Covering the news in Maricopa is a lot like eating an idiomatic elephant. How does one complete the task? One story at a time.
Scientists at Harvard found the average person makes 35,000 decisions per day. Some are rather inconsequential — French vanilla or hazelnut creamer in my coffee this morning? Others, though, can alter the trajectory or paradigm of a community.
More people live in Maricopa today (no matter what day you read this letter) than ever before. At our current numbers, we Maricopans make 81.4 billion decisions during a monthly news cycle. Some of them will lead to, or are themselves, newsworthy events. Our job is to document it all, an increasingly tricky task.
This month, the news team had all pens on deck.
I want to introduce you all to David Iversen, a Senita resident since 2021 and our newest reporter who’s covering the schools and the courts. He got his master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and most recently worked for Fox News. In this edition, David and I collaborate on an investigation into the only Maricopa charter school that’s losing students year-over-year, embroiled in money woes long concealed.
I’m also bringing you part two of my unsolved deaths series, The invisible killer, unraveling every mystifying detail of a backyard stabbing death that occurred on my birthday last year and never left my mind.
Tom Schuman catches up with the coach of an all-Black basketball team that overcame doubt and discrimination to go undefeated in Compton, Calif., during the peak of the Civil Rights Era, and win a state title.
Meanwhile, Brian Petersheim Jr. records living history inside the Silver Horizon, one of seven California Zephyr observation railcars that has retired on the corner of Plainview Street and Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. It was an emotional 60-year reunion for a one-time stewardess.
Two familiar faces took bites of the elephant this month: Jeff Chew explores the virtually unknown, federally designated desert wonderland in Maricopa’s backyard, and Kylie Werner pens a cover story on the generationally talented 7-year-old who’s racing dirt bikes all over the country.
And Monica D. Spencer covers the business beat, like usual, getting us the scoop on five new restaurants setting up shop in the city.
One of my contributions to the 81.4 billion decisions we’ll collectively make this month is the decision to wish all our readers a happy, safe and productive February. I hope, in turn, you’ll make the decision to keep reading InMaricopa — in which case, I look forward to greeting you again in March!
ELIAS WEISS
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
[email protected]
