The Teamsters Local 104 has said no to Sun Tran's latest offer, and even called it a "worse proposal" than the one originally rejected by the 530 bus drivers and mechanics, who are now entering a fourth week on strike.

This new offer was presented to the Teamsters Wednesday by the federal mediator on behalf of Sun Tran. The union says it still doesn't address mold contamination issues or safety concerns—and the wage and benefits proposal went from bad to terrible.

From the Teamsters:

The total money being offered in year 1 has been reduced from $0.54, which was divided between Pension, Health & Welfare, an additional Holiday, and a $0.50 raise to new hires, to $0.42, which is in the form of an hourly pay increase for each employee.The total money being offered in year 2 has been reduced from $0.39, which was divided between Pension, Health & Welfare, an additional Holiday, and a $0.50 raise to new hires, to $0.24, which is in the form of an hourly pay increase for each employee.The total money being offered in year 3 has been reduced from $0.39, which was divided between Pension, Health & Welfare, an additional Holiday, and a $0.50 raise to new hires, to $0.24, which is in the form of an hourly pay increase for each employee.

Throughout these 22 days of strike, the union says Sun Tran, as well as the city of Tucson, have saved more than $2 million in wages and pension, as well as $750,000 in fuel costs. Merely nine out of 43 bus routes are running in a very limited schedule, and none of the employees picketing are getting paid while they're out there.

"It is unconscionable and unacceptable that the City of Tucson and SunTran are refusing to utilize every penny of the $2.75 million in savings that have been realized on the backs of the striking employees and the stranded passengers, to help settle this strike," a press release from the Teamsters says.

There's no mistaking the traffic on Speedway Boulevard—the kids are coming back to school. Whether you're in the ranks of degree-seeking people or you'd just like to get some perks for having to put up with a more crowded Old Pueblo, anyone can benefit from a massive vinyl and turntable sale at Wooden Tooth Records (415 N. Fourth Ave.)

On Saturday, Aug. 29, Wooden Tooth will be selling many of their records on hand for just $1 in order to make room for new buys and to help you beef up your own music cache. The store will also be offering a 15 percent discount on Crosley turntables.

Plus with all those new additions to your vinyl collection and a shiny new record player, you'll have pretty much no reason to even need to go outside for a while, which works out because it's too hot and too crowded right now anyway. You can take advantage of Wooden Tooth's sale from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Another day, another poll showing Donald Trump leading the GOP field. The latest Quinnipiac poll shows that 28 percent of Republican voters are leaning toward Trump, with Ben Carson in second place with 12 percent and everyone else in single digits.

There's plenty of analysis out there about whether Trump can actually win the nomination and why he has caught fire among GOP voters. Pollster Frank Luntz—recently dismissed as a "low class slob" by Trump—is starting to think that nothing will stop The Donald in the GOP primary. Presidential hopeful and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested that if Trump gets the nomination, it's the end of the Republican Party.

A new Gallup poll shows that roughly 2 out of 3 Latinos surveyed have a negative impressive of Trump while only 14 percent approve, creating an astonishing -51 approval rating. But Gallup notes that Trump's rhetoric and actions—including telling reporter Jorge Ramos to "go back to Univision" earlier this week—doesn't seem to be hurting the rest of the GOP brand:

Trump has a highly unfavorable image among U.S. Hispanics, but at least for now, this doesn't seem to be tarnishing the rest of the Republican field. As of mid-August, Bush's image among Hispanics had improved as Trump's immigration positions dominated the news. With Hispanics constituting only a small fraction of the Republican Party, this has not boosted Bush's favorable rating — which has been fairly flat all summer among the Republican base. But, unless his "anchor babies" comment derails him, Bush's recent jockeying with Trump could help warm Hispanic voters to him in the general election should he capture the nomination. For now, Clinton has a modest advantage over Bush in favorability among Hispanics, but she is also much better known than her Democratic competitors.

We've got two pairs of tickets to Friday night's Diamondbacks game against the Oakland Athletics. The game starts at 6:40 p.m at Chase Field in Phoenix. We'll draw the winner Friday ("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 here: 

Jesse Eisenberg, having himself a great summer with his career best performance in The End of the Tour, spreads his wings a bit as a stoner with a secret in this sporadically fun one from director Nima Nourizadeh (Project X) and writer Max Landis (Chronicle). While enjoying a fine cup of soup, convenience store clerk Mike Howell (Eisenberg) notices some dudes monkeying with his car. Seconds later, he’s killing people with a spoon. Mike’s girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart kicking mortal ass) is concerned about her beau, who has suddenly attained the ability to wipe out people with robot precision. I will not tell you why. You have to see the movie to find out why. The film has a great premise, and could’ve been a classic dark comedy. Unfortunately, it leans a little too heavy towards the dark side in its second half and goes light on the laughs. Eisenberg and Stewart rise above any of the tonal problems and story lags to make the movie something worth seeing. Stewart just gets better with every movie she shows up in. I think her Bella-Lag is wearing off for sure. Eisenberg plays his part like an ignorant, coiled rattlesnake, and he’s actually appropriately scary at times. Again, a fun film for most of its running time, but it could’ve been something really special.

Right now, the country is having the most public, detailed discussion about race and racism we've had in decades, which is a good thing. The heat generated by the discussion is intense on both sides, or I should say on all sides, since you hear such a wide range of viewpoints. Look at the passionate and wildly different reactions to the deaths of black men and boys at the hands of police. Look at the contrasting reactions to the controversy over the Confederate Flag. With controversy flying and tempers flaring, you might conclude the divisions are deeper now than they were before. I don't know if that's true. More likely, the divisions are just more out in the open.

Lately, I've felt an increasing need to understand the history of race and racism in this country and the way it manifests itself today. Along with trying to keep up with the events and analyses in the media, I've read a few books that have given me a deeper understanding of a subject which, being a white man, I can only know secondhand. A few days ago I recommended the book, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an important, beautifully written book I believe will be read and talked about for decades. Today I want to recommend a very different book: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The book, published in 2010, discusses the War on Drugs, the policing of black communities, our legal system, and mass incarceration, subjects that were talked about far less five years ago when the book came out than they are today. It's reasonable to say that Alexander's book brought focused attention to those problems and laid the groundwork for the way we're talking about them now. It's still the best text on the subject I've read.

Alexander is a Civil Rights lawyer, and she writes the book like a lawyer arguing a case. She brings together numerous incidents and witnesses, creating an overwhelming preponderance of evidence to prove her point. Alexander creates a complex thesis which is hard to summarize in a few words. Basically, she shows how the crackdown on drugs and crime has been directed disproportionately toward black people and black communities and how harmful it has been to black lives, comparable in ways to the Jim Crow laws which legalized segregation and discrimination before the passage of Civil Rights legislation in the 1950s and 1960s.

Uber is giving the UA's College of Optical Sciences $25,000 to research and develop lenses and sensors for car navigation, which could eventually lead to driverless cars being tested in Tucson, according to UA News. 

Gov. Doug Ducey visited the college Tuesday, and called the partnership, "A great day for Uber, for the UA and for the future innovation in Arizona."

(Can the UA have its funding back, yet?)

"Today's announcement is the latest signal that it's working...All  Arizonans stand to benefit from embracing new technologies—especially when it means new jobs, new economic development, new research opportunities and increased public safety and transportation options for our state," he said, according to UA News. "That’s what this partnership is about, and I thank Uber and the University of Arizona for their efforts and commitment to making it happen."

Ducey signed an executive order yesterday supporting the testing and operation of self-driving cars in the state, Ducey's office said in a press release.

Uber's Vice President of Advanced Technologies Brian McClendon says the move puts Arizona on the map as a state that welcomes innovation and new technology. 

“Over the last twenty years, technology has helped democratize access to so many services—working in partnership with forward-thinking universities and elected officials across the United States. We’re still in the early days of what’s possible—and I look forward to working with Arizona to make the next step of that journey a reality," he said, according to UA News.

It's never fun to report when a local band gets their gear jacked. Unfortunately, that happened to Human Behavior and Karima Walker near Humboldt and Mendocino counties while touring.

On Aug. 24, the band's van was broken into while they were swimming in a nearby river. The band estimates about $5,000 in equipment and personal effects were taken from the vehicle, including a Chuck Lee banjo and a vintage Mossman acoustic guitar. Andres Parada of Human Behavior says those instruments were collectable, but also very valuable in a sentimental way. The van was also damaged and Walker's journals, phone, wallet, money and credit cards were taken. 

Parada said that a pastor and his son waited with him until the police arrived and simply told Walker and him that they had chosen them.

"Everything he said was pretty mystical and open," he said. "I understood the meaning to be that when we choose, we invest our identity. So when it's taken, it feels like we lost that part of ourselves, the part that chose."

While that semi-supernatural sentiment would make for a great future song for the band's existing aesthetic, it won't help them on the final week of their tour, which takes them from Portland to Salt Lake to San Diego and more. The band has already had to cancel two dates on their Western tour and that's where you come in. 

Human Behavior has a few suggestions for those looking to lend a hand to their cause:

1. Tell your friends to come to our remaining west coast shows. We make beaucoup dolares from that. 

2. Buy an album. Give it to your idiot brother. Then buy another.

3. Scour the Pacific Northwest (specifically Humboldt and Mendocino county) for some well equipped mouth-breathers playing bluegrass on stolen gear. Or, just check Craigslist in that area.
(The big hitters: A cherry, 12", open back, Chuck Lee banjo with a pickup in the body. In a light brown hard leather case -velvety green interior- SERIAL NUMBER 688. And a 1975 Mossman Great Plains with pickup in an off white hard plastic case.)

4. Tell your idiot brother to bring his friends to our west coast show.

5. Donate [to the Indiegogo campaign], what you can.

If you haven't already bought Human Behavior's latest release, Bethphage, you really should because "it’s folksy and bluesy and murky, dripping with religious influence and bouncing from a full spiritual chorus to barren and abstract shouting"—it's good. 

If you already have a copy, why not just pitch in some cash to their Indiegogo campaign. It won't bring those special items back, but it will at least help them continue making music—and that's good for everyone.

Yeah, it's not so great to be a full-time working woman in Tucson—especially in terms of salary inequality.

The website SpareFoot.com analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau to find the best and worst metro areas for gender pay gap, and found that Tucson is in the bottom 10. 

In 2013, full-time working women earned 78 cents for every dollar earned by full-time working men, leaving "room for improvement, especially in the 100 most populous metro areas where women, on average, only make just over 71 cents per dollar men make," according to the write up by SpareFoot.com's Alexander Harris. 

So, the website based its findings on four things: Women's median earnings in 2013, which is the most recent data available; five-year growth in women's median earnings 2009-2013; women's median earnings as a percentage of men's in 2013; and five-year growth in women's median earnings as a percentage of men's 2009-2013.

In the top 10: Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York metro area was number 1; Syracuse, New York landed the second spot; and Worcester, Massachusetts/Connecticut is number 3.

1. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metro Area

2013 median salary: $30,021 (rank 18)
5-year growth median earnings: 12.9% (rank 7)
2013 median earnings as percentage of men’s: 74% (rank 36)
5-year growth in women’s median earnings as a percentage of men’s: 7.1% (rank 13)

2. Syracuse, NY Metro Area

2013 median salary: $26,507 (rank 37)
5-year growth median earnings: 15.1% (rank 2)
2013 median earnings as percentage of men’s: 72.5% (rank 44)
5-year growth in women’s median earnings as a percentage of men’s: 7.6% (rank 11)

3. Worcester, MA-CT Metro Area

2013 median salary: $30,307 (rank 14)
5-year growth median earnings: 9.3% (rank 21)
2013 median earnings as percentage of men’s: 70.2% (rank 59)
5-year growth in women’s median earnings as a percentage of men’s: 11.4% (rank 1)

And, here's the info from Tucson:

Bottom ten: 10. Tucson

2013 median salary: $22,446 (rank 86)
5-year growth median earnings: 3% (rank 84)
2013 median earnings as percentage of men’s: 73.9% (rank 37)
5-year growth in women’s median earnings as a percentage of men’s: 2% (rank 76)

Check out the entire list on SpareFoot.com.

If you didn't feel like dumping a bucketful of ice water all of yourself last year, you still have the opportunity to join in on some group fun to benefit Arizona's chapter of the ALS Association. On Saturday, Sept. 5, Bite Nite will hit up Tucson for an evening of food, wine and charitable giving.

Although Bite Nite has been a major fundraiser in Phoenix since 2008, last year was the first time it came to Tucson. In 2014 alone, the Tucson event raised $65,000, selling out to 400 guests. This year, event organizers are anticipating another sellout. 

The event will feature several of the Old Pueblo's favorite eateries including Penca, Mama Louisa's, Agustin Kitchen, Ermanos, Azul, Boca Tacos and more. The restaurants will each be serving upscale samples, which can in turn be paired with craft beer and wine, all while live music and a silent auction keep guests entertained. The auction will feature restaurant gift cards, free wine dinners and more. 

Bite Nite Tucson will take place at the picturesque Westin La Paloma Resort from 6 until 10 p.m. Tickets for the event are $100 per person or $1,000 for a 10-seat table. You can buy yours and find more information on the event via the Bite Nite website. It is a 21 and over event.