Cover Story
Murder in the Desert
Nothing announces death like utter silence. And here on Mesquite Street in Arivaca, on a day of demure breezes and flawless skies, silence has become the common tongue between myself and events beyond my grasp. Consider the yard, with its stilled trampoline and teeter-totter. Or the hushed patio and the dusty, rusting barbecue. Or the…
Rabago Announces AG Run Today
Vince Rabago, the former chair of the Pima County Democratic Party and an assistant attorney general, will formally announce his plans to run for Arizona attorney general today. He’ll face two other former prosecutors, David Lujan and Felecia Rotellini, in the Democratic primary. On the GOP side, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who lost to…
The Frozen Dunes of Mars
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona NASA/JPL/University of Arizona More images from UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera in orbit above Mars. That’s sand spilling across dry ice on on the floor a crater in the lower image. Cindy Hansen fills us in: Dunes are often found on crater floors. In the winter time at high northern…
Farley Report: Brewer’s Budget “An Unmitigated Disaster That Will Worsen Our Unprecedented Crisis”
The latest legislative summary from state Rep. Steve Farley: The Capitol is emptying out a bit this week: Three Republican Senators have already announced their intention to resign and run for Congress — Paton against Giffords, and Waring & Gorman for the vacant seat left by Shadegg’s retirement. Perhaps they were not looking forward to…
The Shifting 2010 Landscape
Well, I guess that time spent interviewing Vernon Parker last month was kind of a waste of time… Parker, the mayor of Paradise Valley, has abandoned his gubernatorial ambitions to pursue the congressional seat that U.S. Rep. John Shadegg is giving up this year. That’s going to be a crowded primary, seeing how at least…
Replacing Jonathan Paton: Antenori Vs. McClure?
Republican Jonathan Paton will be resigning his state Senate seat to jump into the Congressional District 8 against Democrat Gabrielle Giffords later this year. District 30 state Rep. Frank Antenori has already announced he plans to run for Paton’s Senate seat later this year. “A lot of folks are happy with me and they want…
Amparo Sanchez Con Calexico
Here’s a nifty music video that Spanish sensation Amparo Sanchez shot in Tucson with our friends from Calexico last fall. The director is Dan Vinik, who is also directing the Calexico film Flor de Muertos, which was shot at the Rialto Theatre during the Day of the Dead concert last November.
Scarpinato Joins Paton Campaign
Daniel Scarpinato, the former Arizona Daily Star political reporter, is leaving his job with the Arizona Capitol Times to work as the press guy for Republican Jonathan Paton’s campaign for the Congressional District 8 seat now held by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords.
Pima County Democrats: “When the Going Gets Tough, Paton Quits”
The sparks are flying fast in Congressional District 8. Today, the Pima County Democratic Party blasted Republican state Sen. Jonathan Paton’s plans to resign from the Arizona Legislature for a shot at challenging Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords: State Sen. Jonathan Paton is pledging to bring the failures of Phoenix to Washington, D.C., and to return to…
Paton to Democrats: Bush Story is Baloney
Republican State Sen. Jonathan Paton has confirmed to The Range that he’s running for the congressional seat now held by Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords—and issued his first press release of the campaign, which flatly denies a press release issued earlier today by the Arizona Democratic Party. Here’s the original statement from Arizona Democratic Party Executive…
Friday Roundtable: Week In Review
The Friday Roundtable gang at KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated talk about the State of the State, the city’s budget troubles and more! Watch it all after the jump.
Friday Roundtable: Dean Martin
My colleagues and I on KUAT-TV’s Friday Roundtable had a few questions for state Treasurer Dean Martin, who announced this week that he was running for governor. He says the state does not need any tax increases, unless voters agree to pay more to maintain health-care coverage for people earning up to 100 percent of…
Giffords Responds to Paton Challenge
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has already issued a statement responding to the challenge of state Sen. Jonathan Paton, even though Paton hasn’t announced he’s in the race yet: I have known Jonathan since middle school and have been friends with him for years. As a third generation Tucsonan and former businesswoman, I work hard to represent…
Paton For Congress, Antenori For State Senate
If state Sen. Jonathan Paton does announce tomorrow that he will get into the race for the Congressional District 8 seat now held by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, we can expect Rep. Frank Antenori to look for a promotion to Paton’s Senate seat. Antenori believes Paton will run for Congress; he sent out the following bulletin…
Democratic State Sen. Rebecca Rios: Reax To Brewer Budget Proposal
State Sen. Rebecca Rios has released a statement on Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposed budget: The governor’s budget continues to take Arizona down the wrong path. We hope that in the coming days Arizonans will see that this budget is completely unworkable and only cause more damage to our already ailing economy. A primary concern with…
Paton Delays Announcement
State Sen. Jonathan Paton, who had said that we would know whether he was running for the congressional seat held by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords by Saturday, now says that he’ll have something to tell us on Sunday.
Munger Wants Showdown With Brewer
Republican gubernatorial candidate John Munger answers Gov. Jan Brewer call for her rivals to present a plan. Governor Brewer: Last week, you issued a request to receive in the next five days “substantive, realistic proposals from…potential gubernatorial candidates on how they plan to fix the state’s fiscal crisis.” I have developed a plan which actually…
House Democrats Respond to Brewer Budget
State Rep. David Lujan has released a statement on the budget: Today the governor released a budget plan that continues to push Arizona down the wrong track and makes even more devastating cuts to education, jobs and health care. To get Arizona on the right track, Democrats support making cuts to wasteful, non-essential services, closing…
Brewer Budget: There Will Be Blood
We forecast in this week’s Skinny that Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposed budget cuts would be brutal. We were right. RAND CARLSON Gov. Jan Brewer’s budget proposal: Goodbye to all that We’ve gotten our first look at the governor’s budget proposal. The grim news: Even with a one-cent sales-tax increase, state government is going to decimated.…
Tucson Hip-Hop Artist Ciphurphace Selected for Sponsored-Songs Program
Ciphurphace’s song “Just a Microphone Check” was selected for a sponsored-songs program called “Playlist 7” by ReverbNation and Windows. Here’s more info from a press release. Note the first stage of the promo ends Monday, Jan. 18. Who is Ciphurphace? Imagine Confucius and Shakespeare in the recording booth reciting ill 16’s after consuming four Red…
It’s Budget Day!
Gov. Jan Brewer is releasing her budget today. Early forecasts call for deep, deep cuts.
Clean Elections: The End of Matching Funds?
As we forecast in The Skinny, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver may be prepared to do away with the matching-funds provision of Clean Elections. But it’s not inconceivable that she could leave it in place for 2010, too. The Range would not be sorry to see Clean Elections eliminated altogether. We have our reasons.
KXCI 91.3 Commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King
Monday, Jan. 18, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. KXCI FM 91.3 will mark the day by offering special programming. From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., excerpts from Dr. King’s speeches and interviews with Tucson African American community members will be interspersed with historic and contemporary music. To read Dr. King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize…
Espresso Pundit Predicts: Andrew Thomas Won’t Run For AG?
Patterson’s prediction: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas will be indicted along Sheriff Joe Arpaio, foiling Thomas’ plans to run for Arizona attorney general.
Shadegg Retires
Arizona’s 2010 landscape just got a little more interesting with the retirement of Congressman John Shadegg. The Fix reports: “Representing the people of Arizona in the House has been one of the greatest privileges of my life,” Shadegg said in a statement. “And, while it would be difficult to leave this position at any time,…
Lujan Launches AG Campaign
State Rep. David Lujan has officially launched his campaign for Arizona attorney general. He’ll be going up against Felecia Rotellini in the Democratic primary. Vince Rabago, an assistant attorney general and the former chair of the Pima County Democratic Party, is also expected to get into the race.
How to Help Haiti
We could post video of Pat Robertson once again proving to be an embarrassment to the U.S., but what really needs to get around is the response of Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the United States: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy There are dozens of agencies soliciting donations…
Business is Booming at Lindy’s on Fourth
Lindy Reilly of Lindy’s on Fourth says business has doubled since the restaurant was featured on the Travel Channel’s Man V. Food last month. “It turned it from a bus ride into a freight-train ride,” said Reilly. The show’s star, Adam Richman, took on Lindy’s 12-patty O.M.F.G. burger (the show dropped the “F,” calling it…
Meet the Teaching Artists at TDS
The Drawing Studio, this year’s Best of Tucson(R) winner for Best Art Classes, will hold an open house this Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. when TDS’s new and returning “teaching artists” (including yours truly) will display their work and answer any questions you may have about their upcoming classes. From its humble beginnings…
Live
The Wooden Ball, Friday, Jan. 8 and Saturday, Jan. 9
Burdened Beasts
Cross-border drug smuggling is a nasty trade that generates much misery, and that extends to the horses used to carry loads across Southern Arizona’s remotest lands. When these animals are too worn out to work anymore, the traffickers often cut them loose to fend for themselves. The lucky ones are found alive. But lucky is…
Pretentiously Played
If Funshine Care Bear came to life and excreted an enormous mound of feces, that feces would be the movie The Lovely Bones. It’s a steaming, treacly pile of excrescence, frosted with visuals that look like they were adapted from the pink, lace-covered dream journal of a unicorn-collecting scrapbooker. Essentially, if Walt Disney made a…
The Thing About Mirrors
A couple of interesting comments at TucsonWeekly.com have led me to believe that I need to clarify something: Just because we cover something doesn’t mean we agree with it. Last week’s fine cover story on Dr. Jane Orient and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons upset several folks, who said we shouldn’t be giving…
Now Showing at Home
Pandorum (Blu-Ray); Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Two-Disc Blu-Ray+DVD); 10 Things I Hate About You (10th Anniversary DVD); Winnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You (Special Edition)
Let’s Do the Time Warp!
Staging The Rocky Horror Show presents an interesting challenge to any theater company. Devoted fans have loved this cult-classic rock musical, as well as its midnight-movie version, for more than 30 years, and some of these devotees are guaranteed to show up. A director must take care to respect the fans’ intimate knowledge of the…
More Magic Needed
I’ve made no secret of my love for director Terry Gilliam. Even when his movies are terrible (Tideland being his worst), he still manages to convey his crazed sense of invention. Unfortunately, in his more recent films, that sense of invention has come with an annoying lack of focus. Most movie buffs and Gilliam fans…
City Week
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg reading; Art Garfunkel performing with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra; Laughing Wild; Boobs, Funbags and Other Strange Works
Danehy
An absolutist will tell you that a phallic symbol is anything that is longer than it is wide. Similarly, an absolutist civil libertarian will claim that you can walk up behind somebody, place the barrel of a gun a millimeter from the victim’s head, and pull the trigger—and in that split second before the bullet…
Soundbites
HAVE SOME ‘FITS’ When Austin trio White Denim last played in Tucson, opening for Tapes ‘n Tapes in May 2008, they were a very young band with only a couple of singles and a four-song EP, Let’s Talk About It—released on the band’s own label, Full Time Hobby—to its credit. This week, the band returns…
Messina
I’m seated barefoot in a tent with 13 people, in total darkness. We rest on a curved bench which surrounds hot rocks on the ground. Water has been added to the rocks, and steam surrounds us. A woman speaks gently, reciting prayers and words of gratitude. A talking stick is passed from person to person,…
Sustainable Situations
Mark Growden admits that he might never have started singing and writing songs had he not been ripped off. Growden was a jazz saxophonist and music teacher in his adopted hometown of San Francisco—until in 1997, when his instruments were stolen. So he started writing songs on accordion and singing. Soon, he was playing banjo,…
Guest Opinion
Maybe the U.S. Forest Service needs a dope slap. Any politician can tell you that there are two constituencies you don’t want to mess with: senior citizens and the permanently disabled. Yet the Forest Service has riled both groups by proposing to eliminate the 50 percent discount at national forest campgrounds that has been available…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Celebration of the Ordinary
We are all residents of Grover’s Corners. Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town, first produced in 1938 and now onstage at the Rogue Theatre, claims us as citizens, right alongside the unremarkable population of this small New Hampshire town. Their troubles and their triumphs, modest as they may be, are our own. Our Town is…
Nine Questions
Matt Henry
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m surprised by the choice of the word “amnesty” by those who would demonize immigration reform, especially in the South. Doesn’t the modern well-being of many Southerners derive in some way from their ancestors having sworn to amnesty oaths, both before and after the Civil War? Isn’t it being disingenuous to make the…
Weekly Wide Web
If you’ve been keeping up with local politics, you know that two words can sum up our current financial situation: We’re broke. While the repercussions may not be immediately apparent to Joe Citizen, he’ll see it when the streets become bumpier, and there is even less to watch on TV. The folks down at Access…
Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week
Adult Cartoon
Cougars and mullets and strippers, oh my! This ain’t Kansas; this is The Great American Trailer Park Musical, where instead of the Emerald City, you’ll find the Armadillo Acres trailer park, whose denizens proudly view their “white trash” lives through rose-colored glasses. After an overture of songs from shifting radio stations that suggest the variety…
Redlands: Are You Breathing? (Self-Released)
The first few seconds of Redlands’ second full-length album are somewhat surprising: Fast electric guitars and drums start to kick up dust and an upbeat country-rock rhythm. It doesn’t exactly sound like the sad, sleepy Redlands of yesteryear. Of course, this is surprising in a good way; all of Are You Breathing? is smoother, happier…
Media Watch
KNST adds morning-show host, program director
Vampire Weekend: Contra (XL)
It’s fair to say that Vampire Weekend’s debut was overdiscussed and overhyped. That’s not to badmouth the album; it was a slight, delightful confection. But the frenetic buzz surrounding the band—the blogosphere debates over the band’s merits—made them into the Jonathan Safran Foer of indie rock: Are they smug literati or jubilant man-boys? It is…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Insane Reality
When writer Philip Caputo first came to Patagonia in 1996, he wasn’t looking for the Arizona-Mexico borderlands to become a canvas for his fiction. More than anything, he wanted to escape the crowds and cold of Connecticut and spend a few months every year roaming the mountains with his hunting dogs and his rifle, hiking…
Ólöf Arnalds: Við og Við (One Little Indian)
Við og Við, Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólöf Arnalds’ solo debut, was originally released in Iceland back in 2007, and is only finding a U.S. home this week. Opening 2010 with an album like Við og Við could perhaps inject this decade with a deep sense of melody, history and space. Although she has been compared to…
The Skinny
THERE WILL BE BLOOD When Gov. Jan Brewer delivered her first State of the State speech on Monday, Jan. 11, expectations were quite low—so some audience members thought she did a pretty good job, despite her tendency to screw up the timing on most of her good lines. The folks who liked the speech were…
Sushi Delights
Our friend Beth, a sushi novice, is getting ready to head for Hawaii on a contract gig, and she wanted to give it a shot. We’d just had a nice lunch at the new Kazoku Sushi and Japanese Cuisine a couple of days before, and we thought it would be a fine place to take…
T Q&A
Shanti Sellz and Debbie Weingarten
Police Dispatch
A PENETRATING EXPERIENCE EAST BENSON HIGHWAY DEC. 19, 11:43 P.M. A volatile man attacked deputies with everything he had, including his teeth, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. Deputies arrived at the subject’s trailer, where they met with his girlfriend. She told deputies the two had been casually playing dominoes when, all of…
Mailbag
It Was Juliet, Not Romeo, Who Said That “‘What’s in a name?’ inquires Romeo in the Bard’s famed tale of doomed love.” Thus begins “All in the Family” (Performing Arts, Jan. 7). Actually, Romeo does not so inquire, because the line in question belongs to Juliet (Act II, Scene 2). And, yes, it is a…
On the Spot
On Sunday evening, the five dancers, two writers and one musician of Movement Salon plan to stage a performance at the ZUZI’s Theater. But that’s about all they have planned. “We just sort of show up,” dancer Katie Rutterer says. “Whatever happens, happens. There’s no plan, no choreography.” Their improvisational performance, Making It Up As…
Historic Parallels
The current economic crisis has led to declining city revenues, forcing widespread public-employee furloughs and layoffs. But things were even worse 80 years ago during the Great Depression. The 1930s started innocently enough, with the Tucson City Council quickly adopting a $744,000 operating budget in July. Much of the budget was spent by three departments—water,…
Noshing Around
Iron Chef Tucson Reigning champion Chef Ramiro Scavo, of Zona 78 and Harvest Restaurant, takes on Chef Miciah Beard, of Bob’s Steak and Chop House at Omni Tucson National Resort, at this year’s Iron Chef Tucson competition, at 5:30 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 17, at Desert Diamond Casino (Interstate 19 and Pima Mine Road). Tickets are…
A Number in Need
After about 20 years of tracking the number of homeless people in Tucson through an annual street count, organizers with the Tucson Planning Council for the Homeless hope one small change this year will make a big difference. In past counts, volunteers have taken to Tucson’s streets at 4:30 a.m. one day in late January.…
Is Buz Mills a Game-Changer in the AZ Gov Race?
We don’t know much about Owen “Buz” Mills, except that he runs a shooting school with an outstanding reputation among firearms enthusiasts. But in the YouTube video we posted earlier today, we’d have to say that he comes across as a common-sense cowboy, which is a good, ol’-fashioned Arizona archetype and a million miles away…
Morrison Institute: The Consequences of Cutting AHCCCS
In her State of the State address, Gov. Jan Brewer called on voters to strip low-income Arizonans of state-subsidized health insurance. In 2000, voters expanded coverage to people who earn up to the federal poverty level, which is $18,310 for a family of three—say, a single mom with two kids. Previously, the state only provided…
Samos Neighborhood: Return Our Statues, Please!
Reader Carl Noggle sends in this plea. E-mail samosstatues@cox.net for more info. Two statues are missing from traffic circles in the Samos neighborhood. They disappeared a few months ago. They represent a lot of work by the artist and were loved by the residents of Samos. The circles are at Highland and Spring streets, and…
The Kleenex Guide to the Arizona Budget
If you want an entertaining primer on the nuts and bolts of Arizona’s budget crisis, you could do worse than watching Ken Bennett’s Kleenex box presentation. Parts 2-4 follow after the jump.
