The Learning Policy Institute just published a research paper, A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S. Across the country, the demand for teachers is growing at the same time teachers are leaving in large numbers and fewer college students are enrolling in teacher education programs.

Before looking at the study's general findings, I want to take a look at the interactive map which gives each state a "teacher attractiveness rating" from 1 to 5, based on factors that would encourage people to apply for teaching jobs and stick around once they've been hired. Most of the lowest rated states are in the southwest and the south: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mississippi and Florida. Three other states, Colorado, Indiana and Maryland also make the list. At the bottom of the bottom is Arizona with a rating of 1.5. The other low-rated states range from 2 to 2.27.

Our teacher shortages began in earnest with the 2008 economic recession, when states began laying off teachers by the thousands. When the economy improved and school districts started hiring again, both because they lowered the number of children in each class and there were more children total, they had trouble finding enough teachers to fill the vacancies. Many of the fired teachers left the profession for good, and the number of students in teacher education programs fell dramatically—a 35 percent drop in the last five years, about a 240,000 teacher-prep-student decrease. Combine that with our high teacher attrition rate (about one-third of teachers who go are retirees, and the other two-thirds just leave), and we've got a serious and continuing shortage on our hands.

Here's the report's summary on Arizona:

In Arizona, 62% of school districts had unfilled teaching positions three months into the school year in 2013–14. In the same school year, close to 1,000 teachers were on substitute credentials—a 29% increase from the previous year. With one of the highest turnover rates of any state and 24% of the teacher workforce eligible to retire by the end of 2018, the outlook for Arizona’s future points to continued shortages.

Nationwide, the report estimates we have a 60,000 teacher shortage this school year, and that could go up to 112,000 by 2018 and 316,000 by 2025. Here's a graph with recent and projected shortfalls.

Billy Sedlmayr’s "Tucson Kills" is a frighteningly lovely glimpse into boyhood and Tucson, and it brims with ache and empathy and tender regrets. There’s a heady sense of location here, to the point of mythology, dusted with area references—from the fading whores down on 6^th Avenue and scoring in barrios Sobaco, Old Pasqua and Hollywood to “going crazy” in Florence prison yards and the fire at the Pioneer Hotel that killed 29 people. Gabe Sullivan’s production is sweetly spare and the mournful Mexican brass and goosebumps kick in at the precisely the same moment. Billy had this tune kicking around for years. (This version is an alternate from his 2014 debut Charmed Life.) He played it for me back in ’98 in the Phoenix barrio off Van Buren when we were both living around there. Just a voice and a crappy acoustic guitar, and even then my jaw dropped. Even then I knew that "Tucson Kills" was the ballad of Tucson.

Old Travis Edmonson—or Townes Van Zandt for that matter—ain’t got nothin’ on Sedlmayr.  

One of the more unlikely campaign promises that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has made was all about helping families with the cost of childcare, which can be rival the cost of college tuition for some families.

I've written a lot over the years about the Arizona Legislature's failure to come through for working families when it comes to helping with childcare. (As of June 13, more than 7,500 kids were on the waiting list for childcare assistance.) It's a pretty simple issue at heart: If you want single moms to enter the workforce and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, you have to help with safe and reliable childcare because otherwise, they can't keep their jobs. And that's just at the low end of the economic spectrum; even working families that are doing well are facing big bills if both parents work and they want their kids to be in preschools that help them get a great start in life.

Democrats have been pushing to make universal pre-K a thing in recent years and Democrat Hillary Clinton has made it a key part of her platform. (Let's leave aside the challenge of getting such an expensive program through Congress for a moment.) 

What’s your motivation to exercise? Weight loss? Heart health? How about cookies? How about not just any kind of cookie, but one of America’s favorite cookies-for-a-cause, the Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints?

If you’re willing to sweat for one of these delightfully delicate minty treats—simultaneously helping the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona and earning your own honorary Girl Scout badge—register now for this Sunday’s early-morning fifth annual Thin Mint Sprint, a timed 5-kilometer race that includes a Thin Mint reward at the finish line. The same morning will offer a shorter Do-Si-Do Dash.

Both races are on a flat course through the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park and along the Rillito River Trail, and both are timed—although racers are welcome to either run or walk. Families, teams and individuals are encouraged to enter. The race course is, according to a press release, “ideal for new runners as well as elite runners looking to beat their personal record.”

As icing on the cookie, there will also be a children’s 100-meter dash for kids 6 and younger, so bring the little ones.

The Thin Mint Sprint and Do-Si-Do Dash start at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 18, on the northwest side of Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, 3536 E. River Road. Registration is $25 for adults, $20 for kids 12 and younger. Race-day registration is available from 6 to 7 a.m. More info here.

Adam Nimoy directs this sweet documentary about his dad, Leonard, and the everlasting legacy of his most universally treasured creation, Spock.

The film stands as a terrific look back at the origins of the character, and his transitions through time, straight through to the recent Spock incarnation played by Zachary Quinto. More importantly, the film stands as a blessed tribute to the man behind the character, examining his entire career and family life.

Nimoy unearths some great footage, including Leonard reading the original Variety review for Trek in front of a large crowd and, of course, “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” Leonard’s most infamous single from his musical career (If you haven’t seen the video, it’s one of the greatest things ever made). Adam had a rocky relationship with his dad but, thankfully, that was remedied in recent years, something the film touchingly covers. The film stands as the most comprehensive guide to the character of Spock, while also being a nice love letter to Leonard Nimoy. Hey, this is actually the best Star Trek movie to come out in 2016!

Available for rental on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during a limited theatrical release.

There’s no shortage of controversy over candidates in our upcoming election, both nationally and locally.

But there’s another kind of (local) election coming up: The battle over the best Tucson craft beer. And man, if you think political infighting is bad regarding the presidential race, well, that’s nothing compared to how riled up folks get when it comes to their favorite brew. 

Actually, Club Congress’s fifth “Born and Brewed” celebration, coming up this Saturday, Sept. 17, has always been fun, safe and totally chill.

A dozen Tucson breweries will compete for the titles of “Best Flagship Beer,” “Best Specialty Beer” and “People’s Choice.” This year’s judging panel includes Kevin Bosley of Odell Brewing Company, all the way from Fort Collins, Colo.

General-admission voters will get a scrumptious plate of “special eats” and then traipse among tables to taste each brewery’s beer before voting. VIP participants will also be traipsing, tasting and voting, but they’ll also have access to a luxe lounge and special buffet (including a smoked pig and dessert).

Congress is also offering reduced-price admission for designated drivers, who’ll also get a delicious food plate, plus an undisclosed take-home gift (mysterious!) and, according to the Club Congress PR team, “the joy of getting … friends home safely.”

Born and Brewed is 6 to p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17, at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Regular tickets are $25 in advance, $30 day of; VIP tickets are $50; and designated-driver tickets are $15.

More info: hotelcongress.com/events/september

Journalist Tom Zoellner, author of A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America, has written a Phoenix New Times essay that examines the parallels between Arizona politics and Trump's rise:

There was a moment during Donald Trump’s rambling and free-associative speech at Fountain Hills back on March 19 that seemed to sum up his appeal to a certain stripe of Arizonan.

“They just approved a budget, which is a disaster, the omnibus, they call it the omnibus budget,” he said in that hoarse, Queens-accented roar. “It is a total disaster. It funds Obamacare, it funds Syrians coming into the United States — we have no idea who they are — it funds illegal immigrants coming in through your border, right through Phoenix and right through, right through, it comes right through Arizona. All of these things are funded with the budget that they approved, and I think it took them like 12 minutes to approve the budget. Not going to happen anymore, folks. Not going to happen!”

If you sort through the incoherence and the misleading statistics and the orotund talk-radio-obsessed, red-faced-uncle, Navy-baseball-cap-wearing, pissed-offedness, you end up with a centerpiece of impressive rhetorical energy, one rammed into the audience’s sublimated consciousness with the repetitive lyricism of hip-hop and the noise and power of a monsoon. Right through Phoenix and right through, right through, it comes right through Arizona.

This is the sort of incantation that inspires a tribal sway: a kind of group ecstasy that transports the listener from the boring world of facts and limitations into an energetic realm of vicious threats and endless possibilities for cinematic triumph. Trump was saying more than he knew at this rally in the suburb with the ridiculous jet-powered fountain where Sheriff Joe Arpaio makes his home. Because what has also been roaring right through Arizona for the last three decades is a wave of what might be called proto-Trumpism and it has run right through, right through Arizona.

Read the whole thing here.

Ducey and Republican legislators have some ducking and dodging to do. According to a recent Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll, voters still want more money for our schools by a wide margin, even after the passage of Prop 123—74 percent for more money, 17 percent against and the rest undecided. Republicans, many of whom want to weaken or dismantle public education, don't want to go along. But they can't say that in the face of overwhelming public support for funding, especially just before an election.

"Let's wait 'til next year," Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said. Well, he didn't actually say that, but that's what he meant. He said he's waiting to hear the governor's proposals for increasing education funding.

“My hope is the governor will have some proposals,” [Shooter] said. “I know they’re working on it, but I don’t know how far along they are."

Don packed a whole lot into his statement that needs to be unpacked. Even though he's a legislator—you know, one of the folks who write laws, vote on them and send them to the governor for his signature—he claims he doesn't have any ideas of his own on way to increase school funding. So he hopes the governor has some proposals. Hopes. You'd think as the Republican head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Don could walk into the governor's office and say, "Hey, Doug, what do you have in mind for education funding?" He could, of course. But then he'd have to tell the reporter what Ducey told him. It's much more convenient for Shooter to say he knows the governor is "working on it," but he doesn't know any more than that.

While director Luke Scott definitely shows he’s inherited some of his dad’s helming chops, Morgan, an ultimately derivative script hampers his feature directing debut.

The son of the great Ridley Scott shows some major visual flair and an ability to draw good performances from his cast, but the movie itself, with Dad producing, is a pastiche of other science fiction and horror films, most notably his dad’s own Blade Runner.

Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is an artificially created humanlike being. (I guess that’s the best way to describe it.) She’s only five but looks like a teenager and has superior intellect and physical skills. She’s been genetically engineered to age quickly, and while she is basically a well-meaning entity, her behavioral wires get a little crossed up sometimes, resulting in violent “errors.” Morgan goes apeshit when she’s not allowed outside. This results in the character played by Jennifer Jason Leigh being on pain meds for the whole movie with a big, bloody gauze on her eye. The “corporation” that helped create Morgan sends icy company woman Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) out to assess the matter and recommend a course of action. It all leads up to a lame and unnecessary twist that diminishes the story and overall quality of the film.

Still, Taylor-Joy is good in the title role, and Scott certainly can make a good looking movie.

Friends and family of Wendy Van Leuveren are in shock. They’re grieving, and they’re looking for answers. But one thing is very clear—the sudden
death of this well-known and well-loved woman is a tragedy that has rocked many throughout the Tucson community.

On Wednesday, Aug. 31, Wendy took her own life after a mostly-private struggle with mental illness. The death of this beloved mother, partner, daughter, sister and friend came as a surprise to many, as is evident in the numerous posts and comments on the “Remembering Wendy Van L” Facebook page, created on Aug. 31, and had 670 followers as of the evening of Sept. 13.

Loved ones also created the “Wendy Van Leuveren Memorial Fund” to raise money for Wendy’s partner Cameron Green and their young son Escher, to help ease financial responsibilities while they grieve. By Tuesday evening, supporters had raised $5,153 of the $6,000 goal and shared the post on Facebook 390 times.

Wendy moved to Holland earlier this year with her partner and son, leaving behind an abundance of family, friends and admirers in Tucson and across the country.

Her foster-sister and close friend Nellie Cornett‎ posted on the remembrance Facebook page, “Wendy was always bad ass,” remembering the time a teenage Wendy calmly navigated a truck full of youth to safety after the brakes had gone out.

“She was always hungry for being better, doing better, having a principled and moral approach to everything,” Nellie posted. “She always strove to be a better friend.”

It’s obvious, scrolling through the posts, Wendy was a great friend. She was kind and smart—a business woman and community organizer. She was an artist and a great beauty—stunning and stylish. Even those who didn’t know her well—something that many wrote in their FB posts—were touched by her charm.

Loved ones will be holding a memorial to celebrate Wendy’s life on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the Galactic Center at 35 E. Toole Ave. People are encouraged to submit art to be hung on the walls at the memorial—something that reminds them of Wendy. Art and poetry can be submitted into a Google Drive at this link. To submit art that isn’t digital, email [email protected] or just bring them to the memorial.