We know a ton dogs are lost every day but Courtney Robbins is pretty special. She's out of town and her pup Charles ran off a few days ago. Have you seen him?

From the Craigslist post about Charles:

Charles/Charlie is a cream colored poodle terrier mix with shortish wavy/curly hair. He weighs between 20-25 pounds, and he has a microchip. He was last seen on 4th Avenue at 8th Street in front of Sacred Art Tattoo around 6pm on May 17th. He's very friendly and probably very scared. Please call, text, or email me if you have any information. Thanks!

Christabelle
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If one looks at a map of Arizona, one would see a big blob of National Forest which includes the Patagonia Mountains to the West, the Huachuca Mountains to the East, bordering on Mexico to the South, and extending North into the Canelo Hills almost to the town of Sonoita. It is usually colored green on the map—except for a large white rectangle extending from the Mexican border right up the middle. The white rectangle is the San Rafael Valley named after the original San Rafael de Zanja Spanish land grant. The white color indicates deeded property owned by people, as opposed to the green color indicating government property administered by the Forest Service.

The valley floor (the white rectangle) is a vast rolling prairie of native grasses, sparsely populated by trees and people. The headwaters of the Santa Cruz River are in the San Rafael Valley. The Santa Cruz flows south into Mexico, then turns back into the valley where it continues north eventually flowing (sometimes) through Tucson and beyond.

Ranching is the local industry in the valley. It has been so since the Spanish introduced cattle 300 years ago. Signs at the intersections of roadways are typically long lists of ranch names with arrows indicating a right or left turn.

Join the Sonoran Herbalist on Thursday, May 21 for an introductory lesson in the edible plants of our desert landscape. At Food Conspiracy Co-op, John Slattery—the Sonoran Herbalist—will be teaching Sonoran foraging, showing which plants in our surrounding area can be used in our kitchens.

According to Sonoran Herbalist, there are nearly 400 different edible plants in the low desert alone, so there will be a lot to learn. The class will will include a sampling and presentation on the topic, showing the nutritional value and unique flavor these plants can bring.

The co-op, which is located at 412 N. Fourth Ave., is asking interested attendees register online via the co-op website at least 24 hours in advance of the class itself. The Introduction to Edible Plants of the Sonoran Desert course is $8 and runs from 6 until 8 p.m.

Slattery will follow up Thursday's class on June 11 that will show how to incorporate foraged foods into recipes, including fermented goods and breads. The class is $12 and you can find more information on the co-op's event page. It is limited to 25 attendees. 

Let me see if I have this straight.

Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Diane Douglas, so feared by her fellow Republicans that many of them jumped ship and endorsed Democrat David Garcia, won the general election and almost immediately fired two State Board of Education staffers, claiming they were are too liberal. Ducey, who dips his toes regularly into Tea Party waters, disagreed that they're too liberal, said she didn't have the right to fire Board employees and reinstated them. Douglas accused Ducey of plotting to push Common Core on Arizona children and moving money from traditional public schools to charters.

Pause a few months while the legislature is in session. Then the Board up and left the Department of Education building and headed for the building the Governor lives in, saying Douglas is impossible to work with. Oh, and they set up their own website and gave themselves new email addresses to make the break complete. Douglas decided to take them to court, saying they have to come home and do as she says, because, Rule of Law.

Which takes us up to Monday, when the Board threatened to sue Douglas because she won't let board employees access teacher records, which they need to do their jobs, unless they come to the Department of Education and work from there.

My question is: Who's going to be at the head of the line to pick up the Recall Diane Douglas petitions, the left or the not-quite-as-Tea-Party-as-Douglas right?

Silvia Herrera hoped to submit her application for President Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program this morning. It frustrates her that she has to remain in limbo because a federal judge decided in February to temporarily block the relief.

On November 20, Herrera, her husband and their two children heard Obama had issued an executive action that gave parents of U.S. citizens and legal resident children a work permit and permission to remain in the country, at least for three years. (That same day, Obama also extended who can sign up for DACA, a program for young immigrants brought here as children.)

"We cried, we danced, we began to make plans and, above all, to dream," Herrera says in Spanish. She was part of a group outside the Arizona State Building earlier today, protesting the fact that it's been more than three months and millions still haven't been able to apply for DAPA. (The gathering was organized by Mi Familia Vota in solidarity to many other protests happening around the country.) "I started thinking I finally could get a job as a secretary, that is what I used to do in Mexico, my husband, too, began to think about all the good things, the economic and emotional stability this would bring us."

The U.S. House of Representatives pushed through legislation creating new restrictions on abortion last week.

The “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” sponsored by Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (R-CD8), passed 242-184 on a mostly party-line vote; four Democrats voted for the bill, while four Republicans voted against it. It would ban abortions after 20 weeks except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.

The legislation had stalled earlier this year over provisions that the required victims of rape or incest report the crimes to authorities in order to be able to terminate pregnancies.

Among Southern Arizona lawmakers, Republican Martha McSally voted in favor of the new restrictions while Democrats Raul Grijalva and Ann Kirkpatrick voted against the bill.

The bill has little chance of becoming law; even if it were to pass the U.S. Senate, it would face an almost-certain veto from President Barack Obama. A January statement of administration policy noted that Obama’s advisors would recommend that he reject the legislation, noting that the bill "is a direct challenge to the Supreme Court’s holdings on abortion. Not only is the basis for H.R. 36 scientifically disputed, the bill disregards women's health and rights, the role doctors play in their patients' health care decisions, and the Constitution.”


Pro-choice advocates say that only a tiny percentage of abortions—less than 2 percent nationally—happen after 20 weeks. That’s sometimes because the mother discovers that the fetus has developed a serious birth defect, such as organs growing outside of the body. In such cases, women face the heartbreaking choice between aborting the pregnancy or giving birth to a child who cannot survive for long—if at all—outside the womb. The legislation would require the women to give birth in those cases.

McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak didn’t directly address the question of restricting abortion options for women who discover their children have significant birth defects after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but he said McSally voted in favor of the bill because she “believes in the dignity of life while ensuring protections for women who are victims of rape or incest and in cases when the life of the mother is threatened.”

Somehow between touring internationally with Calexico in support of their new album and playing in and orchestrating his own band Orkesta Mendoza as well as the Mexrissey project (a live band reimagining of Morrisey's music with Spanish lyrics and Latin flare) Sergio Mendoza found time to start an entirely new project and it's no surprise that it's absolutely delightful to listen to. 
 
Los Hijos De La Montaña pairs Mendoza's multi-instrumental talents with Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba's soulful singing to create a lush, sometimes moody and always beautiful nine songs that you'll likely listen to over and over again. Their titular release premiered on NPR Music's First Listen on Sunday, May 17 and you can stream it now for your listening pleasure.

After all, we all know Tuesdays completely suck, but yours will suck a little less once you pop the album on and follow it as it shifts from airy tropical vibes to a psychedelic Southwestern sensibility and then over to a rich, full, horn-and-synth laden pop jam. 

You can follow Mendoza's new band on Facebook for more updates on the duo and their new release. You can also catch him live with his orkesta, Salvador Duran and Vox Urbana at Rialto Theatre on Saturday, May 23. The show starts at 8 p.m. You can find tickets for $12 in advance, along with more information, on the Rialto Theatre website.

Congressman Raúl Grijalva is on board to update the Supplemental Security Income program, which has not been dusted off since Nixon signed it into law back in 1972. SSI is supposed to aid vulnerable seniors and people with severe disabilities so that they don't end up on the streets. The problem with it right now is that it is so outdated that a lot of individuals badly in need of the income help are not getting it. 

Grijalva joined forces with Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and  Sherrod Brown, as well as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent, to introduce The Supplemental Security Restoration Act of 2015. 

From a press release sent by Grijalva's office:

The legislation will restore the original intent of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program...The outdated benefits formulas penalize program participants for working, for saving money and for receiving assistance from family members.

With inadequate financial support and provisions preventing participants from receiving income elsewhere, SSI is locking many of the 8.4 million Americans enrolled in it into the very life of poverty it was intended to prevent. The Supplemental Security Restoration Act of 2015 makes modest improvements to the program by raising the asset limit, updating earned and unearned income disregard rules, and modernizing certain financial eligibility rules.

“SSI’s 1972-era solutions for modern-day challenges are painfully inadequate for the elderly and disabled Americans who rely on it,” said Rep. Grijalva. “Our cost of living has increased more than five-fold since then, yet SSI’s financial support remains frozen in time. What’s worse, its requirements are increasingly restrictive as it falls further out of pace with our society. Many recipients are now subjected to the very life of poverty it was intended to prevent. While others with the slightest assistance from Social Security or a caring relative are penalized or even blocked from the program entirely. It’s time to ensure this lifeline lives up to its original intent, and provides assistance designed to meet 21st century needs.”

The Supplemental Security Restoration Act of 2015 has 25 co-sponsors in Congress and the endorsement of 70 national organizations. Rep. Grijalva is a prominent voice in the effort to update SSI, and previously introduced similar legislation in the 113th Congress.

A study recently published by Feeding America says that Arizona is above the national average in the percentage of people who don't get enough to eat. The number for the state is 17.5 percent, or roughly 1 in 5 people, and nationwide it's 15.8 percent.

(Keep in mind, yesterday most of you probably heard that the state will not allow families to get welfare more than one consecutive year, so if you haven't found a job in that timeline or are in an unstable economic situation more than once, you are shit out of luck according to the state Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey.)

From The Associated Press:

Policy analysts say most states impose a five-year lifetime limit, while 13 states limit the benefits to two years or less.

Arizona's Republican-led legislature made the cuts to make good on the governor's pledge to avoid tax increases.

It means at least 1,600 Arizona families will lose their welfare starting in July.

Welfare is federally funded, but Gov. Doug Ducey's office called the cuts necessary to protect taxpayers and elementary education as the state faces a $1 billion budget deficit.

Reilly Craft Pizza's chef and owner Tyler Fenton might be young, but he knows what he likes and he knows how to make it. At just 25 years old, he's certainly been an impressive part of Tucson's dining scene for the last nearly three years that Reilly has been open, showcasing young talent in his restaurant both in the kitchen and behind the bar. 

Although he didn't go to culinary school, Fenton says he's been making pasta for the last ten years, initially learning from his uncle. Fenton explains that when he first opened his downtown Italian joint he had four different handmade pastas on the menu, but eventually scaled it back. Now he's bulking up the restaurant's pasta program again with four different dishes.