Smokers: you can still get a job with Pima County!

The Board of Supervisors voted against a proposal that would have banned the hiring of smokers as an attempt to save money on health care costs. However, the supervisors did agree to charge an insurance premium surcharge (30 percent, but if you take a smoking cessation course you wouldn't have to pay anything) to employees who smoke or use a tobacco product.

The county, which is self-insured, estimates 32 percent of its more than 2,000 workers are tobacco users and that banning smoking would save more than $1 million in health care costs, according to The Associated Press. 

You should still try quitting though, because it's not good for you and you can't smoke indoors anymore—which means you have to walk outside in the middle of a conversation to light one up, and that can get annoying.

It's basketball time, everybody! We're giving away two tickets to the UA basketball game against USC this Thursday. The winner will have to pick the tickets up at our office on the Northwest side of town. You've got until noon tomorrow to enter online. 

Good luck!

It's time to say goodbye to the Chef's Kitchen food truck. Chef Chris Cryderman has been in the culinary game for over 40 years, though his solar-powered food truck has only been on the Tucson streets for two and a half years. Cryderman opened the truck as a fun supplemental project to his catering business with his son, who is also a chef, but is now ready to retire the truck.

Chef's Kitchen has been a favorite at Tap & Bottle's brunch events for nearly two years. However, Cryderman says after his son got a job off the truck at Loews Ventana Canyon, running the truck on his own became too taxing. 

"I'm too old to be working that hard," Cryderman says. "People think you just open up a food truck and make a ton of money and that isn’t the case. It's hard work."

Although Chef's Kitchen's truck found a welcoming audience at beer-centric locales like Tap & Bottle, Ten Fifty-Five and Dragoon, he says his truck didn't really take off at other food truck events. 

"There are a lot of food trucks in this town. We don’t do Sonoran dogs and tacos," he says. "We've done $14 lobster rolls full of real tail and claw meat—People didn’t want to eat that stuff off of a truck."

Cryderman says he still will do catering events for Chef's Kitchen, but eliminating the truck means he'll have more time to relax and take trips with his wife. He says he enjoyed the experience running a food truck with his son while it lasted and made some close friends in town along the way.

"Its sad. Tap & Bottle became like family to me," Cryderman says.

You can help send off the Chef's Kitchen food truck with a bang this Sunday, Feb. 22 at Tap & Bottle from 12 until 3 p.m. Cryderman says the menu will include his most popular brunch offerings such as a lobster omelet, French toast with a Grand Marnier cream sauce, and the Pig and chick—a biscuit sandwich filled with fried chicken topped with sausage and bacon gravy that Cryderman calls a "heart attack waiting to happen." The menu will also include some lighter seasonal options and his special bloody mary mix will be at the bar inside to make micheladas. 

It doesn't matter how busy you are Wednesday night, make time to see the animated Oscar nominated shorts. The photo above is for Disney's "Feast"—about which I'll promise you two things: 1. The short somehow manages to be even more cute than the trailer (below) and 2. That dog does not die from indulging in too many rounds of nachos. I think "Feast" and "A Single Life" are the two to beat this year (Although the animation being The Bigger Picture is kind of spectacular). The show starts at 7 p.m., takes under an hour and a half and is absolutely adorable. Be there. 

Films

The Bigger Picture Trailer from daisy jacobs on Vimeo.

The Bigger Picture
(Chelo says: I would leave all of my cabinets open all the time if they worked like that)
‘You want to put her in a home; you tell her; tell her now!’ hisses one brother to the other. But Mother won’t go, and their own lives quickly unravel as she clings to life. Innovative life-size animated characters tell the stark and darkly humorous tale of caring for an elderly parent. (Directed by Daisy Jacobs and Christopher Hees, 2014, UK, 7 mins.)


The Dam Keeper
(Chelo says: Open question to anyone who has seen this short: How, exactly, did a pigbaby get stuck making sure his entire town doesn't get eaten by a charcoal stampede?) 
The Dam Keeper tells the story of a young pig with an important job, and a new friend who changes everything. In a desolate future, one small town has survived because of a large windmill dam that acts as a fan to keep out pollution. The dam’s operator, Pig, works tirelessly to keep the sails spinning and protect the town, despite abuse from classmates and an indifferent public. When a new student joins Pig’s class, nothing will be the same again. (Directed by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, 2014, USA, Non-dialogue, 18 mins.)

Feast
(Chelo says: This trailer gets bonus points because it reminds me that I need to find myself a pup)
Feast, a new short from Walt Disney Animation Studios, is the story of one man’s love life as seen through the eyes of his best friend and dog, Winston, and revealed bite by bite through the meals they share. (Directed by Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed, 2014, USA, Non-dialogue, 6 mins.)


Me and My Moulton
(Chelo says: Mustache problems, amiright?)
One summer in mid-‘60s Norway, a seven-year-old girl asks her parents if she and her sisters can have a bicycle. The film provides a glimpse of its young heroine’s thoughts as she struggles with her sense that her family is a little out of sync with what she perceives as “normal.” (Directed by Torill Kove, 2014, Canada, 14 mins.)

A SINGLE LIFE - TRAILER from Job, Joris & Marieke on Vimeo.

A Single Life
(Chelo says: These will be the best two minutes of your night)

When Pia plays a mysterious vinyl record single, she suddenly knows how to travel through her own life. (Directed by Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins and Job Roggeveen, 2014, The Netherlands, Non-dialogue, 2 mins.)

Bonus: Three “Highly Commended” shorts will also play.

Hopefully you haven't beered yourself out yet because one of Tucson's best beer week events is happening this weekend. The first ever Tucson Craft Beer Crawl will take brew enthusiasts to seven different spots around downtown to taste their way through specialty releases from over a dozen different breweries around the state.

Here are some of the rare beers you can expect to find on your drinking excursion:

• Ten Fifty-Five's AK Saison: a collaboration with Ryan Clark from Augustin Kitchen that uses calamondin fruit harvested from the tree in the middle of the Mercado San Augustin.
• Two new releases from Sonoran including PNK PPRCRN & FNL SAISON (Pink Peppercorn & Fennel Saison) and SMTH RBL DIPA (Smooth Rebel Double IPA).
• Borderlands' Scotchy, Scotch Scotch Ale collaboration with Grand Canyon Brewing and the re-release of the popular Horchata Cream Ale. Grand Canyon also has another collab release for the event—a DIPA made with Simcoe hops called Deep in the Green.
• Pueblo Vida's Belgian Golden Strong Ale: a complex ale with notes of pear, apples, oranges and a peppery spice. 
• Old Bisbee Brewing Co.'s brand new Holy Grail Indigenous IPA which uses wild hops picked from a unique area in the mountains close to the brewery. 
• Dragoon's Double Red IPA, which was brewed specially for Arizona Beer Week.
  
  

You can try all of those and more as you walk around at your leisure hitting up venues including Tap & Bottle, Hotel Congress, R Bar, Thunder Canyon Brewery, Playground, Pueblo Vida and Borderlands. There you'll use your 20 tasting tickets by filling up a commemorative five-ounce tasting cup over and over again. I might be a writer, but I'm pretty sure that amounts to 100 ounces of beer—good thing everyone is walking, right?

You can buy your tickets via the Beer Crawl's website for $38 in advance or $45 at the event. Then, on Saturday, Feb. 21 you can pick up your map, glass and tickets at Connect Coworking, located at 33 South Fifth Ave, and head on your merry beer-loving way. The event runs from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. and a portion of the proceeds go to Watershed Management Group.

Late Monday, a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked President Obama's November immigration actions: one gave parents of U.S. citizens and legal resident's children a work permit and deportation relief for three years, and the other extended Obama's 2012 program for undocumented immigrants brought here as children, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (the action got rid of age restrictions and extended the renewable program from two years to three years).

Those who qualified for the extended DACA program, among them Rosa Robles Loreto's two children— Robles Loreto has been living in sanctuary at Southside Presbyterian Church for six months—were supposed to start sending their applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services tomorrow. 

During an interview I had a few weeks ago with Robles Loreto's attorney, Margo Cowan, and Southside's the Rev. Alison Harrington, both were excited for Robles Loreto's children, Gerardo, Jr. and José Emiliano, to apply for the program, both so that they could have protection in the country, and because they thought this might be able to help resolve Robles Loreto's case. The two said that it made no sense to extend protection for DACA children, but not protect their parents. 

Supporters of Robles Loreto and her family had been invited to a press conference tomorrow prior to dropping off her two kids' DACA applications. That is still happening:

Please join us tomorrow when we launch the We Stand with Rosa campaign. Come to Southside at noon and get your sign. We are still hoping that Rosa's sons will be filing their DACA applications very soon despite the fact that a judge issued an injunction on the deferred action stemming from November 20. 

Another Tucson sanctuary case, Francisco Perez Cordova (who lived at St. Francis United Methodist Church for three months until he left Dec. 24), got his case closed thanks to the protection granted to parents. Perez Cordova has five U.S. citizens children, and the program, which is known as DAPA, is what allowed him to go home to his family without fearing deportation. His case is closed for now, but parents like Perez Cordova may not be able to apply for the program—applications could be sent starting mid-to-late May—if the block isn't struck down.

Judge Andrew Hanen issued the temporary injunction to allow a coalition of 26 states, among them Arizona, to proceed with a lawsuit seeking to gut Obama's immigration actions. 

It already was announced that this decision will be appealed, and we might hear news of that as soon as later today.

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a response at midnight today and Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project, had this comment:

Despite its extreme and inflammatory rhetoric, the Texas court decision does not explicitly hold that DAPA, DACA, or any other part of the federal government's executive actions, is unconstitutional.

The decision is very narrow, holding only that the federal government may have failed to follow procedural requirements before implementing Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

While this setback is serious and should be redressed in due course, the government's other reforms to protect civil liberties and immigrant communities — including the fundamental principle that the Department of Homeland Security may set priorities for immigration enforcement and exercise prosecutorial discretion — ​remain in place.

As someone who lived in El Presidio Neighborhood for most of the ’90s, I got used to the blare of the train horns (and enjoyed them for the most part, except when they drowned out the dialogue in my pre-TiVo days). But it never occurred to me to find out exactly what the horns meant, other than "get the hell off the tracks."

But Mike Powell, who is more curious than I, did some investigation for Deadspin:

My wife and I recently moved to a house in the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood of Tucson, Ariz. Because we had never visited the house in the middle of the night, we didn't realize quite how loud the freight-train horns were. We have adjusted, in part with the help of earplugs. (To spoil another potential list, let me recommend Hearos Xtreme Protection, which at 33NRR not only offer the highest protection recognized by OSHA, but also come in a very handsome blue color.)

As a child, I loved the sound of trains. They seemed spectral and romantic. I also liked the reminder that work was still being done at a time when most people were sleeping. It connoted progress—like night was just preparation for day, and day for night. But like many things that were romantic to me as a child, the reality of the train horn has set in like a rude and bitter light.

"You Don't Own Me" PSA - Upworthy from The Department of Peace on Vimeo.

Lesley Gore, who taught us all that we could cry as long as it was our party, died of lung cancer today at the age of 68. The video above is from an Upwrothy page, encouraging women to vote in November of 2014.

From that project, which Gore endorsed:

In 2013, there were more laws passed to limit women’s reproductive rights than in the entire previous DECADE.
Ten million more women than men voted in the last election. In fact 53% of voters were women. That is not a voting block it's a majority. Women have decided literally every election in our lifetimes, yet, midterm turnout is historically low. LET'S CHANGE THAT!

Beyond women's rights, Gore was a hugely impactful advocate of gay and lesbian rights. She came out* in 2005 while hosting a PBS show called In The Life, which focused on LGBTQ issues. At that time, she had already been with her partner, Lois Sasson, for more than 23 years.

Gore is widely quoted saying:

I think it’s important, not so much to be married to your partner as to be given the civil rights that married couples get, so I’m on that bandwagon...and that may take awhile, but it’s happening, for sure. By the time I shut my eyes for good, I’ll have seen a real difference, I think, and I’m happy about that.

I like to think that came true for her. We'll miss you and your feminist ways, Lesley.


*Which maybe shouldn't have been surprising. I mean, have you heard the song? I know she said she was crying, but Lesley just didn't seem too broken up about Judy wearing Johnny's ring. 

With Congress taking this week off from D.C., the opportunity to resolve the ongoing stalemate over immigration policy and Homeland Security funding is drawing short.

Congress will get back to work next week and the funding runs out on Feb. 27.

Talking Points Memo notes that McCain said Sunday on Meet the Press that Homeland Security's job was too important to be held as a political hostage:

The House in January passed a bill that would fund the department and overturn Obama's actions deferring the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. If the Senate does not pass the House by Feb. 27, the Department of Homeland Security will shutdown, and the Senate may not act in time to keep the department open.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," host Chuck Todd asked McCain if the House Republicans' approach was appropriate.

"I think it would be terrible. The American people didn’t give us a majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans. They want things done. We cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security," McCain said. "And there’s ways we can address what the President did was unconstitutional. But it’s not through shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. It’s too serious."

It's time to start warming up those pipes because Tuesdays at Playground means Cocktailaoke time. Granted, the very plain-dealing name isn't the most clever thing I've ever heard, but it gets the job done. I doubt anyone will have a hard time conceptualizing what goes on at Cocktailaoke. 

Just in case you do have some questions, though, know that the free event takes place every Tuesday starting at 9 p.m. Then you can grab your golf pencil and begin flipping through a giant binder full of tunes courtesy of Ynot Entertainment with artists ranging from George Strait to Fastball to Shakira. 

Should you need some inspiration to belt out your favorite Kelly Clarkson song, $3 drafts and wells should do the trick on the cheap. For something a little tastier, bartender Karl Goranowski also offers up a rotating craft Cocktailaoke menu too.

See? Simple.