Cover Story
Welcome to Goodmanville
In the Feldman’s Neighborhood, there’s an entire block on Adams Street lined with two-story stucco apartment buildings. Welcome to Goodmanville—a historic neighborhood dotted with clusters of high-density student housing that many refer to as mini-dorms. Michael Goodman says he’s demolished dozens of single-family homes to build new apartments as a way to address the UA’s…
Budget Breakdown: Billion-Dollar Hole
The Joint Legislative Budget Committee is done analyzing the impact of Gov. Jan Brewer’s budget action last week, when she signed some parts of the budget and vetoed others. The new JLBC estimate: The state is in the hole to the tune of $964 million. That’s a combination of two things: Brewer’s vetoes opened up…
Sierra Club Budget Reaction: “God Forbid That the Cities Actually Recover the Costs of Developments”
Sandy Bahr, legislative lobbyist for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, sent out the following reaction to the latest state budget developments: Please contact the Governor—again—and express your disappointment regarding the signing of many of the budget bills. You can contact Governor Brewer by calling her at (602) 542-4331 or toll free at…
No Furloughs at UA
University of Arizona President Robert Shelton has informed UA employees that they will not have to take a furlough this year. Shelton’s email: In the spring, when we were preparing for the current fiscal year, it was unclear whether the state would accept federal stimulus funding. In anticipation of further budget cuts for the FY10…
TAMMIES Videos!
Wanna relive the TAMMIES? Check out some clips of the event made by our man Sean Fitzpatrick on Tucson Weekly TV!
Why Can’t My Granddaughter See the President?
Emily Gray Junior High School will not be airing the president’s speech to kids on Tuesday, and I couldn’t be more disappointed. Like just about every other public school in the country, Emily Gray has a U.S. flag flying in front of it. But it’s also the alma mater of both Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and…
Onion Exclusive: Arizona Wildcats Freshman Point Guard Already Calling School ‘Zona’
A Wildcat basketball news brief you won’t see anywhere besides The Onion: TUCSON, AZ—In an effort to impress his new University of Arizona teammates, Wildcats freshman point guard Lamont Jones was already referring to the school as “Zona” after his very first practice, sources reported Tuesday. “I waited until I was halfway through junior year…
Friday Roundtable: Giffords’ Health Care Town Halls, The Big Library Fight, A Rialto Resolution (For Now) & More!
Your Labor Day Friday Roundtable courtesy of KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated, after the jump.
State Schools Chief Tom Horne: Troubled by “hero worship” of Obama
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne explains how he’s worried about Obama’s big talk to schoolkids, tells you to vote to the TUSD override and more on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated, after the jump.
A State Budget, Sorta
Just in time for Labor Day weekend, we sorta have a state budget. Not that it’s balanced or anything, but Gov. Jan Brewer did some slicing and dicing of the GOP blueprint that came her way and says she’s mostly done for now, at least when it comes to talking lawmakers into putting her sales-tax…
Now Replacing the Fist Bump
The New York Times encourages sanitary greetings with the elbow rub. Ross McDonald/The New York Times
City Week
Jeff Kashiwa in concert, Flicker screening, Sylvan Street in Concert, 13th Annual Labor Day Picnic
To Change the World
Fabian Garcia Rios was the last known migrant to die in Arizona in the month of July. The 24-year-old perished in the furnace known as the Tohono O’odham nation on July 31. His cause of death: environmental heat exposure. The young man was one of nine migrants whose bodies were found over six days during…
All About Tucson
It all started in 2005, when, with Club Congress’ 20th anniversary approaching, entertainment director David Slutes had an idea: Why not throw a big ol’ weekend-long birthday party. About 50 local bands—half of which reunited specifically for the event—performed over three nights that Labor Day weekend. For those who attended the festival, there seemed to…
Lady Leaders
A book such as Winning Their Place: Arizona Women in Politics, 1883-1950 should be a cause for celebration. For too long, the mainstream media has ignored the success of women in their long, righteous fight for their place in local and state politics. A quick Lexis-Nexis search reveals hundreds more newspaper and magazine articles devoted…
In the Pocket
The name Obituary means something to even the most casual metalhead. Way back before death metal was even called, well, death metal, teenagers in Tampa, Fla., were down-tuning guitars, stripping away melodies and fashioning heavy rhythms to create a new and fetid strain of extreme rock that had less in common with Black Sabbath and…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
Ill Will
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords brought a secret weapon to her health-care town hall in Sierra Vista on Monday night (Aug. 31): Richard Carmona, the Tucson doctor who served as surgeon general in the Bush administration. It was Carmona who made the case for reform at the start of the meeting, telling the capacity crowd of 1,300…
Greymachine: Disconnected (Hyrdra-Head)
“Wolf at the Door,” the opening track on Disconnected, rises like a monolith of sound from the ashes and detritus of heavy metal, industrial and grindcore. This collaboration features the leaders of two of the heaviest bands ever: Justin K. Broadrick of Jesu and Godflesh fame, and Aaron Turner of Isis. They are joined by…
Diamond-Worthy
Right next to the host/hostess’ stand at Westward Look’s revamped Gold restaurant sit a couple of recent AAA Four Diamond Award plaques. That can’t help but raise a diner’s expectations. After all, only six Southern Arizona restaurants currently enjoy that honor (and only one, the Ventana Room, has earned Five Diamond honors). What, exactly, does…
Heritage Holdup
Gaze south from the Santa Cruz River’s parched banks, and you’ll glimpse trappings of the past—the august San Xavier Mission, the vast desert plains, the irrigation acequias that carried precious water to early crops. But glance eastward toward the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and you’ll just discover a modern political roadblock. On April…
Jack Peñate: Everything Is New (XL)
It’s hard to ignore how much the ultra-British lilt in Jack Peñate’s vocal delivery recalls Robert Smith. He has that same taffy-mouthed roundness to his vowels, and title track “Everything Is New” features bass-heavy verses with bedroom vocals that could have come right off the Cure’s seminal 1986 compilation album, Standing on a Beach. Which,…
Noshing Around
Fantastic Fritters Self-proclaimed fritter fanatic Jack Schiro called in to say the best apple fritters he’d ever tried can be found at Wheel Donuts at 3860 E. Pima St., so we headed out for a taste test. The fritters come in two sizes—large and ridiculously large—and are indeed the most decadent breakfast item to touch…
Weapon Awareness
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is one of the “Anti-Gun Foursome,” according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which labels itself as “the trade association for the firearms industry.” He joins Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein with that distinction. Yet the foundation is…
A.A. Bondy: When the Devil’s Loose (Fat Possum)
What in the hell happened to ex-Verbena frontman Auguste Arthur Bondy? Less than six years ago, he was leading his Birmingham, Ala., blues-punk trio into unnervingly loud guitar-rock territory. After major-label releases earned lukewarm praise, Bondy broke up the band, moved to upstate New York and recorded his solo debut, American Hearts, in a weathered…
The Skinny
LIBRARY TROUBLE The citizens of Oro Valley are in quite an uproar over their library taxes. Oro Valley remains the only town in Pima County to have its own library; the other 26 libraries are run exclusively by the Pima County Public Library District. That means that Oro Valley shells out about $700,000 annually to…
Nine Questions
Lance Pope
Media Watch
R Dub taco stunt doesn’t sit well with Border Patrol, Marino bids adieu to KVOA
Top Ten in Music
Toxic Ranch Records top sales for the week
Police Dispatch
PROBLEM CHILD WITH PROBLEMS NORTH SAN ANNA DRIVE AUG. 6, 9:12 P.M.A A 15-year-old boy took on threatening tendencies after being ridiculed by a male acquaintance, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. The subject’s mother said that when her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend arrived home from Red Lobster that evening, her son…
Live
The Warlocks, the Morning After Girls, Gliss
Danehy
Some industrial-strength party-pooper recently told me that I’m going to die some day. I had never really given it much thought, but I suppose I’m going to have to think about it at some time in the future, especially after Obama forces mandatory health insurance on me, and I have to go in front of…
Soundbites
LABEL-HOPPERS Sub Pop isn’t exactly a label known for dropping bands. In fact, over the years, it has retained some fairly mediocre acts a bit longer than it probably should have. Portland, Ore.’s, The Thermals is not one of those bands. Brought to Sub Pop by Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, The Thermals signed…
Serraglio
A menace is loose upon the landscape. It is spreading like hives across the skin of the earth, slowly strangling the saguaros and choking the chollas that define our Sonoran Desert. To date, it has proven to be tenaciously resilient, spectacularly successful and utterly uncontrollable. It is Pennisetum ciliare, more commonly known by the rather…
War Machine
It’s generally considered poor form to start a war. Many would even think it’s wrong, in an ethico-moral sense. And yet, with some regularity, people go ahead and start wars. But to do so in a modern, democratic society requires a degree of consensus, and that leads to the need for either a very good…
Guest Opinion
Mining in the United States has become a difficult undertaking in the past few years, mainly due to environmental activism and the increasing constraints applied to new development. Yet despite the opposition, some companies are proceeding with development, because the rate of return on investment can be supported by the value of the mineral deposit…
Unmasking Crap
Rob Zombie did a pretty good job with Halloween in 2007. I didn’t really like his take, but it definitely had a hint of decent filmmaking. He also got the mask right, which hadn’t happened since John Carpenter’s 1978 original. When it was announced that Zombie would continue his “vision” of slasher Michael Myers, I…
Coming Soon!
Here are answers to some questions that I know you’ve been dying to ask: • Isn’t it almost Best of Tucson® time? Why, yes, it is. We’re putting the finishing touches on the issue, and you’ll have it in your hands (or on your computer screen) on Thursday, Sept. 24. In other words, look for…
Now Showing at Home
State of Play (Blu-Ray), Adventureland, Earth (Blu-Ray), Fast and Furious
Mailbag
Arizona’s Jaguar Habitat Must Be Protected The loss of the jaguar called Macho B is a tragedy, one that must not be repeated (Guest Commentary, Aug. 6). The decision to capture and collar Macho B lacked a scientifically based long-term vision for jaguar conservation in the state and the country. To this point, ignoring the…
T Q&A
Zeke Gebrekidane
Ask a Mexican!
I am a 22-year-old Mexican-American woman, still living with my parents but going to college, working full-time and taking care of myself financially. I grew up in a very traditional Mexican household, the youngest of four kids, and we were all born in the United States. I’m unmarried but have a steady boyfriend I have…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Shapes and Styles
If paintings with names like “Pegasus” and “Modern Dream” pique your interest, you might want to check out the artists’ reception at Tansey Gallery, occurring as part of the ARTWalk at Gallery Row (www.tucsongalleryrow.com) next Thursday, Sept. 10. The reception will welcome brand-new art pieces by the gallery’s in-house consultants, Kristy Lynn and Andrea Peterson.…
Barbarians Rule!
As in all of the most successful shows at the Gaslight Theatre, a delightful sense of comic anarchy rules over Cronan the Barbarian. In this production, set in a vague ancient time, pirates and Roman-style slave drivers collude; an evil sorceress and a pure-of-heart princess collide; and parodies of Conan and Xena save the day…
Mars: Gullies and Dunes
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona NASA/JPL/University of Arizona NASA/JPL/University of Arizona More great snapshots of Mars taken by the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Zilair Crater? The dunes of Aonia Terra? Who names these places, Edgar Rice Burroughs? The first shot features gullies at the edge of Hale Crater. Shane…
When Yoga and Vodka Collide
I apologize if you’re Russian, or if you love yoga and you feel I’ve insulted you by sharing the following pictures here and here.
Cougars Congregate … Wince
“It’s just nice to be around intelligent women with life experience.” “They are eager to please …” “… Think about it, if you’re with an older individual, it’s not bullshit.” And here, they say no one was harmed at a recent Cougar Convention?
No Johnson From Levi
News flash: Levi Johnston, father of Sarah Palin’s first grandchild, is going to pose for Playgirl. Read the story here on Gawker. Unfortunately—or perhaps this is good news—Johnston won’t pose showing his privates. What’s the point of being in Playgirl? He doesn’t seem ripped enough to make other photos worth the newsstand price? This is…
Ward 5 Election Result: Who Cares?
The Winner: Shaun McClusky The results are in for the city’s only contested primary yesterday: Shaun McClusky beat Judith Gomez. McClusky captured 59 percent of the vote. In raw numbers: McClusky got 456 votes, while Gomez got 318 votes. That’s a pretty unimpressive turnout, but then again, there are only 4,398 Republicans in Ward 5,…
