Larry Wilmore is taking over Stephen Colbert's time slot on Comedy Central tonight with his new program, the Nightly Show. Wilmore, who you should recognize as the Daily Show's Senior Black Correspondent, will be the only African-American host on late night TV.

His show, which is premiering on MLK Day, was initially supposed to carry the title the Minority Report, matching his segments on the Daily Show. Wilmore had to change the name, however, because Fox is starting a scripted series with the same title. And while Wilmore is excited to continue the dialogue the Minority Report started in regards  to race, he thinks the new title gives the show a little more room to grow.

In response to Gov. Doug Ducey's recently released state budget proposal with what seems like an estimate in $13.5 million in cuts in K-12 schools and$75 million from universities, Tucson Unified School District Superintendent H.T. Sanchez issued the follow statement:

Tucson, AZ, January 16, 2015 — Despite claims that he supports public education, the budget that Gov. Doug Ducey released Friday includes major cuts in funding that could significantly hurt the education of the majority of Arizona’s children.

Dr. H.T. Sanchez, superintendent of Tucson Unified School District, said the proposed budget amounts to an attack on our schools.

The budget demands a 5 percent reduction in administrative costs which Gov. Ducey defines as including facilities, operations, administrators, food services and other departments—everything outside the classroom. This puts an additional stress on TUSD, which has already seen $14 million cut from Tucson Unified School District’s capital funds this year. In fact, since 2009-2010, the district’s capital funds have been cut by over $78 million.

Gov. Ducey’s budget cuts could impact everything from textbooks, to library books to technology in the classroom.

“When you think about these cuts, people might think of highly paid administrators. But if you look closer at the budget, you’ll see these cuts go beyond administration. He has also targeted counselors and librarians, specialists who provide math and reading intervention, food services and custodians,” Dr. Sanchez said.

The budget also targets the safety of children by identifying school safety as part of the 5 percent reduction.

“I look forward to Gov. Ducey explaining to parents how this doesn’t affect the quality of instruction their children receive,” he said.

One of the recommended budget cuts is the Student Success fund implemented a year ago. That money would be renamed the Access Our Best Public Schools Fund and will go to high-performing schools and the Arizona Department of Education. For Tucson Unified School District, this change amounts a loss of about $800,000. For the Arizona Department of Education, it means an increase of $900,000 for administrative costs.

“Student Success funds in TUSD were used to help pay for teacher raises that were recently approved. These raises were the first our teachers have seen in at least three years,” Dr. Sanchez said. “It is amazing that the governor would demand cuts to school districts while increasing administrative costs at the state level.”

While Dr. Sanchez said the staff is still digesting the numbers in the budget and what they mean to the district’s funding, all open non-classroom teacher positions will be scrutinized before being filled.

Dr. Sanchez said the budget hurts not only students, but business development and the community as a whole.

“I’ve heard much talk about the quality of education being a draw for getting businesses to the state of Arizona. This move is a signal to businesses that Arizona doesn’t value education.”

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Yes, we love all our comics at Weekly World Central, but we have to admit we have special place in our hearts for Hoopleville's David Kish and the beautiful artwork he produces outside his comic world—large and small cardboard artworks full of color, layers and, quite often, with a statement to remind us about the planet, justice and community.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in celebration of the late Civil Rights Movement leader's work and birthday. The city march in honor of this day starts at Santa Rita Park, 401 E. 22nd St., 9 a.m. and goes to Armory Park, 221 S. 6th Ave. A community celebration takes place there until 3 p.m.

Kish something special planned in honor of the day. Here's your invitation:

Dear Friend of Hoopleville,

On Monday, January 19, 2015 (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), Hoopleville Comics will create a temporary installation beneath the 4th Avenue underpass in Tucson, Arizona. Between 12 noon and 4 p.m., an array of cardboard sculptures depicting people of all colors climbing from manholes will line the eastern pedestrian walkway of the new underpass, urging passersby to contemplate the pandemic of poverty and inequity which stifle too many Americans.

As a cartoonist and spouse of a French national, I have been especially troubled by the recent events in Paris. However, it has occurred to me that the "freedoms" discussed in the wake of this current tragedy mean very little to someone who can't eat! Please join me and my cardboard friends on MLK Day to remember, as Dr. King so often reminded, that poverty is our colorblind enemy. Thank you.

Sincerely,

David Kish

Dispensary marijuana sales tripled from 2013 to last year, according to an end-of-year medical marijuana report published by the Arizona Health Services this week.

In numbers from January 2014 to last month, there were close to 1.45 million individual sales among the reported 55,000 medical marijuana patients in the state, totaling 10 tons of marijuana. Patients between 18 and 30 bought the most pot than any other age group, Health Director Will Humble said.

In 2013, those figures were  2.7 tons sold in 433,000 transactions to 41,000 cardholders.

This hike is attributed to the fact that people who live within 25 miles of a dispensary cannot grow their own pot, something that had been recently challenged in a lawsuit filed in Maricopa County against the state health department. The more dispensaries there are, the less people will be able to cultivate marijuana as stipulated by the Medical Marijuana Act. As of now, health services' figures show that there are about 85 dispensaries around the state, so a lot of people live close to one.

Medical marijuana users out there, what do you prefer? Is it better to grow your own, or are you a dispensary regular?

Explore vibrant Mexican landscapes and images of strong women through the work of Tucson-based artist Cristina Cardenas. A collection of some of Cardenas' pieces is now on view at the YWCA Francis McClelland Community Center.

Originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Cardenas' work focuses on making a political statement through images of empowerment. You may recognize Cardenas' style from her work on a ceramic mural for the street car, though her work has also been shown locally and internationally in the last two decades.

The exhibition at the YWCA will display her work in the last decade, including large scale pieces on amarate paper.

Cristina Cardenas' "Los Ojos de Mujer Artista que Emigra" or "The Eyes of the Immigrant Woman Artist" will be at the community center, which is located at 525 N. Bonita Ave., until Thursday, Feb. 19. You can view the exhibition from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. now until then for free. However, there will also be a special artist reception on Saturday, Jan. 28 from 6 until 8 p.m.

For more information and other events, visit the YWCA Tucson website.

It's OK that I don't agree with the Washington Post editorial in Friday's Star, which says we should keep testing students in reading and math every year. I'll even hold my nose and not complain when it says the testing regimen beginning with the No Child Left Behind law is "a civil rights achievement that must not be undone." But when the editorial misuses statistics to make the case that achievement of poor and minority students has gone up because of the annual NCLB testing—nope, I won't let them get away with that.

The editorial says the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) test results indicate that poor and minority students have increased their achievement since 2001. I kinda like the NAEP test, because it's low stakes—a sample group of students are given the test, so no one can teach to the test, and no one loses their job over the results—and it has been given consistently since the 1970s. To the extent that you can put faith in any standardized test as a measure of student achievement, this is the one to put faith in.

You might not be ready to let go of the weekend on Sunday, so go ahead and squeeze every last moment of good times and freedom out of the weekend by heading to R Bar for the very fun and very free "Everyday Is Like Sunday" DJ night.

This week, DJ Badcop and DJ AlixP will be spinning under the theme "Rock 'n' Roll Rubber Room" on Sunday, Jan 18. However, since each week has different guest DJs playing under a different musical motif, if that doesn't float your boat, maybe one of these upcoming events will:

Jan. 25: "I Love the '90s" with DJ DanH and BEDLAM
Feb. 1: "Modern Kicks Club" with DJs Tender Meat and Castle Freak
Feb. 8: "Future Sounds" with ALTRICE
Feb. 15: "Lonely Hearts Club/Valentine's Hangover" with DJs ChaviBooBoo and Wi$ely
Feb. 22: "Dad Rockathon" with Old Paint Records and Mike Dixon

All "Everyday Is Like Sunday" events are free to attend, begin at 9 p.m., and are for the 21 and over folks. R Bar is located at 350 E. Congress St. # 110.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April is going to hear arguments from four cases—coming from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee—challenging bans on same-sex marriage.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the high court is set to decide whether same-sex couples around the country have the constitutional right to wed. "Today’s announcement sets the stage for final resolution of the debate about marriage equality for same-sex couples nationwide," a press release from the ACLU said.

“We are thrilled the court will finally decide this issue,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project, in a statement. “The country is ready for a national solution that treats lesbian and gay couples fairly. Every single day we wait means more people die before they have a chance to marry, more children are born without proper protections, more people face medical emergencies without being able to count on recognition of their spouses. It is time for the American values of freedom and equality to apply to all couples.”

In November, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld bans in those four states. As of today, a total of 14 states do not allow same-sex marriage and 36 do. 

Arizona's ban, stemming from a 1996 law and a 2008 constitutional amendment approved by state voters, was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in October. At the time, ruling after ruling also killed prohibitions in Nevada, Idaho and a few other states.  

According to The Associated Press, the Supreme Court is expected to make a decision by summer.

Well, it’s a couple of weeks after the fact, but 2015 is here and it’s time to get back out and hike, stroll and meander around the desert in and around the Tucson Mountains again. Herein, a primer on possibly my favorite area around (if not exactly in) the Tucson Mountains, the McCain Loop in Tucson Mountain Park.

Featured Trails: The McCain Loop

Approximate drive from downtown to trailheads: 20 mins.
Approximate length of trails: various lengths, all under a mile
Difficulty: easy as key lime pie
Highlights: lovely, evolving desert landscapes; incredible saguaros and other desert plant life; complete accessibility.

To get to the McCain Loop, travel west on Speedway until it turns onto Gates Pass Road, follow it over Gates Pass and down until it connects with Kinney Road. Turn right on Kinney Road (like you’re going to the Desert Museum) and travel roughly 2/3 mile, taking a left at the sign for McCain Loop; it also says ‘Gilbert Ray’ at the turn off. The Loop is approximately four miles long, and has 8 or 9 small turn offs where you can park. It winds up back at Kinney Road, north of the Desert Museum; you can either turn left and head towards Saguaro National Park West, or go right, past the Desert Museum and back towards Gates Pass Road or Ajo Highway.

This is not really a trail system per se, and there’s no major trails other than the Brown Mountain and Cougar Trails that we wrote up in the last column in 2014. But, this is one of the most singularly beautiful spots in Tucson Mountain Park, at least those that are easily accessible. The desert landscape here is unusually gorgeous, with thousands of healthy saguaros, barrel cactus and all of the other Sonoran plant life, a terrain that constantly evolves from one thing to another as you move through and across it, and great views of the Tucson Mountains to the east and Kitt Peak, Baboquivari and several other mountain ranges to the west and south. The sunset views here are spectacular.

The American Civil Liberties Union has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. government and its post 9/11 tactic to imprison Muslim men as material witnesses without any evidence or reason to hold them in the first place.

Kansas native and U.S. citizen Abdullah al-Kidd, a former football player at the University of Idaho, was arrested on a material witness warrant in 2003 and imprisoned without charges for 16 days, because the FBI wanted him to testify in a visa fraud case. He was moved to three different federal facilities, sometimes held naked and in shackles, and ultimately Al-Kidd was never charged with any crimes or called to testify against another person.

From the ACLU:

The Fourth Amendment prohibits the arrest of criminal suspects without probable cause to believe they have committed a crime. Yet after 9/11, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and the U.S. Department of Justice implemented a policy of misusing the federal “material witness” statute to detain Muslim men for investigative purposes without probable cause to believe that they’d committed any crime. 

Yesterday, al-Kidd received a letter that, among other things, said: "The government acknowledges that your arrest and detention as a witness was a difficult experience for you and regrets any hardship or disruption to your life that may have resulted from your arrest and detention."

With the settlement—which comes a decade after the battle began, including one visit to the U.S. Supreme Court and two to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals—the federal government and FBI agents involved in al-Kidd's wrongful arrest have agreed to pay al-Kidd $385,000.

"The government systematically abused the material witness process after September 11," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, in a statement. "This settlement and the court opinions detailing the government’s unlawful actions will hopefully deter future such abuses."

For a timeline of the case, click here.