Arizona State Budget Crisis

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, the Arizona state budget still has not passed.  The biggest issue holding up the budget from passing is the disagreement between Governor Brewer and the State Legislators on a sales tax increase.  The sales tax increase is a proposed one percent for two years; so for every dollar a person spends there will be an extra penny charged.  The tax money will be used to fund education and social service programs.  Most of the families that we serve rely on funding from government social services, without the sales tax increase much of the funding is at risk of being cut form the budget and many of the children and families that we help will have little access to treatment and services.  Read the rest of this entry »

NBC’s “Today Show” Segment Glorifies the Negative Acting Out Behavior of a Young Boy

Did any one see the segment on the “Today Show”  this morning with the little boy who took his parent’s keys to the family car, took the car out for a joyride and refused to stop for the police?  I was so disappointed with the show’s producers for energizing this behavior by having the little boy and his family featured on the show with an in-person interview.  The segment portrayed the behavior as cute and even called the boy “adventurous”.  This type of glorification of negative and dangerous behavior sends the wrong message to children who are still trying to learn how to decipher between right and wrong.

Seriously.  Think about how confused this young boy must be – initially grounded for 4 days as a consequence for the behavior only to get to fly to New York a couple of days later to appear on National TV!

I must say that I do, however, find some solace in knowing that more than half the people commenting on the segment agreed with me.  Very disappointing NBC.