Like most journalists, I read a lot of news. I start out every morning reading three newspapers entirely – USA Today, Arizona Daily Star and the Arizona Republic – (used to be four, guess which one I don’t read anymore?) then during the day I get deluged with RSS feeds from Google and other places.
Some stories I used to forward to reporters, others to family and friends.
There’s no reason I still can’t do that for the good and loyal readers of TucsonCitizen.com.
Every morning I will post my top 10 stories I’m digging that day with a little commentary to go with each.
Here’s today’s list (and I know it’s not morning but from now on it will be in the morning):
1. Pelosi’s struggle with truth exposes deeper problems – USA Today – Now that it’s politically expedient to denounce torture, Pelosi denied knowledge and smeared the CIA.
Ain’t she great? Blue Dogs better wise up and start pushing their weight around the House and find a new Speaker or Dems may find their rise to power short lived (assuming Cheney and Steele go away before the ‘10 elections)
2. Faith, medicine at odds – USA Today – Most states have legal exemptions that provide some protection to parents who withhold medical care on religious grounds.
The First Amendment runs into parental rights and the state’s duty to protect children from abuse. When is a mother deeply religious and entitled to raise her children under the edicts of her religion, even though those edicts may prohibit modern medical practices, and when is she just stone cold crazy and needs to have her kids taken away? Glad I’m not the judge.
3. City takes hit on bond rating – Arizona Daily Star – “What it means is the cost of borrowing will be higher,” Plagman said, adding the timing is particularly bad because the city is “already in a budget crisis position.”
Former Citizen reporter Carli Brosseau was working on this story before she was laid off. She told me she heard this from several people in the city on the day Mike Hein was fired who told her that the bond rating was toast because of Hein’s outster. Apparently, the bond people had told the city Hein’s firing would affect the bond rating. Not sure how or why that might be but he sure was a nice guy. Most affable person I’ve ever met. Even when he hated me he still greeted me with a big smile, warm hello and a firm handshake. Hein’s firing probably had nothing to do with it, but it’s interesting to me that the bond hit was predicted the day he was fired and now it’s come true. Coincidence?
4. Bill expands state gambling venues – Arizona Daily Star – The plan is open-ended. Anyone who sets up a new racetrack elsewhere in Arizona would also have the right to operate a casino on site, though Tobin’s measure would set a limit of 10 track-based casinos.
Do we really need more places for poor people to lose their money? Their’s a sucker born every minute. (My friend Patrick Cavanaugh calls the state lottery a tax on stupid people. I love that. Still buy a ticket every week, though.)
5. S. Ariz. may need 3 more trauma-care centers – Arizona Daily Star – Paying for the new trauma centers will present a challenge, Rhee said. Currently, there is no public funding from the local, county or state level to support trauma, according to the report.
Should have been on the front page, IMHO.
6. Panel says 3 years of job losses likely – Arizona Republic – Metro Phoenix is likely to experience an unprecedented three consecutive years of job losses in a recession expected to last at least two years, experts predicted Wednesday during the Economic Club of Phoenix’s annual outlook lunch.
Oy. Phoenix is the state’s economic engine – so goes Phoenix, so goes Arizona. This is not good.
7. Prison officials suspended in inmate death – Arizona Republic – Three prison officials have been suspended while the state investigates the heat-related death on Wednesday of a woman who had been placed in an outdoor cage for several hours.
We still put people in cages? Can’t we do better than this? I’m all for punishing criminals but this is ridiculous. Was Carr, the floor walker, in charge up there? “These here spoons you keep with you. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box…”
8. Why do atheists feel they have to bore us? – Arizona Republic – Charlotte Allen is the author of “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus” and a contributing editor to the Minding the Campus website of the Manhattan Institute.
If this woman is looking for Jesus, I think she missed him. What a (dirty word).
(This story was in the print edition of the Arizona Republic but not on its web site. The same column ran in the LA Times Sunday, so I grabbed the link from there.)
9. Bill revives land swap for copper mine – Arizona Republic – U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., introduced legislation Wednesday that throws her support behind a controversial underground copper mine near Superior that developers say could turn into the largest source of copper ore in North America.
A Democrat floats a bill that would help start a mine? Must be a lot of Republicans in her district.
10. In space, anyone can hear you tweet - USA Today – “Astro Mike” to his followers — has fired off nearly two dozen missives known as tweets, musing on such experiences as looking out the shuttle’s windows.
Story’s OK, but I thought the headline rocked. Then I tried to find its link on the web and saw that every news outlet on the planet that ran this story used the same or similar hed. Still cool, though.