It's the early 1990s. Imagine a U.S. high-tech company has made a quantum leap in face recognition software. The product is so far ahead of the competition, it corners the market and becomes the industry standard.

In this imaginary scenario, the company is owned and staffed by African American techies.

What are the chances the weakest link in the software would be its inability to recognize dark-skinned faces? Almost zero, right?

When early incarnations of the software were tried out on the company staff, any problems with differentiating and recognizing people with dark skin would jump out at them immediately. The company would make it a priority to pinpoint and correct the problems, because who wants to create a program where they, their coworkers, their mothers, fathers, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, sons and daughters can be mistaken for someone else? The recognition system for dark-skinned faces would be as close to flawless as the company could make it.

Of course, before bringing the product to market, the company would make sure the system worked with lighter skinned faces as well, because that's where the money is. Still, its accuracy might drop a bit because Anglos were excluded from the initial testing and tweaking process, and they weren't in the room prodding their fellow techies to work out the bugs.

But if, instead of it being an all-African American company, a quarter of the top people were Anglo, white faces would have gotten more attention from the beginning. If you add Asians and people from other ethnic groups into the mix — and women, let's not forget about women — you're likely to have as close to an equal opportunity face recognition product as any company could create.

Now let's jump back into the real world. One of the weakest links in today's face recognition software is recognizing darker faces. In a grotesque example, in 2015 when Google users asked to see images of gorillas, some African American faces were likely to be included. Google apologized and promised to fix the problem. Instead of fine-tuning the software though, Google simply blocked gorillas from its image search options to take care of that one specific problem.

An article in Thursday's Star is about Amazon's face recognition software which appears to have trouble detecting African American women's faces. As you might imagine, the problem wasn't discovered in house. It was pointed out by a female, African American researcher at MIT.

Both Google and Amazon tried to make excuses for their errors. A Google spokesperson said its software made mistakes with other people's faces as well. Amazon attacked the methodology the MIT researcher used in her recent study, though a group of Artificial Intelligence scholars defended her work. Both companies thought it was perfectly fine to downplay the problem and minimize the effort they put into finding solutions.

Problems like these arise regularly in the private and the public sector because too few members of minority groups are sitting at the table. If Silicon Valley had more African Americans in positions of power, they could throw a spotlight on racially insensitive aspects of the corporation's work, which are invisible or unimportant to others, and work to find solutions to the problems.

Here's another recent example, or two or three, from Hollywood.

National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto spoke to a group of about 20 college students and invited guests at last night's UA College Republicans Club meeting at the UA Student Union Memorial Center.

Outside the Santa Cruz Room, dozens of student and community activists protested Del Cueto's visit in silence, clad in Navy blue T-shirts with the Border Patrol's logo, except the shirts read "Murder Patrol" instead.

UA staff members were also outside the room monitoring the meeting and silent protest.

The event follows a tense three weeks on campus, after a March 19 incident that resulted in three students being charged with misdemeanor crimes.

As previously reported, Border Patrol agents were on campus that day in the Modern Languages building as guests of an event hosted by the Criminal Justice Association, a university club. There was no previous school-wide announcement that BP agents would be present on campus that day.

Student activists protested and confronted the BP agents' unexpected presence. A video that captured the exchange was posted online and went viral. As a result, the students involved in the protest received an overwhelming amount of personal threats online.

Del Cueto called on the university to investigate whether the students violated the university's code of conduct or Arizona law regarding disorderly conduct.

UA President Robert Robbins indicated in a school-wide email on Friday, March 29 that the UA Police Department determined they will charge two students with interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution. A third student was later charged after being recognized by a UA police officer at an unrelated traffic accident.

Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a shooting near North La Cholla Boulevard and Ruthrauff Road Thursday afternoon.

Multiple people were shot in a home in the 2400 block of West Kessler Place before 3 p.m., the Pima County Sheriff’s Department reported.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The University of Arizona's Park Student Union, located at 615 N. Park Avenue, will undergo extensive renovations as part of its transition to a facility called the UA Global Center.

It is envisioned to be the one-stop shop for services provided by UA Global, a department that serves international students and faculty who are entering or leaving. Currently, UA Global's operations are spread out across campus, making it difficult to navigate.

The new center will house International Student Services, International Faculty and Scholars, UA Study Abroad, UA Passports and International Recruitment, Admissions and Marketing, according to a Daily Wildcat report.

As a consequence of the upcoming change, the university's entire student-run media department (which includes The Daily Wildcat, a weekly newspaper; UATV, a broadcast news service and KAMP Radio, a free-format AM radio station) will be displaced from their long-time headquarters along with a handful of other services.

While UA Space Management staff is working to find a new home for Arizona Student Media, the current newsroom was custom-built with 6,200 square feet of space to accommodate about 200 student media staff members, offices for full-time administrative staff, technological capability for large data transfers and more.

With limited free space on the main campus, finding a comparable replacement will be difficult.

According to a letter sent by student media leadership to UA President Robert Robbins on Tuesday, April 2, the staff at Arizona Student Media was only made aware of these plans at the beginning of the semester, and they are expected to move this summer, only a few months away. No one at the department was consulted before the decision was made.

Remember Proposition 204 in the 2017 election, also known as Strong Start Tucson? If it passed, it would have raised local taxes to provide quality early childhood education to children in Tucson whose parents can't afford to pay for it. The proposition went down by a wide margin.

In a reasonably progressive town like Tucson which regularly elects Democratic mayors, city council members and legislators, you might expect Prop. 204 to do better than it did. The problem was, progressives were split. I was for the measure, but lots of people I usually agree with were against it. They supported the idea of expanding early childhood education to reach more children, especially children of low income parents, but they objected to the funding mechanism, the way the program was to be administrated and the fact that it stopped at the Tucson city limits. Those were valid concerns. I just thought, as a strong supporter of early childhood education, the city couldn't afford to pass up the opportunity to give a literal Strong Start to our children and our city. Both will benefit from giving young children a high quality, early start on their educations. Prop. 204 was an opportunity I feared would never come again.

Well, the idea is back in a new form. It's being called Pima County Preschool Investment Program. It's no longer limited to Tucson, it covers all of Pima county. It doesn't create any new taxes. And it will be administered through a contract with First Things First, a statewide program with funds which are earmarked to address early childhood development, education, and health concerns for children from birth to age 5, but doesn't have nearly enough funding to meet the statewide need.

A broad group of people and organizations in Pima county's public and private sectors, many of whom opposed Prop. 204, have coalesced around PCPIP. The Southern Arizona Leadership Council supports it. So does Chris Magnus, Tucson Police Chief. The list includes Children’s Action Alliance, the University of Arizona, First Things First, Metropolitan Education Commission and Center for Economic Integrity. Local school superintendents support it and school districts have agreed to participate by providing early childhood education or adding to what they're already providing if PCPIP becomes a reality. Some organizations have pledged financial support.

What's needed is a funding base. As happens so often, money is the sticking point.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival recipients at the University of Arizona have penned a letter that was released today in response to a Customs and Border Patrol presence at the university's main campus on Tuesday, March 19 in the Modern Languages building. CBP agents were guests of an event hosted by the Criminal Justice Association, a university club. There was no previous school-wide announcement that CBP agents would be present on campus that day.

Student activists protested and confronted the CBP agents' unexpected presence. President Robert Robbins indicated in a school-wide email on Friday, March 29 that university police determined they will be charging two students with interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution, a misdemeanor crime.

In the email, Robbins wrote that the university is committed to free speech, but the student club and the CBP officers should have been able to hold their event without disruption. "Student protest is protected by our support for free speech, but disruption is not," he wrote.

The letter from DACA students titled "We Will Not Be Silent" states:

The Green New Deal is an aspirational list of ideas of ways we can improve the environment and lift people's standards of living.

Do we need a Green New Deal? Is it doable? Can we afford it? Democrats are asking those questions seriously while Republicans pretend the GND would mean an end to hamburgers, milkshakes and airplanes.

The best thing about the Green New Deal is people are forced to talk about climate change and the environment. The topics now have a place at the political table. The more politicians and others talk about them, the better the chances we'll do something to address them.

On another front, some Democratic presidential candidates are advocating for Medicare for All. Others are calling for a private/public partnership which guarantees health care for everyone.

What's the best way to deliver health care to the most people? How will we pay for it? Democrats are holding a vigorous debate on the topic while Republicans make another stab at killing Obamacare and claim to have a plan of their own, something which they've been talking about for years but have yet to unveil.

This is another issue which no presidential candidate can avoid talking about. Like the environment, health care has a seat at the political table. It cannot be ignored, and that's a good thing.

Kamala Harris, Democratic candidate for president, has pulled another chair up to the table, this one for teachers. Harris says teachers are underpaid and under-appreciated, and she wants to increase their salaries using a combination of federal and state funding.

Should we increase teacher pay? Can we afford it? What's the best way to do it? Thanks to Harris, every Democratic candidate will have to address those issues, and Republicans will have to figure out how to fight against a salary increase without sounding like they hate teachers and children. The discussion and debate will increase the possibility that teachers around the country will see a substantial pay increase sometime in the not-too-distant future.

Thank you, Kamala Harris.

He was an influential leader, a charismatic entrepreneur and man who loved Tucson until his final days.

That’s how friends and family described the legacy of the late Donald R. Diamond, a prominent Tucson-based real estate developer and philanthropist, during a memorial held on Wednesday afternoon.

Diamond died on Monday, March 25. He was 91.

More than 300 people packed the Catalina Room at the Jewish Community Center Tucson. Although the required garb was dark the tone of the ceremony was playful and light-hearted, keeping in step with Diamond’s temperament.

“My father couldn’t afford a rabbi for the service, so I will be officiating this afternoon,” his eldest daughter Rabbi Jennifer Diamond told the piqued crowd.

She further said Donald Diamond would be pleased to know that he’ll finally recoup for paying for her the five years of rabbinic school.

Both comments sweetened the heavy mood of the day with warm laughter.

After leading a traditional service, Jennifer Diamond offered their personal guests a glimpse into her family’s life.

Diamond was a scrappy preteen, who always returned home to his family’s Park Avenue apartment in ragged condition, she explained. He was eventually relegated to using the service elevator due to his appearance, which didn’t alter his behavior.

“So from an early age it was clear that he was going to go his own way,” she said.

Diamond, a New York native, initially relocated to Tucson in the 1940s to attend Brandes Boarding School, but went to high school in Washington D.C. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II at age 17, lying about his age in order to serve.

He attended the University of Arizona from 1947 to 1949, where he majored in business and met his wife, Joan; the pair began their 64-year marriage in 1952.

Joan Diamond died on Dec. 28, 2016.

Diamond spent the beginning of his professional career as a commodities trader on Wall Street. In 1965, at age 37, he retired from trading and relocated to Tucson with Joan and their three daughters Helaine, Jennifer and Deanne.

After he made Tucson his home, Diamond would become of one of most influential private landowners in Pima County. And in 1988, he founded Diamond Ventures, Inc., a company that aims to engage in high quality real estate investments while considering the environmental impact of land development.

There are times when something is better than nothing. When it comes to the charter school bill in front of the legislature, this is not one of those times. Nothing is the better, or, to put it another way, the least bad option.

It looks like the charter school bill making its way through the legislature isn't going anywhere. After it passed the Senate, House Speaker Rusty Bowers stopped the bill from getting a hearing in committee. Bowers said he doesn't have the votes to pass it and he's probably right.

The bill's purported goal is to clean up the corruption and profiteering running rampant in some charter schools. People who have been paying attention have known about this for years but a series of articles in the Arizona Republic exposed the seamy underbelly of the charter world to more people, including some Republican politicians who have done their best to look the other way. Not all charters are guilty. Many are run with the primary intent of educating their students, not fatten people's wallets. But as The Republic demonstrated, the bad charter operators are truly bad operators.

The bill's sponsors claim its purpose is to increase charter transparency and lay down some regulations, making it harder for people to game the system. Actually, it does very little, and it does that badly.

Before we look at the bill itself, let's take a look at what's been going on around the bill to see what we can learn.

Here's one clue to what's in the bill: when it passed the Senate 17-13, all the Republicans voted for it. All the Democrats voted against it after trying to amend it to give it more teeth. Seeing as how Republicans created Arizona's charter schools a few decades back and have protected charters from greater regulation and accountability ever since while Democrats have been the ones calling for more transparency and regulation, it makes you think the bill is meant to act as a fig leaf to cover up the naked corruption taking place in some charters, not improve the charter school system.

I joined host Christopher Conover and GOP activist and radio commentator James Kelley on Friday night for a conversation about the 2020 presidential race and U.S. Senate race on Arizona 360. Watch the segments here. I'm still pretty sure that Kelley was wrong when he declared that Trump's national approval rating had crested the 50 percent margin.