I walked on fire for this place, a piece of cake compared to guessing which day we were going to die. Or not. Buyers invited to visit the place didn’t bother. We continued “day by day.” Just like real life.

My career here started in 1980, after a decade of change as tumultuous as this one. The Citizen had moved, changed owners and converted to computers.

At 20, spoiled for honest work by a stint at a college paper, I drove to 4850 S. Park Ave. to talk to my uncle’s poker buddy. Then-Features Editor Dick Vonier told me what my creative writing degree was worth and sat me down at a typewriter to rewrite my résumé.

Seventeen years later a couple of co-workers and I sat at Dick’s kitchen table, trying, though not very hard, to talk him out of his last bender.

This by way of saying the Citizen has been, if not the love of my life, by far my most enduring commitment.

Just ask my ex-husband.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: I got a job as a clerk and begged copy editors to let me write headlines. One of them, known for once accidentally setting his hair on fire, ended up in a coma. I offered to fill in. How was I supposed to know he’d died that morning?

After that, the bosses found me an editing position. I started with the new section Calendar and in 1983 was made editor of Bulletin Board, a weeky zoned publication delivered to all area households.

For arcane legal reasons, Bulletin Board had to be an “edition” of the Citizen, outside the ordinary chain of command. I couldn’t, by law, have a boss.

Leaving me free to work my own hours and follow real reporters around. Especially one.

DUCK AND CHICK: This guy walks in with a brilliant magazine-length piece and Dick tells him we can’t use it. He goes home, writes another brilliant story and comes back the next day. This one ran, and Chuck Bowden was hired.

Bowden tolerated me as a kind of apprentice. I’d tag along on interviews and he would invent assignments for me, even dragged me to the gym. Journalism takes stamina.

Chuck and Dick and Picture Editor P.K. Weis were among my many mentors, illustrating every day the power of observation, language and frozen instants in time.

When I wrote a front-page piece about a storefront dance club an editor attached a snotty comment: “Non-Bowden byline CQ (correct).”

I took it as a compliment.

DESK HOPPING: I had skipped the usual reporter-to-editor sequence and needed to back up. I covered the county and city ably enough but rarely with the grit and patience to do it expertly.

We started to lose our investigative edge when our most hardnosed reporters – like Jim Wyckoff and Mark Kimble – became editors. All of us had a learning curve. Frustrated by the “he said, she said” rhythm of reporting, I longed to get to the bottom of things but rarely did.

I landed on the city desk and did a stint at USA TODAY as the token Westerner – and conservative. Just because I didn’t think every problem had a government solution.

Back here, two years on the features desk burned me out on managing people. I never knew where their jobs ended and mine began.

I fell hard in ’96, lost my driver’s license and joined Dick’s support group (he died in 1997).

And I got demoted to the copy desk. Finally I was where I wanted to be.

RECENTLY: From days to nights, copy desk to the city desk, back to the copy desk. Setting the alarm for 2:30 a.m. or 4 p.m. Ducking out of Thanksgiving dinner or arriving late on Christmas Eve – typical newspaper stuff.

And, for the past couple of years, doing this column, riding herd on the Web site and student teaching at Cholla High Magnet School.

On vacation or on assignment, I traveled and saw the world. I stay at home and see it too.

As long as I’ve worked here, I’ve learned. Whether I wanted to or not.

NOW: A few unemployed journalists may not amount to a hill of beans. Ninety percent of what we do is – not, fluff, exactly, but superfluous. Opinions, entertainment, sports. National news, available anywhere. Almost all of it free, not counting the Net connection.

But still we lose something with every demise. Newspapers have the staff, if not always the will, to ferret out embarrassing information local governments don’t want published. To pursue documents revealing whether Lute Olson got special treatment. And to hold big businesses – like Citizen owner Gannett Co. Inc. – at least somewhat accountable for previous statements.

Thanks to Assistant City Editor Mark Evans for reviving that hunger here.

Financing the dogged tenacity to nail that stuff is a lot more important than polishing prose or rewriting press releases.

A born cynic, and most days I still believe: Truth will find a way to be told.

I just don’t know how anymore.

Robert Nickla prepares clinical samples submitted for influenza testing at the Arizona State Laboratory in Phoenix.

Editor’s note: Judy Carlock catches you up on the week’s news – with her own spin.

Flu, shmoo. And closing the borders? What a hoot. If we knew how to do that, we would have done it already.

So ran my first reactions to the sight of masked Mexicans and global coverage about the spread of a pretty ordinary disease.

By coincidence, I was reading a book about Ebola while the current outbreak of influenza was speedily spreading worldwide. Flu looks pretty mild compared to a disease that makes you bleed from the nipples.

Then I started looking at it from the virus’s point of view. Mexico City: What a great place to hatch an epidemic. It’s a teeming, temperate travel hub; sophisticated, but with slums that still lack decent sanitation.

Maybe we really did dodge a bullet. Even if this bug proves relatively mild, flu is extremely contagious. It mutates faster than vaccines can be developed. Somebody could tinker on purpose: germ warfare.

Mexico’s containment measures ought to wipe out any notion that our southern neighbors are a bunch of rubes. Science was all over this. Good.

On the other hand, when I last visited the capital – the smog alone was enough to make me sick.

Tucson Citizen flu page

Flu overhyped? Some say officials ‘cried swine’

PORT SUPPORT: In shipping, time is money. Big containers move by barge, truck or train, hauling stuff all over the globe. The City Council heard this week about a plan to turn Tucson into a major transportation hub.

It already is, if you count dope and illegal immigrants.

Like a lot of ideas, this one has been kicking around awhile. The devil is in the details: an Interstate 10 bypass, a big railroad yard near Picacho Peak, improvements on the Sonoran coast.

Major travel hubs don’t happen by accident. It takes a strategic location, political will and, above all, an opportunity for shippers to pinch pennies from, say, the Panama Canal or Long Beach, Calif.

As for the desirability of this dream – see above.

City Council likes pitch to make Tucson inland port, transportation hub

BLOG WATCH: The Citizen sports editor blogged about the possibility the University of Arizona could acquire a prime recruit Lance Stephenson, relying mainly on various Web sites.

He groaned, though, at seeing a rumor elevated to prime real estate on our home page at www.tucsoncitizen.com.

See, he hadn’t done any substantive reporting. To him, that meant calling people who know things, pumping them for information, maybe putting a tail on head hoops coach Sean Miller . . .

Recruiting stories tend to be speculative to begin with. After all, often the recruit commits at the last minute. Stephenson could go to Tucson or Turkey. Journalists generally want something new, not a cut and paste job from whoever.com. Newsgathering still takes time. The blog bar is lower.

Cable “news” channels milk the same story all day as panelists sit around gassing.

We do that, too. But generally, we try to be fair. And we hate being wrong.

Senators hear dim forecast for newspapers’ future

Wildcat blog: Getting No. 8 hoops player a possibility

Rivera: Cats may not need Stephenson to succeed

BORDER SECURITY FIRST: I can’t make the intractable issue of illegal immigration go away. One tiny suggestion: An analysis this week said President Obama’s new emphasis on border security dodges the most politically risky part of his plan – “a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.”

Many who deal with the issue make the leap from “they shouldn’t be here” to the main point: Now what?

A piece of symbolism that would go a long way: Omit a path to citizenship. Allow a path to legal status.

Mexico. If you can get past the drug-related beheadings and corruption, it’s a country with a lot of values Americans hold dear.

Illegal immigrants know perfectly well they face deportation.

Many would come and go seasonally, if they could.

My bet: The immigrants, as opposed to the activists, would readily forfeit any chance of citizenship to keep their families together. And it might satisfy some who hate to see bad behavior rewarded.

It wouldn’t end the controversy, but it might tone down the rhetoric. Which is hurting my ears.

Even in print.

Analysis: Obama border security move has political angle

Feds ready to build new ‘virtual fence’ on border, starting in Arizona

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com (jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com).

Suspect in car wash shooting.

One car wash movie is a dumb 1976 comedy featuring a suds crew and Richard Pryor as a preacher.

Monday’s drama was shot by surveillance cameras at 11 p.m. as two Nogales men cleaned their cars at a self-service place on West Valencia Road.

A video spliced together by the Sheriff’s Department shows a man getting out of an Audi convertible and backing away from it. Another clip shows a gunman shooting.

Francisco Antonio Calvillo, 20, was killed and his companion injured.

A sheriff’s spokeswoman said the shooting at first appeared to be random, and found no evidence that the two were doing anything wrong.

“Random” means it could be you. “Planned” indicates someone targeted these guys.

The Audi, which had been reported stolen in Mesa, was found burning a couple of miles away.

Is this an example of syndicate-linked violence? Who cleans their cars at 11 p.m.?

Then again, I’ve done stranger things.

Sheriff releases video of fatal shooting at car wash

Deputy: 1 killed, 1 injured in car wash shooting

Vehicle used in car wash killing found destroyed by fire

LEARN ENGLISH! It’s easy to learn a new language when you’re 3. You don’t mind sounding 3.

A 15-year-old, though, may not want not to sound dumb, or even worse, feel dumb in front of peers.

Kids who can “just pick up” a language fare well. Those who don’t might give up trying. That may mean they’re not getting equal opportunity in education.

A feud regarding that issue came to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, where questions from judges revealed the same schism apparent in politics between the “sink or swim” attitude and the one that favors helping the 15-year-old learn English and basic academics.

The suit started in Nogales, and grew to engulf the entire state. Miriam Flores, now in her 20s (and fluent in English), was a third-grader when her mother pursued the suit.

Some say it will cost hundreds of millions to help children who are being deprived of their civil rights. State schools chief Tom Horne puts the figure at $9 million.

Whatever the amount, plenty will be sucked up by layers and layers of administration.

I say, bribe the kids. It’s cheaper.

Supreme Court divided by Arizona English language case

CORNERED: Do you have one? A snapshot where you pose like a total dork to prove you were in four states at once?

Maybe that’s just me.

That feat of contortion may have been a waste of pixels. Or film, if you were born in the Jurassic.

The actual location turns out to be a third of a mile away.

With tools available in 1875, surveyors did a bang-up job, a federal official says. It’s like shooting pool: Blame the miss on the curvature of Earth.

Do you reconfigure the boundaries of the states? Or simply move the monument?

Someone’s going to make a federal case out of this.

Readings show Four Corners marker off by 2.5 miles

Four Corners marker only off by third of mile

Mesa Verde National Park

THUMBS UP, CHUCK: Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry feels a recount of 2006 transportation ballots “vindicates” the Election Division’s electronic tally. The news from Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard came Tuesday.

Democrats had demanded records of the vote and some even whispered the fix was in.

If it were, someone would have thrown in a crosstown freeway.

It’s encouraging that Goddard’s count shows only a whisker of difference from the county’s initial tally. But shouldn’t they be identical?

A few votes here, a few votes there, pretty soon you’re talking about real clout.

Huckelberry: Transit election recount ‘vindicates’ county

Judy Carlock is an online and copy editor at the Citizen. She can be reached at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

Shortly after I was hired in 1989 by the Yuma Daily Sun as a cub reporter, the city editor assigned me to cover the county fair.

That’s right. All I had to do for the next three days was walk around the county fair and come back with a daily story.

I bungee jumped, went to the hypnotist show and forked over 50 cents to see “the world’s largest hog.” I couldn’t believe I got paid to go to the fair, including reimbursement of the two quarters I paid to see the big pig.

I knew then that I made the right career choice and never regretted it in the two decades that followed. Not every assignment has been a day at the fair. But I have met countless interesting people and have learned something new just about every day on the job.

That’s my long-winded way of getting to goodbye. Though the Tucson Citizen will continue to publish until May 9 and possibly well beyond, this will be my last column.

My next job is not in journalism. So this is where I get off of a thrilling 20-year ride.

During four years in Yuma as a general assignment reporter, I wrote about everything. Fires. Floods. Murders. Trials. Elections. Drug addiction. You name it.

I took on the persona of “the desert lizard” to pen a weekly entertainment column.

I wrote about the death of activist César Chávez in 1993 and visited the home in San Luis where he died. I arrived as a hearse was driving away with his body. A woman wailed from the crowd that had gathered, “No te vayas. No te vayas.”

Don’t go. Don’t go.

When the Citizen hired me in November 1993 to cover higher education, I was thrilled to be back home. I was also a nervous wreck, eager to do well or at least not mess up.

I took printouts of my stories home everyday and would triple or quadruple check them, underlining each sentence in red ink and circling things I wanted to change. I drove the night editors crazy, calling multiple times each evening to correct or improve the article before it was published the next day.

Despite my lack of confidence, my editors had confidence in me and offered me lots of opportunities over the years, allowing me to grow into the job.

I filled in regularly on the editing desk, which helped me become a better reporter. And I moved from covering higher education to the science beat and then to the medical beat.

I’d like to think that I occasionally made a difference. As a health reporter, I enjoyed writing about research and medical advances. But I also reported on the shortcomings in our medical system, from doctor shortages that affected the quality of care we receive to the lack of access to healthcare for many people in our community.

My coverage of the restraint-related death of psychiatric patient Wendy Gazda at Kino Hospital in 2003 helped to publicize the underlying deficiencies in patient care that existed at the hospital. When you shine a spotlight on such things, they get fixed.

It would be a lie to say I loved every minute of the job. But I’ve been part of a family here. And I’ve sure had a lot of fun.

In 1997, when the Citizen was flush with cash, it sent me to Roswell, N.M., for five days to cover the 50th anniversary of “the Roswell incident,” the alleged crash of a spaceship filled with aliens near the town in 1947.

When the University of Arizona men’s basketball team played for the national championship earlier in 1997, I was sent to Indianapolis to help cover the Final Four – mostly fluff pieces about the fans. During the championship game, in a space of less than one hour, I crossed paths with Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Gen. Colin Powell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Heck yeah, I was star struck.

In 2005, then-Publisher Michael Chihak took a chance and promoted me, along with C.T. Revere, to the position of metro columnist. I think he knew from experience that I would speak truth to power.

I’ve tried to do that and I haven’t regretted any column I’ve written – just the ones I didn’t write.

I’ve ticked off a lot of people over the last four years, which means I’ve done my job.

The position, more than any I’d ever held before, opened up a constant dialogue with Tucson Citizen readers, who reached me though phone calls, e-mail and the Wild West that is our online comment community.

Thanks to the many of you who have been so kind and generous with your praise over the years. You gave me the courage to keep doing what I was doing.

And to my loyal following of folks who love to hate me, well, thanks for being regular readers.

Life will be a little less exciting without you.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4582. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

Sedona Naifeh, 9, a third-grader at Lineweaver Elementary School, tells Tucson Unified School District board members Tuesday night it would be sad to lose her music teacher.

When school officials look at what to cut, they might consider drama. Teachers and children do fine already.

At a Tucson Unified School District board meeting Tuesday, a third-grader announced, “It would be the end of the world” if her school lost its music program.

Schools ought to teach music. And art. And, yes, drama. But educators have been crying wolf so long that when schools really are being ripped from limb to limb, it’s tempting to look away.

Thousands of notices of potential layoffs have gone out statewide. Republicans in the Arizona Legislature tossed out staggering budget cut figures, then tried to postpone warning teachers of possible layoffs till June 15. Federal cash could slow the bleeding.

But April is the cruelest month, and unions wanted to keep it that way. The better to warn teachers, they said. And have kids around to stage sit-ins.

A lot of those teachers won’t really get laid off. But, hey, timing is everything.

Students, teachers tell TUSD board of fears about layoffs

NEVERTHELESS: I’m on the teachers’ side. Not just because I want to be one. Some legislators – not all – seem more determined to crow “I told you so” than to help the state come to grips with a staggering shortfall.

They seem to think Arizona still depends on cattle, cotton and copper. Now even construction’s a bust. So higher education matters, even if the ivory tower turns you off.

University presidents played the same chord for colleges that K-12 did for the wee ones, seeking to sock students with a midyear “economic recovery” charge, ranging from $422 to $1,280 depending on the university. It would be $1,100 at UA. Regents don’t really want to do this. They want the Legislature to honor its constitutional mandate to keep college affordable. I hope it finds a way.

Student group: Midyear tuition surcharge ‘absurd’

A CAPITAL IDEA: Have a death penalty or not. Don’t try to pretend you’re not killing someone.

Arizona is considering changing some procedures about the way it executes people. Kentucky’s statute was upheld, but Arizona may be vulnerable to constitutional challenge because it feeds a lethal three-drug cocktail into a tube in the groin rather than the arm. Also, a “dummy” line keeps anyone on the team safe from the certainty he or she killed someone.

It boggles my mind that an additional needle stick could be interpreted as cruel and unusual punishment. And I don’t even like the death penalty.

You want to kill them without hurting them, give them heroin.

Arizona willing to change some execution procedures

DOGGIN’ IT: Dog whisperer Cesar Millan says the whole Obama clan will have to be “pack leaders” to keep first pup Bo in line. Where will he sleep? “Not in my bed,” the president said. That’s telling him.

On an inaugural walk, though, the Portuguese water dog made it pretty clear who was in charge.

Bo makes himself at home at Obama White House

Cesar’s Web site

PIRATES: Navy snipers took out three bandits Sunday in rescuing American ship captain Richard Phillips from a lifeboat off the coast of Somalia.

“Untrained teenagers with heavy weapons. Everybody in the room knows the consequences of that,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.

Our military would know.

This isn’t over. Somalia’s full of people with nothing to lose.

Undeterred Somali pirates hijack 4 more ships

Obama vows U.S. will seek to halt piracy

GUNS TO MEXICO: This stoner dude I knew claimed those little plastic strips embedded in currency allow satellite-aided spies to count the cash in your pocket. That will come in handy as we track the flow of U.S. drug money to Mexico.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano, now Homeland Security secretary, said Wednesday that agents have seized $60 million in southbound U.S. currency since Oct. 1.

The flow of U.S. guns to Mexican cartels is another concern.

Am I fatalistic? If they don’t get them from us, they’ll get them from somebody else.

Napolitano: Check southbound cars more often

TEA AND TAXES: Rallies nationwide had thousands of folks venting grievances about tax-and-spend government.

Guys: That’s what governments are for.

In Tucson, 3,000 gathered downtown for a Tea Party protesting taxation with representation.

Good. Keep them honest. But remember: The bank bailout was Bush. Obama added stimulus. If it works, they’re geniuses.

If it doesn’t – oh, man. It’s gotta work.

I inherited a Depression-era mind-set and no survival skills. Well, one: I grow great vegetables.

If I had to can them, I’d die.

3,000 protest bailouts, stimulus at Tucson Tea Party

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

The chemistry of coaching confounds me. Phil Jackson studies a fingernail, Bob Knight goes into a furniture-flinging fit. Both have been effective, though sometimes a successful method loses its magic.

The conundra continue. An able assistant rarely rises to the team’s top spot. Good players often make lousy coaches. What works in college may not translate to the NBA, and vice versa.

Thursday, the Tucson Citizen had tipped toward declaring Tim Floyd as the next Wildcat chief. Then Floyd said he’d stay at USC.

So what’s the University of Arizona to do? The Lute Olson benefits are waning. If we let go of the elite and focus on rebuilding, we might try a guy who likes defense over dunks, fundamentals over flash, academics along with athleticism.

I like Rick Majerus. He lives in hotels. How about the Arizona Inn?

Livengood needs to rally in coaching search

OPEN AND SHUT: One purpose of the Open Meetings Law is to keep some things secret.

City Council members cited the law in a Thursday story checking on Mike Hein’s future as city manager.

The law means no one can divulge what goes on in a publicly declared “executive session,” a maneuver often cited for closing meetings so that politicians can vent about employees or show their cards in a lawsuit.

The law doesn’t prevent anyone from saying whether they, personally, would renew Hein’s contract.

Technically, Hein needs only four votes of the seven-member council. But a CEO needs consensus more than coalitions.

Good leadership dictates that after Tuesday’s vote, council members should either lock him out of his office or back him unanimously – in writing.

Hein resigned to potential firing

KILLER B’s: The Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce is hosting U.S. Sen. John McCain at its National Issues Forum April 17.

The Citizen said the 2008 Republican nominee for president would discuss budgets and bailouts. That misses the third killer B: the border.

Maybe he’s ceded that to President Obama – and to Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano, ex-governor of Arizona.

McCain to discuss budget, bailouts in Tucson

Napolitano outlines plan for border infrastructure

JUSTICE SERVED: Jurors in the Christopher Payne case returned with the only defensible sentence: death.

I don’t daydream about torturing him, though a lot could happen in a prison yard.

Jurors who oppose the death penalty on principle are weeded out of capital cases. And a principled stance, I respect.

New Mexico recently abolished executions and many countries do not practice them.

But we have it in Arizona, and if Payne doesn’t get the death penalty, no one should.

His life still will be better than the ones he provided his kids, Tyler and Ariana, who were beaten, locked in a closet 24-7 and starved to death.

Payne may never be executed, and no one can bring those babies back. There’s some solace in seeing him get the max.

Payne gets death sentence for killing his kids

MAN OR MACHINE? Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs – not my faves. I can’t deal with their outrage. I’m too busy with my own.

And I don’t want Obama’s heroics to fail, as Rush does.

But President Obama seems to think he can fix anything. That could make him more dangerous than a bunch of bilious broadcasters.

Strong-arm the auto industry, secure the U.S. border, hammer out an arms treaty and give a pep talk to the planet on spending our way out of recession. All in the past couple of weeks.

What’s up for April? Health care, global warming, One thing he’s smart enough not do: Trot out a “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Confidence is cool. But humility doesn’t hurt.

House OKs $2.6 trillion Obama blueprint

U.S., Russia call for nuclear weapons cut in sweeping agenda

Medvedev-Obama meet a success for Russia

G-20 leaders eye more IMF funds, tighter rules

HANG TIME: No noose is good news, a former (laid off) co-worker said in an e-mail to the Citizen staff. “Day-by-day” employment here beats standing in line for handouts. The closer we get to 2010, he believes, the better.

I get that. But plans for finding another job, retraining in a new field or even scheduling a day off get more awkward by the day, ever since the paper passed a March 21 deadline for sale or closure. Most of us are sick of the subject, but to qualify for severance we must stay.

We try to read clues like ancient Romans divining the future by reading the entrails of sacrificial sheep.

The suspense is killing me.

Buyers pass on Citizen visit

I’ve been overeating, lying to the dog, barely cleaning – the house, mostly, not myself – figuring next week there would be plenty of time for sit-ups, walkies and head-to-toe moisturizing.

Pure folly.

The Tucson Citizen’s day-to-day status might be seen as an existential opportunity, a chance to live in the “now.” Except that usually we make some plans for “next week.”

News that the Gannett Co. Inc. will hold off the planned March 21 closure of the Citizen while it negotiates with possible buyers raises questions about a severance package good for up to 26 weeks’ pay and benefits.

Gannett informed Citizen employees late Friday afternoon that the paper will not be sold or closed before March 27.

Happily, from the point of view of the noble workers of the proletariat, the CEO’s pay was cut to $3.1 million. And the company spokeswoman returned our phone calls. Eventually.

Gannett cuts CEO’s pay to $3.1 million

Citizen to stay open ‘day to day’; closure delayed

TELLING TEACHERS: The state’s economic shakes make Gannett look like bedrock. One issue in play this week: whether to tell teachers now their contracts might not be renewed, or wait till June 15, when the funding picture may be clearer.

It hardly matters. Anyone with a teaching position knows it’s tenuous. Early notice might help some people plan ahead, but anyone could make the wrong call.

Armed with my new teaching certificate, I found few districts advertising opportunities.

Rural districts may fare slightly better. A new teacher could have a good life near the border – if they lived on the Mexican side.

Arizona balks at delaying except lay off warnings

IT TAKES TWO? Reina Gonzales and Christopher Payne both caused the deaths of Payne’s children, who were imprisoned and starved to death in 2006.

Gonzales cut a deal that will have her out of prison in about 20 years.

Payne, though, faces the death penalty after a jury this week took about 3 hours to convict him of first-degree murder.

The jury will decide between life in prison or execution after the sentencing phase of his trial, which continues Tuesday.

His defense strategy has been to blame Gonzales.

With two defendants, prosecutors run the risk of making deals with the devil. Gonzales may be just as guilty as Payne. But with just one in front of jurors, I doubt they’ll face a tough call.

Child killer’s upbringing, character outlined at hearing

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/112482.php

HAPPY NORUZ: Like other presidents, Barack Obama released a greeting to the people of Iran to coincide with the Persian new year. His is on the Net, with Farsi subtitles, and calls for diplomatic relations – if the regime drops its usual bluster.

Iran, a hotbed of blogging, probably won’t put too much stock in the well-wishes. The country has a well-entrenched democratic structure, but ultimately religious leaders make the calls. Hating Israel and enriching uranium are two favorite government pastimes.

Then again, John McCain famously resurrected a Beach Boys’ knockoff from the hostage era – “Bomb Iran” – that recently was taken off YouTube.

There is this: Iran hates the Taliban just as much as we do.

Obama message asks Iran leaders to drop threatsLUTE VS. UTES: I gave the University of Arizona Wildcats about as much hope of getting into the NCAA Tournament as I did the Citizen’s surviving March 21.

Retired coach Lute Olson’s recruits helped the Cats get into Sunday’s second round.

Good for the team, and for interim coach Russ Pennell.

We’ll keep covering them for a few more days, at least. Word came the Citizen won’t close or be sold until March 27 at the soonest.

Oh, me of little faith.

Budinger grateful for chance to shine at NCAAs

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

Police are supposed to solve mysteries, not create them. This week, a startling revelation followed a marathon closed meeting of the Tucson City Council: The city will stop a nationwide search for a new police chief and rely instead on its own ranks.

The Citizen decided the issue important enough to allow using two unnamed sources who confirmed the story. Who squawked? The county attorney wants to know.

We don’t have to tell them.

Other Tucson Police Department news: Off-duty Officer Allen Johnson, 26, died when his bicycle was rear-ended Tuesday on Old Spanish Trail. And Monday, we reported 10 guns had been stolen from TPD officers since 2002.

Given the size of their arsenal, that’s not bad.

County attorney probes City Council

Tucson police chief search to start over

Police chief finalists won’t heavily pursue immigration enforcement

Off-duty Tucson police officer killed as bicycle rear-ended

Ten guns stolen from cops since 2002

THE PLATE DEBATE: None of the police chief candidates said he would make enforcing federal immigration law a priority. Good. The feds have people for that. For the most part, the feds don’t investigate local murders, rapes or other violent crimes.

If officers are going to choose which laws not to enforce, some Citizen readers would prefer they’d pick the one fining drivers heavily if the word “Arizona” is obscured by a license plate frame. Now some lawmakers are trying to get that rule rolled back.

How is it the Legislature keeps passing laws it doesn’t believe in?

Proposed law cuts fines, stops for illegal plate frames

MILDCATS: For 24 years the University of Arizona men’s basketball team determined how staffers here schedule vacations. First-round losses in the NCAA meant fewer pages to put out in the subsequent two weeks.

The Final Four? A special section. A championship? Saturation coverage before, during and after.

This year, the Cats’ fortunes don’t matter so much, what with the last Citizen rolling off the press March 21.

The chances of finding a buyer are even smaller than UA’s chances of getting picked on selection Sunday.

UA loss hurts NCAA chances

Denogean: Hats off to Citizen hawker

NEW ON BOOZE: Willie Tuitama’s arrest on suspicion of extreme DUI charge Monday might hurt his chances in the NFL draft.

Local police are letting spring break revelers know they’re serious about enforcement.

Meanwhile, former Phoenix Sun and pontificator at large Charles Barkley finished his weekend at Maricopa County’s Tent City on Monday.

He didn’t have to wear pink underwear because he was on work release, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Maybe he went commando.

Former UA QB Tuitama charged with extreme DUI

DUI checkpoints, patrols planned for spring break

Charles Barkley finishes jail time on DUI charges

KID STUFF: Of all the places to cut the state budget, laying off Child Protective Service caseworkers sounds like one of the worst. Cutting 112 from the staff makes the agency 15 percent smaller than it was earlier this year.

Said state Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson: “I think it will result in dead kids.”

A salute to the young mom who gave her baby up to University Medical Center last weekend. She did the right thing under the state’s Safe Haven law.

The really lousy parents seem to think they’re doing just fine. Like Christopher Payne, accused of starving his children to death in 2006. Prosecutors say he didn’t want to pay child support.

Closing arguments are Monday. Something tells me the jury won’t be out long.

Woman leaves baby at UMC under Safe Haven law

112 caseworkers laid off at CPS

Payne jurors can’t hear of ex’s alleged threats to kids

Judy Carlock can be reached at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4608. For more on these articles, see this story at www.tucsoncitizen.com.

You wouldn’t expect the makeup aisle of a Walgreens to show evidence of the economic downturn, but it’s right there, in the choice between regular or waterproof mascara.

It’s also in the quicker lines at coffee shops and in the Arizona Daily Wildcat police log, which recently described how police officers found a woman lying face down in a grassy area at the University of Arizona sobbing because she’d been laid off from her job at the Student Union.

One can’t escape the barrage of daily bad economic news, a litany of the recession provided by the media, the tick-tock of people’s lives falling apart as businesses collapse, the stock market hurling itself off a cliff and bankruptcy becoming commonplace.

Like most reporters, I’m somewhat numb to bad news, trained by the newsroom police radio crackling out misery all day, but my sensitivity was heightened in January when notice of the Tucson Citizen’s likely closure provided my own personal recession experience.

Since then, I’ve noticed that little things illustrate the contracting economy more clearly than the big numbers.

For instance, there are the 17 audio résumés Cory Poindexter-Ramirez has sent across the country trying to land a job in broadcast journalism.

Poindexter-Ramirez graduated in December from UA and works part-time in promotions for Journal Broadcast Group. He spends his off hours with a laptop searching online for reporting jobs that, I hated to tell him, probably don’t exist.

“I know,” he said, “but I’m not giving up. And I’m not going to work at the post office.”

The post office is his mother’s idea.

“I want to be a TV reporter and that’s not a normal job to her, not secure,” he said. “She said there’s always good jobs at the post office.”

Then Poindexter-Ramirez related how another journalism graduate sent out 100 résumés before finally landing a job. He beamed saying this, then got busy applying to a TV station in Anchorage.

Kids. You gotta love ‘em.

Not perking up

Danny Mannheim opened the Espresso Art coffee shop about five years ago in the Main Gate Square adjacent to UA. He said my view of coffee lines as economic indicators was accurate.

“There a lot less expensive drinks being ordered,” he said. “The lines move faster.” After all, a drip coffee takes a few seconds to pour; a latte a few minutes to make.

Mannheim said talk around Main Gate was that business revenues are down between 20 percent and 30 percent.

Interestingly, tips aren’t down, he said. I didn’t admit my looming layoff had affected my willingness to feed the tip jar when I stop by.

Neither did I make that confession to Michael Foster – who opened Caffé Lucé about 20 months ago – when he said tips at his shop remain unaffected.

Lucé became my regular morning watering hole about six months ago, so I think Foster might be wearing blinders where the tip jar is concerned. The green in that glass is definitely less now than it was in the fall.

Maybe Foster needs to see the glass half full because, like Mannheim, he’s losing money as people buy fewer lattes, mochas and frozen drinks. He said there’s been a 30 percent to 35 percent shift toward drip coffee among his regular customers.

“You know, just between Tucson and Phoenix, 17 coffee shops have gone under since last April,” he said. “It’s pretty bad.”

Buy waterproof mascara

It’s pretty bad in the newspaper industry too, which brings us back to the makeup aisle of Walgreens.

I used to wear regular mascara because I didn’t trust whatever compound was in the waterproof kind that guaranteed it wouldn’t run down your face even if you were in a tsunami.

But now, I actually am in a tsunami, and it’s worse than I imagined. I’ve found, like the woman sobbing at UA last month, that regular mascara doesn’t hold up through the tears.

Contact Renée Schafer Horton at 573-4589 or at rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com

Editor’s note: Citizen staffer Judy Carlock wraps up the week’s events with a dash of sass.

A lot of people failed Ariana and Tyler Payne, in life and in death. Even so, joy shines from their faces in an image their stepgrandfather used as a screen saver. It didn’t last after they went to live with their father.

Imagine being 5 years old, starving to death in a tiny closet with your 4-year-old sister. Then she’s gone, replaced by a bag stuffed with rotting remains.

You leave this world soon after.

Christopher Payne is on trial this week for first-degree murder. Crossed signals between police and Child Protective Services helped keep the children in a fatal situation.

Ariana was found in February 2007 in a trash bin at a storage facility. Police retrieved her broken body, but didn’t think to search the whole bin. Tyler likely is in the city dump.

Payne’s former girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, 24, accepted a plea in the case and will serve 22 years. Just in time for menopause.

If convicted, Payne faces the death penalty. I don’t like capital punishment, but I don’t care if Payne is executed. And if it hurts? That’s why they call it punishment.

Jury will hear gruesome details of young kids’ deaths

Mom testifies about learning of her kids’ deaths

KID STUFF: State child care subsidies help many people keep working. Maybe you think people shouldn’t have kids they can’t afford. Once they’re here, though, someone has to take care of them.

Federal stimulus money may restore some child-care money slashed by the state. A bunch of other programs that aim to help people become responsible parents are also on the hit list, as well as staffing for Child Protective Services.

In my private and professional life, I’ve heard dozens of women complain about losing their kids. I’ve known some who tried hard to clean up their acts. Some couldn’t. Or in any case, didn’t.

Cuts to safety net programs may devastate families, kids

DORM BABY: Some people should never have kids. Sarah Elizabeth Tatum, 19, may be one.

Police found a newborn “gasping for breath” in a plastic bag at a University of Arizona dorm Monday. Police say Tatum indicated she had miscarried, but the boy weighs 7 pounds.

Gasping for breath is a good sign. If a snippet of police radio chatter earlier this week is any indication (I sit next to one all night), his blood oxygen may not have fallen low enough to cause permanent damage.

I hope that Tatum, if found guilty, spends some time in prison. I also hope she gets her tubes tied.

Baby born in dorm found in plastic bag ‘gasping for air’

NOBODY’S BUSINESS? It comes up all the time: Why should I have to pay for other people’s mistakes? If anything defines liberal and conservative these days, a lot of it comes down to the question of personal responsibility.

For instance: The Lost Barrio fire this week did up to $1 million in damage to the artsy businesses in a converted warehouse block. Fire officials said sprinklers could have minimized that. Yet the city may waive some building codes to encourage conversion of warehouses and other old buildings.

President Obama’s address this week laid this out on a grander scale.

Rewarding bad behavior sticks in the craw. But some argue that the greater good justifies – even demands – huge federal bailouts with money we have to borrow.

Damage from Lost Barrio fire could reach $1 million

Chavez: Obama’s Utopian plans will ruin us

BAD KITTIES: Tiger got scratched off early in the Accenture Match Play Championship in the Tortolita foothills. Also on Thursday, the University of Arizona Wildcats got beat by Cougars – as in Washington State University.

The men’s road loss makes Saturday’s basketball game against the Huskies a must-win cat-and-dog fight. I love sports clichés.

Hard to imagine an NCAA Tournament without the Cats.

Hard to imagine Tucson without the Citizen.

At the finish, Cougars hot, Cats were not

Bad drive costly as Woods eliminated in Match Play

Citizen likely to close March 21; no buyer stepping up

Judy Carlock is an online and copy editor at the Citizen. She can be reached at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com. For more on these stories, see this column at www.tucsoncitizen.com.

A crew installs a retaining wall on the west side of the interstate.

Editor’s note: Judy Carlock catches you up on the week’s news – with her own spin.

Whom do you trust? That’s more than a rhetorical question. When opinions clash on such fundamental issues as averting a second Great Depression, the ordinary American has little to go on but gut feelings and propaganda.

Should we save or spend?

Deficit hawks and domestic do-gooders throw e-mail elbows for attention. Party lines dictated votes on stimulus bills that passed Congress this week. Trust Democrats, or trust Republicans.

Often in politics, the losing side can save face by criticizing something they know is going to pass.

It’s telling that while Republicans in the Arizona Legislature make a show of balancing the state budget, they factor in $500 million in federal deficit spending.

“Checks and balances”: The federal government writes a check so Arizona can balance its budget.

Stimulus measure a relief but no windfall for Arizona

Obama to promote stimulus plan in Phoenix

COLLEGE CRISIS: On the other hand: An Associated Press story this week carried a whiff of moderation. Though budget chairmen in the Legislature would hack university spending, some in the GOP are expressing reservations about leadership’s plans.

President Obama will be in Phoenix next week, apparently trying to drum up buy-in on the stimulus plan.

I wish he had time to really hear our Legislature out on its thinking about education. Cuts of the magnitude proposed for next year reek of rancor. Obama has a reputation for building consensus.

It’s almost too bad he’s a rock star. We don’t need a pep rally in Arizona. We need people to do the hard work of listening to one another.

Lawmakers propose $390 million cut to state universities

PERPETUAL PORN: The sexually explicit clip that aired during the Super Bowl continues to generate page views for the Tucson Citizen. We’re happy for the “hits,” even in our twilight days.

A spokeswoman on Tuesday issued this statement:

“Comcast has conducted an extensive, methodical investigation of the Super Bowl programming interruption in Tucson and we have verified that this was an intentional, malicious act.”

So it was intentional. Did anyone really believe it happened by accident?

Comcast seeks FBI help in porn investigation

TRAFFIC: A couple of front-page stories this week highlighted the dry and the dramatic sides of mobility.

Some apparent good news: The Interstate 10 widening project has gone pretty well.

That’s not a very sexy story, but it affects a lot of people.

The freeway frontage road figured in another story – about how a young woman, apparently near unconsciousness from drugs and alcohol, allegedly plowed head-on into a vehicle, killing the driver, Marco Salazar.

The 21-year-old woman charged in his death reportedly did not have a driver’s license at the time. She was ordered to get one.

If the police are right, she has some issues to deal with before she gets behind the wheel.

Crash deaths down; DUI fatalities level

I-10 work to be finished in December – four months early

PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE: Just a taste of complex economics:

Candy makers have moved to Mexico, for cheap labor and to avoid the high price of U.S. sugar – which is propped up by government subsidies, according to The Associated Press.

The move cost U.S. jobs. Meanwhile, Mexican cacao growers are being shut out by cheap imports from Africa and Brazil.

I’m OK with Mexican chocolate this Valentine’s Day. Hold the Peanut Corp. goobers, please. I already had salmonella.

Many Valentine treats traveled from Mexico

Peanut firm CEO mum at hearing on outbreak

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

Obama after a press briefing

Editor’s note: Judy Carlock reviews the week in news, with her own personal twist.

The president is black. So he defines himself, and so he is. To me, a product of the desert Southwest and not the deep South, race is not so black and white.

Even if it were, President Obama is so different from previous presidents that skin color seems almost beside the point. Other politicians, you can see, or at least sense, the hustle, the sweat, the sheer naked want of the struggle for dominance. Unless we’re talking Gerald Ford.

Obama made it look easy.

Of course, his race made Tuesday a historic event. No less historic would be the election of a woman to the Oval Office.

In this country, black men counted as people 50 years before women of any color did.

Some day, a woman will be president. And maybe it will be no big deal.

Now that would be progress.

Denogean: Tucson activist sees life’s work pay off

Tucsonans at inauguration relish historic event

CITIZEN PAIN: Newspapers reporters are more ethical than you might think. If we were on the take, we wouldn’t work these hours.

If anything, we often overcompensate, trying to be fair despite our human biases.

An exception: We write obituaries about our family members. Former Managing Editor Dale Walton came in one night and without a word started typing. I knew then his wife was dying.

In 1996, one old trouper – Phil Hamilton – even wrote his own. (We had to trim it.)

A week ago, we sent off one of the funniest guys in the business, John Jennings. From the obit, you wouldn’t know a friend wrote it.

Now the Citizen will cover its own probable demise. Legally, our parent company, Gannett Co. Inc., must make an effort to find a buyer. But given the times, our specially permitted “joint operating agreement” likely will dissolve without much federal scrutiny.

There are no words to describe this loss. We’ll write them anyway.

Tucson Citizen to cease publication March 21 if no buyer found

FATE OF THE STATE: Our new commander in chief is known for listening – hearing all points of view, then looking for common ground.

At its best, that method could channel adversarial energy in a way that leverages whatever warring factions can agree on.

At its worst, it can be seen as weakness.

The budget process for dealing with a gaping state deficit has generated heat, little light. One member of the state Board of Regents on Thursday called a Republican budget proposal “retribution,” aimed at revenge against ex-Gov. Janet Napolitano, the new head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Looking at the numbers, the claim that public colleges would be “crippled” for years to come seems plausible.

Even if legislators don’t bleed for laid-off faculty members, chances are they care about their children’s futures. Common ground?

Let us reason together.

More than 900 protest proposed cuts to higher education

Lack of funding could slow growth of bioscience industry

BEYOND REASON: When does life begin? To some, at the moment of conception.

Common ground on abortion rights has eluded activists for at least 30 years.

Those who believe abortion is murder can’t rationally allow it in cases of rape or incest. Some ardent abortion-rights supports champion almost unlimited access.

The state Legislature, now with support from Napolitano’s replacement, Gov. Jan Brewer, this week adopted a ban on partial-birth abortions.

Tuesday, a crash that killed an 8-month fetus resulted in a manslaughter sentence for 10 years, on top of other charges against Carlos A. Frasquillo.

Yep, at 8 months, that’s a person. Can’t say I disagree.

Arizona House panel OKs bills to limit partial birth abortions

23-year prison sentence in crash that killed fetus

A LIGHTER NOTE: One dispute that may be resolved without a lawsuit: The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum would like to work something out with a Dutch tourist who accidentally cornered a javelina.

Rene Zegerius, 46, is public health director of Amsterdam. He may never kickbox again.

His lawyer clarifies that Zegerius was not trying to pet the javelina before it charged.

“We agreed this was going to be resolved without litigation,” the museum’s director said Tuesday.

Good. Lawsuits can be such a bore.

Dutch tourist attacked by javelina seeks settlement with desert museum

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

Sunflower Farmers Market's employee Maya Nahra check on the produce. Will the Arizona Legislature charge tax on food to make up for the budget shortfall?

Editor’s note: Judy Carlock reviews the week with snarkish aplomb.

Food for thought: When people put off buying big-ticket items, sales tax revenue plummets. To keep cash coming in, tax something people need, like food.

The state Legislature began its session this week. The first order of business was to write off anything outgoing Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano had to say in her farewell address. I hope they blew her off just for show, because ignoring her ideas on how to balance the budget would be stupid.

More than halfway through the fiscal year, the GOP Legislature proposes cuts to education and health care to deal with a budget shortfall of $1.6 billion, out of roughly $10 billion. By percentage, Arizona reportedly has the largest deficit in the country.

A lot of the budget is “protected,” one way or another. Cutting some programs, for example, endangers federal matching funds. Some spending comes from voter mandates. Short of closing half the state’s schools or furloughing all of its prisoners, the math looks pretty dim.

Republicans can do something Napolitano couldn’t: raise taxes. Do they want to? Probably not. But taxing food would put a disproportionate burden on the backs of the poor.

So they might like it.

Denogean: GOP to ignore governor’s farewell pitch on budget

Napolitano budget ideas likely won’t be heeded

Kimble: Legislature writes off speech, Napolitano

RAY-BAN:

In their opening sound bites, legislators indicated the budget would be balanced on mathematics, not ideology.

Then one of the first bills proposed cuts revenue on the basis of ideology.

Eleven lawmakers signed on for a ban of photo radar enforcement on the state’s highways. They cite intrusiveness. The Highway Patrol says it improves safety. Legislators don’t care.

Sure, this variation on speed traps helps butter bureaucrats’ bread. Wouldn’t we want to first investigate before dismissing the whole idea?

Plenty of things short of a ban could be enacted, such as forgiveness for first offenders or higher threshold speeds. At least look at the data.

Or admit that some revenue decisions will be based on ideology, not mathematics.

Lawmakers want to ban Arizona highway speed cameras

HOLIDAY HOLDUPS:

Nine convenience-store robberies in the past month have been attributed to Cynthia Cottrell, and in seven, her boyfriend, James A. Hill, drove the getaway car, police say.

All told they snagged a few hundred at most, and a gun found in their car was manufactured to fire only blanks, according to police.

Some of the robberies came in mid-December, and one on New Year’s Day. After that, a lull of two weeks was followed by two more on Tuesday.

Why the gap? One theory: Government checks tend to come at the beginning of the month. Another: Perhaps they made a New Year’s resolution to stay out of Quik Marts.

Those darn things are so hard to keep.

Woman arrested in 9 store robberies; man accused in 7

ON THE BORDER:

I’m a bleeding heart on immigration. If more people come to America, like it and spread the word, the faster the rest of the world will adopt our model for governance.

OK, kindly remove your thumb from my eye. Despite these views, I was appalled 20-odd years ago to find that it wasn’t illegal to hire an illegal immigrant. That changed with 1980s reform.

Last year, Arizona became the first state to enact its own laws. If that sounds good, remember that such action might, however unfairly, drive businesses to operate in states that don’t have that regulation.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, who is expected to become U.S. secretary of homeland security as early as next week, now calls for stronger nationwide enforcement of the existing federal law.

Good, because it levels the playing field.

Napolitano calls for tougher action against hiring illegal workers

IN THE CARDS? The Arizona Cardinals are a win away from a Super Bowl, and news accounts assure me fevered fans exist.

I didn’t believe it. Then I finally retrieved my mail from the box (hey, it’s 50 feet from my door) and found a Sports Illustrated cover that says:

“Arizona is Dangerous.”

And they were talking about the Panthers matchup, not Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Hey, Arizona has been called dangerous before.

But that was the basketball team.

Long-suffering Cards fans buzzing with enthusiasm

Judy Carlock can be reached at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4608.

Stoops in November during what turned out to be a loss against Oregon State.

Editor’s note: Judy Carlock reviews the week in news, with her own personal twist.

Good to know President-elect Barack Obama is a “Star Trek” fan. Reading this week that he flashed the live-long-and-prosper sign at Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) reminded me that Spock was a mutt too. His parents weren’t even the same species.

The United Federation of Planets deals diplomatically with rogue regimes, but the starship guns don’t fire blanks. It values liberty, peace, courage and having the coolest toys in the universe.

Obama seems to share Spock’s cerebral side, and has figured out 60-40 is not a landslide. It’s changing one person’s mind out of 10.

Evangelical minister the Rev. Rick Warren will deliver the inauguration invocation, despite his tepid support of California’s gay marriage ban. That upsets the right, who don’t like the tepidity, and the left, who don’t like the support.

Obama’s cool-headed choices will serve him well. He’s not the Dr. McCoy type – that would be President Bush. And he won’t quite cut it as the dashing Capt. Kirk.

That was Bill Clinton’s job.

Inauguration pastor gets slammed from right

HOT BUTTON: Apparently a lot of people think public schools are spewing out propaganda, because Teen Columnist Ashlee Maez touched a nerve with her perception of liberal bias at Tucson High School.

Certainly I can imagine a teacher letting a snarky Bush comment slip. Though that could just be anti-Bush bias.

One thing: Isn’t public education already socialistic? Virtually mandatory attendance, paid for with taxes, on the premise that the public good trumps individual choice?

Seems pretty Marxist to me.

Yeah, there probably is liberal bias at Tucson High. But why teach propaganda? It sounds more interesting to have the debate.

Teachers’ liberal bias permeates Tucson High

NOT ON THE STOOP: What a difference a year makes. If you’re a sportswriter you get to say stuff like that all the time.

After hiring a dud in John Mackovic, the University of Arizona must have been praying that Mike Stoops was building a program, not playing tic-tack-toe. Press speculation (we’re shameless) had him hovering in the vicinity of the doorway, waiting for a kick to the curb.

That started changing with a .500 overall win record in 2006 and now, with Saturday’s bowl victory over BYU and the Iowa State rumors wafting away, he has definitely come in from the cold. It’s a game of inches.

So pull up a chair, Mike. Set a spell.

Stoops excited about three-year contract extension

HORROR: I should have kept my mouth shut. I thought my mother had read the paper. So on Christmas Day, in Phoenix, I mentioned the most gut-twisting story of the week:

Guy walks up to two cousins in west Phoenix Tuesday and slams them with an aluminum baseball bat. Massive head injuries. Jesse Ramirez, 7, and Edwin Pellecier, 10, clearly took hard blows.

In 18 years in the newspaper business I don’t know if anything quite knocked the wind out of me as abruptly as this story. I’ve sure never heard law officers flatly stating the wounds were fatal before the patient actually died.

The alleged assailant may be mentally ill, but he had the wits to ask for an attorney.

At least he’s in custody. I don’t want him dead. Just locked away. As away as it gets.

2 boys brutally beaten in West Phoenix park die

2nd boy beaten in Phoenix park dies

IT’S A MIRACLE: Here’s a story to warm the heart: Jews and Muslims getting together, working cooperatively to separate Christians from their cash.

Bethlehem booms this time of year, as visitors to the Holy Land fill hotels, eager to be where Jesus was born.

It’s win-win-win. Better than mortar fire any day. And no one gets hurt.

So there is hope.

Shalom. Salaam. Peace.

Bethlehem marks joyous Christmas

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

In this image from APTN video, a man throws a shoe at President Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday.

Editor’s note: Night online editor Judy Carlock reviews the news of the week, with her own personal twist.

It just won’t do, throwing shoes at the U.S. commander in chief. The slapstick elements of President Bush’s encounter with a disgruntled shoe-throwing Iraqi of course elicit laughter. But this could have been serious.

The incident this week stuck a fork in this particular presidency. How can we say we’ve made Iraq safer, when even a press conference can’t be managed without an assault?

On Wednesday, the Citizen ran an analysis piece indicating the shoe-thrower has become an instant hero in the Arab world. But not everyone agreed. Sensibly, some Middle Easterners cringed at the behavior. A cathartic moment, to be sure. But stupid, rash and potentially damaging for Iraq’s emerging image.

Even if you think Bush a heel, he hasn’t been a loafer lately. Kudos to the president for taking a final swing through Iraq and Afghanistan. Troops there needed a boost.

If Iraqi unity takes the form of contempt for Bush, at least it’s unity. Contempt for America we can’t afford.

Why Arabs love the shoe throwe

ANOTHER ‘W’: No matter what you think of Dubya, surely a Wildcat win against Gonzaga was a welcome way to start the week. The Zags were favored by 15.

But University of Arizona hoopsters apparently meant it when they said they embraced the role of underdog. They shone against then No. 4 Gonzaga, a Washington state college that shed its “Cinderella” image some time ago.

Interim coach Russ Pennell said afterward he accepts that he’ll never be head coach for the Cats. Arizona, a name-brand program, needs a name-brand coach. Such is the reality of recruiting, he said.

Still, it will be interesting to see how far he gets on merit alone. If UA keeps playing the way it did Sunday maybe people will know his name.

Pennell has no illusions about permanent top hoops job

Gimino: Confident Cats make sure Zags gag

FISCAL FITNESS: The new presidential administration can’t take over too soon for some people.

In Arizona, the wait should be welcome.

Janet Napolitano is still governor – and as such still can influence the state budget.

No aspersions against legislators here. They and incoming Gov. Jan Brewer, now secretary of state, soon enough will have to face a situation where conservative ideology alone won’t balance the books.

Arizona simply must proceed as if revenues will rebound. That doesn’t mean waste. Of course we need real cuts. But we also need smoke, mirrors and creative bookkeeping just to meet our no-deficit mandate.

Otherwise, the dismal math demands that state governance cease immediately.

Nationally, the situation is much the same, allowed Arizona’s senior senator, John McCain, in a visit to the Citizen Tuesday.

Of course we’re just bailing out the boat. But what are the choices? Go under?

McCain in Tucson: ‘Economy is the number one priority’

Lump-sum cuts under discussion for Arizona budget

CASE CLOSED: The official announcement of closure in the slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh left me with the same questions his father, John Walsh, had.

Who could want to do this?

As it turns out, a drifter name of Ottis Toole – who has been dead 10 years, and who looked like everyone’s image of a child-snatching serial killer. “Stranger danger” may be overrated, a sociologist suggested. And certainly kids face hazards even in their own homes.

Still, kids do get abducted by strangers. And the Walsh case – and plenty of local cases, too – leave me with an even bigger mystery: How?

How does anyone get past seeing such a precious light snuffed out?

I can’t imagine. But a salute to Walsh and people like Tucson’s Gail Leland, who have somehow worked through grief by trying to help others. How do they do it? God knows.

Cops: Killer ID’d in infamous behading of Adam Walsh

CHILD PREVENTION: I’m sure plenty of drug addicts love their kids. But how many are equipped to deal with the multiple special needs of an extremely premature baby conceived by accident?

This is no hypothetical situation. Damaged children born to damaged parents do occasionally beat the odds. Stephanie Cruz stepped in to adopt her sister’s baby, who is now 17.

She was downtown this week pushing Project Prevention, which awards $300 to addicts or alcoholics who agree to one of several options for long-term birth control.

If you’ve seen the fallout firsthand you know: That’s a bargain.

Cash offered to addicts, alcoholics who agree to long-term birth control

Fallout from shoe incident

In much of the Middle East, residents sympathized with an Iraqi who hurled his shoes at President Bush Sunday.

Producer: JUDY CARLOCK/Tucson Citizen

Slide 1 of 11.
In a photo taken from video, President Bush dodges a shoe.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 2 of 11.
Palestinian demonstrators hold up shoes and a portrait of President Bush during a demonstration against Israel's separation barrier and calling for the release of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference was beaten and had bruises around his eyes and other parts of his face, a judge said Friday.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 3 of 11.
A Turkish leftist holds a model of shoe as he marches to the U. S. Embassy to protest against the invasion in Iraq in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 4 of 11.
Relatives of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi who threw his shoes at Bush hold banners with his portrait and slogan that reads: "Release the Son of Iraq Munthadar al-Iraqi" as they demanded his release outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. Al-Zeidi "was beaten in the news conference and we will watch the tape and write an official letter asking for the names of those who assaulted him," judge Dhia al-Kinani, the magistrate investigating the incident, told The Associated Press.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 5 of 11.
Photos of President Bush with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and shoes left by demonstrators who marched to the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey, to protest against the invasion in Iraq and to express the solidarity with Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi. Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, while yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog, this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
Source: The Associated PressSlide 6 of 11.
Thousands of Bahrainis respond to a protest call by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. A few shoes also were held aloft.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 7 of 11.
Egyptian activists hit a poster of Bush, with a shoe, during a protest, in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday against the detention of Iraqi TV reporter Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who threw his shoes at President Bush.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 8 of 11.
A Lebanese university student holds a photograph of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi during a demonstration in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 9 of 11.
An Indian demonstrator shouts slogans, holding a shoe and a photo of Bush during a protest in New Delhi, India, Thursday.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 10 of 11.
Um Sa'aad, a sister of Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi wails as she holds a shoe of her brother at his apartment in in Baghdad Monday.
Source: The Associated PressSlide 11 of 11.
A shoe is raised during a protest against Bush on Monday.
Source: The Associated Press