With the horror of the shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a little more than 24 hours old, and with the racial hatred that led the murderer to fire on the members of a devout Bible study group so palpable, I feel that it's more important than usual to point out that today, June 19, is Juneteenth—actually, the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth. It's a celebration of the end of legal slavery in the U.S. and a reminder of how great the resistance was at the time and how jagged the path to racial equality was and continues to be.

This old white man, who considers himself reasonably well educated, knows very little about Juneteenth. I hadn't even heard of it, I believe, until the posthumous publication of Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth, in 1999, and I might not have paid attention even then if Ellison's Invisible Man wasn't one of my all-time favorite novels. Juneteenth: it seemed like a strange word and an odd title to me at the time. I put the blame partly on myself for not digging deeply enough into the history of race relations in the U.S., but I can't blame myself for not having the holiday even mentioned in the history textbooks I read in school or in the mainstream media I absorbed all my life. That omission, as well as the omission of so much of the history of racial oppression in this country from slavery to the present day, is part of that same jagged path, with all its switchbacks and washed-out bridges, we are taking in our attempts to increase our knowledge and understanding of our shared history and to move toward greater racial equality. That the road is so torturous is one of the great shames of our nation.

Here are two descriptions of the history of Juneteenth you can read if you wish. One is on the Juneteenth.com website. The other, a more caustic and cynical view titled The Hidden History Of Juneteenth, appeared on the Talking Points Memo website yesterday.

Here's a very short history of the events leading to the holiday, which I'm quoting directly from the juneteenth.com website so I don't put my shameful ignorance on further display:

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

The Tucson community is invited to a vigil tonight (Thursday, June 18) in support of the shooting victims at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The vigil, at 6 p.m., is at Tucson's Prince Chapel AME Church, 602 S. Stone Ave. #PrayforCharleston

(Updated on Friday, June 19 at 7:40 a.m.):

Daniel Neyoy-Ruiz—a father and husband who left sanctuary at Southside Presbyterian Church last year after getting a one-year stay from Immigration and Customs Enforcement—received a one-year extension of his deportation relief, and will leave sanctuary at First Christian Church as soon as he has the paperwork at hand, which should be Friday morning, according to various sources.

The stay from 2014 expired June 9. The next day, Neyoy-Ruiz quietly moved into sanctuary for fear of once again possibly facing removal. This time he was received at First Christian Church, because Rosa Robles-Loreto has also been living in sanctuary at Southside for nearly 10 months now. 

"At first I felt nervous because I didn't know what would happen, I feel beyond happy, like the first time I was given this permission. I will be calm for another year, but I hope soon, they'll resolve or completely close my case," he says after a celebratory ceremony Thursday afternoon at First Christian. "Still, I'm going to keep fighting with Rosa and help others who need sanctuary. They don't know, and I have to tell them that this is an option."

Like Robles Loreto, Neyoy-Ruiz is not a priority for removal per ICE policies, but the agency isn't known for following through with some of its own rules. When President Obama issued several immigration executive actions this past November, he also reassured that undocumented people who aren't felons or threaten national security should not be at the top of the deportation list.

“After conducting another review of Mr. Neyoy-Ruiz’s immigration case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has granted Mr. Neyoy-Ruiz an additional one-year stay of removal. At the end of that period, ICE will re-evaluate the case to determine the appropriate next steps," says Yasmeen Pitts O'keefe, ICE's spokeswoman. "ICE exercises prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis, considering the totality of an individual’s case, including but not limited to criminal history, immigration history, family and community ties, humanitarian issues and whether he or she is likely to receive temporary or permanent status or other relief from removal."

Neyoy Ruiz and his wife Karla came to Tucson from Mexico 15 years ago. Their son, Carlos, who just graduated from middle-school, is a U.S. citizen, making Neyoy-Ruiz eligible for Obama's Deferred Action for Parents program—a work permit and permission to stay in the U.S. for three years with a chance to re-apply. However, in February, a federal judge in Texas blocked DAPA and an extension to DACA, a similar program but for undocumented immigrants brought here as children.

When he left sanctuary last year, his plans were to apply for DAPA. During this year, he also tried to renew his work permit, but he says it was rejected. Officials asked him to re-apply at a cost of $400. He lost his job as a result and has been searching for daily construction gigs to get by. 

"I don't wish this fear on anyone, but they should be focusing their attention on people who have committed serious crimes, I don't even think they read our cases, all they see is an alien number, but that number has a heart, has a family, it's a person," he says.

Is that a scalpel or a butcher's knife in Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas' hand?

This is something to watch, warily. From today's Capitol Times Yellow Sheet (actually this is the teaser, since I don't have access to the Yellow Sheet itself):

Douglas told our reporter she has chosen the group that is going to comb through Title 15 in an effort to rid schools of unnecessary mandates and administrative burdens, and it won’t include any lobbyists or “alphabet soups,” a reference to the many education groups that are generally known by their initials.

This isn't new news. María Inés Taracena reported in The Range in April about a News Release Douglas put out saying she was planning to form the committee, which is supposed to come up with its findings in December, to be presented to the legislature when it begins its 2016 session.

I took a look at Title 15 in the Arizona Revised Statutes. The titles of the sections alone take 16 computer screens to get through. That's just the titles. I scanned through the screens—18 chapters, divided into Articles, further broken down into specific items. The mind reels.

Looking over Title 15 is probably a good idea. Putting the task in the hands of anti-regulation conservatives, however, is dangerous. One person's necessary regulation is another person's onerous attack on freedom.

To this point in her tenure, Douglas has taken a measured approach to her job. Compared to my worst fears and expectations, she's been a pleasant surprise. If she and the committee adopt a "Do no harm" approach to evaluating the rules and regulations, things might turn out OK, or at least not too bad. But I can already see Republican anti-"government schools" legislators sharpening their axes, looking for "burdensome regulations" to chop to pieces and turn into kindling. This is worth watching, and watching carefully. It could have a significant impact on the already problematic future of Arizona education.

I don't believe Douglas has published a list of committee members. When we know who's sitting on the committee, we'll have a better idea of her intentions.

Pima Animal Care Center, 4000 N. Silverbell Road, has a severe overcrowding problem right now. In an effort to reduce the number of critters in their care, PACC is waving adoption fees through the month of June.

Adoption fees for all adult animals at the Pima Animal Care Center are being waived for the remainder of June due to an unusually high number of animals being brought to the shelter. The Center took in more than 500 pets last week, sending the shelter’s total census to nearly 800 dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. The shelter’s cat recovery room is nearly full and some kennels are housing three or more dogs.

“We are proud to be the only shelter in our community that will never turn away a pet in need, but our conditions have quickly become extremely crowded,” PACC’s Chief of Operations, Kristin Barney, said. “We hope our community will come forward to help by adopting one of our many deserving pets.”

Through the end of the month, all pets three-months-old and up will have no adoption fee. A $15 dog license fee will still apply. Puppies and kittens will have a $30 adoption fee. All PACC pets are spayed or neutered, vaccinated and micro-chipped, and they come with a free vet visit, too.

Shelter officials hope to make room in the shelter before the July 4 holiday weekend, when the shelter will take in dozens of pets who were frightened by fireworks.

The shelter is open from noon to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the weekends. It is closed the last Sunday of each month for deep cleaning. You can see adoptable pets here: http://webcms.pima.gov/cms/one.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=991 

Facebook mastermind Mark Zuckerberg donated $5 million to thedream.us, a college scholarship fund for undocumented young immigrants. 

He posted this message on, well, Facebook:

Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants are part of our communities and attend school legally in the United States. Many of them moved to America early in their lives and can’t remember living anywhere else. They want to remain in the country they love and be a part of America’s future. But without documentation, it’s often a struggle to get a college education, and they don’t have access to any kind of federal aid.

America was founded as a nation of immigrants. We ought to welcome smart and hardworking young people from every nation, and to help everyone in our society achieve their full potential. If we help more young immigrants climb the ladder to new opportunities, then our country will make greater progress.

The investment Priscilla and I are making will go towards creating college scholarship programs for more than 400 young immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area over the next five years. TheDream.US is a national scholarship program that has done amazing work under the leadership of Don Graham and others, and we’ve previously invested in their work. But we also wanted to help extend their efforts in the Bay Area as part of our ongoing efforts to support social and economic programs in our local community. Over the coming years, our hope is to prepare hundreds of students to graduate with associate or bachelor’s degrees so they can build meaningful new careers.

This is just a small step towards creating immigration and education solutions that help our community and country make progress. You can learn more about this program at: http://www.thedream.us 

In May, the Arizona Board of Regents granted DREAMers in-state tuition at the three public universities. Locally, the nonprofit Scholarships A-Z regularly hosts meetings to help undocumented students search and apply for scholarships, because they do not qualify to get any financial aid funded by state money. The group and other organizations led the years-long in-state tuition fight.

DREAMers have been able to get in-state rates at Pima Community College since the fall of 2013.

The next scholarship help meeting is happening Tuesday, June 23, from 6 to 7 p.m. at 655 N. Alvernon Way.

It’s pretty hot right now. So, any chance for a laugh, one that isn’t caused by manic dehydration, is to be cherished. Luckily for us, comedian and all around funny lady Jen Kirkman is coming to Congress this Friday.

Kirkman utilizes self-analyzation and observations on society to create stand up that is easily relatable and humble. Her brand of comedy has her put herself completely on the line, giving her ego up to the audience and landing successfully. It works, because many of us are way too consumed with stubborn pride to say what’s on our minds. It feels good to laugh at ourselves with the safety of an entertainer as an outlet.

Kirkman says establishing confidence and respect with an audience plays a big part in making someone laugh.

“They are kind of in your hands, and if you treat them like they’re idiots and you’re rude they won’t laugh at you,” she says. “They want to know that you’ve got this, that they are in the palm of your hands and you are confident. I think there has to be a lot of humility in trying to make people laugh. You can’t think you are doing some big, powerful thing, otherwise people will feel like you’re condescending.”

This rapport with the crowd and her pride free confessions of personal, laughable experiences translates effortlessly to her latest achievement, a comedy special on Netflix called, “I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine).”

The 78 minute special is comprised of everything she has been doing on the road for the last few years.

“I didn’t have to do anything differently,” she says. “One day I showed up and just like any other show there was a camera. I wore a lot more makeup then I would normally wear on stage.”

Netflix was an attractive outlet to Kirkman because it offered her freedoms most cable television couldn’t touch.

“I was lucky that I knew Netflix was interested," she says. " I always knew that I wanted to do a special that was not going to be on the kind of cable that has commercials, that doesn’t let you be in control of the editing. That’s why I wanted to work with them. I feel like comedy, when you’re doing it in a night club or comedy club, you can swear, there’s no commercial break and it’s about having a great time. It’s sort of a place where grownups talk about things you don’t talk about in high society. When comedy specials are on television they are all cleaned up and nice and I don’t really understand why that’s funny.”

A recent audit of the Department of Homeland Security's use of prosecutorial discretion says the agency hasn't properly gathered data on how its implementing the policy nor the methods it uses to back up its decisions in a case-by-case basis.

The Department of Homeland Security's most recent removal guidelines—released Nov. 20, the same day President Obama issued a series of immigration executive orders—says that felons are at the forefront of deportation. But many undocumented immigrants without a criminal record, and who pose no threat to national security, are at the mercy of this so-called prosecutorial discretion, a memo that was issued in 2011. (DHS Inspector General John Roth points out that the audit''s findings were finalized in September 2014, so any changes after are not documented on this specific report.)

DHS' 2011 memo was supposed to clarify what details should be considered to carry out such discretion, and whom exactly is entitled within the agencies to decide people's fate in this country. But that hasn't been the case.

In the report, Roth suggests the department: A. Present reliable information and numbers; B. Ensure it can present solid evidence to support reasons for apprehension and removal, as well as decisions to close certain cases and grant stays in the country; C. Improve access to a person's criminal record in his or her country of origin; among other proposals he presented today to the U.S. House's Subcommittee on National Security and Health Care, Benefits and Administrative Ruling.

Particularly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the implementation of prosecutorial discretion is very up-and-down (I wrote about it last month, here). Undocumented immigrants who don't meet the requirements for removal have been deported or have deportation orders open. Then, there are the few who have gotten their cases closed for that reason. 

The death of Mexico native José de Jesús Deniz-Sahagún at the Eloy Detention Center has been ruled a suicide by the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, according to a write up from earlier this afternoon by Paul Ingram of the Tucson Sentinel. 

Deniz-Sahagún was found dead in his cell on May 20. Gregory Hess, the chief medical examiner, found he died of asphyxiation after shoving a knee-high sock down his throat. A small white plastic handle, probably from a toothbrush was found in his stomach, the Sentinel article says. 

From Ingram's piece:

There were no other injuries to Deniz-Sahagun's mouth, face or neck. A minor scalp injury found on the body could have come during an arrest, or when Deniz-Sahagun was restrained by officers, said Hess.

One day before his suicide, Deniz-Sahagun was evaluated by a mental health provider for "delusional thoughts and behaviors for which he had to be restrained by corrections staff," the report said. Believing that Deniz-Sahagun had suicidal thoughts, officials placed him on a constant watch.

The next day, officials removed the watch order and placed Deniz-Sahagun in a single person cell with regular 15 minute security checks, Hess said.

Video footage of the cell made available to Hess shows Deniz-Sahagun at his cell door at 4:57 p.m. Then at 5:33 p.m. emergency medical personal enter the cell. The video shows that in the hour before his death, officers checked on Deniz-Sahagun four to five times.

Emergency responders attempted to revive him, but were unsuccessful, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just received a copy of the Pima County autopsy report which determined the death of Eloy detainee Jesus Deniz-Sahagun was a suicide. In accordance with ICE policy, the circumstances surrounding every detainee death are subject to review by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and an OPR inquiry has been scheduled for later this month," said a statement from ICE sent this evening. "ICE is committed to ensuring the safety all those in its custody. As such, OPR will be reviewing the Eloy facility’s compliance with ICE standards and policies, including those relating to suicide prevention and intervention.”

The statement says ICE officers visit housing units regularly to check out the living conditions and make sure they are in compliance with the agency's detention standards, and that there is full-time staff in place for medical and health needs, as well. 

According to the agency, the Eloy Detention Center has been inspected six times since 2012, and has been deemed in compliance in each occasion.

Deniz-Sahagún's death was one of many issues that triggered about 200 detainees to declare a hunger strike over the weekend. They alleged they witnessed guards beat Deniz-Sahagún and then put him in solitary confinement.

Earlier today, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch requesting the Department of Justice launch a public investigation into the deaths of Deniz-Sahagún and an un-named Eloy inmate. 

Four deaths have been reported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this fiscal year, and a total of 14 since 2003, according to the agency.

The Tucson Museum of Art is planning out the 67th year of its Arizona Biennial exhibition and the 33 artists that will be featured in the 2015 show have been selected. The juried exhibition was vetted this year by guest juror Irene Hofmann, Director and Chief Curator of SITE Santa Fe. Hoffman had her work cut out for her too, selecting 50 pieces from the 1,490 that were submitted in total and contributing to the oldest running juried exhibition featuring exclusively Arizona artists.

The museum event is meant to showcase up and coming, new and unique works from the state's artists. This year's exhibition will feature 33 artists in a range of media including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation art. The artists selected for the Arizona Biennial 2015 are David Emitt Adams, Elizabeth Burden, Carlton Bradford, Curt Brill, John H. Clarke, Jeffrey J. DaCosta, Jeff Dodson, Abigail Felber, Denis Gillingwater, Jennifer Holt, Alan Bur Johnson, Daniel Johnson, Carolina Maki Kitagawa, Carolyn Lavender, Ellen McMahon and Beth Weinstein, Brooke Molla, Katherine Monaghan, Anthony Pessler, Emmett Potter, Rembrandt Quiballo, Robert Renfrow, Prima Sakuntabhai, Patricia Sannit, Steven R. Schaeffer, Mike Stack, Lauren Strohacker and Kendra Sollars, Novie Trump, Zachary Valent, Kathleen Velo, Grant Wiggins and Angie Zielinski.

You can catch all of those artists at the Tucson Museum of Art, located at 140 N. Main Ave., beginning July 25 and running until October 11. The public closing night event will offer up auctions of selected works, food, wine and live music by Crystal Radio, with Amelia Poe and Daniel Martin Diaz. Tickets are $40 in advance, $30 for CAS members and $50 at the door. For more information on that event, e-mail [email protected].