Tonight's Tucson Unified School District special meeting of the governing board is mostly about the search for the district's next superintendent.

The meeting opens at 4 p.m. at TUSD admin, 1010 E. 10th St. The board goes into executive session the top of the meeting to talk about personnel issues related to outgoing Superintendent John Pedicone, who announced his resignation last month. Also on the agenda is looking at what reads like a public records request "exempt by law from public inspection." Gotta love the executive session portion of agendas.

The public portion of the meeting tonight opens at 6 p.m. when board members are expected to vote on what just took place in executive — will be interesting to see how much discussion will take place in public. The action item is to approve recruitment and the hiring process for the next superintendent.

In other TUSD related news: at the next regular TUSD governing board meeting on Tuesday, April 9, an action is being planned by UNIDOS at 1010 that starts at 5:30 p.m.

From UNIDOS:

UNIDOS has been organizing a "Rally" for April 9th in response to the 11 school closures that TUSD has agreed too. After much discussion with board members, we are tired of their excuses and we are demanding that they "find the money and stop school closures." We hope you can support us and come to this event at TUSD Headquarters.

If you can donate water and/or snacks for this event, please bring them to Derechos Humanos office, 631 S. 6th Ave, between April 2nd and April 9th.

morris-day-and-the-time_ice-cream-castles by 80smemories

Life can be a dull slog, a meaningless grind from one day to the next, but hey, there's always ice cream, right? HUB is running a contest on Facebook that I don't quite understand, but seems to involve tweeting something, but the prize is two scoops of ice cream (one of our essential dishes, of course) a week for a year! Go to HUB's Facebook page and start clicking away.

The season ended in dramatically devastating fashion five days ago, and many Wildcat fans are probably still in mourning (not to mention contemplating their existence), which means now should be a time to move on past the University of Arizona basketball team for a while. In fact (shameless plug!) I wrote a column about that for this week's issue of the Weekly.

But it seems the universe doesn't want UA hoops fans to catch their breath — not considering the news that has broken in the last two days.

First, and most notably (or notoriously, depending on your outlook), was the revelation that the person in charge of officiating in the Pac-12 conference apparently has a hate-boner for UA coach Sean Miller. Though the offer to give $5,000 or a trip to Cancun for any referee who T'd up or ejected Miller from the Pac-12 tourney was meant as a 'joke,' that didn't stop one official from issuing a technical simply because Miller mentioned that #HeTouchedTheBall.

The saddest, sickest part of this scenario is that, at least so far, the Pac-12 is standing behind Rush, who was also involved in slimy doings while working as a referee in the NBA. If he's not fired, expect any number of Cancun-themed puns to be yelled by fans at McKale anytime a call goes against Arizona next season.

Next up, and much more of a positive nature, is the commitment by highly rated high school senior Aaron Gordon to join Arizona's 2013-2014 team. He's likely a one-and-done player, as evidenced by his theatrical decision to wait until a press conference associated with a prep All-American game — the fact that such a game has a press conference speaks volumes to the overall problem of college recruiting, but that's a different issue — to announce his choice of where to 'attend' college, but he also increases the overall strength of a Wildcat team that next season should be a favorite to make the Final Four.

Okay, no more UA hoops talk!

The Tucson Bus Riders Union and the Primavera Foundation want community input on the future of the downtown Ronstadt Transit Center on Tuesday, April 2, at 5:30 p.m. at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. There will be music, food, information and discussion on the future of the transit center.

From the Tucson Bus Riders Union press release:

As downtown development proceeds, what will become of the Ronstadt Center?

Currently the city’s trajectory points to turning over the design and execution of development on the “Ronstadt Transit Center master planning area” (including the current transit center and two city properties immediately to the north, currently used as parking lots, extending from Congress St. to the railroad tracks) to a private company, to be designated after public process that was set in motion on February 5 by Tucson’s Mayor and Council (motion passed at study session attached). As summarized in CM Uhlich’s Ward 3 newsletter, “a draft Request for Qualifications will come back to the Mayor and Council within 60—90 days for final review and approval before being released to solicit responses from potential investors/partners.”

Tucson Bus Riders Union is taking the lead by hosting a community discussion about the future of Ronstadt. The group wants to make sure the Ronstadt Center truly serves Tucson’s bus riders and that our developing downtown is a welcoming and well-functioning place for everyone.

According to Bus Riders Union member Suzanne Schafer, “We want this process to be truly public and to consider the whole picture: What was the Ronstadt Center created for? How is it used now? Who does it belong to; who should it belong to? What are the problems and potentials? What do bus riders and others who use our downtown really want for this space?

“Our goal is to bring attention to these questions and facilitate the inclusion of voices that might not otherwise be heard. We plan to bring a wide variety of people together, and we intend to make a real contribution to the public process that the City of Tucson has committed to.”

Good news for Korean/Mexican fusion outfit MaFooCo, who are expanding in a big way, jumping from one truck to four, according to their Facebook page.

NOTE: Yep, this was an April Fool's joke. I hate that damn day.

In an announcement sure to raise the hackles of many a person who likes running around in Colonial-era garb, it appears that Arizona is unfortunately NOT among the freest states in America — we're only 11th. But hey, better than those freedom-hating Commu-socialist bastards on the coasts!

From Freedom in the 50 States:

Arizona scores well on economic freedom but its personal freedom score is mediocre. Arizona was one of the most improved states between 2009 and 2011, after declining between 2007 and 2009. Fiscal policy was the major factor in this apparent reversal, perhaps because the state was hit hard by the housing bust.

The state scores particularly well on taxes, which are 8.5 percent of personal income, and on fiscal decentralization, which is nearly a standard deviation better (more decentralized) than average. But it scores poorly on government debt, which is 22.8 percent of income. Government spending and employment are slightly better (lower) than average.

...

In the personal freedom dimension, Arizona scores well on gun control laws (no permit is required for concealed carry, as in Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming); alcohol regulations and taxes, apart from a “happy hour” ban; and educational freedom (a tax credit law is in place, and private and home schools are not very regulated). It scores poorly on tobacco policies due to high cigarette taxes and extremely strict smoking bans, and on incarceration rates, which are a standard deviation worse (higher) than average.

The major categories that the states were scored on include fiscal policy, regulatory policy and personal freedom. Sub-categories included economic freedom; marijuana and salvia freedom; and travel freedom.

Nothing too out of the ordinary here: the Mercatus Center, a libertarian-leaning think-tank whose stated research mission "is focused on how markets solve problems," ranked states on fiscal policy, regulatory policy and personal freedom...uh, policy, then decided that our love of guns, our low taxes and our loose regulations on most things (smoking aside) make us a top example of liberty-loving values...though you shouldn't be surprised to note that the effects of S.B. 1070 were wholly ignored:

Note that, because its most controversial provisions were thrown out by the courts, Arizona’s first-in-the-nation stop-and-identify law targeting undocumented immigrants is not included in the index.

Good call, to an extent — but ignoring the law as a whole simply because the "controversial" bits were excluded doesn't quite represent the culture of intimidation that surrounded it, guys.

Either way, the rest of the top 10 includes such bastions of freedom as North and South Dakota (ranked numbers one and two, respectively), followed by Tennessee, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Idaho, Missouri, Virginia, Georgia and Utah.

Take a look at the list as a whole here, and check out Arizona's section right here.

Hey folks, it's April Fool's Day again — you know, the one day out of the year that people believe that they have free rein to be obnoxious and slightly dickish under the guise of it being "fun!" and "wacky!"

Whee.

We at Tucson Weekly find April Fool's Day to be unnecessary — after all, some of us practice being obnoxious and slightly dickish every day of the year, which takes commitment, dammit. Thus, we're taking this opportunity to spoil make you aware of the pranks that people have tried to pull on this otherwise-unremarkable day of the year so that you aren't fooled by them.

The Good

• For one, make sure to check out roughly everything Google has been doing today: Google Nose (Beta, of course), Gmail Blue, ">Google Treasure Maps and the announcements of the Winners of YouTube, which is pretty spectacular, to be perfectly honest.
  
• The folks behind the highly-regarded Android phone app SwiftKey came up with the, um, "interesting" concept for SwiftKey Tilt (and hidden an easter egg for it in the app's latest update), which attempts to guess what you're typing based on which direction your phone is tilting at any given time. The video is well worth the watch.
  
• Of course, we have to give love to Eegee's, and their "flavor of the month," Spicy Sriracha — which I will totally actually try.
  
• Think Geek's Death Star Trench Toss game, which is one of the many products that Think Geek rolls out every year and eventually turns into something they actually sell. Beats the hell out of the other fakes they've got this year.

Everything Else

• The New York Times Haiku Tumblr.
  
• This video from the White House's YouTube channel, featuring the otherwise-entertaining Kid President, which is a bait-and-switch message from "the President." Yeah. Great idea.
  
• Any posts, without warning, of the compound tibia fracture suffered by Louisville guard Kevin Ware last night (don't worry, that's just a link to an ESPN blog post explaining that Ware's injury inspired Louisville to win the game last night; no bones poking out of flesh here).
  
• Everyone you know who has made a false announcement on Facebook: "I'm engaged!" "I'm pregnant!" "I have cancer!" Seriously, don't try this; it makes you look like an asshole. (Though if you actually have serious news of this variety, you may want to consider waiting a day to tell everyone. Don't worry, it won't ruin your life. Probably.)
  

We'll be updating this throughout the day as more stupid/spectacular/more-often-terrible-than-not pranks come rolling through.

But Tucson Rep. Ethan Orr said he would continue to work to restoring the Heritage Fund, despite the House Appropriations Committee’s recent decision to not hear House Bill 2594.

Orr, as the bill’s primary sponsor, had wanted to restore the Heritage Fund dollars that were eliminated in 2010 as part of a budget-balancing package. His bill would have directed $10 million in lottery funds to the Heritage Fund, as well as $9 million in lottery funds to local transportation. (More on the bill can be found here.)

Although the bill failed to get past the Appropriations Committee, Orr said he planned to bring the bill back next year. Orr added that he has had a close working relationship with Arizona State Parks Executive Director Bryan Martyn, who also has an “excellent 20-year vision” for the maintenance and preservation of Arizona’s state parks.

Orr said that the state parks are important on a number of levels, specifically in terms of state economics and preserving the history of Arizona.

“Strictly from an economical standpoint, they’re key drivers for our rural communities,” he said. “And they’re part of our heritage; they’re part of celebrating what’s beautiful in Arizona.”

Learn more about the Heritage Fund sweep and the challenges that state parks face here.

I really couldn't be more excited for the Tucson debut of FELA!, the Tony-award winning musical about the life of Nigerian funk-master/musical genius/political revolutionary Fela Kuti. I feel somewhat responsible for the success of this show for UApresents, since I campaigned for them to book it in the first place, so we're throwing a party Wednesday night to introduce Tucson to the man and his music.

So, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Borderlands Brewing, I'll be playing a selection of Fela tracks (off a laptop, don't expect actual quality DJing or anything), UApresents will be giving stuff away, MaFooCo will selling food, and yes, there will be delicious, local beer. Plus, you can buy tickets for the shows Friday the 12th and Saturday the 13th (and you should, because you'll have a great time and UApresents will be encouraged to bring more shows like this in the future).

See you there!