Cover Story
You Screwed Up
The fact is that a reformer can’t last in politics. He can make a show for a while, but he always comes down like a rocket. Politics is as much a regular business as the grocery or the dry-goods or drug business. You’ve got to be trained up to it or you’re sure to fail.…
Princeton Emergency Notification
Interesting to see how quickly this Princeton alert spread through Twitter this morning. The first tweet of a text alert from Princeton about a gunman on campus occurred 11 minutes before the posting on Princeton’s web site. Update: THE ALL CLEAR HAS BEEN GIVEN WITH REGARD TO A GUNMAN ON PRINCETON’S CAMPUS. Shortly before 11…
‘Citizen’ + Word Press = WTF?
Um. OK, so when the Tucson Citizen announced it was going to be reborn as the “Voice of Tucson” I expected rampant suckiness. But … this? Meet the new Tucson Citizen, coming to you on Word Press, a free blogging software. We know Word Press. For three years, that’s what we did our blogging on…
Friday Roundtable: The Wacky State Budget Fight, City Council Elections, Etc.
Our analysis of the week gone by, after the jump.
City Manager Mike Letcher on the Friday Roundtable
See Jane See White inquire about whether the city will stand up for the Rialto Theatre as part of the downtown deal being hammered out between the city and developers Scott Stiteler and Don Martin. I ask about the rental tax, street maintenance and parks, although Letcher misunderstands my last question, thinking I was asking…
Downtown Dealings Redux
City Manager Mike Letcher has released the latest version of the development agreement between the city of Tucson and downtown developers Scott Stiteler and Don Martin, whose negotiations have been covered in depth by Dave Devine. The council is set to discuss the agreement this Tuesday, June 2. Letcher says he wants to council members…
Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez: Your iPhone App Weekend Survival Guide
Here are some iPhone apps you’ll want to have on hand this weekend if you’re going to any of the Tucson Weekly’s City Week picks: Tee-John, The Bayou Philosopher At some point during Saturday’s Third Annual Night of New Orleans at Hotel Congress, you will be inspired to utter something “Cajun” (usually after a bowl…
The Az Budget Strategy Plan: B-A-N-A-N-A-S
We mentioned yesterday that Gov. Jan Brewer appears to be on the verge of coming up with some kind of budget plan of her own, which may put her at odds with the GOP caucus. And that there’s a business group out there, Building a Better Arizona, which will be supporting the Brewer budget plan…
Motor Vehicle Divisions
Recently, I went to the Motor Vehicle Division to get an Arizona driver’s license, and, much to my surprise, it was a smooth and painless procedure. Even with my expired out-of-state license, I was in and out of there in about an hour, new license in hand. No test; no eye chart; just a little…
Tiger Celebrates 50 Years
Tiger, the daytime bartender at the Tap Room at Hotel Congress and an all around nice guy, celebrated 50 years of working at the downtown mainstay with a celebration last night. That’s right, a half century. For those of us who have spent a notable amount of time on the business end of Tucson bars,…
Brewer Ready to Release Budget, Rumble with Republicans?
As if the budget battle could get any weirder… I can’t afford to subscribe, so the details remain off-limits, but the Arizona Guardian is reporting that Gov. Jan Brewer is ready to unveil her own budget—and she’s “preparing for war on the Legislature” with some kind of campaign blitz to persuade Republicans to support her.…
GOP Response To Democratic Budget Proposal: Fughedaboutit!
We anticipated that Republican leaders wouldn’t take too long to respond to the Democratic budget proposal that was unveiled today. The gist: No way. Here’s the release: Republicans reject the Democrats’ non-solution to Arizona’s colossal budget crisis. Their proposal consists of property tax increases, a massive expansion of items and services subject to sales taxation,…
Following The Money
Dave Devine has reported on the proposed development agreement that’s being hammered out between the city of Tucson and downtown developers Scott Stiteler and Don Martin, owner of the Rialto block. Details remain sketchy, but the big picture has Stiteler and Martin redeveloping the Rialto block, building apartments in the Toole Avenue warehouse district and…
Abracadabra: How Democrats Pull A $1.17 Billion Dollar Rabbit Out of Their Hat
As I pointed out this week in “You Screwed Up: How Voters Have Broken Arizona’s Government,” the Legislature needs a two-thirds majority to pass a tax increase. Since that threshold is politically impossible to reach, Arizona’s tax system hasn’t changed much in the last few decades (unless you count virtually eliminating the property tax and…
The New Democratic Budget Plan: Key Takeaways
Legislative Democrats have released their new budget plan to fix the state’s $3 billion (give or take) shortfall. It’s an audacious stab at tax reform that uses all sorts of abracadabra to dramatically change Arizona’s tax structure on a simple majority vote. You can find all the details at strongerarizona.com, but here are my key…
You’ve Got Screwed!
My nomination for worst media deal of all time: Time Warner buys AOL for $124 billion in 2000. Wasn’t the tech bubble a fun time? From Bloomberg today: Time Warner Inc. will spin off the entire AOL Internet unit by the end of the year, reversing a failed $124 billion merger that triggered record losses.…
Marana Mexican
As we drove to Marana, we marveled at how much the area has changed: more houses, more businesses, more people. And more restaurants, the majority of them chains. But then there’s La Olla: Small and full of charm, this welcome edition to the far northwest side is the very definition of a modern-day mom-and-pop restaurant.…
Danehy
Y’know, you learn new stuff every day. For example, recently, I’ve learned that: • Guys are pigs. I was reading an article in Time magazine about this new, fake-ass societal subclass, people who refer to themselves as Committed Unmarrieds (CU). They’re not the stereotypical commitment-phobes, but people who claim to have evolved past the stifling…
T Q&A
Scott Barker
Noshing Around
Filthy Grills Stop cleaning your barbecue, and if anyone gives you any flack, look ’em right in the peepers, and tell them you’re in training for Barbecue World’s Dirtiest Grill Contest, which runs through Saturday, July 4. Participants can bring a photograph of their nasty grill into either Barbecue World location (5616 E. Broadway Blvd.;…
Now Showing at Home
The Machinist (Blu-Ray) PARAMOUNT MOVIE A- SPECIAL FEATURES B+ DVD GEEK FACTOR 8 (OUT OF 10) Confession time: I’d totally forgotten what happened to Christian Bale’s Trevor Reznik in this sometimes brilliant puzzler from director Brad Anderson and writer Scott Kosar. I’m grateful that I blanked since I saw it initially, because I was able…
Guest Opinion
What are the four most important words in the resurrection of American popular culture? I know what they are and will reveal them in time. What are the most annoying words and phrases we hear on a daily basis? I know these, too. But again, patience. The answers relate to my point—no, my manifesto: We…
Media Watch
LAID-OFF KUAT EMPLOYEE QUESTIONS STATION’S COMMITMENT TO CLASSICAL MUSIC
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: My question is simple: Can you confirm that there are doctors, lawyers and other professionals living in Mexico? I’m a Mexican-American woman living in Chicago who had a HEATED discussion about that topic. My friend, a teacher, was of the opinion that there really aren’t any. She believes that the only wealthy Mexicans…
Endings and Beginnings
Stuff you should know this week: • Voting in the Best of Tucson™ readers’ poll ends this coming Tuesday, June 2! If you haven’t already voted, you need to do two things: one, admit that you’re a slacker, and two, head on over to TucsonWeekly.com (if you’re not already there) to vote. Now. Seriously! Get…
Guitars and Pedals
The experimental duo Windy and Carl have been playing ambient-industrial music for nigh on 15 years, but they can’t seem to escape the appellation “space rock.” But the exploration of inner space is far more important to this husband-and-wife team from the Detroit area than journeys into outer space. “I don’t feel that there’s anything…
The Institutional Divide
Hunger presents the events surrounding the death of Bobby Sands. In 1981, he committed slow suicide in a hunger strike while protesting the conditions in HM Prison Maze, where he and hundreds of other Irish Republican Army members were housed. A movie about someone dying of hunger could easily be maudlin, talky, boring and preachy.…
Live
Brightblack Morning Light, Rio En Medio
Demise of the Closet
Outrage, the latest documentary from Tucson native Kirby Dick, is a provocative work that details the homophobic voting records of various closeted gay politicians. Since its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival, the work has created a wave of controversy. Dick said he appreciates the fact that his film has served as a catalyst for…
9 Questions
Rosanna Salonia
Man Versus Machine
I’m amazed that somebody didn’t veto the beginning and ending of Terminator Salvation, the fourth and least successful movie in the 25-year-old franchise. Director McG starts and ends his film so badly that most of the life is sucked out of the ever-important middle part. Overall, Salvation isn’t a complete waste. There’s some interesting stuff…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
O’Sullivan
I hate math. It’s so final. Two plus two is always four, and there’s no arguing with it. We internalize this around the first grade; it’s laid down in our neurons like a basecoat, and no matter how we try to paint over it, it is still there. It can be profoundly depressing. So even…
Voices: Mind Wide Open
My head was a mess, muddled by a lack of sleep and the awkward pang of pressure in my ears. My tired eyes gazed out the window to witness Arizona’s miniature splendor unfurl. The plane’s engine grumbled along, and the soft sounds of 100 sleepy strangers hung loosely in the packaged air of the plane;…
Creole for Creativity
To truly revel in crawfish, jambalaya, live jazz and blues music—all at the same time—you’d normally have to travel 1,400 miles to New Orleans. But this Saturday, you can find them right here in the Old Pueblo at Hotel Congress’ Third Annual Night of New Orleans. Night of New Orleans—which started as a way to…
Lack of Redundancy
High school graduation is an especially joyous occasion in a small town. In 2005, however, the ceremony in Nogales took a dark turn. Literally. Power went out during the outdoor evening event, and megaphones had to be used by the various speakers. As a result, the graduates’ names couldn’t be heard as they crossed the…
Black Dice: Repo (Paw Tracks)
Black Dice treats electronica like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion treats the blues: The audacious Brooklyn trio takes a big bite of musical matter and chews it up, reducing it to its basic building blocks, and then aggressively spits it back at listeners. This process results in chaotic sound collages, an assaultive variation on IDM…
Power Replay
It’s been nearly a decade since Tucson Electric Power rolled out the bright idea of stringing a huge, 345-kilovolt transmission line down through the Coronado National Forest into Nogales, and then on to Mexico. To the good folks of Santa Cruz Valley, it seems like only yesterday. They haven’t forgotten the multitude of hours and…
Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown (Reprise)
Upon Green Day’s return, we find them comparing brainwashed youths to sodomized dogs, criticizing the capitalist media that helped make them millionaires, and dropping the “N”-word. Oh, don’t worry, liberal punkers; they insert that nasty word into the mouth of a neo-conservative false prophet of the class war. 21st Century Breakdown is framed as an…
Incandescent Verse
Maurice Kilwein Guevara is part of the poetry problem in America. As state-funded creative-writing programs continue to expand across the country, and as the economy spirals downward, more and more people believe it’s worth taking on massive student loans in order to attain an graduate degree in—get this—crafting poems. Of course, given the limited number…
Police Dispatch
GOING TO HEAVEN UA AREA MAY 13, 10:35 P.M. A nervous breakdown caused a nonreligious UA student to express his love for Jesus, according to a UA Police Department report. A UA officer dispatched to the university’s Architecture Building saw the subject running, completely naked, toward the police car. The officer stopped the subject by…
Passion Pit: Manners (French Kiss)
Prepare for the serotonin rush that is Passion Pit. The Cambridge, Mass., quintet has found a much-needed middle ground between the adult keyboard pop of MGMT and The Postal Service, and the more youthful synth ebullience of The Go! Team and Hellogoodbye. Breathless bloggers have made it difficult for the band to live up to…
Topn Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
Mailbag
Claim: Police Dispatch Column Should Be More Sensitive to Mental Illness I was troubled by the Police Dispatch report “There’s Always an Irrational Explanation” (Feb. 19). Having lived with a family member suffering from severe mental illness, I recognize all too well the senior citizen’s apparently delusional remarks regarding her feeling that she was being…
Soundbites
CRYPTS AND DREAMS In this week’s installment of “What’s New on Local Merch Tables?” the short answer is new discs from Dead End Dragstrip and Namoli Brennet. Let’s start with Dead End Dragstrip, shall we? Unfortunately, the group didn’t get a copy of its debut full-length, Quarter Mile to the Crypt, to Soundbites, so your…
Ethics 101
Before Jenifer Darland showed up on the steps of the Capitol in Phoenix, no one in the state Legislature had ever heard of the Tucson mother. Not even her target, state Rep. Steve Yarbrough of Chandler. On May 18, Darland held a press conference on those steps. She mentioned Yarbrough’s tax-credit-scholarship/grant-processing company, and his affiliation…
City Week
Need Some Action? Porn Party 2009 9 p.m., Friday, May 29 Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness 2900 E. Broadway Blvd. 318-4838; thebiztucson.com For readers who were not lucky enough to watch this year’s Super Bowl on Comcast, fear not: Porn Party 2009 will offer much more than a brief clip of adult-only action to enjoy. The event—which…
The Skinny
TRADE WINDS We mentioned last week that downtown developers Scott Stiteler and Don Martin, the owners of the Rialto block, have been negotiating a sort of Monopoly trade with the city of Tucson (“Let’s Make a Deal,” May 21). Essentially, Martin and Stiteler are agreeing to develop some downtown properties—the big one being the Rialto…
More From Mars
A new batch of Mars photos taken by the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is available online. The upper shot is titled simply “Spider Evolution,” while the lower shot features sandy Martian dunes that have been swept by dust devils. NAU student Addie Hite explains: This image is…
Big Reveal: Az Democrats Have New Budget Proposal
The Democratic House and Senate caucuses are teaming up tomorrow to unveil a new state budget proposal. Rep. Steve Farley told readers of his Farley Report that he couldn’t “reveal any details right now—except to say that we can save education, healthcare, and jobs while at the same time enacting real tax reform that makes…
We Are Not Alone: California As Screwed As Arizona
A few days ago, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman made some of the same points about California that I make in this week’s cover story, “You Screwed Up: How Voters Have Wrecked Arizona’s Government.” Krugman’s take: The seeds of California’s current crisis were planted more than 30 years ago, when voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition…
Buy Art and Meet Nice Folks
The Arts Marketplace is a new artist-run group, started by Therese Perreault of Community Storytelling Arts, to focus on “the artist as entrepreneur,” through peer and business support for artists and creative entrepreneurs. The Arts Marketplace Summer Twilight Series kicks off Thursday, May 28, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., at Community Storytelling Arts, 40 W.…
