• Photo courtesy of TMNT Facebook page.
• For some reason Donatello is sleding into hummers in the next "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" summer blockbuster.

Cowabunga! I have always wanted to open with that infamous catch phrase that stole the hearts of young nerds and the money from their parent's wallets since the late 80s. What was once a black and white self published comic book The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is now a multi-million dollar franchise that has been acquired by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon to reboot for a new generation. It even says it in the Facebook URL.

We finally get to catch a glimpse of the new TMNT:

• Image courtesy of Shutterstock

“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself!” Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke those words in order to perk up the peeps during the depths of the depression.

It’s a great line, but it’s not true. People have phobias. Lots of them, as it turns out. Last week’s Word Odyssey column was devoted to English words from Greek myths, including phobia from the god of fearsome dreams. While researching the word, I found out that there are phobias of just about everything.

• C. Elliott
• Andromeda Katz and Kitty Quasar

Hosts Kitty Quazar (Jared McKinley) and his consort Andromeda Katz (Katy Gierlach), both of Uranus, personally spread enough glitter around the Uranian-wanna-bes assembled at the Rialto Theatre Saturday night to make sure everyone complied with the Glitter Ball dress code: "Don't let reality define how you dress for this party." We assume those who appear "normal" in C. Elliott's photos, below, were really shimmering freaks in drag.

PHOENIX - In a rare move, 6 Republicans walked down to the pressroom in the League of Cities and Towns to express their dissatisfaction over the stalled budget negotiations on Wednesday.

The group of six, made up of Rep. Ethan Orr (R-Tucson), Rep. Bob Robson (R-Chandler), Rep. Jeff Dial (R-Chandler), Rep. Douglas Coleman (R-Apache Junction), Rep. Kate Brophy McGee (R-Phoenix) and Rep. Heather Carter (R-Cave Creek), had just rejected a counter-offer to their budget proposal because they felt it didn’t meet the state’s needs.

“I think when one side is reaching out, giving you the best offer, and the other side comes back and is playing games and basically says no to everything, then it’s a problem.” Dial said.

The negotiations have stalled because of the differences between the priorities of the six moderates and those of the conservative faction of the Republican Party. The priorities of the moderates is funding for Child Protective Services and K-12 education.

“I truly believe that education, like I say, is an economic development issue that makes us a stronger state, is business friendly and I’m ready to stand up for it.” Coleman said.

The group feels that the current budget doesn’t adequately reflect the needs of children in the state.

“All our budget focus has been around kids and what we believe are the priorities for the future of Arizona,” Carter said. “There are some things that we have seen in the budget that we like but when you look at the budget in totality there are critical items that are missing.”

Full disclosure: I'm a friend of Rex Scott, the principal of Catalina High. I find him to be smart, capable and diligent, the kind of principal I think I would like to work for as a teacher. That will undoubtedly influence what I say here. That being said . . .

My sense is that TUSD made the wrong decision voting not to renew Rex Scott's contract. But with a 4-1 vote and Sanchez's agreement, I have to think there were some good reasons for the vote, just as I'm sure Kristel Foster's no vote was made thoughtfully.

Here are some of my concerns about the decision.

I strongly object to the state's "Live by the AIMS test, die by the AIMS test" mentality. Catalina High's "D" state rating, which is the primary reason for the non-renewal, is based almost entirely on the student scores on the AIMS test, which I find to be a questionable measure of the quality of the school or its principal. In this case, the school score was only 2 points below a C. The AIMS test being the blunt instrument it is, having 2 points deciding whether or not Scott's contract is renewed doesn't make sense.

Another problem is, if I'm right about this, a high school's state grade is based almost entirely on the AIMS test taken by sophomores, which means the school has taught the students for less than two years. In the case of Catalina High, the turnover rate makes many students' tenures even shorter. According to the Star article, the school has the highest turnover rate of any TUSD high school: 58.1 percent. Add to that the fact that the students speak 40 different languages and standardized tests are, in many ways, reading tests (even the math sections). The students' weak English language skills are a major component of their test scores. Imagine the challenge ELL teachers have trying to teach students who speak so many languages and come to the U.S. from so many distinct cultures.

With a high turnover, a United Nations worth of languages and less than two years to educate the students before the test — often far less than two years — casting a principal aside because of a 2 point deficit on the state score seems highly questionable.

While the news is usually focused on hate, corruption, and crime, not all is lost. While your favorite politician was at the office shredding incriminating documents into the wee hours of the morning, or as his publicist says, "working late to serve you, his constituents," everyday heroes were at work.

Though Tucson certainly has its own amazing stories of heroics, our story again begins in California. Boys ditch school, investigate smoke, save old woman and her dog from a house fire and then return to school like nothing happened. It's a bit more complex than your average Buzzfeed read.

Garen, Peter, and Kirill left school early to stick it to the man by declining to fully participate in a free education designed to give them marketable employment skills. While out of class, this week’s heroes noticed smoke coming from a building and immediately stopped whatever responsible activity they were engaged in to check out the smoke. When they found the source of the smoke, they found a house with seasonal decorations which featured flames and exploding oxygen tanks.

They rushed to the first person they saw, who told them that there was a 94-year-old woman still inside. After trying to enter through the front door but being unable to push through the smoke, they ran to the back yard and unsuccessfully tried to put the fire out with a garden hose. Then they tried the back door to no avail. Once they realized that there were no options for putting out the fire or going around the billowing smoke, they opened the door, ducked down, and hoped for the best.

Miraculously, they were able to pull the woman and her dog from the house safely, as well as making it out alive themselves. As they pulled the distressed damsel from the house, she addressed her situation modestly by yelling “I’m on fire!” She was later treated at a San Francisco hospital and has since recovered.

After the rescue, the boys returned to class like nothing had happened because, hey, why wouldn't they? After learning of their heroic feat, their principal called them to his office... and rewarded them with four hours of mandated community service.

• C. Elliott
• Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines at Boondocks March 22

Terri Hendrix is a genuine Texas force of nature. Like other well-known troubadours from the Lone Star State, she's achieved her success by going her own way, ignoring genre boundaries and expectations in general. She's owned her own record label since releasing her first, live recording fifteen years ago. Onstage, she exudes the confidence and warmth that come from being her own woman.

• Photo courtesy of shutterstock.com
• Now you can tell your parent's "I told you so."

Here's some promising news for learning cannabis lovers. Scientists from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of public health have reviewed reports from a study that involved 39,000 Ontario students from 1981 to 2011. The studies show that straight up pot smokers perform better in school than cigarette smokers and those who smoke both substances. Not only that, but less kids are smoking tobacco now than 30 years ago.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health asked students in Grades 7, 9 and 11 about their tobacco and marijuana use, and their academic performance.

The study found that marijuana-only users did better at school than their counterparts who smoked only cigarettes or who smoked both cigarettes and marijuana. However, the findings reflect the fact that fewer students smoke tobacco today compared to 30 years ago, and those that do make up a very “marginalized, vulnerable” population, says lead study author Michael Chaiton, assistant professor in epidemiology and public health policy.

Logically, students that don't part take in the wacky tobaccy do better, according to Chaiton.

“Now there is a distinction between marijuana use and co-use with other substances, and it’s an indication of the changing social norms. So it’s not an absolute that they do better; it’s that social norms have changed and the population of people who use marijuana are more like the general population.”

Sometimes it's like everything from Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu album is coming true.

Read more:

• Courtesy of Estately Blog.
• "The West Coast and the South will eventually agree on something—the delicious appeal of brains."

You would have a better chance at surviving a zombie apocalypse if you're reading this somewhere in Arizona. According to Estately Blog, Arizona ranks 7th state in the U.S. most (and least) likely to survive a zombie invasion. The study is based on 11 metrics that included obesity population, soldiers and veterans per capita, people with guns and paintball enthusiast.

Arizona is pretty zombie crazy:

Home to both the Department of Zombie Defense and the Arizona Zombie Defense Force. The state of Arizona trains for the zombie apocalypse with zombie walks, a Zombie Night at an Arizona Diamondbacks game, and much more.

Here's how we fare against the rest of the country:

• Photo courtesy of Estately Blog.

If our fictional inevitable doom were to ever happen, we hope the shit hits the fan in the middle of July. Zombies couldn't take a Tucson summer. I don't know how we do it sometimes.

A construction worker stands on the edge of a balcony to escape the blaze that is consuming the top floor of the apartment complex he was working on this morning in Houston, Texas near the AIG campus.

"He can't get out," said spectator in the office across the street watching the man search for possible ways to escape the nearly flames.

"O.M.G.," said one woman with a heavy Texan accent at the start of the video who sounded responsible for the footage based on the sound of her proximity to the cellphone microphone.

The worker is forced to making a daring leap to the balcony below as the flames drew closer and the heat from the fire became to much to bear.

Debris engulfed in flames from the top floor falls down just missing the ladder as the Houston Fire Department rushes to rescue the man from the floor below.

No injuries were reported but the five-alarm fire took over two hours and 70 fire department vehicles to get it under control.