You may have heard people talking about it: COVID is waning. That means it is not spreading or surging like it was a few weeks or months ago.

Earlier this week I met John Moore, the longtime mayor of Williams, who is running for Congressional District 2. Very energetic, willing-to-help cowboy-type of guy!

As the prices at the pump continue to fluctuate (higher?), and the suggestion has surfaced to suspend at least temporarily the federal gas tax (more than 18 cents per gallon)...

Lately law enforcement agencies have been conducting “enforcement details” to make sure the motoring public is following the laws they’re supposed to.

School districts here in Arizona are facing a quandary. This spring, unless the legislature enacts a spending-limit exemption by March 1, they will have to cut about 17% from their budgets.

“Too often in the name of ‘progress,’ which in my opinion is merely a synonym for ‘profit,’ we forfeit not only our liberties and personal rights, but we also sacrifice the reasons we live where we live.”

Like Leroy Jethro Gibbs (NCIS), I do not believe in coincidences.

As some readers of the Courier have noted lately, yes, fatalities in the Quad Cities seem to be increasing.

Every now and then I come across a tidbit that makes me nervous but warms the heart.

We are seeing a shift. The Prescott City Council is expected to have a “call to the public” soon (at the beginning of the meetings), and the Prescott Unified School District is open to public comments, as long as they’re respectful and relevant.

Very often I hear from people on both sides of the vaccination debate (to vax or not?). Couple with that the pro-vax folks who regularly proclaim everyone should get the shot(s).

The Prescott area is heading into the holidays — Thanksgiving and Christmas — with an ongoing COVID surge as well as family gatherings and community events.

Remember the juniper tree on Interstate 17 just north of Sunset Point, decorated annually for Christmas? Chino Valley has a similar “tradition,” where a family years ago adopted the three horses in the roundabout at Highway 89 and Outer Loop Road.

When it comes to violence in schools, one solution exists that seems to be perfect.

The Friday Catchall: • SHOTS – With great consternation, it seems, people read the recent Courier story about Dignity Health-Yavapai Regional Medical Center pushing its vaccination-mandate-for-employees deadline from November 2021 to February 2022.

That fall tradition has come again. Not the freezing of hoses and cleaning out of gardens (well, that too); what I am referring to is the Forest Service’s pile burning.

The Courier publishes Rants & Raves on Sundays from the prior week. And one did not sit well with several people.

As I sit here trying to imagine a Quad Cities without water – maybe not in my lifetime but someday, pundits say – I marvel at the theoretical water wars.

From time to time we find words that mean two very different things. Take, for example, the matter of “growth.”

People are growing tired of events “returning for first time since COVID” or “returning virtually.”

The Town of Prescott Valley is bringing retired Department of Public Safety Director Col. Frank Milstead in this month to consult “to make sure the town sets a level of expectations, and gains an understanding of how officers view and feel about the department.”

I receive a lot of studies, ranking cities across the nation in some way or another. And I’m here to tell you: believe less than half of them.

One of the most common calls I receive each week is about the weather, specifically the rainfall totals. (Why not, it’s what we talk about on the phone with our relatives; that and health issues, right!?)

After receiving some calls about newspaper recycling this week, I decided to investigate a bit. The result: some Lions have thrown in the towel, others have not.

A concerned reader called Thursday to inquire about the city’s primary election. As he stated correctly, a true “primary” picks the people you want to see in the General Election.

In an update to the 2020 audit being conducted by the Arizona Senate, our Phoenix correspondent sent the following:

Many of us live in Prescott, but we don’t live in Prescott. That is a distinction having to do with on which side of the city limits line(s) your property sits.

When the news stories say Lake Mead is at only 36% of its capacity, it is troublesome — but does not greatly, rather does not directly, affect the Prescott area.

Parts of the internet are blowing up over Postal Service deliveries, or the lack thereof, in at least the Williamson Valley and Viewpoint areas of the Quad Cities.