Monday, April 18, 2016
McSally’s fundraising machine is an astonishing thing to watch in action: Even before she was elected, she was one of the best congressional fundraisers in the country. She raises so much money that her accountants can barely keep track of all of it, as several amended FEC reports have shown.
Team McSally spends a lot of those dollars on that fundraising—in the last quarter, she reported expenses of just under $585,000—but she’s still had more than $2.2 million on hand as of March 31 for her reelection campaign.
That kind of enviable warchest certainly puts McSally in a great position going into the 2016 race for CD2, which includes eastern Pima County and all of Cochise County. But McSally still has to worry at least a little bit about how the national mood will affect the 2016 race. (If she weren’t worried about whether voters in CD2 will send her back for a second term, why would she be dodging the question of whether she would support Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket?)
Tags: Martha McSally , victoria steele , congress , arizona politics
Some people who plan to vote against Prop 123 believe that, since we won the battle for school funding in the courts, Prop 123 will mean losing what we've gained. If we vote down Prop 123, they believe, the court decision will come back into play and we'll get, not just 70 percent of what the state owes the schools but the whole 100 percent, and we'll get it without all those triggers Ducey and his henchmen built into the proposition which could let the legislature pull the money out from under the schools as easily as Lucy used to pull the football away from Charlie Brown. Under that scenario, defeating Prop 123 is a win-win.
It's a lovely thought. If it were true, even if it took a few years for the courts to force the legislature to pay up, I'd be at the front of the line voting against Prop 123. The problem is, it just ain't so. The courts can tell the legislature to pay up, but all the anti-public-school legislators have to do is shrug, fold their arms across their chests and say "Make Me!" That's it. Game over. The courts can't make the state pay up.
On Saturday, Tim Steller had an instructive column about the balance of power between the legislative and judicial branches in Arizona. The article is about Ducey's desire to pack the Supreme Court by adding two seats. Naturally, he'd be the one who would appoint the new justices meaning the court would be in his pocket. Supreme Court justices past and present say they don't want the two extra members and the court doesn't need them, but the current justices are reluctantly going along with the idea. Why? Because it would come with a much-needed ten million dollars for the court system, including a 3 percent raise. The reason the courts need the money so badly is that the legislature swept up $6 million to help balance the budget. To get it back, they have to bow to the governor's will. Of the two supposedly independent branches of government, the one holding the purse strings is a whole lot more independent than the other.
Tags: Proposition 123 , Doug Ducey , Arizona Supreme Court , Arizona legislature
Local beer lovers, I sincerely hope you don't have any plans this weekend because the Baja Beer Festival is taking place this Saturday, April 23 and you're going to want to be there.
Organizers of the annual Top Hops beer festival have joined forces with the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild for the inaugural Baja Beer Festival on April 23 at the Rillito Park. A truly local celebration, all proceeds benefit the Northwest Firefighters Charities and the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild.
The Baja Beer Festival will feature more than 50 breweries, 200 beers, local food vendors and live music. Part of the local focus also includes pairing up Arizona brewers with fire stations from across the state to collaboratively brew beers that event-goers will be able to sample at the event. These collaborative beers will also be judged at the event on April 23 by a panel of celebrity and home brewer judges.
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Mid-town brewer, Sentinel Peak, will be one of the breweries participating in the collaborative brew competition. All three Sentinel Peak owners are still active firefighters. “Not only are we firefighters, but we got our start and poured our first beer at Top Hops 4 years ago,” said owner Jeremy Hilderbrand. “As members of the AZ Craft Brewers Guild, we’re thrilled to see these two organizations join forces for Baja Beer Festival this year. It’s going to be a great time.”
Tags: baja beer festival , local beer , tucson beer , arizona beer
Hi I'm Betty Boop!
I'm a 2 year old little cutie looking for a home! I'm a really sweet little girl who loves people, playing and treats!
I need a home where I can get a lot of fun exercise time and would do well with positive reinforcement training! I'm very smart and willing to learn!
Stop by Humane Society of Southern Arizona Main Campus (3450 N. Kelvin Blvd) to meet me today!
Lots of love,
Betty Boop (822834)
Tags: pet adoptions , bring home a new friend , betty boop the dog , adopt don't shop
Yes, this is another one of those hitman comedies. There are many, too many to recount here, so I’ll just get to the point.
This one is pretty good because it has Sam Rockwell and Anna Kendrick in it. Actually, it’s only good because it has Rockwell and Kendrick in it. Kendrick plays a woman just out of a relationship after catching her boyfriend cheating (she has a drunk-closet scene that is very funny). Rockwell plays a hitman who wears a clown nose, dances when he kills, and likes to kill those who hire him to kill because killing is wrong. The two meet in a store and start an unorthodox relationship. They like the same sort of things and both have the ability to catch knives thrown at their face. She finds out he kills people and that sort of complicates things but they still give it a go.
It’s all stupid, well-worn territory, but the leads are good and they pull the material through. Kendrick, who is in a million movies lately (actually, six this year not counting this one), has solid comedic chops and she should be a bigger star than she is. She also brings a bit of the crazy, and it’s convincing. Rockwell is Rockwell and I can think of nobody better to play a dancing hitman. Tim Roth shows up as the guy who trained him. I have no idea what kind of accent Roth is doing at first. It’s sort of a Texan Christopher Walken kind of thing and it sounds pretty annoying. He actually winds up having a pretty good reason for the weird accent, so it’s forgivable. Anson Mount plays a crime lord with anger issues, and he’s one of the funnier things in the movie. It’s all kind of forgettable, but mildly enjoyable while it’s going on. (Available for rent on iTunes and Amazon.com during limited theatrical release).
Hundreds of protestors against the current Broadway Improvement Project gathered at the Sunshine Mile on Sunday, April 17. After musical performances and speeches, the group walked along a portion of the targeted area to Treat Avenue and repeated crossed Broadway Boulevard using the lighted pedestrian crosswalk while carrying signs bearing the slogan "streets for people." The Tucson City Council will vote on whether to proceed with the project on Tuesday.
Tags: Streets for people , broadway widening , protest , sunshine mile , broadway boulevard , broadway improvement project , Slideshow
Cirque Roots puts on the second of four showings of Spectrum: a Theatrical Stilt Dance & Acrobatic Spectacle at their studio on Friday, April 15. Dancer Erin Christine Deo opened the performance accompanied by Vasanta Weiss on vocals and the harmonium followed by Cirque Roots performers Jennifer Coughlan, Stephanie Cortes, Zoë Anderson, Brittany Briley and Leanne Marie with music by Jyshua Pcalyps in collaboration with Ian Browning. The all-female performance was put together over a series of four and a half months and addresses the idea that "we are the light we see in others." The troupe has been together for over four years and is getting ready to embark on a small tour around the Southwest both performing and teaching aspiring stilt walkers and acrobats.
Tags: Cirque Roots , Spectrum , stilt walking , stilts , acrobats , acrobatics , Cirque Roots Studio , Vasanta Weiss , Jyshua Pcalyps , Jennifer Coughlan , Stephanie Cortes , Zoë Anderson , Brittany Briley , Leanne Marie , Slideshow
Friday, April 15, 2016
April 17th, 2016 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.
On this week's lively episode of Zona Politics: Political strategists Rodd McLeod and Barrett Marson talk about Arizona House Speaker David Gowan's abandoned plan to force reporters to undergo background checks if they wanted access to the floor of the House of Representatives; Gowan's problems with the press; the Congressional District 1 race; the voting problems in the Arizona presidential primary; whether Ted Cruz will snatch Arizona's delegates from Donald Trump at the GOP convention; the recreational marijuana initiative that voters will likely decide in November; and the future of Clean Elections.With the UA's spring commencement ceremonies rapidly approaching, it's rare to pass by the iconic Old Main building without seeing a photo session in progress. Today, 90 AVID students from Spring Valley High School in Las Vegas, Nev. pose for a group photo on the stair case. The students, chaperoned by 10 parent and teacher volunteers, visited four campuses across Arizona this week to give students a feel for the differences between public and private, small and large universities.
Tags: UA , University of Arizona , campus , Old Main , group photo , AVID , high school students , college visit , Spring Valley High School
Tags: lizard , reptile , Arizona wildlife , UA campus , rocks
