Last month, at the Tucson City Council's last meeting of 2014, Council Members Regina  Romero, Paul Cunningham and Karin Uhlich pressured looking into how Tucson Police Department has been enforcing SB 1070, and the council agreed to do that during a study session in January.

The issue was listed in a draft for Jan. 21's study session, but when I checked this morning, it wasn't in the final schedule. I called Councilwoman Karin Uhlich to check in, and she was surprised to hear and later see that yes, the issue had been removed from next week's session. The mayor's office pulled it.

But that doesn't mean the council is no longer making that one of its focuses for the beginning of the year. Uhlich reinforced that they will continue to advocate and they'll likely discuss in it next month. Another draft of the study sessions' schedules said the TPD stuff "may move to Feb. 3."  

In December, a few days after that last Council meeting, TPD Chief Roberto Villaseñor announced his department would no longer fully enforce SB 1070, which requires officers to check the immigration status of people in their custody—from a minor traffic stop to serious crimes.

During a press conference, Villaseñor said his department will now only look into immigration status and call the Border Patrol when a person has been convicted of a serious felony, could be a threat to national security or has gang affiliations. It went hand-in-hand with President Obama's November executive action, which relieved parents of U.S. citizen or legal resident children from deportation and gave them a work permit for the next three years. It also hopes to make a priority to deport criminals rather than separate families by arresting and kicking out hard-working people.

The chief also said that their enforcement hasn't been as bad as people thought: Out of 11,000 calls to the Border Patrol since July only received 94 replies, he said.

Up until Villaseñor's announcement about scaling back, all we'd hear is "we have to ably by the law," regardless of the racial profiling that went on. 

After being at the council meeting, where one of the main issues was the re-implementation of TPD officers in Tucson Unified and Amphitheater school districts' public schools and what that possibly meant to undocumented students if they wounded up under custody, it wasn't surprising to hear Villaseñor's decision to lay off. The public kept screaming words like "harassment," and the council made it clear that they were concerned about the negative effects SB 1070 has had in the community—many people's trust of and respect for the police pretty much went to hell.

Soon, the council will most likely be exploring at South Tucson and the changes made, in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union, to their handling of SB 1070. The South Tucson Police Department now has a process in place, where an officer has to have probable cause that a person is committing or has committed a crime, pretty detailed paperwork has to be filled out if an immigration official is called, and if you are a victim or a witness of a crime then your status is irrelevant. 

Will Tucson adopt that policy? Either way, TPD's move from last month calmed a lot of people down, and major changes have already been made.

Speaker of the House John Boehner promised a showdown over President Barack Obama’s November executive action on immigration once a new Congress was sworn in.

And today, just two weeks into the new congressional session, the showdown has come exactly where it was expected: In a battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security.

Congress passed a spending plan for the department, but tied it to two amendments: One, sponsored by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), would prohibit federal funds from being spent to assist with the Obama administration’s expanded program providing deportation relief from up to 5 million undocumented immigrants, while the other, sponsored by Congresswoman Martha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), blocked federal funding for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has sheltered undocumented youth who were brought to the United States as children from deportation. (Here's more background on today's vote, via The New York Times.)

The Southern Arizona congressional delegation split along party lines, with Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva and Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick voting against the bill and Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally voting for it.

McSally said she voted for the funding package because it served as the first step toward improving border security.

She said she supported blocking the Obama administration’s executive action on immigration because it “set a dangerous precedent that threatens the very Constitutional principles and separation of powers on which our country is founded. It’s critical that Congress, as the direct representation of the people, stand up for those principles.”

But McSally was one of 26 Republicans who voted against the Blackburn amendment that targeted the DREAM Act kids.

“It is neither practical nor fair to deport young migrants who freely came forward, giving information such as fingerprints and home addresses to our government, under the auspices that they would be given deferred status,” McSally told the Weekly via email. “Those who came here through no fault of their own, have passed background checks, earned high school degrees, and are pursuing the American dream should not be punished for the President’s irresponsible action.”

Grijalva said that by adding the amendments, Republicans were “playing political games” with the Department of Homeland Security’s funding.

There's a court case pending which could throw out HB 2281 (now A.R.S § 15-112), the law designed to make TUSD's ethnic studies curricula—first Mexican American Studies (MAS), now the Culturally Relevant Curriculum (CRC)—illegal. Without the law, Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas loses the hold she has over the CRC or the way its carried out in the classroom. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals very well may rule against the law, meaning TUSD shouldn't make any changes to CRC simply because Douglas demands them. The district should wait until the court decision, and request an extension if the court takes longer to decide than the district's March 4 deadline.

To understand the position TUSD is in, it's important to know the history of the Department of Education's attack on the district's ethnic studies programs.

When Tom Horne was Ed Supe, he loved to hate the Mexican American Studies program. He wore out the left lane of I-10 traveling to Tucson so he could stand in front of TUSD's admin building and hold press conferences criticizing MAS. It made great press for Tom, stirring up his base's fear of Hispanics, a move he hoped would help take him all the way to the governor's office. But at the time, there was nothing he could do about MAS, really, except hold news conferences and criticize the program. He couldn't issue an order demanding changes in the program any more than he could, say, tell the Marana School District how to teach science. The MAS program was perfectly legal, and it was up to the TUSD board to decide its fate.

Then came HB 2281,which was signed into law by Governor Brewer in May, 2010. The law did two things. First, it made it illegal for a school to teach classes that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government," "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or "Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." Second, it said if a district is told it's in violation of the law and "is substantially and deliberately not in compliance" within sixty days, the state can withhold ten percent of the money it's supposed to pay the district.
For the first time, the Ed Supe had a sword to dangle over TUSD's head: comply with our decisions about your ethnic studies program or lose over $14 million a year.

See if this sounds familiar. Hours before Horne left the Ed Supe office on January, 2011, to be replaced by John Huppenthal, Horne declared that MAS was illegal.

[Horne] said his findings show the program he has long sought to eliminate runs afoul of the law's requirement that classes cannot be "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group."

"It is inherently designed for students of a particular ethnicity, and it's got to stop," Horne said Friday.

The very existence of the Mexican-American studies program violates the law, he said, and the only way the district can comply is to scrap it.

If school officials refuse, Horne said they should lose 10 percent of their state funding, as allowed under the law. That amounts to nearly $15 million for TUSD.

Right. Horne made the same eleventh hour move against the MAS program that Huppenthal made this year against the CRC, passing the enforcement of his findings to the incoming superintendent.

Bill Walton, whose commentary during Wildcat basketball games has become the stuff of legends, is making an appearance at downtown's Rialto Theatre this Friday, Jan. 16.

Walton will sit down with former UA assistant basketball coach Jim Rosborough to talk about "music, basketball and life," according to a Rialto bulletin announcing the fundraiser for the non-profit theater.

Walton will also sit in on a Grateful Dead tribute with Top Dead Center and we'll see, "of course, plenty of Pop-A-Shot."

The intimate evening starts with hors d'oevres at 6:30 p.m. at the Rialto, 318 E. Congress St. Tickets are $50, but you can also pay $110 and get a ticket the Rialto's upcoming annual Gin Joint Jubilee gala—which promises to be a great time—on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Find the scoop on Walton's appearance here.

Listen up, local artists. You have the opportunity to submit your work, no matter what medium you use, for consideration to be included in the upcoming Arizona Biennial 2015 exhibition. The exhibition will be on view from July 25 until Oct. 11, but submission must be made by Friday, March 13 at 4 p.m.

Submitted works by artists over 18 will be juried by special guest curator Irene Hoffman who is the Phillips Director and Chief Curator of SITE Santa Fe. Artists may submit a maximum of three works, and, if chosen, their art will be displayed at the museum for nearly three months during the show. After the exhibition, works will be auctioned off on October 11 as part of the closing party.

For more information and a list of entry specifications and requirements, you can visit the Tucson Museum of Art's website. Again, you have until Friday, March 13 but it wouldn't hurt to start conceptualizing, constructing, and crafting early to make sure your submission is solid.

Members of the Tucson High Magnet School's M.E.Ch.A., Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán— a student organization that promotes higher education, culture, historical and political involvement of Chicanos—are trying to raise some money to head to Chicago in April for the 22nd annual national M.E.Ch.A. conference at DePaul University.

The conference's core is education and social justice; it's about reinforcing students that they should not be dormant to what happens in their surroundings. "Together we empower each other as we strive for success."

So, the Tucson High so-called mechistas have launched a gofundme.com account, and hope to get $2,200, which would cover for flights and housing for seven M.E.Ch.A. members. What they hope to get out of all of this is see how other mechistas around the country are making their communities better. DON'T BE AFRAID, they are not trying to overthrow the United States government, they just believe all people, including Chican@s, should have equal rights in accessing things like quality education, you know the usual.

M.E.Ch.A is an organization that was established in the late 1960s to fight for equality and promote higher education in the Mexican American community. Since then, it's now grown into a national group with chapters in high schools, colleges and universities. Many of these chapters gather at M.E.Ch.A. nationals to discuss issues affecting Mexican American people, and think of ways they can address these.

From a letter sent to me by members of M.E.Ch.A. de Tucson High:

Recently, we have made efforts to revive the M.E.Ch.A. chapter at Tucson High by doing recruiting drives to encourage students to attend our meetings. At our meetings, we discuss social justice issues and look for ways to get involved in our community and educate our fellow students about their culture and heritage. 

We currently have 20 members who attend regularly, but are making efforts to continue to grow. 

Many of our members come from very impoverished communities in Tucson, and paying for these expenses will be next to impossible for their parents and families. 

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, who teaches at ASU, will be at the Loft Cinema tonight for a screening of The Unbelievers, a documentary about his travels with Richard Dawkins to promote science and reason.

The movie screens at 7 p.m. as part of the Loft's Science on Screen program. More info on the movie here.

Here are details from the Loft's website:

The Unbelievers follows evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly to sold-out halls, advancing a thoughtful dialogue about the importance of science and reason in the modern world.

Dawkins, the world’s most famous atheist, and Krauss, director of the esteemed Origins Project, are dedicated to furthering the (r)evolutionary idea that science, above all else, should inform man’s understanding of the universe. Filmmaker Gus Holwerda follows these “rocks stars of reason” as they embark on a most modern crusade to encourage people to cast off antiquated ideologies and assume a purely rational approach to important current issues. Refusing to engage with those who advance divisive and extreme fundamentalist positions, Dawkins and Krauss show how sometimes sensitive and provocative ideas can be discusses respectfully and with intellectual rigor. Fans, including Ricky Gervais, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, Stephen Hawking, Woody Allen and Werner Herzog, share their impressions and support, while arenas full of admirers and the curious eagerly receive them. As engaging as the subjects themselves, The Unbelievers offers an exciting glimpse into two of the world’s most influential minds at work. (Dir. by Gus Holwerda, 2013, USA, 77 mins., Not Rated)

Earlier today, The Range mentioned that the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that a GOP proposal to change the definition of full-time work for the purposes of the Affordable Care Act would expand the deficit by more than $50 billion over the next decade.

These sorts of calculations have evidently made GOP lawmakers unhappy with the CBO, which has enjoyed a reputation as a fair forecaster of of proposed changes in tax law and other economic legislation.

Now that the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress, it appears that changes are coming. Last week, GOP lawmakers—including Southern Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally—voted to change the way the office determines the cost legislation. GOP leaders have long pushed for so-called “dynamic scoring” in CBO estimates, which means that government accountants should include a boost in economic activity as a result of tax cuts.

That change has been criticized by left-leaning commentators as a way for Republicans to rig the future costs of their policies, particularly when it comes to tax-cut proposals. As Jonathan Chait of New York magazine puts it:

“Dynamic scoring” allows the Republican majority to impose its own ideological terms on the process of scoring legislation. Many credible economic forecasters would argue that debt-financed tax cuts actually reduce economic growth, and thereby cost the government more, not less, than their static cost. (For instance, a paper by the Brookings Institution concludes that the Bush tax cuts slightly reduced economic growth, because the negative impact of higher debt outweighed the positive incentive impact of lower rates.)

So, this is a Swedish kids' song set up to teach the kiddos the basics of genitalia. And I love it.

"Here comes the penis at full pace," and "the vagina is cool, you better believe it, even on an old lady. It just sits there so elegantly" are the only verified translated lines I've been able to find thus far.

The video has been viewed 1.5 million times and it's garnered some mixed reactions, from "I don't want to live on this planet anymore" to "what a great song about the most natural thing there is."
 
My love for this song is about 30 percent the intense joy I get from singing "snippity, snippity, snippity snop," 20 percent how adorable that grandma vagina* is and 50 percent the cool factor of sex positive parenting. It's really great that Swedish kids are being given this sweet introduction to a part of their bodies that is so often stigmatized.  


♬ Snippity doooooo ♪


*"Adorable grandma vagina" is a thought I was not expecting to have today.

If you're looking to get a little bit country this Sunday, you're in luck. Tyler Farr is bringing his Nashville twang to the Rialto Theatre on Jan. 18 and we have a pair of tickets to give away gratis.

We know what you're thinking right now, "Oh god—what do I have to do to get these tickets? Debase myself in public?" No, silly. We aren't a bunch of shock jock radio DJs. We just want you to have a fun time and go to a concert for free.

Well, actually we also want you to download our nifty app, which guides you to all of Tucson's coolest happenings. You can do that and enter for Tyler Farr tickets all at once by texting TUCSON to 77948 to download our Best of TW app for Apple and Android phones. Once you're signed into the app, just tap the "Our New Giveaway" banner and follow the prompts to enter. The winners will be chosen and notified via e-mail on Friday, Jan. 16, meaning you have a couple days to get the app and enter.


If you don't win, you can always buy tickets for $25 for Farr's performance with special guest Drew Cooper by visiting the Rialto Theatre website.