38 MEGALOPOLITAN LIFE BEST PLAYING HOOKY JOHN KAVANAGH The bill in question read like a grave assault on the First Amendment. If passed, it would criminalize alerting people to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The man behind it was GOP state Sen. John Kavanagh, an affable if extreme legislator who likes to run bills first and ask constitutional questions later. But when the bill was up for consideration in a committee hearing after a marathon day at the Arizona Legislature in February, Kavanagh was nowhere to be found. State Sen. Wendy Rogers, the committee chairperson, worried for his safety. The mystery was solved only when progressive lawmaker Analise Ortiz showed Rogers a livestream of KTAR’s “5 O’Clock Faceoff” show — why, there was Kavanagh in-studio, clear on the other side of town. Kavanagh insisted the reason for his absence was common knowledge, and he ultimately returned to see his bill clear committee. Happily, the awful bill never even made it to the desk of Gov. Katie Hobbs for an inevitable veto. BEST LEGAL CONTROVERSY THE LOTTERY TICKET If you had only one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment — namely, a $12.8 million-winning Arizona Lottery ticket — would you capture it or let it slip? Last November, a Circle K manager named Robert Gawlitza enthusias- tically opted for the former, setting up a legal controversy that continues to fester. A few days before Thanksgiving, the store had printed but not sold a ticket for “The Pick” that wound up hitting the jackpot. That ticket was a legal wager. When Gawlitza realized it was in his store the next morning, he clocked out and changed out of his uniform to avoid lottery regulations against buying tickets while working, and bought the ticket for $10. Circle K confiscated it and sued, asking a judge to declare the rightful owner. The store and Gawlitza, who insists he followed store policy, aren’t the only ones with possible claims. What happens to the money remains to be seen. i i i BEST ANNOYING DEJA VU PHOENIX SPEED ENFORCEMENT CAMERAS RETURN We thought we were done with this. Phoenix previously tried photo radar speed enforce- ment cameras on us and ultimately aban- doned them as city residents pushed back. The lead-footed drivers of Phoenix demanded to be caught by a human cop, not a robot. Yet somehow, the cameras snuck back in. Earlier this year, the city installed new cameras — ugly gray mini-towers plopped along Phoenix roadways — to catch speeders in the act. Many of us have been flashed already. As before, the ticket you receive in the mail doesn’t carry the force of law; an actual person has to serve you for you to be on the hook for the fine. Across the Valley, thousands of speed freaks are waiting to see just how aggressively the city and its contractor, Verra Mobility, will try to complete that process. BEST DISPLAY OF INHUMANITY PHOENIX ANTI- HOMELESS PARKS ORDINANCE To the outrage of many, the city of Phoenix passed an ordinance restricting aid to home- less people in city parks. It was a move that organizations and individuals who work with people on Phoenix’s streets said would cause more harm than good and — with the city’s infamously high temperatures in the summer — even kill people. The measure makes distributing food or providing medical care in parks without a permit a misdemeanor. It bans needle exchanges and medical care with needles. The city council passed the ordinance not once, but twice, despite a large outpouring of opposition. The first version, passed in May, on the verge of the summer’s lethal heat, targeted only medical treatment and needle exchanges. The city then reworked it to include food distribution. People who work with the homeless say it’s a misguided and inhuman effort to shuffle homeless people away from park spaces.