It's Our Birthday!

Tucson is turning 241 this weekend. There's a plethora of ways to celebrate (a hike at Saguaro National Park, a bucket of eegees and a trip to Antigone Books sounds like a perfect Tucson day), but here are your more formal options: Celebrate "with a bang" at Presidio Museum (196 N. Court Ave.). Festivities include a cannon firing, mariachis and UNESCO City of Gastronomy-worthy Sonoran snacks. Looking for an option with more icing? Head over to the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum (414 N. Toole Ave.) from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. to hang out with the mayor and eat some birthday cake. Or you could celebrate Tucson's Birthday at 1912. For the Old Pueblo's 241st Birthday, 1912 Brewing Co. wants you to celebrate with them the best way—with beer. Local breweries will provide suds along with live music and art. This event runs noon to 9 p.m on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 1912 Brewing Co., 2045 N. Forbes Blvd., #105. All the events listed here are free to attend. 

Black Bottom Lighters are playing a the Rock (136 N. Park Avenue) on Friday, Aug. 19. After that band performs, Spahn Valley Ranch hands featuring Sean Raines from We Killed The Union, Jimbo from Border Town Devils and other special guests will take the stage. Doors open at 7 p.m.

Want a pair of tickets? Enter your contact info below and we'll be in touch the day of the show.

If you’ve eaten the food of award-winning Chef Janos Wilder, you know why he’s a local celebrity. And this Saturday, Aug. 20, you can join him at an event celebrating local restaurants, local food and local agriculture, hosted by nonprofit Local First Arizona at the three-course “Ranch to Table Dinner.”

Attendees will be greeted with a Mount Lemmon Gin cocktail, then enjoy an array of pasture-raised beef dishes, sumptuous sides and delicious desserts. As the booze continues to flow in the form of specially paired local wines from Flying Leap Vineyards, Janos will give cooking tips and engage in some “shop talk” with the artisans of Double Check Ranch, Flying Leap Vineyards and Three Wells Distillery. From 7 to 9 p.m. at the Carriage House, 125 S. Arizona Ave. Prices range from $40 for Localists to $60 (which comes with a localist membership). Learn more, see the menu and buy tickets here.

Wednesday afternoon the press released the news that Greg Miller, current president of the state Board of Education, quit. Not only will he no longer be board president, but he says he plans to leave the board entirely. Miller and Ed Supe Diane Douglas have feuded since she stepped into office in January, with Ducey generally taking Miller's side, so it's surprising to hear that, according to Howard Fischer's article, Ducey may be behind the ouster.

Greg Miller said aides to the governor told him they wanted him out as the top board official. Miller said Ducey, who is due to make new board appointments as early as this week, believed the change would help smooth over what has been at best a rocky relationship between the board and state schools chief Diane Douglas.

Miller is the CEO of Challenge charter school in Glendale, and his wife Pamela is executive director and vice president. His daughter Wendy is principal. The school appears to be doing well, as do the Millers. According to the school's 2012 tax forms, Greg made $121,875, as well as $26,956 in "Retirement and other deferred compensation." His wife Pamela made the same. Wendy made $99,167. There's the question out there whether Challenge charter benefits from Miller's school board presidency, but it's only a question. I've never seen any evidence that the school benefits from his political influence.

Which makes this paragraph from Fischer's article fascinating, especially the passage I've highlighted in bold.

[Miller] said he agreed to quit [the board] if he could control the wording of the press release, the timing of the announcement and got some assurances that the charter school he runs would get "political protections that I no longer could provide.''

Fischer, a very careful reporter, put quotes around the words, "political protections that I no longer could provide,'' meaning they're Miller's words. Is Miller saying his school has benefitted from political protection? Why would that be necessary? Is he implying he's afraid Douglas might use her office to target the school, or is there something else we should know?

I'm guessing Miller's statement will be clarified sometime in the near future. Stay tuned.

 
Good news if you've been meaning to check out the Gaslight Theatre's new sister-site: The Gaslight Music Hall (13005 N. Oracle Rd #165) is giving away tickets to see its summer musical revue the Beach Blanket Be-Bop show for each of its remaining performances. 

Enter below to win a pair of ticket to the performance of your choice. We'll get in touch with the winners for the Aug. 18 show the day of the performance, and the rest of the winners on Monday, Aug. 22.

Not lucky enough to win (or in need of more tickets than we're offering)? Tickets are available for purchase on the Gaslight Music Hall's website. 

The UA is headed back out to space with a new NASA mission in roughly three weeks.

Asteroid hunter OSIRIS-REx is scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, Sept. 8.

The pretty damn cool science mission, led by Principal Investigator and UA Professor of Planetary Science Dante Lauretta, will spend the next two years chasing down the near-earth asteroid Bennu. Once OSIRIS-REx catches up with Bennu in October 2018, it will start relaying photos and other data back to earth about the makeup of the asteroid. On Independence Day 2020, the robotic spacelab will scoot right on up next to Bennu before reaching out with a robot arm to blast some dust from the surface and catch it with a container. Sometime around March 2021, OSIRIS-REx heads back to earth—hopefully without having been infected with a techo-organic virus that will destroy mankind—and in September 2023, the capsule with the asteroid dust pops loose of OSIRIS-REx and lands somewhere in the Utah desert. From there, the science teams will be off to races with their analysis of the sample.

Asteroids like Bennu are loaded with the primordial building blocks of the planets, so scientists hope to learn more about what the young earth was like and see if they can find clues as to the origin of life.

“To me, the mission is driven by the return of pristine organic molecules from the early solar system so I’m really hopeful that we can get some unique material that isn’t in our meteorite collections,” Lauretta said today at a NASA press conference to update reporters on the looming launch. "It really is a great adventure. We're going out into the unknown and bringing back scientific treasure. I'm looking forward to the day in 2023 when we open up that sample return capsule."

Read more about the OSIRIS-REx and its instrument suite here. Here's a great timeline about the mission. Here's the OSIRIS-REx’s website.  

Who wants to be employed in October? Well, I hope you were planning to spend the weekend beefing up your resume and working on your menacing growl, because you've got a job opportunity to get ready for. 


Nightfall, Old Tucson's annual scary fall attraction, is holding a hiring fair next Friday, Aug. 26 from 4-7 p.m. Applicants must be at least 16 years old.

There's an application those applying are required to fill out. Resumes are optional (but it's always a good idea to have an up-to-date resume on file!). If possible, event organizers ask that you email those documents in ahead of time. Check out the Facebook event page for more details. 

Bill Buckmaster went and did it. On his Aug. 10 radio show, Bill asked his guest, Doug Ducey, "What is the next step for getting more money into the classrooms?" In the next few minutes, Ducey, employing his usual word-salad-sprayed-through-a-garden-hose style of answering questions, said lots of things about improving education but never said a word about increasing funding. What we were pretty sure we knew about Ducey's position since the beginning of our "Next Step" Watch is now official. No. New. Money.

Here's some of what Ducey said, with commentary.

•"[Prop 123] put additional resources into K-12."
Well, yes and no. True, there's more money flowing into schools courtesy of Prop 123, but calling it "additional resources" is heavy-duty political spin. This isn't additional funding, it's giving the schools part of what the legislature withheld illegally starting in 2009. We don't pat bank robbers on the back for returning the money they stole, do we? And we don't say the bank has "additional resources" when it gets its money back.

•"I want to see our teachers better rewarded."
Great. I assume "better rewarded" means higher salaries, though I have to admit, it's dangerous to make assumptions. Maybe Ducey wants to pass out "Good Job!" medals that teachers can wear with pride as they try to figure out how to pay their rents and mortgages and put food on their family tables. But beyond Prop 123, which raised our teacher salaries a bit, where will we get more money to make our salary schedules competitive with other states?

•"I want to see results and outcomes that come from additional resources."
So. If Ducey doesn't see enough "results and outcomes" from the "additional" Prop 123 funding, he's not likely to give schools more money. And if he sees strong "results and outcomes," that means we don't need any more money, right? Brilliant! Ducey's "No more money" argument wins either way.

The twilight of summer is here (womp womp).

Upsides? Walking out the front door will soon no longer feel like accidentally opening a pre-heated oven. And hey, here's a list of five awesome events to attend before the onslaught that is the first week of school descends upon our once empty, tranquil desert streets.  

1) Silversun Pickups at the Rialto
Although ideally we'd rewind back about a month and blast these driving rhythms through an iPod stereo on some beach in Mexico, we'll just have to enjoy them now at the Rialto when Silversun Pickups roll through on Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 8 p.m. Full of sway-worthy, 90s-esque complex sound, the Pickups are the perfect act to celebrate the angst that comes with the last days of summer. Check them out here.    

2) Open Studios Under the Full Moon
The Metal Arts Village's (3230 N Dodge Blvd) monthly gathering of booze, food and art is happening this Thursday, Aug. 18 starting at 6 p.m. Wander around and meet local artists doing what they do best, followed by some food truck fare and perhaps a summery Hef from Tucson Hop Shop. Family friendly and free, check out the Facebook event page for more details.

3) Twilight Bicycle Mural Tour | COX Plaza Dance Party
This one's for the bikers and dancers out there looking for one more night of empty streets and breathable dance floors. The tour will start at MOCA (265 S Church Ave) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19 and will officially set off at 7:15 p.m. After a 2-hour, flat ride showcasing some favorite murals in the area, (and for the non-cyclists among us) the night will end with a dance party at Cox Plaza with DJs BayBay Ruthless + Illslur. Tickets are 5 bucks or free if you're a MOCA member. Here's the info.

4) Wild Style at the Loft 
This month's Staff Selects takes us to the hip-hop glory that was 1980s New York City, a docudrama that features the graffiti, freestyling, scratching and breakdancing that exploded onto the city scene on the heels of a new artistic culture. Even the actors were taken right from the neighborhoods featured in the film. The flick airs Sunday, Aug. 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Loft (3233 E Speedway Blvd). You can take a look at the trailer before heading out. 

5) Brew-HaHa Comedy Showcase
Coming in hot a few days after the first day of school, the Brew-HaHa Comedy Showcase at Borderlands Brewery (119 E Toole Ave) is promising an "amazing" show, with plenty of beers on tap just in case the laughs don't land for everyone. The latter shouldn't be too much of a problem with headliner Monte Benjamin at the comedy helm, with local AZians Randy Ford, Charles Engle and Dan Thomson also on the bill. The show, on Wednesday, Aug. 24 at 8 p.m., has a $3 cover, here are the deets. 

Newsweek published its 2016 America's Top High Schools listings. I'm not a fan of these things. Their criteria are usually questionable, and they favor schools in high rent districts, making it look like those schools are doing a better job educating their students than schools in low rent districts. But this one is more interesting than most because it has two lists: one just considering student achievement and the other factoring in students' economic status.

Let's start local. University High is in 30th place on the Newsweek list. It's the second ranked Arizona school, below Tempe Preparatory Academy in 15th place. The only other Tucson-area school on the list is Catalina Foothills High, which came in 310th.

What, no BASIS schools, which do so well on the U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools List? Nope, not here. The reason is, Newsweek asks for the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch, and since BASIS doesn't provide lunch for its students, it couldn't provide the information.

Newsweek's listings include the percent of students on free or reduced lunch for each school, which adds a side order of economic reality to the menu. What you learn from those numbers is, low income and high rankings don't mix. Only one school in the top 50 has more than half of its students on free/reduced lunch, and that school is at 50.8 percent. A total of four schools topping 50 percent make it into the top 100. University High, with 16.4 percent on free/reduced lunch, isn't one of the four.

My favorite part of the Newsweek's listings is its Beating the Odds 2016 list, which factors in the percentage of low income students in the schools. As you might expect, the list is wildly different from the original Top High Schools list.