• Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

Our Ed Supe, "Good Ole John" Huppenthal, has spent $900,000 a year more on our vouchers-on-steroids bill, euphemistically titled Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, than the law allows by giving some students between $1,684 and $1,963 more than they should have received.

We need to rewrite Huppenthal's voucher-friendly robocall to reflect his generosity. He said, if you remember, "You may be able to send your child to private school for free!" He should have added, "And I'm gonna give you an extra two, thousand, dollars!" To which a happy mother exclaims, "Thank you, Good Ole John!"

Republicans recently added a funding amendment to their attempt to expand the voucher bill. Currently, students moving from charters to vouchers get more money than students moving from district schools because charter schools get more state money per student. Republicans wrote the language that way so they could declare the bill revenue neutral. Now that the voucher program is established, they have no problem with it costing the state more than sending kids to public schools.

But Huppenthal admitted through his spokesman, he's been giving that extra money to students all along, saying that the bill's current language is "muddled." It may sound muddled to someone who thinks "Superintendent of Public Instruction" means the same thing as "Superintendent of Instruction for the Public" — it doesn't — but in this retired English teacher's reading, the clear intent of the original bill is to have two different funding levels.

On last night's AZ Illustrated: Former state lawmaker Frank Antenori, Arizona Daily Star columnist Sarah Garrecht Gassen and Pima County Democratic Party Latino Caucus chairman Vince Rabago talked about highlights from the state budget that emerged this week; argued about whether daycare subsidies were an effort to separate children from their families so they could be indoctrinated by the Democratic Party; wondered whether CPS reform would happen before the impending end of the legislative session; discussed why conservatives don't like the Common Core learning standards; sniffed around the proposal to build a new county animal care center; and more!

Mike Feder, former general manager for the Tucson Padres, winner of the 2013 Pacific Coast League Executive of the Year award and new hire for the Arizona Diamondbacks has got a problem.

As you might know, the Padres recently pulled up stakes and moved to El Paso after years of unyielding fan support hard work trying to fill the seats of Kino Stadium. And while the same old complaints that the Padres home park was inferior in every way to Hi Corbett (currently the home of University of Arizona baseball) didn't appear to shake Feder, it seems that more recent chatter did.

Last month, it was announced that the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Reno Aces (Tucson's former AAA baseball franchise) would play a four-game set in Tucson while El Paso finished their stadium.

Predictably, people raised a fuss over the announcement...and after weeks of reading fan complaints on the Tucson Padres Facebook page, Feder made it clear where he stands.

This is Mike Feder. I'm curious why the people who still criticize these four games being in Tucson are still friends of the Tucson Padres. If they have no interest in these games I would suggest you no longer be a friend so we don't offend you. It's my feeling that four games of quality Triple-A baseball is better than none. The El Paso owners did the right thing by paying Pima County for an entire season even though they might only need a limited number of games. Those games are generating additional dollars to our community - two teams in a hotel and their personal spending, concession purchases, pay to seven people for 1 1/2 months, additional compensation to our staff for on game days, and hopefully some good will with our promos - $2 beer & soft drinks on Friday, MLB giveaways on Saturday, all youth players get in FREE with their jersey on Sunday, and free tickets on Monday from eegee's.

To me, this seems like venting from the a damn hard-working guy who is passionate about baseball, and passionate about Tucson.

I don't want to put words in Feder's mouth, but Tucson is a community that has trouble accepting change and going outside of its comfort zone: see the quality baseball played by the Tucson Sidewinders, including a AAA championship, all but ignored by a community that gave them the worst attendance in the Pacific Coast League. Why? Because the stadium was inconvenient. Because it wasn't Hi Corbett. Because they weren't the Toros.

While it's exciting that soccer is energizing the community and taking over land that was originally designated for major league sluggers, it's a shame that baseball in Tucson went away the way it did...and its especially a shame that passionate guys like Mike Feder were cast on their ears, however momentarily, by an apathetic public.

The El Paso Chihuahuas will take on the Reno Aces at Kino Sports Complex, April 11-14. Ticket information can be found at kinosportscomplex.com.

Let's show them some support this time, Tucson; no one knows when we'll get professional baseball around these parts again, after all.

Details are a little sparse still, but hey, when a Pulitzer Prize/MacArthur "Genius" award winner comes to town, that's notable. Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and more recently, This Is How You Lose Her, will be speaking at the Fox Theatre on April 23. No ticket prices yet, but check the Tucson Pima Arts Council website for more details as they are solidified.

FACT: A human baby is stolen by a hawk once an hour. #DSTakeover

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) March 18, 2014

In what probably seemed like a good idea at the time, on Tuesday, the NBA's Atlanta Hawks turned over their Twitter account to Deadspin.com's Drew Magary. PR stunts like this sort of make you wonder if anyone in the Hawks organization thought about the consequences of their actions at any time after the bong session where it originated - after all, Magary's most famous feature for Deadspin is titled the "Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo" - but hey, it was only way day and who the hell cares about the Hawks right now anyhow? (They currently hold the last playoff spot in the dismal Eastern Conference, currently set to likely get annihilated by the Indiana Pacers in the first round.)

However, the comedy gold of Magary's Twitter takeover (renaming the team the Death Hawks, tying imaginary giveaways to metal albums, etc.) made me think that we at the Tucson Weekly could provide a similar service to some local organization or business. Of course, we would allow you, local person running a Twitter account, the opportunity create a few guidelines so you can keep your job when the day is over, but otherwise, it's Dan and Henry running wild, hashtagging like crazy (or something like that).

Let us know which of you suckers lucky people would like to get the Weekly Twitter treatment.

• Photo courtesy of Con-Nichiwa 2014.
• Con-Nichiwa 2014!

If you're looking for boredom in Tucson, then you shouldn't go to Con-Nichiwa. The rapidly growing anime/manga pop culture event started today and will go on through Sunday, March 23 at the Tucson Convention, 260 S. Church Ave. The special guests include American manga artist and graphic novel illustrator Armand Villavert Jr. Vallavert Jr. is a Phoenix based artist and he's famous for his work at Tokyopop and Boom! Studios. Notable Anime voice actors Ellyn Stern (Robotech), Richard Epcar (Batman, Rototech, Lupin The Third, Naruto) and Bryce Papenbrook (Dynasty Warriors, hack//Sign) and Cherami Leigh (Throwing Stones, Radio Disney) will be at the event.

As always, there's cosplay (costume performance) contests and a full schedule of panels and programing all three days. There will be musical performances by all girl L.A. rock band Nylon Pink and Candy Bomber.

Click here for more information.

Holy religious sister, Batman! Sister Cristina, 21-year-old nun, has captivated the world's attention for her exceptional performance on Thursday night's episode of the Italian reality television singing show The Voice. The sister performed Alicia Key's No One and everyone went wild. Even her fellow nuns were jumping and screaming like they were at the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

"If I had found you at Mass I would always be in church," joked one of the panel, an Italian rapper known as J-Ax, who then added: "You and me are like the devil and holy water."

An '80s flashback from ABC's Kids Are People Too, and once upon a time Patti Smith was a guest and she sang "You Light Up My Life," and the world was better for it. But remember, it was the '80s.

First, the fun upbeat Russian song that comes on when you open the Putin Gay Dress-Up website already makes it problematic for work playtime, and when you go to dress him up, the first panel of sex-toy offerings makes it probably best to wait for home (unless of course you work for Weekly World Central, where we sometimes call it research).

Enjoy! And you're welcome.

While the Weekly staff was at the Sharon Jones & The Dat Kings concert, Jimmy Fallon was making some melodic magic with the legendary Billy Joel. Fallon wanted to show off his fancy new iPad app Loopy and find any excuse to sing with one of his "all time favorites." Joel agreed to try out the app and sing The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Then the newly founded two-man, doo-wop group closed the show withYou May Be Right:

[HD] Billy Joel & Jimmy Fallon - You May Be... by IdolxMuzic