• Photo by Cheryl Smith / Courtesy of Angela Soto
• Angela Soto and Linda Dols held their first commitment ceremony on April 8, 2006 in Tucson. Their second ceremony on Nov. 13 will mark their legal union following Arizona’s new ruling allowing same-sex marriage.

When Angela Soto and Linda Dols get married Nov. 13, it’ll be their second wedding. The difference will be the state’s recognition of their union.

Soto and Dols are one many couples in the state whose wishes to marry in Arizona were finally met on Oct. 17 when a federal judge ruled the state’s law banning gay marriage was unconstitutional. Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne announced hours later that the state would not appeal.

Soto, who heard the news of the ruling on her way home from work, took a detour to the nearest 99-cent store. She bought a ring and drove to Dols’ office at University of Arizona’s main library.

“I said, ‘Do you want to make this legal,’” Soto said, retelling the experience with cracks in her voice and tears in her eyes. “I didn’t really think about how now we’ve got to have another wedding.”

Soto and Dols considered themselves married after their commitment ceremony on April 8, 2006, but the ruling sparked another marriage proposal and another round of event planning. And that is opening up a whole new niche in the wedding planning industry.

Soto and Dols, who have been together 14 years, held their commitment ceremony at Las Candelas on East Limberlost Road in Tucson. Both wore off-white wedding dresses, and decorated the tables with photos from past weddings from their two families. The guest list included hundreds.

“Even though it wasn’t legal, we felt that it was pretty meaningful,” Soto said.

Soto and Dols are getting married on the 14th anniversary of their first date. Unlike last time, they said they won’t spend thousands of dollars and two years to plan the ceremony. They’ll wear white tuxedos, and the venue will be the brick sidewalk outside Pima County Superior Court at 4 p.m. on a Thursday. Because of the timing, they said they don’t expect many guests, which is just what they wanted.

Since the same-sex marriage ruling, Susan Tomlinson has been revisiting many couples whose unions she officiated years ago. Each of them, she said, included very little planning and happened in a very short amount of time — a trend Tomlinson said came just after the ruling was passed, with many couples interested in having a ceremony to celebrate their legal union, but less interested in the stress that comes with a large event.

“People who have had these relationships for a long, long time are wanting to make them legal,” Tomlinson said.

She added that she expects younger same-sex couples to take the more traditional route and plan an event with a rehearsal, dinner and a venue.

Traditional, yet unique

Theresa Noble, owner of Fresh From the Kitchen catering and Fresh Event Venue in Phoenix, said that since the same-sex ruling, she has seen an increase in wedding planning. She anticipates the trend will continue.

Noble, whose business caters to both same-sex and heterosexual couples, said she has heard stories of some wedding venues that were not as friendly towards same-sex weddings.

“I don’t disapprove in any way,” Noble said. “I just have no bias in that respect.”

Robin Reece, a photographer who co-owns the R2 Studio with her wife, Renee, said the pair has photographed many same-sex weddings regardless of the ruling, though she sees a potential for an increase in work in the future.

Reece said she thinks same-sex couples will lean toward more traditional weddings, as there is no time limit or urgency pressuring them.

Instead, they can “just have a normal wedding and have a great day like everybody else can do,” she said, an attitude that could change the wedding industry.

Reece said one of the reasons she loves photographing same-sex couples is because they don’t gravitate towards everything traditional. They may have a wedding like hetero couples, but they come up with their own unique traditions.

Emotions are also stronger, she said, because they have waited so long to be able to get married.

A greater benefit to the state

Though it cannot be directly attributed to the ruling, statewide agencies have reported a jump in the total number of marriage licenses issued for the month of October. Pima County in October issued more than 100 more marriage licenses than they did for the same period last year. Maricopa County’s rate jumped by more than 500 licenses while Yavapai saw a slight increase by 28 licenses.

When given the opportunity to legally marry, research suggests that same-sex couples’ are more likely to stay together than unmarried couples, and that their rates of break-up are the same as hetero couples.

Michael Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at Stanford University, recently published a study titled “Couple Longevity in the Era of Same-Sex Marriage in the U.S.,” that concluded the most important thing that increases stability among couples is marriage.

“Married families are more stable and they take care of each other,” Rosenfeld said.

For both hetero and same-sex couples, marriage provides important rights and privileges including health plans, estate rights and hospital visitations. Similarly, if a same-sex couple decides to adopt children, their marriage stability will help their children thrive, he added. This means less children for the state to raise.

“In the past, same sex couples not only couldn’t marry but discrimination against them was really apparent,” Rosenfeld said. “Now we find gay and lesbian couples can carve out a life for themselves that’s as stable as they want it to be.”

As same-sex marriage becomes more widely apparent and accepted among states, Rosenfeld said he anticipates their marriage rates will eventually match those as hetero couples.

“There’s certainly evidence that when the opportunity to get married arrives, people will get married,” he said.

—

Alison Dorf and Kyle Mittan are reporters with Arizona Sonora News, a service from the University of Arizona. Contact them at [email protected] and [email protected]

Things aren't looking good for the publicly traded K12 Inc., which runs online charter schools in states around the country (Its Arizona Virtual Academy has more than 4,000 students). The schools are funded by taxpayer dollars, like all charter schools, so the corporation's profits and its CEO's $5 million salary come from taxpayer money it doesn't spend on its students' educations. K12 Inc.'s stock value has plummeted from $38 in September, 2013, to its current $12.60. The downward slide over the past few months has taken it into dangerous territory. Most stock analysts have revised their recommendations downward from Buy to Hold or Sell.

The notoriously poor education K12 Inc.'s schools provide isn't the issue, at least not directly. The problem is, the customer base hasn't grown sufficiently, stores are closing and new stores haven't opened as expected — I mean, the schools haven't picked up enough new students, some of K12 Inc.'s charters have severed ties with the corporation, and some states are balking at allowing schools to open. When you're running a for-profit school, students are customers and schools are stores, so it's really the same thing, which is the problem with for-profit education. (The best analysis of the problems with K12 Inc.'s education and its profit model comes from a wealthy hedge fund guy, Whitney Tilson.)

Can the corporation reverse its downhill slide? It's going to be tough. The brand is tarnished, and the stock market trend these days is up, not down. Unless investors think the stock has hit bottom and they can make a killing as it rises, things aren't looking good for K12 Inc.

With Republican challenger Martha McSally 161 votes ahead of Democratic Congressman Ron Barber, McSally is claiming victory even though a December recount still appears on the horizon.

McSally's statement:

All ballots are now counted and the voters have made their choice. We are so grateful for the outpouring of support we've seen from across Southern Arizona. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all the voters and everyone who knocked doors, stuffed envelopes, made calls, hosted events, donated to our campaign and put in the countless hours to make this victory possible.

After nearly three years, some twenty million dollars in ads, and two campaigns, it's time to come together. We are united in our love for Southern Arizona—for the people and places that make this unique community our home. It's time to move from campaigning to governing and working together to bring more opportunity here and move Southern Arizona forward.

I thank Congressman Barber for being willing to stand up and serve as he has. No doubt, he has gained a lot of experience serving this community and I intend to seek his input and assistance to best represent Southern Arizonans and ensure constituent services are kept at their highest level.

While we still have a recount to go, we expect similar results and will provide the necessary oversight to ensure accurate results. I want to thank the voters again for their support and trust in me and look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting to work from day one to serve Southern Arizonans in Congress.

Team Barber isn't conceding defeat. Spokeswoman Ashley Nash-Hahn says:

With the unofficial counting of votes now complete, the result is so close that the law requires an automatic recount. The law is written this way because every election includes some human error, and with an election as close as this one, it is important that we ensure the integrity of the results.

We are committed to protecting the integrity of Southern Arizona’s vote. In Pima County, 782 voters had their ballots rejected, and those votes have not been counted. During the legal recount process, we will work to see that every lawful vote is counted and that the voices of Southern Arizona are heard.

Republican challenger Martha McSally continues to lead Democratic Congressman Ron Barber by 161 votes as Pima County completed tabulated the last of its ballots.

McSally picked up a few votes today as a result of a stash of 208 ballots discovered in the Continental School District.

But the difference between the candidates remains so close that a mandatory recount looms on the horizon.

Between now and then, expect the Barber campaign to go to court to try to get some disqualified ballots restored in the race.

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly examine how well their Political Action Committee, Americans for Responsible Solutions, did in supporting candidates and ballot measures across the country:

Sometimes it can be difficult to identify a signal through all the noise in the hours after a big election. There were a lot of races called last night, each one with unique factors, local and national, influencing the final outcome.

We felt it important to check in with you — today — on the progress of our shared work as an organization committed to keeping our communities safer from gun violence.

There's a lot to be proud of. In the races where we took action to elevate the issue of gun safety, we won more times than we lost. And that was no easy feat last night.

First, we won in Washington State, the one place background checks were actually on the ballot. A measure mandating universal background checks passed overwhelmingly, while a gun lobby attempt to confuse voters failed. As you know, we made multiple trips to the state, we ran a paid mail program, and our groups Veterans for Responsible Solutions and Gun Owners for Responsible Solutions were active as well. Our mail program was particularly interesting because we ran sophisticated controlled experiments to determine the precise people we needed to reach, and with what specific message, in order to get them to vote YES on Initiative 594 and NO on 591. In the end, we estimate we may have convinced 20,000 people to support I-594 and 13,000 to oppose I-591. It will also help us in future campaigns.

There's already a bunch of trivia nights around town and an adult spelling bee, so why not a Cards Against Humanity night? Unplugged Tucson, the wine bar at 118 E. Congress St, is giving it a shot and for $5, you can win prizes, be inappropriate and eat free pizza. Hard to see a downside.

For those who don’t know: Cards Against Humanity is nothing like the party games you've played before, it is just as wicked and objectionable as you and your friends.

The game is very simple. Each round, the person whose turn it is asks a question or reads a statement with information omitted (like MadLibs) from a black card, and everyone else answers with their funniest white card. The true challenge is being able to offer a white card in reply that best fits the sense of humor of the person who has asked the question or offered the prompt, as they decide the winner. The more deplorable the better with Cards Against Humanity!

Believe me, you will crack a million laughs with this, specially over wine!

Tickets are $5 and include a spot in the tournament with the chance to win a prize for showing off your tasteless skills, and FREE PIZZA!

The tournament starts at 7 p.m. and runs until 10 p.m. More info at unpluggedtucson.com.

Last year, we shared the early stages of a photography project by Kathleen Dreier called Bus Stop Dreams—a series of photographs and interviews Dreier was doing with SunTran bus riders on their work, their lives and their dreams.

Dreier had shared on her blog her dream of bringing her photographs together in a book.

To make that happen, she recently launched a GoFundMe campaign with a $5,000 goal with $965 raised thus far.

From Dreier's campaign page:

I'm launching my first book called Bus Stop Dreams!
Would you please join me in making this dream a reality? You can PRE-ORDER your book right NOW just in time for my first official book-signing which will be held at Borderlands Brewery on Thursday, December 11th in Tucson, Arizona from 5pm to 9pm.

The Courtneys are in the middle of a stint opening for Tegan and Sara, but they'll be stopping by Topaz on Sunday for a mega-show with Prom Body, Get a Grip and Numb Bats, plus art from Andrew Shuta and Carne y Queso. Plus, it's a release party for the third Dune Drift compilation. It's a big deal.

The Stranger interviewed Courtney Loove, not her real name, but the Courtney of the Courtneys:

Using Clean-influenced jangle-pop guitar riffs, catchy post-punk bass lines, and giddy gang vocals, the Courtneys manage to sneak sophistication into their magical teen-bedroom world. At times, they delight in the fun of crushed-out pop culture (singing odes to Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, for example); other times, they get bittersweet and poetic about minimum-wage jobs and social anxiety—all with an effortless, grungey cool that causes their songs to linger in my head for days. I interviewed guitarist Courtney Loove, the only member of the band who is actually named Courtney (Jen Twynn Payne sings and plays drums; Sydney Koke plays bass). She was drawing ducks at her animation-studio day job when I called.

What are some of your favorite cartoons?

I really like more adult shows like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls. I watch a lot of classic cartoons. I watch a lot of Daria. It's totally the best.

Which character do you relate to most on Daria?

Oh, definitely Jane. I actually went as Jane for Halloween a couple of years ago, and Sydney went as Daria. We were joking about how we kind of identify with those characters, respectively, and then Jen would totally be the little sister—she doesn't watch the show, so she wasn't insulted [laughs]. The personalities totally line up.

With Republican challenger Martha McSally leading Democratic Congressman by a razor-thin margin of 133 votes, The Range has learned that about 200 ballots have surfaced in the Continental School District, much of which lies within Congressional District 2.

The ballots were among a batch of ballots from voters in the Continental School District race where a typo occurred on the ballot sent to voters. They were told to pick three candidates instead of two for the school board race, so a special ballot had to be resent to voters in that school district.

About 7,000 of those replacement ballots are being sorted out by the Pima County Recorder's Office—and workers have discovered that about 200 voters sent back their general-election ballots in the wrong envelope, according a Pima County source.

More details as we get them.

UPDATE: Pima County spokesman Mark B. Evans sends out the following bulletin regarding the extra ballots:

The Pima County Elections Department today discovered about 208 general election early ballots that voters had placed in the wrong early ballot envelope.

Those ballots have already had their signatures verified by the Recorder’s Office but are being sent back to the Recorder today so that the voters are given credit for having voted in the general election. They will then be sent back to elections for counting.

The Elections Department will count them this evening along with all remaining provisional ballots transferred after 5 p.m. About 200 provisional ballots were cast by voters who had insufficient identification under the ID requirements set by state law. Voters have until 5 p.m.m today to present sufficient ID in order to have their ballot counted. A number of voters have presented their ID, but an exact number is not available currently.

The Loft is hosting a screening of the film Billy Bates on Sunday, with a conversation with director Jennifer DeLia and producer Julie Pacino, and hey, it's free. All you have to do is sign up online.

Here's what the website says about the film:

BILLY BATES explores the fiery world of thirty-year old enigmatic artist Billy Bates. On the one hand, Billy’s reality is a kaleidoscope of artistic beauty and on the other, an extremely troubled existence. As Billy floats the tightrope between brilliance and madness, he seeks solace in overcoming his personal inner-demons. Billy’s hyper -sensitive mind and colorful soul are haunted by the abandonment of his nurturing mother and also by the abuse from his monstrous and envious father. Billy, intellectual and poetic, eventually meets Kaia, a beautiful singer who seems to understand exactly who Billy is.

The layers of Billy’s psyche are explored through an extensive interview done in documentary fashion infused with the dark and provocative images from Billy’s past and present. Through fragmented memories of underground parties, inside the insane asylum, and his rise to become a famous contemporary artist, Billy takes us on a love story quest and journey to transcendence, all with the looming question: How important is it to know what is ‘real?’

For what it's worth, I would see any film with an Arthur Russell song on the soundtrack, so keep that in mind.