... because it is 2009, as far as the Weekly is concerned! The Jan. 1 issue is online and ready for readers. Feel free to comment on its contents here, and have a happy New Year!

We recently received this note from Asa Gauen:

Here is an animation and children's book i made about finding a jackrabbit and driving to Tucson to let him go. I thought someone in Tucson might enjoy it. I am an artist living and working in New York City. Thanks!

... it's a whole new Weekly! Local Heroes, our New Year's Guide and all the regular Weekly goodness are online and ready for your perusal.

Feel free to comment on its contents here. Oh, and happy holidays!

Festivus at the Loft last night was a family affair (we don't have any bad sweaters, but we are big Gremlins fans), and this great clip of Charro singing on Pee Wee's Christmas Special was outstanding.

I dedicate this to my editor, who became a Charo convert after seeing her on vacation cruises.

After checking out the airing of grievances at the Loft's annual Festivus celebrations, I wandered upstairs to see Let the Right One In, a way-cool Swedish vampire flick. DiGiovanna is right when he says: "While Let the Right One In has a few jump-out-of-your-seat moments, its horror is more in the realm of the slow creep and a consistent sense of discomfort." Anyway, it's got lots of snow, which makes it an ideal film to see during your Christmas break.

The coming attractions suggest some great stuff on the way from kids at the Loft in 2009, including Repo: A Genetic Opera and a Godfather double-feature in late January.

I read a story like this and have to wonder: Why is it so bad if people like this pay more in federal income taxes?

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Please, Joe the Plumber, explain it to me.

The next-to-last issue (officially) of 2008 is here! Feel free to comment on its contents here.

Neighbors of the Saguaro Ranch development in Marana conducted an old-fashioned sit-in as part of their skirmish with developer Stephen Phinny over the boulders Phinny keeps putting across two access points on a contested right of way. 

One of the roads is an extension of Thornydale Road that remains a legally recorded public easement by the county. Neighbors have used the road for hikes and horse-riding for more than 40 years.

Earlier this month, neighbors—who filed a lawsuit asking a judge to determine if the road remains a public easement—got together and removed Phinny’s boulders, encouraging everyone to hike the roads that Phinny claims are private, because he wants to support the exclusivity of his high-end development, Saguaro Ranch. 

Along one access point, rather than use boulders, Phinny recently had his employees park a car to prevent access. And on the other access point, rather than waiting for the boulders to return, neighbors Tracy Chamberlain, Steve Blomquist and Sharyl Cummings decided to head out with lawn chairs at 9 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, to block the tractor full of boulders they expected that day. Sure enough, two Saguaro Ranch employees showed up, followed shortly by a tractor. 

"Those employees seemed quite incredulous that we were blocking the area," Blomquist says. "They didn't stay more than five minutes. We stayed there all day until about 3:30 p.m. We succeeded." 

The neighbors' lawsuit recently took a different turn when their attorney asked the judge to give the surrounding residents the public easement, based on a recent deposition from Marana attorney Frank Cassidy. Blomquist said Cassidy confirmed in his deposition that Marana didn’t abandon the easement, contradicting one of Phinny's claims. 

And the boulders? Chamberlain says she expects Phinny will replace them in the next day or two, and the neighbors will get together yet again and remove them. 

Where is Phinny is getting all those boulders? If this development deal doesn’t work out, maybe he can start a landscape-supply company.

Leave it to Pima County Supervisor "Sugar" Ray Carroll to remind his fellow supes that they promised to do whatever they could to protect Davidson Canyon from mining interests after they dropped a lawsuit against the Arizona State Land Department in February. And leave it to his fellow supes to disregard Sugar Ray.

Last year, the land department had approved three mining leases in the area, including one from cement manufacturer California Portland Cement. Back in February, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the supes that the mining plan could still possibly be stopped, because California Portland was having trouble getting a 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In addition, an application designating Davidson Canyon as an outstanding waterway was still making its way through the state bureaucracy, which could eventually offer protections against mining.

Now Carroll is coming to the defense of community activists still reeling from the county’s July approval of a floodplain-use permit that makes way for California Portland to build a mining road through Davidson Canyon wash.

Carroll pushed for a revocation of the permit on Tuesday, Dec. 16, allowing the supervisors one more chance to show they care about protecting Davidson Canyon—and the supes voted it down.

Members of the Empire Fagan Coalition, who are fighting to save Davidson Canyon, note that earlier this month, the state approved Davidson Canyon’s outstanding water designation, and California Portland still hasn’t received its 404 permit—something they understood was required before a floodplain-use permit could be issued. They like to point out Davidson Canyon’s importance; the area southeast of Tucson near Vail is considered a major contributor to the water aquifer in the Tucson basin.

Carroll says the outstanding water designation and the lack of a 404 permit had given him hope that the county could easily revoke the permit.

It looks like we won’t get a bonus congressional race to cover in '09. Prez-elect Barack Obama has evidently tapped Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar for secretary of the interior rather than our homeboy, Congressman Raul Grjalva. That means we don't have every pol with delusions of grandeur climbing in a mad dash to replace Grijalva.

It would have been a glorious war!