Sonia Sotomayor is a Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice, thanks to the Senate’s 68-31 confirmation vote today.

I wonder whether she’ll deliver as advertised? Liberals hope she’ll be a liberal justice. Conservatives are certain of it.

But will she be?

Supreme Court nominees have a tendency to betray their nominator.

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My take on AARP The Magazine ranking Tucson as the No. 1 city for living the “simple” life:

If you aspire in your retirment to do nothing but sit on your patio, drink iced tea and look at pretty mountains because there’s nothing else to do, then Tucson’s the place to be.

BTW, I would have provided a link to AARP The Magazine’s story about ranking Tucson as simply tops so you can read for yourselves why it thinks it’s so pathetic, er, simple here, but the story is not to be found on the publication’s web site.

And using The Google only returns stories about the ranking in USA Today, the Star and a handful of blogs.

So who’s simple now?

The end is near.

ADOT opened the Miracle Mile and Grant Road exit ramps on eastbound I-10 last night. It opened the Speedway off ramp a few weeks ago.

On the westbound side, the off ramps remain closed but the on ramps at Grant and Miracle Mile have been open for a month. I’m checking to see if ADOT has opened the Speedway on ramp westbound yet.

Plus, Sundt started paving the remaining section of I-10 still closed to traffic – St. Mary’s to 29th St. eastbound. That means in a week or so, it should open that section to traffic and the freeway reconstruction will be essentially completed.

All that will remain is putting rubberized asphalt down on the 29th to St. Mary’s westbound side, fixing up the on and off ramps, landscaping, signage and painting. Woo hoo (as the kids say).

I have to say I predicted this reconstruction would be a disaster for Tucson commuters and the local economy. The first part never came true and the economy going into the crapper had little to do with road construction. In fact, the I-10 job probably helped a little by keeping a few dozen hard hats employed.

Kudos to ADOT, Sundt and the city of Tucson. Sometimes government does work well.

Driving to work today I saw that the Speedway off ramp on eastbound Interstate 10 was open. I didn’t notice if the Grant Road off ramp was open also.

I have a call  in to the on-call ADOT media relations person (today’s a holiday for state workers) to see if this is just for the July 4th celebration downtown this weekend or if it’s permanent. I’ll update the post if I hear from him or her.

If permanent, this would be the first off ramp opened since all off and on ramps were closed in June 2007 between Prince Road and 29th Street. Earlier this year, ADOT opened westbound I-10 on ramps at Grant Road and Miracle Mile.

Our long transportation nightmare is slowing coming to an end.

UPDATE: Heard from the ADOT spokeswoman.  The of ramp was opened Thursday morning and is permanent. Other on and off ramps will open in the coming weeks as the improvements are completed.

For the past six years, former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s veto stamp has stood in the way of abortion opponents in Arizona. She rejected at least nine bills that would have restricted abortion in some way.

Abortion opponents hope this year will be different now that Jan Brewer, who has stated her opposition to abortion, is governor.

There are five bills moving through the Legislature. Among the restrictions they would impose is a 24-hour waiting period and requiring minors to get written permission from their parents or guardians.

It’s unfortunate that the Legislature consumes itself each session on this topic because it is mostly futile. It’s a fight being waged on the margins that will have little effect on the core issue – abortion.

The country is too evenly divided for the passage of a Constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade. And the Supreme Court, though given numerous chances to overturn or reel in Roe, has failed to do so and is unlikely to do so.

Abortions will remain legal in Arizona regardless of legislative tinkering.

Moreover, the effort expended by both sides on these peripheral fights is wasted because abortion is not the problem, it is merely the symptom of a larger disease – unwanted pregnancies.

It need not be a zero sum game. There is common ground to stand on. First of all, abortion is abhorrent.

Second, some abortions are medically necessary to save the life of the mother.

Third, no woman who conceives a child as the result of rape or incest should be forced to carry the child to term.

Fourth, abortion as birth control is an outrage.

These tenets make up the vast middle ground of American attitudes toward abortion. Those who advocate for abortion for any reason at any time during pregnancy are extremists. Likewise, those who insist all pregnancies, no matter the danger to the mother or the crime that created them should be carried to term also are extremists.

The key to the debate is how to prevent unwanted pregnancies that aren’t the result of crimes.

Abstinence only programs have been only marginally successful and that’s not good enough if the goal is to prevent the need, or demand, for an abortion.

Clearly the answer is open and honest sex education in schools and at home and free, universal access to birth control and so-called morning after medications.

We can teach, ask, beg, plead or cajole our children and unmarried young adults not to have sex but we’ve been doing that for hundreds of years and it has yet to work.

Bristol Palin being a prime example.

If we can’t keep them from having sex, we should at least give them the tools, so to speak, to keep them from conceiving a child when they do.

It’s wrong, if not extreme, to argue that pre-marital sex and contraception are the evil equivalents of abortion.

This effort is not without its pitfalls, to be sure. At what age do you start said open and honest sex education? At what age do you make birth control of all types available? Should young girls be handed a free prescription for birth control pills  immediately after their first menses? Should boys get handfuls of condoms right after their voices change?

Unfortunately our biology betrays us. It’s almost a cruel joke that we become sexually mature at 12 and 13 years old but don’t become emotionally, physically, economically and socially mature until our mid 20s.

But these debates are all much simpler problems to overcome than the one over the legality of abortion.

We’ve had enough of extremism. It’s time for reasonable people to solve the real issue and in so doing, solve the false one.

Let us resolve to make it so that the only abortions that occur in this country are those rare times when it is medically or morally necessary.