Barbara Anderson got just about the worst news imaginable last year when her 18-month-old son was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. While Jude's prognosis is positive after some incredibly tough months of chemotherapy and other treatments, Barbara is doing what she can to help other people who are going through similar tough times. Chris Flora at Explorer News has the details:

It rained. But the sun came back out.

Oro Valley residents Sarah Bechman and Barbara Anderson watched their children enjoy the steady downfall at James Kreigh Park last Friday afternoon. A little bit of water didn’t stop Sarah’s daughter, 5-year-old Brooke, from riding the swing with an ear-to-ear smile.

And it didn’t stop Jude, Barbara’s 2-year-old son, from running around the playground in his new shoes — though he did trip once or twice while adjusting to them.

He got back up though. He didn’t cry. Instead, he wiped his hands off and continued life. At one point, Brooke offered her hand and led him back to the playground.

The moms watched on. They watched their children exude strength, optimism and kindness. They watched them enjoy themselves while others may have fled the park to dodge the rain.

But to Sarah and Barbara, rain wasn’t something to be afraid of. And it certainly wasn’t to Brooke and Jude.

“These are the best days,” Sarah said at one point. “These moments together.”

As it goes, some days aren’t as happy for these two families. Some are spent seeing the same old hospital walls, or the faces of nurses and doctors they’ve come to know and like, but would probably prefer not to encounter so often.

Brooke and Jude are battling leukemia.

As part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Barbara has organized a blood drive next week at the Foothills Mall. Stop by the Red Cross Donation Center on the second floor of the mall, 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., between 2 and 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, and Tuesday, Sept. 30, to share a pint with humanity. You can make an appointment by calling 1-800-733-2767 or setting one up online at redcross.org.

It's possible that the number of people who believe that the Val Kilmer film Real Genius is one of the great movies of the 1980's is fewer than I would hope or suspect, however, I would imagine that most people might agree that a TV show reboot of the film by Adam Sandler's production company might not be the best idea:

NBC is developing Real Genius, a single-camera comedy based on the 1985 movie starring Val Kilmer. The project, which has received a script commitment plus penalty, hails from Sony TV, whose sibling label TriStar Pictures produced the movie; Adam Sandler’s Sony-based company Happy Madison; and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Even stranger, the film set at a slightly tweaked version of Cal Tech, will be turned into a workplace comedy, which is odd since the source material for this show is entirely based at a college, but hey, what do I know?:

Written by Workaholics co-executive producer Craig DiGregorio and David King (Parks And Recreation), Real Genius is a present-day reboot of the cult film, set as a workplace comedy. The show centers on the relationship between a rock star-like genius — the character Kilmer played in the movie — and a sheltered, naive co-worker.

Also, let's move the show up to the present day AND BASICALLY MAKE THIS SHOW NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIE AT ALL. Perhaps that's for the best. A show catching up with these characters in the present day would probably be depressing, but why not just pick up where the movie left off? Shows set in the 80's have done reasonably well: although I haven't actually seen The Goldbergs, it's on for a second season; The Americans keeps plugging away and more people love the late Freaks and Geeks by the day, it seems. Just taking the name and the most basic plot point from the film just seems strange, but then again, nearly every idea that Adam Sandler has been attached to in the last decade seems strange to me and I'm sure in the wake of The Big Bang Theory, everyone's trying to get in the nerd business, so I'm not sure why I'm surprised.

In the meantime, I'm going to crank up "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and eat some popcorn.

The UA's OSIRIS-REx mission—which will be sending a robot into space to capture a sample from an asteroid and returning it to earth in a few years—is educating us about why they're embarking on this project. Here's the latest YouTube video about Near Earth Objects, or NEOs.

More on OSISIS-REx here.

In this week's Tucson Weekly, we talked to Patrick Holt about the challenges he faces dealing with a new policy Facebook began enforcing on identities, which seemed to specifically target drag queens who use personal pages to connect with the public on their work. For Holt that's Tempest DuJour. We also talked with Tucson activist Abby Jensen, a member of the Southern Arizona Gender Alliance and an attorney, who shared her perspectives on how the policy could possibly be damaging for people in the LGBT community, especially those who are transitioning, and use new online personal pages to begin learning about their new gender identity and the transgender community.

At press time, Facebook had yet to respond, but before we get to their response, here's a new site Holt shared with us that could be an interesting way for drag queens and their fans to connect, and take this community away from Facebook and any potential income it thought it could make from these entertainers: dragbook.com.

Due to space constraints we weren't able to include further comment from Jensen, who brought up her worry about activists and LGBT people living in foreign countries "whose very lives are at risk, yet have or need an online presence to continue their activism or just to relieve some of the pressure of living in the closet. It also includes those who just don't want their bosses or family to know everything about what they do online."

"The other problem with FB's 'real name' (policy) is the assumption that only the name on a person's ID is their 'real' or 'legal' name. In the US, it is legal to use any name you want to identify yourself as long as you are not doing so to defraud someone," Jensen said. "And you do not need a court order or other governmental approval to use a different name. The reason trans and other people get name change orders from the court is that, especially in this post-9/11 world, it's difficult to get government agencies, banks, etc. to acknowledge a name change without it."

OK, so from Facebook spokesperson:

“We had a good discussion with the group about their perspectives on our real name standard, and we stressed how the standard helps prevent bad behavior, while creating a safer and more accountable environment. We look forward to continuing the conversation with the LGBT community, so that we can work to ensure they can continue to connect and engage on Facebook."

In order to provide a safer, more open environment, we’ve always required that people use their real identity on their Facebook Profiles. For instance, we’ve seen situations where people have used fake names to engage in bad behavior online, including harassment, impersonation and hate speech.

Facebook understands that, for many different reasons, drag queens and other members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community choose to be known by identities other than their legal names in their daily lives, including for their Facebook profiles.

We also recognize that a person’s real identity is not necessarily the name that appears on their legal documentation. That’s why we accept other forms of identification that verifies the name the person uses in everyday life. As explained here, we accept many different forms of identification including mail, a yearbook photo, student card, library card, paystub, bank statement, bus card, and magazine subscriptions.

If people want to use an alternative name on Facebook, they also have several different options available to them, including providing an alias under their name on their profile, or creating a Page specifically for that alternate persona. These Pages do not have to publicly show the person’s real name or link to the person’s Facebook Profile. Many musicians, bloggers, and entertainers use Pages to represent their entertainment personas without linking to their real name profile.

The play, at ZUZI’S Theater, 738 N. 5th Ave., runs through Oct. 5. Tickets opening night are $24, and the remaining run $20 general admission, $17 seniors and $14 for students. For more info or reservations, call 882-7406.

From Borderlands:

(Hernandez) was thrown into a whirlwind of publicity after he became a national hero. Reyes examines how, “as his private life becomes public, Daniel’s family and upbringing in South Tucson provide the backbone that empowers him.” "They Call Me A Hero," is an honest and touching story about the importance of caring for others.

...

Reyes ... examines the relationship between gun violence and mental illness with additional research, outside of Hernandez’s memoir, into the life of gunman, Jared Lee Loughner. The play bears witness to how the elimination of bilingual education in Tucson shaped Daniel’s political intellect. Most meaningful is the depiction of a young, gay, Latino role model who perseveres.

"They Call Me A Hero is a quintessential Tucson story about a bi-cultural, intelligent, compassionate young man from humble beginnings who realized the value of helping others from an early age. His story encompasses familiar Tucson values: the importance of family, compassion, civic participation, and resilience. Daniel’s journey of self realization is something that all Tucsonans - Democrat or Republican, gay or not, Latino or otherwise - can learn from.

The United States has one of the lowest voter turnouts when it comes to national elections as compared to other established democracies.

The percentage of 18-to-24-year-olds who are actually turning out for voting and registration is especially low with only 41.2 percent of the demographic present in the 2012 Presidential Election. 72 percent of those 65 and older were represented in the 2012 election, but collectively the demographics only brought in 59 percent of American voters. 

The United States follows behind other democracies such as Australia, Belgium, and Chile; each bringing in about 90 percent of eligible voters to their elections while the United States often brings in around 60 percent. 

With the increased accessibility to technology, information regarding voting has become jaded. Information across the internet, while available, is muffled and unclear. Instead of sifting through complex reports, graphs, and statistics, even registered voters are choosing to evade the polls completely rather than deal with internet schemes.  

Margaux Meyer, research associate for Project Vote Smart, says this low turnout is a problem all Americans should be concerned with. She says the poor results are due to the lack of trust and information given to voters before they hit the polls. 

"One of the main reasons people don't vote is because they have no idea where to start getting educated," Meyer said. "They just don't know where to go or who to trust." 

Meyer, along with her team at Vote Smart, worked to develop Political Galaxy after the idea to give people  a better political education sparked two years ago.  

The tool allows users to type in a politicians name and it instantly connects him/her with any major issue involved in their political campaign. The site first provides users with an extensive list of issues ranging from abortion to transportation. Upon selection an issue, six more categories appear giving users an option to investigate the bio, votes, positions, ratings, speeches and funding per candidate, per issue. 



"We realized that our database was so big a so in-depth that it was hard for everyday citizens to do things exactly as they wanted and as quickly as they wanted," Meyers said. "We decided to create a new tool that makes it basically fast, fun and completely free for any American."

For those skeptical of Vote Smart's intentions, Meyer assures that they are completely funded and powered by average citizens with no intentions of disguising the truth. 

"Vote Smart can't be bought. It's not biased," Meyer said. "It actually is someone you can trust and we are willing to prove that in so many different ways." 

The program currently has information on all congressional candidates, but Vote Smart has plans to soon expand the pool of candidates, Meyer said. The hope for the project is to ultimately spread knowledge to any American who seeks it out. The staff at Vote Smart hopes voters will utilize this tool to their advantage and thereby expand the total of American voters at not only presidential elections, but congressional elections as well. 

"All we really want to do is give people a tool to take control of their government." 

Pima Community College Theatre Arts presents the family theatre adventure Stuart Little

Pima Community College Theatre Arts launches its 2014-2015 Season with the exciting family production, STUART LITTLE, adapted by Joseph Robinette, based on the book by the renowned children’s author E.B. White. Directed by Mickey Nugent. Kids and adults alike will be captivated by this warm-hearted and exciting story about a most unusual mouse. As the second son in a human family, Stuart encounters several adventures, big enough to match any imagination, as he struggles to survive in his over-sized world. He is kind, courageous and loved by most, except perhaps Snowbell the family cat. Stuart embarks on a journey of a lifetime after his best friend, the little bird Margalo, flees to escape being eaten.

You might remember the indie-electronic-collage-folk act The Books from the illustrious decade of the 00s. Well, you might remember them if you're the type of person who reads Pitchfork everyday, they weren't exceptionally famous in the larger sense of music notoriety, but they were a duo making unique and interesting music - speaking of Pitchfork, the site placed the Books' first album, Thought for Food, on their top 200 albums of the 2000s at #125.

Nick Zammuto of the band has been on his own for awhile, performing under his surname along with his brother on bass, bringing that project to Flycatcher Thursday, Sept. 25, promoting his new album, Anchor. Anchor's an interesting mix of placid electronica, the collage work of his previous band and occasionally a weird funk romp ("IO," which has an awesome video shot at Zammuto's Vermont farm and featuring a giant slingshot). Like The Books, it's a little hard to say exactly what Zammuto sounds like (I mean, he barely sounds like what he used to sound like), but if you're interested in hearing someone with a lot to say playing around with his toys, you'll want to head to Flycatcher for this show.

Tickets for Zammuto are $12 for the 21 and over show at 7 p.m. More info at Stateside Presents.

Taking center stage at the NYC People's Climate March was Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. Executive Director Kieran Suckling accompanied a charming polar bear (Center for Biological Diversity's Peter Galvin dressed for the occasion), who seemed to enchant everyone before and after his arrest. Suckling was also arrested during the Flood Wall Street event on Monday, Sept. 21.

From Suckling's Twitter:

The Guardian was smitten by Frost Paw. The paper did an entire spread on the climate crusader that you can read here. (Suckling was identified as the "man itching his goatee")

Also in NYC for the People's Climate March was local activist Stephanie Smith, who took some time to talk with the Range late last night as she was processing the Flood Wall Street event, which attracted more than 400,000 people.

Smith did a successful two-week Indiegogo campaign to help raise more than $600 to pay for her travel expenses to NYC to attend the march. Read a Q&A interview with her after the jump.

The Arizona Republic didn't simply endorse David Garcia for Superintendent of Public Instruction. It called him a "great choice" in its headline. The endorsement could hardly be more glowing.

David Garcia has the experience, temperament and vision to be a great superintendent of public instruction.

He invested his career in education and — unlike some past superintendents — does not view this job as a stepping stone to higher office.

He is well-prepared for a complex and multifaceted job.

The next sentence sums up the Editorial Board's view of Diane Douglas:

This sets [Garcia] far above his opponent Diane Douglas, a one-note candidate who gives little indication that she understands anything about modern education.

There's much more in the endorsement worth reading, but I'll just pull out one more sentence. After saying Garcia is endorsed by two former Republican Superintendents, Lisa Graham Keegan and Jaime Molera, the paper quotes a comment Molera made:

In explaining his endorsement, Molera said, "Arizona does not need someone who will bring extreme and nonsensical views into our K-12 system."

That's not coming from some Democratic Party operative with a partisan agenda. That's a Republican calling Douglas' views "extreme and nonsensical."