Arizona representatives co-sponsor bill seeking relief

When Barbara Sotelo’s husband died in an accident two years ago, her life began to spiral downward.

Faced with raising three children on her paycheck from the state Department of Corrections, Sotelo scraped by for most of a year. Then her adjustable-rate mortgage payment jumped to $1,500.

“That made me use my credit cards so I could keep up,” said the 38-year-old single mother.

Leaning on credit cards for school clothes and sometimes food soon led to higher card balances and payments, and the mortgage burden led to late card payments that sparked higher interest rates.

Credit fees and penalties quickly spun out of control. Sotelo has paid more than $1,000 in card fees in the past year, and all of her interest rates have jumped above 20 percent.

Now she is struggling to keep her home, and credit card companies won’t lower rates or forgive fees that stack on top of existing balances, which total about $8,000, she said.

It’s a difficult life that puts knots in her stomach with every ring of the telephone.

“You go through anxiety, and you’re afraid to answer the phone,” Sotelo said. “My phone is always ringing. Sometimes at 7 o’clock on Saturday, they start calling.”

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and one pending in the Senate would shelter consumers from some credit card practices that hurt people like Sotelo.

The House’s Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights (HR 627) would prevent punitive interest rate increases unless an account was more than 30 days late and require credit card companies to give 45 days’ notice for interest rate increases. It would limit late and over-limit fees and allow consumers to set “hard” limits so purchases would not go through if they push cards over the limit.

U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords and Raúl Grijalva, Democrats from Tucson, co-sponsored the bill.

A companion bill in the Senate would ban punitive interest rate hikes unless payments were 60 days behind, let consumers regain low interest rates after six months of paying on time and require anyone 21 or younger to prove ability to repay before a card could be issued.

The legislation is likely to change before a compromise version is sent to President Obama, and credit provider lobbyists are sure to fight to dilute the bill.

Obama has signaled he would sign such legislation if it passed.

Card debt increasing

About 46 percent of American families had credit card balances in 2007, with an average of $3,000 outstanding – a 25 percent balance increase in three years, according to a Federal Reserve survey report in February.

From 2000 to 2003, the average balance increased just 9 percent, the report said.

Nonhousing debt payments accounted for an average 14 percent of disposable income among survey respondents in 2007 – virtually unchanged from 2004.

But the number of families with debt payments totaling 40 percent or more of their income rose 2.5 percent from 2004 to 2007, which hints at an increase in families with burdensome debt, the report said.

When Sotelo needed advice, she turned to the nonprofit Primavera Foundation, which offers free financial counseling and education. Primavera can help people avert disaster, but that’s usually not the case, said counselor Lisa Peregrina.

“A lot of people don’t learn about credit until they’re in a credit card crisis,” Peregrina said.

Primavera sees walk-in clients and gets referrals, often from banks trying to help people qualify for home or other loans. The number of clients seeking help has risen dramatically in recent months, Peregrina said.

“And the numbers keep going up,” she said.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services, a nonprofit funded largely by credit card issuers, offers free counseling. And for $25 a month, it will manage your debt for you. The company has also seen a sharp increase in clients, said counselor Maria Grijalva.

High interest rates hurt

Interest rates are a common route to higher credit card bills, according to Grijalva and Peregrina.

Many card companies offer low or no interest for new accounts, then slip a policy into the fine print that says interest rates rise if payments are late. Sotelo has been hit by this numerous times, and Peregrina sees it all too often.

“The rate may be zero percent, but if you miss one payment, it might go up suddenly to 29 percent,” Peregrina said.

The House bill would prohibit such rate changes unless a payment were more than 30 days late. The Senate version would extend that to 60 days.

Over-limit fees that often top $30 also snare consumers. Again, credit card companies’ fine print often lets them change limits at will and allows the card holder to freely charge beyond limits.

Card companies are increasingly lowering credit limits, even for customers who always pay on time, and a lack of hard limits means many consumers unwittingly exceed limits and get stung by fees.

Both bills would force credit card companies to notify you at least 45 days before contract changes, such as lowered credit limits.

Avoiding disaster

A key reason people get trapped is a lack of information, even a little bit of which can steer you clear of fees and skyrocketing interest rates, Grijalva said.

“A majority of people don’t even know what their interest rates are,” she said.

Above all, Grijalva urged consumers to read the fine print in credit applications and terms.

“You always have to read the fine print, and it’s always, always in the very fine print where the most important information is,” she said.

Both Grijalva and Peregrina suggest calling credit card companies to negotiate lower interest – even if you have a high rate because of late payments.

“You do have a right to call that credit card company and ask them to negotiate,” Peregrina said.

She also suggests self-imposed balance limits. Keeping your outstanding balance at half or less of your available balance helps your credit score and lowers the chance you will charge over the card limit, she said.

Always review statements, limit yourself to one or two cards for emergencies only and keep those cards at home to avoid temptation, Grijalva said.

“Don’t keep it in your wallet,” she said.

Vigilance and education are your best weapons – whether you are already in trouble with debt or have always been able to pay on time, the counselors said.

And be patient, Peregrina said.

“It took some time to get this debt up. It’s going to take some time to pay it down.”

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WHERE TO GET HELP

• Primavera Foundation, 623-5111

• Chicanos por la Causa, 253-0838

• Consumer Credit Counseling Services, 795-1121

• Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, 623-0344

• Family Housing Foundation, 318-0993

• TMM Family Services, 322-9557

• Tucson Urban League, 791-9522

• Old Pueblo Community Services, 445-7085

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AVOIDING CREDIT WOES

• Have one or two credit cards, and use them only for emergencies.

• Don’t carry credit cards with you; leave them at home so they won’t tempt you.

• Review statements carefully. Interest rates and card limits can change unexpectedly, even for people who pay on time.

• Ask questions of your credit card companies.

• Know what actions can trigger higher interest rates such as late payments or over-limit charges.

• Don’t just blame your credit card company when problems arise; you are at fault, too.

• Negotiate with card companies to get lower interest rates. Sometimes they listen.

• Start negotiating with creditors before you have trouble.

Sources: Primavera Foundation, Consumer Credit Counseling

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DID YOU KNOW?

• 46 percent of American families had credit card balances in 2007, with an average $3,000 outstanding balance, a 25 percent balance increase in three years, according to a Federal Reserve survey released in February. During the previous three years, the average outstanding balance increased 9 percent.

• Nonhousing-related debt payments accounted for an average of 14 percent of disposable income among respondents to a 2007 Federal Reserve survey, virtually unchanged from 2004.

But the number of families with debt payments totaling 40 percent or more of their income rose 2.5 percent from 2004-07, which hints at an increase in families with burdensome debt, the survey said.

Next week’s work to affect underpasses along 4 major streets

The Arizona Department of Transportation has scheduled the following closures along the Interstate 10 construction project in Tucson:

• The right lane of eastbound I-10 from Prince Road to St. Mary’s Road will be closed Saturday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

• The eastbound frontage road from Miracle Mile to 29th Street will have intermittent lane closures Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 7 p.m.-6 a.m.

• The left two lanes of the eastbound frontage road at Congress Street will be closed Monday, 9 p.m.-midnight

• The westbound frontage road from 29th Street to Miracle Mile will have intermittent lane closures Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and 7 p.m.-6 a.m.

• Grant Road at the I-10 underpass will have lane closures Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

• Speedway Boulevard at the I-10 underpass will have lane closures Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

• St. Mary’s Road at the I-10 underpass will have lane closures Monday-Wednesday, 8 p.m.-6 a.m.

• St. Mary’s Road at the I-10 underpass will be closed Thursday, 8 p.m.-6 a.m.

• Congress Street at the I-10 underpass will have daily lane closures Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

• Eastbound Congress Street at the I-10 underpass will be closed Monday, 3-6 a.m.

• Congress Street at the I-10 underpass will be closed Monday-Wednesday 8 p.m.-6 a.m. and 9 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. May 18.

Tucson police were reporting clear sailing on city streets at 7:45 a.m. on International Tuba Day, a holiday founded by Joel Day in 1979. Day, who was a tuba player at Lower Merion High School in Philadelphia, Pa., started Tuba Day to inspire respect for tubas and tuba players.

Grant Road, which was closed near Craycroft Road for several hours after a car crashed into a power pole shortly before 2 a.m., was open by 7 a.m., according to police.

An unknown number of customers lost power for less than a minute after the crash, said Tucson Electric Power spokesman Joe Salkowski.

RADAR VAN

• 6-9:30 a.m. – 3700 block of North Stone Avenue.

• 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. – Mountain Avenue between Prince and Fort Lowell roads.

• 1:30-5 p.m. – 9600 block of East Rita Road.

• 5:30-9 p.m. – Kolb Road between 22nd Street and Golf Links Road.

Arizona has earned a bronze rating as a bicycle friendly state from the League of American Bicyclists, according to a news release from a local cycling committee.

Just six states applied for the designation, which is based on factors related to the states’ commitment to improved cycling conditions, and four made the grade, the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee news release said.

The league rates states based on legislation, programs, places to ride and education of the public on bicycle recreation and transportation, according to the league’s Web site.

The program, which was launched last year, has four levels of recognition: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. No state earned the platinum or gold award. Only Washington and Wisconsin earned silver.

Tucson is Arizona’s only gold level bicycle-friendly community. Tempe and Scottsdale earned silver awards and Chandler, Flagstaff, Mesa and Gilbert earned bronze.

Nina Trasoff talking with TPD chief candidate Roberto Villaseñor .

A meet-and-greet breakfast with the final two Tucson police chief candidates was a bit of a bust Friday morning – just one City Council member was among an estimated two dozen people in attendance.

The informal 90-minute meeting with assistant chiefs John Leavitt and Roberto Villaseñor was billed as an interview with City Council members and the public. But Councilwoman Nina Trasoff and Mayor Robert Walkup were the only council members present.

Few people attended the 8 a.m. meeting at Tucson Convention Center, and a table covered with city department leaders’ nametags remained mostly untouched as did a large breakfast spread.

Trasoff said she will be glad when the chief is chosen. With several departments under new leadership or with top-level vacancies, she is relieved to nearly have one filled.

“This community needs the continuity of knowing who its leaders are,” she said.

Trasoff – who knows both men from working with them on community projects over the years – declined to highlight their differences. She would be happy with either candidate, she said.

Villaseñor was a bit more specific. He brings a broader range of experience than Leavitt, he said.

“I have commanded all four bureaus of the agency, because I’ve been an assistant chief a little longer,” he said.

His management style over the bureaus – patrol, investigations, support services and administrative services – has also been “more conservative,” than Leavitt, he said

He declined to be specific.

Leavitt also avoided comparisons, though he thinks he brings a broader set of community connections because of his work as a school board member for St. Peter and Paul Catholic School, as a member of several judicial selection commissions and involvement in multicultural activities throughout the city.

“I have to think I have some of the deepest community connections of anyone in the department,” Leavitt said.

City Manager Mike Letcher will choose a candidate Friday afternoon and send the name to the council for support or rejection at its meeting Tuesday.

Bonnie White-McDaniel points out the repair work on the grandstand bleachers at Rillito Park Race Track. White-McDaniel is the daughter of Pat White, the general manager of the track.

Rillito Park Race Track will apparently get a reprieve, possibly as long as four years, while Pima County tries to come up with money to convert the North Side track to a soccer facility.

“At this point, that’s the only thing that’s saving us. They don’t have enough money to tear it down,” said Bill Matthews, who runs the nonprofit Save the Rillito Race Track.

Rillito has been on thin ice since the county supervisors agreed in 2006 to turn the track into an 18-field soccer complex. In 1984, voters guaranteed horse racing a home at the North First Avenue facility south of River Road for 25 years – through Dec. 31, 2009.

Shortly before the end of what was to be the track’s last racing season in February, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry told the Pima County Horsemen’s Association it would likely be able to keep the track open for “three or four years,” said Pat White, the group’s president.

Huckelberry did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday.

The prospect of having a 2010 season at Rillito had the Horsemen’s Association busy in recent weeks. The group poured $55,000 into painting and repairing windows, railings and stairways.

A crew of seven also screened in the grandstand to keep birds out and recoated the reflective roof, said Bonnie White-McDaniel, who supervised the work.

“We’ve been doing this for five weeks,” White-McDaniel said.

To prepare for the January start of the season, more repairs will be made this fall, she said.

The track opened in 1943 and is part of the nation’s “county fair” racing circuit. The five-eighths-mile oval features the first quarter horse chute, or starting system, in the nation.

The chute is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 2009 season featured 11 days of racing on weekends in January and February. The track drew more than 9,000 fans on the next to last day and 10,000 on the final race day. It’s a likely attendance record, White said.

“We’ve had seven and eight before,” she said, “but never nine and 10.”

Funding for the soccer fields and a new race track at the Pima County Fairgrounds, on Houghton Road south of Interstate 10, would come from an unscheduled bond election.

The Horsemen’s Association has tried to find private backers for the track but none has emerged.

A young inspired author, Dylan Blankenship of Desert Willow Elementary, wrote a story about "My Friend the Magic Box."

If doughnuts and Pop-Tarts had a smackdown, who would win? How about pizza and spaghetti?

Stories that Soar, a local theater program featuring snippets of plays written by schoolkids, will answer those questions when it offers two performances at the University of Arizona on May 9 showcasing the best of its work this school year.

“When adults write about kids, it’s very different from when kids write themselves. It’s very entertaining for everyone, and it offers a great glimpse into the world of kids,” said Sharon O’Brien, artistic director for Stories that Soar.

The stories are collected over a period of several weeks at elementary and intermediate schools, then developed into plays with live actors, music and sound effects. The actors then return to the schools for assemblies featuring the submitted plays. The group has performed in 10 local schools and three in Phoenix this year.

Actors come from a variety of backgrounds and range in age from 19 to 50, O’Brien said.

Darby Blaker, who graduated in December with a UA bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing sciences, joined the group at the suggestion of a friend. She was quickly hooked, she said.

The plays are a great way to bring out kids’ feelings and thoughts, which are basically the same feelings and thoughts adults have, Blaker said.

“I think it’s every kid’s dream to see something they created brought to life,” she said.

The UA performances will offer two or three stories from each of the schools the group worked with this past year, O’Brien said.

Topics range from the serious – war and immigration – to the whimsical – a fight between spaghetti and pizza.

A reception with balloons, face painting, raffles and a silent auction to benefit Stories that Soar begins an hour before showtime.

Stories that Soar has been active for eight years. The group has a stable of about 20 actors, though only about 10 will be in the UA shows.

The food fights became part of the program after several kids submitted plays based on fights between their favorite foods, O’Brien said.

“It’s a three-round favorite food smackdown. Doughnuts and Pop-Tarts decide to be friends; it’s too hard to fight,” she said.

To find out the winner in the pizza-spaghetti matchup, head to UA on May 9.

Timothy Jones of Soleng Tom Elementary wrote about a mail carrier who gets lost in space.

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IF YOU GO

What: “Best of Stories that Soar!”

When: 2 and 7 p.m. May 9

Where: University of Arizona Marroney Theatre, 1025 N. Olive Road.

Price: $8 for adults, $5 for kids ages 12 and younger. Available at Mrs. Tiggywinkle’s Toys, 4811 E. Grant Road; Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave. or at the door May 9.

Info: 975-9970, www.storiesthatsoar.org

Tucson police were reporting just one accident at 6:45 a.m. on May Day, a holiday which traces its roots to pre-Christian Roman celebrations of flowers. To wit:

• In the 8700 block of East Prickly Poppy Drive, near North Pantano Road and East Pima Street, an accident with unknown injuries at 1:45 a.m.

RADAR VAN

The Tucson Police Department had no times or locations listed for its radar van. Check tpdinternet.tucsonaz.gov/Radar/ for updates.

Miller turned this Sam Hughes neighborhood dwelling into the only existing masonry home to qualify for Tucson Electric Power's Guarantee Home Program, which offers discounted rates.

Green builder John Wesley Miller wanted to prove a point.

So he plopped down $450,000 for a leaky, inefficient 1962 home in the Sam Hughes neighborhood and started adding things like solar panels, a solar water heater, a super-efficient heat pump and double-pane windows.

When he was finished, Miller had the only existing masonry home to qualify for Tucson Electric Power’s Guarantee Home Program, which offers discounts and heating and cooling price guarantees to energy-efficient houses.

The program is designed for new homes.

“We wanted to show that you could take an old house and turn it into a superefficient home,” Miller said recently during a tour of the 2,000-square-foot ranch home at 3002 E. Hawthorne St.

TEP worked with Miller throughout the renovation, said Dan Hogan, the company’s supervisor of residential new construction programs.

For new construction there are normally three inspections required for a home to qualify – for framing, insulation and airflow – but inspectors visited the Miller house an extra time, Hogan said.

The program gives a roughly 10 percent discount on electric rates for the life of the home and a guarantee from TEP that your heating and cooling costs won’t rise above a certain level for five years. That cost is custom-set for each home, Hogan said.

Miller’s isn’t the first existing home to qualify for the program, but the others required far more extensive upgrades.

“It’s the first one we didn’t strip to the studs,” Hogan said.

Though the lift was lighter than the previous attempts, getting the masonry house up to the TEP standard was not easy.

“Practically everything you see is new,” Miller said.

That includes extra insulation on the outside of the burnt adobe walls, which was then covered with a layer of plaster.

New windows ($6,000), a rooftop solar electric panel and water heater ($15,000-$20,000), insulation and new stucco ($10,000-$15,000) and a new heating and cooling system ($6,000-$8,000) are among the improvements that helped earn the TEP guarantee, Miller said.

The roof was topped with an extra 4 inches of insulation, too.

The changes were not a good investment. Miller put about $300,000 into the house and has it listed for $699,000, he said.

“I won’t even get my money out of it,” he said.

Originally, Miller thought he could make money from the renovation, which includes custom woodwork and solid cherry doors, Corian countertops and all new tile throughout.

But ultimately he simply wanted to encourage recycling on a new level, he said.

“This is the ultimate recycling. You recycle a whole house.”

Renovations that meet the Guarantee Home standards will continue to be rare, Hogan said.

“It’s just too expensive. Until it can be done much cheaper, I don’t think it’s going to be done too frequently,” he said.

“But it’s good to know it can be done, because then you can look for ways to make it economical.”

Green builder John Wesley Miller shows the tankless water heater and the blower for a high-efficiency heat pump at the home. Miller has put about $300,000 into the house.

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On the Web

TEP Guarantee Home Program: www.tep.com/Green/GuaranteeHome

Organizers optimistic music fans will fill stadium

UA junior, Kelsey Vaughan, 21, (left) and senior Elle Oviedo, 22, give each other a high five after checking out where their seats are for Wednesday's concert at Arizona Stadium.

With showtime barely 24 hours away, slow ticket sales continued to plague the first major concert in Arizona Stadium since Jimmy Carter was president and Elvis was a reigning king.

Tuesday morning, Tommy Bruce, president of the Associated Students of University of Arizona, which is sponsoring the Wednesday multigenre show, would say only that more than half of the 17,000 available tickets had sold.

It’s the same thing he said April 12, but organizers still cling to threads of optimism.

“Ticket sales are slow, but they’ve definitely picked up the past few days,” said.

The show features Aussie twins The Veronicas, San Francisco alt rockers Third Eye Blind, “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson and rapper Jay Z (his only American concert thus far in 2009).

It’s the first show in Arizona Stadium since 1977, when Fleetwood Mac packed 67,000 into the Wildcats’ home.

It was unclear Tuesday if the show would break even. Final expenses and revenue won’t be known until a month after the concert, Bruce said.

Don’t expect a traffic snarl on par with a football game. Average attendance for home games hovers around 50,000. Even basketball games draw an average of 14,000. Nearby parking likely will be available.

Though ticket sales have been disappointing, Bruce considers the concert a good opportunity for students to bridge the gap between the campus and the community at large.

He wouldn’t rule out a ticket sale surge on the final two days.

“We’re optimistic,” he said.

A stage is built in Arizona Stadium for the first concert there since 1977.

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If you go

What: The Veronicas, Third Eye Blind, Kelly Clarkson and Jay Z concert.

Where: Arizona Stadium at the University of Arizona

When: Doors open at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Tickets: $27-$200; available at http://asuaspecialevents.com

It will be an early and wet monsoon if a long-range outlook from the federal Climate Prediction Center holds true.

Based on hints in Caribbean and Pacific surface temperatures, the Rocky Mountain snowpack, and Plains states drought and computer models, the agency calls for above average rainfall for southeast Arizona in June, July and August.

University of Arizona monsoon researcher Christopher Castro tentatively agreed.

“Those indicators are pointing to an early and wet monsoon,” Castro said.

Two computer models foresee rapid development of a typical monsoon high pressure zone in May, then a rapid advance northward of the zone, the CPC outlook said.

Each year, this high pressure zone settles over the Four Corners area in northeast Arizona, shifting our prevailing winds from the west to the southeast. This wind shift is the monsoon, and when it happens early we typically get more rain than average.

Of the past 20 monsoons, Tucson got less than average rainfall (6.06 inches) in 13 and more than average in seven, according to the National Weather Service. Last year, the airport, where official tallies are kept, got 5.52 inches, the weather service said.

Tucson typically gets about half of its annual rainfall during the monsoon, June 15-Sept. 30.

Rain is not in this week’s forecast, with temperatures expected to climb into the mid-90s by Friday. Windy, dry conditions prompted a fire danger warning for Tuesday across the southeast quadrant of Arizona.

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By the numbers

6.06 inches, normal monsoon rainfall for Tucson

5.52 inches, last year’s total

13.84 inches, wettest monsoon (1964)

1.59 inches, driest monsoon (1924)

The Pima County Jail will hold a large-scale fire drill Sunday that will include a smoke display and tactical unit deployments, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Visitation at the jail, 1270 W. Silverlake Road, will be suspended during the 9-11 a.m. exercise involving personnel from the Sheriff’s, Tucson Police and Fire departments.

The joint operation is aimed at preparing staff in the event of a fire. First Appearance Court, visitation at the Mission Complex, 1801 S. Mission Road, and jail bookings will not be affected, according to the news release.

The Tucson police photo radar van, its use suspended this week after a unit operator was killed in Phoenix, will be back in service next week, the Tucson Police Department announced Friday.

American Traffic Solutions pulled its Tucson van from operation after the Phoenix shooting to implement security measures. The new security – which police declined to identify – is in place and van patrols will resume Monday, a TPD news release read.

Thomas Patrick Destories, 68, faces charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and firing a gun at a structure. Doug Georgianni, 51, was fatally shot Sunday as he operated a state photo radar van.

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Monday schedule

• 7-10:30 a.m., Alvernon Way near Kleindale Avenue

• 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Fort Lowell Road between Mountain and Campbell avenues

• 2-5 p.m., 3700 block of North Stone Avenue

• 5:30-9 p.m., Wetmore Road near Oracle Road

Some teachers and students at Ironwood Ridge High School are miffed at a new directive from their principal: No more couches.

The comfy classroom corners will disappear after the end of the school year because a workers’ compensation inspection tagged them as a back injury risk to custodians. The custodians must move the behemoths to clean carpets during summer break.

Some teachers and students at the school, 2475 W. Naranja Drive, think the recommendation from the Arizona School Alliance for Workers’ Compensation is a case of bureaucracy gone mad.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” said special education teacher Samantha Youmans, who thinks the couches enhance camaraderie and academics.

Principal Michael Bejarano, who issued the ban, sees both sides but says employee safety trumps comfort.

“If an employee gets hurt moving a couch, shame on us,” Bejarano said.

A representative of the Alliance, a private company formed by state school districts to insure against workers’ compensation claims, did not return two telephone calls seeking comment. The inspection report recommends household furniture not be allowed in classrooms.

“These large items add to the work of custodians and pose a potential back injury when moving them (in summer) for cleaning carpets,” the inspector wrote.

Teachers were asked only to remove couches, Youmans said.

Student Government Vice President Kirsten Linaker understands the liability, but she thinks the couches help student government and academics.

“It kind of creates a more relaxed atmosphere for our discussions,” Linaker said.

Couches also give students a comfortable place to complete reading assignments, she said.

English Department Chair Susan Williams has had couches for most of her eight years there.

“I think they’ve cleaned my carpets once since I’ve been here,” she said.

Her classes include book “cadres,” which are book discussions among students. Couches enhance the book cadres, said senior Victoria Maxwell, 18.

“It actually gives it that book-talk feel. With this, everything is just really relaxed,” she said.

Senior Rachel Held, 18, was relegated to a desk April 6 because she got to class too late to stake a claim. She was visibly disappointed and grudgingly took a seat.

“The couch spots are coveted,” she said.

So far, the policy only applies to Ironwood Ridge.

Todd Jaeger, the Amphitheater Public Schools legal counsel who handles risk management, is not aware of other schools in the district where personal furniture has been deemed a risk.

“We don’t have a districtwide policy,” he said.

Despite her exasperation, Williams isn’t protesting. She issued a memo telling her department of the pending ban.

“In the scheme of things – budget, teachers losing their jobs, class sizes going through the roof – this is small,” she said.

“I worry more about my friends having jobs than about having a couch.”

Teachers estimate about one-third of the 95 teachers have couches in their rooms.

Accidents were piling up at 8 a.m., on the 24th day of National Pecan Month, declared by Congress in 2001 and celebrated by the National Pecan Shellers Association.

Tucson police were reporting the following:

• First Avenue and Prince Road, an 8 a.m. accident with unknown injuries

• Craycroft and Grant roads, an unidentified traffic hazard at 7:50 a.m.

• First Avenue and Grant Road, an accident with no injuries at 7:40 a.m.

• Seventh Street and Euclid Avenue, an accident with unknown injuries at 7:30 a.m.

• Midvale Park and Valencia roads, an accident with no injuries at 7:25 a.m.

• Alvernon Way and Benson Highway, a 6 a.m. non-injury accident.

RADAR VAN

The radar van still on hiatus after killing in Phoenix.