In the “Attacking Global Barriers” or “Phoenix Project”, the Royal Agricultural College and Arizona State University East are working together to insure we have an exciting future in the food management area. This abstract outlines the progress of the Phoenix Project and updates IAMA on the Second Congress of the Phoenix Group. The “Attacking Global Barriers” project focuses on educational and academic issues, and impediments to student movement in the academic year 1998/99. It updates earlier reports to IAMA and gives an overview of the first and second congresses with the American and European Universities.

The long-term trend toward lower-quality jobs in the United States continued between 2001 and 2004. Industrial job quality fell 1.6 percent nationally between 2001 and 2004. The decrease in occupational job quality was not quite as great at 0.9 percent. Thus, overall U.S. job quality dropped 2.5 percent during the three years, causing the U.S. average wage to be 2.5 percent less than it otherwise would have been. Arizona’s job quality fell between 2001 and 2004 at a pace worse than the national average. Relative to the national average, the industrial and occupational job mixes each slipped a bit more than 0.3 percent during the three years, for an overall decline of 0.7 percent. In Arizona, job quality in 2004 was 2.0 percent below the national average, but Arizona ranked 23rd among all states.

The best way to evaluate job quality would be to analyze a dataset that presents both occupational and industrial data, but the only dataset of this nature available by state comes from the decennial census. It is severely limited by small sample size, the latest data are for 1999, and the 1999 data are not consistent with the 1989 data. Thus, the initial work by the Seidman Institute on job quality ("Job Quality in Arizona", March 2005, presented data on Arizona job quality from several sources of either industrial or occupational data. "Job Quality in Arizona Compared to All States" is an extension of the March 2005 report. Arizona’s job quality in the latest year and its change over time is compared to the national average and is ranked among the 51 “states” (including the District of Columbia).

This manual provides an overview of Sections 404 and 401 of the Clean Water Act as they apply to Arizona Department of Transportation activities. Compliance with Sections 404 and 401 is necessary for Arizona Department of Transportation activities that involve the discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. The manual also provides general guidance on the preparation of jurisdictional delineations, Nationwide Permit Pre-Construction Notification submittals, and Individual Permit applications.