Zona Politics Eps.41 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's episode of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: The latest in our series of debates between the candidates for the Tucson City Council, co-sponsored by our media partners here at the Tucson Weekly, Tucson Local Media and KXCI-FM. This week, Ward 2 Councilman Paul Cunningham faces GOP challenger Kelly Lawton. Topics include the best way to pay for road repairs, how to handle the bus system, strategies to tackle Tucson's poverty problems and whether the candidates support the county bonds. Tune in at 8 a.m. Sunday on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast and Channel 58 on broadcast, DirecTV and Dish. Or hear it on KXCI-FM at 5 p.m. on Sunday evening. Or just watch the above video.

Here's a transcript of the show:

(Nintzel) Hello everyone. I'm Tucson Weekly senior writer Jim Nintzel, and we're here to talk Zona Politics We're partnering with the Tucson Weekly, Tucson Local Media and KXCI FM to bring you the second of three debates with this year's candidates for Tucson City Council. Today we have the candidates for the Ward 2 council seat, incumbent Democrat Paul Cunningham, who is seeking his second full term representing the East side ward, and Republican challenger Kelly Lawton, who has worked in the airline industry and now is the campus director for the Tucson and Sierra Vista branches of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Thanks to both of you for being here. And we'd like to start by just having each of you take about a minute to introduce yourself to voters, and explain why you're the best person to represent Ward 2. Councilman Cunningham, why don't you start?

All next weekend, you have the opportunity to go Greek without any of the weird fraternity nonsense that phrase typically entails. Rather, the 39th annual Tucson Greek Festival is returning for four days of Greek food, dance, drinks, music and more.

Although you can check out the full food menu for this year's fest online, you can expect classics like hummus, falafel, baklava, dolmades and more and you might even discover some new favorites. You can definitely look forward to saganaki ($5; pan-fried cheese with Greek brandy and lemon), Athenian baked chicken with lemon and oregano ($9) and roasted lamb shank with rice pilaf ($12), as well as Greek beer, ouzo, wine, coffee and brandy. The event will also feature live Greek music, the award-winning Panathenian Dancers and a Greek market.

The Tucson Greek Festival will take over St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church (1145 E. Ft. Lowell Road) on Thursday, Sept. 24 from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday, Sept. 25 from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26 from 4 to 11 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 27 from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is $3 per day for adults of $6 for a four-day pass. Kids under 12 get in free. For more information and the full food menu, visit the event's website.

The fact that women's health, women's rights to have or not have children, women's access to birth control, etc. continue to be a political issue discussed and sabotaged mostly by MEN who know absolutely nothing about what it's like to be a woman is beyond my comprehension. 

With that said, the U.S. House just voted to defund Planned Parenthood. That means about $500 million in family planning funds per year could disappear, according to Mother Jones. The bill now heads to the Senate, which is led by Republicans. If the bill makes President Obama's desk, he has said he would veto it.

From the article by Molly Redden:

The move is intended to keep the public eye on allegations of illegal behavior by Planned Parenthood staffers but remove the possibility of government shutdown by conservatives bent on defunding the organization.

The vote followed several grueling hearings held by the House Judiciary Committee into the undercover sting videos that allegedly show Planned Parenthood employees selling fetal parts, which would be a violation of federal law. The organization has denied the allegations, and state after state investigating the videos, which are heavily edited, has been found no evidence of wrongdoing. As the October 1 deadline for funding the government approached, however, several conservative members of Congress, including presidential hopeful and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), threatened to block any government funding bill that provided Medicaid or family planning dollars to Planned Parenthood. But it remains to be seen if this latest vote will satisfy conservative elements of the party.

Planned Parenthood is barred by law from using federal funds to provide abortions. The $500 million or so it receives each year from the government allows the group to provide family planning and other reproductive health services to mostly poor women on Medicaid. Ahead of the vote, conservative activists and lawmakers circulated a list of thousands of other family planning providers that could replace Planned Parenthood for the thousands of poor women who use its services. There is ample evidence to suggest that these alternatives to Planned Parenthood do not have the capacity to treat the group's patient.

Ahmed Mohamed made national and probably international news when the 14 year old brought a homemade clock to his Dallas high school which some people thought might be a bomb, and when they realized it wasn't, accused him of bringing a prank bomb to school. He was detained, questioned without being allowed to talk with his parents and handcuffed. As a former high school English teacher, I've been running through the scenario in my head, thinking about what I might have done if I had been involved and how the school should have responded to the situation. I'm using the details as they were described in a NY Times article.

I'm reasonably certain that Ahmed's dark skin and Muslim faith caused a heightened reaction from the school and the police, that this situation would have been handled better if he were white, but let's neutralize that issue for the moment. This was a student in my class, his name was Ahmed or Andy, he was black or white, Muslim, Christian or nonreligious.

So. Ahmed/Andy is a student in my English class. I hear something beeping in his backpack. I ask to see what it is. This nice, shy, somewhat nerdy kid reaches into his backpack and pulls out a metal briefcase with a clock face on the front. What do I do?

The first thing that happens inside me, I'm guessing, is I experience an electric shock of panic in my chest. I think, "Oh shit, that looks like the kind of bomb I've seen in a dozen spy/terrorist movies!" What do I do? My first reaction is to protect the safety and welfare of my students and other students at the school. Whatever temporary problems I create for Ahmed/Andy are secondary, I'll worry about that later. This may be a bomb, and this seemingly nice kid may be one of those people who does some terrible thing, after which everyone says, "He was such a nice kid, I never would have suspected he would have done something like this."

My best reaction, I think, would have been to tell Ahmed/Andy to pick up his belongings and come into the hall with me, away from the other students. Then I would say, "Tell me what that device is." If he answered, "It's a clock I brought to school to show to my engineering teacher," my next best reaction would be to say we'd better take it to the office, where I would explain the situation to an administrator. When I felt comfortable the administrator understood and had things in hand, I would return to my class. If I was feeling especially panicky and feared it might be a bomb that could go off at any moment, I'd take him outside with me. We would set all Ahmed/Andy's belongings some distance away from the school, then we could move back toward the school so we would be out of potential danger. At that point, I would somehow alert an administrator or one of the campus cops to help with the situation. (Would I have reacted this calmly if I were actually in this situation? I honestly have no idea.)

Now that the potential threat is away from the school, the situation changes. My responsibility is no longer to the students in my class or in the school. It's to Ahmed/Andy's welfare. Assuming this isn't a bomb, assuming this kid did nothing wrong, he's been through a frightening experience through no fault of his own. I should do whatever I can to lessen the negative impact of his being suspected of doing something as horrible as bringing a bomb to school. "Look," I might say, "Your clock scared the crap out of me. I saw that box and I imagined what might happen if it were a bomb. Why did you bring a thing like that to school?" If he repeated the story about bringing it to show to his engineering teacher, I might smile and say, "Yeah, Mr. Stephens [or whatever his name is], did he like it?" Maybe talk a little about Mr. Stephen's class to move us emotionally out of the present situation. Then I might say, "I hope you know, what I just did, pulling you out of class, that wasn't about you, it was about the concern I felt seeing that box. I would have done the same thing with any student. That's my duty, to do everything I can to keep my students safe. I can't tell you how relieved I feel right now knowing I was worried about nothing."  I might ask, "How are you doing? Are you OK?" to gauge his mental state.

Once it's determined this was nothing but a homemade clock (which they must have decided quickly, because the bomb squad wasn't called), the well-being of Ahmed/Andy should become the school's primary focus. As much as possible, this should be a school-based action, not a police action. If it's determined that this kid brought the clock to school as a prank, some appropriate disciplinary action should be taken. It's distantly possible, I suppose, that this was a trial run for sneaking a bomb into the school. Both of those possibilities should be considered. But the higher probability is that this was exactly what Ahmed/Andy said, that he brought the clock to impress his engineering teacher. If someone in the administration went down and talked to the teacher and confirmed the student's story, that would pretty much have put an end to the situation. But that's not what happened, and that's where this situation went astray.

The two-year agreement that ended the 42-day Sun Tran bus strike cost $4.36 million, and it includes wage raises for all employees and complete health coverage, according to a media release from the Teamsters Local Union 104.

The deal between the Teamsters and Professional Transit Management—the company that oversees Sun Tran—grants raises ranging from 30 cents an hour for some workers to more than $5 for others, as well as 100 percent monthly health and welfare premiums. Also, each employee will get a one-time payment of $3,303.37, and the agreement has a provision that requires an annual distribution of any savings from Sun Tran’s annual budget that could provide every employee the "potential to receive additional hourly wage, or hourly pension increases in October of each year."

The Teamsters call the new contract a dramatic improvement from the previous Sun Tran offer—which would have cost $2.7 million. This one resulted in the "immediate action by Tucson's City Manager (Michael Ortega) to remediate and resolve once and for all the serious mold contamination that exists in Sun Tran's north facility and on the buses, and also resulted in immediate action by the city manager to order and install Plexiglass partitions in buses on selected routes identified as being greater risks to driver safety," the release says. 

Up until now, details about the final deal, approved by a vote of 351-41 Wednesday night, had been kept secret. Both Sun Tran and Teamsters negotiator Andy Marshall did confirm that, in terms of finances, fuel savings (roughly $500,000 that were returned to the general fund during the fiscal year) and strike savings (strikers didn't receive a salary from Sun Tran while they were picketing) were used in the negotiations. Marshall said the city budget was not reopened, and that no money was taken from any other department.

The deal's documents haven't been released by either party yet.

Councilman Steve Kozachik told the Tucson Weekly that there isn't any reason why this deal shouldn't be made public. Transit is funded by $30 million of taxpayer money, therefore the plan should have been transparent, and either Sun Tran/Professional Transit Management or the Teamsters should publish the agreement. 

In a joint statement with Councilman Paul Cunningham, the pair said:

Just after 1am on Wednesday morning, Sun Tran/TransDev and the Teamsters signed a tentative agreement ending the labor dispute. Later that afternoon, the settlement was ratified by Local 104. It's great to see the buses rolling once again. 

The settlement involves the expenditure of nearly $30M in public money. Taxpayers deserve to see how their hard earned money is being spent. The terms of the settlement should have been posted online by both TransDev and the Teamsters immediately following ratification. Now, two days later, the public is still waiting.

 It is inexcusable for the parties to this settlement to refuse making the precise terms of the settlement public. We call on the parties to the agreement to post the terms on their respective websites immediately.

Marshall has said that they didn't want to go into much explanation about the deal over issues with Tucson Police Officer's Association leadership, who've said the bus drivers "don't deserve anything."

Yesterday, Kozachik said in a statement to the media that he hopes the more-than-a-month-long strike serves as a push for the city to reexamine how the city funds and manages the transit operations.

"Too many of our constituents and too many budget decisions depend on how we address those issues for us to allow a simple return to the status quo. I look forward to joining my colleagues, city staff, our management team, the union and the community in taking time to address these significant issues in a measured and thoughtful manner," he said. 

It's Hispanic Heritage month, and many of you out there are celebrating in some way all the contributions Hispanics, Latinos, Mexican-Americans, Colombian-Americans—the list is long—have brought to the U.S. This is also the time for presidential hopefuls to hustle, more than usual, for our vote, because it just turns out that we are a demographic that becomes more and more influential every election cycle. 

The Center for American Progress' Lizet Ocampo published an analysis Thursday listing the top 6 facts about what the Latino vote means to this country's politics.

"In the aftermath of the 2012 elections, analysts described the increasing power of the Latino vote," Ocampo says in the report. "Expected and potential shifts could have dramatic electoral consequences: a growing Latino population turning 18 every year, many more lawful permanent residents naturalizing, an increase in eligible Latinos registering to vote, and additional Latino voters turning out to the polls. These numbers show that not only are Latinos already a growing segment of the electorate, but tremendous potential also exists for Latinos to gain much more political power in 2016 and beyond."

Here's a quick summary, but check out the entire analysis on the CAP website. 

1. The number of Latinos is growing.
Next year, there will be approximately 58.1 million Latinos living in the U.S. Between 2014 to 2060, the Latino population is expected to increase to about 119 million people, making Latinos 29 percent of the U.S. population.

Dan Linhart—a bus driver with Sun Tran for 34 years—is happy to be back at work, and calls the end of the strike a good starting point for much-needed changes in the way the city of Tucson deals with transit services. 

He hopes the 42-day-old strike that ended Wednesday night is good enough reason to know the importance of creating a dedicated funding source for transit, in order to take the burden off the general fund, and not make public transportation "compete" with other city services for money. Linhart, who's been a member of the negotiating committee for nearly two decades, gave Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega a lot of credit for what was accomplished in the final deal between Professional Transit  Management—the company contracted by the city to manage Sun Tran—and members of the Teamsters Local Union 104.

City Councilman Steve Kozachik made a similar remark in that he hopes the strike will serve as a "catalyst for a reexamination of how we fund and manage our transit operations," he says in a statement to the media. "Too many of our constituents and too many budget decisions depend on how we address those issues for us to allow a simple return to the status quo. I look forward to joining my colleagues, city staff, our management team, the union and the community in taking time to address these significant issues in a measured and thoughtful manner."

The final deal has  been very hush-hush, with only a few details making their way out of the circle. In terms of finances, fuel savings (roughly $500,000 that were returned to the general fund during the fiscal year) and strike savings (strikers didn't receive a salary from Sun Tran while they were picketing) were used in the negotiations, according to both the Teamsters and Sun Tran. Whatever the wages look like in this two-year contract, Teamsters negotiator Andy Marshall says the city budget was no reopened, and that no money was taken from any other department. The union worked with funds that were already there, he adds.

"The money could have been better, we are way behind where we should be statistically. Like everybody else, we want to get paid a living wage," Linhart says. "Part of the problem is having a private transit company with public funding going through it. Where are the funds really going?"

About the secretive nature of the deal, Linhart says there is nothing "insidious" about it. "For decades, we haven't really known the amount of money that is available to work with, it always put us at a disadvantage," he says. "We have finally removed that barrier and that is huge."

Another big step to Linhart was finally addressing the mold problem, as well as beginning to develop tactics for better security measures, especially on the more "dangerous" bus routes. He says Ortega was at the forefront of those talks. 

Steep Canyon Rangers will be at the Rialto Theatre at 7 p.m. this Saturday. You know the deal: We have tickets, you want tickets. Throw your name in the running and we'll contact the winner on Friday. Good luck!

GRAMMY® Award-winning Steep Canyon Rangers unveil their highly anticipated ninth studio album, RADIO, a project that further illustrates the band’s dynamic songwriting, instrumental virtuosity and high-energy performance. Members Woody Platt (guitar), Graham Sharp (banjo), Charles R. Humphrey III (bass), Mike Guggino (mandolin), Nicky Sanders (fiddle) and Mike Ashworth (box kit) are also known for collaborations with actor/comedian and respected banjo player Steve Martin and esteemed singer-songwriter Edie Brickell. The Steep Canyon Rangers’ RADIO was produced by fourteen-time GRAMMY® winner, Jerry Douglas (John Oates, Alison Krauss, Del McCoury Band) and recorded at Asheville, NC’s Echo Mountain Recording Studio. The album’s twelve all-original bluegrass/ Americana tracks were written by Sharp, Humphrey, Platt and Guggino in varying degrees, including a few co-writes with fellow musicians such as Phil Barker of the Carolina bluegrass band Town Mountain. RADIOfollows Steep Canyon Rangers’ 2013 release, Tell the Ones I Love, which Bluegrass Today praised as “…a great mixture of today’s bluegrass styles, excellent harmonies, and a few surprises…an excellent album…”

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly, twin brother of Tucsonan Mark Kelly (a retired astronaut and husband of Gabby Giffords), has made it through the first six months of his year in space. NASA notes:

“I think the legacy of this mission will be based on the science of having us in space for a year,” remarked Kelly in a recent interview. “The great data we collected, what we learned about being in space for this long and how that will help our journey to Mars someday.”

In their almost six months in orbit, Kelly and Kornienko have participated in a range of scientific experiments focusing on seven key areas of human research.

One of the most ambitious studies undertaken so far is Fluid Shifts, which studies what happens when fluids shift into the upper body during weightlessness. This shift may cause changes in vision through increased intracranial pressure and is a major issue that scientists are looking to resolve before humans begin exploring beyond Earth’s orbit. The study uses the Russian Chibis device to draw fluids back into the legs while measurements of the subject’s eyes are taken to track any changes. NASA and Roscosmos are already looking at continuing the Fluid Shifts investigation with future space station crews beyond the one-year mission.

Kelly seems to really enjoy using the cameras aboard the space station. IO9 has rounded up 51 of his best photos here.

Here's a video that explains the mission:

Things are looking good in the legal weed world, at least for the ballot measure being pushed by the Marijuana Policy Project, which has already gathered more than 75,000 signatures. They are one-third of the way into their goal of at least 230,000, according to an MPP press release. 

Their initiative—called the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol—only needs 150,000 sigs to make the ballot. But MPP has said they will hand the Secretary of  State's Office a decent amount more, in case there are issues of invalid signatures. MPP launched its petition drive back in May, and within a few weeks they already had 25,000 signatures and more than $300,000 raised. 

“We’re finding that more than one out of every two registered voters we ask to sign is happy to do it, so that’s a good sign,” said campaign chairman J.P. Holyoak in the press release. “People recognize that marijuana prohibition has been just as big of a mess as alcohol prohibition was 80 years ago. It’s time for a more sensible approach.”

The proposed initiative would allow adults 21 and older to possess limited amounts of weed; cultivate six plants per person or 12 total in a household; establish 15 percent tax on retail marijuana sales, with much of the revenue going toward Arizona schools and public education programs, among other guidelines. MPP recently said they expect to see at least $40 million annually invested in education thanks to the revenue. (Opponents don't care about how much money this could bring to education. They argue the harm would be greater than the millions. Read more, here.

“Most voters seem to recognize that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and that we’d be better off if we started treating it that way,” Holyoak said in the statement. “It makes little sense to criminalize adults for choosing to use a product that is safer than one you can currently buy in a grocery store. Regulating and taxing marijuana like alcohol just makes sense.”