The Arizona Smart Growth Scorecard is a tool for community self-assessment developed by a working group of the Growth Cabinet. It is designed to strengthen the ability of local officials to plan for future growth and development and to adopt comprehensive strategies that address growth-related pressures. Arizona's Growing Smarter Guiding Principles were developed by the Growing Smarter Oversight Council. The Guiding Principles are organized into six major categories which provide the basis for the Scorecard: responsibility and accountability; preservation of community character; stewardship of natural resources; opportunity for broad choices; essential service infrastructure; and economic development.

The Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP) Program enables drug addicted criminal defendants to plead guilty to an offense and then enter a residential, therapeutic community treatment system for three years as an alternative to a prison sentence. The Program begins with three months of in-patient, residential drug treatment followed by wraparound recovery support services managed by a resources specialist, including transitional housing, literacy services, higher education, job training and placement services, and counseling, accompanied by drug testing, probation monitoring, and regular court hearings.

Mr. Proudfoot, the leading pygmy-owl biologist in the United States, has worked for the last two years to gather and analyze the data that allows us to address issues regarding the genetic viability of ferruginous pygmy-owls in Arizona and to establish a framework for future management efforts. The two major questions addressed are (1) do populations of concern lack genetic variation relative to putative healthy populations, and (2) how unique are geographically distinct populations within a species of special concern?