It's baseball season at the UA and you know what that means? We're giving away tickets to the games! For this weekend, you can win four tickets to one of three matches against Sacramento State: 

- Friday, March 11 at 6 p.m.
- Saturday, March 12 at 2 p.m.
- Sunday, March 13 at 1 p.m.

Remember: Whoever wins has to have someone pick the tickets up before lock up at 5 p.m. on Friday. We'll call the winners Friday morning, so be by your phone (or call us back quickly!) or we might have to move on to a new winner. 

UPDATE: We've called some winners but they haven't called back! If you don't have a voicemail from me yet, you might get one in the early afternoon. 


Want to be there? Enter here: 

Good luck and have fun!

Republican Congressman Paul Gosar is going nuclear at news that Oak Flat will remain listed in the National Register of Historic Places, despite attempts by himself and U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democrat who alleges to stand by Native Americans, to withdraw the site from historic consideration.

The pair argued listing Oak Flat as a historic place would continue to sabotage plans by Resolution Copper to begin work on its controversial mine.

In a press release, Gosar alleges Oak Flat has never been a sacred site. And, according to a letter by former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Nation and organizer of the group Apache Stronghold Wendsler Nosie, Sr., Gosar is pressuring the National Forest Service to kick out members of the Apache Stronghold, as well as allies, who have occupied the area since the site was sold out to the mining company.

Gosar says in a press release that he is disappointed Oak Flat was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, "despite multiple bipartisan requests to withdraw the fundamentally-flawed nomination."

Shame on the Park Service and Forest Service for ramming a bogus historic place listing down the throats of Arizonans. Clearly, the Obama Administration cares more about pandering to extremist environmental groups and a D.C. lobbyist from the Clinton Administration than following the law and listening to the American public. Oak Flat has never been a sacred site, as confirmed by the local tribe’s own former historian. Yet, Obama’s minions are hell-bent on sabotaging an important mining effort by listing a small, public campground 20 miles away from the nearest tribe’s reservation as a historic site.

While there’s much to celebrate in the gastronomic world of Tucson lately, there’s also a lot of work to do and that doesn’t just mean giving money to your new favorite restaurant. After all, many of those pioneering autonomous organizations that helped win the city of Tucson its recent acclaim grew from a genuine need from the community and a lack of state funding or interest. One of the biggest food-related social justice issues to plague the Old Pueblo still is that of food deserts.

While it may seem like the term “food desert” is pretty much a given here in Tucson, know that it actually means “geographically isolated areas where access to healthy, affordable foods … is limited or non-existent because of the absence of full-service grocery stores within easy travel distance,” and those can exist anywhere—regardless of natural climate.

Unfortunately, according to a new study from Making Action Possible Dashboard for Southern Arizona (or MAP Dashboard for short), tens of thousands of people living in the city could be living in one of those food deserts where getting the nutritious foods that everyone needs (and enough of those foods) is nearly impossible.

The MAP Dashboard study, done in conjunction with UA’s Eller College of Management, Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and Southern Arizona Leadership Council, found that, depending on the criteria used, anywhere from 81,000 to 156,000 people in Tucson are currently living in food deserts.

Pregnancy and babies bring about thoughts of growing families, tiny socks, first steps—and safe deliveries. Sometimes, that's just not how birth happens. 

This Thursday, March 10 at 5:30 p.m., the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) presents Birth Happens: An International Look at Birth, an event that looks at birth on a global level. 

Tickets are $12 for general admission, $10 for Loft members. 

The Loft's description of the event: 

Every day, 364,501 children are born worldwide. That is 5 children per second and 300 per minute. All children are born with their own life story, their own family, their own environment, their own culture, and their own place in the world with their own future.

“The way in which a child comes into the world is a mirror of its society and the place where our cradle is determines our future.” – Birth Day filmmaker Lieve Blanquaert

Birth Happens is a one-time only event that brings together three films, which gives a glimpse into births around the world and what women are facing giving birth in various countries. “No Woman, No Cry” a film by Christy Turlington Burns, “Birth Day” a film by Lieve Blanquaert and “Giving Birth in America- New York” a film by Every Woman Counts showcase the challenges, complexities and conditions that women and families cope with when having a baby.

An informed discussion will take place after the films with international and public health experts to learn about their experiences and what is happening locally. Come join us and be a part of the discussion. Raffle and ManDonna, a black and white photo exhibit of dads and babies also presented this evening.

The event is presented by the Friends of  Midwifery and Sponsored by El Rio Community Health Services-Women's Services. 

This year, not one but two bills tried to allow parents to opt their children out of high stakes state testing. Both failed. On the other hand, in what I believe is a first in the nation, the legislature put a bill on Ducey's desk to allow schools to choose the state test they give to their students from a menu of options.

Basically, the "Opt Out" question boils down to how important and valuable you believe high stakes testing is. People who think the tests are a vital and accurate measure of student achievement are against allowing students to sit out the test because that messes up the sample. How can you measure the achievement of a given classroom or school unless all the students—or at least 95 percent of them—are tested? Then there are people who think our obsession with yearly high stakes testing is damaging our children's educations. They maintain the tests aren't a valid measure of student learning and achievement, they turn classrooms into teaching-to-the-test factories, and they stigmatize teachers and schools with students whose socioeconomic situations mean most of them will do poorly on the tests. Those people want to encourage parents to opt their children out as a step toward changing or eliminating the current testing regimen. (Full disclosure: I'm an opt out advocate for the reasons mentioned above.)

The state testing menu is a new and untried idea which is backed by most Republicans but has garnered a certain amount of bipartisan support. It goes like this. According to the bill, in addition to the yearly AzMERIT test which is currently required at all public schools, district and charter, "the State Board of Education shall adopt a menu of locally procured achievement tests to measure pupil achievement of the state academic standards." Districts and schools can choose any test from the menu, or they can find a different test and ask the board's permission to use it. The one exception is, if a school has a D or F grade, it has to stick with the AzMERIT exam.

Tina Fey makes a seamless transition to more dramatic fare with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the story of a female journalist dropped into the middle of the war in Afghanistan.

Based on the book The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker, the film has a MASH vibe to it when it’s at its best. Fey gets plenty of chances to be funny, but this is her meatiest role yet, allowing her to show off a more serious—and promising—side as an actress. When her life in New York gets too humdrum, Kim (Fey) winds up in Afghanistan with no major field reporting experience, dodging RPGs and filing stories nobody cares about. She has standard long distance relationship problems on top of that, along with an on site romance with a freelance photographer (Martin Freeman).

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love and Focus) the film pops on occasion, but spends a little too much time in dusty apartments rather than out in the field.

Margot Robbie is great, if a little underused, as another field reporter while the likes of Billy Bob Thornton and Alfred Molina perform admirably in supporting roles.

The film doesn’t always click, but it remains watchable thanks to Fey and, to a lessor extent, Robbie. It stands as an interesting turning point in Fey’s career. 

Tucson's favorite nautically-themed concept band is back at it, but this time it isn't special screen printed tees or LPs celebrating the eventual crab uprising. This time Krab Legz, which is comprised of Dimitri Manos (Golden Boots, American Monoxide, Dr. Dog) and Ben Schneider (Katterwaul, Whoops, etc.), is serving up a limited edition "Crab Meat To Go Lunch-Bag."

What the hell is a "Crab Meat To Go Lunch-Bag?" you ask.

Well, for just twenty-count 'em-twenty dollars, you can snag yourself all of the following in celebration of National Crab Meat Day:

• Side to Side Fantasy Cassette and Digital Download 
  
• Krab Legz comic book drawn by Lana Rebel 
  
• Krab Legz t-shirt designed by Ryen Eggleston
  
• The new Claws Across America 7” lathe cut record featuring Krab Legz (from Tucson) and Crab Legs (from Fargo) 
  

According to Manos, the split release with fellow crab leggers came as a result of an initial conflict between the two bands:

After me and Ben named our band “Crab Legs” we found out via Facebook that there was another band from Fargo named Crab Legs… and they were pissed that we took the name with out checking first. Me and Ben figured no one was dumb enough to name their band Crab Legs… OR, if they did, to care if there were multiple bands called Crab Legs…. but we were wrong. We had many exchanges with the other Crab Legs, not always pleasant. Eventually we conceded to change our name to “Krab Legz” and after all the nastiness we also decided to extend the olive branch and do a split 7” together: Claws Across America… and now we are friends! 

This very crabby lunch-bag will be available only at Wooden Tooth Records and Old Paint Records on Wednesday, March 9. So get out there and get you one.

Female StoryTellers is hosting a benefit show for Casa Alitas—a home that serves as temporary shelter for women and children recently released from an immigration detention center.

Casa Alitas, a program sponsored by Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, is one of many humanitarian entities at the receiving end of the massive surge of Central American migrants, which mostly includes tens of thousands of families and unaccompanied minors.

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement releases them from detention, the families are dropped off at Casa Alitas for food, water, new clothing, a warm bath and a bed to sleep in. The Casa  Alitas volunteers help them get in touch with family members in the U.S., as well as to buy bus tickets to head to their final destination, while they wait for their court hearings—whether for an asylum case or other opportunities to remain in the country.

In January, Casa Alitas head volunteer Jamie Flynn announced Female StoryTellers wanted to host a show to benefit the small shelter—a place that is in much-need of money, donations and volunteers.

In January I wrote about Rodney, a junior in one of my English classes in the 1980, who walked into my class one day wearing an "Ozzy for President!" T-shirt. "Ozzy for President!" he proclaimed proudly as he bounced past my desk. Rodney was a nice kid, though not the brightest I had, and something of a head banger wannabe. In the post, I imagined I asked him, "If Ozzy Osbourne was really running for president, if there was really a chance he'd be leading the United States of America, would you vote for him?" And I imagined Rodney replying, "Well, no, probably not . . . But wouldn't it be cool if Ozzy was president?"

I went on to postulate that Rodney was like a lot of Trump supporters, that they loved thinking about Trump as president, but when they were confronted by the possibility of him actually sitting in the Oval Office, they'd realize what a ridiculous idea it was. And I wrote that somewhere down the line, maybe not in the early primaries but later on, "Trump's support will start to crumble, and once that starts, there will be no stopping his downward slide."

I began the last paragraph of that post by writing, "But what do I know? I could be completely wrong." It's looking more and more like I was wrong, completely wrong, ridiculously wrong. Unless some of the recent anti-Trump advertising takes hold or people wake up from their reality show revery on their own, Trump will steamroll his way to the Republican nomination. I haven't completely lost faith, but I'm beginning to think Rodney, now in his late 40s, is one of those guys at a Black Sabbath concert Trump rally taking the pledge.

With all of his insulting comments against Mexican immigrants—and really all Latin American immigrants—GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump seems to have forgotten that there are millions of green card holders who are in the process of becoming U.S. citizens, or are already en route to naturalization, and will be able to vote very soon...as in, just in time for the election soon.

Although becoming a citizen is a quite expensive and lengthy process—I know from personal experience—Trump is the flame that started a gigantic fire within many Latin American immigrants to do whatever is in their power to become citizens and have a say in the electoral process.

The New York Times published an article Monday that profiles a Mexican family—the mom recently began attending workshops to help her learn more about U.S. history and politics for the citizenship test.