Pamela Powers

Long-time blogger and political activist, Pamela Powers holds a masters’ degree in public health from the University of Arizona and a bachelors’ degree in journalism from the Ohio State University. She has worked for many years in communications and public relations. Powers stepped down from her position as the managing editor of the American Journal of Medicine to serve Legislative District 9 in the Arizona House. Powers won her seat in November 2016 and won her re-election bid in 2018. She continues to work part-time social media editor for the journal. In addition to Blog for Arizona, she writes her own blog, The The Tucson Progressive and has contributed political stories to the Huffington Post. Powers Hannley is co-director of Arizonans for a New Economy, Arizona’s public banking initiative. Political website: PowersForThePeople.net Facebook Page: Pamela Powers Hannley for House Tucson Progressive on Facebook: Tucson Progressive Twitter handle: @p2hannley Instagram: p2hannley
Equal Rights Amendment

$10.75/hour Median Wage? It’s Time to Break the Low-Wage Cycle in Tucson

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Equal Rights AmendmentLast Wednesday was Women’s Equality Day, in commemoration of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in 1920.  In commemoration, the Tucson Weekly’s Maria Ines Taracena published a blog post on The Range calling attention to Tucson’s dismal standing among US cities in terms of the gender wage gap.

According a Census data analysis by SpareFoot.com, Tucson is at the bottom in terms of women’s median salary ($22,446, 2013 estimate), 5-year growth in median earnings (3%), 2013 median earnings as a percentage of men’s (73.9%) and more. An annual salary of $22,446 translates to $10.75/hour for full time work— far belong the $15/hour minimum wage promoted by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Let’s put this into perspective. The median wage is the salary right in the middle– 50% of working women to Tucson make more than $10.75/hour and 50% make less per hour. That is criminal when you consider how many Tucson women are single mothers and when you consider the recent Congressional and Legislative attacks on poor women and their families…

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Grandpa and Grandma

My Mom Was an Anchor Baby

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Grandpa and Grandma
William and Emma Sprenger

Since Donald Trump has brought “anchor babies” back into the public eye, I decided to re-post this story that was originally published in October 20, 2010 on TucsonCitizen.com.

Russell Pearce is a grandstanding xenophobe who is basking in the limelight of SB1070 and seeking to extend his 15 minutes of fame. His latest anti-immigrant legislation on his one-man crusade to white-wash the country is to “clarify” the 14th Amendment and hopefully make anchor babies illegal once and for all. Here is the text that Pearce and other right-wing extremists want clarification on:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

Ah, Mr. Pearce, what nationality are you? I don’t think “Pearce” is a Native American name. I believe that someone in your family tree was an anchor baby (a child born in American of immigrant parents).

My Grandpa William Sprenger was born in Germany. He came to the US as an infant in 1881 with Great Grandma Katrina and his older brother Conrad. (Great Grandpa Conrad was already working in Northern Ohio.)

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medical marijuana

#1 Reason to Legalize Pot Is Humanitarian, Not Economic (video)

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medical marijuanaDuring the 2014 election season LD9 Rep. Ethan Orr caused a minor media stir when the Freshman Republican said he would “push” for marijuana legalization if re-elected to the Arizona Legislature (which didn’t happen). Orr suggested marijuana legalization as a way the state to make money through taxation and fees, since Arizona faces ongoing budget problems.

Fast forward to this election season, and as many as six cannabis-related citizens’ initiatives are collecting signatures to get on the 2016 ballot. The initiative backed by the Marijuana Policy Project includes a 15% sales tax on recreational marijuana; it could raise as much as $40 million for public education and public health. (Colorado’s legalization initiative called for a 25% tax on marijuana; the state has earmarked $40 million of the tax revenue for schools, according to the Arizona Republic.)

Although the money-making aspect of legalization is enticing to some, there are strong humanitarian reasons for legalization of marijuana. Here are my top five reasons for marijuana legalization and a video explaining the cannabis-related initiatives that could be on the 2016 ballot.

5- End Over-Policing of Personal Marijuana Use. Over-policing of marijuana possession is a multi-million-dollar nationwide problem. The US spends $51 billion per year on the failed War on Drugs. With that, law enforcement arrested 1.55 million Americans in 2012 for non-violent drug use. Of that, 48% (749,825) were arrested for marijuana violations, and 88% of those people (658,231) were arrested for simple possession.

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Bernie Sanders on Austerity: From Greece to Puerto Rico to Arizona? (video)

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On Democracy Now today, Amy Goodman reported on an economic panel assembled by Vermont Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders. Goodman excerpted a section of Sanders’ speech on the failure of austerity policies in Greece and around the world. He said that although his comments focused primarily on Greece (and Puerto Rico), “Governments around … Read more