Sen. John McCain says the new border-security requirements in immigration-reform package that's set to pass the Senate this week as "well over-sufficient" and promises the U.S.-Mexico border will be "the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall."

McCain's comments come one day after 67 senators approved a "border surge" amendment to the Gang of Eight's legislation. The new proposal includes nearly 20,000 new Border Patrol agents—essentially doubling the current force—and funding for another 700 miles of fencing.

McCain himself expressed a bit of skepticism over the additional funding, which was included in an amendment from Republican John Hoeven of North Dakota and Democrat Bob Corker of Tennessee.

“Is it more than I would have recommended? Honestly, yes,” said McCain, who was one of the original Gang of Eight drafters of the bill. “But we've got to give people confidence. And by the way, if there's anyone who still will argue that the border's not secure after this, then border security is not their reason for opposing a path to citizenship for the people who are in this country illegally.”

As if on cue, McCain’s old pal, Sarah Palin, announced Sunday via Facebook that she remained opposed to the legislation , calling it a “pandering, rewarding-the-rule-breakers, still-no-border-security, special-interests-ridden, 24-lb disaster of a bill.”

Palin—who is essentially functioning as the id of the GOP conservatives—added that the bill “offers no solutions. It will barely slow the flow of illegal immigration, which means we can expect millions and millions of new illegal aliens in coming years.”

But the promise of the big surge was enough to flip Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer from a skeptic of the bill to a supporter.

Brewer told Fox News on Monday that she was “claiming victory for Arizona in regards to the border surge. I was writing to the federal government and to Sen. Schumer way back in June of 2010 in regards to the border surge that we needed to see completed before we moved forward.”

Plenty of the critics of the legislation remain. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted against ending debate on the immigration bill earlier this week, said he didn’t believe the bill would lead to a secure border.

“Despite the hard work and best efforts of our colleagues, I remain concerned that when it comes to the threshold question of border security, today’s assurances may well become tomorrow’s disappointments,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement to the press. “And that’s to say nothing of the process that got us here. When I called for a debate on immigration earlier this month, a massive bill, pushed up against an artificial deadline, without any real opportunity for review or amendment isn’t what I had in mind.”

Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy said he would vote for the amended bill, but called it “a disappointment to me and to many” because it had become “a potential recipe for waste, fraud and abuse.”

“The modification to my amendment reads like a Christmas wish list for Halliburton,” Leahy said in a press release. “I am sure there are federal contracting firms high-fiving at the prospect of all of the spending demanded by Senate Republicans in this amendment. The litany of expensive services, technology, and hardware mandated by this package is combined with an inexplicable waiver of many normal contracting rules.”

Leahy is not the only one to see the expanded border buildup as ridiculous overkill and a colossal waste of money. Some wonder if how the Border Patrol will be able to train and supply an extra 18,000 agents—not to mention questioning what all those agents are going to be doing out in the desert. Others say it will make the border region look like a war zone.

Locally, Border Action Network Executive Director Juanita Molina called the legislation “a disproportionate response to the risk posed by economic migrants.”

“Not only does this affect our everyday freedoms, it creates an occupied state that undermines the public trust in law enforcement and governmental institutions,” Molina said in a prepared statement.

Everyone has stories—it's just that some are compelling enough to write a book about.

Susan Enholm, who taught in the LEARN (Literacy, Education and Resource Network) Program at Pima County Adult Probation, decided to self-publish a book about her students' life experiences titled A Snowball's Chance.

At Pima County Adult Probation, many of the students were high school dropouts or had felony records—or both. The LEARN program was a chance for those students to eventually earn a GED.

Enholm hoped that publishing these stories might help save other people ,who were also going through some of the same hard times. She took some of her students and ask them questions about their history of drug use, legal troubles and so on.

Enholm said that while most of the students were willing to use their real name, some wished to go by another name for privacy concerns.

"I wanted a mixed group and I wanted different ethnic backgrounds—female and male, different races," Enholm said. "I didn't get the mix as I would have if I had 12 (stories), but I couldn't keep going on because I didn't know what I was doing with this, so that's why I stopped at eight."

Enholm said that a lot of her students' problems came from parents who had engaged in drug use and other behaviors.

While some of the students went on to Pima Community College, not all have made that leap, for various reasons. In one case, Enholm heard back from a student that he didn't know how to go to college because no one in his family had ever gone before.

Ultimately, the students' futures are left in their hands.

"You try hard," Enholm says, "but in the end it's up to them."

Sometimes when we work here, we find things that are so funny that other people in the office become uncomfortable with our level of laughter.

explodingactresses.tumblr.com is the latest cause of our sales department looking over at editorial and wondering what the f—k we're getting into.

I'll admit, the title of the blog is curious — I mean, actresses exploding? What could be funny about that, you ask?

Well, I ask you respectfully: what isn't funny about Meg Ryan's faked orgasm from When Harry Met Sally turning her into a party favor, or Julia Roberts literally exploding with glee upon viewing a fancy new necklace on loan from Richard Gere in Pretty Woman?:

Even better is the mass of Disney princesses getting the explosion treatment during musical numbers:

If your culinary guilty pleasures include big chain restaurants like Starbucks and Pizza Hut, get it out of your system now because from July 1-14, Food Conspiracy Co-op on Fourth Avenue is challenging Tucson to eat local.

That doesn't just mean hitting up locally owned restaurants, but also stocking the pantry with locally sourced food. So, to make that a little more feasible, the Co-op will be offering discounts on local foods, including Isabella’s Ice Cream, Not So Gringo Salsa, tamales from Tucson Tamale Co., and sandwiches, wraps, granola, brownies, salads, muffins, bagels, and green chili breakfast burritos from the Conspiracy Kitchen. Look for the details of the sales on Facebook and Twitter.

Dick Gase, Food Conspiracy Front End Manager and Floating Head in the Photo Above, is offering some help. Gase will be trying to eat 100% local during the challenge's two week period, and he'll be blogging his way through it on the Co-op's website.

To celebrate the halfway point, there will be a Beer Dinner on Sunday, July 7 at Dragoon Brewing, 1859 W. Grant Rd, catered by the Conspiracy Kitchen. The dinner is limited to 30 people and tickets are available at the Co-op for $45.

I think this is totally doable. Two weeks of eating nothing but Not So Gringo Salsa sounds like heaven to me.

You might remember this story from last September, when a Phoenix-area man's post-police-chase suicide was caught on camera by KSAZ, the local Fox affiliate, and broadcast nationally by Fox News.

Now, the three children of the suspect-turned-suicide are suing Fox News for emotional distress from watching their dad commit suicide.

From ABC News, via Mediaite:

In a lawsuit filed in Phoenix, Ariz., earlier this month, the three children of JoDon Romero, ages 9, 13, and 15, claim they have suffered emotional distress after watching a clip of the video posted to the internet.

The two older children claim that since watching the video, they have been unable to attend school and suffer flashbacks, "sleep disturbance and obtrusive thoughts," according to the lawsuit.

Romero, 32, is alleged to have carjacked a vehicle and led police on high speed chase in which he shot at squad cars and the television helicopter that pursued him. Fox broadcast the chase live, without a delay, on Sept 28, 2012 during "Studio B with Shepard Smith," including the dramatic final moments in which Romero exited his vehicle, drew a gun, and shot himself in the head.
According to the suit, rumors that an unnamed man could be seen killing himself began circulating in the schools of Romero's two older children, high school student JoDon Jr, and his middle school brother Frank.

"After school, the older boys went home and began looking for the suicide on the internet," according to the suit.

They found the video on YouTube and "as they watched, they realized in horror that they were watching their father."

Now, I'm not sure what the biggest problem here is: that Fox News accidentally showed the death of a man of live television in search of car-chase-footage ratings; or that these kids happened to find footage of their father shooting himself in the head as they looked for footage of a man shooting himself in the head.

Fox News screwed up — they admitted as much immediately after the fact, having apparently put the wrong video feed on a five-second delay — and they claim to have taken steps to never do that again. Time will tell, as there's bound to be another person shooting themselves on camera at some point in the future.

But what bothers me the most is that these kids are suing Fox News for putting up coverage that they themselves searched out on the Internet.

It's true that we, as a society, need to protect our children — but at the risk of sounding heartless, I'm not certain that Fox News should be held liable for covering a news event simply because these children searched for ripped footage of a man killing himself after a dangerous, high-speed car chase and found their father.

[h/t: Paleofuture]

To be truthful, were I to put on skates, the first thing I would hit would probably be the floor, which is why I've got respect for the ladies of Tucson Roller Derby.

The next TRD event in Tucson isn't 'til July 20, according to the handy schedule on TucsonRollerDerby.com, but 'til then, we've got this video to whet our appetite for ladies in skirts and helmets knocking the hell out of one another.

Either that, or we can all hang out and watch Ellen Page's starring turn in the 2009 roller derby classic, Whip It.

In case you want to make sure you've got your tickets to the action, you can purchase them in advance at TucsonRollerDerby.com for $10, with discounts available.

According to the Odessa American, tonight's meeting of the Ector County Independent School District's board of trustees went from looking at search firms to help the Texas school district in its superintendent search to a call for a special meeting to name the district interim superintendent, H.T. Sanchez, the lone finalist.

Sanchez was Tucson Unified School District's lone finalist to replace outgoing Superintendent John Pedicone chosen in a 4-1 vote by TUSD's governing board. While some in the Texas district are trying to figure out a way to keep Sanchez in Odessa, the TUSD governing board is expected to make a decision on the details of the Texas candidate's contract during a special meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25, in executive session at 4 p.m.

From the Odessa American on tonight's meeting:

Without Sanchez sitting in on the Monday night workshop to comment on the back-and-forth of the last few days — Will he stay? Or won’t he? — the board called for the special meeting to start at 6 p.m. Monday where they will take a vote to name Sanchez the lone finalist for superintendent. The board took no action at the workshop and the only agenda items were to discuss the profile of a superintendent, search firm, conducting the search; and to approve a plan for conducting the search, which was not made.

Following public comments from 13 different members of the community, trustee Nelson Minyard asked that the board have a special meeting to name Sanchez the lone finalist for superintendent to which trustee Luis Galvan seconded.

The meeting was initially called to outline a list of qualities to hand over to a search firm “if” the board were to go that way — the words “if” and “should” were used often by the board on Monday night.

“Should we find ourselves having to use a search firm, we’re probably looking a request that is in adverse times; most superintendents for 13-14 school year already have been placed,” trustee Steve Brown said. The board did discuss using a search firm though only in gathering more information from each of the four firms presented and to identify a list of characteristics. No vote was taken. The discussion was tempered by the fact that the board will be voting to name Sanchez its lone finalist next week.

Mobile video-sharing app Vine, a Twitter subsidiary featuring six-second looping videos, quickly rose to the top of social media after debuting in January.

Although it was only available to iPhone users at the time, the app played a major role in not only social interactions, but in mainstream media as well. Take for example, the Boston Marathon Bombings.

At first, I thought Vine was just another way for users to document themselves doing stupid things, or washed-out celebrities to try to make a comeback. (Anyone remember Andy Milonakis? He currently has 437,081 Twitter followers, and posts videos on Vine almost daily.)

But rather quickly, Vine had became a staple of the iPhone. Almost everyone with an iPhone was using the new app, posting videos of their vacations, shenanigans and everything in between.

Earlier this month, Vine finally released a version for Android users, though it may have been too late.

Last week, Instagram, a photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, released its newest addition—Video on Instagram.

With apps for both iPhone and Android users, the new update has set the bar for what social media addicts should expect.

• Blake Collins

Tap & Bottle opens today after a long wait, but looking at the beer menu from their soft opening on Saturday night, the establishment owned by husband and wife Scott and Rebecca Safford at 403 N. Sixth Ave. will be well worth the wait for beer fans.

“We wanted a nice range,” says Scott Safford. “I love IPA's while Rebecca loves farmhouse ales and saisons.”

Rebecca Safford says the couple "wanted a mix of those we know and love and those that are new and different.”

“The Ritterguts Gose is something we've never had before, but were excited about and wanted to try,” says Rebecca. “Some come from our dream list, the ones we wanted ever since we started working on the idea for Tap & Bottle. For instance, Marble's Double IPA is never available on tap in Tucson. I'm from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Marble is from, and we were in there one day telling them about our business, and they ended up shipping it to us specially.”

There are also a couple local picks from Dragoon and 1055, with plans to add the Borderlands Citrana Wild Ale when the Ritterguts gose runs out.

Tap & Bottle is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to midnight, and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

A few weeks ago, we made mention of the small spat between Weekly boss Dan Gibson and James T. Harris, who appears to have stumbled into an unlocked radio booth at 104.1 The Truth.

In that, we mentioned that Harris has repeatedly turned down opportunities to work out his differences with Gibson, saying that he's "past it," or something.

But the thing is, he doesn't seem to be "past" anything, between raising a fuss about a mention of him in the latest edition of "The Skinny," and sending tweets out about the Weekly and Gibson during his downtime from making Facebook posts about the kinds of images that conservative grandparents forward around.

Because you asked for it, here is the Tucson Weekly hold music! Trololo... The Full Original Version.: http://t.co/rex0AMK8RH via @youtube
— James T Harris (@JamesTHarris) June 21, 2013

Is Dan Gibson the Paula Dean of The Tucson Weekly? Of course not!!! (Made u look!)
— James T Harris (@JamesTHarris) June 23, 2013

Looking past the fact he actually can't correctly spell the name of the disgraced celebrity he references (it's "Deen," as anyone who saw anything news related over the weekend could tell you), Harris seems to have a weird hate-boner for Tucson Weekly — whether it's because The Beautiful Man thinks that Dan is, well, a beautiful man, or because he wants to create some sort of controversy to stir up readership and an audience to improve his listenership, whatever. It's his thing. Not sure why he doesn't have anything better to do at 7:30 on a Saturday night, but who are we to judge?

Still, it still strikes us as curious that he's coming after Gibson, Nintzel and the Weekly as a whole without even the professional courtesy to stop using worn-out movie references (red pills, harry and lloyd, ben stiller lol, etc.) and jokes that discerning fifth graders would call lame.

We get it, James. Like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, you will not be ignored (see, we can do it too!), but the flip side to it is that, if you're feeling froggy, you should probably jump — though probably not in the same way that you jumped from your CNN interview back in 2008: