New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait suggests that Donald Trump's presidential campaign is forcing the party to address the issue of immigration in a way that will hurt the eventual GOP nominee's chances in the 2016 general election:

The worst-case scenario for Republicans is if Trump decides to run a third-party campaign. Even managing to get his name on the ballot in a handful of states would bring victory out of reach for the GOP’s eventual nominee. The best-case scenario is that Trump straggles through the race, eventually supporting the nominee. But this scenario is also far from ideal. It means that Trump has shaped the tenor of the race in almost precisely the opposite way the party establishment had hoped.

Immigration did not represent the totality of the party elite’s strategic response to the 2012 election, but it did constitute its main tenet. The Republican brain trust hoped to resolve its image problem with Latino and Asian-American voters by passing immigration reform as quickly as possible. The purest version of this strategy, articulated by Charles Krauthammer, called for Republicans to fold completely on immigration, and change nothing else about their program. The idea was to take the short-term hit as quickly as possible after the midterms, allowing the base to vent its spleen and make up in time for the presidential campaign. Republicans in the Senate were able to make this happen, but the House proved typically impotent in the face of opposition.

In the wake of this failure, Republicans have vaguely hoped to finesse the issue. Trump is making that difficult. His arch-restrictionist plan — involving mass deportations and a gigantic wall on the Mexican border that Trump, through the use of his uniquely Trumpian negotiating power, would make Mexico finance — has set a standard against which others will be judged. Scott Walker is already bellying up to the bar, comparing himself to the polling leader (“I haven’t looked at all the details of his, but the things I’ve heard are very similar to the things I mentioned"). Given that Trump has made himself the symbol of racism against Mexicans, it is difficult to imagine a simple escape from the party’s branding disasters of the Obama era. But that is what they have, and what they may well continue to have, well into 2016.

Slate's Jamelle Bouie makes a similar point:

The Old Pueblo lost one of its most talented stalwart local musicians this week. Stefan George, a genre melding blues guitarist, passed just two months shy of his 63rd birthday. According to longtime friend, TW contributor and fellow musician, Jim Lipson, George's impact on music will probably take years to really fully comprehend.

"When people get around to cataloging and archiving his music, they're going to be blown away," Lipson says. "I know it's cliche, but he really is one of those immense talents that never got the attention they deserved."

In the late '80s and early '90s, George and Lipson played together in the band Brain Damage Orchestra for six years, and the two men have collaborated as musicians and friends ever since. More recently, Lipson, along with Tucson Kitchen Musician's Association, made sure George was a Tucson Folk Fest headliner. Lipson comments that George's musical prowess extended beyond blues into folk, rock, bluegrass, reggae, ska, swing and zydeco. George was also a member of many local bands in his time in Tucson.

"He's not just a blues player, but a truly prolific musician," Lipson says. "He was a major talent—not just for Tucson."

George was also a staple at several local venues, including, until very recently, La Cocina. La Cocina bartender and fellow musician Steven Romo described George's personal impact via Facebook:

I just heard that Stefan George passed away. I'll never forget our conversation over whiskey about music, women, and life. You were always a stand out gentleman. You will be heavily missed.

George's reach, in terms of genre, generation and more, already has people talking about how best to honor him. Lipson says he wouldn't be surprised if HoCo Fest, TKMA and the Tucson Blues Hall of Fame (of which George was a member) all opted to honor him in different ways.

"It would be great to see musicians take the time to really learn his songs and pay tribute that way," he says. "I think everybody wants to do something, and I don’t think doing just one night could really cover it."

Lipson says George was found in his home by a neighbor.

"I'm not sure at this point what happened," Lipson says. "He had been in failing health for the last several months."

George is survived by his son, Josh Kelly, who is traveling from Vermont to plan services. Although "a celebration of George's life," as Lipson puts it, has yet to be scheduled, we will update you on information regarding services for George as it becomes available.

Until then, let's take a moment to listen to this legendary Tucson musician:

For those having a tough time reintegrating into the labor force—for instance, after doing jail or prison time—the city is hosting a "second chance" job fair tomorrow. Keep in mind, though, anyone who might benefit can also attend—not just people with a prior criminal conviction.

The fair on Aug. 19 at the Tucson Convention Center's Apache Ballroom, is bringing together several local employers—such as Goodwill Southern Arizona, Jim Click and others (totaling more than 40)—to give people tips on how to overcome issues faced on their "reentry efforts," according to City Councilman Steve Kozachik's weekly newsletter. 

"This is an issue of concern to the entire community. We talk about homelessness, unemployment, recidivism, and how all of that impacts Tucson," Kozachik says in the newsletter.

The Community Partnership of Southern Arizona—which provides employment opportunities "for those overcoming a difficult past and establishing a prosperous future"—and Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild are among those leading the efforts.

The job fair is happening from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

You know the days when you're watching the Simpsons, and you're consumed by an overwhelming desire to redo a kitchen with corncob curtains and sky blue countertops? Well, the lady in this video gets you and has decided to make those dreams come true.

What is the next renovation waiting to be inspired by a Netflix binge? Allow me to suggest the converted firehouse from the Princess Diaries.  

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump unveiled over the weekend his genius proposal to deal with the 11 million people who live in the U.S. undocumented: deport them all!

As much as I know there are many of you out there who'd give up a vital organ for this to come true (let's have a contest of who posts the most offensive comment and/or finds an interesting way to question my immigration status, purely based on my foreign-sounding name, yes?), it would result in a major shit storm, including the loss of billions of dollars, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress.

Here's a summary of it, but you should check out the rest on the center's website:

As last week’s Gallup poll reaffirmed, a small minority of Americans—only 19 percent—believe that unauthorized immigrants should be deported from the United States. In contrast, the vast majority of Americans want sensible solutions to immigration policy, with 65 percent believing that unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to get legal status and a pathway to citizenship.

In analysis released today by the Center for American Progress, Associate Director for Immigration Policy Philip Wolgin discusses the cost of a mass deportation strategy, with research showing that the average cost per person would be $10,070, for a total of $114 billion to remove 11.3 million people.

The figure includes the high costs required to find each and every unauthorized individual, something that would be—aside from the high costs—a logistical nightmare. CAP’s $114 billion estimate also includes the cost to detain these individuals while they wait for removal, to process them through the already overburdened immigration courts, and to transport them abroad.

Election season is here and things are, well, ridiculous. But tonight, ladies, we're going to take a night off from jamming to Donald Trump's tweets and debating the merits of the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns. Tonight, we're celebrating our say in who takes over the Oval Office.

The 19th Amendment was ratified 95 years ago today: 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Pour yourself a gin and tonic, tonight we're toasting progress.

Alright, Tucson. It's the moment you've eagerly awaited—that moment where a national study gives you the proof and validation that you knew just had to be coming. WalletHub, a consumer and finance information group, released a study recently that says Tucson is officially smarter than Phoenix.

Well, maybe not smarter, exactly, but Tucson is more educated according to their metrics. The 2015 study of the country's most and least educated cities ranked 150 major U.S. metropolitan areas based on different factors including quality of public education, average quality of universities, university enrollment based on gender and race and percentage of adults with varying levels of higher education.

Split into two categories—"Education Level" and "Quality of Education & Attainment Gap"—the factors were then ranked for each city. Tucson was rated 54 for "Education Level" and 38 for "Quality of Education & Attainment Gap," placing at an overall ranking of 51 out of 150. Phoenix and its neighboring cities, on the other hand, rated 76 overall. 

The top three cities on the list were Ann Arbor, Michigan; the Washington D.C. area; and Madison, Wisconsin. For more results on this and other WalletHub studies, you can visit the WalletHub website.

The Lips-headed aliens are coming!

Tucson filmmaker Alex Italics creates a vintage sci-fi look for the new music video from Lips, the latest project from once-and-soon-to-be-again Tucsonan Fen Ikner.

With Ikner on drums and vocals and New Zealand-born Stephanie Brown on vocals and keyboards, Lips plays a catchy brand of synth pop. “Traces of Teddy” is a musical and visual showcase, "depicting an alien space queen who sets her sights and affections on a hapless gas station attendant, Teddy, and demands that her Lips head minions go and retrieve him," Ikner says.


“Traces of Teddy” is the first single from Lips’ upcoming album, which will be released in early 2016. In 2012, the band won the Silver Scroll award, New Zealand’s most prestigious songwriting award, for their song “Everything To Me.”

Filmed in Tucson, the video is directed by Italics, shot by Brody Anderson and features some familiar Tucson faces.

Lips is currently on tour in New Zealand, but Ikner and Brown will relocate to Tucson in November, with some local shows on the horizon, Ikner says.

Ikner may be best known in Tucson as a member of Seashell Radio, the much-loved, four-songwriter band that released albums in 2010 and 2012, but the multi-instrumentalist and producer/engineer has played and/or recorded with a host of bands, including Saint Maybe, The Modeens, Young Mothers and Calexico. 

Download the song here. 

Pew has released a survey that reveals voters still overwhelmingly support specific measure to make it more difficult to get a gun:

Two years after the failure of Senate legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases, the public continues to overwhelmingly support making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks. Currently, 85% of Americans – including large majorities of Democrats (88%) and Republicans (79%) – favor expanded background checks, little changed from May 2013 (81%).Partisan Views of Gun Proposals

The latest Pew Research Center poll of 2,002 adults, conducted July 14-20, finds that opinions about other gun policy proposals also are largely unchanged from two years ago, shortly after the December 2012 school shootings in Newtown, Conn.

Nearly eight-in-ten (79%) favor laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns, 70% back the creation of a federal database to track all gun sales, while a smaller majority (57%) supports a ban on assault-style weapons.

Almost identical shares of Republicans (81%) and Democrats (79%) support laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns. But other proposals are more divisive: 85% of Democrats favor creation of a database for the federal government to track gun sales, compared with 55% of Republicans. And while 70% of Democrats back an assault-weapons ban, only about half of Republicans (48%) favor this proposal.

But in the abstract, there's still a significant split in whether gun rights should be curtailed:

The UA is now just about a year away from the launch of OSIRIS-REx, the plucky space robot that will travel to the near-earth asteroid Bennu, orbit around it while taking photos and other measurements, and then swoop in to grab a sample and send it back to earth.

Last week, the OSIRIS REx team at the UA Lunar and Planetary Labs showed off the ICAMS, a suite of cameras that will serve as the spacecraft's eyes. The cameras were built here in Tucson and are shipping off to Denver's Lookheed Martin facility, where the spacecraft is being built.

OSIRIS-REx instrument scientist Bashar Rikz explains what the cameras do:

One of our most important assets is a trio of cameras called the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite, or OCAMS, under construction at the University of Arizona. The design of OCAMS allows us to image Bennu over 9 orders-of-magnitude in distance, from an initial distance of 1-million kilometers (over 620,000 miles) down to 2 meters (6.5 feet). The camera suite is similar to a lookout nestled in the crow’s-nest of a tall ship. This scout must observe Bennu as we approach, survey, and recon the asteroid, and tell the ship’s navigator where to go.

To let Tucsonans know more about this way-cool space mission, the OSIRIS-REx team is putting on a party on Saturday, Sept. 12, at downtown's Fox Theatre. Bennuval will feature OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Lab, as well as Geoff Notkin, star of Science Channel’s Meteorite Men; the comedic Tucson Improv Movement; fiery stunt team Flam Chen, and the ChamberLab music project. Tickets are just 

You can learn more about the OSIRIS-REx mission here and here.

Here are the details on Bennuval, sent over by Zona Politics associate Jennifer Powers, who is organizing the space-age shindig:

Outer space takes the stage when Dante Lauretta, University of Arizona Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry and Principal Investigator on NASA’s OSIRIS REx Mission, is joined by Geoff Notkin, star of Science Channel’s Meteorite Men, to present Bennuval! An Evening of Space, Art and Music. This live variety show features performances by some of Tucson’s most innovative entertainers, including comedic troupe Tucson Improv Movement, daredevil acrobats Flam Chen, and avant-garde music project, ChamberLab. The Art of Planetary Science will exhibit works created from and inspired by the solar system and the scientific data with which we explore it. Meteorites will also be on display, completing the otherworldly atmosphere of this unique event.

Bennuval! takes its name from the asteroid Bennu, destination of OSIRIS-REx. Bennuval! celebrates the University of Arizona’s accomplishments in space as part of the vibrant creative culture that thrives in Tucson by bringing together art and outer space in an entertaining setting. Both imaginative and informative, Bennuval! establishes Tucson’s reputation as a space age city.

The presenting sponsor of Bennuval! is the University of Arizona College of Science & Galileo Circle. Other sponsors include Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, TEP, Godat Design, BRINKmedia, Bill Westcott, Paragon Space Development, Strategic Space Development, Kinetx Aerospace, Indigo Information Services and Volvo of Tucson.

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the show begins at 7:00 p.m.