Incredible story in today's column by EJ Montini, ‘Lost’ tape of MLK at ASU in 1964 haunts us in 2014. Mary Scanlon, a graphic designer, found a trove of reel-to-reel tapes in a Goodwill, recordings of a radio show by Lincoln Ragsdale, who was one of the Tuskegee airmen, and the only known tape of a speech Martin Luther King gave at ASU in 1964.

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On February 1, 1884, the first fascicle, or volume, of one of the world’s greatest literary achievements was published: the Oxford English Dictionary, affectionately known as the OED. I’m not talking about the collegiate or other abridged versions of the OED, but rather the version completed in 1928 consisting of twelve hefty volumes and over 400,000 words—and not just words then in use, but all the obsolete English words too. Awesome. In honor of that anniversary, today’s column is devoted to the making of the OED.

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• Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick, and the East River.

We have been saying this for years, but now it's on Gawker so it must be true.

Gawker conducted a survey with its readers to find the world's hippest, richest, creative, youngest, poorest and coolest neighborhoods that are comparable to Williamsburg which is commonly referred to as Bushwick and Little Puerto Rico. Surprisingly, Tucson's Fourth Avenue and Lost Barrio were nominated, by their readers, not ours, as some of the "hippest" spots in America. Do you agree with this?

Look for a blistering 81-degree-high tomorrow, then a cold front will set us back all the way to highs in the low 70s through the weekend. Having probably trekked every hike you can imagine, and gone fishing, camping, birdwatching, picnicking and rock-climbing all over Southern Arizona already so far this winter, you might wish for a change of pace.

• Cleveland Indians

Until yesterday, I must confess, the appropriateness of sports teams' using "Redskins" or "Indians" as mascots was way, way far down the long list of humans rights issues that make me want to cry, and fight; to sign petitions and to post insinuating memes to Facebook.

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That headline must be a joke, right? Paying parents to take their children out of school? Unfortunately, the headline's for real. It’s an incentive built into Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA)— aka Educational Savings Accounts, aka (according to me) Vouchers on Steroids. ESAs were created by the Goldwater Institute, passed into law in 2011 and expanded in 2013; they're up for another expansion this legislative session. Encouraging parents to take their kids out of school isn’t an ESA bug; as they say in the tech world, it’s a feature. Almost a third of parents used the money to homeschool their kids.

The ESA concept is pretty simple. A “savings account” is set up by the state for a qualified child who opts out of the public school system. The parent or guardian draws on that account to pay for the child’s education. Anything left over at the end of the school year rolls over to the next year.

So far it sounds like just another work-around (see, Tuition Tax Credits) to make vouchers legal in Arizona where the constitution forbids the use of public money for religious instruction (something like 70% of Arizona’s private schools are religious). ESAs give the money to parents rather than the school, and somehow that makes it legit. But when you look further into the legislation, things start getting weird.

Along with paying for tuition, ESA money can be used to pay for books, educational therapies, tutoring, curriculum, online classes and standardized test fees. In other words, pretty much anything that sounds educational. The base ESA amount is $5,300 a year, which barely covers tuition at the lowest priced private schools. For the mid- and high-priced schools, it doesn’t come close. Really, there’s only one way to take advantage of all those other perks. You have to take your child out of school. Then, if you want, you can shop around for curriculum, maybe pay for a little tutoring, maybe buy an online class or two. The savvy educational shopper can make that $5,300 go a long way if there’s no tuition to pay.

While most of the political attention yesterday was focused on the State of the Union, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would discourage private insurance companies from offering abortion coverage.

The "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" passed on a 227-188 vote.

Here's what's going on here: Under the Hyde Amendment, current federal law prohibits tax dollars from being spent on abortion except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. That means if you're a low-income woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy, you can't count on Medicaid to cover the costs. (Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin got tangled up in the whole "legitimate rape" trouble in 2012 because they were working to redefine rape under the provisions of the Hyde Amendment.)

But the Hyde amendment's limits are not enough for abortion opponents, who are now targeting insurance coverage of abortion. Basically, they are arguing that companies that provide abortion coverage as part of their employee benefits should not get a tax deduction for that expense, because allowing the deduction is subsidizing—in a very small way—abortion services. And now that people are getting subsidies to buy health insurance on the exchanges, anti-abortion activists say that tax dollars are subsidizing abortion if the insurance coverage includes the procedure. The bill also prohibits anyone from using their "flex spending plan" to cover the cost of an abortion.

So the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" is designed to discourage employers and citizens from purchasing plans that cover abortion, which in turn will discourage insurance companies from providing the coverage, although people could buy entirely separate abortion coverage. (Here's a dirty little secret: Insurance companies don't mind covering abortion services—as well as contraception coverage—because it is a lot cheaper than covering the costs of bringing an unwanted pregnancy to term, not to mention the cost of insuring a child who may or may not be well cared for. So if you're arguing that you don't want to cover contraception for women because you believe immoral behavior is driving up your healthcare costs, just ask yourself how much those costs will go up with unprotected sex results in unwanted pregnancy.)

Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick announced today she had raised $270,000 in the fourth quarter in 2013, putting her ahead of her three GOP rivals. (We rounded up the Republicans' numbers yesterday.)

The press release from Team Kirkpatrick:

Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick’s reelection campaign announced today it has raised more than $1.2 million since the start of 2013, with nearly $270,000 raised in the last quarter, and has approximately $825,000 cash on hand.

“The people of Congressional District 1 continue to strongly support Ann and the work she has done on behalf of Arizona since her 2012 victory,” said Kirkpatrick For Arizona Campaign Manager Nettie Silleck. “They know she has been working hard to defend veterans, jobs and working families. Her bipartisan efforts and legislative accomplishments stand in stark contrast to her potential opponents who are running on platforms that call for more dysfunction and obstruction in Washington.”

I got an email from Rep. Andy Tobin last night. He’s running for congress in CD-1, and he has to earn the right (emphasis on “right”) to challenge Ann Kirkpatrick by getting through a crowded primary. His favorite email tactic is to tie Kirkpatrick to Nancy Pelosi, but hey, it was State of the Union night, so an Obama-Kirkpatrick link was low hanging fruit. “Sometimes I wonder if Obama and Kirkpatrick have even ever seen a copy of the United States Constitution,” he wrote, continuing, “because they sure don’t respect it.”

Gotta give Tobin some credit. He didn’t mention Kenya, Muslim, Socialist or Benghazi once. Gotta give Obama some credit too. If he managed to teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago without ever cracking the cover of the Constitution — wow, that man is good!

Tobin went on to say, “So we’ve decided to send both of them copies of our country’s supreme law.” Apparently he needs to raise some money to do it. “Help us send Obama and Kirkpatrick copies of the Constitution. Donate $5 today!”

• Photo courtesy of eegee's Facebook Page.
• Find out how to win free eege's for a whole year.

So, we know you like free food, but you're going to have to earn it.

Local restaurant chain eegee's issued a challenge on its Facebook page to the creative folks in Tucson. You have the chance to receive one combo meal a week for an entire year by submitting an eegee's t-shirt design. The odds are on your side because only 3 people entered since I last checked. You have two days to submit your idea and win a free solid meal for the next 365 days straight.