Friday, December 29, 2017
Hi there. I’m Clementine!
I am a 7 year young girl looking for my fur-ever family! I am a sweet but shy cat. My dream home would have a scratching post and a comfy bed for me to nap in. Great news, my adoption fee is only $50!
In the past I have done well with some dogs but prefer to be your only cat. Come fall in love with me at HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. you can also give an adoptions counselor a call for more information at 520-327-6088, ext. 173.
Lots of Love,
Clementine (849092)
"[T]hese include the overthrow of our government, ethnic resentment, and the redefining of 'la familia.' The TUSD Mexican-American Ethnic Studies program is widely seen as a 'militant' model to be spread throughout the country."Horne was asked what TUSD could do to comply with then-Education Superintendent John Huppenthal's demands that the program comply with state law. He replied that the district's only option was "to terminate the program."
Horne said the program must be “destroyed,” invoking Cato’s obsessive call for warfare as a punch line, “Carthage must be destroyed.”Horne is an educated man, so he would have understood the implications of his Carthage analogy. Ancient Carthage, on the North African coast, posed an existential threat to Rome during the Punic Wars — think Hannibal and his elephants crossing the Alps in 218 BC. Rome eventually triumphed over the darker-skinned invaders, destroying Carthage completely and selling its remaining population into slavery. The comparison of Carthage invading from the south being driven back and destroyed by a lighter skinned civilization, to white Arizona fighting off the invasion of its education system by Mexican American radicals is too obvious, and too racist, to be coincidental.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Wallace Tashima declared that the law, § 15-112, designed to destroy TUSD's Mexican American Studies, cannot be enforced, because it
"was enacted and enforced, not for a legitimate educational purpose, but for (i) an invidious discriminatory racial purpose, and (ii) a politically partisan purpose – to shut down the TUSD MAS Program – in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution."It's a fitting irony that the tactics used by Tom Horne and John Huppenthal against MAS were repudiated in a court of law while both men have seen their reputations tarnished — one could even say, destroyed — because of a string of personal and professional improprieties compounded by their publicly exposed racism.
Tags: Tucson Unified School District , Mexican American Studies , Tom Horne , John Huppental , U.S. District Judge Wallace Tashima
Sports
NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl. It’ll be a battle of the Aggies at Arizona Stadium on Dec. 29, as New Mexico State and Utah State meet for the third-annual Arizona Bowl. The headline of the event has to be New Mexico State (6-6) making its first postseason appearance in 57 years—defeating, you guessed it, Utah State 20-13 in the Sun Bowl. Utah State also enters Friday’s game at 6-6, with an offense that ranks in the Top 50 in points per game (31.0), while New Mexico State boasts a pass-heavy offense led by Peoria native Tyler Rogers at quarterback, who’s thrown for 3,825 yards and 26 touchdowns this season. The Aggies will meet at 3:30 p.m. at Arizona Stadium, with CBS Sports Network showing the action live on TV.UA Downtown Block Party. If you find yourself getting blue between all of the Christmas celebration hubbub and the New Year’s Eve madness, be grateful you live in a town that’s added a whole other holiday right in the middle. Head over to Armory Park to enjoy live music from 80’s and Gentlemen, stuff your face and—most importantly—scream “Bear Down” at everyone you see in the true spirit of Tucson. Not to mention there will be carnival rides, a beer garden and something called human foosball, which is apparently not just soccer. 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 28. Armory Park, 221 S. Sixth Ave. Free.
Yoga and Meditation
108 Sun Salutations. Alright, here we go. It’s the first day of a new year and your chance to kick off your resolution feeling strong, confident and committed. And you know what? Even if you just force yourself to go to this one yoga event this one time, you’ll probably end up feeling real good, and you’ll earn a glass of champagne with dinner. (You’re sure to have some leftover from the night before.) So enjoy a brief meditation followed by 108 sun salutations. (108 is a sacred number in Hinduism and yoga, not just an arbitrarily high number chosen to get you fully exhausted). 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Jan. 1 Om Yoga, 5961 N. Oracle Road. $7 nonmembers ($5 cash).Tags: NOVA Home Loans , Arizona Bowl , New Mexico State , the Aggies , UA block party , foosball , human foosball , not soccer , sun salutations , 108 , Om Yoga , Full Moon Shambhala Sadhana , Shambhala Meditation , Kadampa Meditation Center , shiny gold statues , Wooden Ball , Wooden Ball 25th Anniversary , Ugly Sweater Improv Comedy Show , Tucson Improv , Club Congress , Casa Libre , Peregrinas , women poets , Monsoon , Monsoon Art Collective , Pueblo Vida , coloring , Maynards , Holiday sparklers , Lord of the Rings Trivia , LOTR , Frodo , Bilbo , Crooked Tooth , second breakfast , New Year’s Eve , Espresso Art Café , Casa Video , Big Trouble in Little China , The Most Chill New Year’s Eve , R Bar , Winter Freecycle Swap , Treecycle , Holiday Family Storytime , Job Help , library , having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card , The Loft , movie posters , movie poster sale , first day hikes , hikes , hike
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
“Before I worked here, I was trying to work on movies as an editor,” says J.J. Giddings of The Loft Cinema. “So much work goes into making a film, even a not so good film, that you deserve a chance to see it on the big screen.” Gittings is marketing director for Tucson’s nationally acclaimed art house cinema, and producer of the theater's monthly gong show for new works, Friday Night Shorts.
First Friday Shorts offers any local filmmaker-manqué a chance to show a work up to 15 minutes long on the 50-foot screen in the Loft’s newly renovated main theatre. If the audience loves it, a film can run until it ends. But things end badly if the audience hates it; at the three-minute mark, they’re invited to try to get the emcee to gong the film and shut it down.
Either way, the audience feedback is an education the auteurs could never buy. “It's a platform for filmmakers where they can go and just get real feedback from live bodies in front of the screen,” says comedian and KXCI DJ Brigitte Thum, who co-hosts the show with her husband, comedian Mike Sterner, a former writer for Bill Maher’s Politically Correct.
There is no telling what an audience will see. Filmmakers begin delivering their work to the Loft on Friday morning, and the first 15 in the door are shown. Recent entries have been documentaries, music videos and animated films. “There's always going to be something really goofy,” Thum says. Giddings adds, “Comedy usually goes over well, because it's just a simple idea to get across. Drama is a lot harder to communicate.”
Sterner and Thum keep the mood light and fun, trading spontaneous quips with fimmakers and each other. Thum covers the theater with her wireless mic, interviewing filmmakers about their work. “It kind of gives humanity to it,” she says, “like, this is a film made by a person. their blood, sweat and tears. This is the filmmaker you are gonging.”
Sterner offers low-key, practical tips, like, “You might want to get a tri-pod.”
First Friday Shorts takes place at 9 p.m., on Jan. 5, and the first Friday of every month. Admission is $6; $5 for Loft members; $1 more for online reservations. There is no fee for entering a film. Each month the audience picks a winner to receive a $200 check. All the year’s winners are screened in May to compete for a $1000 prize.
Tags: The Loft Cinema , J.J. Giddings , Bridgitte Thum , Mike Sterner , First Friday Shorts
A Pima County jail inmate who allegedly killed his cellmate was undermedicated at the time of his cell mate’s death.
Branden Roth was found beaten and strangled to death, locked in a cell with King Yates, who was unharmed, on the morning of April 19.
Yates was awaiting trial for the murder of his wife Cassandra Yates. Roth had recently plead guilty to trafficking in stolen property for stealing a diagnostic tool from BrakeMax, which he pawned for a few hundred dollars.
In December 2015, Yates was found incompetent to stand trial on felony drug charges and was court ordered to take medication to restore him to competency. He was evaluated by Dr. Michael Christiansen, who diagnosed him with “Bipolar I Disorder vs Schizoaffective Disorder with Narcissistic personality traits,” according to court records.
The courts ordered Yates take a daily 700 mg of Seroquel to control psychosis. Christiansen said the medication was “ESSENTIAL in sustaining competency to stand trial. “Essential” was in all caps.
At the time of Roth’s murder, the jail was only giving Yates 225 mg of Seroquel. The jail’s medical records don’t give a reason for the lower dosage, according to court records. The day after Roth’s death, jail staff increased Yates’ medication to 400 mg.
An independent contractor, overseen by the county's behavioral health department, is responsible for deciding inmates’ medication dosages, according to the county's Public Communications Manager, Mark B. Evans
Since this new information came to light, prosecutors have withdrawn their intention to seek the death penalty.
Yates has a history of behavioral health issues. Court documents show that when he allegedly shot his wife, he told a friend, only minutes after the murder, that Cassandra had been trying to kill him. Yates’ public defender in that case told the courts she does not believe he was medicated at the time of the murder.
Tags: Branden Roth , King Yates , jail murder , Pima County jail
So, who can you give the money to? Any district or charter school. You can even divvy your credit up among a number of schools.
What is the money used for? Schools can only use it for extracurricular or character education programs, not for classroom-based education. I don't much like that restriction, but that's the way the law was written. Still, lots of important education and recreation happens in schools outside the classroom—sports, music, art, science, field trips, clubs. Especially in schools with lots of children from low income families, the donations can be the difference between the kids participating or being left out.
How do you give? Most school districts have a link on their website's home page which has all the information you need. You can pay online with a credit card or download a form and mail in a check.
How do you choose the school or schools to give your money to? The answer is probably easy for people whose children are in school. For everyone else, my suggestion is, give it to school with lots of low income students. If parents and community members pay little or no state taxes because they don't make much money, they can't take advantage of the credit, which means their schools don't get a whole lot of this extra money, while schools in more affluent areas get many times more.
Tags: Public school tax credit , Tucson Unified School District , Sunnyside Unified School District
Friday, December 22, 2017
Hi, I’m Sam!
I am a 4 year old boy searching for the purr-fect family! I am a sweet boy that loves attention. I enjoy being held, pet, and brushed! I am FIV positive which means I will need to be an indoor only cat. You can learn more about FIV online.
Come meet me at HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd., or give an adoptions counselor a call at 520-327-6088, ext. 173 for more information.
Lots of Love,
Sam (847242)
I titled the post THREAT Watch, short for Trump Human Rights Erosion And Termination Watch.
But hell, I was upset over the election results. Maybe I was being irrational, a sore loser overreacting to Trump's unexpected win and exaggerating the damage he could do.
I wish I could say my predictions were an overreaction. Looking back at the post from a year's distance, I see no reason to change a word. The Trump administration started out badly. It got worse. Right now, we stand at the most dangerous crossroads of his short presidency.
Here's what I wrote about the changes I thought were inevitable once Republicans dominated all three branches of the federal government.
All kinds of terrible things are going to happen with Trump in the White House, a Republican majority in both houses of Congress and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Taxes and business regulations will favor the rich even more than they do now. Entitlement programs for the poor will be cut dramatically. Comprehensive women's health care which includes abortion will be nonexistent in many parts of the country. Obamacare, Medicare and Social Security will be savaged.Everything on my list has either happened or is in the works. Trump and his cabinet have gutted every economic and environmental regulation they've been able to get their hands on and ignored the rest. The tax cut is a big, wet, sloppy kiss on the mouth of every one-percenter in the country. And the trillion-plus deficit created by the tax cuts will accomplish the Republican goal of starving the budget beast, giving them the excuse they need to say we simply can't afford all that entitlement spending for welfare, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
The gutting and cutting will only get worse when the legislature returns in January. And yet, disasters written into legislation and regulation aren't written in stone. Like the destruction brought by hurricanes, floods and fire, much of the damage can be repaired through time and effort.
More dire is the possibility the Trump presidency will damage the fabric of our society, which is not easily restored. I wrote about that next.
Tags: President Trump , Congress , Supreme Court , Fox News , Coup
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Featured are two of Tucson’s most popular visiting comedians – Andrew Rivers and Jade Esteban Estrada. Both perform twice on New Year’s Eve: a dinner show at 7 pm, $30; and a champagne-included dessert show at 10:30 pm., $25. Tax and tip are extra, but included in online reservations. The three dinner options include garden salad and sides; they are braised short rib, chicken Françoise and salmon filet.
A free weekend in Las Vegas goes to the luckiest door prize winner at each show.
Both headliners are proven Laff’s laugh-makers. Last December we wrote about Esteban Estrada the Prada Enchilada, with his “Las Vegas style and Palm Springs sass.” NBC news called him “The Prince of Pride.” He sends up the very stereotypes he creates with swishy bravado and a smile.
Rivers reprises his hit appearance last New Year’s Eve at Laffs, but, he promises, “Every time I visit a club, I bring new material.”
Turning to comedy when he lost his job a year out of college, Rivers says, “It was the best thing that ever happened,” he says. “It throws you out of your comfort zone to get crazy. You want to contribute to society in some way.”
His critically acclaimed YouTube series, “Don’t Quit Your Night Job,” in which he tries to do other people’s jobs, proves that comedy was his best option. “People are always, like, ‘I could never do comedy’. I could never do anything else.” His work ethic helps. “I've performed in 40 states, all over Europe and Canada, and on cruise ships,” he says, “there's nothing in ten years of comedy that I haven't done.”
If you have other New Year’s plans, you can still see Rivers and Esteban at 8 and 10:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 29; and 7 and 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 30. Visit laffstucson.com for details and reservations.
New for Comedy News
Here’s a new bookmark for comedy fans: tucsoncomedy.com. Chad Lehrman has expanded his site from a resource for local comedians to a calendar of all the comedy shows in town. Soon he expects include comedians’ profiles.
Tags: Andrew Rivers , Jade Esteban Estrada , Laff's Comedy Caffe , laffstucson.com , champagne , designated driver , take a cab , have fun with friends in Tucson , may 2018 be a lot happier
Music
The Nutcracker at Ballet Tucson. This might not be the space to be asking the questions, but does anyone hear the word “nutcracker” and just think of a useful advice used to get into a tasty wintertime snack anymore? Do people even use nutcrackers anymore? Or does everyone’s mind go straight to “The Nutcracker Suite?" Whatever the significance of the word “nutcracker” is to you, you’re sure to enjoy Ballet Tucson’s award-winning production of one of the most popular ballets in the world. 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22. 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23. 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24. Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. $30 to $58 GA, $26 to $40 seniors/students/military, $19 to $31 large groups.Club Sanctuary Presents: Krampus Ball. Surly Wench Pub, Club Sanctuary and Plastic Disease are hosting this event for anyone who’s sick of how wholesome this season is. Enjoy Industrial +EBM music with DJ Plastic Disease and DJ NoirTech. Sinister attire is highly suggested—don’t miss potentially the only opportunity you’ll have to wear devil horns all season. In Krampus’ name, we pray to see you there. 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 22. Surly Wench Pub, 424 N. Fourth Ave. No cover. 21+.
98°. Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, Jeff Timmons, and hopefully four frosted-tip hairdos are coming to Tucson, and if you’re not freaking out, then you’ve probably never heard “Because of You,” “I Do,” or any of their other all-at-once moving and catchy ballads. The fact that they’ve never won a Grammy is proof that the world is an unjust place, but you can have a little slice of just and joy by seeing them perform their brand new Christmas album, Let it Snow. Doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22. Desert Diamond Casinos and Entertainment, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road, Sahuarita. $25 to $45.
Tags: The Nutcracker , Ballent Tucson , Krampus Ball , Surly Wench Pub , Anita’s Street Market , Barrio Anita , free , Kitschmas , Kitschmas with Brian & Ryan , Brian & Ryan , MOCA , MOCA Third Thursday , ugly sweaters , mutant gingerbread people , Outlaw Saloon , SAZCUUPS Yule , winter solstice , Unitarian universalist , pagan , a mouthful of Christmas , Iron John’s Brewing Co , Iron John’s , Santa , Santa Claus , Tucson Petting Zoo , Pump it Up , Breakfast with Santa , PYT Christmas Light Parade , Pascua Yaqui Tribe , Caravan/Car , Truck & Bike Show , Casino Del Sol , 5 Points Farmers Market , coffee , shopping , Now or Never , holiday pop up , guided meditation , Sahara Meditation , baby will you love me to the 98th degree , 98 degrees , boy bands , A Night of Remembrance , Not-so-Silent-Night , not so silent night , Evergreen Mortuary , Cheech’s Kids , Widow’s Hill , Wyl-E Wyldflower , Freebooters , Two Costa Ricans , Mary After Dark , Habitual Resonance , Method to the Madness , Ramon’s Miracle on 31st Street , Nightcrawler , Hank Topless , Hans Hutchinson , The Distortionists , Sucker for the Sour , Cove , Dr. Soap , Bordertown Devils , Krampus Crooner , Snoop Dogg , Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dogg , Black One , Bob Einweck , Monsoons
