Looking back, looking ahead
We asked you “What’s next?” last November … What's changed since then?
Around this time last year, we asked you, our readers, to give us some guideposts on what to cover.
It was a tumultuous time. And you all had a lot to say.
President Donald Trump had just won a second term in the White House. He was promising a revenge tour, and many Agenda readers were freaking out.
It’s still a tumultuous time. And we’re betting you have even more to say now that we’re a year into Trump 2.0.
We’re also on the cusp of an election year. Soon, you’ll get to decide who represents you at the Arizona Legislature and in Congress, along with the next governor, attorney general and other statewide offices.
Today, we’re going to pick your brains and give you a chance to vent after a stressful year.
We put together a quick eight-question survey to gauge how we’re doing, what you’re thinking about and what you’d like to see from us.
Just like we did last November, we’ll write up your responses so you can see what your fellow readers think.
Nearly 300 subscribers answered the call last time. Let’s see if we can beat that.
As always, if you appreciate the work we do, the best way to tell us is to become a paid supporter.
Late November is also the time when everybody slows down, including our hardworking team.
Next week, we won’t send our regular newsletters, but we’ve got something special in the works for you instead.
In case you missed it: We publish three other weekly policy newsletters focused on education, artificial intelligence and water. Here’s what dropped this week.
Education Agenda
This week’s mash-up edition covers pre-session bill drops (yes, they’re already coming for libraries), an update on the Trump compacts for universities and the troubling data on teachers quitting and schools closing.
Plus: the big plans Arizona’s fifth- and sixth-graders have for their futures.
A.I. Agenda
Are we in an AI bubble? This week’s AI Agenda breaks down what that means, the red flags and how worried you should really be about an AI-fueled economic crash.
Plus: Self-driving cars on the move, jailbreaking Claude to hack the planet and mapping the genome.
Water Agenda
Hitting deadlines is not one of the strong suits for the multi-state gang of negotiators fighting it out over water rights along the Colorado River — this month’s deadline came and went with no real proposal for how to divvy up the scarce resource.
Upriver, they sound pretty confident that something will get done. But here in Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs wants the feds to step in and help.
Plus: We sat down with Elston Grubaugh, the general manager of the Yuma-area Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage district, to find out how actual farmers feel about negotiators’ failure to land a deal on Colorado River water
We thank public servant, sports reporter and local DJ Ted Prezelski for providing this perfect meme.
A lot of us were thinking the same thing.
