SEEKING BREWER'S 2012 AGENDA

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona Week Friday will feature our latest conversation with Gov. Jan Brewer., the fourth in a year's time.

We will ask the governor about her legislative agenda for the year, her spending and budgeting plans, what she thinks Child Protective Services needs to get better at what it does and other issues.

What questions should we ask of Brewer? Post your thoughts as comments with this blog, and we will try to work them into the conversation.

Then watch here later in the week for her responses, and watch Arizona Week Friday at 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD6 or at azweek.com for the complete interview.

MENTAL HEALTH HELP? NOT AFTER JAN. 8

posted by Michael Chihak

Here’s the sad fact of the day: Arizona has made no improvements in treatment of mental health issues in the last year.

At the state government level, no one is talking about it, no one is drafting legislation, no one is working on ways and means of coping with a societal issue that has stayed mostly invisible.

It was that way a year ago, too – invisible – until someone who needed mental health help acquired a gun and used it on 19 innocent people.

In the days following the Congress on Your Corner shooting tragedy in Tucson, there were anguished calls for improvement in the mental health treatment system, including requests for more resources.

The man accused in the shooting spree had manifested mental problems for several years, and yet he went untreated.

Afterward, legislative leaders labeled him a “nut” and a “mad man”, but they didn’t bother saying what they as public policy makers would do to see that this or any other mentally unstable person could get needed treatment to avoid another tragedy.

In the year since, very little has been said on the topic at the legislative and policy-making level of state government.

What has happened is that political leaders have drastically cut spending for health care for the poor, including money that would have gone for mental illness detection and treatment.

So we’re worse off now than we were a year ago, despite the impetus that this tragedy should have created.

And while we can’t pay for mental health treatment, we still have big subsidies in place, courtesy of state policy makers, for professional baseball and football and basketball.

We have a raft of tax breaks – dare we call them subsidies? – coming for businesses.

But we can’t afford to provide mental health treatment for people who need it.

And not only that, except for a few isolated forums, media stories and desperate pleadings, we don’t even want to talk about it publicly. That is, until the next tragedy, God forbid.

Who’s the mad man now?

ONE YEAR LATER: NEW DYNAMIC OR SAME OLD?

posted by Michael Chihak

Friday's Arizona Week will focus on the ramifications of the shooting tragedy of last Jan. 8.

The program will feature a panel of veteran journalists who covered the news that day and in the days that followed as the story took on many manifestations politically, socially, in terms of community and healing.

The journalists will discuss Tucson and Arizona as they are today, comparing with a year ago to gauge any changes.

They also will look ahead to the continued push for civility in politics and public discourse, for any signs of added resources for the mentally ill and their issues and for what political change the events of Jan. 8 may yet bring about.