Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson would like to do a historical tribute about its founder, Dr. Hugh C. Thompson, Jr. They are requesting help in order to do this. Please see the request below from Genie Gekas Patterson, director of major and annual gifts.
For more than 45 years, Big Brothers Big Sisters has served thousands of children in the Tucson community through one-on-one youth mentoring. This achievement would not be possible without the vision and dedication of one man, Dr. Hugh C. Thompson Jr. (Jan. 3, 1906-Dec. 7, 1992).Dr. Thompson was the founder of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson in 1963. Dr. Thompson was a local pediatrician at the Tucson Clinic and an associate professor at the University of Arizona Allergy and Pediatrics Department.
We need your help in gathering information regarding Dr. Hugh C. Thompson, Jr. If you are a friend, a previous Little Brother, former patient, former student, former staff member, or know anyone whose life he’s touched, we would appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible. Any information or stories you can share with us will assist us in properly giving tribute to this philanthropic man and his family.
Please contact Genie Gekas at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson: 624-2447, ext. 104, or [email protected].
The fight between the Rialto Theatre Foundation and Don Martin and Scott Stiteler, the owners of downtown's Rialto block, is slipping closer to the brink. Martin and Stiteler have filed papers in Pima County Superior Court to evict the foundation from its green room, offices and storage space.
The theatre itself, which is owned by the city and leased to the foundation, will remain open, so go ahead and buy those Snoop Dog tickets.
My friend Doug Biggers, the Rialto Theatre Foundation's exec director, tells us a court hearing on the eviction matter is imminent.
As tensions rise, high-level talks between the developers, the foundation's board and the city and downtown bigwigs are continuing with an effort to work out a deal that avoids both eviction and condemnation.
The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector has set a record for pot seizures, and they still have more than two months to go until they finalize the numbers for the end of their fiscal year.
What's crazy is they seized a million pounds of pot in the Tucson sector alone, which begs the question: What ungodly amount of reefer actually made it through ?
Here's a bit of The Associated Press story with more details:
Agents in the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector have seized a record 1 million pounds of marijuana, with an estimated street value of $800 million, so far this fiscal year, federal officials said Tuesday.The seizures during the first 9 1/2 months of fiscal 2009, which began Oct. 1, are the most ever in a single sector of the Border Patrol.
The Tucson sector, covering 260 miles of the Mexican border from New Mexico to Yuma County, is the nation's busiest portion of the 2,000-mile southwest border for smuggling of illegal immigrants and marijuana.
Tucson Sector Chief Robert Gilbert attributed the success to the tireless efforts of his agents and the support of local, state and federal law enforcement partners.
The Associated Press reports that the price of a pack of smokes is getting pretty steep in New Hampshire:
A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged over 23 quadrillion dollars.Josh Muszynski checked his account online a few hours later and saw the 17-digit number — a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500 (twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars).
Nimbus Brewery is joining up with Metro Restaurants to open a new brewpub on Tucson’s eastside.
The new pub and eatery will occupy what is currently Ristorante Italia at 6464 E. Tanque Verde Road, according to a press release put out by Dan Multhup, director of operations for Metro Restaurants. Ristorante Italia will close Saturday, July 18, with construction on the new restaurant beginning Monday, July 20.
This is the second time this year that Nimbus man James Counts has attempted to join up with another restaurateur to expand the reach of his brewery. Counts had planned to open a sandwich joint and bar with Jay Tolkoff — the former owner of PJ’s Subs and current owner of the T6 Filling Station at 2500 E. Sixth St. — but backed out after the two ran into irreconcilable differences.
Counts has tasked Michael Brown, Metro Restaurants' corporate chef, with creating a menu that will complement his array of popular beers. The design of the new eatery’s interior is being left up to interior designer Jennifer Rothman Teufel and local artist Daniel Martin Diaz.
Operations in the huge 44th Street warehouse that is Nimbus headquarters will not be affected.
Here’s the mini-novel of a press release with more details:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
On one of the Sunday chat shows, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl suggested that the United States just stop spending all the stimulus money and put it toward health care or deficit reduction.
And that, in turn, led to some outrage by Glenn Hamer of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, who says it's wrong to "bully" Arizona:
Regardless of how one feels about the stimulus funding, it is wrong for officials to play politics with the allocation of dollars for federal spending programs that Arizona citizens ultimately pay though our federal taxes (or perhaps more accurately, future taxes).It is one thing to joust with Sen. Kyl over his position, but it is an entirely different matter for Cabinet secretaries to write letters to the Chief Executive of a state and threaten funding if support isn't provided. Once a law is passed, it needs to be fairly and impartially administered.
We don't disagree with Hamer's point about fairly administering the law. But no one from the Obama administration is suggesting that the law not be fairly administered. What they're doing is making a simple point: States want (and in many cases, need) the stimulus money to balance the budget. If we follow Kyl's advice, much of that money will go away. Let's see if Brewer thinks that's a good idea.
Monday, July 13, 2009
State Sen. Jonathan Paton was delighted to hear Monday that Gov. Jan Brewer had signed a bill eliminating partisan elections in the city of Tucson.
“I am very happy because I feel like in 2011, candidates are, for the first time, going to have to appeal to everyone in their wards instead of just a narrow minority,” Paton says.
Paton, a Republican lawmaker, may have succeeded in eliminating one of the barriers that GOP candidates have in winning in the city of Tucson, where Democrats hold a commanding voter-registration advantage.
But Ward 3 City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, a Democratic who may harbor mayoral ambitions in 2011, says she believes the city should challenge the new law in court if City Attorney Mike Rankin believes there’s a legal foundation.
We'll have more in this week's Tucson Weekly!
The Rialto Theatre, which remains tangled up in a battle with would-be downtown developers Don Martin and Scott Stiteler, got some good news today: Pollstar's mid-year rankings showed that the theatre was ranked No. 42 on the list of Top 100 Worldwide Club Venues, based on ticket sales. That's a jump from the venue's previous ranking of No. 58.
Rialto Theatre Foundation Executive Director Doug Biggers, TW's founder and my good friend (in the interest of full disclosure), notes that the ranking puts the Rialto ahead of places like Portland's Crystal Ballroom (a very cool concert hall where I saw Calexico perform last year) and Las Vegas' House of Blues.
Biggers credits the success to Curtis McCrary, the theatre's booking agent and general manager (and also an occasional TW contributor and good friend of mine). So say we all, Curtis—and a belated thanks to you for securing the only Wilco performance in Arizona this summer, too. They rocked Centennial Hall!
July is National Hot Dog Month, and if you haven’t been celebrating by shoving hot dogs down your cavernous maw like a Sonoran version of Joey Chestnut, then you can redeem yourself by heading over to your local Weinershnitzel tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14, for “Free Chili Dog or Small Cone Day.”
It probably goes without saying, but anyone visiting any Weinerschnitzel tomorrow is entitled to a free chili dog or small cone.
Even though a chili dog is not exactly the pinnacle of culinary achievement, turning down free food in this economy is bad form. Plus, the National Weather Service is threatening a high of 105 degrees for tomorrow, so that free ice cream might be what saves you from going completely, frighteningly mad.
The weiner masters at Weinerschnitzel and the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council also sent out this keen list of hot dog facts, which I humbly submit for your perusal:
• Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs a year — an average of 70 hot dogs per person.
• More hot dogs are eaten in July than any other month of the year, which is why it is designated National Hot Dog Month.
• On July 4 alone, the biggest hot dog day of the year, 155 million hot dogs will be consumed. That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., more than five times.
• Los Angeles is the second-biggest hot dog-eating city, after New York.
• More than 21 million hot dogs will be eaten at major league baseball parks this year. That’s enough hot dogs to round the bases 41,667 times — or stretch from Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to AT&T Park in San Francisco!
• The first words Mickey Mouse ever uttered in a cartoon were “hot dogs” (in “The Karnival Kid,” 1929).
• Perry Como, Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin all recorded songs titled “Hot Dog.”
