Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 5:00 PM

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While it will still take quite a bit of additional goodwill to overcome the musical abomination named "Moves Like Jagger", Adam Levine of Maroon 5's profane tweet from earlier today helps a bit.

Still, I miss Kara's Flowers:

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 4:00 PM

Michael Winslow, who will live on forever via his appearances in the Police Academy movies, has apparently become one half of a Led Zeppelin tribute act.

[Reddit]

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 3:00 PM

So we've had some time to digest the Global Strategy Group poll showing Democrat Jonathan Rothschild leading Republican Rick Grinnell by 17 percentage points.

The survey, done over Oct. 10-12, showed that 49 percent of 400 likely voters back Rothschild, while 32 percent support Grinnell and 4 percent support Green Mary DeCamp. Margin of error: 5 percent.

“I'm pleased,” says Pima County Democratic Party chairman Jeff Rogers, in what has to be the understatement of the week. “Seventeen points is a good lead.”

At Monday night’s candidate forum, Grinnell said he hadn’t seen the poll, but he fell back on the standard response to discovering that you're behind: “The only poll I’m counting is Nov. 8.”

Rogers has also released a poll showing that the Democratic City Council members have even bigger leads than Rothschild. Shirley Scott led Tyler Vogt by 25 points (53 percent to 28 percent); Paul Cunningham led Jennifer Rawson by 29 points (54 percent to 25 percent); and Regina Romero led Green Beryl Baker by 32 points (49 percent to 17 percent).

All good news for the Democrats—but we are hearing rumblings from the other side that the GOP has polls showing a much closer race. Republican operative Jonathan Paton said on Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable a few weeks back that he'd heard tell of a poll that showed Grinnell was trailing Rothschild by just 3 points.

More on that in a moment. But first: Let’s look at the Democratic poll, which appears legit. The firm, Global Strategy Group, does political strategy and communication for candidates in battleground states, as well as PR work for clients that range from developers to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 2:00 PM

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Whether you walk, run or ride a bike (or a horse!) there is enough room for everyone on the connected 23-mile path that connects the Santa Cruz and Rillito river parks. Launch the Loop is an event aimed at celebrating this connection and the organizers are inviting everyone out to enjoy it!

Check out our calendar listing and save the date!

Walkers, runners and bicyclists celebrate the connection of the Santa Cruz and Rillito river park paths, from 7:30 to 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 22. Free. The connected 23-mile path is the longest completed segment of the loop, 55 miles of car-free paths being developed around metropolitan Tucson. Register at one of three sites to get free T-shirts, water bottles and safety gear. Then walk, run or ride to the dedication ceremony at 10 a.m. on West Sunset Road, west of Interstate 10.

Visit www.pima.gov/TheLoop for more information

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Apparently, it's first come, first served for the riches of the moon, so former-Microsoft and currently very rich dude Naveen Jain is going to figure out to get up there and start digging:

NASA, which ended America's space shuttle program in June, says it wants to privatize spaceflight. Naveen Jain, co-founder and chairman of Moon Express, Inc., wants to go a step further: He wants to privatize the moon itself.

Jain's company plans to piggyback on private shuttle flights, using them to carry his lunar landers and mining platforms to the moon.

"People ask, why do we want to go back to the moon? Isn't it just barren soil?" Jain told FoxNews.com. "But the moon has never been explored from an entrepreneurial perspective."

Our nearest neighbor in the sky holds a ransom in precious minerals, Jain explained: Twenty times more titanium and platinum than anywhere on earth, not to mention helium 3, a rare isotope of helium that many feel could be the future of energy on Earth and in space.

When the word "ransom" comes up, that doesn't exactly give me a good feeling about this project.

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 12:00 PM

If you've ever thought that Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" would sound better as a song ostensibly about Christmas, then today's your lucky day, as Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe" hits the internet!

Nice try, Bieber, but the greatest Christmas song ever is still Quad City DJ's (ft. 69 Boyz and K-Nock) "What You Want For Christmas":

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 11:00 AM

The people at Mercado San Agustin say a new restaurant focusing on seafood and dishes made with local produce is opening there soon.

Agustin, the restaurant, will be a "Mediterranean style grill modeled after the bistros and brasseries of Europe," writes Glen Stosius, who is a partner in the group that operates Mercado San Agustin.

If I'm not mistaken, this restaurant is going in where Casa Marita Restaurante Argentino was expected to open. That restaurant was going to specialize in meat smoked over mesquite wood before the owners backed out some months ago.

Still, the space where Casa Marita was going in is spacious and lovely and will make a nice home for a seafood restaurant. That area needs a good seafood restaurant anyway.

Stosius says it will be a casual affair, and that it's expected to open by the end of the year.

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:00 AM

The crowd cheers about comments said at the Oct. 18 council meeting. Members of Occupy Tucson came to address the council to get their citations waived or reduced.
  • Kellie Mejdrich
  • The crowd cheers about comments said at the Oct. 18 council meeting. Members of Occupy Tucson came to address the council to get their citations waived or reduced.

Mayor and council chambers were crammed to capacity Tuesday night as Occupy Tucson temporarily occupied the Oct. 18 council meeting to protest citations given for remaining in the park after hours.

According to TPD numbers, about 80-120 Occupiers assembled outside before the meeting to protest, and later those who were too late to sign up to comment at the meeting, or just couldn’t fit inside, lingered brandishing signs— a red one in painted black capital letters, read: “Jobs Not War.”

Old and young dressed in everything from jeans and sweaty T-shirts to full suits came to address Tucson’s council, mostly about Occupy Tucson, the Occupy Wall Street affiliated event that began Oct. 15 at Armory Park.

Their main gripe against the city were 109 citations protestors received Saturday through Monday, according to TPD, for staying at the park “after hours,” in this case after 10:30 p.m., which is a criminal trespassing violation under city code.

According to a press release sent out by Occupy Tucson itself, their demands were clear: “waive or reduce the citation fines levied against protestors,” it said.

“The cost every night to keep citing people is going to bankrupt you, I just hope you guys know that,” said protester Phillip Benoit during the call to the audience.

Benoit and many more spoke for almost two hours at the meeting for three minutes each, invoking the words of icons like Albert Einstein and Thomas Jefferson, and with topics ranging from corporate greed to water rights to the legacy of the unborn to crippling debt. But the Occupy Tucson crew rallied around one central idea—their right to free speech.

It often got personal.

“We gather not to cause trouble but to share our troubles with the rest of the 99 percent—which includes you,” said Kristina Ruiz.

“How will your descendents speak about you?” Michael Migliore asked the council.

Even calls of “shame on you!” were applauded by the group, though raucous applause often dwindled to jazz-hands-style finger waving during speeches to show approval.

Since there was nothing on the agenda about the citations, council members couldn’t act on what was discussed. Instead, they listened quietly to every individual with state-prescribed stoicism—though an occasional nod, raised eyebrow, or smile escaped the faces of several members and the mayor himself.

Overall, this was a particularly rowdy council meeting, with cheers and applause breaking out after most speakers. The energy was palpable. The crowd was particularly energized by the words of 62-year-old Margie King, a Tucsonan who has spent years in China teaching U.S. History.

“The American government supported the Tiananmen Square movement after 10:30 at night,” King said to cheers. “The American government supported protests in the middle east after 10:30 at night!”

After the call to the audience was adjourned, the group reassembled in front of City Hall, and a cry of—“To Armory Park!” could be heard in the crowd.

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Posted By on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 9:10 AM

First, the bad news: another satellite is going to return to earth sometime around Friday, with the possibility that it will hit somewhere in the United States. The German space agency estimates there's a 1 in 2000 chance that the resulting space debris will hit someone.

The good news? According to Professor Heiner Klinkrad of the European Space Agency "Until now in the more than 50-years of space history not a single person has been harmed [by pieces of falling satellites]." Your individual likelihood of being hit? 1 in 14 trillion? Still, I'm totally using this as an excuse to not do yard work this weekend.

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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Posted By on Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 5:33 PM

Sorry to disappoint you, Shaun McClusky, but there were no hippies stinking up Armory Park the first weekend of Occupy Tucson. Maybe once I smelled patchouli, but that could have been me.

Before I explain to you what took place the first few days at Occupy Tucson, I need to let everyone else know that today at 4:30 p.m. the Occupy Tucson folks had a rally and began a march from Armory Park to Tucson City Hall, 225 W Alameda. There's still time to join them. The council meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and then there's the march back to Armory Park.

The goal is to ask the mayor and city council members to support them and stop the Tucson Police Department from issuing more criminal trespassing citations and allow Occupy Tucson to stay put without fear of being kicked out or continued arrests. The point they want to make is that so far it's been a peaceful protest of demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights to get together and complain about their government. While I'm still scratching my head thinking the point should be more civil disobedience which comes with citations, I understand their concerns that if it keeps going like this that doesn't bode well for building momentum for the occupation and it will leave many people dealing with heavy fines.

Here's an observation of what I saw over the weekend: Signs were spelled correctly, these folks know how to interpret the Bill of Rights, and they don't chase anyone around that may not agree with them by shouting "ACORN, ACORN." That has to mean something.

By last night, TPD had issued more than 100 citations to demonstrators who stayed overnight or at the park past 10:30 p.m. when it closes. The citation can mean up to a $1,000 fine for each ticket, but let's say Occupy Tucson is able to keep up the momentum despite the citations — what fun for the Justice Court.

By the time Occupy Tucson demonstrators decided to go to tonight's meeting, it was too late to get on the city council agenda. But once demonstrators show up at city hall in a loud way, only a few representatives are expected to enter the council chambers and make a plea during call to audience.

Craig Barber, one of the original organizers of Occupy Tucson, told demonstrators during last night's general assembly meeting that according to city code the city manager has the legal authority to allow Occupy Tucson folks to stay at Armory Park or any other park without being issued a citation.

The code says: “Powers of the director. The control, supervision, and operations of all parks is vested in the director of parks and recreation. The director or his deputy may make such reasonable rules and regulations as are necessary to manage, control, supervise, operate, use, preserve and govern park property and activities, and may designate hours of operation and opening and closing times of the various parks which may be different as to individual parks.”

Barber also offered further clarification on the park alternatives the city of Tucson's Parks and Recreation Director Fred Gray told the Range about last week — non-park properties that could be made available for the occupation without worry of arrest. Not sure if you can call it an occupation at that point, but Barber explained that one of the lots at Sixth Street and Toole Avenue is a gravel lot without shade, grass, trash or bathrooms. Another lot offered was a paved lot, but again, no water, trash, shade or bathrooms.

“We reconned these lots,” Barber said. “It’s a joke.”

There's an alternative the city council may want to consider this council meeting or the next — why not do what the LA City Council did, tell police not to dish out citations or make arrests — plus they passed this nifty resolution that you can read here:

69353494-Los-Angeles-Occupy-resolution.pdf

Saturday Night Movie and a Citation

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