Voters and the media should demand that candidates for state legislature explain their positions on K-12 funding, in detail. If they don't do it on their own, they should be asked the question by every journalist who interviews them and by the public at every forum they attend—with follow-up questions to pin them down on specifics.

Rep. Randy Friese, LD-9, set the tone in a recent campaign email and on the front page of his campaign website. Full disclosure: Friese is my representative, and I have donated to his campaign. But I will be happy to describe and analyze statements on education from any legislative candidate anywhere in the state. You can send them to me at [email protected].

Friese begins by noting that our schools are inadequately funded. It's closing in on two months since Prop 123 passed, yet we still haven't heard any details about Ducey's promised next step.

Was this a promise? Or was this just rhetoric?

In the absence of any proposed second step from the governor's office or republican legislative leadership nearly two months later, I'm concerned it was rhetoric.

Friese writes that he would put a freeze on corporate tax breaks until we restore school funding. He would have the legislature put a renewal of Prop 301 on the ballot before it expires in 2021 so its 0.6 percent sales tax for schools doesn't expire. He would change the amount of money the state draws from the State Land Trust from the levels set by Prop 123 so they are lower when state revenues are strong.

Friese ends with this.

In order to address our K-12 education funding needs, state leaders should propose a multi-year funding plan. The governor should call a special legislative session this summer to enact this plan. Only then will Arizona students, teachers, and parents be assured that state leaders are committed to properly maintaining our system of public education as required by our constitution.  

And with this, the startling run of Steven Spielberg duds continues. After delivering two of the dullest movies of his career (Lincoln, Bridge of Spies) Spielberg does the almost impossible; he makes Roald Dahl completely boring.

Oscar winner Mark Rylance delivers a motion-capture CGI performance as the central character-the Big Friendly Giant-that results in more yawns than smiles. His giant captures dreams and blows them into the sleeping residents of London. On one of his excursions, he kidnaps Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), and takes her to the land of giants, where most giants are meat eaters. Luckily, he’s a vegetarian, but he’s being bullied by a group of bad giants led by Jemaine Clement in what amounts to the film’s most fun motion capture performance.

Despite a winning performance from Barnhill, a true star in the making, the film drags on and on, trying to get by on big special effects rather than a story line that engages. Everything feels a little off for Spielberg. A visit to the Queen’s house, which should be bizarrely funny and subversive, winds up feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

The whole movie seems to be playing it safe in Dahl land, as if it is E.T. in Dahl land, and it throws the tone completely off (It doesn’t help that John Williams rips off his own E.T. score).

It never clicks. Nothing really works, yet again, for Spielberg, a director who seems to have momentarily lost his mojo.

Hey, Spielberg is responsible for some of the greatest movies ever made. If he makes stinkers for the rest of his life, he’s still one of the most amazing men to sit in the director’s chair.

That said, here’s to hoping for a return to form with one of his next ventures, which allegedly include another crack at Indiana Jones. This is most definitely one of the year’s bigger disappointments. 

Sylvia Sander, local private investigator, began fielding interviews with the homeless early this year as a volunteer. She said a common complaint of the many homeless people she met living in the downtown area concerned the issue of photographs, namely those taken by street photographers and tourists who snapped shots of individuals living on the streets without so much of a "may I?"

Curious about what the homeless would capture given the opportunity, Sander gave her two inaugural volunteers 35mm disposable cameras to capture daily life on the streets of Tucson. The results eventually gave rise to the Bright Eyes Project, a venture promoting awareness and compassion through the work of homeless photographers.

The project, supported by The Carlos G. Figueroa Foundation, will be having its first public showing on Sunday July 10 from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Monterey Court (505 W. Miracle Mile) in Tucson (details here). The exhibition will feature the work of the Tucson homeless artists Sander contacted through the project, some of whom have since found residence off the streets. 

However, according to a Pima County count of homeless populations for 2016, there are still 381 persons living without shelter in Tucson, not including the over 1,300 other homeless individuals moving between temporary, transitional and emergency housing.

A short drive around the downtown and university areas reveal a grim reality for hundreds of homeless Tucsonans huddling under patches of shade in De Anza Park and beyond. With temperatures at a steady one-hundred-and-miserable for the rest of the foreseeable future, it behooves us to lend a hand to those who must endure the heat out of necessity and hard times. 

If you can spare a moment, some supplies or even a case of water, take a look at the 2016 list of summer sun respite sites around town. Points of contact are listed for each site and some may take donations or volunteers during the summer months. Additionally, the Community Emergency Medical Responders (C-EMRs), an organization under the auspices of volunteer MDs, trains street-based medical volunteers to facilitate healthcare for the homeless also takes donations here. 

For more information on the Carlos G. Figueroa Foundation or the Bright Eyes project, visit their Facebook pages or thecarlosgfigueroafoundation.com.

Documents were released Wednesday, June 6 in the case of Mahin Khan, who was arrested last week and accused of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism in Pima and Maricopa counties.

A heavily redacted two-and-a-half page document contains information on Khan's alleged correspondence efforts with several individuals in regards to terroristic actions and intentions. In one conversation, Khan allegedly said that Mission Bay, Calif. would be “a pretty good target right there. There’s(sic) a lot of people there.” Within the same conversation, Khan also allegedly requested two assault rifles, a pistol and made mention of an Air Force recruitment center as a possible target here in Tucson.

In an email conversation, Khan allegedly attempted to contact Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, a terrorist group operating within Pakistan, about plans to create an improvised explosive device.

Around Jan. 16, Khan apparently asked a man named “Abid Manoor” if he was a member of TTP and could supply weapons for what authorities are saying Khan called a “martyrdom operation.”
Furthermore, Khan allegedly told Manoor that he supporter of ISIL ( also known as ISIS), the TTP and was planning to “take out marines and jews.”

In a later correspondence, Khan instead asked to be supplied with what he referred to as a “pressure cookie,” which authorities indicated was likely referring to a pressure cooker improved explosive device, and that Khan was asking for a recipe to create one.

According to the Maricopa County Superior Court records, Khan will have a status conference this Friday, July 8, and a preliminary hearing set for July 12.

Click here to see the court document on the Tucson Local Media website. 

Original Story:

After a joint investigation by the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a Tucson man was arrested last Friday, July 1, and booked into the Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail in Phoenix facing two charges: one count of conspiracy to commit terrorism and one terrorism charge.

Mahin Khan, an 18-year-old resident of Tucson’s Catalina Foothills region, has been ordered by a judge to be held without bond this weekend. Khan is accused of planning to launch acts of terrorism against government buildings in Maricopa and Pima counties, though specifics of the case have been ordered temporarily sealed to protect the investigation. The specifics are contained in court records that have been ordered sealed until later this week.

Living with his parents, Khan previously attended Catalina Foothills High School for a short time in August of 2013, though was quickly withdrawn from the school.

According to reports, Mia Garcia, a spokesperson for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, said that the investigation led to no connection between any alleged attacks and the recent 4th of July holiday weekend.

"The Arizona Attorney General's Office is working closely with federal authorities to keep Arizonans safe,” Garcia said.

We'll update this story as more information is made available.

The Loft Cinema and MOCA bring you an evening of fiber art goodness on Wednesday, July 6 with a special screening of the art film Yarn, a documentary following the work of four textile artists around the world as they enhance public spaces through knit and crochet creations. 

The film is narrated by writer and former Tucsonan Barbara Kingsolver and the screening will feature some serious "yarn-storming" of the theatre by Tucson Handweavers & Spinners Guild and Textile Tagger, Kristin Wolfe. 

The event will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Loft Cinema (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) For more information on the screening and the film, visit the Loft website. 

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Contact Humane Society of Southern Arizona Main Campus during regular business hours at 327-6088 ext. 173 to check on my availability and exact location!

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Swiss Army Man, like the dead corpse at its center, is a multipurpose entity. It can be a lot of different things to the viewer.

It can be a story about the wild things starvation and desperation can do to the brain, and the strange movies that play in your head when you are losing it. It can be a story about how a deranged stalker deals with the end of his life and afterlife. It can be a story about how funny it would be if somebody’s farts could propel themselves like a jet ski across the ocean and how funny it would be if their erect dick were a compass.

I’ve made my choice what this movie is about, but you could walk away from it thinking something completely different. That’s the beauty of a movie like Swiss Army Man.

As Hank, Paul Dano gets yet another career defining, nutty role. He’s seemingly stranded on a desert island, at the end of his rope, literally. Just before killing himself, a corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on the beach, and starts farting. It starts farting…a lot.

Before much time has passed, Hank is riding the corpse (dubbed Manny) across the ocean as its farts provide jet propulsion. Hank, with the arrival of his new friend, decides suicide is a drag and takes Manny along with him on a trek to find civilization through the forest. Manny eventually starts having conversations with Hank, and they are both aided in the forest by Manny’s hard-ons, which act as a compass. Oh, did I already say that? Manny’s dick is a compass.

Sound weird? It is. It most assuredly is. It’s also strangely beautiful, deeper and richer than most movies with this many farts in it, and, depending upon the way you take the movie, super disturbing and sad.

I read the article in the Sunday Star about teacher salaries in the Tucson area post-Prop 123, three or four times. I was trying to figure out exactly what it meant. The thrust of the article is, TUSD is being stingy with its salary hikes after receiving the recently disbursed Prop 123 funds while many other districts in the area are being more generous. But the article lacked head-to-head, apples-to-apples, salary-to-salary comparisons of teacher compensation across the districts, so I don't know if its conclusions reflect what's happening to teachers' paychecks. I tried to look a little deeper to understand the teacher salary reality in the Tucson area. That shed a little light on the subject, but not much.

If, as the article implies, TUSD allowed its teacher salary to fall below that of neighboring districts, it made a serious mistake. Because of the current teacher shortage, it's a sellers market. Teachers, especially the top prospects, are likely to get multiple offers, so they can pick and choose between districts, and salary is likely to be a serious consideration. If Superintendent Sanchez's decision to be "fiscally conservative" when it comes to raises, as he is quoted saying in the Star article, puts the district at a competitive disadvantage, then he made a bad decision. True, Prop 123 monies could face a court challenge, and an economic downturn could mean a loss of funding in the future, but it's better to take a long term gamble if it improves the short term situation where too many classrooms lack full-time teachers. And there's another issue, of course. TUSD teachers deserve a raise, and Sanchez is doing them a disservice if he's being less generous than other districts.

But is the TUSD salary raise as low as the Star article states, and is it lower than neighboring districts? I honestly don't know. According to the article, TUSD teachers will "see $700 added to their base salaries." However, the information on the TUSD website paints a different picture.

The Tucson City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution that opposes plans by Tucson Electric Power to do away with the state's metering rules for solar energy—something that tells the utility company to buy back, at full retail price, any excess energy that a solar customer did not use.

TEP filed a request with the Arizona Corporation Commission in March 2015, arguing the changes would make monthly rates more equal for all residential customers—most solar rooftops are connected to the communal electrical grid, and TEP argues rooftop solar customers are not paying their share for maintaining the grid and other services.

Current net metering rates were established by the Corporation Commission back in 2008. On average, a rooftop solar customer gets back around $100 back a month. With TEP's net metering reduction proposal, that would go down to about $80, according to TEP. But Dan Millis with the Sierra  Club's Tucson Chapter told me last year that the buy-back figure would be cut by half.

The proposal is also backed by Arizona Public Service and UniSource Energy Services, according to a Sierra Club press release.

We're just about half way done with the second round of Best of Tucson voting. While (technically) every category is still anybody's game (well, any of the finalists), some races really are incredibly close. 

These are the most competitive categories in each section:

Best Art Classes
Interestingly, this category was pretty quiet in Round 1. Now that the finals have hit the ASDM Art Institute, Creative Juice Art Bar, the Drawing Studio, Pima Community College and Sonoran Glass School are all pulling in a ton of votes. Each contender is pretty different, but it's up to you to pick the best place to pursue an artistic education.

Best Hotel
Tucson is a city of beautiful places, and our local hotels make sure visitors realize that. The Arizona Inn, Downtown Clifton, Hacienda Del Sol, Hotel Congress and Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa are our finalists in this category. Where do you tell your visitors they should stay?

Best Games Store
I've said it before: It seems like Tucson has an abundance of board game stores. Whether you're an Agricola superstar or the person who always finishes last in Sorry!, a good local game store is a handy resources come Hanukkah, homebody houseguests or Sunday nights at home. So, you need a board game. Where are you going to go? Amazing Discoveries, Heroes and Villains, Tucson Games and Gadgets, Isle of Games or Yikes Toys, probably. 

Best Tattoo Parlor
We know Tucson loves Tattoos—that was pretty much the entire premise around last year's Best of Tucson. But getting an ugly tattoo is a lot worse than getting a bad hair cut. So, where to go? Our readers reccomend Black Rose Tattooers, Enchanted Dragon Tattoos, Haunted Hands, Sacred Art Tattoo Studio and Tattoo Artistry.