Congressman Raúl Grijalva hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will revisit a lawsuit challenging President Obama's 2014 executive actions on immigration. 

It was reported earlier that the Supreme Court issued a split 4-4 decision in the case, continuing to block DAPA and extended DACA.

DAPA would benefit the parents of U.S. citizen and legal resident children with relief from deportation and a renewable three-year work permit. DACA II is an extension of the 2012 program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which also allows undocumented youth to remain in the country and issue renewable work permits. It is estimated that as many as 5 million people could benefit from both programs.

Grijalva says in a media statement that the Supreme Court's "non-decision" leaves vulnerable people across the U.S. "suffering under an immigration system that splinters families and betrays our values."

This case confirms why Republican members of Congress should get on board with appointing a ninth Supreme Court justice before Obama leaves office early next year. Not doing so "is toxic to our legal system and our society," Grijalva's statement says. "We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws, and both of those facts are betrayed by a political party that undermines the integrity of our highest court and attacks our president’s legal efforts to help aspiring Americans."

"The silver lining is that a 4-4 tie is not precedent setting, and I hope that the Court revisits this vital issue with the urgency it deserves," he says. 

"I appreciate President Obama’s efforts to act where Republicans wouldn’t, but in light of this ruling, he must redouble his efforts to ensure innocent families do not continue to suffer. I will continue to work with this administration and the next to create a common sense immigration process once and for all.”

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a disappointing 4-4 decision in a lawsuit that challenges President Barack Obama's 2014 immigration relief programs for undocumented parents and undocumented youth. With a split decision, an extension to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents remain blocked.

DAPA, a relief for undocumented parents of U.S. citizen or legal resident children, and DACA II, an extension to Obama's 2012 protection for DREAMers, would have protected at least 5 million people from deportation and would have allowed them to work. 

In February 2015 a coalition of 26 states, including Arizona and led by Texas, sued the Obama administration, accusing the president of abusing his power by ignoring Congress in an administrative process to change immigration rules, according to an article by The New York Times. The White House has argued that presidents in both political parties have used similar executive actions and applied them to the country's immigration laws, The New York Times reports. 

Federal District Court Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Texas issued a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of DAPA and extended DACA. The Obama administration appealed, and a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals eventually upheld the injunction. The administration then took the legal battle to the Supreme Court, where it took months to hear a ruling.

"Today's non-decision in the DAPA case leaves the legal questions about the president’s immigration authority unanswered. But by leaving in place the injunction issued by the district judge, today’s 4-4 tie has a profound impact on millions of American families whose lives will remain in limbo, and who will now continue the fight," said a media statement by Cecilia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project. The ACLU was part of an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court, urging for DAPA and extended DACA to be given the green light. "In setting the DAPA guidelines, President Obama exercised the same prosecutorial discretion his predecessors have wielded without controversy, and ultimately the courts should hold that the action was lawful."

So far as I can tell, no one in the media has reported on Tuesday's Classrooms First Initiative Council Meeting where school funding proposals were considered, nor has Ducey or anyone in his office made a statement about it. The minutes may be published soon, though based on minutes from earlier meetings, the document will be short and general. However, we now have an online audio of the meeting, all 2 hours, 45 minutes and 50 seconds of it. I'll try to wade though the thing, though I imagine I'll do some skipping around. If anyone else wants to venture in, please report your impressions in the comments.

As I wrote in an earlier post, this meeting is the kind of "next step" Ducey was talking about before the Prop 123 vote, which involves looking at ways to shift around existing education dollars, not add more funding. So the question is, what funding shifts will the council recommend, and since this is a zero sum game, who will be the winners and losers?

A small group of attendees gathered at the Water of Life Sanctuary last Saturday to honor the lives of those lost on June 12 in Orlando, one of multiple prayer vigils held in Tucson last week.

Candles were passed at the door and Amazing Grace was sung from the pulpit, while the faces of the 49 victims flashed on a projector at the front of the hall. A few speakers expressed their sadness, confusion, and hope in the face of yet another act of senseless violence on United States soil. After a final prayer, names of victims were read. One man, from Puerto Rico, was in town for a Selena Gomez concert. Another had just bought his first home for his mother. One couple had just opened their own beauty salon.

When the floor opened up to members of the congregation, a man approached the podium to speak not for Republicans or Democrats, but simply for people facing a violent reality where guns have been increasingly falling into the wrong hands.

The NRA has been working overtime in the wake of the Orlando massacre to urge constituencies to oppose legislation which would tighten restrictions on gun acquisitions and ownership. Democrats staged a 15-hour filibuster during an appropriation bill debate to shift focus to gun laws. Republicans cry terrorism, Democrats scream gun access.

I’ve come to believe that drivers in Beirut are all in on a giant game of Chicken that the rest of the world hasn’t really caught onto yet. Just how close can one get to the other drivers on the road before a vehicular accident is inevitable? Or worse, scratch the paint on the Mercedes.

Cars bob-and-weave through uneven lines of traffic at stressful speeds, getting close enough to pudgy delivery drivers to watch their rolls bounce with the tut-tut-tut of their rickety mopeds. Traffic lanes are painted on the asphalt but are entirely invisible to the average Lebanese motorist. My cousin, a true Beiruti to his core, rocks his steering wheel back and forth within centimeters of oncoming drivers if he feels I’m falling asleep in the car. The Lebanese, not unlike the very pulse of the country itself, are determined to keep you on your toes.

I’m in Beirut filming for my master’s project on the Syrian border and have found that, as a student journalist on her own, reporting in the Middle East for the first time entails a similar chaos to be found on Beiruti freeways. Plans and expectations, no matter how many or how well laid out, are often followed through about as well as Beirut’s fading white traffic lines.


My third day in Lebanon I travel to Baalbek, a town in the Bekaa Valley east of Beirut to gather footage from refugee camps in the area. The Lebanese government does not allow for the foundation of formal refugee camps, a paranoia still seething in the wake of Palestinian camps-turned-cities in Beirut and beyond. The valley is dotted with tent villages of all sizes, many set between open agricultural fields.

My fixer, a local videojournalist, agrees to take me to the Syrian border near Arsal, where we surreptitiously set up my virtual reality camera out of range of the military presence at the border gate. Every so often my fixer will take out his own credentials and “film” the street to deflect attention from the blinking Freedom360 rig we’ve set up facing the barbed wire concrete wall from the median a block down. After a few minutes, I hurriedly set up the camera from another angle across the busy street, praying to the journalism gods that I can stow away all of my equipment in the SUV before a guy in uniform shows up.

A ten minute drive from the border takes us to a camp in El Kaa, an informal tent village baking in blazing Bekaa sun, surrounded by Lebanese fields to the west and Syrian mountains to the east. Children, playing barefoot in the dirt, spot my cameras and begin following closely at my heels. One boy in a striped polo and munching on biscuits observes me synchronizing my 360 camera and quickly memorizes the steps, pointing at each GoPro as I turn them on, just in case I miss one. An invaluable camera assistant for the day.

I take a moment of hesitation to consider my next few shots, long enough for a young man to come bounding up the dirt road from the entrance to the camp. He gestures to my cameras and begins speaking to my companions in Arabic. My translator turns to me and says “Let’s go.”

Frustrated and slightly concerned, I shove both of my tripods in the car, cameras still on from the last shot. I am told as we exit that the informal camp “chief,” or shaweesh as they are called here, has been watching us from his perch on a nearby hill and has requested the pleasure of our presence. We declined.

Going through footage back in Beirut a day later, away from shaweesh threats, border guards, and impatient fixers, I take a moment and decompress. Some of my interviews are just a hair too dark, some b-roll just a little shaky, and I’m pretty sure you can see my feet in at least one 360 shot. I resist the urge to hurl myself into the Mediterranean while I peruse my photos and replay the long tape of expectations and shortcomings I had in my head before heading to the Bekaa.

A few more scrolls and deep breaths later, relief sets in.
From the last camp, three boys pose for a picture, full of pent up energy and curiosity. In another frame, a group of women sit beside each other outside a small market, lined up to be mic'ed and interviewed. Still one more shows a string of drying laundry and a playful kid at the end of the hall, his gleeful grin obvious even out of focus.

Despite all the missteps, close calls, and missed opportunities, my latest trip to the Middle East proved invaluable in ways that I'm still rediscovering miles away back in my own desert. Perhaps the most profound of which is the trust given to me by the many people I met along the way to tell their stories. I am eternally grateful for their time and patience.

For young international journalists, I would advise constant preparedness without the burden of well-laid plans. Be ready and open for anything to the best of your ability, but don't rely heavily on expectations. Give yourself plenty of time, always say "yes" within reason, and always check your equipment before heading out. Most importantly, make sure the people and their stories remain your constant guide and purpose, that above all will keep your work moving forward.     

And Beirut driving does not translate well back home in the States. Trust me. 

In partner with the Hansen Film Institute, the Fox Tucson Theatre will be showing classic films throughout the Summer as part of their Summer 2016 Film Series. 

Fox chose films they feel are an exemplary contribution to the art of film making, which feature layers of story lines, emotion, depth and phenomenal sound effects and editing. 

The schedule is as follows:
June 25- Top Gun @7:30 p.m.
July 16- The Good, The Bad & The Ugly @7:30 p.m.
July 29- Roman Holiday* @7:30 p.m. 
Aug. 27-Ferris Bueller's Day Off @7:30 p.m. 

General admission tickets are $7, but for Seniors(55+), students and active duty military tickets are $5. 

For more information or to buy tickets visit the Fox Tucson Theatre website or call 547-3040. 

*The Roman Holiday showing is a fundraising benefit for the Andra Heart Foundation with special pricing.

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), out of the School of Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder, just put out two short research papers that conclude, class size matters, and money in education matters. I believe the papers are right on both counts, but as always when I site research, whether I agree or not, I have to add that no conclusions in education research are conclusive. Education has so many moving parts, it's impossible to create perfect control groups or isolated variables. That being said . . .

The class size reduction study looks at data and research dating back to 1979, including the much-discussed Tennessee STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) study where elementary students in a number of schools were randomly assigned to small classes of 13-15 students and larger classes of up to 25 students. According to the author,

The smaller classes performed substantially better by the end of second grade in test scores, grades, and fewer disciplinary referrals.

The gains lasted. The students that had been assigned to smaller classes were more likely to graduate in four years, more likely to go to college, and more likely to get a degree in a STEM field. The positive effect was twice as large for poor and minority students, and thus narrowed the achievement gap.

The finding that small class sizes most benefit poor and minority students isn't surprising. Students who are less likely to succeed in school due to socioeconomic factors are more likely to benefit from increased academic and emotional attention from teachers than students who have stronger economic and educational support systems in their homes and communities.

According to one researcher, the improvements are both significant and cost effective.

[Alan] Krueger noted, as have many others, that class size reduction most benefits minority and disadvantaged students, and would be expected to narrow the racial achievement gap by about one-third. He also estimated that the economic gains of smaller classes in the early grades outweighed the costs two to one.

Class size in upper grades haven't been studied as closely as in the lower grades, but indications are that smaller classes lead to short term and long term gains there as well.

Whether or not you agree in principle with the notion of racehorses, this is a moving documentary about a group of people in Wales who decide to finance one. They eventually succeed with the birth of their horse, Dream Alliance, a gangly youngster who grows up to be a solid jumper.

Through interviews and archive footage, we see the horse from birth straight through to many of his races, where he proved to be an unlikely champion. Of course, tragedy strikes during one of the races, and then the movie becomes the story of an amazing comeback. Or, depending on your point of view, it becomes the story of a bunch of strange folks in Wales pushing a beautiful animal well beyond the point of reason so it can keep jumping for their amusement and wallets.

There’s no denying that Dream Alliance is a beautiful animal, and his story is inspiring. The story of the horse is far more compelling than the story of the folks who owned him. There’s a turning point in this story where the owners probably should’ve put the horse in a field and let him enjoy life, but they keep pushing him. That’s a little bothersome. The end results are uplifting and happy, but they came perilously close to being extremely sad.

The documentary is entertaining, but it will definitely have you thinking about the treatment of animals for sport. 

Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller walked out of a heated board meeting today as her delays in responding to public-records requests were being discussed.

“I have an urgent appointment I need to get to,” Miller said. “I thought we’d be done by now.”

After Miller’s departure, the board voted for a new records policy that would require members to turn over public records related to county business created on personal computers and devices such as smart phones, as well as public records created on private email accounts.

Before she left the meeting, Miller pledged to turn over any public records created on personal devices.

While Miller has told county officials that she and her staff have not done county business on private email accounts or on private devices, recently uncovered records suggest that District 1 staffers, including Miller, may indeed have discussed county business using their private email accounts.

Today’s board vote leaves Miller in a precarious legal position: If she has used her private email to conduct county business and she fights the release of those records in court, she could be forced to hire a private attorney at her own expense. And if she loses in court, she could also be liable for the legal costs of the media organizations that are seeking the records.

Miller’s departure from the board meeting today came after a highly unusual moment: She was directly questioned by Dylan Smith, the editor and publisher of the Tucson Sentinel, about when she would comply with his records request. Smith was asked by board members to discuss his experience in trying to get public records from Miller's office.

The Sentinel, along with the Tucson Weekly and Arizona Daily Star, has been digging into what Miller knew about a purported news website that was launched last month by a staffer in Miller’s office under a false identity. The employee, Tim DesJarlais, initially denied being behind the website but after he quit his job in Miller’s office, he confessed to launching the Arizona Daily Herald.

Miller initially stood behind DesJarlais and lashed out at the press for besmirching his reputation, but has since called for him to face criminal charges for filing a cyber–crime report with the FBI at her urging that now appears to have been a false report.

While the episode with DesJarlais was an embarrassment for Miller, she has come under increased criticism from the press and her fellow board members for her slow response to public-records requests from the Sentinel, Weekly and Star that could help shed light on whether she and other members of her District 1 office had knowledge of DesJarlais’ masquerading as a reporter. She also said she wanted to bill the news organizations thousands of dollars for the public records.

Once Board Chair Sharon Bronson asked for a discussion of the records request on the agenda for today’s meeting, Miller began releasing the records last week, but they were heavily redacted.

In addition to voting to require the release of records created on private devices, the Board also voted today to have Clerk of the Board Robin Brigode examine the records that the media have requested and release them with more limited redactions.

The board also voted to develop a new policy regarding media requests for public records in order to avoid allowing the subject of records request be in charge of redacting the information released.

Miller, who has frequently criticized other board members and County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry as corrupt and incompetent, is running for a second term on the board this year. She faces Republican John Winchester in the August primary and, if she survives that, Democrat Brian Bickel in the November general election. Both Bickel and Winchester were in the audience today as Miller faced criticism from her fellow board members over the public-records controversy.

An undocumented immigrant from England planned to kill presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a campaign rally on Monday in Las Vegas.

Michael Steven Sandford, 20 (some reports say he is 19), tried to take a policeman's gun so he could shoot Trump. According to the BBC, he had been planning to end Trump's life for about a year and decided to follow through with the plans at the rally because he finally felt confident, court documents say, according to the BBC. Sandford is being charged with an act of violence in a restricted area, the BBC says.

Now, here's the funny part, as Mother Jones points out in a write-up titled "Illegal Immigrant Tries to Kill Donald Trump!," Trump hasn't even tweeted about the incident and the media has completely ignored the young man's immigration status. Most of Trump's latest tweets are about "crooked Hillary Clinton," when he could be using this as such a grand justification for his strong anti-immigrant stance and fetish for building a taller wall along the U.S.-México border.

Is it possible that Trump is ignoring this because the undocumented immigrant in question is from a country whose residents (as long as they are white) Trump is not likely to ban from moving to the U.S.? Yes, it is. Trump is after people of color, not white young men from Britain who overstay their visas in the U.S.

If this reportedly mentally ill young man were Mexican, for instance, media headlines would CERTAINLY make a point out of his immigration status in the country. But, "He's not the right kind of illegal immigrant. So we'll just ignore him," the Mother Jones post says.