The City of Tucson announced it would hand out free sandbags at Hi-Corbett Field (700 S. Randolph Way) and the Rodeo Grounds (4823 S. 6th Ave.) on Monday to counter potential flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Rosa.

The complimentary sandbags will be handed out at both sites from noon to 8 p.m., with a limit of 10 bags per vehicle, the City's report said.

The Rodeo Grounds location is a pick-up location with pre-filled bags, while Hi-Corbett is a self-serve location in the stadium's east parking lot, meaning residents will need to bring their own shovels to fill their bags.

The move comes as outer bands of moisture from Hurricane Rosa arrive in Southern Arizona, bringing heavy rains across Baja California and Sonora in Mexico, through parts of California and Arizona.

The National Weather Service's Tucson bureau released a flood advisory for the majority of Pima and Santa Cruz counties on Monday morning, mostly in relation to the risk of flooded washes and streets due to the precipitation. 

Music artists Dave and Kara have released their debut album entitled The Sun is Out. This music duo crosses genres such as alt-country, contemporary folk and indie-rock.
     
Dave and Kara Stricker are a couple splitting their time between Portland, Oregon and Tucson. Their songs are inspired by the intimacy and playfulness of the Dave and Kara’s relationship.

Dave, an inductee of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, has a long history of musical performance with the Dave Sticker Band, the artists behind The Westin Song.

Kara found her voice jamming with Dave for the first time on their honeymoon.
     
With Kara’s pure tone and wide range, and Dave’s skill with multiple instruments and production, the couple is a match made in heaven.
     
For more information visit daveandkaramusic.com or check them out on instagram at @daveandkaramusic.

On this week's edition of Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Dylan Smith of the Tucson Sentinel and Hank Stephenson of the Arizona Daily Star discuss Southern Arizona's congressional races, legislative races, recent controversies with charter schools and more. Tune in online or watch tonight at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday morning at 9 a.m. on the Creative Tucson network, Channel 20 on Cox Cable or Channel 74 on the Xfinity/Comcast system.

Nancy MacLean will make two appearances at the University of Arizona Monday, Sept. 24. From 1:30-2:45 p.m., she will be at the UA Bookstore and will be available for an author signing after the event. From 6:30-8 p.m., she will give a book talk at the UA Student Union Memorial Center, Catalina and Tucson Rooms.

The full title of MacLean's recent book is Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for the United States. The book, which was a 2017 National Book Award finalist, puts well known right wing, libertarian figures like the Koch brothers into the context of a larger, sustained effort by billionaires, academics and political operatives to make fundamental changes to our economic and governmental systems.

It's among the best, most revelatory books I've read in recent years, deeply researched and well written. Though I didn't attend MacLean's appearance at Tucson Festival of Books in March, people who attended have said MacLean is an excellent speaker.

As of this Fall, active-duty military undergraduate students at the UA are eligible for a significantly lower tuition rate than the average student.

This tuition reduction includes National Guard and Reserves. The cost of one credit hour will be $250, which is two times lower than what a regular student pays. The U.S Department of Defense covers tuition costs up to $250 per credit hour, which in other words, means many of the students will be able to attend the UA for free, according to the UA News press release.

All UA campuses, including online, offer tuition reduction for active-duty military. According to the press release, the UA is home to nearly 100 active-military students that qualify for tuition assistance.

The tuition reduction is an effort from the UA to show its appreciation to active-duty military. Jeff Goldberg, acting provost for UA, believes this will open doors to boost partnerships with military branches and to students who may have looked at other options to pursue their degrees.

"Our servicewomen and men are a vital part of both the UA student body and the country's workforce, and we as a university are committed to their graduation and lifelong success," said Goldberg in the press release.

The tuition assistance for active-duty military was announced at the Southern Utah vs. UA football game earlier this year.

For more information on active-duty military tuition assistance, email [email protected].

Stealth. That has been the watchword of the Koch brothers and their allies since they laid out their plan of attack on the country's political system some 40 years ago. Do all our work under cover of darkness, they decided. The other side won't know what hit them until it's too late.

True to its roots, the University of Arizona's Freedom Center, whose funders include the Kochs and members of the Koch network, prefers to avoid publicity whenever possible. It succeeded admirably when it managed to sneak the high school course, Phil 101: Ethics, Economy, and Entrepreneurship, into the TUSD curriculum. The school board had no idea the course was being taught at four of its district's high schools.

The course remained well below the TUSD board's radar throughout its first year, 2016-17, and into the second. That's when I got a tip about its existence and did some digging. In October I wrote about the course and its connections to the Freedom Center. Others in the media followed suit. The Freedom Center folks were not happy.

At a December meeting, the TUSD board decided to cancel the course at the end of the school year, though the members left the door open for putting it back into the curriculum at a later date. In July, the board took up the topic once again but tabled a vote on whether to reinstate the course. One reason was, the textbook, which was written by the same people who created the course, had not been properly authorized by the board.

Skip forward to the present. The district planned to have a 60 day public review of the textbook, which is standard operating procedure prior to authorization. The review was set to begin September 4, but the book's authors said they wouldn't allow the district to put a digital copy online, even though that's what most publishers do these days. That meant anyone wanting to take a look at the book had to go to a district office and sit there reading a hard copy.

TUSD responded by postponing the review until it can form a committee to evaluate the textbook.

Arizona became an early adopter in the privatization/"education reform" movement almost a quarter century ago when it opened its first charter schools.

From the beginning, the Republicans pushing charter schools had two overlapping goals: open as many charters as possible, and regulate them as little as possible. They're fine using taxpayer money to fund the schools, but their mantra has always been, "Keep your government hands off my charters!" They've kept rules and regulations as few and as toothless as possible.

As a result Arizona has the highest number of charter schools per capita in the country, though other states are catching up. We also have some of the worst examples of unchecked profiteering and what can only be described as legal corruption in the charter school sector you're going to find anywhere.

I'll get to the most recent example of profiteering and corruption involving State Representative Eddie Farnsworth (R, LD-12) in a minute, but first let me make one thing absolutely clear. Republicans have had plenty of opportunities to increase transparency and tighten financial rules on charter schools. The media has written articles about problems for years. Democratic legislators have proposed legislation to put a check on some of charter school operators' worst practices. Republicans have purposely ignored the media warnings and shot down Democratic legislation at every turn. If they retain their control over the legislature and the governor's office, nothing is going to change. You can bet money on it. However, if Democrats increase their power November 6, there's a good chance we'll see increased transparency and tighter regulation, which will, ironically, improve the quality of the charter schools Republicans hold so dear.

Now, to Rep. Farnsworth, who has figured out a way to turn charter schools into a multimillion dollar goldmine.

Eminem's song “Lucky You” on his new album Kamikaze, featuring Joyner Lucas, is the rapper’s first No.  1 debut on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart. Four songs from Kamikaze are in the top 10 of Streaming Songs List including “Lucky”, then “The Ringer” as No. 5, “Fall” as No .7 and the title track as No. 8. The rapper previously ruled the chart with “The Monster” featuring Rihanna in January 2014. “Lucky” is the seventh song to debut on Streaming Songs in 2018 and the first since Drake’s “Nonstop” on the July 14-dated list. Also, “Lucky” leads the On-demand Streaming Songs ranking with 31 million streams.

Eminem had never before debuted in the top 10 Streaming Songs. His closest was No. 11 “Headlights,” featuring Nate Ruess in May 2014. Kamikaze earns Eminem his ninth No. 1 album on Billboard 200 chart. The track gained 42.2 million streams in the week ending Sept. 6, after the album was released Aug. 31.

Eminem’s 10 most popular songs as of March 2018:
1. River ft. Ed Sheeran
2. Walk on Water ft. Beyoncé
3. Campaign Speech
4. Untouchable
5. Infinite (F.B.T. Remix)
6. Love the Way You Lie ft. Rihanna
7. The Monster ft. Rihanna
8. Lose Yourself
9. 2 Pac- Till I Die (ft. Eminem)
10. Rap God 

Apple is notorious for introducing its technological advancements and new products to its users in September. Well, for all of you who have been waiting, it's finally here.

If you're on Twitter, you may have already watched the live event, but for those who didn't, let's catch you up:

Apple Series 4 Apple Watch:

Jeff Williams, Apple's COO, took the stage to release the new series of Apple Watches and said the new product's three core values are connectivity, fitness, and health. The first thing he discussed was the new display, it is now 30 percent larger with an edge-to-edge screen but is now thinner according to Williams. It is made with black ceramic making sound waves and cellular service travel better. The sound is now 50 percent louder and the watch can now detect when you fall. This detections feature gives the user the option to call emergency services if the fall was serious. If there is no response from the user within one minute, emergency services are called automatically.

The heart rate alert that has been on the previous series now has three new features:

The new model has a low heart rate alarm that will notify the user of signs of atrial fibrillation-a condition of having an irregular heartbeat. What's more, there is now an electrocardiogram feature, making it the first ECG feature available over the counter.

The Series 4 Apple Watch with GPS will be available for $399 while the one that includes cellular will be $499. It comes in three colors, space grey, silver and gold. It can be preordered this Friday, Sept. 14 and can be received as early as Friday, Sept. 21.

iPhone Xs and Xs Max:
The event also included the announcements of new iPhone models. The iPhone Xs has a 5.8 inch super retina display with an all screen front display, while the iPhone Xs Max is 6.5 inches, Apple's biggest phone yet. Both phones have an LCD screen and are waterproof in up to two meters of water for 30 minutes. Better yet, it's orange juice, wine, and beer proof.

They now come with the all new A-12 Bionic chip, a neural engine with machine learning, expanding the way users experience photos, gaming and more. The camera, even better than before, has dual lenses at 12MP with an improved portrait mode making it possible to adjust the level of blur in your photos.

The iPhone Xs is said to last 30 minutes longer than the X, while the iPhone Xs Max lasts 90 minutes longer. They will be available in the same three colors as before, silver, space gray and gold. With storage options of 64, 128 and 512 GB. The new additions still do not have a home button and will rely on facial recognition. They include wireless charging but can still be charged with a lightning cable.

The iPhone Xs starts at $999 while the iPhone Xs Max starts at $1,099. They will be available for purchase on Friday, Sept. 14.

iPhone Xr:

With a 6.1 inch display, liquid retina and the most advanced LCD a phone has ever had, Apple made an effort to make sure this new product would not disappoint. The camera is the same as the two other new releases, 12 MP, but only contains one lens. It is only waterproof for 30 minutes up to 1 meter. It will also include facial recognition and wireless charging. It also comes in a wider range of colors which include the following: yellow, white, blue, black, coral and red. The storage options are 64, 128, and 264 GB.

The iPhone Xr starts at $749 and will be available for purchase on Friday, Sept. 14.