Remember that Summer Passport we've been telling you about all summer long? Well, I hope you've been earning your stamps because school is back in session and that means it's just about time for us to select a winner. 

For those of you who haven't been paying attention:

Do you love drinking and buying things with other people's money? Of course you do, that's The Dream. It's also why you're going to want to get started on your Summer Passport. We've talked about this a few times, but here's the deal: We've got about $2,000 in gift cards and prizes from Tucson businesses. We're raffling them off in bundles (detailed here). To enter, you need to visit the 24 businesses who contributed to the gift total—tell them thanks for being so cool and participating in this giveaway! Each business will have you complete a task (take a picture kissing a Hawaiian skeleton! Eat a quesadilla! Sing on stage!) and send you on your way with their part of your "passport" stamped. Your destinations are listed in the paper.

Sure, 24 seems like a lot. But these prizes are hefty and we're going to need you to earn them.

Here's a secret: There aren't a ton of people who have the time, patience or will power to earn all 24 stamps on the passport. That means, there aren't too many people in the running—bettering your chances to win! So get on it. Spread it out over a couple days (You've got until noon on Sept. 4) or challenge yourself to get it done in the smallest possible amount of time. I believe in you. Now win this.

If you're done with your passport, drop it off at Weekly HQ, 7225 N Mona Lisa Rd, #125. If you're just getting started, pick up a Weekly, turn to Page 22 and head to one of the businesses. Your deadline is Noon on Friday.

For 18 months, the immigrants' rights advocacy group Corazón de Tucson worked on a project that involved providing immigrants and their families with arts therapy. Some really nice pieces resulted from that venture, and now organization is ready to showcase them in an upcoming exhibit.

Throughout the project, called Resolution Through Arts Engagement in the Era of SB1070, two local artists—Cristina Cardenas and Wesley Fawcett Creigh—collaborated with clinical therapist—Faviola Agustin—to develop a trauma therapy program, where migrants were given a space to vent about their experiences coming to the U.S. and the reasons for immigrating.

“The expressive arts not only inspire hope but also allow emotional pain and acute trauma to begin to heal and be released. The migrant families and members of Corazon allowed us access into their intimate journeys and personal lenses using artistic work. Each individual piece is unique and carefully created but collectively their commitment to resistance, healing, and hope supersedes any political or colonial structure,” says Faviola Agustin, who advised the lead artists in effective methods of arts therapy, in a press release. 

And so the exhibit Mis Historias/My Stories was born.

"For me the art classes made me feel like I had wings, it allowed me to travel. My experience in the workshops permitted me to feel emotions I do not feel in other activities; it freed me, gave me peace, it relaxed me and it taught me that even if I don’t have a lot of artistic ability I can still create," says Francisca Lopez, one of the therapy workshop participants. 

The opening reception for Mis Historias/My Stories is happening on Saturday, Sept. 19 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Tiny Town Gallery, 174 E. Toole Ave.

Hi friends! Remember me?!

My name is Monte and I'm this week's transformation spotlight!

When I first came to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, I was very scared and defensive. I was so nervous when the staff would try to get close to me and I would sometimes scare strangers away on accident. I've been here for a long time now, and every day the staff gives me lots of cuddles. My favorite humans are the ones who give me belly rubs!

They've spent a lot of time working with me and helping me understand that people love me. I'm not as scared anymore, though strangers still do make me nervous. They've taught me some sign language too! I know how to sit, even though I can't hear.

I love to play with squishy toys and get a good cuddle with my humans. My dream home is with a family that has lots of love, understanding, and patience. A box of milk bones wouldn't hurt either.

If you think you can give me the bestest home ever, please come by the Main Campus and ask to meet me. I promise to give you lots of love and kisses.

Lots of love,

Monte

When thinking of beer, its not often that the first thing that comes to mind is spice.

However, Tucson cuisine sometimes inspires the local breweries, leading Iron Johns Brewery to make their signature green chili ale for the second time. Made with mesquite smoked Anaheim chiles, this beer is complimented on the sweet side with apple cider added in the fermentation process which gives us the beer’s name: Fire & Flavor.

The beer lives up to its name, delivering a smokey aroma that stings the nostrils with its spiciness. When the beer hits the tongue, the first flavor is of a pilsner malt that is quickly replaced with the sourness of apples. The beer finishes of with the fire flaring up at the end to shock your taste buds and leave the lingering sting of chili’s in the back of your throat. The hefty 7 percent alcohol content work with the Anaheims to leave a resonating warmth in your chest.

If you’re into truly tasting beers and taking time tasting the whole glass, there’s few breweries in Tucson that can compare to Iron John's. They come out with two new beers every week, with new ones being premiered on every Thursday. 

Often times, if you don’t get there in a timely manner those beers may be gone forever. In stock right now are 15 beers ranging from Rye IPA’s, to coffee saisons, to sours aged in sauvignon blanc casks. However, for brew enthusiasts, if you miss out on this batch of Fire & Flavor a new one will be out on Sept. 10. Pick up a bottle at Iron John's bottle shop, 245 S. Plumer Ave #27. 

Nevada has a new Education Savings Account law. It's pretty much the same as Arizona's law, with one difference. Every student can use it, so long as the student has been in a public school at least 100 days. In Arizona only a limited number of students qualify. The Arizona folks who pushed our ESA want the same universal access as Nevada, but they decided to start small, then expand the law to include more students each year until everyone qualifies.

The ACLU is taking the Nevada law to court, saying it violates the separation of church and state because ESAs are basically vouchers which use government funds to pay for private school tuition. There's nothing illegal about using government funds to pay for private school so long as the schools don't have religious affiliations. The problem is, across the country 70 to 80 percent of private schools are connected to a church, and the constitutions in Arizona, Nevada and many other states forbid the use of government funds for religious education. 

It sounds like the ACLU should have a strong case against the Nevada law, but Arizona's ESA law was challenged on the same grounds, and the court ruled that the program is constitutional. But you never know. Different state, different court, different people making the argument against the law. Anything can happen.

Congratulate the Goldwater Institute for how cleverly it designed the ESA's work-around to the church-state problem. True, the tuition money comes from state funds, and true, it often goes to pay for tuition at religious schools. But using a green-eyeshade sleight of hand, the funds are moved from the general funds column of the state ledger into a special "savings account" box with a student's name on it. That somehow makes everything OK because the state isn't actually paying for the religious school tuition, it's just giving the money to the parents who then use it to pay for their children's educations. That one degree of separation launders the money, somehow washing it clean of any government connection and making it all legit. ESAs clearly violate the spirit of the state constitution, but the courts have decided they manage to stay within the letter of the law.

My bet is, the ACLU will lose its Nevada battle against the ESA, especially since some of the big pro-voucher guns are in town to defend the law. But if the ACLU prevails, we may see the ESA fight revived in Arizona.

HoCo Fest 2015 is resurrecting some of Tucson's favorite bands of yesteryear and even presenting a visual history of the music scene by way of the Tucson Rock and Roll History Museum pop-up exhibit, all culminating in a celebration of 30 years of Hotel Congress (stay tuned for more on all of this in our cover story next week). However, HoCo is also going to be a place for change, especially for psych cumbia outfit Chicha Dust.

The band announced in a press release that they will be officially changing their name to XIXA. Pronounced "SEEK-suh," the name change will also reflect a change in the band's sound. According to the release, Chicha Dust had focused on the "guitar-driven cumbia popular in the Amazon and on the streets of Lima."

XIXA will have "a bit less chicha" and "a bit more desert dust" with all original material, straying from the covers of chicha classics that popularized the act initially. With this new sound, XIXA will release their first EP—aptly-titled Shift and Shadow—in November via Barbès Records, the home of Roots of Chicha. After that, the band will release the full-length Bloodline in February 2016. Both releases will be available on vinyl.

Chicha Dust will officially become XIXA on Friday, September 4, when the group performs at HoCo Fest alongside Roger Clyne, Tom Walbank and many more. Tickets for the event are $10 and can be found online in advance, along with more information, via the Hotel Congress website. 

According to a Facebook post, Brian Metzger's Poppy Kitchen is closed. Metzger, who was regarded as an up-and-coming Sam Fox-style restaurateur, could not immediately be reached for comment on the closure of his restaurant, which was announced the evening of Friday, Aug. 28.

The Facebook post said simply, "Poppy Kitchen is currently closed. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience."

Metzger's Jax Kitchen closed in February 2014, followed by The Abbey in October 2014, Gio Taco in March 2015 and Jackson Tavern in May 2015 after just half of a year in operation. The restaurant, which operated in Westin La Paloma Resort, was the last vestige of the Metzger Family Restaurant Group. They had hired chef Gary Hickey to take over kitchen operations earlier this spring.

While it is unclear at this time what the future holds for Metzger or the former Poppy Kitchen space, the answering message for Poppy Kitchen promises an announcement for an "exciting, new" venture in Westin La Paloma. 

ZonaPol8-27Final from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Congressman Raul Grijalva talks about Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, Wall Street's influence on financial regulation, the Black Lives Matter movement, his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, the battle over Planned Parenthood funding, the Iran nuclear agreement and more. Then Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll talks about the upcoming bond election, why he voted against the county budget, the latest on his opposition to the Rosemont Mine project, what he remembers about author Charles Bowden on the first anniversary of his death and more.

Watch it online here or at 8 a.m. Sunday on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast and Channel 58 on broadcast, DirecTV and Dish. or listen to it on KXCI, 91.3 FM, at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Here's a transcript of the show:

Hello. I'm Tucson Weekly senior writer Jim Nintzel, and we're here to talk Zona Politics. Joining me today is Congressman Raul Grijalva. Representative Grijalva, who won his First Congressional District in 2002, is the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

(Grijalva) Thank you.

(Nintzel) You introduced Elizabeth Warren last month at the NetRoots Conference. What did you think of her calling the Democratic nominee the top of a revolving door between Wall Street and the agencies that regulate the financial markets?

(Grijalva) She said it before but in a platform like that to say it, with the kind of national attention associated with it Elizabeth, I thought it was really important and really necessary One of the frustrations that we feel in Congress is that we're dealing with policymakers, particularly on the Finance financial side, on the tax code side who are coming from the institutions, financial services institutions into the White House. This was with Obama, this was with Clinton. This was with Bush and on, and basically their "one audience" perspective in terms of Wall Street is where most of the initiations come. Even the stimulus bill, the first part of it dealt with the bail out, it didn't deal with jobs and other things like infrastructure that had to .... Yeah. Necessary. I think at some point everybody has to be declarative about what they're going to do with that, any presidential candidate. And I'm glad she did it, and I'm glad that was the platform.

(Nintzel) And up there at NetRoots, one of the things I definitely heard a lot from the activists there are concerns that Hillary Clinton has been too close to the Wall Street and that folks were really kind of rallying behind Bernie Sanders. Are you on Team Bernie?

Mother of God, is Gloria (Lola Duenas) one of the craziest characters to hit screens in years. Major applause to Duenas, who encapsulates pure insanity as a quiet woman who reluctantly goes on an outing with online dating guy Michel (Laurent Lucas). The two have a one-night stand. Gloria, who isn’t all that quiet after all, wants more, even after finding out she is just one of many for Michel, who fancies himself a regular Don Juan taking advantage of lonely women for their money. Gloria wants in, and she poses as his sister in his schemes. She has a little jealousy problem, however, and starts murdering the women Michel is attempting to defraud. Director Fabrice Du Weiz makes the movie an often uncomfortable one (not a complaint), and dots the movie with the occasional “so bizarre” moments, such as when Gloria breaks into a heartfelt song before sawing a victim’s leg off. The movie is “loosely based” on the Lonely Hearts Killers, who killed women under similar circumstances in the late ‘40s here in the good old U-S-of-A. Duenas and Lucas give us one of the more diabolical screen pairs since Beatty and Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde. Actually, they make those infamous robbers look like missionaries.

The City of Surprise has this ordinance in place that allows a landlord to evict tenants who place calls to the police more than four times in 30 days, and there are no exceptions if the tenant is the victim of said crime. Well, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona have decided to challenge that rule on behalf of a domestic violence survivor.

Nancy Markham was a victim of "repeated domestic violence" who "needed to contact and rely on the Surprise police for protection and assistance at her rental home. In response, Defendants sought Ms. Markham’s eviction," the lawsuit, filed Thursday, says. Markham is a single mother of two children.

Between March and September of last year, Markham’s ex-boyfriend choked her, punched her, and threatened her with weapons. A Surprise police officer then enforced the nuisance ordinance by notifying her landlord about the police calls and encouraged her eviction, the ACLU argues. "In September 2014, the property manager of Markham’s apartment notified her that she would be evicted for having violated the law, even though the police never mentioned the law to Markham during any of her calls," the press release says. 

The groups argue the so-called "nuisance ordinance," passed by the Surprise City Council in 2010, violates the First Amendment right to free speech, ignores the Fair Housing Act's prohibition on gender discrimination, as well as an Arizona housing law that states there shouldn't be a limit on how many times a tenant can call the cops, among other allegations, according to a press release from the ACLU of Arizona.