notMYkid helps young people battle addiction and the effects of the pandemic It was just one pill. But it created one of the most heartbreaking tragedies imaginable.  Megan Macintosh’s 18-year-old son Chase went to see friends one night in January 2021. She didn’t fully understand the ramifications at the time, but Chase had started experimenting […]

GPEC and partners focus on expanding Arizona’s economic base When we think about economic development, we tend to think in terms of home runs. Landing a big new industry for the state. Luring a company from another market. Opening a new manufacturing facility or tech lab. The kind of stuff that makes for good headlines.  […]

Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona builds its first 3D-printed house in the U.S. In or around the year 1440, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. It was one of the tickets out of the Dark Ages for humanity, allowing for the mass production of books for the first time and enabling people to expand their […]

Creative aging programs help older adults engage and connect Youth is wasted on the young. It’s a quip with a variety of origin stories. Some have attributed it to George Bernard Shaw, some to Oscar Wilde. The gist of the saying, of course, is the notion that the best and most productive years of one’s […]

One year ago, I wrote a column about the work that the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) was doing to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything was big and scary at the time. But here we are today, with hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel. So, I thought it would be a good […]

Sheriff Paul Penzone wants to create a safe haven for animals while helping to reduce recidivism Here’s something you might have never thought about before — if someone commits a crime, what happens to their pets? It might seem like a random concern, but the answer might surprise you. In many cases, pets are part […]

Backpack Buddies project provides critical items for students in need It’s a school year like no other. Believe me, I know, as a parent of a freshman and a fourth-grader. But we don’t need to go into all that. There are some things that never change, and the need for students to be properly equipped […]

Copa Health rises to the needs of individuals with disabilities during the pandemic This whole pandemic thing has been hard on all of us. Everyone has their own version of the same burden we are all carrying. How do we care for our families? How do we have something even approaching a normal life? How […]

I  worry about things, and there’s a lot to worry about right now. So recently, it occurred to me to worry about small businesses. As the owners of a small business ourselves, the missus and I try to do everything we can to shop local, eat local and do all of those good things. When […]

The thing about big problems is that they’re big. You look at the big picture and all you see are barriers, things in the way that make individual impact seem impossible. I’m known to throw an old dad joke out that I use for inspiration from time to time. The joke is, “How do you […]