If you missed the Republican debate Wednesday evening (I hope you didn't—because A. We should all be informed on who wants to be our next president, even if you don't plan on voting for'em; and B. One should not miss the opportunity to laugh uncontrollably and play drinking games every time Donald Trump makes a Jeepers Creepers facial expression or shouts racist/sexist comments (or insults someone because of their physical appearance). Truly, straight outta the circus), the nonprofit, news magazine Mother Jones has bee posting hilarious recaps. As you might have guessed it, most of them involve your favorite candidate, the Donald.

First there's Trump's suggestion that he doesn't know any foreign groups because they are all just a bunch of Arab names.

Moderator Jake Tapper asked Trump how he could be commander in chief if he doesn't even recognize the names of foreign leaders and groups. According to Mother Jones, the discussion stemmed from a Trump comment earlier this month in which he confused Iran's Quds Force—a special forces unit within the Middle Eastern country's Revolutionary Guard—with the Kurds, which is an ethnic group in Iraq. If you want to president, might want to start learning names, geography and other material that might be useful, ya know?

How'd Trump deal with Tapper's question? After all, confusing and mispronouncing foreign names was a standard criticism that dogged George W. Bush throughout his presidency. But Trump? Nah, he's not worried. First, he boasted about how Hewitt—a co-moderator of the CNN debate—had since apologized and said that "Donald Trump is maybe the best interview anywhere that he's ever done."

"I will say this though," Trump continued, "Hugh was giving me name after name—Arab name, Arab name, Arab—and there are few people anywhere, ANYWHERE, that would have known those names. I think he was reading them off a sheet."

When Jake Tapper reminded former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina about those comments Trump made on Rolling Stone regarding her face. "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"

There’s some sharp dialogue in “Cooties,” the sort of grisly fun that most zombie movies these days aim for, but it’s not quite enough. The idea is made pretty obvious by the title: It’s kid zombies. The film’s clever opening sequence gives us the backstory about tainted chicken nuggets on the school lunch menu. From there, the school’s staff has to figure out how to combat the virus that only targets pre-pubescent blood. The cast is familiar, even if you wish they were together for something a little more high-minded—Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Jack MacBrayer, Allison Pill—but ultimately, the sizzle the first 20 or 30 minutes gives us is too hard to sustain. If the word “zomedy” did not previously exist … you read it here first. Unfortunately, the silliness at play outweighs the knowing wink that this is all silliness.

After 42 days, the bus strike is over. Sun Tran routes will be back to normal tomorrow. 

With a vote of 351 to 41, the bus drivers and mechanics who have been picketing for six weeks approved a deal between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company contracted by the city of Tucson to oversee Sun Tran. The two had reached a tentative agreement early Wednesday morning. Teamsters mediator Andy Marshall says it is a two-year agreement, but he gave a commitment to several parties he wouldn't give much detail on the contract's finances for now. 

"The (city) budget was not reopened, there was no money taken from any other department. It was funds that either existed or city savings, strike savings. It was all internal," he told the Weekly after the vote count ended at around 7 p.m. "We didn't get everything we wanted...but...we got the respected we deserve. It was better than what we rejected. A lot of hard struggle, but I am very proud of my people. It is an honor to work for them."

Last week, the Tucson City Council voted for French-based Transdev to use the roughly $500,000 in fuel savings that was returned to the city's general fund during the fiscal year, as well as the hundreds of thousands the company has saved up during the strike (because no one involved is getting paid), as a sign of good faith to find a resolution. Those funds ended up being used to settle negotiations, according to Marshall and Sun Tran.

The bus strike began Aug. 6, after the union rejected Sun Tran's three-year proposal, which included a lesser starting wage for new employees, and no raises for current employees. Fixing ongoing mold problems and demands for better security were also on the negotiating table, and Marshall says Sun Tran has already begun to address the issues. "It's going to take time, but they are on it," he said. 

Throughout the strike, Sun Tran was able to run 13 routes in a limited service, in part thanks to some management and administrative staffers helping out, as well as 15 others from out of state, who were hired by Transdev (PTM's father company). In the meantime, 66,000 people who rely on the bus to go to work, doctor's appointments, etc. were left to scramble how to get around.

“I look forward to a productive relationship with the Teamsters membership moving forward and I’m pleased a new contract could be reached,” said Sun Tran General Manager Kate Riley in a statement to the media. “We recognize how difficult this process has been for all of our passengers and the community, and are happy to operate all 43 routes starting tomorrow.”

M. Night Shyamalan makes another bad movie, but this one actually shows a little bit of promise after a rancid run of films that includes “The Village,” “The Happening,” “The Last Airbender,” and “After Earth.” Becca and Tyler (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) have never met their grandma. When Mom (Kathryn Hahn) decides to go on a cruise with her boyfriend, she leaves them with her parents, even though they have been estranged for many years. Becca and Tyler are game to meet their Nana, so they board a train to Pennsylvania and meet her and their granddad at the station. Things get weird fast on the farm. Nana (a delightfully strange Deanna Dunagan) is prone to sleep walking and projectile vomiting, sometimes naked, after 10:30, while Pop Pop (creepy Peter McRobbie) has a tendency to stick shotguns in his mouth and pile his used adult diapers in strange places. There are a couple of good scares, but Shyamalan (who wrote the script and directed) opts for the stupid “found footage” gimmick, which does nothing but trip up his narrative. The film doesn’t need the found footage angle, and it suffers for it. Still, Dunagan is a creepy movie monster, and Shyamalan shows that maybe he still has some creativity left in the tank. With him, it seems simpler is better, but still not that good.

The desert's answer to Lana del Rey has arrived and her name is Zella Day. But don't be so quick to write this L.A.-by-way-of-Pinetop singer off as an LdR knock-off. She recently explained the comparison to the vintage-inspired morose pop star in an interview with Paste:

“I can see it because there is a very timeless element to both of our sounds,” Day says, before countering: “But after people watch me perform, they don’t tell me I sound like Lana Del Rey.”

Day is promoting the summer release of her debut album, Kicker, on a tour that will bring her through Tucson on Friday, Sept. 18. The show at 191 Toole (191 E. Toole Ave.) starts at 8 p.m. and it is an all ages event. Tickets are $12, which can be found online in advance via Ticketfly.

You can also check out her trippy video for the song "Hypnotic," which seems to mimic some Jodorowsky imagery but with tons of sex so you know it's still pop music.

Bad news for lovers of the Chicago pizza institution Rosati's. The franchised location near UA campus has shuttered recently, which means Tucsonans have one fewer options when searching for solid deep dish pizza.

Signs posted around the building indicate that the landlord locked out the pizzeria. No further information is available at this time.


Rosati's also has a location at 2944 W. Ina Rd. which is still open for business in case you need to get your Chicago-style pizza fix.

Here's the perfect warm-up for tonight's GOP presidential debate: The two Republicans on the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Ray Carroll and Ally Miller, will be debating the pros and cons of the county's $815 million bond proposal.

Carroll and Miller appeared to get along OK during her 2012 campaign; Carroll even hosted a fundraiser for Miller. But since Miller took office, she and Carroll have been tangling as much with each other as they have with the three Democrats on the Board of Supes. We'll see if moderator Mike Shaw can keep them on topic.

Should be great radio. Tune in at 1 p.m. on KVOI, 1030 AM, or listen online here.

The Arizona education wars are turning into a series of Republican-on-Republican, tag team cage fighting matches. The whole thing is getting pretty ugly. That's what cage fighting is all about, of course, getting ugly; that's its allure. Me, I don't watch the sweaty-body grappling on cable TV, but I'm a big fan of the political variety, especially when the fighting is between the couldn't-happen-to-a-more-deserving-group-of-folks Republicans, in or out of office. The "Trump vs. The Field" primaries, the Phoenix skirmishes . . . pass the popcorn, hon, this is really good.

Ed Supe Diane Douglas' antics, mainly directed at the state school board, have been the main source of jibes and jokes in the media. She's a novice who says and does silly stuff in her pursuit of her education agenda, throwing tantrums, suing the board and seeing if she can win by taking her marbles, or her websites, and going home. That all makes for easy, eye-rolling commentary. It also makes people forget that, since she took office, Douglas has made some of the most sensible statements about education coming from a Republican in a long time, including a school funding plan that's head-and-shoulders above any other AZ Republican proposal I've heard, maybe ever. Much as people like to say she's harming our schools, so far as I can tell, she isn't. Maybe she will in the future, it's certainly possible, but not yet. She's gumming up the privatization works a bit and giving the state board fits, but I haven't seen how it has hurt kids in a way that's comparable to, say, the legislative cuts to education which have been going on for years or Huppenthal's vendetta against TUSD's Mexican American Studies program.

Douglas is an easy target, a side show, a distraction, but Doug Ducey is the big dog. While he smiles and keeps his hands clean, his political friends attack, sometimes in the light of day, sometimes leaping out of dark alleys. Ducey does not like to be challenged. His dark money henchman, Sean Noble, went after Mesa Superintendent Michael Cowan when he wouldn't behave. These days, Ducey's target is state treasurer James DeWit, who opposes Ducey's plan to tap into state land trust funds and is being ostracized and trashed by Ducey and his surrogates. My favorite surrogate attack was on the breibart.com website, written by Lisa de Pasquale. To put her comments in context, she calls Ann Coulter her mentor, loves Scott Walker and calls Ducey "the Walker of the West." De Pasquale accuses DeWit of "throwing a bureaucratic hissy fit" and "sid[ing] with unions and liberals." The graphic in the article portraying DeWit as Doctor Evil "HOLDING ARIZONA KIDS RANSOM FOR $2 BILLION!" is worth the price of admission.

The more than 500 Sun Tran bus drivers and mechanics that have been on strike for six weeks will vote this evening on a tentative agreement reached early this morning between the Teamsters Local Union 104 and Professional Transit Management—the company that oversees Sun Tran.

Andy Marshall with the Teamsters says he can't be specific about what the deal looks like. The strikers will vote on whether or not to accept the tentative agreement at 5 p.m. today, he said during a phone conversation with the Weekly.

The strike began on Aug. 6, after  the union and Sun Tran reps didn't agree on each other's proposals for a new three-year contract. At the time, the Teamsters voted 363-4, rejecting a proposal that included a lesser starting wage for new employees, and no raises for current employees. Fixing ongoing mold problems and demands for better security are also on the negotiating table.

Throughout the strike, Sun Tran has been able to run 13 routes in a limited service, in part because there are about two dozen management and administrative staffers helping out, as well as 15 others from out of state, who were hired by Transdev (PTM's father company). More than 60,000 rely on the bus to go to work, school, doctor's appointments, you name it.

Last week, the Tucson City Council voted for French-based Transdev to use the roughly $500,000 in fuel savings that was returned to the city's general fund last fiscal year, as well as the hundreds of thousands the company has saved up during the strike (because no one picketing has gotten paid for the days they've been on strike), to try and reach a middle ground with the Teamsters' wage demands.

We'll keep you posted.

Earlier this month, Washington Post political reporters James Hohmann and Elise Viebeck revealed that the paper had gotten ahold of a leaked contract that Republican congressional candidates are expected to sign if they want to participate in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Patriot Program, which is designed to help candidates in competitive districts.

The contract raised eyebrows because it included a requirement that members of Congress and their chiefs of staff provide “detailed, written legislative strategy that provides short-, intermediate- and long-term legislative goals, including political justification for those goals.”

As it turns out, Southern Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally is among the Republicans who are participating in the Patriot Program and Democrats are focusing on the NRCC document as evidence that McSally is not as independent as she made herself out to be during her successful campaign to unseat Democrat Ron Barber last year.

State lawmaker Victoria Steele, a Democrat who wants to challenge McSally next year, said via email that “McSally pledged to be an independent voice—that’s turned out to be a false promise. Not even halfway through her first term, she’s gone Washington and sold out the people in her district.”

And Democrat Matt Heinz, a former state lawmaker who also wants a shot against McSally, said that he found it “very disturbing that any representative would be beholden to D.C. party bosses and not to the voters who put them in office.”

Heinz called on McSally to publicly reveal any documents she signed with the NRCC.

“If Martha McSally wants to renew her contract with Southern Arizona voters, she should reveal the details of whatever she signed with the National Republican Congressional Committee to see what those promises were,” Heinz said.

Team McSally declined to release a copy of any agreement between her and the NRCC but pushed back against accusations that the NRCC is controlling McSally’s priorities. McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak told the Weekly that neither McSally nor anyone on the congressional staff signed the Patriot Program agreement.

“Both the NRCC and DCCC (Democrat campaign committee) provide valuable assistance for both members and candidates in their campaigns,” Ptak said via email. “Like her predecessor, Ron Barber, and other Arizona members of Congress like Congresswomen Sinema and Kirkpatrick (all three participate(d) in the equivalent DCCC Frontline program), Martha has received help from her party’s campaign committee. However in this case, Martha did not feel the need to sign the Patriot Program plan, though she has and continues to work with them for her campaign.”