The Skinny

STIMULATING DEBATE

Hey, Arizona! Have we recovered yet from being bullied by President
Barack Obama and his gang of thugs?

We know we were all feeling the shakedown last week after some
federal bureaucrats sent out letters asking Gov. Jan Brewer if
she was sure she needed all that federal stimulus money. How dare they
play politics with the federal dollars that Sen. Jon Kyl doesn’t
think we should have in the first place?

Kyl, who has called the stimulus plan “a stinker” right from the
start, declared earlier this month that stimulus funds not yet dished
out should be cancelled. Evidently, if you can’t turn the worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression around in six months, the
entire program is an epic failure.

That got a few members of the Obama administration wondering: Do
Arizona Republicans really want to give up the money? Brewer got
letters from several Cabinet members, including Transportation
Secretary Ray LaHood and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan,
asking if she was ready to give up the funds, which are helping Arizona
as it faces a budget shortfall of at least $3 billion.

“I believe the stimulus has been very effective in creating job
opportunities throughout the country,” LaHood wrote. “However, if you
prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to the state, as
Sen. Kyl suggests, please let me know.”

Brewer’s spokesperson, Paul Senseman, told the press that the
governor “is hopeful that these federal Cabinet officials are not
threatening to deny Arizona the portion of federal stimulus funds to
which they are entitled.”

So when Kyl says the money should go away, he’s providing strong
leadership. When Obama officials ask Brewer if she’s sure the state
needs the money, they’re being bullies. Got it.

Brewer is having her own problems dealing with stimulus funding. The
administration dished out $250 million in state funds on schools,
believing the money could be repaid with stimulus funds. Turns out the
process doesn’t work that way, so we’ve blown another
quarter-billion-dollar hole in the state budget.

Not that anyone seems concerned about that budget these days,
anyway.

In the wake of that little misstep, Brewer announced the state was
buying the new Microsoft Stimulus 360 accounting software to better
track stimulus funding. So, hey, at least Bill Gates is getting
something!

MAKING THE GRADE

The Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club released its report card
on the 2009 legislative session with the observation: “It could have
been worse … and it nearly was.”

Sandy Bahr, the legislative lobbyist for the environmental
group, noted that lawmakers proposed a lot of very bad environmental
legislation this year, including bills that would have allowed the
dumping of used tires into old mines, diverted money set aside for
conservation, and limited development impact fees. But much of it
failed, largely because Senate President Bob Burns wouldn’t allow the
Senate to hear any bills until June.

Thirty-four of the 60 House members and 17 of 30 senators got
failing grades on the report card, while four senators and 10 House
members—all Democrats—earned A’s. Among the local friends
of the environment: Sen. Paula Aboud and House members David
Bradley, Pat Fleming, Phil Lopes, Daniel Patterson and Nancy
Young Wright.

On the bright side, Bahr noted that there was bipartisan support for
renewable-energy bills.

Among the local legislators who failed on the report card (by
supporting bad environmental legislation and missing votes): Al
Melvin and Jonathan Paton in the Senate, and David Gowan,
Frank Antenori, David Stevens and Vic Williams in the
House.

The rest of the Southern Arizona delegation—Jorge Garcia,
Olivia Cajero Bedford, Steve Farley and Matt
Heinz—earned B’s.

Gov. Jan Brewer earned a C, pulling her grade up at the end with her
veto of the budget.

NUCLEAR SHUTDOWN

Congressman Raúl Grijalva scored a win this week when
the Interior Department announced it would not accept new claims for
uranium mines on a million acres near the Grand Canyon for the next two
years.

“I am calling for a two-year ‘time-out’ from all new mining claims
in the Arizona Strip near the Grand Canyon, because we have a
responsibility to ensure we are developing our nation’s resources in a
way that protects local communities, treasured landscapes and our
watersheds,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in a
statement.

Salazar’s move does not stop extraction through existing claims or
exploration for new claims in the area, which is rich in uranium
deposits. The Interior Department notes that several uranium-mining
operations are awaiting environmental permits from the state of
Arizona.

For years, Grijalva has been fighting mining operations near the
Grand Canyon. But under the Bush administration, he was able to make
little progress.

Grijalva’s Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act, which would
permanently withdraw roughly 1 million acres of federal land near Grand
Canyon National Park from future mining claims, was scheduled for a
hearing in the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
this week.

The decision must have been a disappointment to state Sen. Sylvia
Allen, who became a YouTube sensation a few weeks ago when a clip
of her declaring her support of state legislation supporting uranium
mining went viral.

In the clip, first posted by the Arizona Guardian Web site, Allen
announced: “The Earth’s been here 6,000 years—and I know I’m
going on and on, and I’ll shut up—it’s been here 6,000 years,
long before anybody had environmental laws, and somehow it hasn’t been
done away with. And we need to get the uranium here in Arizona so this
state can get the money from it and it can be done safely, and you’ll
never even know the mine was there when they’re done.”

Right! Mining, in a way, is kind of like building new mini-Grand
Canyons!

CREATURES COMFORTED

The Skinny salutes Charlie Spillar, the local sculptor who
has taken it upon himself to rescue nearly all of the creatures from
Magic Carpet Golf, the miniature-golf course on Speedway Boulevard that
closed last year.

The Tiki Head is standing on Fourth Avenue (although it’s under a
cover until the grand unveiling in August); the bull is on its way to
O’Shaughnessy’s Steakhouse; and a whole bunch of the sculptures will
have a new home at the Valley of the Moon, the local fantasyland, which
is also getting a facelift.

Spillar tells us that only the massive sphinx and something called
“the goop” have not yet found new homes. Spillar says that it would be
expensive to move the sphinx, but points out that “it would be cheaper
than traveling to Egypt.”

Maybe there’s a little magic left in this burg after all.

WINGS AND A PRAYER FOR SCHOOLS

Want to get your hands dirty while helping education—and have
a scrumptious meal, too? Check out Tucson’s Best Wing Fest, which will
feature chicken wings from 16 different restaurants, cold beer from
Nimbus and music from Still Crusin’ and the Shear DeLites.

This gourmet feast, which benefits the Educational Enrichment
Foundation, is 4 to 8 p.m., Friday, July 24, at the Hilton East Hotel,
7600 E. Broadway Blvd. Tickets are $10 in advance, and $15 at the door.
More info: 325-8688.

Find early and late-breaking Skinny at our new daily dispatch,
The Range, at blog.tucsonweekly.com.

This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.