What should Arizona do with the current state budget surplus? In a poll taken last week by Strategies 360, the number one answer was "Invest in public schools" with 72 percent. Number two was "Increase public school teacher pay" with 69 percent. Law enforcement and border security came in third and fourth, followed by funding for foster children services and all-day pre-kindergarten.

If you're keeping score, education and children took four of the top six spots, including the top two.

OK, but maybe the poll is an unrepresentative sample that skews Democrat/liberal. In fact, no. The respondents were 43 percent Republican and 33 percent Democrat. Only 18 percent called themselves liberal, while 42 percent called themselves conservative. In another part of the survey, in separate presidential candidate match-ups, they preferred Trump, Rubio and Cruz to Clinton. And yet they thought spending more money on education and children was more important than spending it on police and immigration.

Other answers make it look like these voters, who, remember, skew Republican/conservative, aren't very happy with what's going on here. More of them think we're on the wrong track—46 percent—than moving in the right direction—41 percent — and they're split evenly on what they think about the Republican-majority state legislature (though Ducey rocks with 47 percent favorable vs. 31 percent unfavorable).

I'm trying to draw conclusions from this data with my head, not my heart, even though the conclusion I'm reaching makes my heart beat faster. It looks like a strong bipartisan majority of Arizona voters think we're not spending enough on education and we have the money to spend more. It looks like they're not overly impressed with the general direction we're heading or with the legislature that's taking us there.

We spent the evening at @willyouescape, Tucson's first live escape room. We made it out with 25 seconds on the clock. Phew. #willyouescape #liveescaperooms #realtucson

A photo posted by Tucson Weekly (@tucsonweekly) on Dec 11, 2015 at 5:48pm PST

Last time we checked in with Nicolette Cusick, she had just opened Will You Escape?, Tucson's first live escape room.

Apparently that went pretty well because Cusick has since quit her day job, put together a new room for Tucson mystery-solvers and opened a second location in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Let's start with what's new here in the Old Pueblo: The Secret Agent Room. Cusick invited us back to try out the new mystery:

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE

THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR A TOP SECRET MISSION.

The devastating news of Donna Williams death came as a shock to the country. Our investigators have pinpointed the man behind the crime but we are in need of your services again.

Agent Q, our top secret agent at WYE, has disappeared after being suspected of the deadly crime in Hollywood. She has hidden her location somewhere in her office. It is up to your team of agents to pinpoint her location.

We must warn you though. Upon leaving her office, our agent set a bomb to go off in approximately 60 minutes from the time you enter. The code to defuse the bomb is on a hidden in the room.

The change in theme satisfies the one critique I offered last time: narrative.

In both renditions of the game, you're turning the room inside out to find the clues and keys that will help get through the (billions of) locks around the room. When we went through the Hollywood Room, the last lock we opened had the answer of the mystery we were trying to solve written on a piece of paper. Um, the dead lady didn't have time to hide that and I really doubt the murderer would want to. I understand why that was a more practical ending than trying to evaluate the suspects, motives and weapons, but it felt a little too artificial. Fun, but not like I was the next Monk. 

This challenge is entirely overcome in the Secret Agent room, where you can't claim victory until you pin point Agent Q's location, defuse the bomb and shred the information. The "bomb," which Cusick had built by a local computer guru, adds a satisfying ending (a true moment of triumph) to the detective work. 

UA Associate Professor Jason Jones doesn't think light sabers are very practical:

Jones, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences and head of the Jones Research Group, knows a thing or two about lasers. And although he is a "Star Wars" fan who received a toy lightsaber for his birthday, he says laser swords are easier said than done for a couple of reasons — battery power and light physics chief among them.

Curiously, although they emit light, the lightsabers in "Star Wars" aren't made of it. They are said to be made of plasma — a hot, gassy blend of ions — wrapped in a "force containment field," which is probably some kind of electromagnetic field, Jones says. He adds that the lightsaber might be better off if it were made of, well, light.

Light is made of photons, which "don't like to interact with each other," so sword fighting with light would be futile. The physics just aren't there. But, say, cutting off a hand with it? Tricky, but not impossible.

Jones says that battery power would also be a problem:

Journalist John Dougherty's Investigative MEDIA organization uncovers a strange wrinkle in the investigation of the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire in which 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters lost their lives:

Key evidence that could explain why the Granite Mountain Hotshots moved from a safe location into a treacherous box canyon where 19 men died on June 30, 2013 was in the possession of the Office of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner but was not provided to the state-contracted investigation into the tragedy, autopsy records recently obtained by InvestigativeMEDIA show.

A cell phone belonging to Granite Mountain superintendent Eric Marsh and a functioning camera belonging to hotshot Christopher MacKenzie were with the men’s bodies when they arrived at the medical examiner’s office on July 1, 2013 but were not listed as evidence that was later collected by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, autopsy records for Marsh and MacKenzie show.

The Maricopa County medical examiner conducted autopsies on all 19 hotshots for Yavapai County on July 2, 2013.

The YCSO has no record of Marsh’s cell phone or MacKenzie’s camera among the evidence collected from the medical examiner, according to a YCSO police report. Marsh’s cell phone and MacKenzie’s camera ended up with family members outside the formal chain-0f-custody.

MacKenzie’s autopsy report states Deputy State Forester Jerry Payne and YCSO Criminal Investigations Commander Lieutenant Tom Boelts were present. But neither name appears on Marsh’s autopsy report.

The YCSO was in charge of gathering all evidence from the medical examiner and later turning it over to the Serious Accident Investigation Team (SAIT) which was contracted by the Arizona Forestry Division to conduct the formal investigation into the Yarnell Hill Fire disaster, according to the autopsy reports and the YCSO report.

Marsh’s cell phone could have provided evidence of who he was in communication with in the moments before and while the crew moved from its safety zone in a burned over area on the eastern ridge of the Weaver Mountains west of Yarnell and into a chaparral-choked box canyon where the men were trapped by a wall of flames.

MacKenzie’s camera included video clips of a crucial discussion between Marsh and Granite Mountain Captain Jesse Steed that suggests a disagreement over tactics before the crew left the “black”, burned-over area.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk refused to release the autopsy reports in 2013 saying privacy concerns outweighed the public interest.

The autopsy records were only recently released after Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk refused repeated media requests under the Arizona Public Records Law for the reports in the months immediately after the fire. Polk said in August 2013 that the privacy interests of the families of the fallen firefighters exceeded the public’s right to examine the reports.

InvestigativeMEDIA obtained the reports in October. The autopsy reports were released four months after all litigation filed by the families of hotshots seeking $237 million in damages from the state Forestry Division and the Central Yavapai (County) Fire District had been settled.

Read the whole report here.

Full disclosure: Investigative MEDIA is a project of the Arizona Center for Investigative Journalism, which serves as a fiscal sponsor for the Arizona Watchdog Alliance, which funds Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel.

Horror fans have had a good year in 2015. It Follows, We are Still Here, Bone Tomahawk, Ash vs Evil Dead all did a lot of good for genre lovers. While director Michael Dougherty’s Krampus isn’t quite up to the level of those I just mentioned, it does do the Christmas horror subgenre proud in many ways.

For starters, this sucker has a majorly grim attitude that it sticks with until the very end. There will be no happy Christmas message in the land of Krampus, so don’t take this one in if you have eggnog on your breath and are looking to get into the holiday spirit. It’s more of a film for somebody who pisses and moans when the Christmas decorations show up at Macy’s before Halloween.

Max (Emjay Anthony) still believes in Christmas and Santa Claus, and he takes a lot of crap for it from family members. When a bunch of family come to his house for Christmas, his cousins taunt him, while his parents (Adam Scott and Toni Collette) deal with an annoying aunt and uncle (David Koechner and Allison Tolman). Throw evil Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell) into the mix, and Max’s family is in for one lousy yuletide season. They eventually must confront evil Christmas demon Krampus and his scary henchmen.

It’s not a great film, but it qualifies as a fun, and nasty, diversion.

People sentenced to jail for more than 10 days by the Tucson City Court now face serving their time in Nogales, as a tactic by the City of Tucson to reduce jail costs.

Last night, the City Council unanimously approved a one-year agreement between the city and Santa Cruz County that says Tucson will get to pay a flat rate of $65 per inmate, instead of the $279 booking fee and $85 per additional day Pima County charges. According to Deputy City Manager Martha Durkin, since 2007 the booking costs and other fees have greatly increased. Back then, Pima billed the city $166.28 for the first day, and $57.46 for each other day. 

The cost of jailing people this year was $6.9 million.

Tucson City Court Administrator Christopher Hale called the deal a win-win, because the city will save money, and Santa Cruz County will get much-needed revenue to cover debt. Hale said without the agreement, the Tucson City Court projected costs increasing by an extra $300,000 in fiscal year 2016. 

With this deal, inmates already in custody will be bused to Santa Cruz County at no extra cost to the city, and people sentenced while out of custody have to drive themselves. 

Hale suggested during the council's study session to issue vouchers for a door-to-door shuttle service that would cost about $22 with a $2 saving for a round trip. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild wanted to keep the process as is, which means out of custody individuals have to self-report.

The City of Tucson has joined the "death with dignity" movement, and is asking the Arizona Legislature to craft a state law that will allow terminally ill adults to decide when and how they will die. 

In a "memorial" the council members unanimously passed Tuesday night, they ask lawmakers to consider enacting a statute similar to Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, and allow for terminally ill adults in Arizona to request for prescription medication that will end their lives in "a humane and dignified way."

The document will be presented to the state Senate president and the state House speaker as soon as possible.

"I want to commend you for your compassion in leadership in [supporting] the aid in dying, also known as death with dignity, memorial. You are not only leading the state in this but you are also helping to lead the country," Sharon Rock told the council tonight. She is one of the Bisbee residents behind an aid in dying ordinance Bisbee passed in September. The city was the first municipality in Arizona to officially get on board with the movement, but Tucson is the largest city in the state to recognize it.

The memorial says "death with dignity" should not be categorized as manslaughter, or other similar crimes.

A May 2015 Gallup poll  says nearly 70 percent of Americans are OK with "death with dignity" laws. 

A UA space sciences engineer looks at the design flaws of the original Death Star:

"First of all, the scale of what we're able to build in real life versus ‘Star Wars' is completely different," says Roberto Furfaro, an assistant professor in the UA's College of Engineering and director of the Space Systems Engineering Lab. Furfaro currently works as a systems engineer on NASA's latest New Frontiers mission, OSIRIS-REx.

As of now, the International Space Station is the largest man-made object in space. It weighs nearly a million pounds and is as long as a football field.

More than an acre of solar panels power the ISS, while a made-up "hypermatter reactor" is the primary power generator aboard the moon-size Death Star. Fair enough, Furfaro says. The energy requirements of a spacecraft the size of the moon would be huge, and it could be that the Death Star was not close enough to a star to collect substantial solar energy.

Hypermatter power, which functions something like fusion power, isn't itself too problematic. Although currently we aren't able to generate power via fusion, "it can, in principle, be conceived," Furfaro says. The real problem is heat. The more energy you create, the more heat you build up. How the engineers of the Death Star chose to deal with that heat was lazy, "terrible" design, according to Furfaro.

"A spacecraft is an extremely complex system," he says. "A good space engineer would do a thermal analysis, starting by studying the mission. Where are you going? What is the thermal environment there? Everything on the spacecraft has a minimum and maximum temperature that it can operate at, so you have to create a thermal design that allows each individual element on the spacecraft to still operate."

Poking holes in the Death Star to exhaust heat was a gross shortcut, and they paid the price.

Read the whole thing here.

After gleaning hundreds of pounds of dates last fall, Iskashitaa Refugee Network put their bounty to use by teaming up with Borderlands Brewing Co. (119 E. Toole Ave.) to create a unique new brew with local dates at the forefront. On Thursday, Dec. 17 local beer lovers can get their first taste of Borderlands’ Harvest Tucson Date Dunkelweizen, which resulted from those Iskashitaa-gathered dates.

Dates, which grow on date palms, are tricky to harvest. With fruiting trees scattered around Tucson, the Medjool dates, indigenous to Iraq, often end up going uncollected. However, this year, Iskashitaa worked in conjunction with Bartlett Tree Experts to get the fruit from the trees and into Iskashitaa’s hands. After harvesting any produce, Iskashitaa redistributes a portion to refugees, while also reserving a portion to make value-added products to sell at farmers markets. In the case of these dates, Borderlands also received some to make their Dunkelweizen.

You can try out the resulting beer at Borderlands on Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. For more information on Iskashitaa and their “Harvest Tucson” campaign to raise awareness about food waste, visit the organization's website. 

The Rosemont Mine Truth website looks at big changes at Hudbay Minerals, the parent company of Rosemont Copper, the company that wants to build a massive open-pit mine the Santa Rita Mountains:

Garofalo’s surprise resignation announced at the close of trading on Friday, Dec. 4 stunned investors and the company’s stock dropped 14 percent over the next four trading sessions on the NYSE. The stock has fallen from a peak of $18.70 in December 2010 to Thursday’s close of $3.95 during Garofalo’s tenure.

Garofalo leaves Hudbay after overseeing a period of rapid growth with the opening of two new mines in Canada and the Constancia open pit copper mine in Peru, which is by far its largest operation. He also leaves the company with $1.2 billion in debt that is putting a squeeze on its cash flow.

“With copper prices plummeting from $2.90 per pound in May 2015 to $2.06 per pound as of this writing, Hudbay Minerals is not having a very good 2015, and things could get even worse heading into 2016,” according to a Dec. 10 story in Seeking Alpha, an investment website.