Two environmental organizations want to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service if the agency doesn't make an official decision soon on whether to add monarch butterflies to the Endangered Species Act or not.

(They prefer the species be protected.)

In August 2014, the Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety advocated for the species after seeing an 80 percent decline in its population in the last two decades—going from 1 billion butterflies in the mid-1990s to 56.5 million this past winter (or an 82 percent decrease), a Center for Biological Diversity press release says. Four months later, Fish and Wildlife issued a "positive" response on said numbers,, and began to look into the butterfly's status. But it's been more than one year and Fish and Wildlife still hasn't issued a legally-required "12-month finding" that will determine whether the butterfly will be protected or not, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The population is expected to undergo a sizable rebound this winter due to favorable spring and summer weather, but monarchs need a very large population size to be resilient to threats from severe weather events. A single winter storm in 2002 killed an estimated 500 million monarchs — eight times the size of the entire current population. Severe weather is expected to take a toll on the population later this winter due to the strong El Niño this year.

With a lawsuit, Fish and Wildlife would be forced into committing to a "legal binding date" for its final decision to either propose the monarch's protection under the Endangered Species Act, reject protection, or add the butterfly to a candidate waiting list for protection, the press release says.

Although the Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will provide a total of $3.2 million to support monarch conservation projects, that total falls far short of the funding that would be required by Endangered Species Act protection to restore enough monarch habitat to ensure the butterfly’s future.

The decrease in population is largely attributed to the "widespread planting of genetically engineered crops in the Midwest, where most monarchs are born," the release says. A herbicide used by Monsanto kills milkweed, which is the butterflies sole source of food. Also, the center estimates that in the last two decades, the butterflies have lost more than 165 million acres of habitat (roughly the size of Texas).

Global climate change, drought and heat waves also contribute, the center says.
 

Remember the days of driving south to "Tucson Electric Park" to catch a Diamondbacks spring training game? Well, I can't bring those days back but I can help you slightly offset the cost of driving up to Phoenix to relive those glory days. 

Get your credit card ready, because Tucsonans can grab up discounted tickets on Friday:

The Arizona Diamondbacks announced today that Tucson residents will receive 50 percent off all 2016 Spring Training games at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick which are purchased during an exclusive one-day offer tomorrow, Jan. 8 online at dbacks.com/spring.

The offer, which is available only at dbacks.com/spring, will take place from 9 a.m. (MST) until midnight on Friday.

The promotional code 16LEGACY must be used in conjunction with a Pima County zip code when purchasing the tickets online. The promotion is good for up to eight tickets per account in select sections.

Tickets for all 17 D-backs Spring Training home games at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick go on sale to the general public this Saturday, Jan. 9.

In this week's Chow feature, chef Erika Bostick of The Coronet talked about some of her favorite uses for the veggies in season now. From harmonious salads to clever starchy substitutes, Bostick crafts vegetable-centric dishes that highlight the labors of local farmers right. After taking over operations at Agustin Kitchen, she sought to add color to the restaurant's menu with, of course, more veggies.

One way Bostick preserves local flavor for future use is in her giardiniera. The traditional Italian condiment is a staple, and anyone who's been to Chicago knows that it can really liven up a sandwich. Bostick says her giardiniera is the best in town, recommending that it be put on grilled bratwurst, added to an antipasto tray (as it is at The Coronet) or even put in a grilled cheese for "a weird yet delicious addition."

Here's how it's done:

Giardiniera

(Yield: 1/2 gallon)

Vegetable mix:
2 red sweet peppers, cut into 1/2” pieces
5 celery ribs, sliced 1/2”
5 carrots, sliced 1/2”
1 large head cauliflower, cut into small florets
1/2 cup salt

Dressing:
1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar
2 cloves garlic, slivered
4 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
3 cup white vinegar
3 cup light olive oil

In a large bowl, mix the vegetables and salt until well combined. Transfer to bowl and cover with cool water. Cover with lid or dish towel and allow the mixture to sit, unrefrigerated, for 8 to 12 hours.

Next Day:
Drain the vegetables and rinse thoroughly. Pack the vegetables into glass jars with lids. In a bowl whisk remaining ingredients. Pour dressing onto vegetables. Screw lids onto jars and gently shake to coat all vegetables with dressing. Refrigerate and it's ready to serve in 48 hours.

Quentin Tarantino returns to form after the just-okay Django Unchained with yet another masterpiece, a grandiose western potboiler that boasts his best dialogue in years and an Oscar caliber performance from Jennifer Jason Leigh.

I didn’t dislike Django, but I thought there was something a little off and sluggish about it. It definitely left me wanting more from Tarantino on the western front. I thought he had a better, grittier western still in him, and this film proves that he did.

Many of the Tarantino cast regulars return, including Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Kurt Russell. Russell, who delivered what I believe is his best career work in Tarantino’s Death Proof as Stuntman Mike, gets another chance to go to town with a Tarantino script and he embraces it with much enthusiasm. Russell plays John “The Hangman” Ruth, a bounty hunter renowned for bringing in his prisoners alive so that their necks meet the noose in the end. Riding in a stagecoach to Red Hook, with the notorious Daisy Domergue (Leigh), his latest bounty, chained to his arm, he comes across bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren (Jackson), and this is where the fun begins. The party rescues one more man, future Red Hook Sheriff Chris Mannix (an outstanding Walton Goggins), from an oncoming blizzard.

The stagecoach heads for Minnie’s Haberdashery as a means of shelter, where they meet the rest of the cast and tensions soar. On top of being a terrific mystery containing one of the best screenplays Tarantino has ever turned out, this is also one of his very best looking films. Do not miss it on the big screen.

Here's yet another national school ranking reported on in this morning's Star with expected, if a bit eccentric results. A company, niche.com, founded by some Carnegie Mellon University students over a decade ago, has developed a rating system for all the public schools in the country, district and charter. Here's the national list, and here's the Arizona top 100 ranking. Some schools are missing, I think because the company didn't have all the necessary data.

The rankings are approximate at best. Any company that tries to rate all schools across the country has to be using a crude instrument that takes a few variables and crunches them into some kind of formula. Niche.com uses factors like academics, health & safety, student culture & diversity, teachers, extracurriculars and sports to generate a number. High score wins.

But, crude though the rankings may be, they're pretty predictable. The Arizona top ten tend to be districts in high rent areas and charters with selective student bodies. Chandler Preparatory Academy in number one. It's part of the Great Hearts charter school chain, with schools parked in affluent areas which have a variety of ways to make sure they have select student bodies—except for one Great Hearts school in a less affluent area which, no surprise, isn't nearly as highly rated as the others. BASIS Scottsdale is number two, a school that the U.S. News & World Report's high school rankings left out because its student body was too selective to be included.

Catalina Foothills district comes in fourth. Other Tucson-area districts making the top ten are Amphitheater, Vail and Tanque Verde.

Here we have yet another ranking which reinforces the idea that "successful" schools have students who have been groomed for academic success by their socioeconomic status, and "less successful" schools have students who are lower on the socioeconomic ladder. What that's saying, basically, is that the students are more or less successful, not the teachers or the administration or the curriculum or the facilities. Unless, of course, you think that the faculty, administration and curricula at schools in high rent areas are vastly superior —emphasis on "vastly" — to those in poorer areas. They would have to be vastly superior to create such consistent disparities without a lot of help from the students who walk through the schoolhouse doors.

Teachers in Arizona are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate. The state simply cannot retain its educators because of low salaries and a lack of monetary investment in the school system.

These, and several others education shortfalls in our state, will be at the core of a forum tomorrow morning, primarily hosted by the organization, Tucson Values Teachers. 

The group recently conducted a survey on the reasons teachers are quitting their positions, or moving away from Arizona altogether. Two of the biggest concerns among a group of more than 6,000 educators were low wages and feeling disrespected by the state. 

Katie Rogerson, Tucson Values Teachers' interim executive director and director of marketing and outreach, as well as one of the authors of the survey, says:

The survey provided insight to the current teacher workforce crisis, and the problems go well beyond inadequate pay. Teachers also feel that they're not valued or respected by the community, that they're not being trusted to do their jobs without micromanagement, and that the time commitment has become overbearing.

The discussion, "Let's Talk Ed," is bringing together education representatives with local and national officials to talk about what is fueling this issue, and the solutions the state needs to follow to retain its K-12 teachers.

President Obama just finished giving a speech about measures he plans to take using executive action to try and lower the incidence of gun violence in this country. I'm not going to outline his plans. You can read and hear about them all over the media. If you want, you can learn how terrible "Emperor Obama's decrees" are from the NRA, the right wing press and Republican presidential candidates. The fact is, Obama isn't doing much. He can't do much without Congress passing laws, and the NRA is holding enough members of Congress at electoral gunpoint that nothing is going to happen there for a long while. What Obama proposes won't create any major changes in the availability of guns, and it won't bring down the level of gun violence significantly. But it will make some difference. It's something. It's what he can do. It's a small but important step.

I lock my doors when I leave the house. That won't stop someone who is serious about wanting to rob me. Anyone who has the necessary skill and determination can stake out my house, figure out when it's empty, then either pick a lock or use a hardware store glass cutter to get in and take what they want. It's not that difficult. I take security measures to make it harder for the casual thief to bust in, grab a few items and run. If the doors are locked and the windows are closed, that should be enough to discourage someone who isn't absolutely bound and determined to get in.

Making it harder for bad actors and people with mental illnesses to get guns won't keep guns out of all their hands, but it will stop a shooting here and a shooting there, which means a few people who otherwise would be injured or killed by gunfire will be spared. It's not going to reduce the 30,000 annual deaths from firearms significantly. But it's a start. And it will help keep the conversation going, maybe bend it enough that people realize the right for decent people to bear arms won't be impeded by measures designed to keep firearms out of the hands of people who plan to harm others.

It's that time again, ballet fans! In the fall, Ballet Tucson gave us tickets to a few of their shows for the 2015-16 season.

It's time to give away a few pairs of tickets to the winter concert, Rhythms of the Americas. There are shows Feb. 5-7, and winners will be able to select which performance they attend. 

We'll get in touch with the winners at the end of the week (those not lucky enough to win can pick tickets up here). Then, stay tuned! We've got one more giveaway coming up in about a month.

To enter our Ballet Tucson giveaway, fill out the form here: 

President Barack Obama referenced the Jan. 8, 2011 mass shooting in Tucson during the announcement of his executive actions on gun control—the tragedy's fifth anniversary is just three days away.

The president said during a speech this morning that when he saw former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she recovered from being shot in the head, he wasn't sure she was going to survive. That day, six people died, and a total of 13, including Giffords and former congressman Ron Barber, were wounded.

Then there's the deadly shooting of 26 people, including 20 kindergartners and first-grades, in Newtown, Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School three years ago (the president tearfully remembered the young victims), the 2012 shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, and the 330 mass shootings that occurred in 2015—these are reasons enough to enact tougher policies on who gets to own a gun and who doesn't. 

From now on, everyone who plans to sell weapons must get a federal license and conduct background checks or be subject to criminal prosecution—whether selling guns online or at the gun show. This is an attempt to close the so-called "gun show loophole." Obama said the FBI will make background checks more efficient and quicker, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is getting more funding to hire a greater number of agents and investigators. Obama also demanded improving gun safety technology.

He said mental health coverage in this country needs dramatic changes to make sure everyone is getting the care they need. Billions of dollars have been cut from mental health services in the U.S., and "For those in Congress who so often rush to blame mental illness for mass shootings...here is your chance to support these efforts. Put your money where your mouth is," Obama said in his speech. The executive actions ask for $500 million in new funding for mental health services.  




U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva celebrated Obama's move, and issued this statement:

Gabby’s attack made this issue personal for every single Member of Congress. If not then, then when? If not after Newtown, when 26 children and adults were massacred, then when? If not after terrorists opened fire at a facility for the developmentally disabled in San Bernardino, then when? The answer is never for Congressional Republicans, because they’re already bought and sold by the gun industry.

The NRA will try to say this is solely about taking away our Second Amendment rights, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their number one goal is maintaining gun sales, while the number one goal of Congressional leaders should be the safety of the American people. President Obama took steps today to rise above the GOP’s intransigence on gun violence, and proposed much-needed investments in our enforcement and mental health capabilities. I look forward to working with him and our next president to build on this success.

While others greatly criticized the president.

U.S. Sen. John McCain issued this statement:

President Obama’s executive orders on gun control are just the first of thousands of new unilateral actions that the White House plans to roll out this year that are projected to cost American businesses and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars. With these unconstitutional executive orders, President Obama has once again ignored the separation of powers and disregarded the rule of law. Regardless of merit, this is a classic abuse of executive power. These issues must be debated and decided by the representatives of the people – not by executive fiat. I will continue to uphold my obligation as an elected official in Congress to push back on all of President Obama’s unconstitutional actions.

Statement from U.S. Rep. Martha McSally:

While we can all agree we want to keep our communities safe from terrorism and gun violence, today’s orders from the President, which he’s unilaterally forcing on the American people, would do little to improve our safety. If he really wanted to improve security, he’d get serious about addressing the very real, very capable ISIS threat. His Administration’s feeble response has allowed radical Islamists to grow and spread their terror globally and at home, as we’ve seen in the recent string of massacres that have occurred at their hands in the United States, Europe, and around the world.

In addition, while the President’s orders recognize we must better address mental illness, he should be working with Congress, not going around us. I’ve introduced a bipartisan bill to help our communities better identify and treat mental illness and help prevent the mentally ill from obtaining firearms. It has widespread support from the mental health community, social workers, law enforcement, and Second Amendment advocates, to name a few. It also gets to the root of the problem and is the type of legislation that can actually move forward in a divided government, which is where our focus should be. I’ll continue to work to get results and make a difference for Southern Arizonans.

This isn't about infringing anyone's constitutional rights, it is a commonsense approach to make this country safer, Obama said. It's as simple as passing a background check, then people can purchase a gun. The way the system is set up right now makes it easy for dangerous people with serious criminal convictions—from domestic violence to aggravated assault—to get their hands on weapons, the president added.

After Sandy Hook, Obama supported a gun control bill that went nowhere because most Republicans in Congress voted against it, even though many Republican voters support commonsense gun control, he said.

"How did this become such a partisan issue?" Obama asked. "Gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage but it cannot hold America hostage. We know we can't stop every act of violence, every act of evil in the world, but maybe we can stop one act of evil, one act of violence. We know background checks make a difference."

After Connecticut passed a law demanding tougher background checks to buy weapons, gun violence decreased by 40 percent, while in states like Missouri, where residents can purchase guns without restriction, gun violence rates are among the worst in the nation, Obama said. 

"Yes, it will be hard and it won't happen overnight, it won't happen during this Congress, it won't happen during my presidency, but a lot of things don't happen overnight," he said. "A woman's right to vote didn't happen overnight, liberation of African-Americans didn't happen overnight, LGBT rights...that was decades worth of work. Just [because] it's hard, that is no excuse not to try."

"If we love our kids, love this country and care about its future, we can find the courage to vote...mobilize...cut through all the noise and do what a sensible country would do. That is what we are doing today, and tomorrow we should do more, and we should do more the day after that. If we do that, we will leave behind a nation stronger than the one we inherited."

Congratulations Tucson, you are among the top 10 most active cities in the country. 

When it comes to exercising and roaming the outdoors, the Old Pueblo ranks 7th among 100 of the U.S.'s most populated metro areas, according to a report by the website Wallethub.

The site looked at things like monthly gym fees, number of swimming pools and public parks that are available to the public, how many fitness clubs there are, and other "incentives" that make it easier for people to be active. The report says that it's not entirely up to us—our cities and counties have to ensure everyone has access to playgrounds, tracks, and other places where we can exercise for free or for an affordable price. It's about investing in health.

Maintaining an active lifestyle not only improves the overall quality of life, but it’s also a much cheaper alternative to fighting and preventing illness. Promoting healthy choices, however, requires a collaborative effort among city officials and residents.

In Tucson, we also get lucky with Tumamoc, Sentinel Peak, Sabino Canyon and so on. It's definitely not torture to be active in our desert. 

Fellow Arizonan city Scottsdale is the most active city, and Laredo, Texas is the least.

Check out the entire report here.