Larry Bodine

Larry is an intelligent, articulate, and insightful commentator whose views are shaped by a combination of journalism, entrepreneurship, law practice, and leadership.‎ ✍ He is an experienced and well-known leader, having served as a teacher at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Arizona, Video Manager for Iskashitaa Refugee Network, Chair of the LD18 Democrats, and President of the Democrats of Greater Tucson.‎ ✍ A common-sense business leader, he operated a successful marketing consultancy for 20 years. He is skilled in fundraising, ChatGPT, and online communications.‎ ✍He considers multiple viewpoints before forming an opinion. His ethos is the Boy Scout Law.‎ ✍ Larry is a lifelong writer, having worked as a seven-time award-winning journalist for the New York Daily News and as the author of 600 editorials for the Blog for Arizona.‎ ✍He is a graduate of Amherst College and Seton Hall Law School and has also attended the University of Munich in Germany.‎ ✍He is not all work and no play. Larry enjoys singing and playing the guitar, watching film noir, going on outings with his Portuguese Water Dog, weight training, and meeting his many friends for lattes at breakfast.‎ ‎** Scroll down to see my articles below. **
Southwest Key Programs at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson

UPDATED: Danger Menaces 300 Migrant Children in Off-Limits Compound in Tucson

by
Southwest Key Programs at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson
Southwest Key Programs operates an off-limits compound at 1601 N Oracle Road near Drachman Street, north of downtown in Tucson

9-19-18 UPDATE: Arizona moves to revoke licenses from all Southwest Key migrant-children shelters https://goo.gl/qVxUA9 The government contractor failed to provide proof its workers had the required background checks.

Up to 300 migrant children ages 5 to 17 are warehoused at a dangerous facility run by Southwest Key Programs in Tucson.  “There seem to be some real problems here,” said state Representative Kirsten Engel, speaking at a recent meeting of the Democrats of Greater Tucson.

The Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) made an inspection and found “numerous violations that employees have fingerprint cards, and space and privacy for kids.” DHS negotiated an agreement with Southwest Key giving DHS the power to make unannounced inspections.

“It’s a black box,” she said of the compound, which is closed to the public. “When we were at Southwest Key there was a representative from the Denver regional office of the HHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), but we didn’t get a lot of information from him.”

Southwest Key is a massive private contractor that is paid $485 million by the federal government to warehouse 5,200 children in 26 facilities in Arizona, California, and Texas. In Arizona, it houses 1,500 children in 13 different shelters.

The children are technically not incarcerated. “They are in a ‘mandatory temporary child shelter situation,'” Engel said. “They are in the hands of a private entity. One of the issues is that it is all being done by private contract and is not being adequately overseen by a state agency.”

Danger of child abuse

Read more

Arizona’s Imprisonment Crisis: The High Price of Prison Growth

by

This article is cross-posted from Fwd.US.

In the last 40 years, prison populations across the nation have skyrocketed. But even compared to this disturbing national trend, Arizona has been an outlier, growing by a multiple of 12 during forty years in which the national prison population quadrupled, according to a new report by Fwd.US.

While Arizona’s resident population has increased over this period, it has not kept pace with prison growth. Since 2000, the state population has grown by 33 percent while the prison population has grown by 60 percent — nearly twice as fast. Crime has also declined over this period, both in total numbers and as a per capita rate. Click here to learn more about why Arizona’s growing prison population cannot be justified or explained by rising crime or demographic trends.

Fwd.US is a group of business and tech leaders committed to meaningful reform and moving America forward.

Today, there are 42,000 people in prison in Arizona.

Read more

Sinema Up by 7 Points in Race for US Senate

by

Democrat Kyrsten Sinema holds an advantage in the race for US Senate in Arizona, a race that is critical to the party’s chances of taking control of the US Senate, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS. The surveys show Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema tops Republican Rep. Martha McShifty by 7 points, 50% to 43% among likely voters.

However, roughly 1 in 6 voters in each state say there’s a chance they’ll change their mind before Election Day.

Likely voters are a subset of registered voters in the poll and include those most likely to turn out based on a combination of self-reported intention to vote, interest in the election and past voting behavior.

Democrats have a chance 

Arizona is one of the four states where Democrats are widely seen as having at least some chance of picking up Senate seats in November’s election. The others are Texas — viewed as more of a long-shot – and Nevada — generally viewed as the Democrats’ best chance for a Senate pickup. In order for the party to have any shot at taking control of the Senate, it’s almost certain that at least one seat from Arizona or Tennessee would need to go Democrats’ way.

Read more

CD2 Candidate Ann Kirkpatrick Opens New HQ, Launches Dozens of Canvassers

by

Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tucson’s CD2, opened her new headquarters at 4742 N Oracle Rd, Tucson, AZ 85705, and launched dozens of volunteers to knock on doors for her and US Senate candidate Kyrsten Sinema.

She said the key issues in the race are: protecting choice in women’s health care, immigration reform including citizenship for the DACA recipients, and halting the separation of children from their parents at the border.

She has also called for creating a public option for Americans to buy into Medicare, protecting Medicare and Social Security from Republican attempts to cut earned benefits, and giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices to reduce costs for our seniors.

I canvassed 49 houses myself for four hours in the 101° heat and found that these issues resonated with voters I talked to. I met:

  • An independent voter who is Latino and who is upset by the US immigration policy.
  • A Republican who said he was upset with Trump and will vote for Kirkpatrick and Sinema to put a check on the president.
  • An independent who wanted to know where to donate to the Sinema campaign.

All three of them wanted to volunteer for the Democrats.

Read more

NextGen America Successfully Registers Arizona Millennials to Vote

by
“No political parties or organizations have tried to reach out to young people, says Maria Eller. “We’re the first group to be having these conversations to go and vote.”

Young volunteers for NextGen America are successfully registering Millennials at the Pima County College and UofA campuses in Tucson, working to increase the level of voting by this huge voter bloc.

“If we get out the vote it will lead to more progressive wins. We need to increase the awful statistic of young people voting on an average of 23%,” said Maria Eller, a NextGen volunteer speaking at a recent Indivisible and Strong Meeting meeting.

“We have the most numbers. This is our chance to get them out to vote, and have a stage to voice what we care about by voting.”

Wins so far:

Read more

©2025 Blog For Arizona | Website by Riveted