Judy's Phoenix Blog

In November 2008 voters in Arizona will address Proposition 100, sponsored by No New Home Tax (Arizona Association of Realtors).

From the Arizona Secretary of State web site: "This Initiative prohibits the government from charging any new tax on the sale or transfer of real property in Arizona. Currently, there are no real property sales or transfer taxes in Arizona. However, the government could enact a real property sale or transfer tax at any time. This Initiative would prohibit the enactment of any new real property sales or transfer tax by a constitutional amendment."

Click on "Read more" to see a synopsis of the pros and cons and find more information about this ballot measure.

Will you vote in favor of Proposition 100?

1) Yes, Arizona's Constitution should include such a prohibition.
2) No, the State of Arizona doesn't charge it now, so a constitutional amendment isn't necessary.

View Poll Results

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In November 2008 voters in Arizona will address Proposition 102, sponsored by the Arizona Legislature. That measure would amend the Arizona constitution by adding the following wording to the existing section on marriage:

Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.

Click on "Read more" to see a synopsis of the pros and cons and find more information about this ballot measure.

Will you vote in favor of Proposition 102?

1) Yes, I think it should be part of Arizona's Constitution.
2) No, marriage is already defined in Arizona as one man, one woman and the voters already rejected this once.

View Poll Results

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It has taken me a while to come up with the home price data for the period ending June 30, 2008. One of the reasons for the delay is that there is so much foreclosure activity going on that the standard data seems to have taken a back seat! For example, in June 2008 there were 3,275 foreclosed homes and 4,565 traditional residential real estate transactions. Compare that to June 2007, when foreclosures accounted for a mere 660 houses and 4,080 were regular sales. The 2008 year-to-date total for Greater Phoenix is 18,060 foreclosures and 25,755 traditional sales. That means that 41% of the homes sold in the Phoenix metro area this year were foreclosures!

Here are the new home and resale home figure for April 1 thorugh June 30, 2008. When will we start to see those median prices inch upward again?

It isn't often that I get to say something positive about Maryvale. Maryvale, which is actually an urban village within the City of Phoenix, isn't known for much that is good. It is considered a rough neighborhood, lower income, an area to be avoided if at all possible. Maryvale garnered dubious fame in the late 80s when an investigation arose as to why there was an unusually high incidence of cancer reported there. There are plenty of negative things to say about Maryvale. This week, though, Phoenix in general, and Maryvale in particular, have reason to boast. They have a gold medal winner.

Henry Cejudo spent some of his younger years in the Cartwright Elementary School District and joined a wrestling club at the age of 10. He subsequently attended Maryvale High School (2002 - 2003) where he got serious about wrestling before going off to Colorado for specialized training. That would eventually pay off in gold. On Tuesday, at the age of 21, he won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 121-pound freestyle wrestling category.

Henry came from anything but a privileged background. His mother was smuggled into the United State illegally when she was 14 years old. She worked multiple low-paying jobs over the years to support herself and her seven children. His father was in and out of prison, and not a part of his life. Henry grew up in tough neighborhoods and under difficult circumstances. He found a place for himself, and a passion, in wrestling. He has persevered.

Henry is a U.S. citizen. After the medal ceremony, Henry Cejudo is reported to have said, "As a Mexican-American I'm thrilled to represent the United States. It's the land of opportunity."

I was called to appear for Jury Duty at the Superior Court of Maricopa County. That's in downtown Phoenix. I seem to get called every year or two, but not always for the same court, and usually I don't even have to show up. Previously, when I had been asked to actually appear at the designated court, I was never selected for a trial. Here are ten things that you may or may not know about jury duty for the Superior Court.

1. If you are a registered voter in Maricopa County, or you have a driver license in Maricopa County, you might be called for jury duty.
2. Not everyone has to appear for a full day. I didn't have to appear until 1 p.m. on my assigned day.
3. The jury assembly area has vending machines with snacks and soft drinks. In the building next door, there's also a food court with various fast food options.
4. If you appear for jury duty, you will either be assigned to a trial or released. If you aren't picked as a juror, your service is finished on that day, when you are released.
5. There's free parking and a shuttle in downtown Phoenix. It was easy to maneuver.
6. You must assume that you'll have to stay until 5 p.m. They won't keep you later than that.
7. Wireless Internet is provided in the jury assembly room.
8. You don't have to serve if you are over 75 years old.
9. Your employer can't stop you from serving as a juror, nor can they penalize you for it. They don't have to pay you, though.
10. If you are selected to serve on a jury you are paid $12 per day plus some mileage reimbursement. If you are retired, unemployed, or your employer is not paying you for the time you are serving, you may be entitled to more, possibly as much as $300 per day.

Once inside the courtroom, being interviewed with 49 other prospective jurors, I admit that I was surprised at some of the things that I heard. For instance, when the group was asked how many people had family or close friends convicted of a criminal offense, I'd say that almost half the group had someone close to them in that situation. Further, upon being asked how many people in the group owned a gun, a significant percentage of the group responded in the affirmative. I know that not only do many people own licensed weapons, but that it is even legal in Arizona to carry a concealed weapon (but not in court!) if properly licensed. Is 40% gun ownership in households really representative of our area?

Do you own a gun, or is there a gun in your home?

1) A member of my family was a victim of a crime, so now we have a gun.

2) No one in my family has been a victim of a crime, but we have a gun.

3) No, there's no gun at my house.

View Poll Results

Anyone who lives around here and has read a newspaper, watched TV or listened to the radio knows the story of the Chandler, Arizona Police Sergeant whose K-9 police dog died after being left in a vehicle for 13 hours. Charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, today he was found not guilty. It has been a year since Bandit, the 5 year-old Belgian Malinois police dog, died.

Apparently, Sgt. Lovejoy, who at the time of the incident was the head of the K-9 unit, had worked long hours and then had to attend to various family matters when he got home. He forgot that Bandit was in the car. The dog was discovered later that night.

There was a great deal of public outcry. It is well known how dangerous hot cars are to dogs in our desert environment, and some people thought that he should have known better. Today's decision should close the matter; the judge decided that the actions resulting in the dog's death were not criminal.

Do you think justice was served in this case?

1) Yes, the dog's death was an accident. It could happen to anyone.
2) No, he was guilty, but he was treated differently because he is a police officer.

View Poll Results

I sign things all the time. I sign checks that are [usually too large and] handed over to service people who come to my home, like that A/C repairman. I sign credit card slips at restaurants. I sign in and out of various places where I have a membership. I sign faxes that end up on recipient fax machines in medical offices, ticket box offices, public relations firms and order desks. So why does it bug me that when I mail my early ballot for the primary election, my signature is on the outside of the envelope? It isn't logical, I understand. It just seems that in these days of ID theft gone amok the government should know better. Read more...

If I wanted to point out the negative, I certainly could. There are hundreds of restaurants in town that could certainly do much better on their health inspections than they do. As a matter of practice, I only pick out the ones that have had 7 or more major violations and reprint their names here. In the interest of starting out the week with a positive attitude, though, I will report to you today that this is the fewest number of serious violators that I have seen since I started compiling this monthly information, and I've been doing it for years.

Speaking of eating out, I'm trying to decide which restaurant I'm going to visit during Arizona Restaurant Week. Many cities have such an event, and this will be Arizona's inaugural, starting out with dining establishments in metro Phoenix only. I've narrowed it down to three places, and they all happen to be Asian. Maybe that's because I had enough meat last week at Rawhide to last me a month!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: restaurant reports (in case you forgot!). Here are the bad guys for July, as well as hundreds of places that got their gold star. Read more...

I rarely eat donuts unless I'm traveling. It seems that when I am out of town, I feel less obligated to watch my weight or eat healthy. Now, I have a dilemma. My favorite donuts are even more accessible. Darn.

It seems that Dunkin' Donuts is revamping it's look for what they call "re-entering the Phoenix market." Seven stores will be opened (or re-opened) by August 15, 2008.

When I think of Dunkin' Donuts, I think of donuts with vanilla icing. Not the cake donuts. Yuk. I like the raised donuts. OK, I also think of those Bavarian Creme donuts with custard filling. Oh, and once in a while those jelly donuts. But that's about it. Except maybe those apple fritters. Did you know that Dunkin' Donuts now includes nutritional information on its donuts? Don't exactly know why I looked there.... Read more...

Many schools are already in session in the Phoenix area. That means that hopefully you'll be driving slower near schools. I saw someone just this morning getting a citation for speeding through a school zone. Ouch, that hurts! But not half as much as how it would hurt a child to get hit by a car. Besides school zones and school buses, and dropoff zones, and switching from "I'm bored" to "I hate homework" I've been noticing some of the ads for school supplies and clothing. I picked out 5 places that have locations all over the Valley of the Sun where you can cash in on some bargains if you haven't done your back-to-school shopping yet. And here they are! Read more...