Dear Editor:

Dear Editor:

In November, 37,000 Arizonans lost their jobs - a monthly record since the Arizona Department of Economic Security started compiling this number in 1971. Our unemployment rate stands at 6.1 percent and seems destined to increase. Arizona faces a number of challenges, including a budget deficit that as a percentage of our general fund is the worst in the nation. Still, far and away the most pressing challenge is getting Arizona's jobs machine back on track. A few years ago Arizona was creating more jobs than almost all other states. Now we are close to the very bottom.

Public safety may be the only Gilbert service safe from budget cuts next year. The Gilbert Town Council is set to hold two special meetings, beginning with the first one Thursday, to decide where to cut town services and possibly increase sales taxes to fill an anticipated $58 million budget gap over the next five years.

Twenty-two schools in the Mesa Unified School District are running at 80 percent student capacity or less. Seven schools each have more than $3 million in repairs needed in the next five years. The district’s enrollment has dropped by more than 6,000 students in the last eight years, and its budget has been chopped by at least $60 million in the last two.

Tribune writer Gary Grado recently recounted a harrowing hour at a Maricopa County jail in which a kidnapping suspect was repeatedly beaten by four fellow inmates while awaiting a court hearing.

Dulce Juarez rubbed a dab of thick, blue cream on her hands. "Wow! That feels so good," she said. She felt even better when she learned the body cream, sold by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, is made from plants rather than petroleum.

Gov. Janet Napolitano bowed to the wishes of child-welfare advocates Wednesday and vetoed a bill that would have continued Arizona’s experiment with jury trials for parents who face losing custody of their children forever.

A Mesa nonprofit group is working to open a center for day laborers in the city without any government funding.

Recently, I attended the AANP (American Association of Naturopathic Physicians) Convention, which was here in Phoenix at the Biltmore Resort.

Recently, I attended the AANP (American Association of Naturopathic Physicians) Convention, which was here in Phoenix at the Biltmore Resort.

Unfunded mandates from any level of government are distasteful, pointless and typically seem to be driven by a need to grandstand rather than seeking a viable solution to a problem.

If we live in the digital age, why do we still have so much clutter?

Next week the Scottsdale Unified School District governing board will consider language for a bond election to renovate and rebuild aging high schools it will likely hold in November.

Here we go again. In 2010, desperate Americans returned control of the U.S. House back to Republicans hoping that they would do the heavy lifting necessary to avoid our looming fiscal meltdown.

Here we go again. In 2010, desperate Americans returned control of the U.S. House back to Republicans hoping that they would do the heavy lifting necessary to avoid our looming fiscal meltdown.

When will we learn that expensive, politically easy reforms to fix our failing schools just don't get the job done?

Are you where you want to be with your career, home life, health and relationships?

They’ve marched. They’ve boycotted. Now, a local coalition of pastors decided it’s time for Latino immigrants to engage in a new kind of peaceful protest.

Justin Beck and Chad Swensen are on a mission: To do away with the user name and password. Beck and Swensen, both 34, are co-founders of Sweet Spot Solutions, a Mesa-based company that has designed a device called the S3 key.

Fiscal conservatives in Arizona are in shock. After six years of watching Gov. Janet Napolitano’s fiscal mismanagement drive our state to the brink of disaster, there was hope for relief earlier this year.

The combative negotiations between Gilbert officials and county island residents are finally nearing an end, with the island residents possibly coming in with a stronger hand.

PHOENIX - Alex Cintron's early assessment of San Francisco starter Brett Tomko said it all. "My first at-bat . . . wow,'' said Cintron, who saw Tomko hit 95 mph on the radar gun the first time through the order as he retired 11 straight.