Cover Story
Genetic Detectives
Matt Kaplan and I go way back—some 10,000 years or so, according to our common Y chromosome. Kaplan, the director of research at the UA’s Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory, and I are both members of Y chromosome haplogroup J2 (M172), which means we—like every other human male alive today—had a common ancestor somewhere around northeast…
World Cup of Arizona Politics
Blogger Ted Prezelski of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion—and a major soccer junkie—recently conducted a survey of his readers to determine the World Cup of Arizona Politics. It was, he says, a “way of seeing who is still remembered and who should be remembered.” The big winners: Mo Udall, Terry Goddard and Gabrielle Giffords. Prezelski will…
New Addition To Ward 6 Staff: Jasper the Marbled Pole Cat
Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik meeting with Jasper the Marbled Pole Cat Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik sends The Range a picture of himself meeting with his new advisor, Jasper the Marbled Pole Cat. As regular readers may recall, TW endorsed Jasper in the Ward 6 race. Kozachik says he’s “in my one-on-one consultation with…
City Manager Mike Letcher: “We’re Out Of One-Time Fixes”
A page from City Manager Mike Letcher’s briefing to the City Council It’s not often that a budget briefing brings hundreds of people down to a City Council meeting on a Tuesday afternoon. But it’s not often that the city is discussing how to plug a $32 million hole in the budget with only six…
Overflow Crowd at City Hall
Hundreds of people have turned out for today’s Tucson City Council meeting. Most appear upset at the idea of cuts to police and fire services. City Manager Mike Letcher is floating the idea of a rental tax, now renamed the “landlord tax.” More to come.
Drink Beer, Help the Hungry
A limited-edition beer made by Barrio Brewing Company is being sold around town through Christmas to benefit Caridad de Porres, which provides more than 100,000 meals to hungry people across Pima County every year. The beer has a Facebook page, which you can check out here. And the Arizona Daily Star did a nice story…
Out of the Frying Pan…
Michael Chihak In his time as publisher of the Tucson Citizen, Michael Chihak did all he could to turn around the struggling afternoon newspaper that was put to sleep by Gannett earlier this year. Sadly, Chihak’s focus on local news and opinion wasn’t enough to save the Gray Señorita (although an electronic version lives on…
UA Economist Marshall Vest: State Budget Crisis “Looks To Be Unsolvable”
UA economist Marshall Vest became the latest Cassandra to warn about the state government’s impending financial collapse. Vest and fellow Eller School big-brain Gerald Swanson delivered their annual financial forecast last week. Guess what? The news is not good. Although the private sector is creeping out of the recession (at least at the national level),…
More From Mars
We got some good news about the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from the morning daily this weekend: The UA Lunar and Planetary Lab says the MRO should be working fine again after some repairs.We’re delighted to hear that we’re going to continue to get images like these: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona NASA/JPL/University of…
Friday Roundtable: Kozachik & Fimbres
Our newly elected councilmen, Republican Steve Kozachik and Democrat Richard Fimbres, stop by Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable to talk about the city’s $31 million budget shortfall, roads, light rail, the downtown hotel and more. Kozachik, BTW, wants to drop the city’s lawsuit to stop the state from imposing non-partisan and ward-only elections in Tucson. Fimbres…
Friday Roundtable: State Budget Free-Fall Continues, Grijlava Wades Into Health-Care Reform and Linda Wonders Why Tucson Country Club Has a “No Girls Allowed” Rule
To go with your Sunday news talk shows: It’s the Friday Roundtable from KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated, after the jump!
So Long, Conchords!
I’m going to miss Flight of the Conchords. Can we dream of a big-screen version someday?
Another Toole Avenue Sale
After earlier buying one Toole Avenue warehouse from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) for just over its appraised value, on Friday, Dec. 11, Steve Fenton forked over about twice the estimated value of another building on the street. The structure at 15-19 E. Toole had been valued at $265,000 by ADOT, but Fenton won…
Bruce Bartlett: AZ Congressman Trent Franks “Isn’t The Worst Hypocrite I’ve Ever Come Across In Washington, But He’s Got To Be In The Top 10”
Bruce Bartlett, a senior policy analyst in the Reagan Administration and columnist for Forbes.com, called out Arizona Congressman Trent Franks in a recent article about the health-care debate and why Republicans have little credibility when it comes to talking about fiscal responsibility. The whole piece is worth reading as a reminder of how bad the…
Nate Silvers vs. Raul Grijalva
Political analyst Nate Silvers says Democrats like Congressman Raul Grijalva shouldn’t get too worked up about the Senate health-care package. Among his reasons: 1) The energy by progressive activists on behalf of the public option has done more good than harm, and by a wide margin. 2a) Nevertheless, the public option is/was a relatively minor…
More Pushback From Grijalva on Health Care
We mentioned yesterday that Congressman Raul Grijalva was starting to complain that that Senate health-care package was getting too watered-down. Grijalva pushed even harder today. Talking Points Memo reports: An influential progressive in the House of Representatives says that the public option compromise taking shape in the Senate might not survive the lower chamber—particularly if…
Jessica Cox: “Born Without Arms” Documentary on TLC
In August of this year, I met licensed pilot Jessica Cox and went on a flight with her around San Manuel, Ariz. Jessica is the first U.S. pilot certified to fly a non-modified plane using her feet without prosthetics. Visit http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/messina/Content?oid=1306035 to read the column. In October, Jessica went to Hawaii and tried surfing for…
Staggering Heights: The Special Edition
Longtime TW readers may recall “Staggering Heights,” a ongoing comic strip by Joe Forkan, whose work also graced many a cover for TW through the 1990s. Joe is now an associate professor of art at California State Fullerton. Check out some of his latest work here. He’s also posting those old strips on his Staggering…
Fats Fantastic!
There’s a party onstage at the Temple of Music and Art. It’s hosted by the Arizona Theatre Company, and we’re all invited. It even has a name: Ain’t Misbehavin’. And, oh baby, yeah, it is a Tony Award-winning tribute to the music and mischief of Thomas “Fats” Waller. Thanks to the talented cast of five…
Rugby Run
Morgan Freeman delivers an astoundingly good performance as Nelson Mandela in Invictus, from director Clint Eastwood. The film seems like it’s on its way to greatness in the beginning, with Mandela dealing with the difficulties of being South Africa’s first black president. Unfortunately, the film goes off track; by its underwhelming sporting-event finale, it has…
Top Ten in Music
The 17th Street Guitars and World Music Store top sales for the week
Shepherds, Rejoice!
In this age of big-budget movies and streaming video, it’s easy to question the value of live theater. A movie ticket is cheap, and theater certainly can’t compare in terms of pyrotechnics or CGI. Is there, in fact, anything you can do onstage that can’t be done better on film? The answer is a resounding…
Now Showing at Home
Inglourious Basterds (Blu-Ray); Lost: The Complete Fifth Season; Terminator Salvation (Blu-Ray)
Hooked on Clay
John McNulty claims he became a ceramicist because he couldn’t draw. “I wanted to be an artist,” he says, but he was discouraged about his drawing prowess, or lack thereof, when he was an art student at the State University of New York at Potsdam—so discouraged, in fact, that he added a second major and…
Police Dispatch
SOUND BITE CATALINA HIGHWAY NOV. 9, 6:15 P.M. A wife took a bite out of her husband’s wrist when he tried to tape-record an argument, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report stated. Deputies found the wife locked in the couple’s bedroom. After they enticed her out, she explained that her husband had served her with…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books top sales for the week
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Miracle Cat
Big cats breed obsession, and the jaguar is the biggest one there is in the New World. For centuries, this perfect predator’s little-known habits and little-seen form have been wrapped into human ritual and art, appearing in creation myths, sacrificial routines and the deepest, darkest fears and excitements of the common jungle dweller. The jaguar…
The Curious Society
In the industrial neighborhood south of Ajo Way, just down the street from Tucson Electric Park, imagination and science are coming together inside the walls of a plain-looking steel structure. This is Joe O’Connell’s Creative Machines, where designers, precision machinists and carpenters work on projects destined for children’s museums and science centers far, far away…
Tiny Joint, Tasty Eats
South 12th Avenue is a culinary gold mine. You’ll find Best of Tucson™ winner El Guero Canelo, the place that made the Sonoran hot dog famous. Just down the street is La Estrella Bakery, a longtime family-run business that cranks out pounds and pounds of pan dulce and hundreds of tortillas daily. You’ll find some…
Sweet Therapy
For more than 20 years, the terrific singer Candye Kane has performed blues, country, roots rock and jazz in a powerful, bodacious manner. Kane’s brash, over-the-top persona was never a calculated stage act; it was her method of empowering herself to triumph over what she describes as a “hard-knock life.” “I often say that songwriting…
Water Rights
On Dec. 4, a year after he was cited for littering on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, activist Walt Staton was back in federal court, because he refused to pick up garbage. Staton, a seminary student, told Magistrate Jennifer Guerin that he couldn’t in good conscience agree to 300 hours of trash-gathering community service,…
Noshing Around
National Lager Day Need an antidote to holiday stress? How about pausing for a pint-sized celebration of National Lager Day on Thursday, Dec. 10? Austin Santos, of 1702, the restaurant and beer hall at 1702 E. Speedway Blvd. that took this year’s Best of Tucson™ award for Best Beer Selection on Tap, suggests celebrating with…
Threats and Degradation
The federal government’s border fence has been called the Tortilla Curtain. But in the swamp of border politics, there’s a more effective barrier at play, one that filters ideas rather than people. It explains why most Americans still don’t fully understand the disaster on our southern border. This tortilla curtain is propped up by much…
Singing Aussies
Boyd Owen, a member of the Ten Tenors, uses one word to describe the brand of fun that the singing studs bring to the stage: “Australian.” “What do you expect? We come straight from the beach,” he says. “We like to mess around and have fun, and we bring that into our shows.” These Aussies…
The Skinny
AS OUR ECONOMIC MELTDOWN CONTINUES … State Treasurer Dean Martin, who may or may not be challenging troubled Gov. Jan Brewer in next year’s Republican primary, shouted out a warning last week: The state has blown through its $700 million dollar credit line and had to dig into some internal accounts for another $73 million.…
Soundbites
GET ME NEW YEAR’S INFO, DAMMIT! To start off, a quick reminder to all clubs, restaurants, other venues and/or promoters hosting New Year’s Eve celebrations that will feature live music or other similar festivities: There are only a couple of days left to send me details about your event to be included in our annual…
Danehy
One of my favorite books from the past couple of years is Playing the Enemy by John Carlin. It’s a straightforward and stirring account of how a fledgling national leader skillfully used sports to help heal a country and quite possibly prevent a bloodbath that could have turned into genocide. During his nearly three decades…
City Week
Heavenly Harmony “Harps and Angels” 7:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 11 UA Steve Eller Dance Theatre 1713 E. University Blvd. 621-1162; arizona.tix.com There are some things that little girls love: princesses, horses and … harps? Well, maybe little girls don’t love the harps themselves, but they love what harps conjure: The melodies that come from harp…
Guest Opinion
Some of the most polarizing issues of the era have been approved by narrow votes in the U.S. Senate. The war over Kuwait was authorized by the Senate in 1991 on a 52-47 vote. Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was approved 52-48 that same year. Two years later, President Clinton’s economic program…
Downing
You’ve got to admire the Legislature for its imagination in finding new ways to earn the wholehearted contempt of the people of Arizona—and, to the extent to which they pay any attention to our dopey little border state, the derision of people everywhere. The introduction of a bill asking Arizonans to donate money to the…
Cold Cave: Love Comes Close (Matador)
On Cold Cave’s debut, Love Comes Close, the music works as minimalist dance pop, but everything about the way it’s contextualized is awful. Essentially, what they’re doing is grafting sour grapes onto disco pep. Sonically, they capture the spirit of the endeavor, but the album can’t rise above its own basic stupidity. Though the opening…
Confidential to …
• Confidential to readers who confuse Jonathan Paton and Jonathan Hoffman: They’re two rather different people. A reader last week told me that he’s been upset at Paton—a Republican state senator who is considering a run for Congress—ever since he wrote a Guest Commentary (July 30) criticizing Tucsonans who still have Obama bumper stickers on…
Blind Divine: Breathing Spell (Mysticus)
On its new album, Blind Divine honors a dreamy dark-ambient tradition, and adds generous helpings of hazy shoegaze, but if you listen more closely, you’ll hear the Tucson-based band exploring something more substantial. Against soundscapes not unlike those created by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois for U2’s The Unforgettable Fire, guitarists Daniel Martin Diaz and…
Giving While Green
Ah, the holidays. ‘Tis the season for driving, buying, wrapping, packaging, mailing, shelving and trashing. We’re all worrying about what’s in our wallets this year—for good reason—but as we selflessly hit the streets to buy gifts for our friends and family, we should also think about what the money that comes out of our wallets…
Media Watch
Gannett furlough will affect about 400 locally; ‘Marana Weekly News’ moving to subscription model; KVOA adds reporters
Dreaming of DVDs?
First and foremost on any home-entertainment gift list this year should be a Blu-Ray player. It’s time to get with the format, folks. The players are cheaper these days, and most Blu-Ray discs don’t cost much more than standard DVDs. In some cases, Blu-Ray discs even cost less. This gift guide includes a lot of…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: As a Chicano/Mexican, I have lost my faith in God. While they take pride in their country like everyone else, and like to make frequent jokes, Mexicans are generally very humble (poor) people. Isn’t God supposed to be on the side of the poor and humble? Why is it that Mexico always loses…
Devendra Banhart: What Will We Be (Warner Bros.)
The unpunctuated title of Devendra Banhart’s new album reads like a questioning of style and substance. After making the transition from his early ramshackle folk into the bombastic shape-shifting of 2007’s Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, Banhart attempts here to appropriate his entire career, with mixed results. Opener “Can’t Help but Smiling,” a dreamy, empty…
History on CD
To younger music fans—or at least those hipper than I—the idea of CD box sets must seem hopelessly passé. Given file-sharing and the growing number of digital-download Web sites, both legal and otherwise, owning a bunch of music by one artist on several CDs in a cardboard box—no matter how cool the graphics and extras—is…
Live
The Haymarket Squares
Mailbag
Oppose Health-Care Reform? Then You Get to Pay More! Effective immediately: Due to the crippling cost of health care, all Republican and “moderate” Democrat customers opposing health-care reform will be assessed a $30 health-care surcharge. It is the Joe Lieberman surcharge (Downing, Nov. 12). An ashamed Republican, James Stilley Smokers Should Not Get Government Assistance…
Nine Questions
Paula Taylor
Weekly Wide Web
Ever wonder where you came from? If your mom isn’t around to give you the answer, we’ve got it right here. The folks at the UA’s Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory are in the process of mapping where in the world we all came from. The short answer comes in the form of a genetic family…
Hybrid Gone Wrong
Back in the late ’80s, if you paid money to see a Corey Haim/Corey Feldman movie, you were probably interested in watching a dopey teen comedy. And if you went to see a film starring Jason Robards which focused on the romantic and religious life of an elderly man, you were probably not the audience…
T Q&A
Theodore Buchholz
Robots at Work: Inside the Human Origins Genotyping Laboratory
I talk about the robots that work at the Human Origins Genotyping Story in this week’s cover story, but you need to see them in action to really appreciate what’s going on there. Our Web producer, Nick Smith, shot a short video where Matt Kaplan, the lab’s director, explains how the robots do their thing.
Hog Trough Challenge
Oh, you want meat, huh? Try the Hog Pit Smokehouse Bar and Grill ‘s (6910 E. Tanque Verde Road) “Hog Trough Challenge” on for size. Your mission, should you choose to consume it, is to eat a super sandwich comprised of one pound of hamburger, one pound of pulled pork and one pound of chopped…
