A View from the Left Side

Season 2 Episode 12 of  A View from the Left Side focuses on Arizona's primary election races -- from the Legislature to Statewide, Corporation Commission and Congressional races.

Joining me today for this podcast are three long-term colleagues of mine at Blog for Arizona Michael Bryan, Larry Bodine and David Gordon. Mike is the founder and managing editor of Blog for Arizona. He is a local attorney and served as a pr...

Season 2, Episode 11 of a View from the Left Side is a compilation of footage that I recorded on June 24, 2022, the day the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Roe v Wade, the landmark abortions rights decision from 1973. The Roe decision made abortion care up to the age of viability of the fetus legal in the US for nearly 50 years. 

Now, SCOTUS has decided that access to legal and safe abortion care is a state...

Season 2, Episode 10 of A View from the Left Side focuses on the fight to maintain abortion rights in the United States. [This podcast was recorded before the June 24, 2022 Supreme Court decision on abortion.]

Senator Nancy Barto brags that Arizona is the #1 "Pro-Life" state in the country. That's because, for years, Arizona Republican politicians have followed the extreme anti-abortion agenda laid out by C...

Season 2, Episode 9 of a View from the Left Side focuses on our country's epidemic of gun violence. 

My opening commentary, recorded on June 1, 2022, refers to the mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York grocery store and at the Uvalde, Texas elementary school. There have been more since then, most notably the Highland Park. Illinois Fourth of July Parade mass shooting. There have been more than 300 mass shootings in th...

The Arizona Legislature surpassed Day 150 this week. You'll remember that the target length for a session is 100 days. That shipped sailed in mid April.

Season 2 Episode 8 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates recorded between April 18, 2022 and May 31, 2022. 

Three of these updates focus on the stalled budget process. The House Republican Caucus is fractured and there is no col...

As the Arizona Legislature approaches the 100-day target for the end of session, the Republican Legislators have shifted their focus to passage of their party's most extreme bills.

In Season 2, Episode 7, Rep. Pam Powers Hannley's Legislative updates focus on the Culture War raging in the Legislature -- from the 15 week abortion ban and school voucher expansion to homeless encampments and inequitable ambulance se...

Season 2, Episode 6 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates from Arizona House member Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. These updates were recorded during March 2022. They range in topic from the social media drama around HB2839 (the PC Bill) to wasting time in the Legislature, anti-worker bills and remembering Senator David Bradley.

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Introduction to Season 2 Episode 6 of A View fr...

Season 2, Episode 5 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates from Arizona House member Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. These updates were recorded in late February and early March, 2022. They range in topic from bullying in the Arizona House to building the Border Wall, voter suppression and more.

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 Season 2 Episode 3 Introduction  0:50
 Bullying in the Arizona House Is Unprof...

Season 2, Episode 4 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates from Arizona House member Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. These updates were recorded in February 2022. They range in topic from banning the COVID vaccine and critical race theory in schools but making it easier to have guns at schools -- you can't make this stuff up. 

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A View from the Left Side, Season 2, Episode ...

Season 2, Episode 3 of A View from the Left Side is a compilation of Legislative Updates from Arizona House member Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley. The original video updates were recorded between January 24 and February 3, 2022 and can be viewed on my YouTube channel.

  Season 2,  Episode 3 Introduction  |  0:51
 Should Marijuana Be Regulated like Other Recreational Drugs? January 24  | 1:30
 There's Progress in M...

Season 2 Episode 2 of "A View from the Left Side" is a collection of Legislative Updates from the first two weeks of the 2nd Session of the 55th Arizona Legislature. These brief clips represent a wide range of topics from the Opening Day COVID Super spreader event and subsequent outbreak at the capital to food and housing security, prenatal care and clean elections. These updates were recorded and published on social medi...

This podcast is a collection of speeches from the January 6, 2022 Vigil for Democracy in Tucson, Arizona. The event was a solemn commemoration of the January 6, 2021 insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol. 

Several current and former Arizona Legislators and two Arizona Congressman were highly involved in the Stop the Steal movement to disrupt the certification of the 2020 elections. Arizona is Ground Zero for voter suppr...

Long-term drought, extreme heat, intense fires and unpredictable weather -- obviously, Arizona is feeling the effects of climate change now. 

Governor Doug Ducey and Republican Legislators continue to pursue the capitalist path of unbridled and unchecked growth as the road to prosperity, with no concern regarding the environmental impact or the long-term sustainability of their ideas. 

 In her speech to the  UN cl...

Arizona’s 2021 Independent Redistricting Commission has been working on new Congressional and Legislative maps for a few months now. Controversial draft maps (version 10) were passed by the commissioners on October 28, 2021.   

The maps are not final, and many people in Pima County, myself included, are not happy with the Pima County’s gerrymandered districts. Tucson proper is split into four different districts, ignoring natural bo...

During my five years in the Arizona House, I have been a crusader for increased funding and services for maternal and child health. Arizona is worst in the country for Adverse Childhood Experiences. Far too many Arizona children grow up with food insecurity, housing insecurity and financial insecurity, while the state government gives away billions each year in tax breaks. 

With so much cash on hand, it’s time for the Arizona Legisl...

An overabundance of fake news, paid political advertising and trolls gaslighting the facts have turned most social media sites into cesspools of misinformation and click bait to boost engagement and profits.

There is little or no regulation to protect the privacy of the unassuming public or to ensure the accuracy of information disseminated through social media. Consumers are left to ferret out scams and misinformation on their own....

"Ya know Arizona is a right-to-work state. Don't'cha? The right to work for less," my Dad warned me, 40 years ago when I moved to Tucson in the fall of 1981.

Back in 1981, I knew what right to work meant, but I didn't realize how anti-union, right-to-work laws suppress wages for everyone. I also had no idea how moving from a highly unionized state to a right-to-work state would impact my career, m...

One of my pet peeves is reading a cliff-hanger news story, only to be left hanging when there is no follow up. Several stories reported in my previous podcasts have had newsworthy developments since those episodes aired.

To catch you up on the details, Episode 8 is a compilation of updates.

Many of my podcasts referred to petition drives and court cases that were trying to stop bad Republican bills from being ena...

In 2020, President Obama called the filibuster a relic of the Jim Crow era. Obama was putting it mildly. Historically, the filibuster has been a primary weapon against civil rights legislation for more than 100 years. Many Americans have celebrated the removal of statues and renaming of boulevards that glorified Confederate leaders. Taking down statues is just feel-good public relations as long as our politicians silently kill impo...