Remember that silly little competitions we host every year called Best of Tucson®? Well, open voting is wrapping up at the beginning of next week. The end of the day Monday, to be exact. 

So, do you serve the best burgers? Do you have the best plant nursery? Do you tattoo better than everyone else in the Old Pueblo? Is your food truck SO DELICIOUS?

Well, if you want to be able to brag about being the best (the best! That sounds pretty impressive, eh?) you should probably let your devoted fans know they can vote for you.

Post the link to our survey on your Facebook page: http://posting.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/Survey?survey=4953400

Now, ballot-box stuffing is not allowed. You can't aggressively force people to vote for you, you can't offer incentives, you can't vote more than once. 

But fill out a ballot and have the people who love you do the same. Soon.

The first of the new Gibson Court businesses is almost ready to open. On Friday, June 12 at 3 p.m., Highwire Lounge give away first glimpses of the intimate, upscale cocktail bar's interior, as well as modest patio to the public. 

Owners Nick Eggman and Jacob Hise aren't looking to quietly enter Tucson's cocktail scene, either. With a ten-drink menu that utilizes popular liquors like El Jimador tequila, Smirnoff vodka and Bulleit whiskey, the pair say they're looking to impress their guests with their inventive take on "molecular mixology."

Much like their circus theme would suggest, the cocktails at Highwire definitely have a trick or two to show. That means you can expect drinks to change colors, make noises, change flavors and look unlike the cocktails you're used to seeing at local watering holes. 

TUSD's Superintendent H.T. Sanchez has a new contract that extends his stay through 2018. His supporters are cheering because it means continuity of leadership, something the district hasn't had in ages, from someone they believe is a competent, steady hand at the helm. His detractors are booing, saying he's an overpaid, under-competent superintendent, and the sooner we get rid of him the better. I'm planning to get into the actual salary and bonus issues eventually, but it'll take me awhile, so if you're not interested in my views on Sanchez, superintendents and school districts, you can save yourself some time by skipping down to the paragraph that begins, "Let's look at Sanchez's contract, salary and benefits." Meanwhile . . .

Most of the discussion over Sanchez comes down to one question: Is he good or bad for TUSD? If you're one of those people who think he's a bad superintendent who is destroying the district with his ego and ineptitude, then you're right to think he should go, the sooner the better. If he's as bad as you say, he's being paid too much even if he's working for free.

I don't share that view. I think Sanchez is basically competent and knowledgable, and I think he's decisive enough to take steps that can help move the district forward. I give him generally positive marks for the job he's done at TUSD. He's far from perfect. He has some ego and control issues that bother me, and he's certainly made mistakes, some of which I've written about here. Recently, I'm disturbed about the district's continually declining enrollment, and I wish Sanchez could figure out some way to turn the numbers around, but I also know this isn't a new issue. If enrollment levels were steady or increasing before he came, TUSD schools would have been full, and the issue of school closures that rocked the district before Sanchez arrived never would have come up. I also hate the idea of substitute teachers being outsourced to a private company, because I don't like seeing public services privatized. I think the district is balancing the budget on the backs of its substitutes, who make poor salaries at best and apparently are paid less at TUSD than neighboring districts. This could end up hurting the district in the long run by making it even harder to find the substitutes it needs to function. But if it's really a million-dollar-plus budget issue that's being considered as the district struggles to balance its budget, it's as much a problem of the state's underfunding our schools as it is a problem caused by Sanchez.

So, since I have those and other concerns, if I see multiple problems with Sanchez himself and things he's done since he's been at TUSD, why do I support him?

I taught under a number of superintendents during my thirty year tenure as a public high school teacher in the Portland, Oregon, area, and none of them made the kinds of dramatic changes that turned schools or students around. I no more believe in the magic superintendent who can turn educational darkness into light than I believe in magic "education reform" schools which take low performing student bodies and turn them into Harvard material. Both myths are destructive to our system of education. We absolutely need to pursue excellence every way we can, but we also need to understand that miracles are rare; otherwise they wouldn't be called miracles. If we expect miracles from teachers, schools and superintendents, almost all of them, even the best, will come up short.

"At the time I was laid off, bankrupt and so I just said 'fuck it, I'm throwing parties for a living." To really boil it down, that's how Jared McKinley started his annual celebration of a very specific style of music—the Yacht Rock Party. Though his party throwing efforts resulted in planning many events like the Glitter Ball, Underwear Party and several other one-time one-offs, the Yacht Rock Party is still going strong after five years and McKinley largely attributes it to the music.

"When it started, there was a lot of wanky club music in Tucson's nightlife scene," he says, "and there still is."

As an alternative, the Yacht Rock Party celebrates music that sprung from the "cocaine drenched '70s" to a time when folks were looking to "smooth out the edges."

"That's why it makes sense in summer here. We're all looking to smooth out some edges," McKinley says.

You can expect tunes from acts like Steely Dan, Christopher Cross, Ambrosia, Kenny Loggins, Toto, Starbuck and more from DJs Ben Beshaw and E__Rupt. Dirty P and the Thunderchiefs will also be performing some smooth rock jams. Admittedly, though, this isn't a genre most people own up to liking. Even McKinley says it took him, and his party co-founder Kenny Stewart, some time to warm up to it.

"Kenny and I were having a conversation about music while watching yacht rock videos on YouTube and laughing," he says. "I grew up hating that music. The Ramones and KISS were all I cared about."

As part of its approval of a $1.4 billion budget last night, the Tucson City Council agreed to kick $25,000 to Access Tucson to keep the public-access station from going dark over the next few months.

The city is combining the public-access facilities with the city's own Channel 12 in a new community media center that is designed to handle both those responsibilities as well as some new responsibilities. You can can see the details here.

But while the city goes through the process of selecting a new organization to run the community media center, it will continue funding the cost of putting programming on the Access channel. The downtown studio closed to the public last month.

Access Tucson Executive Director Lisa Horner said she was surprised by the council's decision, which was hammered out as the council members discussed the budget. 

"Clearly, there was political will to ensure that the channels for community media not cease to program while the city channel maintained funding as well," Horner said.

The lawsuit filed today was based on the testimonies of more than 75 former detainees who say men, women and children were kept in freezing, overcrowded and dirty cells for long periods of time, were oftentimes abused by agents, and denied access to beds, showers, water, medical care and even legal representation, said a press release from the National Immigration Law Center. 

They argue this is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“Our plaintiffs were detained for civil matters, but there is nothing civil about being deprived of water, provided inadequate or expired food, and being subjected to sleep deprivation,” said Nora Preciado, staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, in a statement. “We filed this lawsuit because the federal government has systemically failed to adhere to its own meager standards and constitutional requirements and thousands of people have suffered as a result.”

From the press release:

Former and current detainees described being packed into crowded cells with only concrete benches or the floor for a “bed.” They were stripped of warm clothing and provided with only flimsy aluminum sheets that do not protect against the frigid temperatures. In most cases, the lights are left on 24 hours a day, making sleep difficult, if not impossible. Immigrants have no soap or water to wash after using the restroom and before meals, and do not have access to showers.

The government’s own standards state that people should be detained in holding cells like those in the Tucson Border Patrol facility for no more than 12 hours, but all of the plaintiffs were held for much longer. In fact, Border Patrol’s own records show that, during a six month period in 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained over 58,000 people for 24 hours or longer in holding cells within the Tucson Sector; more than 24,000 of these individuals were held for 48 hours or longer.

“Border Patrol seems to think these brutal conditions, and the human suffering that results, will deter immigration, but the fact is that many of these people are fleeing persecution and violence, reuniting with family, or are themselves U.S. citizens,” said a statement from James Duff Lyall, an attorney with ACLU of Arizona. “These policies and practices serve no legitimate purpose, violate the U.S. Constitution, and offend basic American values.”

The six-month-old LGBTQ health and wellness center Living Out Loud is hosting a forum with representatives of the Tucson Police Department to discuss violence against LGBTQ people in the city and what can be done to prevent it.

"Our trans members are constantly being harassed at the bus stop and while riding the bus. One was even strangled," says Letty Fields, one of the center's therapists. "Episodes occur on the street, and most of our trans folks will not go out after dark alone."

Kent Burbank of the Pima County Attorney's Office put Fields in touch with TPD Capt. Mike Gillooly, commander for the midtown district, and Capt. Carla Johnson, who is the GLBT liaison for TPD. 

"They were both very concerned and jumped at the chance to come and talk at LOL. Mostly, they will talk about keeping safe, filing a police report, reporting harassment and other issue’s that might come up like how to deal with Sun Tran drivers," she says. 

LOL, part of CODAC Behavioral Health Services, has been open since December. It began offering most of its services in the spring. 

Here's a little bit of what I wrote about the clinic in January:

All staff and volunteers are LGBTQI-identified and allies who have worked with the community. Some of them will be transferring to LOL from the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation and other CODAC facilities.

The LOL center is filling up a huge gap of health needs in the community.

For many LGBTQI people in the region, fear of discrimination or a health provider's lack of knowledge for how to care for them–this is especially true for transgender and gender nonconforming patients–is what has been keeping them from even going to the doctor.

Many primary care clinic questionnaires don't even include questions relating to gender identity and sexual orientation.

An October 2010 survey by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force says that out of more than 7,000 LGBTQI people surveyed, close to 30 percent postponed visiting the doctor and that same number reported being harassed at a health center. Half of them said they ended up having to teach the doctors and health providers about transgender care and 19 percent said they were refused care due to their transgender and gender nonconforming status.

The LGBTQ-TPD forum is happening Friday, June 12 from 1 to 2 p.m. at the LOL clinic, 3130 E. Broadway Blvd. For more information, visit the event's Facebook page.

In 1998, Arizona voters passed Prop 200 also known as The Clean Elections Act. It established a five member commission that would make rules as to the providing of tax payer money to participating candidates. It reduced limits on contributions to non-participating candidates and private donations to participating candidates. It also administered a “matching funds” program by which a participating candidate would receive extra money to match any private donations to non-participating candidates over a certain amount.

In 2011, as a result of a suit filed by the Goldwater Institute, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the matching funds provision because it violated the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It noted that candidates would limit their own campaign activity and funding to avoid supporting their opponents. Individuals who would normally participate in the process by donating to the candidate of their choice realized that, due to the matching funds, that they could not effectively support their candidate.

Last year the Legacy Foundation Action Fund ran ads in several states criticizing the U.S. Conference of Mayors and its president. See the problem? Well, there was none, but since the president was Scott Smith of Mesa, Arizona, and a gubernatorial candidate, the Clean Elections Commission decided that the ads were a campaign donation and fined the group $95,000 for not reporting it to them.

The Secretary of State for Arizona, Michele Reagan, whose responsibility it is to administer elections and all laws pertaining to them, knew that the commission had no authority to regulate independent groups. She ran it by an administrative law judge who agreed and reversed the fine.

The Clean Election Commission in effect said forget you and the judge you rode in on, and is pressing the fine.

So now the Secretary of State has to pursue a legal challenge against the commission. She is being represented by, you guessed it, the Goldwater Institute. Here are some statements from the Goldwater Institute lawyer, Jim Manley, as they appeared of the Secretary’s web site:

The nonpartisan research group Behavior Research Center says most Arizona residents support the legalization of recreational marijuana, as well as favor university research on the medical benefits of weed for conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and epilepsy. 

Of about 700 adults interviewed for the Rocky Mountain Poll between the end of April and mid-May, 83 percent said they backed up former UA researcher Sue Sisley's study looking into the effects medical marijuana has on PTSD symptoms. They argued similar studies should be allowed at the three universities. 

Sisley's study was in its final stages of approval, when the UA killed her contract last summer. She wanted the university to house the trials there. Sisley argues Republican state legislators pressured UA officials to oust her, but they deny the allegations.

(Added after publication) UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson says the universities actively tried to continue the research with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the group partnered with Sisley, but that they declined. Arizona State University didn't respond, and Northern Arizona University said no to the study.

She now has a $2 million grant from Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Scientific Advisory Council and a partnership with Johns Hopkins University. She hopes to carry on the study in the Phoenix-area, but Sisley recently said the Department of Veterans Affairs won't let her recruit veterans for her study's trials.

The University of Colorado is considering staging the trials there.

The VA sent Sisley this statement early June:

As you know, we’ve had changes in leadership here over the past several years. While a previous Medical Center Director may have approved a Grand Round by Dr. Sisely – or delegated this to a member of the staff - the current Medical Center Director did not.

VA health care providers are prohibited from offering opinions or recommendations on the use of medical marijuana. It would be inconsistent with the law or our values for us to conduct a grand round on medical marijuana.

In the case of recreational weed, more than 50 percent are good with allowing possession of small amounts. The support is stronger in rural Arizona (58 percent) and in Maricopa County (53 percent). The poll said less than half of people in Pima County back up legalization. 

In April, the Marijuana Policy Project filed Arizona's weed ballot measure with the Secretary of State's Office, after mending ties with weed activists demanding for home cultivation rights, and dispensary representatives who wanted a better licensing structure.

What truly defines a city? Its economy, its landscape, its businesses? It is all those things, but it's people that make a city home. It is the blend of cultures present that reveal its personal history through art.

The Southwest Folklife Alliance, a nonprofit organization of the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, serve as historians of Tucson. The group documents the cultural heritage of local ethnic and folk communities and works to educate and plan ways to increase opportunities for these communities.

One of Tucson’s largest events, Tucson Meet Yourself, is the product of the Southwest Folklife Alliance and they are now unveiling a new program to serve individuals in the community who are expressing their heritage through art.

Their Master-Apprentice Grant Award Program, announced May 29, works to “support and encourage the preservation and perpetuation of traditional art forms present and thriving in Arizona.” This grant program is the first of its kind in the state, joining 20 states nationwide with similar programs.

Grants will be awarded to three local, traditional artists who have proven themselves to be masters at their craft. To fulfill the mission of this program, spreading community based traditions through one-on-one teaching, each master artist will identify an apprentice (or apprentices). The grant will award each artist $2500 and $500 to their apprentice.

The funds are meant to expand the horizons of its awardees and may be used for compensation, travel expenses and materials and supplies.