Rock Art or Smoke Signals? ...

A new post up at Rillito River Park Photos: Rock Art or Smoke Signals? ...

In an age of instant communications ...

... it appears that someone [Paul Eckerstrom, to be specific] who lives in Tucson will not be allowed to Chair the Arizona Democratic Party ... or could it be subversion of another type by some Arizona pseudo-Dems who don't believe in elections (you know, the kind of Dems who are really Thugs at heart).

This article 'hints' that Jim Pederson may be one of the culprits. Jim Pederson is the Democrat (Republican-lite, really) who ran such an un-energetic campaign against Senator Jon Kyl.

Rillito River Park ...

... again. Four images.

A few new photos from Rillito River Park ...

... here ...

Tucson 'quietly?' makes city even more unlivable ...

Mortgage problems? Employment problems? Not to worry. Cut service for thems that need them.

City quietly cuts services used by many residents

Next month Tucson City Council members will start discussing what public programs they're willing to sacrifice to make up for a looming $51 million budget shortfall. They told City Manager Mike Hein to bring them suggestions by then.

But even before that public discussion, city departments have started quietly cutting services and eliminating part-time and seasonal workers.

The cuts are not part of the $10 million Hein told the council it needs to slash, but are listed in city budget memos as departmental cuts — although many are services residents use daily, not administrative belt tightening.

These change apparently include the following [the article is rather sketchy and of the he said/he said variety]:

• shutting down most year-round swimming pools for the winter, closing recreation centers on weekends and cutting hours on weekdays.
• elimination of the free Downtown shuttle
• stop providing Parks Dept staff workers for distributing food from the Community Food Bank

I would like to know where the money is going. Our Tucson sales tax is horrendous. My property tax goes up significantly every year. Wages are depressed. But services are constantly cut back or charged for or both.

The only thing Tucson seems to be able to do is cater to the real estate industry and build highways with artwork along the edges.

The only way to view the US is from inside an automobile (or be rich enough to have a house on a hill)? There are cities in this world that are a pleasure to be in, but few of them are in the US.

Oh, we do still have some beautiful National Forests, even after eight years of Bush. But if McCain should win we probably won't have those for long either.

Tucson had a storm last night ... 12,000 still w/o electricity at 9am this morning.

Thunder and lightening (heard the thunder and 'explosions,' did not see the lightening). Downed power lines and trees.

The Tucson Citizen has some remarkable photos of lightening in downtown Tucson.

It couldn't be drier ...

I like the Arizona Daily Sun. Today they inform us that the NWS defines June 15 as the beginning of Arizona's monsoon season (and September 30 as the end). Previously the monsoon season was defined by dew point.

They also remind us that the monsoon season includes violent thunderstorms, blinding dust storms, strong winds and heavy (sometimes similar to standing under a bucket of water poured directly on the head) rains.

The NWS monsoon tracker link didn't work.

Tucson's weather forecast for today and tonight:

Today: A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 106. Northwest wind between 9 and 16 mph.

Tonight: A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 76. West northwest wind 6 to 15 mph becoming southeast.

As of 9am MST the temp was 96. The dew point was 45 (humidity 18%), fast approaching the point where swamp (evaporative) coolers will no longer work.

What else would like to know about Arizona, and Tucson in particular?

Snow in Tucson, now ...

Snow or very small slushy hail.

[Click on image for larger version of photo.]

Tucson Weekly writes about Tucson's water mess ...

Fluid Situation

What does the future hold for Tucson's water supply? Only one thing is certain: It's all going to cost more.

The article is by Dave Devine and Molly McKasson. McKasson is a politician in addition to 'journalist.' [Note: journalist is in quotes not because of McKasson but because of the general putrid state of journalism, news and the media.]

The politics of lying to the public happens everywhere:

"Currently, the outflow of the Colorado is greater than the inflow," Barnett comments in an interview. "Apparently, no one has ever looked at the way people keep the books on this river. There has been deliberate overdrafting, while minimizing climate change and infiltration and ignoring increased evaporation due to drought."

But we keep building new homes and inviting in new residents ... as with global warming, of which some have been warning us for over 20 years 'we' have known that water problems were in Arizona's future even longer.

But we don't elect politicians who boringly discuss problems that need to be addressed. We elect politicians who either successfully scare the daylights out of most of us or give us hope.

And we pay for it and will pay for it in the end but 'til then ... enjoy, because tomorrow we ...

Rillito River Park Photos ...

New photos taken at the Rillito River Park are located here.

The perils of hiking in Arizona ...

The 61 hikers were transported by helicopter after water covered multiple bridges in [Sabino] canyon, making them unsafe to cross ...

In Arizona 'surprise' flooding is common. Rain 'uphill' can, and does, flood completely dry areas 'downhill.' Just because you haven't seen anything like rain doesn't mean that that bone dry river bed won't have a wall o' water coming down it the next time you look.

If you can stand sour, complaining, irritating and the polar opposite of simpatico people read the comments to the above Arizona Daily Star article.

Bob Feinman, an American with a conscience ...

Tucsonan wants to help migrant who saved boy

by Sheryl Kornman and The Associated Press

Tucson businessman Bob Feinman says he doesn't want to look like "some ugly foreigner trying to make a headline," but he does want to offer a hand to Manuel Jesus Cordova Soberanes.

The Magdalena de Kino, Son., man quit his two-day walk from his hometown across the Arizona-Mexico border to help a 9-year-old Arizona boy orphaned by his mother's death in a van accident.

Christopher Buztheitner was wandering in the desert in shorts the evening before Thanksgiving when Cordova, 26, a bricklayer, spotted him. . . .

Some of the comments to the above Tucson Citizen article demonstrate how too many of Arizona's 'red-minded' think about an individual who just demonstrated the kind of character we should consider inviting into this country instead of continuing the current catch-22 environment that entices them in on one hand and works to deport them in the most humiliating manner on the other.

Down, down, down ...

Cynical NCLB causes crisis in TUSD

In 2002, Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, dubbed "No Child Left Behind" by President Bush.

Sold as public school reform, with phony standards, false accountability and an unfilled promise of millions more federal dollars, NCLB creates a moral dilemma for leaders of school districts across the nation.

Do they enforce this amoral law dutifully - even if it sets statistically unattainable benchmarks that ultimately will embarrass and perhaps destroy the public schools?

Or will they take a stand out of higher principles?

Unfortunately, leaders of Tucson Unified School District, like their counterparts across the country, have embraced the NCLB agenda.

Districts' compliance with NCLB diverts funds intended for teacher compensation, creates unnecessary budgetary pressures and promotes bureaucracy rather than educational excellence.

What gets lost in all the rhetoric is that all public schools will be deemed "failing" by 2014, no matter what they do to comply with NCLB.

As the list of "failing" schools grows, and as media attention legitimizes NCLB standards and student test scores in the eyes of the taxpayers, public opinion will more and more turn against the public schools.

Why do TUSD and other districts play a game they cannot possibly win? Because it is easier to conform to an amoral law than to challenge it.

Bush sold NCLB as a deterrent to "the soft bigotry of low expectations."

Is opposition to NCLB also opposition to high standards and equality? Is NCLB protecting children from teachers with low expectations?

By intervening with uniform standards to protect students, NCLB proponents claim they will bring accountability to public schools.

This cynical policy has serious flaws. It assumes that all children learn at the same rate, and it sets standards that are naturally exclusive.

When "Adequate Yearly Progress" is among the 144 standards, some students will not pass.

If a 100 percent passing rate is the benchmark for a school to avoid "failing," one must conclude that the NCLB agenda is not to improve public schools but to embarrass them.

For years, professional educators have realized that standards do not ensure quality schools.

Good education is relative; it is based upon the child's individual needs.

Because local teachers and their professional organization, the Tucson Education Association (TEA), are resistant to NCLB, they become an easy target when students do not meet the standards.

In TUSD's case, over the past year, the diversion of dollars from Proposition 301, passed in 2000 primarily for teacher pay; the taking of the governor's money intended for teacher compensation; and the blaming of the budget crisis on a recent 3 percent raise for teachers all have roots in the hidden cost of NCLB compliance.

NCLB compliance also has led large districts such as TUSD to adopt one-size-fits-all remedial programs that actually push out high-performing students.

At many schools, remedial classes have replaced advanced courses, and bureaucrats enforce districtwide curriculum regimentation.

As a result, parents take their higher-performing students out of TUSD. They do not want their kids subjected to the remedial program.

And if TUSD achieves unitary status, the number of high-performing students leaving will likely increase as more options become available to parents.

The integrity of any individual or institution is the ability to do the right thing even when it is most difficult to do.

School district leadership consists of good people who, by dutifully enforcing an unjust law, are hurting the schools.

Public criticism of NCLB, especially at a time when it is up for reauthorization in Congress, is necessary to maintain professional and institutional integrity.

It is time for TUSD leadership to join with TEA in publicizing NCLB's damaging impact.

Paul Karlowicz is a history and political science teacher at University High School. He was president of the Tucson Education Association from 2003-2005.

Who writes these headings ...

Bilingual woman to become CEO of Hispanic Chamber

It's not just the heading. Sheryl Kornman, who I will assume is female, wrote the article which included this sentence:

She becomes a rare female commodity as a chamber president.

Commodity? Maricela Solis de Kester's name isn't mentioned until the second paragraph. After all she's just a woman and women are objects who have gender and language skills. It's not like she's the subject of the article or anything!

Bilingual? So original to have a bilingual person heading a 'Hispanic' Chamber in the US, isn't it? So it must be Kester's gender that zoomed into the writer's lizard brain. Yes, it's not just men who fail to use their higher reasoning capabilities at times. Can you imagine anyone writing the heading 'Bilingual man to become CEO of Hispanic Chamber?' Sounds idiotic, yes?

At the time of this post there was one comment to the article posted by someone who identifies himself as 'fernando s. (mando1).' Fernado's cryptic comment is 'who cares!!!'

And so goes the US and the world ...

Tucson Police flag cars for thieves ...

Can this possibly make sense?

... while you're in stores shopping, Tucson Police are patrolling parking lots, randomly checking cars for security.

Then they're leaving pass or fail report cards on vehicle windshields.

Patrolling sounds like police works. But the rest? Don't the police have real work to do? Something other than flagging potential vehicles for thieves? Could we possibly have too many police officers and they're looking for more things to do?

Making Tucson more habitable for birds ...

... would also make it more people friendly. My yard is 'packed' with birds in the summer. I have water for them and trees and shrubs, all in a small area using little water (much less anyway than some of my neighbors who have grass). Some of the birds, like my cardinal, stay all year, but many others just visit for a time, either to raise a family or on their way cross country. I occasionally spot a hawk and appear to have an owl in residence at night. I've also seen quail looking for a home though with dogs in this yard and cats all around the quail do not settle down here.

Then there's the lizards. Cute little geckos, little lizards and then bigger lizards whose cold, fixed stare makes one wonder what's going on in their mind and thankful they are no larger.

The side benefit of this bird friendly enclave is that its a few degrees cooler in summer than the surrounding area.

Group wants emphasis on better bird habitat by Tom Beal

Some people think Tucson is for the birds, or should be.
The Audubon Society wants Tucson to be dotted with multi-storied vegetation and striped with riparian ribbons of green so that its members can get their feather fix without venturing too far — and so that we all can experience a greater variety of early-morning chirps.
This whole xeriscape thing has gone too far, say the bird lovers. Birds can't nest or rest or hide from their predators in decomposed granite. The sameness of our vegetation is producing a boring bird mix.

Making our world greener and more comfortable costs no more than producing these sculptured heat sinks of cement and granite.

More sign of the times? ...

So much for tryptophanic turkey instilled sense of trust:

Black Friday indeed: Crowds of shoppers pour into Tucson stores --Scuffles result in police being called out four times

Overnight Thursday into Friday, police received three calls about separate fights at the Best Buy store at 575 E. Wetmore Road, which opened at 5 a.m. Friday with early-bird deals. In each case, the clamor had stopped by the time officers arrived, said Officer Dallas Wilson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

But scuffles weren't limited to electronics stores. Police responded to another fight call at a Toys "R" Us store, 4525 N. Oracle Road, but again said the problem subsided before officers arrived.

And the beat goes on ...

The fall out of the Catalina High School calling the police in who then invited the immigration authorities in continues. (For my previous post with links to articles and posts on this subject go here.)

Az Daily Star reports that "law enforcement access to students ... will be up for discussion at the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board meeting tonight."

Last Monday, about 100 students marched from Catalina Magnet High School, 3645 E. Pima St., to the federal building Downtown and eventually to Tucson Police Department headquarters. They demanded an end to the policy that allowed Border Patrol officials on their campus, which led to the deportation of a family of four.

Pfeuffer and administrators met with police officials and agreed to a policy that afternoon that says police will not summon immigration authorities to schools but instead will follow up somewhere else.

The newspaper also has an online poll asking "Should Tucson Police help enforce immigration law?" At the time I am writing this the unscientific results show 78% want Tucson Police officers to enforce federal immigration laws and 21% do not.

Another RED mind ...

The Red minded and chauvinistic Dwight Leister at 'American Chauvinist' appears to think that most of our taxes are paying for illegal immigrants and wants that stopped.

TAXPAYER REVOLT:NO MORE PROPERTY TAX INCREASES TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS IN OUR SCHOOLS,HOSPITALS OR USING SOCIAL SERVICES FORCING THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER OUT OF THERE HOMES! (Note: I've not seen all the details listed about the deported family reported in the news as yet so some of what Leister writes may be his assumptions and not facts.)

Leister is just ecstatic that a Tucson school outed, with the help of a police officer, a family that had been living illegally in this country for some time (and undoubtedly paying all kinds of taxes and fees in the process). The family was deported. But Leister, who does not want a cent of his taxes to go to services that might by chance be used to help an illegal immigrant, does want his taxes used to incarcerate the family rather than deporting them.

Info and opinions about deported student and his family:

Family deported after boy's arrest at school --Immigrant rights concerns raised; police say action was appropriate by Brady McCombs, 11.06.2007

Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr. : Deportation stirs backlash --100 march in protest of Border Patrol going on Catalina High campus: Students were right to march, and we can expect to see more like it Opinion by Ernesto Portillo Jr., 11.07.2007

Letters to the Editor at the Arizona Daily Star (note: most letters were against the family)
Deportation is not justified

The suspension of the Catalina High student was justified; however, the student and his family's deportation was not. The Tucson Police Department works for Tucson, not Nogales, not Phoenix and not the Border Patrol.

Suggesting that Tucson police should start identifying possible illegal immigrants for deportation is ridiculous. Enforcing immigration law is a distraction to the police goal of keeping its jurisdiction safe and productive. It also downplays the huge job the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement perform.

The Tucson police should continue to enforce our local and state laws and leave immigration to the proper federal agencies.

Casey Stone

College student, Tucson

Integral Options Cafe

Southern Arizona is a hotspot for illegal immigration. Perhaps more than anywhere else, the battle over illegal aliens has been in the news nearly constantly for years.

Today, the Arizona Daily Star covered a story about a family that was deported last Thursday after their teen son was discovered to have a small amount of marijuana at school. The family had been in Tucson for six years, had a house, and had two kids in the school system.

Border Reporter on same

West Nile virus makes a visit to 'NW' Tucson ...

Since this post (What to say ...) virus infected mosquitoes have made at least one unwelcome visit in 2007.

The bad news: Based on last year's pattern, if there is one case there will probably be others.

The good news: "Most people infected with West Nile will not get sick or will experience minor symptoms."

For a little more info: NW Side woman first in county infected with West Nile in '07 by Heidi Rowley