Today’s Top 10 news stories I’m digging from the Arizona Daily Star, the Arizona Republic and the USA Today:

1. Leap in U.S. debt hits taxpayers with 12% more red ink – USA Today Bottom line: The government took on $6.8 trillion in new obligations in 2008, pushing the total owed to a record $63.8 trillion.

Put on a coat before reading this story, ’cause it will chill you to the bone.

2. Many small businesses lose their credit - USA Today When credit lines are reduced — or outright severed in this case — businesses could have problems such as buying needed supplies or equipment. Nearly 60% of small-business owners said they’ve used a credit card as a financing tool in the last 12 months, according to a NSBA survey released this month.

One of the pillars of the economy is credit. Ironically, abuse of credit is what got us into this mess but it is its proper use that is going to get us out. These microloans to small businesses are vital to keeping the economy from continuing to fall and for the long slog out of the hole. If the federal stimulus had been used to prop up economic engines like this rather than being doled out to state and local governments, the climb out would have been faster and less painful.

3. It’s bad timing for Bank of America to be puttin’ up a Ritz – USA Today “It’s again about the whole idea of excess and not spending money wisely,” says Hebert of the i2i consulting firm. “Somebody in those mahogany-coated rooms should have said, ‘Come on guys.’ ”

I wish I was fabulously wealthy so I could be as clueless as bankers and Wall Street financiers. Isn’t ignorance supposed to be bliss?

4. Microsoft announces big Bing theory – USA Today Bing will lead to faster, better organized and more relevant results, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said. The service, which is available to a few test users now, will be widely released by Wednesday.

Will the maker of the most prevalent but least useful computer operating system finally “get” the Internet? I doubt it.

5. Publicity push to tout Brewer budget plan; Dem budget plan bridges gap between GOP, Brewer- Arizona Republic As the minority party at the Statehouse, the Democrats are trying to chart a middle course between the deep cuts of the Republicans’ budget plan for fiscal 2010 and the 1-cent-per-dollar sales-tax hike that they believe Gov. Jan Brewer is promoting.

Wednesday is June 3. There will be 27 days left in the fiscal year before the next fiscal year’s budget has to be passed. And we get a detailed budget from the governor and the Democrats only now? What the hell have they been doing the past four months? And with a month to go, the majority Republicans still don’t have a budget? We don’t pay these guys very much, but I’m beginning to think we pay them too much. PASS A BUDGET!

6. An old tradition for tough times: Money sharing – Arizona Republic The popular monetary practice based on rotating credit is deeply rooted in Mexican culture but little known to outsiders. In a cundina, participants – typically about 10 family members, friends, neighbors or colleagues – contribute a set amount of money each week. Those contributions are pooled, and each week, a different participant takes home the entire pot.

Interesting idea. Better trust your partners, though.

7. Homeowners fall behind at highest rate since ’72 – USA Today; Delinquent mortgages, foreclosures up in Ariz. – Arizona Republic Foreclosures were started on an additional 2.52 percent of Arizona mortgages, bringing to 5.56 percent the proportion of Arizona loans in foreclosure during the quarter. Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada accounted for 46 percent of all foreclosures started last quarter.

Whatever happened to TARP buying up all those “toxic assets” and the foreclosure stability plan (Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan)? I guess the Autoworker’s Union has to get paid off first by saving a mostly dead auto behemoth. Oh, that’s right, Michigan and Ohio are swing voter states and Arizona, California and Nevada are not.

8. ‘UFO’ spotted in Southeast Valley no longer unidentified – Arizona Republic “It was some kind of electronic device,” airport spokesman Brian Sexton said of the plastic object whose owner was identified as Space Data Corp., a Chandler firm whose products have logged 250,000 hours of flying time over the United States.

When will people finally get that there are no extraterrestrials? Once you learn the science behind the speed of light, the relationship between mass and energy (E=mc2) and the distances of the galaxy and the universe you quickly realize that if not impossible, interstellar travel is extremely impracticable.

Today’s Top 10 news stories I’m digging from the Arizona Daily Star, the Arizona Republic and the USA Today:

1. Student routinely restrained to fence – Arizona Daily Star The bus monitor involved said the exceptional-education student, whose feet remained on the ground, was attached to the spoke of the fence so he wouldn’t fall over or wander away while he waited for his escort.

So, the monitor gets off the bus with a special needs student and there’s no teacher or aide there to take the student and his solution is to tie the kid to the fence so he can do something else? His solution isn’t to wait? Or to take the kid to the office? Or to get on a cell phone and throw a fit with his bosses or the school principal that the teachers are routinely late to pick the kid up from the bus drop off? When did common sense die in this country? Was there a date it happened, or has it been a long slow bleed?

2. So, City High student, you’ve earned promotion? Prove it – Arizona Daily Star “If you can’t fail it, then it’s not an assessment and it becomes a ceremony.”

Great idea. Works in a charter school with a few dozen students. Will it work at a school such as Mountain View High School where there are 500 students per grade? Let’s see, 2,000 students make a 20 minute presentation, that’s 666 hours of presentations. At 8 hours a day, that’s 83 days to get through the presentations, including weekends. If you had one panel per grade going simultaneously, that’s still 20 days to get through the presentations. Looks like standardized tests are here to stay.

3. Get ready to pay more in city taxes – Arizona Daily Star Trasoff wanted some agencies to get zero funding, because she said an equal decrease isn’t necessarily fair, given the different functions they perform.

A bunch of liberals pass a tax increase. No surprise there. But a bunch of liberals passing brutal regressive tax increases that stick it to the poor? That’s a head scratcher. That said, I’m at a loss figuring out what progressive taxes might have been available to them. So maybe the thing to do instead was cut city programs and staff to balance the budget?

4. Drop impossible dream of total security – Arizona Daily Star/Miami Herald As President Eisenhower reputedly said, “If you want total security, go to prison.”

I agree completely with this columnist. He could have gone further. While the Bush Administration and Cheney talked tough they ended up doing mostly that, talk. While they poured billions of dollars into Iraq, they let bin Laden get away with murder. While they tortured supposed and real terrorists at Guantanamo for relatively worthless or suspect intelligence, they failed to protect U.S. ports and borders. Not a single government official lost their job for failing to act on the detection of the terrorists cells that conducted the Sept. 11 attacks, or for the no WMD in Iraq fiasco. There are things we can be doing to improve our security but in the end, someone who is willing to die to kill is almost impossible to stop. Plus, we have more to fear from each other than from Islamic terrorists. About 14,000 people were murdered in the United States last year, not one of them by a terrorist.

5. New English-learner fight after schools chief alters process – Arizona Republic Arizona schools Superintendent Tom Horne has issued a new mandate that will cut the number of students receiving special help with English, kicking up yet another controversy over the state’s 150,000 English-language learners.

That’s it? What language does your child speak? That single question is supposed to determine if a student should be mainstreamed or enrolled in ELL classes. That’s like asking a parent, “Can your kid do math?” and if they say yes putting them in algebra class. I can do math. I can’t do algebra (anymore, anyway). Sheesh.

6. Recent roof collapses concern parents, schools – Arizona Republic Now, parents and educational authorities are concerned that recent roofing problems at those three Valley schools could indicate a larger, statewide pattern of schools in disrepair.

When did Arizona become China?

7. Speed cameras twice tag Shaquille O’Neal – Arizona Republic Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal was snapped by Arizona Department of Public Safety speed cameras in December and February, a DPS spokesman said Wednesday. The official declined to say where the violations occurred or exactly how fast O’Neal was going.

Ha Ha. (You don’t need to click on the story link, I posted the entire story)

8. Judge speeds up Coyotes timetable – Arizona Republic U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Redfield Baum on Wednesday put on a fast track a decision whether the highest bidder could relocate the team.

How much did that new Glendale arena cost Maricopa County tax payers? Are you paying attention Pima County Sports Authority? Don’t get in bed with professional sports teams. If they want a stadium or an arena, let them spend some of the billions they make each year and build it themselves.

9. Stimulus projects bypass hard-hit states – USA Today – But, with few exceptions, that money has not reached states where the unemployment rate is highest, according to a USA TODAY review of contracts disclosed through the Federal Procurement Data System.

I knew I didn’t feel stimulated.

10. Supreme Court pick Sotomayor faces nomination politics – USA Today The Coalition for Constitutional Values began television ads nationwide on Wednesday in support of Supreme Court nomineeSonia Sotomayor. On the other side, the Judicial Confirmation Network sent an online ad opposing her to 2.5 million people on its mailing list.

Anybody remember Antonin Scalia’s Senate confirmation vote in 1986? It was 98-0. He’d never get confirmed today, no matter the party in the majority. Wish we could turn back the clock to more sane times.

ROLAND BRAMMEIER

Roland Brammeier, upon taking the helm of Tucson Metropolitan Ministries in 1975, reportedly said: “Three hymns and a prayer on Sunday morning is not the answer for churches.”

For the next decade, he showed Tucson what the answer should be.

Brammeier had attended Nebraska Wesleyan University and Iliff School of Theology in Denver and served churches in California and Arizona before coming to Tucson in 1971 as associate pastor to Catalina United Methodist Church.

He also had served on, created or led dozens of community programs: Highway Chaplain on Route 66 in Needles, Calif.; programs on mental health, Head Start, PTAs, adult education, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, Meals on Wheels, Board of Trustees for the ASU Student Union, the VISTA advisory board and many more.

His infectious joy and sense of humor – particularly laughing at himself – surely strengthened his ability to serve.

During his early years in ministry, he recalled walking through church one afternoon and looking in the John Wesley Lounge, where he found a nude couple making love.

He stammered, “Uh . . . uh, are you members here?” In unison, they replied, “No.” When sharing this story, he rhetorically asked, “Why did I ask them that?”

As Rev. Brammeier transitioned from pastor at Catalina UMC to becoming the first director of TMM, he worked with the YWCA (emblematic of his faith in action), at which time he is quoted as saying, “Ministers can speak the word all the time – but if they’re not acting the word, they’re in trouble.”

And act he did.

As he would say, TMM was a shared dream that came about by a wonderful team of volunteers and staff. It was “one of the WOWS in my life.”

Its task as the arm of the United Methodist Church was to be involved in everything that has anything to do with people in need, regardless of religious affiliation – or lack of it.

The multitude of services growing from his visionary leadership include four children’s day care centers, Community Food Bank, Community Organization for Personal Enrichment (COPE, begun as a place mental health outpatients meet and receive help with day-to-day problems), Senior Community Center, Urban Tours for awareness of needs, Indian Relief Center, Emergency Relief (cash assistance to families in need, which evolved into Traveler’s Aid , now part of the Primavera Foundation), Border Ministries, Miracle Square (independent living for senior and disabled adult with supportive services), Share Home Project (home sharing for seniors), Brewster Center for Women, now within Emerge Center.

Beyond direct leadership, Roland and TMM were interactive with more than 100 Tucson social service agencies. The list of his involvement in the community reads like a director of human services, but Roland would be the first to say he did not do these things; it was with the Tucson community these services and programs came into being.

Roland also took delight in helping the new arrivals, as when we arrived in Tucson in August 1977, in a Volkswagen bus with three kids, two dogs, no jobs nor home, and little cash in our pockets! He was our savior!

His walls were covered with awards and recognitions: Alumni Achievement Award from Nebraska Wesleyan, Outstanding Citizen of the Community by the National Association of Social Workers, Man of the Year by the Tucson Advertising Club, Bishop’s Award for Leadership, Iliff School of Theology Alumnus of the Year, Jefferson Award (a national recognition honoring community and public service), and many, many more.

Displayed among all those awards and certificates was a plaque with pictorial barbed-wire fence and the words, “He who straddles the fence usually has a sore crotch.”

That Nebraskan farm boy never, ever straddled fences.

Leaving Tucson in 1985, Roland accepted the position of district superintendent (essentially, a pastor to pastors) for the United Methodist Church in the Los Angeles area.

After four years, he returned to his native Nebraska. Ten years ago, he returned to Arizona to serve as pastor to the Lake View United Methodist Church in Sun City.

At the time of his death on March 29, 2009, he was continuing his activism working with United Methodist Outreach Ministries in downtown Phoenix.

After 10 years working in Mexico, Punch directed Tucson’s Community Food Bank for 25 years, retiring in 2003. He now volunteers with nonprofits and enjoys country life with wife Casey. E-mail: punchwoods@q.com

Punch Woods

On Nov. 4 voters in Legislative District 10 on Phoenix’s Northwest Side elected Doug Quelland to the Arizona House of Representatives.

On May 15, an unelected state commission overruled them and ordered Quelland out of the House for violating rules governing publicly financed campaigns.

Quelland is appealing and can remain in the House until that’s resolved but judging from the evidence gathered by the commission, it’s likely he’ll be forced out.

It’s the second time in two years the state’s Clean Elections Commission has overturned voters’ wishes because a candidate agreed to take public money for his campaign then broke the incredibly complex rules governing that money’s use.

Clean Elections and its cousin, term limits, were supposed to put the citizen back in citizen government. Neither has happened.

The Democrats elected to the Legislature are more liberal and the Republicans more conservative than ever before. The gulf that lies between them has prevented compromise and progress on a whole host of issues.

Candidates who had to put their hand out to numerous constituencies to raise money pre-Clean Elections need now only put their hands out to their parties’ true believers. Because of another good idea gone bad – the state’s redistricting commission, which botched the gerrymandering of state legislative districts – there are few competitive districts in the state. Most candidates need only win their party’s primary to get elected and primary voters tend to be the most strident of party faithful.

Meanwhile, party operatives have figured out how to game the system, turning Clean Elections into more of an oxymoron than a supposed field leveler.

While public financing was supposed to take the corruption out of politics by making candidates beholden more to voters than donors, term limits was supposed to refresh the state house every few years with new candidates bringing fresh ideas to state government.

Instead, candidates have likewise made term limits an oxymoron. Candidates termed out of the House after eight years simply run for the Senate, or vice versa, and almost always get elected.

Quelland’s seatmate from District 10, Jim Weiers, has been in the Legislature for 15 years. He did his eight in the House, including a term as Speaker, got termed out, got elected to the Senate for one term, then jumped back to the House where he was Speaker for two terms. He’s in the middle of his eighth two-year term in the Legislature.

It was this kind of career politician that term limits was supposed to limit.

The great irony is that term limits was unnecessary, there already were term limits every two years.

Voters should be able to give money to whomever they want and elect whomever they want however many times they want.

It’s time for voters to jettison both these laws and re-take responsibility for whom they elect.

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:

1. Pixar moves ‘Up’ with its 10th movie – USA Today – Disney might own Pixar after buying the company for $7.4 billion in 2006. But when it comes to brand loyalty among family moviegoers, Pixar is the new Disney.

Is it weird for a middle-aged man to be excited about going to see a “kiddie” movie? Pixar rocks.

2. 100 years at the Brickyard – USA Today – Conceived by four local businessmen as a venue for the city’s competing automakers to test their mettle (and metal) as the machine grew in stature, the Brickyard quickly evolved into a drawing board in the development of cars, racing and safety.

They still have this race? I used to love open wheel racing back when A.J. Foyt was wheel-to-wheel with Rick Myers and Al Unser in hot pursuit. Now, it’s all about Danica Patrick’s underwear ads and a bunch of foreign guys from Formula 1. Plus, all racing, including NASCAR, has become go really fast, crash. Go really slow under caution. Go really fast again, crash. Go really slow under caution. Go really fast again … Blech.

3. Grief and honor at Arlington – USA Today – Each day, as I walk among the headstones lining these rolling hills, I’m mindful that more than 300,000 veterans and their dependents are buried here.

One of the most emotional days of my life was an afternoon I spent at Arlington. When my father died a few years ago, he was buried at the military cemetery in Phoenix. He spent nine years in the Air Force, 1946-1955, and was medically retired after an auto accident. Nevertheless, he raised a military family. I spent five years in the Army, two active, three reserve. He had Alzheimer’s and the last year of his life he was only capable of staring at the ceiling and moaning or whistling, strangely. So when he died, I was more relieived than sad. I’d said my goodbyes long before his death. At the various funeral events, I didn’t shed any tears. But at the graveside, when the Air Force honor guard leaned over and gently offered the American flag to my mother, whispering to her “On behalf of a grateful nation” I lost it. When you’re out grilling your hot dogs or whatever Monday, be sure to take a moment and remember what Memorial Day is really all about.

4. 6 money fixes you should consider now – Arizona Republic – The economy has been under so much strain lately that it pays to know where you stand financially and devise a plan to solve your money problems.

My wife and I started doing almost all of these last year, the most important completely eliminating our credit card debt. But we’re a consumer economy and reduced consumer spending is part of what’s causing the economic crisis. But after just surviving layoff by a whisker, I’m in no rush to start spending again.

5. Leinart shows signs of growth on, off the field – Arizona Republic – He is somewhat chiseled now, hardened by a new commitment to the weight room and life in the NFL. He takes pride in being the second-team quarterback.

If he keeps throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, he’ll always be the second-team quarterback.

6. Detention facility near Sahuarita is ruled out – Arizona Daily Star – Now, the district will work with the Tohono O’odham Nation to build the facility on tribal land near South Sandario Road and West Ajo Way, said district Chairman Austin Nuñez.

Nimbys win again. I wonder what the folks over at Sandario and Ajo think?

7. AZ Senate bill would let offenders skip traffic school – Arizona Daily Star – A provision buried in the package of bills for the 2010 budget would let errant motorists essentially buy their way out of trouble. They could pay a flat fee of $282 and walk away, with no ticket, no record — and no time lost.

They need to hurry up and pass this bill, get it signed by Brewer and make it retroactive so I don’t have to go to traffic school next Saturday.

8. Legislation would replace vouchers with tax credits – Arizona Daily Star – Legislation introduced in both the House and the Senate would allow corporations and insurance companies to divert up to $5 million a year from what they owe in taxes and give it instead to organizations that help certain students pay the cost of attending private or parochial schools.

Same stink, different pig.

9. Sources: FBI asking questions on Arpaio – Arizona Republic – Five public officials involved in ongoing disputes with the Sheriff’s Office confirmed federal agents asked them questions that seem to focus on one theme: possible misuse of power by Arpaio and other sheriff’s representatives, perhaps related to the ongoing disputes between the sheriff, county supervisors and top county administrators.

Arpaio’s toast.

10. State should heed bulletin from Calif. – Arizona Republic – Nevertheless, the message from California seems to be that, while voters don’t like budget cuts and will complain bitterly about them, they like the probable alternatives even less.

Don’t listen to California. To argue that because California voters rejected a tax increase to fix their state budget, then Arizona voters will do the same is fallacious. We have no idea what Arizona voters will do if offered the opportunity to chose paying more taxes to preserve education funding and whatnot. The real motive here is a fear that Arizona voters will pass a tax increase. Don’t be afraid of voters, let them decide. This is a democracy, after all.

Today begins a new chapter in the history of the Tucson Citizen and tucsoncitizen.com. Call it www.tucsoncitizen.com, version 2.0, if you will.

We’re moving from a newspaper-based online site to one that is opinion-based, and it’s a work in progress. Bottom line: We want to engage you in this daily community discussion.

The tucsoncitizen.com team will create a “town hall’ site for the community to explore and debate the hottest topics each day. Journalists Mark Evans and Ryn Gargulinski will host what we anticipate will be a rousing debate. They will offer opinion and commentary about a wide range of topics and invite everyone to join in a discussion.

Think of it as talk radio for a newspaper-loving audience.

We encourage you to post your comments on version 2.0 at the end of this story.

Mark and Ryn are veteran journalists who have a passion for news and information and who aren’t afraid to offer an opinion or two, or three, about anything. Just ask them.

Mark joined the Citizen in January 2007 as an assistant city editor, leading a team of government and criminal justice reporters. He also teaches reporting public affairs at the University of Arizona School of Journalism. He’s lived in Tucson since 1992 and was the editor of a weekly paper for 10 years before joining the Citizen.

Mark is an expert on the state’s public records laws and perversely spends his free time watching CSPAN, reading political blogs and worrying about the chances of next year’s Wildcats’ teams (pick a sport, doesn’t matter, he’ll worry about its chances).

He’s eager to engage the Tucson community in debate on anything — government and politics, the Wildcats, why the Raiders will rise again, the nature of the universe or why Tucson will never run out of water.

Mark believes opinions based on knowledge, accurate data and benevolence are invaluable. They provide perspective, meaning, explanation and understanding. If the community comes together and helps the new Citizen Web site provide perspective and understanding, no matter the topic, the public benefits.

Ryn took her seat at the Citizen in January 2007, after newspaper gigs in southern Oregon, northern California, New Mexico and New York City. Journalism is just one of her many passions, as she is also an avid artist, poet, performer and animal lover.

Her work has been called wacky, whimsical and downright weird and she promises to bring readers those same types of views.

Mark and Ryn want to know what you think – about the issues of the day and about how we can make this Web site work for you. We’re listening.

P.S.: For those of you out there who still crave reading the newspaper, too, you can read a Tucson Citizen editorial weekly in the Arizona Daily Star.

An aerial view shows the Rio Nuevo site between "A" Mountain on the left and downtown Tucson on the right.

It’s May, and we’ve just broken the 100-degree mark in the Old Pueblo.

Our cement- and asphalt-laden streets and sidewalks won’t cool off for at least four months, and in the presumed absence of our once glorious “monsoon,” the riverbanks of the Rillito and Santa Cruz will remain barren and dry throughout the summer.

Upon returning to Tucson five years ago, I came to realize that our beautiful summer storms, known as “chubascos,” had all but disappeared.

In my absence, the blades of developers constantly eroded the desert as the octopus of Tucson grew in all directions: north, south, east and west.

Very little summer rain fell here for the first two years after I returned. “Where are they?” I asked, and the answer seemed to be that the rains were driven away by cement and asphalt, as had happened in the Gomorrah to our north, Phoenix.

In my previous incarnation in Tucson, I had always lived downtown.

As I returned in the midst of the real estate boom of 2004, I was surprised at the high cost of housing in the urban core.

However, I saw little improvement downtown to justify such exorbitant home prices.

Armory Park and “Barrio Historico” were still without even one grocery store; the streets were devoid of people; and businesses on Congress Street were boarded up.

The hopes for downtown redevelopment were being marketed in the form of a vague concept called “Rio Nuevo,” a euphemism, I imagined, for some kind of rebirth that would transform our downtown.

Alas, five years later I realize Rio Nuevo is thus far a dead-end street on the other side of a nonexistent Rainbow Bridge to Nowhere.

As the Santa Cruz is dried up and full of litter, Rio Nuevo would better be called Rio Seco (Dry River).

If we renamed Rio Nuevo to Rio Seco, we would understand that our desert is precious, and that it – and its people – must be protected.

Now buzzwords and concepts such as “sustainability” and “green jobs” are thrown around like wet dish towels in the kitchen of our collective mind, but what do these terms mean?

Sure rainwater harvesting is a good idea, but where is the rain?

Golf courses, resorts and roads continue to flourish while the water table sinks. Yet we call this “progress.”

We build border fences to keep out persons who are referred to as “illegals,” yet we historically have relied on such people to dig our trenches, mortar our bricks, harvest our crops and clean our toilets.

The border of our collective mind, which separates “illegals” from the rest of us, prevents us from seeing the future that could be.

Rather than accepting the reality of Rio Seco, we continue to wallow in the delusion of Rio Nuevo.

Rather than stopping expansive development in its tracks, we maintain that we can sustain life while perpetually bulldozing the desert.

Meanwhile, as state, county and city dollars shrink, our social safety net is vanishing.

Services for our most vulnerable – children, victims of abuse and domestic violence, the elderly, the mentally ill and the homeless – disappear daily as agency after agency must come to grips with reality and lay off workers.

In our desert, social Darwinism has met John Wayne: It is the “survival of the fittest” at the OK Corral.

Presumed “illegals” are told to “Go back to Mexico,” and the un- and underemployed are supposed to “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

By action or inaction, the mantra of our “leaders” in local and state government is: “Government cannot protect you; protect yourself!”

Yet how can we expect the homeless, persons with serious mental illness, survivors/victims of domestic violence, the elderly, children who live below the poverty line, and single mothers struggling to make ends meet in a depressed economy to “make it” without help?

Seemingly, no public funds are available for social programs, but no one is seriously talking about how much money we waste – on the state, county and city levels, on locking up people for relatively low-level crimes.

In the jails and prisons of our collective mind, no one discusses concepts such as “smart policing” and “community corrections.”

Studies have repeatedly shown that police patrols are ineffective in deterring and preventing crime, yet we continue to throw good money after bad.

We do business the way it’s always been done because that is what we are told to do.

There is no creative thinking in public safety land, where jails, prisons and law enforcement are budgetary “sacred cows.”

In the borders of our collective mind, rather than making better use of jail and prison space, we simply assume more is needed.

It is time to take care of people in our midst, to “just say no” to developers, to eliminate “corporate welfare” and to turn off the spigot of endless public dollars designated for nonessential law enforcement services and the unnecessary incarceration of nonviolent offenders.

It is time to create innovative programs that can save taxpayers’ money and serve the needy.

It is time to cut the fat from bloated bureaucracies while stabilizing the humanitarian core of government.

Embrace the concept of Rio Seco, and cast off the delusion of Rio Nuevo!

Michael C. Elsner, Ph.D., teaches sociology and criminology/criminal justice for Northern Arizona University-Tucson and is a principal research specialist with the University of Arizona’s College of Public Health.

Michael C. Elsner

Were we too liberal? Too conservative? Our last 100 editorial stances

The fence on the U.S.-Mexico border was the topic of several recent editorials.

Jan. 21: In an inaugural address reminiscent of JFK’s, President Obama gives Americans hope and a dose of reality.

Jan. 22: Legislators should stop trying to ban photo radar cameras. They save lives.

Jan. 23: In her inaugural address, Gov. Jan Brewer offers no specifics. But there are hopeful signs for schools.

Jan. 24: Good for U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva in fighting to prevent mining on about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.

Jan. 26: Don’t call it No Child Left Behind. Nearly Every Child Left Behind is a more accurate title for this flawed federal program.

Jan. 27: A needed expansion and unified of the transit system will improve regional service.

Jan. 28: When the Citizen reported on hazing at some local fire stations, fire officials banned tape recorders in training sessions – the wrong way to address the situation.

Jan. 29: Tax credits have helped give schools needed programs, but if necessary, they should be cut to save basics.

Jan. 30: State secrecy on deficit-fix ideas is hurting TUSD’s ability to plan its next budget.

Jan. 31: The state must come up with guidelines to spend federal stimulus money as the feds intended.

Feb. 2: The state of the city is grim, but cheerleading Mayor Bob Walkup says, “We have what it takes.”

Feb. 3: A fix for the fiscal 2009 budget is shameful, unimaginative and harmful to education.

Feb. 4: Three TUSD officials are on leave for bid rigging and conflict-of-interest laws – the latest scandal to hit the district.

Feb. 5: UA cuts to the science center, museums and cooperative extension will hurt the community.

Feb. 6: The Tucson-based Morris K. Udall Foundation may be tripling its workload under the Obama administration.

Feb. 7: One partner in a three-way downtown development plan leaves. But the work must go on.

Feb. 9: The state must do more to inform people about food stamps. Qualified people are not being helped.

Feb. 10: Limitations on child care subsidies will hurt low-income families and keep them from working.

Feb. 11: Legislative Republicans are wrong to cut revenue, then blame the larger deficit on former Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Feb. 12: A City Council move to stimulate the economy turns into a finger-pointing farce and no answers.

Feb. 13: State schools chief Tom Horne says English Language Learning will cost substantially less. How? Show us the numbers.

Feb. 14: Legislative threats to yank millions of dollars in funding from Tucson’s downtown redevelopment are unfair and shortsighted.

Feb. 16: Proposals in the Legislature could reduce reproductive health choices for women – especially in rural areas.

Feb. 17: We support higher taxes, as considered by Gov. Jan Brewer – but only if they are temporary and targeted.

Feb. 18: The city again shoots itself in the foot on Rio Nuevo funding – paying UA invoices without the necessary scrutiny.

Feb. 19: In a misguided budget-butting move, Child Protective Services workers are ordered to take time off.

Feb. 20: A wide variety in state school standards undermines the goals of No Child Left Behind.

Feb. 21: Arizona, which has a sky-high teen pregnancy rate, needs more comprehensive sex education.

Feb. 23: Forget the naysayers. There are things happening downtown and delaying museum construction makes more money available.

Feb. 24: Kudos to Bishop Gerald Kicanas for leading a campaign for more affordable housing.

Feb. 25: Attorney General Terry Goddard should end doubts about the 206 RTA election and recount the ballots.

Feb. 26: The City Council is right to delay layoffs and consider every other possibility to cut expenses.

Feb. 27: The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. declines – possibly because of increased border violence.

Feb. 28: Gov. Jan Brewer is right to accept federal stimulus money for roads and other projects.

March 2: A legislator is flat wrong when he says education does not create jobs.

March 3: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio turns law enforcement into a media circus.

March 4: The Legislature’s move to grab open-space funds violates the state Constitution.

March 5: Arizona must step up and join the climate-change fight.

March 6: Gov. Jan Brewer has bold ideas but few specifics in her budget-fix proposals.

March 7: We put walls on the border, but turn a blind eye to guns smuggled into Mexico.

March 9: Compared with other states, Arizona pays too little in unemployment insurance.

March 10: Gov. Jan Brewer should take federal stimulus funds for unemployment compensation.

March 11: The next Tucson police chief should not spend time chasing illegal immigrants.

March 12: The Child Protective Services caseworker staff has been slashed beyond recognition – as a child murder trial is underway in Tucson.

March 13: The botched hunt for the next police chief is costly and embarrassing.

March 14: There isn’t much money, but it’s good that TUSD schools get to set their own spending priorities.

March 16: Arizona teens have big plans for the future, but adults don’t give them the necessary tools.

March 17: Arizona has lots of public information online, but there are continuing fights for access to public documents.

March 18: It’s about time that the feds decide to look for guns and money being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico.

March 19: It shouldn’t have taken Tucson officials so long to realize that city savings are almost depleted.

March 20: The Legislature should not force school districts to join in their budget-writing procrastination.

March 21: Battered by an unforgiving world economic crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen for eight decades, Rio Nuevo goes back to its basics.

March 23: Legislators should outlaw “hog dogging” – a vicious and bloody “sport” in which a pit bull is sicced on a wild boar in an arena with no escape.

March 24: The United States has wrongly banned Mexican trucks from U.S. highways, leading to consumer-harming retaliatory tariffs imposed by Mexico.

March 25: Arizona and other states must eliminate the financial incentives for nursing homes to house the mentally ill. The populations must be separated.

March 26: Help for our violence-wracked border with Mexico finally is on the way, thanks to President Obama and, especially, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano.

March 27: Gov. Jan Brewer should not engage in a battle with the feds that could cost Arizona $1.6 billion in stimulus money.

March 28: A threat to cut federal stimulus money should persuade the Legislature to restore funding for community colleges and universities.

March 30: We long felt that voucher programs violate the Arizona Constitution – and the state Supreme Court agreed.

March 31: The city of Tucson is drifting toward its worst budget crisis ever, but all the City Council can do is to point fingers.

April 1: A hand count of votes from the 2006 RTA election will erase all doubts about whether the vote was flipped.

April 2: Local taxpayers – who already are enduring cuts in basic government services – should not shell out $125 million to build a third pro stadium for spring training.

April 3: With Christopher Payne sentenced to death for murdering his two young children, it is appropriate to recall the short lives of Ariana and Tyler Payne and remember lessons learned from their tragic deaths.

April 4: It’s the one-year anniversary of the free pass issued to ignore U.S. environmental laws to build a border fence.

April 6: U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is to be commended for requesting a federal probe into the death of the last jaguar known to have lived within the United States.

April 7: School districts must write their budgets without knowing from Gov. Jan Brewer how federal money might be used.

April 8: Not content with botching the hiring of a police chief, the Tucson City Council made a far more grievous error by firing City Manager Mike Hein.

April 9: Republicans, who hold majorities in both houses of the Arizona Legislature, should invite Democrats into the budget-writing process.

April 10: With their unexpected and ill-conceived firing of City Manager Mike Hein, City Council members face a litany of critical issues.

April 11: The controversial work required for immigration reform has been foiled and put on the back burner again and again.

April 13: You’d think Arizona’s working-poor families had just scored big time, with the arrival of millions of federal child care dollars. You’d think wrong.

April 14: As Tucson leaders debate the future of downtown – and whether it has much of a future at all – a new study on job sprawl provides direction.

April 15: The city’s desperate attempts to fend off legislative tampering with Rio Nuevo are making the operation look even more haphazard.

April 16: The time has come for the Board of Regents to say “no” to another cost increase at the state’s universities.

April 17: One year ago, we were happy to see National Guard members leaving our border with Mexico. With new border violence breaking out, they are needed back.

April 18: Despite promises of an open process that would encourage public input, the state budget is being drawn up in secrecy.

April 20: With the Bush administration gone, the upcoming Earth Day is the first in eight years that engenders hope instead of despair.

April 21: State prison costs can be cut, but it will take time. It is unrealistic to expect quick savings.

April 22: It is embarrassing that the U.S. Supreme Court has been forced to intervene in an English-learning case that Arizonans should have resolved eons ago.

April 23: Pima County voters can breathe easier now that a hand recount has validated the outcome of the 2006 election on the Regional Transportation Plan.

April 24: Give me a campaign donation, and I’ll give you an earmark. That’s the kind of quid pro quo that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seeks to block.

April 25: An automated external defibrillator saved the life of a high school student. Every campus must have aty least one AED.

April 27: In adopting a budget, the City Council should look to cut costs, not just generate new revenue.

April 28: Life has become a little better for unemployed Arizonans, but the state still is not doing all it should to help those without a job

April 29: The swine flu outbreak is a serious matter. Caution and concern are merited, full-bore hysteria is not.

April 30: Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s idea that schools should be able to check citizenship status when students enroll is poppycock.

May 1: As the city examines new revenue sources to balance its budget, Pima County is on much more sound financial footing.

May 2: Gov. Jan Brewer eased a hit on the pocketbooks of university students – but her demand for an overhaul of the higher education system leaves a lot to be desired.

May 4: Where is Gov. Jan Brewer as the Legislature works on a budget that slashes education and other critical state services?

May 5: Pima County’s response to six confirmed cases of swine flu has been sensible, compared with reactions elsewhere.

May 6: In its rush to cut spending, the Legislature is ignoring a voter mandate requiring that funding for education be increased annually.

May 7: The Legislature must let Rio Nuevo live long enough to prove that it can be viable when the economy recovers.

May 8: Good for the the Board of Supervisors for voting to undo an earlier decisions to impose fees on after-school and summer programs and to close some community centers and parks.

May 9: A state budget that can only be described as disastrous is taking shape as Gov. Jan Brewer stands on the sidelines.

May 11: President Obama halts construction of the medieval fence on the Mexican border, bringing to an end a chapter of pointless environmental devastation.

May 12: A legislator threw unsubstantiated and inaccurate allegations at school officials, accusing them of “illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars.”

May 13: Proposed state budget cuts would will deeply affect the lives of developmentally and mentally disabled people.

May 14: TUSD has found that when you ask for ideas on how to save money, people can be creative.

May 15: Several members of the Tucson City Council violated the spirit – and possibly the letter – of the state’s Open Meetings Law.

May 16: Goodbye.

Paper gave ‘plain old people’ a voice

I am very sad because I am losing a good friend, the Citizen. I have enjoyed your excellent paper since we came to Tucson in 1951.

Special thanks to my journalism hero Tony Tselentis, editorial page editor, who shared his valuable insights about community issues, printed our letters and sent our questions and concerns to the news side to cover.

Thanks also to the wonderful investigative reporters (Jon Kaman, etc.), who dug out the facts about many critical issues like the fraudulent Butterfield freeway public opinion survey and the GAC plan to convert Empire Ranch to a huge bedroom community.

The Citizen gave us plain old people a voice so we could be effective.

Time has moved on. Thanks to the new crew who continue quality news and editorial coverage – Mark (Kimble), Billie (Stanton) and the other good folk who carry on.

Soon we citizens will lose an important voice. I will miss you greatly.

Ruth Holzinger Stokes

Kudos to former Citizen journalists

The only way I have to express how much I’ll miss the paper is to tell my story. Most of all I’ll miss Billie Stanton. She is irreplaceable.

The summer of 1967 was the happiest time of my life. The Tucson Citizen gave me the chance to continue my newspaper career in a new town, in a new job.

The job was as city desk assistant, working with Tom Duddleston and Keith Carew.

The staff was great – so warm and friendly, like a big family, pre-computer with more time for each other.

I was able to continue my journalism career, which began in Columbus, Ohio, in 1942 as one of five war-time staff photographers on the Columbus Citizen newspaper.

In 1956, I had gone to New York and married Bruce Hopkins, a New York Mirror photographer. The paper folded.

John Hemmer, a former staffer there, offered Bruce a job here. So here we were.

I retired when I was 62.

At the Tucson Citizen, we made longtime personal friends, such as my 30-year-friend Allison Hock-Rose, who started as a teen intern.

She recently was in town, and we discussed old times.

From the old building, these staffers deserve to be remembered – and bosses, too:

William Small Jr., Paul McKalip, George Rosenberg, Clyde Lowery, Tony Tselentis, Mary Brown, Mary Moody, Micheline “Mike” Keating, Nicki Donahue, Ellen Crosby, Anne Ross, Corky Simpson, Bill Hopkins, John Winters, Dan Pavillard, Sue Giles, Mary Gerdan Hunt, Judy Terlizzi, Regis McAuly, Paul Allen and Jeannie Jett.

WILMA S. HOPKINS

Fine work of staff won’t be forgotten

How do you say “thank you” to so many people who have made a difference in your life, professionally and personally?

After being in the military more than 21 years, you would think I would know how to say goodbye to friends and comrades on the newspaper side of the house.

News that the Tucson Citizen will close came as a surprise to me, and soon it will be a reality.

I want to thank all those reporters, photographers, editors and the weekly Calendar magazine for working with me for the past seven years.

Working together to get the news to and about our nation’s heroes, veterans and their families has truly been the fruit of our combined labor.

What a joy it has been to have worked personally with Anne Denogean, Heidi Rowley, Sheryl Kornman, Billie Stanton, Val Cañez, Norman Jean Gargasz, Larry Copenhaver and so many others who made our news a focus of interest and personal reflection.

As the book is slowly closed on this historical newspaper, let us wish all those who shared our cheers and sometimes our tears the best of future hopes and dreams, as they will not be forgotten in my heart.

Let us remember not how the newspaper died, but how it lived! Thanks for the memories, Tucson Citizen!

PEPE MENDOZA

fellow journalist

Gaslight indebted to Chuck Graham

We at The Gaslight Theatre will be forever indebted to Mr. Chuck Graham.

Over the years, Chuck has faithfully reviewed all of our shows. A large part of our growth and success can be credited to the dedication and professionalism of Chuck Graham. He has been fair, honest and always helpful with his reviews.

As a small business, we rely on every type of public relations opportunity available. Losing the Tucson Citizen and Chuck’s reviews will leave a gap that will be hard to fill.

All of us in The Gaslight Family would like to thank you, Chuck, for all of your hard work and support of The Gaslight Theatre over the years. We wish you all the best and lots of continued success as you set out on the next phase of your career.

Tony Terry & The Gaslight Family

owner, The Gaslight Theatre

Bryan Lee was advocate for athletes

It is a shame that the Citizen is closing; good people will lose their jobs, and the community will lose your expertise.

A free press is the cornerstone of a healthy citizenry, and we will miss your varied voices.

Thanks to the entire staff for working so diligently to provide our community with news of the city.

I want to acknowledge one writer in particular: Bryan Lee. Bryan has written countless articles about the health and fitness community over the years, whether in the Sports pages, Outdoors, Body Plus or elsewhere.

He has been an advocate for local competitive athletes and a champion of healthy living.

Thank you, Bryan, for all that you’ve done for Tucson.

Randy Accetta

Southern Arizona Roadrunners

Stay in Tucson, employees; we need you

My family and I will miss the Tucson Citizen. We’ve especially appreciated the thoughtful editorial page in recent years.

Arizona media will be poorer with the Citizen gone.

Hopefully, Citizen journalists and employees will stay in Tucson and be involved in the community in other positive ways.

Daniel Patterson

state representative, LD 29

From the political notebook:

• The always gloomy report of the Social Security and Medicare trustees was released last week. The news focus was that the date for the Social Security trust fund to go broke had been moved up to 2037.

That, however, isn’t the relevant economic date. The relevant date is when annual income begins to fall short of annual expenses.

It is true that both Social Security and Medicare have IOUs from the federal treasury for the surpluses that have been being used for other purposes. But the government will have to raise the money to make good on the IOUs. That means higher taxes, more borrowing, or cuts in other programs.

The Medicare hospitalization fund is already running an annual deficit. For Social Security, annual expenses are expected to exceed annual income in 2016, just seven years from now.

Very shortly, the Social Security surpluses the government is currently using for other purposes will start to decline, beginning the pressure on the general fisc.

After they have come to an end in 2016, the amount the government will have to pump into Social Security and Medicare from sources other than payroll taxes will be small at first.

But it grows pretty quickly. By 2025, it is expected to reach over $500 billion a year.

The day of reckoning for Social Security and Medicare reform is fast approaching.

• Given the circumstances, the fix Legislative Republicans adopted as, they hope, the final tourniquet for this fiscal year, which ends in June, is excusable.

Primarily, they pushed bills due this year into next. Ordinarily, that would be outrageous. But the fall in state revenues has been so deep that it’s hard to work up a lather over any temporizing measures.

Democrats voted almost unanimously against the fix, even though they have recommended postponing payments as a strategy as well.

They objected to a provision requiring school districts to first use excess cash balances to cover their costs in lieu of actually getting their deferred payment next year. But the Democratic argument makes no sense.

School districts have been banking reserves beyond what they can legally spend. These excesses are supposed to be used to reduce property taxes the following year.

So, Democrats complained that using them to reduce what the state actually ends up forking out for its deferred payment to the schools amounted to a property tax increase.

However, the evidence is overwhelming that the districts have not been using excess cash balances to reduce property taxes.

According to the Arizona Tax Research Association, districts have more than doubled their cash balances over the last five years, from $219 million to $443 million.

Moreover, Democrats support reimposing a property tax at the state level. Why cavil at an increase at the local level?

• The lone exception to Democratic opposition came from Sen. Minority Leader Jorge Luis Garcia. He pointed out that using the excess cash balances now reserved more federal stimulus money to offset potential education cuts later. And he’s exactly right.

Independent thinking and actions are rare in politics. Garcia is to be commended for his.

• I attended President Obama’s commencement address at Arizona State University, not as a journalist but as a parent of a graduating student.

A few years ago, I also attended a graduation ceremony at Wells Fargo Arena. The latter was significantly less of a pain in the patoot, but I was struck by the same conclusion: This was a ceremony for the university, not the students.

Yes, my son will remember that Obama spoke at his graduation. And Obama gave a fine commencement address.

But my son petitioned us to get out of there even before his degree was officially conferred by having his college stand up and have a few words of incantation recited by ASU’s president.

There is only one moment that really matters to students and family at these things. That’s when the student’s name is called and he gets to tread across the stage while his clan hoots and hollers. At ASU, there are simply too many graduates to provide the main moment.

This big mega-ritual should be done away with at ASU. Have graduation ceremonies at the school level. Eliminate all the academic folderol and get right to the name-calling, treading and hooting and hollering.

Done right, the thing shouldn’t take more than an hour. And it would be much easier on aging patoots.

Robert Robb, an Arizona Republic columnist, writes about public policy and politics in Arizona. E-mail: robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com

Francisco Peña contemplates a math problem at an AIMS workshop at Pueblo High Magnet School.

After many years as a political observer and erstwhile practitioner, I usually understand why what I think is sensible policy doesn’t get enacted.

Often, there is some interest group opposed. In our political system, intensity matters. An organized group that cares a lot can usually carry the day against policies whose benefits are diffuse.

Our political system also is set up to make big reforms difficult. Incremental change at the margins is more the norm. And usually, that’s a good thing.

And not at all infrequently, my views are in the minority, and not infrequently a very small minority at that.

Nevertheless, the failure of policy to move in the direction I think sensible about a high school graduation test in Arizona perplexes me. It doesn’t disadvantage any organized interest group. It’s not that big of a reform. And I think most people would agree with me, although I might be wrong about that.

Nevertheless, Arizona’s high school graduation test remains stuck in a place that makes no sense, and reform efforts, to the extent they are gaining traction, move in the wrong direction.

Arizona has a high school graduation test, AIMS, that all students must pass to receive their diploma (ignoring the temporizing fudging mechanisms the Legislature has adopted and extended).

However, the test doesn’t really determine whether a student knows what a high school graduate is expected to know. Instead, it is set at a 10th grade level.

So, Arizona can be relatively confident that its high school graduates know what a sophomore in high school should know. Wouldn’t it make more sense to determine if they know what a high school graduate should know?

I think Arizona should have a high school exit exam that actually tests what high school graduates should know. If passage were made a graduation requirement, however, the failure rate would be, at least at first, politically unacceptably high.

So, I’ve proposed a two-tier diploma: a certificate of achievement, representing passage of the test; and a certificate of completion, representing passage of all other graduation requirements but failure to pass the exit exam.

No one would be denied graduation because of the test. But employers and universities could place appropriately differential value on the two diplomas.

An AIMS Task Force formed by the Legislature recently released its recommendations. It said, much to my surprise, that AIMS should remain a 10th grade test and should remain a graduation requirement. However, it should be supplemented by two “college and career readiness” tests in the freshman and junior years.

Now, that would mean that there would still be no way of knowing whether an Arizona high school graduate actually knows what a high school graduate should know.

The desire for new “college and career readiness” tests issues from two growing fallacies.

First, that all students should graduate high school ready for college. Second, that what is necessary to prepare for college is the same thing as is necessary for jobs that don’t require a college degree.

If college is to be what it should be, and not just the new high school, then it should require cognitive abilities and a keen interest in hard academic work that just isn’t universal. And the math skills that an aspiring plumber or carpenter needs just aren’t the same as for an aspiring physicist or economist.

This is an overreaction to the commendable desire not to prematurely track kids, and particularly to avoid lower expectations for low-income and minority students.

But there are plenty of college readiness tests that already exist, and the entry requirements for Arizona universities are not opaque. Avoiding low-expectations is a matter of exhortation, not new tests.

Arizona does, however, need a high school graduation test that actually tests high school graduate knowledge.

Getting one shouldn’t be this difficult.

Robert Robb, an Arizona Republic columnist, writes about public policy and politics in Arizona. E-mail: robert.robb@arizonarepublic.com

No matter what you think of Dick Cheney, you can't say he hasn't warned you.

The Republican Party is a lot like the American auto industry these days. It’s in shambles, but something has got to survive.

The problem is that Dick Cheney, who seemingly has granted more interviews in the last eight weeks than he did in the previous eight years, is obscuring this rebuilding effort.

The former vice president’s message may be worth hearing. But Cheney is viewed so negatively that the messenger is crowding out the message. Some of Cheney’s critics seem to loathe him more than they do Osama bin Laden.

What does Cheney want? Some speculate he’s trying to polish his and George W. Bush’s legacy before it gets burned into history, especially the part about interrogation and intelligence gathering.

Cheney’s stated motive is that he is speaking out now because he is deeply worried that President Obama is replacing Bush administration policies with those that will make the country less safe.

That’s a debate worth having.

Obama last week changed his mind and decided not to release hundreds of photos of prisoner treatment in Afghanistan and Iraq after U.S. military leaders said they feared it would endanger U.S. troops.

In stark contrast to the Bush’s deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas retreat, Cheney has been highly visible and highly critical of the new administration.

If he were an automobile, he’d be the kind they had back in the 1970s when the U.S. auto industry was king, when the Japanese were a minor threat, and the Russians were building fall-apart death trap vehicles behind the Iron Curtain.

The Cheney Charger makes no apologies for the rubber it lays or the dust it leaves. It doesn’t try to appeal to everyone, but if you need to run into or over something to protect yourself, that’s the showroom you’d be in.

Liberal columnists believe this Cheney is crazy-dangerous. Comedians see a big target.

At the recent star-studded White House Correspondents’ Dinner – the Oscars for the bicoastal “Pollywood” set – comedian Wanda Sykes proclaimed: “He’s a scary man, scares me to death. I tell my kids . . . ‘If two cars pull up and one has a stranger and the other car has Dick Cheney . . . you get in the car with the stranger.’ ”

Democrats delight in making Cheney a face of the GOP’s shambled state, and the vice president keeps giving them YouTube moments.

Just last weekend, Cheney was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” explaining why he had been so visible.

“If I don’t speak out,” Cheney said, “then the critics have free run, and there isn’t anybody on the other side to tell the truth.”

So what if Cheney is right? What if, as he says, the tactics the Bush administration used to extract information from suspected terrorists saved hundreds of thousands of American lives?

A former FBI interrogator who questioned terrorist suspects testified this week at a Senate hearing that extreme techniques were unreliable and counter-productive.

Cheney says unreleased CIA memos would back up his claim. Let’s see them.

His critics point to already released CIA memos that say there is no way of knowing whether the same information couldn’t have been gotten with milder tactics. But what if they are wrong?

What if, heaven forbid, terrorists pull off another mass-casualty attack on an American city? Who gets the blame?

Will it be the Bush-Cheney crowd for fuzzying the definition of torture and engaging in waterboarding and other interrogation methods that may or may not have been legal, thereby incubating more anti-Americanism in the jihadist sphere?

Or will it be the Obama crowd for peeling back those policies and leaving the public impression that detention got easier for anyone caught trying to do mass-scale harm?

No matter what you think of Dick Cheney, you can’t say he hasn’t warned you.

Chuck Raasch is political editor for Gannett News Service. E-mail: craasch@gns.gannett.com

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Raasch’s blog

Get more behind-the-scenes reports, context and analysis about politicians and the political process in Raasch’s Furthermore blog. Look for it here.

Bishop John Tong smiles in front of Catholic Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Hong Kong. The new head of Hong Kong's Catholic church is promising to help unite China's Catholics and work toward religious freedom. Tong assumed his role as head of Hong Kong's diocese in April. He replaced the long-serving Joseph Zen, an outspoken champion of religious liberty who was mistrusted by Beijing.

At a time when religious persecution is at the heart of the world’s most violent conflicts, religious freedom matters.

That’s why the 2009 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom should be required reading for policymakers in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

The report, released May 1, documents in chilling detail the global assault on freedom of religion and belief, making a powerful case for the need to take religious freedom more seriously in U.S. foreign policy.

The report doesn’t come from the left or the right. It comes from a federal commission that is independent and bipartisan under the leadership of 10 commissioners who did their homework.

This year, the commission names 13 “countries of particular concern” – Burma, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – that engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom.

Another 11 countries are on the commission’s watch list: Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

The worst of the worst include China, where unregistered Protestants are frequently arrested, Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned and tortured, Catholics are detained and harassed, and Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists are repressed in growing numbers.

Conditions are less severe, but still serious, in “watch list” countries. Venezuela, for example, is now a hotbed of anti-Semitism fomented by the anti-Jewish rhetoric and actions of the government under President Hugo Chavez. As a consequence, many Jews have fled the country.

Religious freedom is practically nonexistent in Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States with a long history of promising, but failing, to do better.

Members of minority Muslim groups – including Shiites, who make up 10 percent to 15 percent of the population – are frequently detained and harassed.

Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others among the nearly three million expatriate workers must conform to Saudi religious customs.

Although non-Muslim workers are supposed to be permitted to worship in private, their services are often subject to surveillance and raids by Saudi authorities.

Just about every religious group, it seems, suffers persecution somewhere in the world today. Christians are targeted in Iraq, Baha’is are arrested in Iran, Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned in Tajikistan, Muslims suffer discrimination in Russia, and the list goes on.

Beyond delivering bad news, the commission also makes extensive policy recommendations to the Obama administration and Congress, including asking the secretary of state to designate “countries of particular concern.”

Under the International Religious Freedom Act, the president is required to take action opposing violations of religious freedom in countries so designated.

Given the complex economic and political realities of American ties with some of the worst offenders, religious freedom and other human rights issues often take a back seat in U.S. foreign policy. Saudi Arabia, for example, has been a CPC since 2004 – but a State Department waiver lets the Saudis off the hook.

Even in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries where the U.S. is deeply involved in nation-building, conditions for freedom of religion and belief continue to deteriorate.

A strong case can be made that the lack of religious freedom is one of the greatest barriers to peace and security in both societies.

We ignore this global crisis at our peril. Consider the hard reality behind the idealism that animates the commission’s report: International religious freedom is both an issue of national security for the United States and an essential condition for building societies that are free and democratic.

Assaults on freedom of religion and belief aren’t side issues; they are urgent matters of conscience that must be at the center of U.S. foreign policy.

Charles C. Haynes is senior scholar at the First Amendment Center (www.firstamendmentcenter.org). E-mail: chaynes@freedomforum.org

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FULL REPORT

To read the full 2009 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom go to: www.uscirf.gov

The clock is ticking on the Obama administration’s promises to speed development of the next generation of biofuels.

There isn’t a commercial-scale plant making ethanol from crop residue and other types of plant cellulose, the stuff that’s supposed to replace corn as the feedstock of the future for biofuels.

Biomass fuel isn’t economical yet, and there are obstacles to overcome, including how to harvest, transport and store the huge amounts of biomass required.

But biorefineries will have to be built at a relatively fast rate in the coming decade if there will be sufficient quantities to meet congressional-imposed mandates, according to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency.

By 2013, 10 plants, each capable of producing 40 million gallons a year, would need to be built.

By 2018, the industry needs 20 such plants a year, each with an average annual production capacity of 100 million gallons.

That’s the pace needed to produce 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuel by 2022, the consumption level Congress required in the 2007 energy bill.

It can’t be done, given the lack of available capital and relatively low oil prices that the industry faces, said Robert Brown, director of Iowa State University’s Bioeconomy Institute.

The mandate “was ambitious even when petroleum was selling for $150 a barrel and money was available for new technologies,” he said.

The environmental agency analysis provides a look at where cellulosic plants would be, based on where the cornfield residue, forestry waste and other feedstocks are likely to be.

Iowa, with its expanse of corn production, is likely to be the No. 1 producer in cellulosic ethanol in 2022, according to the agency’s forecast.

The agency sees Iowa producing 1.7 billion gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol, ahead of Illinois, Indiana and Louisiana. (Iowa’s corn ethanol plants can now produce about 3.3 billion gallons a year, and the environmental agency sees that capacity rising to 3.8 billion gallons by 2022.)

For now, the question isn’t so much where they will be built, but when, or even whether they’ll be built.

Getting the industry started will require heavy federal financing in the form of loan guarantees, said Brooke Coleman, executive director of the New Fuels Alliance, an advocacy group for next-generation biofuels.

A cellulosic ethanol plant would cost an estimated $5 to $7 per gallon of capacity to build, compared with $1 to $2 a gallon for a corn ethanol facility.

“If the government wants to do this, they’re going to have to stand back and say, ‘If it doesn’t work, we’ll help you out,’ ” Coleman said.

The Obama administration last week pledged to accelerate the use of loan guarantees to refinance existing plants and build cellulosic facilities.

One reason investors don’t want to finance plants is the lack of cars capable of running on ethanol and the lack of pumps for dispensing the fuel.

“The Obama administration has to realize that they’re running their (biofuels) train into what is a wall in the marketplace,” Coleman said.

Coleman said the attention that policymakers are giving to problems in the corn ethanol industry are deflecting attention from advanced biofuels and delaying their introduction.

There’s one way around some of these obstacles: Burn the biomass in power plants and use the electricity to run plug-in hybrid cars rather than turning the biomass into ethanol.

A recent study published in the journal Science says cars would get 80 percent more mileage per acre of biomass when it’s used to generate electricity than making ethanol. And greenhouse gas emissions are lower because electric motors are more efficient than internal combustion engines.

Philip Brasher is a reporter for The Des Moines (Iowa) Register. E-mail: pbrasher@dmreg.com

Tucson as viewed through the eyes of Tucson Citizen Staff Artist Arnie Bermudez and his alter ego, Carlos the Coyote.

To learn more about Carlos, go to his Myspace page:http://www.myspace.com/carloscoyote

(abermudez@tucsoncitizen.com)

E-mail Arnie Bermudez at: abermudez@tucsoncitizen.com