Cover Story
Stop the Presses!
There have been many strange moments in the first term of Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller.
What Motivates Ducey to Spend Money He Doesn’t Want to Spend? Fear of the Voter.
I’ve been writing a lot lately about how, since Prop 123 passed, Ducey sidesteps the issue of education funding every time he’s asked what his “next step” will be. He wants the next step to be for people to stop pestering him so he can get back to cutting education funding in next year’s budget—or…
Casa Video Top 10
I’d never ask you to ignore your television. Here’s your Casa Video Top 10 for the week: Deadpool Joy The Revenant The Witch Zoolander 2 The Finest Hours Star Wars: The Force Awakens Dirty Grandpa How to be Single Risen
Documentary Looks Back at Tragic Death of 49 Toddlers in a Day Care Fire in Hermosillo 7 Years Ago
The death of 49 toddlers in the ABC Day Care fire in our sister desert city of Hermosillo is probably one of the most soul wrenching days—if not the saddest and most puzzling day—in Sonora’s modern history. The morning of June 5, 2009, at least 200 babies and toddlers were dropped off by their parents.…
Clean Your Kids’ Closets and Support the Body Revolution at Sunday’s Kids Clothing Swap
Kids: One minute you’re walking out of the mall with a stack of new pants and the next day there’s an extra inch of ankle peaking out below the hem of their jeans. Combat retail pricing and your growing collection of barely worn children’s clothes at the Kids Clothing Swap this Sunday from 10 a.m.…
Win Tickets to See Lisa Otey and the Desert Divas at the Gaslight Music Hall
Want to go to a show this weekend? The Gaslight Music Hall (13005 N. Oracle Road) is giving away tickets to see Lisa Otey and the Desert Divas this Saturday, June 4. There are two shows (one at 3 p.m., one at 7 p.m.) and winners can go to either. Gaslight Music Hall has this…
Cinema Clips: The Nice Guys
Shane Black, director of the classic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the very good Iron Man 3 returns to film noir with The Nice Guys, a grimy detective story starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. The movie is good. Just good. It’s often so good, it’s painful to witness the moments that don’t work. Crowe…
This Is the Best Email About Pima County Supe Ally Miller’s Crazy Links to Bogus Website
Admittedly, you have to grok Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, the AZ Daily Independent (and in particular, what they call cartoons) and the recent Arizona Daily Herald dustup to appreciate the brilliance, but if you do … well, Gerald gets all the wrong stuff exactly right in this pitch to Arizona Daily Independent loon-in-chief Loretta Hunnicutt:…
Catch a Screening of ‘The System is Broken,’ a Docudrama Filmed in Tucson
The System is Broken is a political docudrama filmed in Tucson that looks at the political voting process through the eyes of two young people. Pete, Natalia and their fellow Latino volunteers take on corruption and racism in a presidential campaign by starting their own non-partisan grassroots movement, putting their relationships and their lives in…
Worth a Listen: Spoken-Word Poetry at Harvard Grad School of Education Convocation
Graduation speeches are usually, well, graduation speeches. But Donovan Livingston, who received his master’s degree in education from Harvard, spoke/performed a speech/poem worth listening to. It’s confrontational, sometimes controversial, often right on the money and at the end, uplifting. You can read along if you wish. Here are a few excerpts. I stand here, a manifestation…
X-Men: Apocalypse is the Worst Movie in an Otherwise Solid Franchise
After scoring a huge critical and box office success with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer’s triumphant return to the franchise, 20th Century Fox wisely brought the director back for X-Men: Apocalypse. However, in a move that induces head scratching, Fox cut the budget for the current installment, while padding the cast and upping…
Remembering 9-Year-Old Brisenia Flores: Murdered in 2009 by Anti-Immigration Activists in Arivaca, Ignored by the Media
Brisenia Flores would be 16 this year—my youngest brother’s age. Except seven years ago on May 30, as she slept with her puppy on the living room couch in her family’s mobile home in Arivaca—about 60 miles south of Tucson—armed robbers broke in, and shot and killed Brisenia and her father, Raul, 29. The home…
Smokin’ Showdown Returns to Hotel Congress with Nine Pitmasters Competing for Best BBQ Title
There’s nothing quite like BBQing in the summer, but this Saturday, June 4 is no backyard hangout. This Saturday is serious. Hotel Congress’ Smokin’ Showdown will pit nine local pitmasters against each other to vie for the title of Tucson’s top barbecue. Now in its second year, the event will feature Chillin ‘n’ Grillin, The…
Beth Needs a Home
Hi, I’m Beth! I’m a sweet mama, hoping that someone will open their heart and home to me. I’m very sweet to people when I warm up to them and respond well to treats! I’m only 2 years old so I would love a family who can give me a lot of exercise and play…
Federal Judge Debates How to Punish Joe Arpaio for Contempt of Court in Racial Profiling Case
A federal judge is debating consequences for Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three top deputies in a racial profiling case where they were recently found in contempt of court. Simultaneously, the immigrant rights group Puente Human Rights Movement and allies protested outside the federal courthouse in Phoenix where the hearing was taking place, calling for…
Ducey ‘Next Step’ Watch: Day 12
Nothing. But. Crickets.
Cinema Clips: The Do-Over
The second film in the Adam Sandler Netflix era after the horrible The Ridiculous 6 is still pretty bad moviemaking, but it’s a step in the right direction. Director Steven Brill made two of the better Sandler vehicles in Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds, and their third pairing has its moments. That’s thanks in large…
What Trump University Promised, and What It Delivered
So much to unpack about Trump University. Never a university. No longer in existence, like so many other Trump ventures. Huge promises from Trump to people desperate for good news, but the most reliable result was people spending $35,000 to $60,000 with little or nothing to show for it. Lawsuit by scammed “students,” which Trump…
We Can’t Let Those People Do That. It’s Just Wrong!
Keeping all those colored people as slaves simply makes sense. They’re not equipped to deal with the responsibility of being free citizens. And then letting them vote on top of giving them their freedom? God no! It’s Just Wrong. Women are fine in their place, but it’s the men folks who should be making important…
Improve Your Week With Tuesday Night Bike Rides
What started as a group of students going on a bike ride for their friend’s birthday has blossomed into the Tucson community event known as Tuesday Night Bike Rides. The event started back in June 2007 when a cycling enthusiast wanted to go for a ride with his friends before he headed out to the bars for his birthday.…
Tough Luck Club’s Stephen Ott on the Art of a Summer Stirred Cocktail
I tell the same joke a lot during winter when people ask me what my favorite seasonal cocktail is. “Cup of scotch,” I say, and everyone laughs (at least, in my head they do). Anyway, the thing is, if you’re the type of person who enjoys just cups of booze, stirred and served up, summer…
Get In Touch With Downtown’s Paranormal Side With Specter Tours
Historians, skeptics and believers in the paranormal can all find something to love about the downtown Tucson ghost tours put on by Specter Tours. The small Tucson-based tour company leads walking tours around downtown Tucson. Tour guide and business owner Robert Owens is a dedicated historian and entertainer. Tour goers are taken around many Tucson landmarks such as the…
Clay Olla
Learn. Build. Create.
Editor’s Note
Our office is very close to the intersections that used to be populated with panhandlers. Those people have now been removed, but that hasn’t solved any poverty problems.
Desert Spine
“It’s big. It’s spikey,” he wrote about the saguaro after his trip. “It has a whole bunch of arms…I heard sounds like you’re playing guitar. It taught me that I could be quiet.”
Dust Devil
In front of me the Big Cat rises
Is and Ism
We know that the issues, beliefs or theories that have an “ism” attached are hardly set in stone. In fact, if such a school of thought has reached a point that it qualifies for identification as an “ism,” its substance is assuredly uncertain. Many are, after all, “movements.”
Out of the Way
Pedestrians are now banned from standing for too long on 32 medians, mostly in northwest Tucson and other unincorporated areas of Pima County, after the Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance last week that labels lingering “for purposes other than waiting for the signal to change to cross safely” trespassing.
Nice Try
Gosling and Crowe are great together, and they should consider pairing up again for future films. They are so good you will forgive the film’s inconsistencies and convoluted plot.
Police Dispatch
A marijuana-smoking man with a plan actually pulled it off—with a cop’s help, no less—effectively trading marijuana for a ride home.
Little Monsters: Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop
Love Letter for Fire, the new collaborative album by Sam Beam of Iron & Wine and expat singer/songwriter Jesca Hoop, opens with a droning synth, faint static, bowed strings and a single bell chime, before the intertwined harmonies of Hoop and Beam bubble up, whispery but strong.
Police Dispatch
Someone burglarized a man’s front yard while he was sleeping—stealing nothing but a pair of used name-brand bowling shoes.
Back in Shape: Refused
What started as a reunion has improbably morphed into the second phase of a defiant and uncompromising career for Swedish hardcore punk torchbearers Refused.
Smoke Screen
The Yarnell Hill fire investigation conducted by the U.S. Forest Service deliberately ignored information provided by a former hotshot superintendent that the leader of the Granite Mountain Hotshots had a documented history of making bad decisions in violation of basic wildfire safety rules.
B-Sides: Snoop Dogg
Two and a half decades of Snoop Dogg have seen a few name changes, sure, though not as many as P.Diddy.
Danehy
Did you recently run into Tom Danehy outside of a Walmart and ask him why he doesn’t support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign?
B-Sides: Sonoita Jazz
Celebrate the long Memorial Day weekend right by getting the heck out of town and heading to southern Arizona wine country for a day of live jazz.
T Q&A
Linda Chorney, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter living in Tucson, made a documentary about the challenges of creating independent music.
B-Sides: Soccer Babes
Borrowing bits of punk but without all that in-your-face tough guy attitude, Oregon’s Soccer Babes offer indie, shoegaze and power pop influences to lighten the mood on their most recent EP3 release.
Letter to the Editor
The saga continues.
My Favorite Dispensary
Let’s talk about our favorite weed hangouts.
Costly Care
Infant child care in Arizona costs an average of $9,437 a year, rivaling in-state college tuition and putting care out of reach for many families, according to a recent Economic Policy Institute report.
Love Shack: S. Antojitos Salvadoreños
While it would be easy to spend the entire summer discovering all of the eats the swap meet has to offer, any exploration of the dusty little south side setup near Drexel Heights has to start somewhere and it’s easy to dip a toe in, so to speak, at S. Antojitos Salvadoreños.
Meet Me Downtown
Celebrate Memorial Day weekend with the family at the 10th annual TMC Meet Me Downtown 5K Night Run.
Live! Lisa Lampanelli
Comedy’s loveable Queen of Mean
Wyatt Earp Days
Enjoy costumed entertainers, gunfights, street skits, a chili cook-off, stagecoach rides and more at Wyatt Earp Days
