Hi I’m Maria! I am such a sweet and unique girl! Have you ever known a cat with two different colored eyes like mine? I love it!

I am FeLV positive but that doesn’t mean I can’t be adopted, even to a house with current kitties! HSSA will vaccinate and test all current cats before I go home with you to ensure that we all stay safe, healthy and happy.

Stop by the Main Campus today at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd, I’ll be here!

Love,

Maria—808014

TW contributor Robert Deming hit the brutal streets of Tucson last weekend to bring you some glimpses of the Southwest Terror Fest. Saturday night's Sleep show at the Rialto Theatre and Sunday's Acid King concert were two of the most anticipated events featured at Terror Fest this year.

So, without further ado, here are the face melting bands and fans of the 2015 Southwest Terror Fest...

#EarthArt Across the Greatest Desert- #Sahara #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/ZSKLSA9wQX

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 17, 2015

With more than 383 days in orbit, astronaut Scott Kelly has now spent more time off the planet than any other American. And he'll build on that record until he heads back to Earth next March after completing his year in space aboard the International Space Station.

While he's up there, Kelly—the twin brother Tucson's own Mark Kelly, a former astronaut himself and the wife of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords—has been busy posting stunningly beautiful photos on his Twitter feed. Gizmodo rounds up the latest batch, mostly over the Sahara Desert.

Kelly is doing a year-long experiment on the impacts of spending a full year in space. NASA put together a video commemorating his record-breaking moment last week:


Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait hopes that Kelly's accomplishment becomes more commonplace:

I imagine—and I certainly hope—we’ll be seeing a lot of these records broken very soon. If things go well, in a decade or so putting humans into space will be more common. Never routine—this is a difficult and dangerous operation, be assured.

But common? With China setting to go to the Moon, India making excellent progress in space travel, and commercial companies advancing as well, I see a time not too long in the future where the ideas in books I read as a kid about exploring other worlds can be described as science, without the modifier of “fiction.”

What's going on with the Mercado these days? Just last week, chef Ryan Clark announced his departure from the retail and dining square's flagship restaurant, which also saw him selling his share in the restaurant with an almost imperceptibly speedy replacement by The Coronet's chef Erika Bostick. Let's not forget Taqueria El Pueblito's move out of the space and replacement by Seis. Now Blu, the sandwich, wine and cheese shop, is calling it quits at the Mercado San Agustin too.

Unlike the expectedly mundane content of the announcement from Agustin Kitchen, though, Blu's release gave a little insight into something more. Owner Tana Fryer said explained that the store's closure was caused by "an impasse with her landlords."

“We had hoped and planned to be part of the Mercado for a long time,” she said in the release. “It makes me sad that we couldn’t come to terms with our landlord and it was awful to tell my team that most of them don’t have jobs anymore.”

With both Fryer and Clark leaving the Mercado without a solid next stepping stone, the initial question holds true: Just what exactly is going on with the Mercado San Agustin these days? As a beautiful venue for events, live music, a farmers market and more, hopefully the Mercado won't see any more of its keystone businesses closing up and moving out.

For information on the future of Blu, including gifting, catering and private events opportunities, visit Blu's website.

Here are three education-related events coming up this week and next, two in Tucson, one in Scottsdale.

Education Town Hall, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7-8:30, Catalina High School (3645 E. Pima Street). The subject is the current state and future of K-12 education in Arizona.

"All Southern Arizonans are encouraged to attend, share stories about how education cuts have affected them, and discuss how we can work together to solve our state’s education funding crisis."

Education Excellence Expo, Saturday, Oct. 24, Begins 10:30am, Salt River Fields (7555 N. Pima Rd., Scottsdale, AZ). The Education Excellence Expo will precede an Arizona Fall League professional baseball game. TIckets for the expo and the game are $8. (More information on the Support our Schools website)

"The E3 Expo will provide a visual and experiential showcase of the top achievements/projects produced by public school students throughout Arizona.  Attendees, including, students, teachers, families, legislators and community members, will see for themselves, the outstanding caliber of so many programs taking place throughout our Arizona Public School District System."

Classrooms First Initiative Council meeting, Thursday, Oct. 29, Begins 10am, TUSD's Duffy Family Community Center (5145 E. Fifth Street). Governor Ducey's education council, which is putting together a list of recommendations for ways to change the funding and educational programs for Arizona's K-12 schools, will hold a meeting in Tucson.

Meetings 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Full Council Meeting 2:30 pm
*All meetings are open to the public.*

The Tucson Weekly extends condolences to Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias and his family on the death of his father, Albert M. Elias, who passed away this morning at the age of 86.

From a statement released by the Pima County Democratic Party:

Albert M. Elias was a fourth-generation Tucson native, he was the owner of Old Pueblo Printers, a Tucson staple and strong union shop since 1966. Albert was involved in many community organizations as well as serving on the Tucson Community Center Commission, the Regional Transportation Authority, the Tucson-Pima Arts Council and the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

During his career, Albert supported labor leader Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers; while supporting the efforts of local Latino activists to get their fair share of federal funds to improve their homes and the neighborhoods of their people. Albert also supported a landmark lawsuit forcing TUSD to desegregate its schools.

Albert always had been fighting battles against those who seek to use their financial influence to their own advantage – at the expense of ordinary working people.

The Democrats of Greater Tucson recently named their inaugural Albert M. Elias Democratic Business Leader award for his exemplary work and commitment to the community.
The Pima County Democratic Party express our condolences to the entire Elias family on this sad day.

Information on services will be made available. 

The Los Angeles Times got its hands on an internal email by the Department of Homeland Security that hints to the continuous practices of ethnic and racial profiling by law enforcement agencies against immigrants. 

The email talks about two Honduran men, who waited for a ride after their construction job, and were later apprehended allegedly for loitering, the LA Times writes. The men "were detained by Louisiana police in May on loitering charges because they looked Latino, according to a Sept. 21 Homeland Security email that was released inadvertently and obtained by the Los Angeles Times," the article says.

From the LA Times:

“The only basis for the arrest seems to have been to give Border Patrol an opportunity to run an immigration investigation,” wrote Megan H. Mack, head of the Homeland Security Department’s civil rights office, in her report to Sarah Saldaña, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, and other ICE officials. “This is not a practice the department wishes to endorse or facilitate.”

Mack said the men posed no threat and should be released.

The case highlights the concern among some senior Homeland Security leaders that local police are making arrests based on appearance and then calling immigration agents to check on a detainee’s status.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials chose not to follow Mack’s recommendation and say they are still planning to deport the two men, Jose Adan Fugon-Cano and Gustavo Barahona-Sanchez. Because both men had been removed from the U.S. before, they are still priorities for deportation under the department’s guidelines, said ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox.

The men are being held at the Alexandria Transportation Center in Louisiana.

According to the men’s lawyers, the case shows how the agency is still using arrests by local police to round up low-level offenders in the country illegally, in spite of a new plan to target only priority cases. Lawyers say the reports of these internal investigations rarely come to light.

News of the email come after the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona released yesterday a detailed report on Border Patrol abuse at checkpoints. Turns out that of more than 140 reports of said abuse, there was merely one disciplinary action.

Another day, more news about Arizona's education funding problems. I'll have the Quote of the Day and the Email of the Day a bit later, but first, the most important News of the Day, from the front page of the Star.

The Tucson Values Teachers study, sponsored by the University of Arizona’s College of Education and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, revealed the median annual wage for secondary teachers in Tucson when cost of living is factored in is more than $16,000 below the national average for secondary teachers and the lowest in a comparison of nearly a dozen major western cities, including Phoenix.

Wow. That number is far higher than I imagined, and I knew it was bad. If Tucson teachers made $8,000 less than the national average when adjusted for cost of living, that would be outrageous, scandalous. But $16,000? Wow.

Thanks to Tucson Values Teachers and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council for joining up with the UA College of Education to put together the study (and the Star for realizing this is front page news). It's good to see business-oriented groups putting their efforts behind exposing how poorly our local teachers are paid. To move the ball forward on school funding in general and teacher compensation in particular is going to take a broad coalition, which has to include a sizable portion of the business community.

One bit of information that came from Marian Salzman, executive chair of Tucson Values Teachers, struck me as especially telling.

“At Raytheon there are over 400 professional jobs open right now which would equal $60 million into the local economy,” Salzman said. “One of the top reasons they feel they can’t fill those jobs is they have a difficult time recruiting people who are coming with families to come to this area because of the questions around the schools. That’s an awful lot of income tax and property tax that isn’t getting paid into the community.”

Four hundred jobs. That's exactly the number the Rosemont Mine folks throw around. "Let us wreak havoc on the Arizona landscape and the environment," they say, "and we'll bring you 400 jobs!" Here's a better idea. Let's put some desperately needed money into our education system and attract educated people and high wage businesses to the state. Unlike the Rosemont Mine, those jobs won't disappear when it's no longer profitable to dig copper out of the ground.

Tucson’s Latin American food scene took a major hit when Don Pedro’s Peruvian bistro shuttered its South Tucson location in July. Rather than throwing in the towel, though, owner Peter Gonzvar got to work converting his Peruvian restaurant into a food truck. You can get the first tastes of Don Pedro’s new mobile digs on Friday, Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jacome Plaza (101 N. Stone Ave.). Prices will range from $5 to $15.

The Living Room wine café and lounge also opened recently at La Encantada (2905 E. Skyline Dr.) Taking over the well-loved Armitage Wine Lounge space, The Living Room seeks to offer a wide range of wines, sharable bites and a relaxed atmosphere. The bar is open Monday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-12 a.m., Friday: 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Saturday: 9 a.m.-2 a.m. and Sunday: 9 a.m.-10 p.m. You can find more information at www.livingroomwinebar.com.

Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona show that there have been "widespread acts of abuse and impunity" in U.S. Border Patrol interior checkpoints and patrol operations that happen far from the border.

The ACLU’s report, co-authored with two University of Arizona law professors, says the Border Patrol documents—which were gotten through an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency—detail agents "terrorizing" motorists "into the interior of the country;" detaining and searching travelers after false alerts by service canines; threatening people with assault rifles and other weapons; destroying personal property.

Problem is, "These abuse records substantially outnumber the annual complaint totals DHS oversight agencies disclosed to Congress," the ACLU of Arizona press release says. Investigations into possible civil rights violations rarely happen, and despite many reports of abuse and corruption, the documents only mention one example of disciplinary consequences. 

Also, numbers show the checkpoints aren't as efficient as they are being portrayed. In 2013, Tucson Sector checkpoint apprehensions were 0.67 percent of the sector's total apprehensions, the press release says. The same year, Yuma Sector checkpoint arrests of U.S. citizens "exceeded those of non-citizens by a factor of nearly eight (and in 2011, by a factor of 11):"

The report summarizes scores of civil rights complaints submitted to (the Department of Homeland Security) oversight agencies that do not appear to have been properly investigated, including:A Border Patrol agent in Green Valley, Ariz., followed a store employee into a parking lot, approached the individual with a service revolver drawn, ordered him to his knees, and handcuffed him. When other employees approached, the agent yelled, “Stay away or I’ll shoot you.” After ten minutes, the agent removed the handcuffs, released the employee, and drove away.

One complaint described multiple stops of the Tohono O’odham Community College school bus at the Highway 86 checkpoint, including one in which passengers were forced to disembark and submit to interrogation and searches of their personal effects before being released. Other records show Border Patrol monitoring Tohono O’odham community meetings and Know Your Rights events.

A Border Patrol agent reported a supervisor at Border Patrol’s Naco Station instructed agents to “stop any vehicle on the US/Mexican border road that is open to the public.” The supervisor allegedly “didn’t care if it was the Chief of the Border Patrol and the agent conducted a high risk traffic stop … at gun point” because he “would then know they were doing their job.”

The Nogales City Attorney’s Office reported racial profiling and abuse of authority after agents at the I-19 interior checkpoint relied on a claimed canine alert to detain and search the attorney. The complaint references a Deputy City Attorney detained and searched on other occasions on the basis of claimed or false canine alerts.

“Border Patrol’s own records show that the agency’s extra-constitutional police practices often result in abuses of border residents far into the interior of the country and with no consequences for the agents involved,” said ACLU of Arizona Attorney James Lyall in a statement to the media. “At a time of increasing national attention to police accountability, Congress and the Obama administration should not allow the Border Patrol to conceal this ugly reality from the American public.”

Check out the entire report on the ACLU of Arizona website.