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

Elk River Disaster: Lax Oversight Puts Citizens in Peril (video)

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ElkRiver-def01_up-2_mediumby Pamela Powers Hannley

The lives of 300,000 central West Virginia residents were thrown into chaos a week ago when 1000s of gallons of solvent leaked from a storage tank and drained into the scenic Elk River, contaminating the water supply.

Initially, citizens were told to not only stop drinking the water but also to not even shower with it, due to the extreme levels of contamination. As residents left the capitol city of Charleston to find clean water to drink, cook, and bathe, the story of lax environmental oversight of the WV plant unfolded. According to the LA Times, the leaking storage tank owned by Freedom Industries, Inc. had not been inspected since 1999. The latest news is that Freedom Industries filed for bankruptcy on Friday, January 17. (What are the implications for Southern Arizona? Think Rosemont Mine and read on.)

Arizona Legislature Opens: Watch ‘State of the Hate’ Address (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

January 13 marked the opening of the Arizona Legislature’s 2014 session. Since Governor Jan Brewer took over the helm, this day of speecheshas evolved into a day of protest.

Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA) organized a major demonstration on the capitol plaza for the opening day. Chanting “stop the hate”, approximately 150 CBA supporters  brought attention to Brewer’s failure to protect the children of Arizona on multiple levels.

Late in 2013, Arizonans learned that more than6500 Child Protective Services (CPS) cases have gone uninvestigated. While the administrator in charge of CPS has said that his regular reports to the governor and the legislature included the large number of uninvestigated cases, Brewer has been acting shocked since the news broke. During her state of the state address on the opening day, Brewer announced that she has disbanded CPS and created a new agency that will report directly to her.

Calling attention to the CPS scandal, CBA activists moved their protest inside the capitol building and tried to go up to the 8th floor, where the governor’s offices are, to deliver dozens of stuff animals, representing the children who were lost in Arizona’s CPS system. (Watch CBA’s protest and interaction with capitol police in the video below.)

At Monday’s action, CBA also urged Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne to stop their attacks on DREAMers and allow them to drive legally. Watch the video after the jump.

Federal Court Ruling: Is this Beginning of the End for Net Neutrality?

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We-the-persons750-sig-sm72-b-wby Pamela Powers Hannley

If you don’t like the way Facebook shovels advertising and promoted posts into your “news feed”, instead of the latest photos of your friends’ vacations, you’re really not going to like the new and improved Internet.

Yesterday, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the power to regulate net neutrality. What does this mean for you? Internet providers like Verizon can now cut deals with corporate giants to accelerate their content, while leaving non-commercial Internet content–like those pesky independent blogs– in the dustbin of a Google search.

From Think Progress…

Net neutrality rules were issued by the FCC to prevent broadband providers from favoring some content over other content, potentially even their own. As the two-judge majority explains, “a broadband provider like Comcast might limit its end-user subscribers’ ability to access the New York Times website if it wanted to spike traffic to its own news website, or it might degrade the quality of the connection to a search website like Bing if a competitor like Google paid for prioritized access.”

Even as they struck down these rules Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit judges concede that this concern is real, writing, “broadband providers represent a threat to Internet openness and could act in ways that would ultimately inhibit the speed and extent of future broadband deployment.” The problem, however, derives from an earlier FCC decision that even advocates of net neutrality like Free Press president Craig Aaron say was a failure of FCC leadership to “ground its Open Internet rules on solid legal footing.” [Emphasis added.]

Rolling Shift Rally: Support Unions at ASARCO, Jan. 6

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Join the rally today in support of continued contract union/management negotiations at ASARCO. Here are the details from the Pima Area Labor Federation. The nearly 2000 union members who work in ASARCO’s copper mines, smelters and refineries entered contract negotiations in June 2013. They are spread over five locations and are represented by eight different … Read more

Fruity or Oaky? Rambling Thoughts on White People Problems

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

My coffee table book is too large for my coffee table.

My Internet connection is too slow.

My dishwasher doesn’t really get the dishes clean.

iPads should have a USB connection.

I can’t remember all of my passwords.

Will Wall Street gambling hurt by 401K’s performance?

My car is annoying. The on-board computer tells me when to add air to the tires, when someone’s seatbelt is undone, and when it needs to go to the shop for service.

I hate it when I find a good recipe on the Internet and then can’t find it again.

Cable TV is too expensive for what your get. NetFlix is the way to go– or just plug the laptop into the flat screen TV.

I give my dog a daily dab of Greek yogurt with her dog food because she farts too much.