Cover Story
The Right Stuff
It’s a sunny February afternoon, and Republican Jesse Kelly steps up to a microphone at El Presidio Park to introduce J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman who is touring the state to kick off his insurgent challenge to U.S. Sen. John McCain. “Today is a day of reckoning,” says Kelly. “It is a day when liberals…
Giffords Fundraising Haul: Nearly $600K
Tomorrow is the deadline for congressional candidates to report their second-quarter fundraising. Candidates have been tight-lipped about their totals, which make us believe it wasn’t all that great for most of them. But Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords appears to have had a pretty good three months. The Democratic incumbent is reporting that she raised nearly $600,000…
Buz Off: Mills Quits Governor’s Race
And so, after spending more than $3.2 million, businessman Buz Mills quits the governor’s race. He blames illegal immigrants for his decision: “I entered the race for governor because the solutions being proposed to solve the state budget and economic crisis were grossly misguided. Higher taxes, unsustainable spending, and more debt will continue to depress…
Revolution Rock: Musicians Offer Protest Against Arizona’s New Immigration Law
Calexico’s John Convertino and Joey Burns are part of Artists for Action. “Whenever there’s an artistic or cultural boycott, it’s important to back that up by showing your presence and doing something,” says Burns. “The intent is to go to fans inside of Arizona and inspire them to vote.” Arizona musicians have formed a new…
Arizona Illustrated Debate: State Schools Chief
Penny Kotterman and Jason Williams, the Democrats running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, debate education issues on Arizona Illustrated.
NY Mag on McCain: “He’s Angry at Obama, at Former Staff, at His Family Life, at His Fellow Americans. He’s Angry”
New York magazine profiles Sen. John McCain: It has been a very strange season in the political career of John McCain. The former maverick who once fought his own party on everything from tax cuts to torture, who built a reputation as a prickly independent, now marches in lockstep with his party, from his objection…
LD26 Clean Elections Debate: GOP Choices in 2010
Here’s a look at the three Republicans—incumbent Rep. Vic Williams, former Marana School District superintendent Wade McLean and political activist and paralegal Terri Proud—who are vying for two House seats in Legislative District 26, which ranges from the Catalina Foothills to the retirement community of Saddlebrooke. Even if you just watch the introduction, the contrast…
CD8: Giffords Brings Back McLeod to Run Campaign
Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has hired Rodd McLeod to run her 2010 reelection campaign. McLeod, who recently left a gig running Democrat Terry Goddard’s gubernatorial effort, ran Giffords’ 2006 run for office. The press release from Giffords’ campaign: Giffords for Congress is pleased to announce that Rodd McLeod, who led Gabrielle’s first successful congressional bid…
CD8: Paton’s Mileage Money
Republican Jonathan Paton, who is one of four GOP candidates who hope to take out Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in November, cashed in a lot of miles on his most recent campaign-finance report as an Arizona Senate candidate. Paton, who announced on Jan. 17 that he’d be running for U.S. Congress instead of pursuing re-election to…
New York Times: Dem Guvs Worried About SB 1070
The New York Times reports that Democratic governors are worried about the implications of the Obama administration’s lawsuit against SB 1070: In a private meeting with White House officials this weekend, Democratic governors voiced deep anxiety about the Obama administration’s suit against Arizona’s new immigration law, worrying that it could cost a vulnerable Democratic Party…
Slate: McCain is “The Saddest Senator”
Slate’s Jacob Weisberg calls Republican John McCain “the saddest senator”: I’ve stopped reading news about John McCain for the same reason I tune out the daily updates on Afghanistan and the BP oil spill: It’s just too damned depressing. Well into the 2008 primary season, McCain still showed glimmers of a gutsy, independent spirit, speaking…
Friday Roundtable: City Charter Changes, CD8 and the Downtown Hotel
The week in review, as seen by Arizona Illustrated’s Roundtable gang.
Friday Roundtable: Congressman Raul Grijalva
Congressman Raul Grijalva stops by Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable.
Stolen Puppies
Tucson Weekly reader Steven just sent us this heartbreaking note: I was in a meeting in my home. So I shut the door and was on the phone. While I was in the meeting, someone broke into my house. They stole 2 teacup poodle puppies that were born about 5 weeks ago. They were still…
Prince Pizza and Family Restaurant
Pizazz! Pizza Bistro at 1763 E. Prince Road is now Prince Pizza and Family Restaurant, and it’s gotten an overhaul since the new owner took over. Andrew Yun bought the restaurant last October and changed the name, but signs on the building make it look like it’s still Pizazz. The only indication of the change…
Martin Quits Governor’s Race
State Treasurer Dean Martin has called it quits in the governor’s race. That leaves Gov. Jan Brewer with just one credible opponent: Businessman Buz Mills, who has spent more than $3 million on his effort to unseat Brewer. Martin’s letter: It has been an honor to serve the people of Arizona. Public service takes dedication…
Democratic Senate Debate Tonight
The four Democrats who want to replace U.S. Sen. John McCain will meet in their first debate this evening. Former Tucson City Council member Rodney Glassman, investigative journalist John Dougherty, former state lawmaker Cathy Eden and labor organizer Randy Parraz will be on Phoenix TV station KTVK, Channel 3, from 7 to 8 p.m. You…
Calling All Candidates: Oro Valley Candidate Forum This Weekend
The Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene’s voters forum from 1 to 3 p.m. this Saturday, July 10, promises to be one of the most comprehensive political events this side of Casa Grande. The church invited all candidates from statewide races as well as the candidates from Legislative District 26, where the church is located,…
Hey Stoners: Return of the Laser Light Show
Take it easy getting up from that couch you’ve been stuck on for 10 years. This just in from the UA’s Flandrau: LASER LIGHT SHOWS RETURN TO FLANDRAU AFTER 10 YEARSMost-requested planetarium program part of a scientific celebration of the laser’s 50th anniversary Tucson, Arizona — For the last 10 years, a week hasn’t gone…
Can You Say Ya Basta?
Friday demonstrations against SB 1070 continue in Tucson today from 4 to 7 p.m. at the northwest corner of Congress Street and Granada Avenue at the State building. For more info, call 770-1373 or go here.
More Trouble Brewing in Sonora?
Michel Marizco of the Border Reporter blog delivers a disturbing forecast of impending violence in Sonora, Mexico, for the Nogales International: Law enforcement agencies from both sides of the border say a gun battle rivaling one that took place last week could be about to hit the mountain towns west of Nogales, Sonora. On the…
Arizona Illustrated Debate: The Democratic AG Candidates
Democrats Vince Rabago and Felecia Rotellini tell Arizona Illustrated viewers why they’d make the best Arizona attorney general. On today’s Friday Roundtable, we’ll have Congressman Raul Grijalva as a guest. Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6. Some upcoming Arizona Illustrated political debates: Saturday, July 17: A live one-hour debate between U.S. Sen. John…
Daily Show Tackles SB 1070, Part 2: Speed Cameras vs. SB 1070
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Arizona’s Photo Radar www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Olivia Munn notes that Republicans have plenty of constitutional problems with radar cameras that might catch them committing a crime, but have no trouble with SB…
Daily Show Tackles SB 1070: Latino 911
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Latino 911! www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party Democrat Terry Goddard says if he’s elected governor, he’ll keep Arizona off Comedy Central for four years. It’s a tall order; last night, we got two segments…
Take Our Jobs: Here’s Your Chance
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Arturo Rodriguez www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News Arturo Rodriguez of the United Farm Workers of America visits The Colbert Report to give anyone who wants a job a chance to work in the lettuce fields. So far,…
Farley Report: “Mr. Farley, It’s Because You Don’t Have the Votes”
State Rep. Steve Farley delivers a bulletin from the state Capitol: While there is usually not much free time around the Farley house, I have been spending what little there is lately reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s amazing book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”, which relates the turbulent times before the Civil…
McCain’s New Attack “Ad” Goes After … Penmanship?
As the Aug 24 U.S. Senate primary approaches, the campaign commercials will be getting nastier and nastier. While McCain’s latest ad attacks challenger J.D. Hayworth on the grounds that he is a “huckster,” we at Tucson Weekly TV think there is a more pressing matter in this race: which candidate has the fanciest handwriting.
SB 1070 Update: Let Loose The Chupacabra!
Our favorite tabloid, the Weekly World News, breaks a startling bulletin that the mainstream press is sure to ignore: After the U.S. Justice Department filed suit Tuesday against Arizona, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar had the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service release the Chupacabra or “goat sucker” into Saguaro National Park in Pima County.…
Sweet Like Honey
Honey from Southwest Bee Supply. A visit to Southwest Bee Supply at 844 S. Sixth Ave. this morning turned up some interesting facts about bees and honey, by way of owner Roy Wilson Jr.: 1. There is speculation among local beekeepers that the honey supply may run short this year. Bees have been unexpectedly leaving…
Tucsonan a Contestant on ‘The Biggest Loser’
Andrew Clark, owner of Performance Fitness, reports that one of his members, a local wedding planner, is a contestant on The Biggest Loser. The member is currently filming in Los Angeles and has made it several weeks so far, says Clark. Community members are welcome to write the contestant encouraging notes to be sent at…
Softness and Closeness
When I finally got Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Silje Nes on the phone to talk about her upcoming album, Optiks (Fat Cat), I was immediately apologetic: My computer had crashed, and I had missed my interview time. But Nes seemed unfazed, which in retrospect is all the more indicative of her quiet and calm demeanor. Once I…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week ending July 4, 2010
Not So Super-Villains
Ever since he was a kid, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) has struggled with big dreams. He wanted to be an astronaut, but his mother was consistently unimpressed. Even when he built a working rocket as a boy, his mom, when she could be bothered to pay attention, was unmoved. So in a way, it’s…
Live
Dead Meadow
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Mojo (Reprise)
Tom Petty’s massive vault-raiding effort to put together last year’s The Live Anthology established a clear path to Mojo, a bluesy, jammy, slower and less-catchy record for Petty, but one that spotlights his Heartbreakers as the exceptionally talented musicians they’ve always been. Typically restrained in the studio, the band stretches and flexes in the live…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week ending July 4, 2010
Soundbites
R.I.P.; Rock out this slow week; Second Saturday is here again!
Hot Hot Heat: Future Breeds (Dangerbird)
If Hot Hot Heat were my boyfriend, we’d have broken up around 2007’s Happiness Ltd. “You don’t know what you want to be,” I would have said, playing with Steve Bays’ curls. “And I need someone with a sense of purpose and direction. You’re all over the place.” Listening to Future Breeds is the equivalent…
Dead End
The Mariposa Port of Entry at Nogales is a bustling hub of international trade, through which thousands of Mexican trucks rumble into the United States each year. You could almost point to this port as a success story of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which liberalized commerce between Canada, the United States and Mexico.…
T Q&A
Francisco X. Alarcón, a Chicano poet and educator born in Los Angeles, has written 10 volumes of poetry, including From the Other Side of Night / Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press, 2002). Alarcón currently teaches at the University of California at Davis, where he directs the…
Andrew Collberg: On the Wreath (Le Pop Musik)
Andrew Collberg treads common ground among artists such as Harry Nilsson, Nick Drake and José González. The 22-year-old local singer-songwriter—born in Sweden and raised in New Zealand and Tucson—has released his second album, and it’s a subtle killer, brainy and sophisticated, but never pretentious. Although it doesn’t at first seem to rock out, it asserts…
Coming Home
US. citizens Carmel, Maude and Emmanuela Ciceron are finally returning home to New York after 26 years in Haiti. Tucsonan Nanette Longchamp has been working with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and Congressman Raúl Grijalva’s office since 2004 to help the three siblings return to the United States. In 1984, their…
Nine Questions
Emil Richardson
Dog Through the Garden
I love Chicago hot dogs. I’m a wholehearted believer in their no-ketchup, super-messy, over-topped existence; of course, the best Chicago hot dogs come from Chicago. Maybe it’s the water; maybe it’s the magic of the city, but there’s something special about chowing down on a “drag it through the garden” dog in Chicago. However, some…
Off the Streets
Despite a shaky economy and slashed government budgets, the Obama administration recently set lofty goals for eliminating homelessness, including: “Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness in five years.” Here in Tucson, on a blistering hot day, Fred Fagan sat among his worldly possessions under a large shade tree in a midtown park with his…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week ending July 4, 2010 1. Eminem Recovery (Aftermath) 2. Drake Thank Me Later (Cash Money) 3. Hot Tub Time Machine (DVD) MGM 4. Wolf Parade Expo 86 (Sub Pop) 5. Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (DVD) Zoe 6. The Crazies (DVD) Anchor Bay 7. The Doors: When You’re…
A Woman Awakens
Tilda Swinton is an incredibly gifted and determined actress. This is not a revelatory statement; after all, she already has one of those quaint golden Oscar action figures on her mantle (for Michael Clayton). However, Swinton had never really blown me away before. In fact, I find her participation in the Narnia films tiresome and…
City Week
“Books and Brunch”; The Little Village Cafe Series; Shadowcast of Repo! The Genetic Opera; “Food for Thought: Non-Chemical Control of Insects in Your Home and Garden”
The Skinny
Arizona Democrats target “Payday” Paton … Cheryl Cage collects some big bucks in her fight to unseat Sen. Al Melvin … See the Democrats who want to be your next Arizona attorney general … and more!
Amazing Local Musicians
A bit of news and a note this toasty July week … • The final round of 2010 Tucson Area Music Awards (aka TAMMIES) voting is underway! You can see the list of finalists on Page 41 of the dead-tree edition, and online at TAMMIES.com—which just so happens to be the website where you can…
Danehy
Politicians catch hell from all quarters these days, and most of it is deserved. They’re generally a pathetic bunch, partisan and petty, and do little for their constituents—and even less for the good of the country as a whole. But there are a few people in office who are breaking away from their humdrum existence…
Noshing Around
Good Beer News; Bad Beer News; Amrutha Cuisine; Street Feast; Tour and Picnic
Serraglio
When Colombian pop star Shakira dropped in on Phoenix a couple of months back to wag her finger at Sherriff Joe and our vindictive state legislators for their latest broadsides against illegal immigrants, it was not as random as it may have seemed. She has become something of an ambassador of diversity, highlighted by her…
From Ads to High Art
Sometimes, a culture fails to recognize the value of something that’s so familiar. Such is the case with beautiful Japanese woodblock paintings, an art form that once had little to no value in Japan that is displayed as high art in Pictures of the Floating World: Life in 19th Century Japan, an exhibit at the…
Guest Opinion
One philosophy holds that the best we can do for this imperfect world is set a few rules against force and fraud, and work to make it better as individuals. In practice, the world remains imperfect, but the aggregate of individual efforts creates a collection of benefits that is inconceivable by any one individual or…
Dark Childhood
Ah, for the carefree days of childhood, back when your only concerns were playing house, imaginary friends, co-dependency, addiction and violence. At least that’s the fabric of childhood in Mr. Marmalade, the toxic bedtime story now being presented by Etcetera, the late-night series at Live Theatre Workshop. Those threads are woven together in a tale…
Police Dispatch
That’s a stretch; Mat snatcher
Media Watch
KOLD ends Becker’s employment after 20 years; Anchondo heading to Indianapolis
Now Showing at Home
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage (Blu-ray); The Doors: When You’re Strange; Hot Tub Time Machine: Unrated (Blu-ray)
Stop the Hysteria
Every artwork in the Raices Taller 222 exhibition How Brown Am I? comes with a cautionary label: “Warning, This Artist May Be Illegal.” Illegal or not, the artists have channeled their fury over SB 1070—the anti-immigrant bill—into a wild array of artworks, from over-the-top installations inspired by Mexican shrines for the dead to more conventional…
Weekly Wide Web
Information, like a gallon of milk, has an expiration date. We still don’t know exactly how much oil has been sent gushing into the Gulf of Mexico because of the BP oil spill—and if that figure doesn’t come out soon, the public won’t care whether it’s 85 million or 385 million gallons. What’s the danger…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m a (poor) white girl myself, but I have to ask: What’s the deal with all the rich white girls playing such a big role in Fiesta? Why is it always rich white girls who get crowned? Don’t you think the majority of them should be Mexican girls since it’s Fiesta? Why has…
Mailbag
New Wingspan Leader Proves ‘Don’t Ask’ Is Nonsense I found it very interesting that the Tucson Weekly ran an article about the continuation or demise of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gay members (“Over and Out?” Currents, June 17). The interesting part of this appears later in the same issue, where there…
Beyond Tragedy
There’s a spiderweb quality about this collection of short stories. They’re independent but distantly related: Thrum on a strand of one, and you sense the rest quivering. Toni Jensen, an assistant professor of English at the University of Central Florida who has Métis ancestry, draws on her Indian background for her debut work. Featured are…
More Martian Dunes
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona The UA Lunar and Planetary Lab has posted a new batch of photos taken by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Check ’em out here. HiRISE team member Maria Banks tells us: This observation is a view of the sand dune field in Richardson Crater covered with seasonal frost. The…
City Council Votes To Ask Voters for Half-Cent Sales Tax
The Tucson City Council has voted to ask voters to hike the sales tax by a half-cent for “core services.”
CD8: Goss Quits GOP Race, Endorses Jesse Kelly
An update to TW’s feature story this week on the Congressional District 8 race: Jim Kelley of the Tucson Citizen website reports that Andy Goss is shutting down his campaign and endorsing Jesse Kelly. Goss tells the Citizen: Unfortunately, the reality is that I cannot compete financially with the two front runners in this race.…
Help a Local Band Make Its Dream Come True: Opening for KISS
On its current tour, legendary rockers KISS are holding a contest to find an unsigned band to open for them in each of the cities in which they’re performing. KISS will review the top five vote-getters in each city, then decide which band has earned the right to share their stage. As of this writing,…
Democrat Rodney Glassman: Million-Dollar Man
Former Tucson City Council member Rodney Glassman, one of four Democrats seeking the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican John McCain, has reported that he has raised more than $1 million for his campaign. That figure includes $500,000 that Glassman has contributed to the campaign, according a press release from the campaign. He’s also…
