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Google is offering an exciting opportunity to qualified Phoenix residents: the chance to test the company’s self-driving cars before they hit the market. The tech giant is calling for Arizona-based candidates to apply for the position of “vehicle safety specialist.” The job entails the operation of a driverless vehicle for six to eight hours per day, five days a week, while gathering data and providing feedback. Test drivers will analyze their experiences and give engineers feedback regarding how the car drives and interacts with other vehicles on the road. Though many people might jump at the chance to do this job for free, Google plans to pay its vehicle safety specialists $20 per hour. It’s not a bad deal when one considers the fact that actual driving is not really part of the jo...

Many people will go to great lengths for a healthy, beautiful smile. In a survey by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, 99.7% of respondents agreed that a good smile is socially important. But would you go so far as to visit an unlicensed, cash-only dentist's office run out of a Phoenix apartment? Late last month, special agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Phoenix Police Department arrested a woman on charges of treating patients in an unlicensed dental office, which sources say had been operating for more than two years. The woman, 54-year-old Elda Graciela Margez de Zamora, or "Mama Elda," as she's known, reportedly drives in to Phoenix from her home in Mexico to perform dental and orthodontic procedures for cash payments. Zamora rented a normal re...

A new bill in Arizona could require all state-run departments to move their information data into the cloud -- or else face jail time. Senate Bill 1434 stipulates that all Arizona state IT services must "progressively migrate the budget unit's information technology assets to use a commercial cloud computing model or cloud model as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology." Each unit will be assessed and evaluated every two years to ensure that all materials are properly cloud-stored; information officers who fail to comply may face charges. The bill currently awaits approval from Governor Doug Ducey. The new bill is the brainchild of Arizona's chief information officer Morgan Reed, a former director of data center services for Expedia. "Governor Ducey has a visi...

As Arizona Republic writer Laurie Roberts reminds us, it's been eight months since Governor Doug Ducey announced a new plan to rebrand the Grand Canyon State. Ducey wants to spend part of this $250,000 rebranding campaign on a new state motto (the current motto is Ditat Deus, latin for God Enriches). When the Arizona Commerce Authority solicited submissions for a new Arizona state motto, the public obliged with a litany of possible new slogans: “Welcome to Mexico,” “Arizona...heat today, heat tomorrow,” “Arizona: Going backwards into the future since 1912,” “What federal government?,” “But it’s a dry hate,” “The Wingnut State,” and “Lower Taxes, Lower Test Scores.” In short, Arizona has developed a reputation, particularly in the coastal regions of America, as a right-wing state ...

New statistics show that Arizona now ranks among the 10 best states for marijuana lovers to live. Currently, Arizona only permits the consumption of marijuana when prescribed by a doctor. However, residents will be able to vote in November to make the recreational use of the drug legal. According to a study conducted by Estately.com, "[Arizona] has the 11th-cheapest weed prices, the 10th-most cannabis-related Google searches, the fifth-most expressed interest in various marijuana publications on Facebook, and the 15th most pot smokers -- 6.61%." While over half (57%) of adults in the U.S. have never lived outside their home state, Dr. Elaine Burns of the Southwest Medical Marijuana Evaluation Center says that access to medical marijuana is a motivating factor for some people to mo...

Updated 12/15/20 Roofing contractors are needed in the state of Arizona. This is a profession that you could excel in especially if you are a hands-on person. You can learn about being a general contractor and learn all aspects general contracting if you are interested in becoming an apprentice and go from there. You may be wondering if there is a lot of construction companies near me that are hiring and the answer is yes. You can start from there and then gain enough experience from that to advance to a roofing contractor yourself. If you are going the route of finding a job in that field, then you should do an online search and pay attention to the construction contractor job description to see what would be required of you. While many companies are hiring, there are also lic...

Billionaire Koch brothers, Arizona politicians, and other organizations want to destroy the Grand Canyon National Heritage Monument proposal, according to recent reports. The proposed monument would grant federal protection to 1.7 million acres of Grand Canyon land and permanently ban uranium mining in the area. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and has an average depth of one mile; its land has been protected from mining since President Teddy Roosevelt's Antiquities Act in 1908. According to the Phoenix New Times, the proposal has tremendous support from environmental organizations, native tribes, and more than 80% of the public. But all those groups together don't even come close to the amount of money being used to fight the monument. Dark-money organizations, which are organi...

An exhibit at Northern Arizona University is displaying new forms of technologically advanced art. Mind 2 Machine 2 Material: Digital Technology and Sculpture Today is the name of the digital exhibit, which the Arizona Daily Sun reports will take place from April 19 to June 10. This will be the first exhibit at the new Northern Arizona University Art Museum and the first to be dedicated to digital and 3D printing technology. According to 3DPrint.com, David Van Ness, coordinator of New Media at NAU, believes this new technology is great for the future of the art industry. Van Ness commented, "3D printing is more than just technology, it has more to do with not being bound by any particular practice or even traditional art methods. If you can imagine it, you can create it." The e...