We've got two pairs of tickets to Thursday night's Diamondbacks game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The game starts at 6:40 p.m at Chase Field in Phoenix. We'll draw the winner Thursday ("tomorrow" from when this was published, "today" if you're seeing this in your newsletter) at Noon. You have to be able to pick the tickets up at our office (located near the Foothills Mall) before we close at 5 p.m. 

If five hours notice is enough to get you to our office and on your way to Phoenix, enter below. 

According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month, Arizonans are not eating their veggies—or fruits for that matter. The sampling of 3,269 Arizona-based adults uncovered that only 12.5 percent of those studied were eating enough fruit, which boils down to seven-eighths of the population not getting adequate daily nutrition. 

While our state had higher rates of fruit consumption than many southern states like Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, Arizona was still behind 23 other states. The state leading the way in daily fruit consumption was California at 17.7 percent, which, let's be honest, is still not great. 

When it comes to vegetables, things are even bleaker. Arizona was at 9.8 percent of the sampled population eating the daily requirement of veggies with just ten states ranking higher. Mississippi rated lowest at 5.5 percent and California leading the pack again at 13 percent.

For more of the CDC's findings, you can check out the study yourself on the organization's website. But, before you do that, put the Cheetos down and grab a carrot.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona are suing the Pinal County sheriff and attorney over their enforcement of the state's civil forfeiture laws. 

The lawsuit involves Pinal County resident Rhonda Cox. Her truck was seized by sheriff deputies, after her 20-year-old borrowed the truck one night and replaced the hood and cover with stolen parts, according to an ACLU press release. She filed a claim to get her $6,000-truck back and lost. Per state civil forfeiture laws, she also has to pay the county's attorneys' fees and investigation costs, the ACLU says.

Cox had nothing to do with the theft, the statement says. But civil forfeiture laws don't care. If you own property that was involved in criminal activities, law enforcement will take it away and the owner has to fight to get it back. 

"Arizona's civil asset forfeiture laws gave Pinal County license to steal from Rhonda Cox," says ACLU staff attorney Emma Andersson. "That would be bad enough, but those laws also made it impossible for her to have a fair shot at challenging that theft in court. The county robbed Rhonda twice: first they took her truck, then they took her day in court."

In Arizona, law enforcement tries to seize as much property as they can because they get to keep most of the "funds" raised this way. The report "Policing for Profit," says that from 2000 to 2011, civil forfeiture revenue in the state increased by nearly 400 percent—hundreds of millions in civil forfeiture revenue.

Law enforcement can use that money to pay for staff salaries, equipment, travel, witness protection programs and even drug and gang prevention classes. Some citizens pay double—part tax dollars, part civil forfeiture.

The government doesn't have to prove that you are guilty, either. Rather, it is the owner of the property who has to prove his or her innocence, as well as the "innocence" of the property seized. Also, because it's civil and not criminal, you're not entitled to any free legal help. You have to pay for your own attorney, which is one of the reasons these actions sometimes go unnoticed. Cox had to drop out, because she had to pay for both her attorney fees, as well as the legal expenses from the county.

(I wrote about a civil forfeiture case in Tucson back in April. Legal Theft I and Legal Theft II.)

The  ACLU is also working to reform civil forfeiture laws in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and several other states. Ultimately, they hope to change these rules at a federal level. 

The law firm Perkins Coie is also involved in the Arizona lawsuit.

I don't think anyone has explained civil forfeiture better than John Oliver, so here it is:

It may be a sin to kill a mockingbird, but is it a sin to knock a Finch off his pedestal?

It turns out Atticus Finch was a segregationist and a bigot before he was the ideal vision of a white southerner who was able to rise above the racism of his time. Of maybe he was a segregationist and a bigot after he was that ideal man. It depends on which timeline you use.

Atticus Finch, of course, is the fictional southern lawyer in Harper Lee's wonderful novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read and taught many times during my career as a high school English teacher. But a few years earlier, before Lee wrote Mockingbird, she wrote Go Set a Watchman, and in that book Atticus made some statements about segregation and race you wouldn't expect from the man we learned to love in the classic novel. That means the character was conceived as a bigot before he was re-envisioned as the perfect man in Mockingbird. But Watchman is set twenty years after Mockingbird, so it was an older Atticus who showed himself to be a bigot. Before. After. The whole thing is confusing on a number of levels.

In case you haven't read any of the statements Atticus made in Watchman, which is set soon after the Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation, here are two of his most often quoted lines.

“Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?”

And

"[The south should] be left alone to keep house without advice from the N.A.A.C.P.”

I'm sensing a pattern here.

Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs sponsored legislation to audit the Department of Child Safety, to the tune of $250,000. Must have been pretty important if a fiscal conservative wanted to spend a quarter million dollars to figure out how to fix the agency. Well, the results of the study are in, and the conclusion is, the agency needs more money to function properly. Biggs is appalled. That's not what he wanted to hear.

"They didn't really get at any of the stuff that I thought was important," Biggs said. "I could've gone out and asked all those local stakeholders what do you think, and they all would've told me we need to spend more money. And that's basically what Chapin Hall [Center for Children at the University of Chicago] put together."

Biggs wants the agency to cut back on the number of people it serves, not spend more money to increase services like the study recommends.

Governor Doug Ducey wants to build more private prisons. The recent riot at the privately run Kingman prison isn't deterring him, nor are Department of Corrections studies that say private prisons cost more than state-run prisons. Admittedly, those cost effectiveness studies are a few years old. Back in 2012, Republicans said the Department of Corrections should stop conducting the studies because weren't comprehensive enough. If the studies considered all the data, Republican private prison advocates said, they would show the private prisons cost less.

So is Ducey planning to conduct a new, better study that will factor in all the costs? Nah. I guess it's too risky. A new study might come to conclusions Ducey doesn't want to hear.

Obscure and historical boozes are having more than a moment in the international booze consciousness which means mead isn't just for the vikings of yesteryear anymore. In fact, up in Prescott, the brewers behind Superstition Meadery are making modern fermentations from local honey—resulting in some seriously delicious mead.

If you're curious just what mead might taste like, know that a typical five-gallon batch uses 15 pounds of honey in its production. Is it sweet? Yeah. Is it summery? Totally. Should you try it yourself? Obviously, and you can by heading to Tap & Bottle on Wednesday, July 22 from 5 until 7 p.m. for a mead tasting event. 

The complimentary tasting of four different Superstition meads will include Tahitian Honeymoon, Lagrimas de Oro, Sweet Mesquite and Arizona State 69 Route Honey Highway. If you like one (or all) of the meads in particular, the event will include special bottle pricing at 10 percent off for Superstition meads. 

Just keep in mind mead might drink kind of like a beer but it has the booze content of a wine, so imbibe responsibly. 

You know that intense, inescapable anxiety that comes with impending deadlines? The kind that is still stressful even when the source of the stress has temporarily been forgotten? Sometimes I'll be sitting on my couch and suddenly I'll remember that I've been worrying about ... something. The rent is due? I need to call my mother back? Perhaps its just another existential crisis? 

Well, if you've been feeling the pressure of a mysterious but looming deadline, I bet it's because you've been stressed out about finishing your Best of Tucson ballot. With the Aug. 2 deadline right around the corner, I can't blame you. These are weighty decisions. So, head over to the finalist* ballot, make sure you vote in at least 30 categories, and hit submit. Time is running out. 


*Yes, this is a ballot of finalists. In the last round of voting, you could nominate whomever you wanted or whatever categories. Now, if you want to vote in a specific category, you have to pick someone still in the running. We don't want your grump phone calls about which breakfast spots didn't make the list. It's not our fault you live in a city with a booming brunch scene.

Barrio Hollywood residents voted last week to change the rules of who's allowed to be a voting  member of the neighborhood association. 

Voting rights in the association are now exclusive to those who live in the barrio. Meaning, if you are a business or property owner whose home isn't in the barrio, you can't vote on neighborhood issues.

(Here's the story Arizona Public Media's Amanda LeClaire produced. You need visuals and audio to get a sense of the emotions that were flying in the meeting.)

Barrio Hollywood Neighborhood Association President Kacey Carleton, who supports businesses being part of the voting process, sent out this email days after last Thursday's vote, (here's part of it):

Hello Neighbors,

The special meeting held last night resulted in a deciding vote for Proposal 2 of Article II of the BHNA bylaws. Despite the effort which went into it, the voting process was again full of indiscrepancies and the balloting problematic. The count was overwhelmingly in favor of a Resident Only membership making any formal complaint of the process fruitless.

The formation of an election committee will be discussed at our monthly meeting in September.

The special meeting was called for a discussion and vote of the bylaws since many claimed at the July 2nd meeting that they had had no opportunity for discussion. The majority of the attendees last night clamored for the vote to take place immediately and were not interested in any discussion or contribution.

The meeting and vote were engineered to focus solely on Article II of the bylaws when the special meeting was called to discuss and answer questions of the entire document. The remaining Articles will be on the Agenda of the September meeting for a vote. 

Residents and businesses originally voted on the issue July 2, but those results were nullified because: A. Carleton apparently sent out a last-minute announcement that the voting session began at 5:30 p.m. and the original 6 p.m. Residents say business owners showed up to vote early and then left. And, B. When talks of amending the bylaws reached the ears of the city of Tucson, the Office of Integrated Planning threatened Barrio Hollywood to de-register it as a neighborhood association, should they vote for a bylaw that would exclude businesses. The city later said that as long as businesses can weigh in on what goes down in the neighborhood, even without voting rights, it means the bylaws are inclusive and the barrio is not up for punishments. 

The immigration rights advocates who, for one day, shut down a federal immigration proceeding known as Operation Streamline were sentenced to time served for obstructing a highway and being a public nuisance. 

In March, the advocates were acquitted of five other criminal charges, including criminal trespassing, obstructing government operations and obstructing prosecution in the second degree. In April, the Hon. Susan Bacal found them guilty of being a public nuisance and obstructing a highway. They faced a maximum penalty of up to five months in jail in total.

On October 11, 2013, the 12 defendants—Gabriel Schivone, Maryada Vallet, Alexandra Nicole Sabo, Angelica Moreno Loreto, Charles Kaufman, Michelle Jahnke, Steve Johnston, Julia Mihich Harden, Sarah Launius, Ethan Beasley, Paula McPheeters and Devora Gonzalez—were part of a group of protesters who blocked two buses on the I-10 Frontage Road carrying roughly 70 undocumented men and women headed to the Evo A. DeConcini U.S. District Court in downtown Tucson.

Here's a recap of Operation Streamline:

Each day in the Tucson sector’s Operation Streamline, about 70 migrant men and women are shackled at their ankles, waist and wrists and collectively processed, ongoing since 2008.

Called “assembly line justice,” they are pressured to take a plea deal, waiving their rights to appeal, and given criminal charges and prison sentences prior to their deportation. Most, if not all, of these migrants are sent to private prisons for up to 180 days.

Streamline raises serious and troubling questions about constitutionally protected due process, the growth of private prisons, the deepening criminalization of migrants and the exploding costs of contemporary immigration enforcement, all with human costs that devastate families and communities.

(Added after publication):

Defendant Steve Johnson sent along the statement he submitted to the Pima County Superior Court before the sentencing hearing yesterday:

My name is Steve Johnston. I am 70 years old. I was born and grew up in Alabama in the 1940’s and 50’s. I have worked with No More Deaths since 2005, making two water patrols into the desert just this past week. I have volunteered at Casa Maria soup kitchen since 1990. I have been doing country research to verify asylum claims for the Asylum Program of Arizona since 1999.

I have volunteered at Brother David Buer’s homeless cooling center and the Central City homeless shelter since 2003. I have been volunteering at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum since 1999, taking care of fish, amphibians, snakes and lizards. Until my arrest, I volunteered for 3 years on a Community Justice Board, a restorative justice program for teenagers run by the Pima County Attorney’s Office.
Why? Why did I crawl under the Streamline bus on October 11, 2013?

For my close friends, the Huerta/Ortiz/Perez family, who immigrated to Tucson from Mexico in 1991. Some of them have gained green cards; some hope for DAPA relief (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans) as parents of U.S. citizens.

But, for Carlos Omar Perez, who drove with me to Baltimore for my brother’s wedding when he was 14, life became a nightmare after a traffic stop. Omar arrived here when he was 6 years old. Very bright and quick, he was the family translator till everyone else learned English - a Tucson High graduate, Pima Community College student, restaurant worker from age 14, rising to head chef. He was arrested illegally ‘driving while brown’ in a white neighborhood but still turned over to Border Patrol and ultimately deported. He returned, of course, and lived quietly for a couple of years, gaining a U.S. citizen wife and two beautiful daughters, Josie and Sophie. Again he was caught and arrested on trumped up charges (“kid’s stuff”, in Margo’s words, who helped defend him) and after spending 18 months in Eloy, he was again deported. After tremendous emotional trials, desperate economic struggles and five years of hard, hard work, at age 30 he now owns and operates a Modelorama in Nogales, Sonora. His U.S. citizen children go to Mexican schools to keep the family together. A more valuable citizen we could not have, but he’s barred from entry into the U. S. for 10 years.

The rest of Omar’s family of 7 now numbers 15. They have worked hard and saved, volunteering for the entire 25 years at Casa Maria soup kitchen, raising talented and honorable kids. They are the kind of people our country needs, but one traffic stop tomorrow and they could be whisked away from their families, rushed through some fantasy court proceeding, and deported, perhaps to be caught up in Streamline while returning across the desert to the family.

Why did I crawl under the Streamline bus? Because of the children known as Tunnel Kids– many of them pre-teens discarded by their families - filthy, covered with sores and often drug-addled from sniffing glue. In the early 1990’s, these children - boys and girls - crossed the border every day, risking their lives by hopping on the Nogales to Tucson train to jump off near Casa Maria for a cup of soup and a sack lunch, returning every day to the grave dangers for a child living in the sewers of Nogales of beatings, murder and sexual slavery.

Why? In memory of Beatriz Adriana Sanchez Salazar, aged 23, who died of hyperthermia in the mountains south of Ruby Road on the 4th of July, 2005, during my first week working in the desert with No More Deaths. Margo and I happened on the scene and learned that Beatriz had fallen ill in the crushing heat and the steep, dangerous mountain trail. She was carried and died on a stretcher fabricated from dead tree limbs and their own belts and clothing by her fellow travelers. They continued to carry her over one of the most rugged trails in Arizona and, reaching the Ruby Road, gave themselves up to Border Patrol rather than abandon her body.

Why? In memory of Lucresia Dominguez Luna, who, days without water, died on the King Anvil Ranch, and her son, Jesus, 15 years old, who was alone with her that horrible day, and her father, Cesario Dominguez, who came from his village in Zapotaca and spent six weeks searching the Altar Valley for her remains, finding the bodies and bones of three other people who had perished in that terrible heat before finding her animal-scattered remains, which he could only identify by the rings on her blackened fingers.

Why? In honor of Yolanda, a week in the boiling desert, overcome by injuries and deserted by her coyote, she was found and carried many miles by three young Mexican men who had never seen her before. They found Cesario searching for his daughter, who called No More Deaths. We had to cut the shoes off Yolanda’s swollen, bloody feet and extracted hundreds of cactus spines from her tongue, mouth, face and body – for she had tried to suck moisture from prickly pears. We took her to St. Mary’s Hospital and she recovered and moved on to reunite with her family. Cesario said, “I may not have saved my daughter, but I helped save someone’s daughter.”

Why? For José, 25 years in Phoenix working as a stone mason, arrested and deported for running a stop sign on his bicycle, who we luckily found semi-conscious and near death under a juniper in a wash away from any trail. He and many others thanked us for saving their lives.

Why? In loving memory of Josseline, 14, from El Salvador, crossing with her 10 year old brother to reunite with her mom in Los Angeles. Stricken with illness on the trail, she was cruelly abandoned by their coyote. Josseline died a gruesome death after spending two weeks alone in the freezing February wilderness, in such anguish and despair that she finally removed her shoes, tiny blue Keds, and carefully placed them by her side and then put her feet into a freezing pool of water. Her body was found a week later by four No More Deaths volunteers. Her death caused No More Deaths to go to a year-round program in the desert, which has undoubtedly saved an unknowable number of those who followed.
Why did I climb under that bus? For Emmett Till, who in 1955 was tortured and killed at age 14 just a few miles from where I was summering with my grandmother in Holly Springs, Mississippi. For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., after reading “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” whose murder the day after I heard his last speech - “I’ve been to the mountain top and seen the promised land” - completely changed the direction of my life.

And most especially for sweet John Fleming, the nicest man you’d ever know. The father of 12, he worked as a school custodian and at night cleaned out the insides of concrete truck mixers with an air hammer - a loud, nasty, dangerous job - until a driver mistakenly turned on the truck which crushed and dismembered him. Until we reached puberty, I had played with his children on the cotton plantation where his ancestors were enslaved. I will never forget the sadness and despair on the faces of his wife and children at his funeral. John’s death showed me the way to the civil rights movement in 1968 in Memphis and, ultimately, to this court room.

For today, the worldwide civil rights movement of the 21st Century is represented right here by the cruelty of Operation Streamline and a border policy of deterrence based on imprisonment and death.

END STREAMLINE NOW!

In light of the controversy over Planned Parenthood’s donation of fetal tissue and organs to medical researchers, Gov. Doug Ducey is ordering an investigation into whether Planned Parenthood Arizona participates in such a program.

Ducey said that footage from a recent video about the use of fetal tissue for research is “horrifying and has no place in a civilized society.”

He has ordered the Department of Health Services to look into whether the sale of fetal tissue is occurring with Planned Parenthood Arizona clinics and to “immediately promulgate emergency rules designed to prohibit the illegal sale of any tissue from an unborn child.”

Federal law prohibits the sale of fetal tissue, but women can agree to donate their fetal tissue to medical research. Arizona law goes further in prohibiting the use of any fetal tissue in research, with very narrow exemptions.

Bryan Howard, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, says that his organization “does not have a fetal tissue donation program, however we applaud those who offer tissue donation at any time of their lives to improve medical science. We support fetal tissue donation, and have never supported the sale of fetal tissue, and claims otherwise made on the basis of a deceptively edited video are simply not true. As with all proposed health care laws and regulations, we will review any changes proposed by the Department to ensure they do not restrict access to the sexual and reproductive health services Arizona women and families need and want.”

The latest controversy erupted after the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress secretly taped Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, talking about the fetal-tissue donation program. Fetal tissue can be used in research into cures for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease. You can find details about that here.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards said last week that Planned Parenthood does not profit from the donation program but apologized for Nucatola's tone in the undercover video.

"Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide," Richards said. "In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion. This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member's tone and statements."