Toward the end of his State of the State Address, Gov. Ducey said he's going to get tough on deadbeat dads.

For fathers out there who aren't meeting their obligations, we also have a plan. I'm talking to deadbeat dads. For too long, you've been able to remain anonymous - able to skirt your financial and legal responsibilities with no shame. Not anymore.

Some people have referred to me as the "Hash-tag Governor." Well here's a new one for all the deadbeat dads out there: Effective immediately, the state is going to begin posting the photos, names and money owed by these losers to social media, with the hash-tag "deadbeat."

Earlier in the address, Ducey patted himself on the back for his support of our school children. He spoke of "a monumental, bipartisan, 3.5 billion dollar solution" that will "put our kids and teachers first." He's undeserving of the praise he heaped upon himself. What he's offering to our school children actually makes him and the leaders of the state legislature, Andy Biggs and David Gowan, worthy of being the first recipients of the #deadbeat hashtag.

Here's how Ducey's promise of educational child support should be viewed in the court of public opinion. The state is four years behind on the payment to schools the taxpayers voted for in 2000. Ducey, Biggs and Gowan say, we're not planning to make any back payments. Let's forget about that, wipe out the billion-plus dollars we owe. We'll start paying now, at seventy cents on the dollar. Actually, the payments won't start now. They'll start a year from now. And, really, we can't guarantee we'll start making payments then. That'll only happen if the voters say it's OK. If the voters approve the deal we're offering them, most of the money won't come out of our pockets: the state budget. It'll come out of early payments from the state land trust fund which was set up to help pay for our children's educations now and in the future. Oh, and we'll only keep paying if we can afford it. If in the future our income drops, either because the state economy suffers from bad times or we deplete our coffers by giving tax breaks to our rich friends, we'll stop payment.

That doesn't sound like a "monumental" solution to me. It doesn't sound like Ducey, Biggs and Gowan plan to "put our kids and teachers first." It sounds like deadbeat dads paying as little as they can get away with, and with no guarantee they'll keep making the payments.

#deadbeat. #ArizonaEducation.

'And the stars look very different today.' RIP David Bowie. In Honor, @Cmdr_Hadfield's version of Space Oddity: https://t.co/tVUTooNr3m

— NASA (@NASA) January 11, 2016

NASA has resurrected retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's cover of "Space Oddity" to say farewell to the late David Bowie.

This is part five of a journal I’m keeping during my month working at a refugee camp in Greece. Part four, covering a week of shore rescues and work as an interpreter, is here.


Dec. 28

The day has finally come to spend the rest of my donated money. I met with two friends and drove around the city of Mytilene, looking for box stores to buy gloves and shoes in bulk. We settled for a Chinese store downtown, making three different trips to spend every dollar we had raised.

We didn’t count everything, but we got roughly 25 pairs of shoes, 100 pairs of socks, 50 pairs of gloves, 50 pairs of underwear, 20 jackets, plus assorted clothes for children and women.


We then went to Moria, the largest refugee camp on the island, in the afternoon to link up with the two Spanish women I would share rides with for the week. They had returned to Camp Pikpa, a camp for refugees with special health considerations that I previously worked at, for the afternoon. I instead used a very expensive taxi and soon realized how far out the new hotel is. 15 euros a night for a quality hotel near the camp was too good to be true!

I considered returning to the tent at Camp Pikpa that night. My new room was very cold, didn’t have hot water, and was 40 minutes from work at Camp Moria. I missed my friends at Pikpa and spent the cold night feeling like I was on the moon. I wanted to be in my old tent at Pikpa.

I promised to take 24 hours before making a decision.

Over the years, I've written many posts about the shoddy corporate practices and poor student performance at schools run by K12 Inc., the for-profit, publicly traded online education corporation (Its Arizona charter school, Arizona Virtual Academy, has 4,600 students sitting behind their computers at home, if, that is, they actually take the time and effort to log in and do the work). I wrote my most recent post about the corporations's sinking stock value a few weeks ago. And I've written a few times that Arizona's Craig Barrett sits on K12 Inc.'s Board of Directors. But this is the first time I've written about his compensation. For the fiscal year 2015, Barrett received $190,000 from the corporation. Barrett is a very, very busy man with his fingers in a whole lot of pies. You can be certain he didn't put in 40 hour weeks to earn his Board pay.

Why, you may ask, should we care about Barrett's involvement in K12 Inc.? The answer is, Barrett is a powerful voice in Arizona education, advocating for what he says are necessary reforms to improve our schools. He's not shy when it comes to talking about his connections and accomplishments. For instance, he's happy to announce that he's President and Chairman of BASIS Schools, Inc., the for-profit Education Management Organization that runs the chain of BASIS schools. But so far as I know, he never talks about his connection to the shoddy, failing K12 Inc. I've looked hard on the internet, read his op eds, listened to some of his interviews and speeches. When it comes to K12 Inc. — nothing but crickets. A man as proud of his accomplishments as Barrett should be more open about this aspect of his educational life, and more forthcoming about what he, as a board member, is doing to improve the corporate and educational culture at K12 Inc.

Craig Barrett's list of connections and accomplishments is vast. He's the retired CEO of Intel, and he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As I mentioned earlier, he's President and Chairman of BASIS Schools Inc. He's also a board member of Achieve, Inc., which was instrumental in creating and promoting the Common Core standards, as well as an influential member of any number of education-related organizations. He travels around the world promoting STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), and he's very outspoken about what he thinks is wrong with Arizona education and what should be done to fix it. His ideas fall squarely in the privatization/"education reform" camp. During Jan Brewer's governorship, he chaired her Arizona Ready Education Council which worked to steer the state's education priorities, most of which are being carried forward by Gov. Ducey's Classrooms First Initiative Council. It's fair to say he's the most powerful unelected individual in Arizona education.

"Best of Tucson? Didn't we just finish up with that?"

Yep.

Best of Tucson is one of our biggest issues every year, and that means it's on our minds about 10 months out of the year. We're just about ready to look over last year's ballot, cut out the categories nobody cares about, and add categories to help make this guide to the Old Pueblo more complete. 

So, what do you want? More Kids' Stuff in general? Something specific in Arts & Culture? Most deadly pothole? We're listening. 

Get a look at last year's list and let us know in the comments below what you think we're missing, then look out for our 2016 ballot which could be on its way as early as next month.

Recently, a friend described waffles to me as a crispier, but ultimately less satisfying pancake. However, if you've had a hot, freshly-made waffle, you know that they're definitely in a league of their own. While pondering the absolute wrongness of my friend, let's all rejoice in the fact that Tucson is getting a brand new waffletorium in the way of the Wafflelicious food truck.

With waffle-wrapped waffle dogs, chicken and waffles, a bacon cheeseburger betwixt two waffles and chocolate-and-sprinkles smothered waffles, Wafflelicious aims to celebrate the sweet and savory capabilities of waffles. Prices run from $7 to $10.

Wafflelicious will make its Tucson debut on Friday, Jan. 15 when the truck posts up outside of Arizona Beer House (150 S. Kolb Road). The truck will be serving from 5 until 9 p.m. After that, you can stay up to date with the truck's whereabouts by following it on Facebook.

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly capped a week in the spotlight of the gun-violence debate by jumping aboard the Hillary Clinton bandwagon. Giffords posted her argument in favor of Clinton on Medium. An excerpt:

Most of the people running for president talk a lot about how tough they are. But most of them have shown they aren’t tough enough to stand up to the gun lobbyists.

Take it from me: Talk is cheap.

In fact, a lot of the people running for president seem downright terrified to even have a rational conversation about the problem of gun violence in America. We’ve listened closely to all of them, and we’ve looked at all of their records.

Only one candidate for president has the determination and toughness to stand up to the corporate gun l0bby — and the record to prove it. That candidate is Hillary Clinton.

Time and time again, Hillary has done and said what is right, not what is politically expedient. That’s why Mark and I are supporting her for President of the United States.

As a United States Senator, Hillary voted for laws that keep guns out of the wrong hands and make our communities safer places to live. She voted against protecting gun manufacturers at all costs and insisted on putting the safety of our communities over manufacturers’ bottom lines. And we believe that as president she will continue working to respect the rights of law-abiding gun owners like us while working to achieve practical solutions like a reliable background check system that prevents dangerous people from getting guns, closing loopholes to protect women and families by keeping guns out of the hands of abusers and stalkers, and cracking down on the illegal gun trade.

Hillary and I share a proud tradition of women leading on issues that impact all Americans and getting things done. We have taken on tough races, relied on other strong women to have our backs — and we have never, ever shied away from a tough fight or a tough vote.

Today, Mark and I are proud to have Hillary’s back, and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her to, once and for all, break the stranglehold the corporate gun lobby has had on American politics — and American families — for too long.

Speaking is still physically difficult for me. I do hours and hours of speech therapy. And in January, I hope to call my friend Hillary ‘Madam President.’

David Bowie died at the young age of 69 yesterday, taken far too young by cancer. Frequent collaborator Tony Visconti says that his final album, Blackstar, was Bowie's way of saying goodbye. From Visconti's Facebook page:

He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life - a work of Art. He made Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry.

Ahead of yesterday’s town hall meeting with President Barack Obama on the topic of gun violence, retired astronaut Mark Kelly and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords talked with some Arizona reporters.

Thinking about the years that have passed since Tucson’s 2011 mass shooting, Kelly said “it’s kind of unbelievable to think that five years have gone by. Five years is a long time and in some ways, in seems like a long time.”

Gabby echoed: “Long time.”

“And in other ways,” Kelly continued, “it feels like was yesterday.”

“Yesterday,” Gabby said.

Kelly talked about what the couple is up to these days. Gabby had quite a year; she broke her femur training for her El Tour de Tucson appearance, but still managed to complete the 40-mile stretch she set out to do. And in the year ahead, she hopes to dust off her old French horn and start horseback riding again. Kelly is working with former Biospherians Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum on World View Enterprises, which hopes to use high-altitude balloons to take passengers on high-altitude balloon rides to the edge of space. Kelly hopes to pilot a test run later this year.

Both Giffords and Kelly have been traveling a lot in conjunction with their work with Americans for Responsible Solutions, the gun-safety organization they founded in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., which left 20 young kids and six adults dead.

Kelly said the group is now looking at what kind of campaigning it will do in the 2016 election cycle.

They are both supportive of the “really significant” executive actions that President Barack Obama announced earlier this week.

What's it going to be: A weekend out on the town or curled up at home watching some movies? I mean technically if you stop by Casa Video's new Film Bar before checking out your movies, you're doing both. Think about it.

Here's your weekly Casa Video Top 10, a list of the movies you and everybody else wanted to watch last weekend:  

1. Bone Tomahawk

2. A Walk in the Woods

3. Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation