't discuss the Equal Rights Amendment.
"Let me explain the constitutional issues," he began. We can only assume that, at this point, every single female legislator in the room died inside a little bit. . .
At the very end, though, Mesa Rep. Kelly Townsend got up and ... sort of explained why she was voting to recess? Basically, she thinks that telling businesses what to do is bad, but also thinks that discrimination is bad. She mostly sounded confused, and hungry.
"I don’t know that this is necessarily a party issue on its surface, but I do need to learn more about what is in this Equal Rights Amendment before I decide to support it or not support it," she said. (Again,  it is literally one sentence.)
"And lastly, I’d like to say to the other members … I don’t appreciate this being sprung on us at lunchtime. I would have loved to have had time to discuss this with you guys, and for you to have the opportunity to educate me on this, but I think this is not the right time."
With that, House Speaker Mesnard wrapped things up, insisting that the Republican majority's decision to take a recess wasn't a necessarily a vote against equal rights.

Read more >> Phoenix New Times

Spotlight: City Contracts for Off-Duty Police

Mesa PD investigates problems with pay, allegations of collusion

Posted: May 01, 2017 11:28 PM Updated: May 01, 2017 11:43 PM

By Derek Stahl
MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) The City of Mesa is investigating allegations of misconduct and collusion surrounding its police department. The allegations stem from the selection of a vendor that has struggled to pay police officers for off-duty work in uniform.

Three Valley business owners filed a formal complaint with the city last week raising questions about the selection of Extra Duty, LLC. The complaint alleges the owner of Extra Duty, Anthony Rojas, “conspired” with an assistant police chief to secure the contract even though Rojas lacked proper licensing, insurance and financial backing.
Read more >> Derek Stahl's Report in AZ Family

A Downright Boom in Announcements for Jobs & Economic Developments

According to an article yesterday and fifteen months of media blasts, there's been 'robust' growth in both jobs and population here in Maricopa County and the Phoenix Metro Statistical Area.  
Report: Phoenix multifamily market marks stellar first quarter

Posted May 1, 2017 by Thomas Brophy

AZ Big Media 

The Phoenix metropolitan statistical area (MSA) multifamily market had another stellar first quarter fueled by both robust jobs and population growth. In fact, Maricopa overtook Texas’ Harris County as top spot for population growth adding 81,000 people, an average of 222 new residents per day, between July 1, 2105 to July 1, 2016.

Total nonfarm employment grew by 2.7 percent led by the leisure/hospitality (+6.2 percent), financial activities (+6.1 percent), and education/ health services (+2.9 percent) industries.
Major job/economic announcements for Phoenix such as Intel’s plans to invest $7 billion into its Chandler manufacturing plant and hire 3,000+ over the next several years have been announced in recent months. Other 2016 thru First Quarter announcements include: JPMorgan Chase’s plan to build a new regional office hub at Tempe’s Discovery Business Campus which will house up to 4,000 employees, ADP’s new Tempe office to bring 1,500 jobs, Santander Consumer USA’s regional operations center in Mesa’s Fiesta District set to bring 1,000+ jobs, Orbital ATK’s Chandler expansion with 500 new jobs, Clearlink’s expansion into Downtown Scottsdale with 500+ jobs, Rogers Corp (NYSE: ROG) global HQ move to Chandler and Kudelski Group’s international HQ move to Phoenix just to name a few.

Although Phoenix’s emergence from the Great Recession took longer than most expected, beginning in the latter half of 2015 through YTD, Phoenix has experienced a downright boom in job and economic development announcements.
At the end of 2016, according to WalletHub’s analysis of the 150 biggest cities in the country, five (5) Phoenix MSA cities cracked the Top 20 of best places to find a job: Scottsdale (No. 1), Chandler, (No. 7), Tempe (No. 9), Peoria (No. 11) and Gilbert (No. 18).

Phoenix Market Metrics: Got Sales?

The MSA’s total sales volume (10+ unit properties) increased 28 percent, year-over-year, to $780.87 million across 74 transactions representing 7,908 total units sold.
California-based investors continue to be the dominant buyer of multifamily properties in the Valley accounting for 31 percent of total units transacted or 2,486 units,
Arizona-based investors came in 2nd with a little over 1,000 units purchased and, rounding out the top five:
#3 Utah-investors with 976 units purchase,
#4 Canadian investors with 874 units and
#5 New York-based investors with 772 units.

Sales of 100+ unit properties led the multifamily investment landscape increasing 35 percent year-over-year to $684.3 million with a marginal contraction in average price per unit amounts of approximately (7 percent) to $101,789.
Whereas 100+ unit properties saw sales volume increase and price per unit amounts decrease, 10 to 99 unit properties saw its volume dip (6 percent) to $96.5 million with a surge of 34 percent in average price per unit amounts to $81,472.
Reason for the average price per unit increase stems, in large part, to smaller, extensively repositioned properties coming back online for sale.

How Does Development Type Affect Deliveries?

As with much of the country, Phoenix area construction deliveries continued to increase rising 37 percent to 1,794 units delivered.
As a result of increased deliveries, particularly in the Mid-to-High Rise building type category, resulted in an Occupancy Rate contraction of (0.7 percent) to 94.9 percent.
As noted in our August 11, 2016, ABInsight article, “Phoenix Rising from the Garden-Style Apartment Community,” Phoenix is in the middle of a development type maturation, from one primarily focused on Garden-style to one more dominated by Mid-to-High Rise developments.
For context, at the end of 2015, the Phoenix Metro was home to 29 Mid-to-High Rise developments accounting for 7,062 units.
By the end of 2016, that increased to a total of 42 developments representing 10,057 units which is a 42 percent year-over-year increase.
Of the projects currently under construction (50+ units in size, with delivery through 2019/20), the Mid-to-High Rise category is set to nearly double with the addition of 37 projects or 10,216 units.
Phoenix’s trailing 5-year unit delivery rate average had been trending in the 30 to 40 units per month per project through early-2016 which was nearly 70 percent below peak, pre-Great Recession delivery amount of 120 to 150 units per month.
However, as taller projects have hit the market average delivery rate has increased almost 100 percent to approximately 70 units per month.
The net result of increasing delivery levels led to the contraction in occupancy seen at the end of 1Q 2017. Despite the slight occupancy contraction, average rent for the MSA increased 5.6 percent to $977.
Going forward, it should be expected that the average delivery rate of units will increase towards the 90 to 110 units per month per project range which should have a corresponding impact on occupancy rates and concession amount offered by developers.
Nonetheless, Phoenix area developments averaged a lease rate of 17 units per property per month, a 30 percent year-over-year increase, by end of 1Q 2017.
Although Phoenix saw an increase of 15 percent in the amount of units under construction, ‘Planned’ projects witnessed their largest five year contraction dropping some (27 percent) to its current 14,834 units.

The Road Ahead

It is unlikely the Fed will continue with its gradual interest rate increase in 2017 despite many economists predicting otherwise. Basis for this sentiment is rooted in weak preliminary First Quarter GDP which at 0.7 percent growth is the slowest in three years, significant instability in international markets, particularly Europe and Asia, and domestic policy struggles of the new Trump Administration. Despite stocks hitting all-time highs, based in large part on investors factoring in massive deregulation, markets the world over have been prone to ever increasing volatility fits.
As a result of high market volatility, and both ancillary observed evidence within our client base and Investment Company Institute’s Investment Company Fact Book publication, middle age-to-older market investors have been switching to a combination of passive ETF funds, a now decade-long trend, and purchasing a mix of closed-fund shares and/or direct investments in real estate to provide a more consistent return. This change in investor sentiment, ceteris paribus, will continue to propel real estate transactions, particularly multifamily, into the foreseeable future.
Phoenix multifamily’s greatest competitor, single-family home construction, although rebounding, is still far from normal. As was stated at the 2017 Belfiore Annual Housing Conference, and reiterated at the Infill Conference, home builders have been struggling with a whole host of issues from labor shortages, rising material costs and lack of available land, particularly in more urban core areas where people want to live.

Of particular note at the Belfiore Infill Conference was consensus among builders/developers/investors that the wave of Californians moving to Arizona has only just begun.
As Silicon Valley has increasingly morphed into the Silicon Desert, looking for qualified staff and more amendable business climate, it was only a matter of time before individuals started to march with their feet with Arizona, specifically Phoenix area, as their top destination. Despite significant headwinds, particularly those outside the MSA, and barring any Black Swan events, Phoenix multifamily should continue growing well into 2017/18.