INFOGRAPHICS Say & Tell So Much

Our Favorite Infographics Of 2016 Are A Crash Course In How The World Works

Here's just one in the accompanying image above where tall  buildings represent the wealthy; short ones represent the poor. What's missing? The middle class
In addition to the problems of income inequality and the shrinking middle class, these 10 infographics—our favorites that we wrote about in 2016—also explain our energy, financial, and shipping systems, the global population boom, our diets, and when your job will be taken by a robot. Couple those with a series of maps that will reframe how you think about geopolitics and you have the start of an understanding of the world we are living in today: interconnected, increasingly automated, and full of vast inequities. Please absorb them well and get ready for 2017.
See all 10 right here

Website: https://www.fastcoexist.com/

QUAKE WATCH >> Large Plasma Cloud Around The Sun

Very Intense
Published on December 22, 2016
Views: 32,792

Mesa Regional Dispatch Center and Emergency Operations Center Dedication

John Pombier on-air
a little nervous with the guys standing behind them.
The entire Mesa City Council and two newly-elected future members.
Three regional mayors and the whole Fire/Medical gang out in force
Published December 22, 2016
Views: 6

Sting Like A Scorpion

First Production Conforming Scorpion Jet Completes Successful First Flight
NEWS RELEASE December 22, 2016
Gotta wonder why the City of Mesa needs to grant leasing "incentives" to Able Engineering/Textron

December 22, 2016

8-K/A

Amended Current report filing

http://investor.textron.com/investors/financial-reports/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/default.aspx?FilingId=11749050

Download this Press Release () WICHITA, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Textron AirLand, LLC, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, today announced the successful maiden flight of the first production conforming Scorpion jet. This program milestone closely follows the recent successful weapons capability exercise on the prototype Scorpion completed in early October. The Scorpion jet is a bold new direction for tactical aircraft designed to excel in roles ranging from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to close air support and armed reconnaissance.    

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161222005839/en/

About Textron AirLand, LLC
Textron AirLand has developed, in the Scorpion, a highly affordable and exportable twin-engine ISR/Strike/Trainer jet for the tactical military aviation market. A versatile jet platform based on commercial best practices and proven high technologies, Scorpion is designed as a multi-mission aircraft for diverse battlefield, security and training missions. More information about our initial aircraft is available at www.ScorpionJet.com.
About Textron Inc.
Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna, Beechcraft, Hawker, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, Greenlee, Bad Boy Off Road, Textron Systems, and TRU Simulation + Training. For more information visit: www.Textron.com. - See more at: http://investor.textron.com/news/news-releases/press-release-details/2016/First-Production-Conforming-Scorpion-Jet-Completes-Successful-First-Flight/default.aspx#sthash.0Mr1zyuF.dpuf
 

ABOVE MARKET VALUE: High Demand Created by Cannabis Companies

Investors are betting legal weed is going to be a boon for industrial spaces.

by Polly Mosendz @PollyMore stories by Polly Mosendz and

Patrick Clark @pat_clarkMore stories by Patrick Clark

‎30‎ ‎November‎, ‎2016‎ ‎6‎:‎00‎ ‎AM

Opportunity knockin' here in Mesa? ...mebbe if there is less regulation. And remember that loose regulatory environment in Arizona - could be an issue of states' rights too >>> Open for Innovation or what?  

In the Portland area, most companies can rent industrial space for about $5 a square foot annually. Cannabis companies, however, pay a premium ranging from $12 to $18 a square foot. 

"We were willing to pay above market value to have a space there," Abbott said. "I see the biggest barrier to entry in Oregon as getting real estate." . . .

The short history of legalized marijuana in the U.S. is rife with tales of tight supply and above-market leases. Local rules on where cannabis businesses can operate, combined with restrictions that prevent them from using bank financing, have limited the property available to entrepreneurs such as Abbott. Warehouse owners, on the other hand, are cashing in.  In November, voters approved ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and tentatively, Maine.

A handful of other states approved marijuana for medical uses.

It didn’t take long for those votes to ripple through industrial real estate markets. Last year, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based cultivator Canndescent paid $360,000 for a 2.5-acre parcel in Desert Hot Springs. Someone recently offered the company $1 million for the same lot, owner Adrian Sedrin said.

A comparable rush could shortly be under way in Maine, where the state is currently recounting votes after a recreational marijuana ballot measure narrowly passed.

There are good reasons for landlords to charge growers a premium. They must be willing to take on the increased security and neighborhood scrutiny that comes with leasing to a cannabis business. There's a hodgepodge of rules governing where cannabis operations can be located. Growers require high-end power, water, and HVAC systems. And while non-cannabis tenants can rent from just about anyone, cannabis tenants are typically forced to rent from landlords who own their buildings outright. Landlords who finance their buildings through a federally insured bank could be in legally murky water if they choose to rent to a cannabis tenant because the plant is still illegal under federal law. As a result, landlords demand higher rent from a cannabis venture than from, say, a paper company. 
The short supply of viable real estate has been a boon for investors who can pay cash and tolerate the risk. In Oregon, all-cash investors rushed into buy 10,000- to 30,000-square-foot buildings in 2014, Brooks said, with the plan of renting them to cannabis companies upon legalization. Investors did the same in Colorado, said Paul Kluck, first vice president at CBRE, where growers paid up to 10 times the going market rate for first-rate industrial spaces.
The scarcity of space has led some marijuana businesses to plow profits back into real estate, said Amanda Gonzalez, chief executive officer of Kaya Cannabis in Denver. "Owning your real estate is crucial," she said. "I think it's more crucial because the laws change so frequently. You feel particularly vulnerable."
The National Cannabis Industry Association quickly issued a statement reminding Sessions that while he is anti marijuana, he is pro states rights.
National Cannabis Industry Association go here >> http://thecannabisindustry.org/

Advocacy. Education. Community.

---

NCIA is the only national trade association advancing the interests of the legitimate and responsible cannabis industry. Our industry supports tens of thousands of jobs, tens of millions in tax revenue, and billions in economic activity in the United States. NCIA is leading the unified and coordinated campaign to ensure this emerging sector is treated fairly under federal law.

Excerpts of some text copy  from Bloomberg

Wondering What's Next Mesa? Mayor Giles To Give State-Of-The-City 2017 Speech

Last year's SOTC16 will be a hard act to follow with Mesa voters rejecting a sales transaction tax increase Giles and his friends - called the FOG on this blogsite - who hoped to sell to the public a radical transformation of The New Urban Downtown Mesa with a privately-financed $500,000 public relations campaign that turned into a major screw-up.
Let's hope John Giles has stopped making strange under-handed hand gestures with costumed characters for this one!

Mark your calendars for 2017 State of the City Breakfast on Jan. 31!
As usual in nearly all his statements the mayor starts off like this on Facebook
 I'm excited to celebrate our successes and show that #Mesa is an innovative community where businesses and families thrive.
The breakfast is hosted by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce and tickets can be purchased at www.mesachamber.org.
The full program will run on Mesa Channel 11 and be available to watch online at www.mesa11.com. #NextMesa 

 

Affordable Housing Industry’s Top 10 Stories of 2016

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCE

The Affordable Housing Industry’s Top 10 Stories of 2016

AHF, with help from industry leaders, counts down the top news events.

By Christine Serlin 

Although different news surrounding the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC), which marked its 30^th anniversary in October, dominated the headlines for much of 2016, the presidential election and its subsequent waves have had the industry abuzz for the past six weeks.
Affordable Housing Finance, with help from its Editorial Advisory Board members, takes a look at 10 notable events for the industry from the past year -here's just one
Read entire list of Top 10 >> here

4. The 30th Anniversary of the LIHTC Program

This year marks the 30^th anniversary of the LIHTC program, which was established as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 under president Ronald Reagan. Over the past three decades, it has become the most successful federal program ever for the production and preservation of affordable housing, financing more than 2.9 million units and providing 6.7 million low-income households with homes they can afford across the nation.

“Rarely has a program been so well designed and implemented to produce such superior results that support and implement the objectives of local and state housing leaders at such minimal cost in federal oversight. It is, in essence, self-regulating,” says Conrad Egan, a senior advisor at the Affordable Housing Institute.
Bart Mitchell, president and CEO of The Community Builders, agrees.
“The LIHTC reached year 30 with much more consistent quality of housing and ongoing local support than any previous U.S. housing program. Private underwriting works. Moderate-income families and seniors in every congressional district in the United States have benefitted from the stability and health benefits of living in better quality housing. Recent studies have shown that adjacent property values have mostly increased when LIHTC housing is built,” he says