UPDATED on Monday, April 13: Bernal abandons campaign!

It appears that Ward 3 City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich's decision to fire City Manager Mike Hein has bought her some political trouble already: Democrat Bennett Bernal is planning to challenge her in the September primary.

Provided he qualifies for the ballot, Bernal represents a credible threat to Uhlich, who is wrapping her first term. He was beloved by many Ward 3 neighborhoods for his relentless constituent work when he worked for Republican Kathleen Dunbar. After Uhlich decided to let him go, he found work doing similar projects for Pima County. Those connections could prove vital in a Democratic primary.

Bernal got his first lessons in campaigning during unsuccessful campaign for constable last year.

Tune into the John C. Scott Show this afternoon at 3 p.m. for an interview with Bernal. (And stick around to hear me at 4:30!) John is now on The Jolt, KJLL, 1330 AM.

TW named Bernal a local hero in 2005:

As a longtime leader in Balboa Heights, Jane Baker has heard a lot of talk about how city officials are going to help her stressed neighborhood near Grant and Oracle roads.

But she hasn't seen many people tackle problems like Bennett Bernal, who is leaving his job handling constituent service in the Ward 3 office in the wake of Republican Kathleen Dunbar's defeat in last month's City Council election.

"Bennett was very in tune with the needs of the neighborhoods," Baker says. "He was out and about every day taking care of those needs. It's going to be a loss to the neighborhoods, because he was constantly available."

Baker says whether the problem revolved around

The Obama administration will soon be tackling the thorny immigration issue, reports The New York Times.

The usual suspects are already lining up in opposition:

Opponents of legalization legislation were incredulous at the idea that Mr. Obama would take on immigration when economic pain for Americans is so widespread.

“It just doesn’t seem rational that any political leader would say, let’s give millions of foreign workers permanent access to U.S. jobs when we have millions of Americans looking for jobs,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a group that favors reduced immigration. Mr. Beck predicted that Mr. Obama would face “an explosion” if he proceeded this year.

“It’s going to be, ‘You’re letting them keep that job, when I could have that job,’ ” he said.

In broad outlines, officials said, the Obama administration favors legislation that

My take on the firing of City Manager Mike Hein is up on KUAT-TV's Web site. Also on tonight's show: Bill Buckmaster has fun with Democrat Vince Rabago and Republican John Munger on the monthly face-off. Vince doesn't appear enthusiastic about defending the decision to give Hein the ax, while John decries, of all things, partisanship. LOL! He's truly shameless.

In case you don't feel like watching my performance, here's what I said:

You’re 80 million dollars in the hole.

Rio Nuevo is tanking.

You can’t even hire a police chief.

So if you’re the Tucson City Council, what do you do to the manager who’s holding your troubled city together?

Simple: You fire him!

It’s not Mike Hein’s fault that

I've never been much for the Twitter.

Sure, when it first launched at SXSW Interactive in 2007, I followed the unofficial geek handbook and immediately created an account. Until a month ago, my only posting was "on the phone, testing Twitter."

I mean, who cares what anyone else is doing or thinking? At last year's SXSW Interactive, my friend Ward just about drove me crazy updating his location to his friends every 10 minutes.

But, last month in Austin at this year's conference, I witnessed the evolution of the Twitter and its advanced use. I'm now a "tweetaholic" (find me @thefitz on Twitter).

It's not that the Twitter itself has changed - it still sports the same functionality as when it first launched. It's all the "twapplications" (Twitter applications) that have sprung up in the last year to sort, slice and dice the "twitterscape." Plus, the liberal Twitter elite (a.k.a. techno geeks) are now using all this random flotsam and jetsam of information for useful purposes - a far cry from the way your friendly neighborhood CNN, politicians and celebrities are stretching their Twitter wings.

Presented as evidence:

* I went to SXSW Interactive this year to try and build my professional relationships for digital media consulting. Every time I sat down next to someone, I found myself Mac-blocked from making an introduction because the person was either sending a message to their "tweeps" (followers), reading other people's tweets, or updating Facebook. But I witnessed more than one spontaneous "tweetup" when people who had been following each other on Twitter suddenly realized they were in the same session and met in person for the first time. Genius: Find out whether you care about what someone has to say before you waste time talking to them in person.

* Thanks to the ingenious addition of hashtags (#tucson) and the ability to search by keyword, you find yourself connecting to people with similar interests you never knew before. A posting on my second day of tweeting - about how artificial intelligence algorithms are confused by "Napoleon Dynamite" and Dido recommendations - earned me an artificial intelligence engineer follower from Florida. My response to a tweet about science cafes picked up a follower with the National Museum of Health and Medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C.

* At dinner with my girlfriend, her dad, and his friends, I found myself at a loss to remember the name of the father of quantum physics (I know, I know). To prove a point about a Twitter debate we were having, I sent out a tweet asking for the information. I had the answer - delivered by someone I didn't know - within 15 minutes. Not exactly Google, but not bad.

Or, you can just say, "twuck it."

Link:
L.A. Times interview with Twitter creator Jack Dorsey

It's that time of year again: BroFest is just around the corner.

For all of you who are asking. "What the heck is BroFest?" please read along.

BroFest is a special event that pays tribute to two great young men, Danny and Mikey Mack. They were brothers who died in separate vehicle accidents less than one year apart.

Last year, my friends and I decided to honor the guys by throwing a big bash—BroFest.

It's not all fun and games, though; we also are raising money to build a walking track, The Mack Track, at their former school, Walter Douglas, in the Flowing Wells School District. (We recently presented the district with a check from last year's event to the tune of $16,000!) We do need to raise a bit more before than can start break ground

Anyway, last year was great fun! And this year should be, too.

Roadhouse will be playing some tunes; Dave Fitzsimmons will be drawing up a storm; we're selling food,
T-shirts, all-purpose tote bags and other good stuff. There are games for the kids. You'll also be able to purchase tickets to win some fabulous prizes, including a weekend use of a condo in Mexico, dinners at restaurants all over town, hand-crafted items, a CD player, wine—the list goes on and on.

Here are the details:

Sunday, April 19
Noon to 4 p.m.
Jacob's Park - on Fairview between Miracle Mile and Prince Road

Try to make it!

The East Bay Express (whose staff is considerably hipper-looking than all of us freaks at the Tucson Weekly), has used their infinite hipster wisdom to come up with the best idea yet for saving print newspapers.... I won't ruin the surprise...

I'll be on KUAT-TV's Arizona Illustrated tonight to talk about the Tucson City Council's 4-3 vote to fire City Manager Mike Hein. Plus, Republican John Munger and Democrat Vince Rabago will be going toe-to-toe in the political face-off, which is always fun to watch. It's at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6.1 on your digital receiver and Channel 27 on your old analog set.

The Tucson City Council embraced the nuclear option this afternoon and fired City Manager Mike Hein.

There were obvious tensions between Hein and some council members, but we're still surprised that council members Karin Uhlich, Shirley Scott, Regina Romero and Steve Leal pulled the trigger. Why not at least wait until after a budget was approved to bring this kind of instability to Tucson? And losing Hein will surely set back the already slow pace of downtown redevelopment.

The firing will also raise eyebrows in Phoenix and makes preserving Rio Nuevo that much more difficult. As Sen. Jonathan Paton told Rob O'Dell of the Star:

Despite the council's criticism of Hein's handling of Rio Nuevo, state Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said the city's problems with the Legislature will only grow worse if Hein is fired. He said he's heard from numerous people in Tucson and Phoenix that Hein's neck is on the chopping block.

Paton, who wants to reform Rio Nuevo rather than kill it, said that job will quickly become impossible if Hein is fired.

While he said he didn't agree with everything Hein has done, Paton added, "The credibility of Rio was done with his word and his handshake in 2006" when the Legislature voted to extend Rio Nuevo.

"All bets are off if they get rid of him," he said.

Well, what's a few hundred million bucks?

Here's an enemy Gabby—or "Miss Pink Sweaters Set"—can live without.

Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman, author of Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, will be speaking in Tucson next week to help raise funds for the Pima County Library Foundation. Barton says his talk will focus on "power and how it's exercised in Washington and the lessons—both positive and negative—that Obama has learned from Cheney."

We'll have a Q&A with Gellman in TW's print edition and an expanded interview here on the blog later this week.

Meet Gellman yourself at 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, at Catalina Foothills High School Little Theater, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. Tickets to the fundraiser are $35. For more information, call 299-6855.