Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller’s embattled communications staffer, Timothy DesJarlais, quit his job on Friday, June 3.

In case you're counting, that makes at least 11 staff members that Miller has burned through since taking office three-and-a-half years ago.

DesJarlais, 19, had been in the media spotlight every since a strange news website, the Arizona Daily Herald, emerged in mid-May. The Herald was purportedly the work of editor Jim Falken, who does not exist, except as an alias that DesJarlias has used in online gaming and various odd projects, such as the development of a fantasy nation called the Independent Republic of Dido Place, named for the street on which DesJarlais lives with his parents.

Despite the links between DesJarlais and Jim Falken, DesJarlais has denied being behind the Arizona Daily Herald and initially pointed the finger at another Republican activist, John Dalton. After Miller leveled accusations at Dalton, however, Dalton told the press that he didn’t know anything about the entire bizarre affair, but he would like someone to get to the bottom of it so he could take legal action against whoever was pretending to be him. And then another sketchy email arrived in the email boxes of various members of the media and political activists, claiming to be from another John Dalton who took the blame for the entire affair—except no one seems to be able to locate this second John Dalton, which suggests that he also does not exist. Or at least that what is suggests to us—Miller and her allies say that that the emergence of a second John Dalton who exists only as someone who sends emails clears DesJarlais of all charges.

Nonetheless, Miller has stood behind DesJarlais, suggesting the media should be ashamed of following the story and besmirching her staffer’s good name. Miller and DesJarlais went as far as to file reports with the FBI alleging identity theft.

If all this seems absurdly complicated—well, it is, so if you want the details, you should check our coverage here, here and here.

In the meantime, we’re waiting to see if the FBI has any interest in investigating this nonsense. And Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson has asked County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry to look into what’s going on. Huckelberry has asked Sheriff Chris Nanos to check in with the FBI to find out if an investigation is underway. Huckelberry is holding off on any other action until the county is able to fulfill a massive public-records request from the Tucson Sentinel that might get to the bottom of whether DesJarlais was moonlighting as Jim Falken, intrepid reporter for the Arizona Daily Herald—and, more importantly, whether Miller had any knowledge of that project.
Huckelberry said those records could “shed some light as to any county equipment being used on premises or owned by the county—computer systems or phones or anything else, or employees doing similar actions while being paid by the public.”

We hear that Miller’s office is now reviewing thousands of pages related to that record request, so it might be awhile before we get to the bottom of this. Stay tuned!

Grab the kids and head over to Tohono Chul Park every Tuesday this month to explore the desert. 

Explore, learn and have fun as Tohono Chul Park showcases different parts of the desert each week, explaining how important they are for our ecosystem. 
Each week there will be something new to discover from 8 to 10 a.m., at the Tohono Chul Park, located at 7336 N. Paseo del Norte. 

The first discovery day kicks off Tuesday, June 7, and will continue every week through June 28. 

The themes for each week are as follows:

June 7: Bats and Saguaros
June 14: Reptiles 
June 21: Pollinators
June 28: Desert Weather & Monsoon

For members and children admission is free, but regular admission prices apply for non-member adults.  

Interested in discovering the beauty of your desert? Visit the Tohono Chul Park website or call 742-6455 ext. 228 to register for a spot. 

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing one of the biggest health care systems in the U.S. for denying transition-related coverage to transgender employees, according to an ACLU press release.

The federal lawsuit was filed against Dignity Health on behalf of Josef Robinson, a transgender man who works as an operating room nurse at Chandler Regional Medical Center. Dignity refused to cover transition-related treatment—often referred to as gender dysphoria treatment—that was prescribed by Robinson's doctor. According to the ACLU, Robinson had to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket. He then filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, "which issued a determination finding reasonable cause to believe that the Dignity Health insurance plan discriminates against Robinson on the basis of sex and authorized him to sue the health system," the ACLU says.

The lawsuit argues Dignity Health has a "discriminatory insurance policy" that "contradicts widely accepted medical standards and violates federal law," the press release says. The provider's refusal to cover medically necessary transition care discriminates on the basis of sex, violating even the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, including gender identity, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. 

San Francisco-based Dignity Health operates 39 hospitals and more than 400 care centers in Arizona, California and Nevada. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 

This is as brutal a satire you will ever see. Writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos gives us a world where being single is so frowned upon, you will be transformed into the animal of your choice if you don’t find a partner in an allotted time.

Colin Farrell stars as David, a recently dumped man who must stay at a hotel with his brother (who is also his dog) and find a new mate or become a lobster.

He eventually finds himself living in the woods with the leftover single people, who must dodge daily hunting expeditions by people looking to extend their time before animal transformation (they earn extra days for every single person they bag). David eventually meets Short Sighted Woman (Rachel Weisz) among the singles, and he finds himself needing to make some big decisions on how to start a relationship with her. The film is intentionally drab in its look, with all of the actors delivering their lines with nearly no emotion. The effect is just plain nasty, a scathing indictment on a society that puts too much pressure on individuals to become couples. It’s often extremely funny, with an equal amount of necessary unpleasantness.

Simply said, it’s one of those movies that you can call truly original. There’s nothing else like it. 

It's time! Thanks to everyone who voted in the first round of Best of Tucson®! Our number of voters grows every year and we are delighted you're helping us provide this annual guide to Tucson. 

Now, down to business. We've tallied your votes from round one and compiled a list of finalists so it is now time for you guys to help us honor our Tucson favorites. 

Fill out your ballot to see who made it to the finals. You've got until July 30 to submit your votes.

This weekend Bank of America is giving its cardholders a nice summer treat with their monthly Museums on Us program.

Museums on Us allows any Bank of America and Merrill Lynch cardholders free admission to more than 150 participating museums in 33 states and 101 cities the first weekend of every month.

Participating here in Tucson is the Tucson Museum of Art &H istoric Block. The Museum offers a number of great exhibits. The most recently added exhibits include Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animal / Zodiac Heads: Gold, and Into the Night: Modern and Contemporary Art and the Nocturne Tradition. The other exhibits currently at the museum are listed on the Tucson Museum of Art website.

All that Bank of America and Merrill Lynch cardholders need to do to gain their free admission to participating Museums is present their credit or debit card and photo ID.

Bank of America says they’ve introduced this program to “provide its customers with free access to artistic and cultural experiences across the United States at some of the nation’s most celebrated cultural institutions ranging from art, children’s and history museums to aquariums and science centers.”

If you’re out of town and want to know if there are any participating museums in the city you’re visiting Bank of America has a list on their website. 

This may be your only opportunity to say that your bank helped you learn something without monthly payments plus interest.

Student loan jokes aside this is an admirable promotion that people should take advantage of.

This past Wednesday afternoon I received frantic calls and texts from my mother and sister, asking me if my childhood friend, a UCLA student, was alright. Without any knowledge that a shooting had happened on the campus I somehow immediately knew that was the scenario my family members were referring to.

My friend is fine, but this isn’t about him. My immediate assumption when asked about the well-being of a college age friend was that there was a school shooting, and I was right.

It’s a bit ridiculous that public shootings have become so common in our society that they are the first thought some have when they’ve heard something is wrong. More frustrating than that is how we respond to these shootings. After each there is yet another call to change policies, and put in
preventative measures, which gets national attention for a week then fades away.

The reason often given for gun violence debates fading away, until of course the next shooting
comes around, is gridlock in our government. Democrats call for gun control, and recently Republicans have started calling for mental health care reform. Neither side is wrong: Better gun control and better mental health care would both likely reduce gun violence.

What happened at UCLA was fairly mild compared to other recent shootings years, but that should not diminish it. 

Reform aimed at fighting gun violence has been proposed many times over the past few years. Currently the U.S legislature is tossing around the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016. The act aims to make health care more accessible to those who need it. Hopefully this will pass, because when nothing gets done it doesn’t really matter who is right and who is wrong.

A new biography on rock drummer Keith Moon compiled by Ian Snowball is set to be released on June 13.

The name of the book, Keith Moon: There Is No Substitute, pays homage to Moon's unique role in the rock band The Who by referencing one of their popular songs “Substitute.” Moon is arguably one of the greatest rock drummers of all time.

As an early rocker Moon didn’t just help define the rock genre, but also the stereotypical rock and roll lifestyle. Moon’s crazy antics both on and off stage earned him the nickname Moon the Loon. Ultimately his sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle lead him to an early grave, overdosing on September 7, 1978. Moon’s death came less than a month after the release of one of the Who’s most popular album’s Who Are You.

I'd never ask you to ignore your television. Here's your Casa Video Top 10 for the week:

1. Deadpool
   

Phoenix Comicon started yesterday, and our man-on-the-job Scott Smith sent these photos along to mark the occasion.