There has been much fretting over the suit that the Goldwater Institute has brought against Pima County over the deal it made with World View Enterprises. Let’s try to separate the hysteria over economics from the issue of legality.

Missing or Avoiding the Point

County Administrator Chuck Huckleberry (named in the suit along with three county supervisors), in a memo to the county supervisors dated April 4, challenged the assertions of the Goldwater demand letter and accused it of being politically motivated and trying to affect the outcome of an election. These charges appear to be based solely on the timing of the letter. In a May 4 memo to the county supervisors dated May 4. Huckleberry accused Goldwater of having “a clear bias against southern Arizona,” and cites economic development deals made by the cities of Mesa, Scottsdale, and Gilbert, which drew no suit from Goldwater, as evidence for that claim. During a question and answer session after a speech delivered in Tucson on May 18, Jim Manley, lead attorney for Goldwater on this case, was given the same challenge. He explained that the number of potential cases brought to Goldwater is overwhelming, and that their resources are limited. He said that there were two points that compelled them to take this particular case. One was the number and gravity of the laws violated, and the other was the number of people from Pima County seeking relief and willing to put their names on the line and act as plaintiffs.

Many business leaders also miss the point. A group of self described “chief executives of groups representing hundreds of business leaders” sent a letter to Darcy Olsen, head of the Goldwater Institute, asking that the suit be withdrawn. They argued passionately for the deal with World View, and claimed that the suit has already done damage to the economic prospects for southern Arizona and will do more of it proceeds. Echoing Mussolini (the original “public-private partnerships” guy), they stated, “We believe that sound public-private partnerships are critical tools in fostering a strong climate for economic growth and new job creation.” Well, their constituents just want a consistent level playing field, a little transparency, and equal opportunity when dealing with governments—exactly what the Goldwater suit will help to re-establish. If the signers of the letter really want Goldwater to back off, they might include some legal reasons for doing so. After all, Goldwater filed a legal suit, not a white paper on economic development policy. It is ironic that, by signing the letter, these leaders support the flouting of laws that were designed specifically to protect their constituents—the business owners of Pima County. Perhaps these “chief executives of groups representing hundreds of business leaders” should step down and seek jobs with Pima County. There they could plan in secret, pick favorites, and provide corporate welfare. That would be a much better fit for them.

The death of 49 toddlers in the ABC Day Care fire in our sister desert city of Hermosillo is probably one of the most soul wrenching days—if not the saddest and most puzzling day—in Sonora's modern history.

The morning of June 5, 2009, at least 200 babies and toddlers were dropped off by their parents. In the early afternoon, during nap time (la hora de la siesta) the fire from neighboring storage owned by the state's Finance Department spread to ABC—a warehouse with practically no emergency exists, a small main entrance, defective fire alarms and a tarpaulin ceiling. More than 100 children and staff were injured by the fire, according to Hermosillo's newspaper El Imparcial. The 49 angels passed away either because of the fire, smoke or the ceiling's collapse. 

Evidence quickly piled up suggesting negligence and corruption from the day care's owners, all the way up the ladder to federal and state officials. 

ABC was inspected often, and somehow it always passed. In fact, 10 days before the fire, it passed its last inspection.

Except, in 2005, federal authorities ordered the owners to get rid of the tarp, add more emergency exits and widen the entrance, according to a June 2009 New York Times article. Absolutely nothing happened. What's more, several months later that same federal agency—the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico's Social Security—renewed its contract with ABC even though the repairs were never made.

It took seven years for the families to get some sort of justice.

In May of this year, 19 of the presumably 22 people involved in the fire—including the IMSS representative in Sonora—were sentenced to at least 20 years in prison for culpable homicide of the 49 toddlers.

It's not enough. It's a tragedy that should have never happened.

Kids: One minute you're walking out of the mall with a stack of new pants and the next day there's an extra inch of ankle peaking out below the hem of their jeans.

Combat retail pricing and your growing collection of barely worn children's clothes at the Kids Clothing Swap this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Fluxx Studio & Gallery (690 E. 19th Street, Suite 130).
 

Like a typical clothing swap, folks will bring kids clothes, shoes, and costumes they no longer wear (or for some of us, have never even worn!) and go home with new-to-them items.

UNLIKE most swaps, all genders are welcome and there will be a DIVERSE selection of sizes for infants through tweens.

Kiddos will be kept entertained with face-painting, a play area, and a fun mini-fashion show while you shop the swap and pick out some killer new outfits for them.

We know shopping is exhausting, so there will be plenty of healthy, tasty, kid-friendly refreshments (and adult-friendly beverages!) to keep you going!

Admission is $10 with clothes to swap, $20 without—though the event description notes no one will be turned away due to a lack of funds. Proceeds benefit the Body Revolution.

Have some clothes you'd like to donate in advance? Reach out to the organizers on Facebook. 

Want to go to a show this weekend? The Gaslight Music Hall (13005 N. Oracle Road) is giving away tickets to see Lisa Otey and the Desert Divas this Saturday, June 4. There are two shows (one at 3 p.m., one at 7 p.m.) and winners can go to either. 

Gaslight Music Hall has this to say about the event: 

Fabulous ‘50s: Rock & Roll Divas” celebrates the music of Elvis, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Etta James, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Righteous Brothers, and many more. Join Lisa Otey, Diane Van Deurzen, Liz McMahon, Regina “the Queen” Wills, Keli Carpenter, Mitzi Cowell (guitar), Sabra Faulk (bass), and Chip Ritter (drums) for a celebration of doo-wop, R&B and early Rock & Roll.

We'll call winners midday Friday. Enter here to win a pair of tickets to the show:

Shane Black, director of the classic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the very good Iron Man 3 returns to film noir with The Nice Guys, a grimy detective story starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe.

The movie is good. Just good. It’s often so good, it’s painful to witness the moments that don’t work.

Crowe plays Jackson Healy, an L.A. loser who takes punching requests from people. Folks pay him to rough up child molesters, for the most part. He gets an assignment from Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who wants him to pay a visit to private detective Holland March (Gosling)—a visit that turns out to be hilariously infused with comic violence.

Holland and Jackson wind up working on a case together, one that involves Amelia, a dead porn star, and a gun for hire named John Boy (Matt Bomer, relishing the chance to be super nasty).

When Gosling and Crowe are allowed to go off, the movie purrs on all cylinders. It’s when Black’s script (co-written with Anthony Bagarozzi) leads to a conspiracy involving Amelia’s mother, played by Kim Basinger, that it stalls out. That’s mainly because Basinger is tone-deaf in this film. She doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie she is in, and her line delivery is woefully over-the-top. In short, she’s blazingly terrible in her every scene.

The film gets by thanks to the pairing of Gosling and Crowe, who work very well together. They are like a modern day Abbott & Costello

Admittedly, you have to grok Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, the AZ Daily Independent (and in particular, what they call cartoons) and the recent Arizona Daily Herald dustup to appreciate the brilliance, but if you do ... well, Gerald gets all the wrong stuff exactly right in this pitch to Arizona Daily Independent loon-in-chief Loretta Hunnicutt:

Dear Miss Loraina Hunnicutt,

I am a big fan of your cartoons, and I would like to submit 1 here. I look at all your cartoons and my dad got me photo shop and I learn it at school. I am getting an B in my computer drawing class.

I did it in the style of your cartoons and it is about a funny story you have been reporting and so have the news other people.

If you need me to explain it here goes - in Star Wars Episode IV (a New Hope), Obi-Wan Kanobe says to the stormtroopers "These are not the droids you are looking for".

Everyone loves Star Wars jokes, so this one is funny.

But in my joke, it's about how Ali Miller and Tim Deloris are pretending not be Jim Falcon, even though everyone knows that the Arizona Daily Herald was really Gerald Falcon. John Hucelbarry and Chuck Winchester are in the back ground. Andf I put in a saguaro and deathstar.

If you don't want to buy it, even though it fits your style, I am offering it to the Tucson Weekly, or Tucson Sentimental or Northeast Explorer, which I have cced to show that I'm serious.

You can use it for only $74.99, which I think is cheap. I will take $49.99 if I retain synication rights.

Gerald

The System is Broken is a political docudrama filmed in Tucson that looks at the political voting process through the eyes of two young people. 

Pete, Natalia and their fellow Latino volunteers take on corruption and racism in a presidential campaign by starting their own non-partisan grassroots movement, putting their relationships and their lives in danger.

Interested? Watch the trailer below. 


Writer and director Ignatius Lin, producer Joshua Zientarski and Jim Parisi at PowerTalk, will be hosting a one-time screening of The System Is Broken at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) on Wednesday, June 8. 

The event will feature a pre-screening meet and greet with politicians at 7 p.m., and a post-screening Q&A. 

Tickets can be purchased online and more information can be found here. 

Graduation speeches are usually, well, graduation speeches. But Donovan Livingston, who received his master's degree in education from Harvard, spoke/performed a speech/poem worth listening to. It's confrontational, sometimes controversial, often right on the money and at the end, uplifting. You can read along if you wish. Here are a few excerpts.

I stand here, a manifestation of love and pain,
With veins pumping revolution.
I am the strange fruit that grew too ripe for the poplar tree.
I am a DREAM Act, Dream Deferred incarnate.
I am a movement – an amalgam of memories America would care to forget
My past, alone won’t allow me to sit still.
      ————-
At the core, none of us were meant to be common.
We were born to be comets,
Darting across space and time —
Leaving our mark as we crash into everything.
A crater is a reminder that something amazing happened here —
An indelible impact that shook up the world.
      ————-
An injustice is telling them they are stars
Without acknowledging night that surrounds them.
Injustice is telling them education is the key
While you continue to change the locks.
      ————-
I belong among the stars.
And so do you. And so do they.
Together, we can inspire galaxies of greatness
For generations to come.
No, sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning.
Lift off.

After scoring a huge critical and box office success with X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer’s triumphant return to the franchise, 20th Century Fox wisely brought the director back for X-Men: Apocalypse.

However, in a move that induces head scratching, Fox cut the budget for the current installment, while padding the cast and upping the action quotient. Actually, this is the studio that screwed up The Fantastic Four, so maybe the shortchanging of a reliable franchise isn’t all that surprising.

There are portions of the movie that are sloppier than the usual Singer offerings, and quite a few moments have cut rate looking CGI. The movie alternates from looking great to looking super bad.
The flaws eventually pile up, and while there are some nice, enjoyable stretches, it’s a bit of a mess in the end despite powerful work from Michael Fassbender as Magneto and new-to-the-franchise Oscar Isaac as the menacing villain, Apocalypse.

Before the opening credits (which look like shit) roll, we get a quick backstory on Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur (Isaac), an ancient Egyptian, morphs with some sort of ancient mystical being, thus becoming the world’s first mutant, or something like that. He’s then buried under a crushed pyramid for centuries. Cue opening cheapie looking credits.

Cut to the 1980’s, 10 years after the events of Future Past. A bunch of random people stand around in the pyramid ruins chanting, and En Sabah Nur awakens as Apocalypse, a blue monster that looks like a cross between Jeff Bridges in Tron and the Emperor from Star Wars. Even though he’s buried under a bunch of makeup and voice modulation, Isaac makes his every moment on screen count. He looks like he’s having a lot of fun.