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.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard Tuesday dropped his attempt to keep the printed version of the Tucson Citizen alive.

Goddard filed the suit May 15, claiming Gannett Co. Inc., owner of the Tucson Citizen, and Lee Enterprises, publisher of the Arizona Daily Star, were attempting to silence a news voice in a community in violation of the Newspaper Preservation Act.

Gannett announced that day that it would no longer publish a print version of the Tucson Citizen but would continue a modified Web site of daily commentary and opinion with a weekly insert of editorial content appearing in the Arizona Daily Star.

Goddard had sought a temporary restraining order to keep the Citizen printing and force Gannett to sell it but U.S. District Judge Raner Collins denied the request May 19, saying it was unlikely the AG’s case could succeed.

Collins left the door open for Goddard to refile the case but Tuesday’s action closes it.

“At this point, it was highly unlikely that any outcome of the litigation could lead to the reopening of the Tucson Citizen, elimination of anti-competitive activity or a reestablishment of competitive voices in the Tucson newspaper market,” Goddard spokeswoman Anne Hilby said in a news release Wednesday.

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. McCain: Both parties to blame for US woes – Arizona Daily Star “We Republicans let spending get out of control, and we paid a very heavy price in the election,” McCain said, adding that Republicans “are in step 1 of a 12-step program. We’re still in denial. We need to move on from that.”

If he had picked Colin Powell for veep, or someone similar, i.e. competent, McCain would be president today. Is he young enough to lead his party out of the wilderness? I think he’s the only guy who can do it but time is not on his side. If not him, then who? Lindsey Graham? I’d vote for him. It sure ain’t Mitt Romney.

2. AZ bill: US med plan optional – Arizona Daily Star Christie Herrera, who works for the American Legislative Exchange Council, said the measure is needed to preclude the kind of “socialized medicine” being considered in Washington, which exists in some other countries.

Oh, come on, get off the socialized medicine schtick. We already have socialized medicine for the very old and the very poor. It’s everybody in the middle who is screwed. We need a single payer system in this country with an opt out for those who can afford to choose private plans. A couple of years ago my employer-subsidized insurance plan changed and my family was forced to change all of our doctors because they weren’t providers on the new plan. I tried to buy private insurance to keep our doctors, but every insurance plan had stiff pre-existing condition clauses that refused to pay for chronic health problems for at least a year and never for some of my wife’s health problems. So we changed doctors. Then the plan changed again a year later as the company shopped around for a cheaper plan yet again. I wasn’t a proponent of a state-run single payer insurance plan until I got screwed by our nation’s broken health care system. Now I am. We need to decide in this country if health care is a right or a privilege. To that end, see below.

3. Health-care issue hashed out – Arizona Daily Star The notion of making health care in the United States a right rather than a privilege touched a nerve in Tucson on Tuesday night. About 1,000 people filled the auditorium at Sahuaro High School for a town hall meeting focusing on national health-care overhaul — twice the number expected by organizers from the Tucson office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

If health care is a privilege, stop requiring hospital ERs to treat everyone who comes in the door. If it’s a privilege, eliminate medicare and medicaid, why should old and poor people get government health care and the rest of us don’t? If it’s a privilege, let people get the health care they can afford, and if they can’t afford any, tough, the more people dying from cancer, the flu, heart and lung disease at an early age will help with Baby Boomers breaking the Social Security bank. Or, we can call it a right, create a government system that relieves employers of the crushing burden of health insurance subsidies.

4. Ariz. drop in smoking is largest in nation – Arizona Daily Star That same year, voters agreed to make smoking more expensive, raising the state tax on cigarettes by 82 cents a pack. That brought the total state levy to $2 per pack.

Great. This is good news. Except for all those programs being funded by the smoking sin tax. Now that the sin tax is having its intended effect, the money it generates will fall, providing less money for the health care programs it funds. However, while the tax income is falling, the demand for the program will remain high well into the future. Classic example of why social engineering might sound good but ultimately fails and ends up costing more than doing nothing.

5. Awash in drugs, America remains a ‘dealer’s dream’ – Arizona Daily Star This array of consumers is providing a vast, recession-proof, apparently unending market for the Mexican gangs locked in a drug war that has killed more than 10,780 people since December 2006. No matter how much law enforcement or financial help the U.S. government provides Mexico, the basics of supply and demand prevent it from doing much good.

We have met the enemy and he is us – Pogo.

6. Bill legalizing sparklers clears a major hurdle – Arizona Daily Star As part of a political compromise, lawmakers agreed to allow city councils to declare the use of sparklers illegal within their own limits. But cities could not bar stores from selling the items or consumers from buying them.

Dear legislators, listen to me very carefully . . . PASS A BUDGET!

7. Wife of Ariz. treasurer dies after childbirth – Arizona Republic Dean Martin liked to refer to the child as “LT,” for “Little Treasurer,” and made up a baby outfit bearing the words, “Deposits up front, withdrawals in back.”

What a horrible tragedy. My condolences to Dean Martin and his family and my best wishes to the recovery and health of his new son.

8. U.S. consumer confidence soaring – Arizona Republic A widely watched barometer of confidence unexpectedly rose to the highest level since September, buoyed by an unexpected surge in the stock market, bringing hope that the job market might turn around and the belief that the worst of the recession is behind us.

Really? Nobody called me and took my poll. My confidence is still in the crapper. But maybe that’s because I’m typing this in an empty newsroom, having escaped the layoff ax by mere inches.

9. Cardinals’ Boldin dismisses agent – Arizona Republic Anquan Boldin took a major step in trying to resolve his contract dispute with the Cardinals and repair his image with fans by firing agent Drew Rosenhaus, a move some teammates applauded Tuesday.

Hallelujah. Now, if all the other athletes would fire Rosenhaus maybe sanity would return to professional sports. (Yeah, right, but it’s a good first step).

10. Restaurants cross lines as they struggle through recession - USA Today The fallout looks — or tastes — surreal. Many of the food innovations appear to be the opposite of some chains’ founding principles, and carefully honed brand image. Could sushi at Taco Bell(YUM) be next?

I learned a very disgusting lesson early in life – never order spaghetti at a Chinese restaurant. Same goes for tacos at a burger joint and burgers at a chicken joint.

Some people can’t be trusted. The lot includes those high on heroin, those standing in a doorway with a bloody butcher knife and anyone who hates animals.

One commenter continues to whine about the number of animal stories here.

We are unsure if this person hates animals, but we know he or she doesn’t like reading about them.

Thus we offer some tips for those who don’t appreciate the animal posts:

1. Don’t read anything with the following words in the headline: dog, cat, rat, puppy, kitten, bat, pet, horse, bird, budgie, snake, lizard, capybara, salamander, boa, potbellied pig

2. Also avoid headlines that contain the words “fuzzy” or “furry,” unless it’s a post about mold.

Quick animal facts:

• Kids who abuse animals often grow up to abuse people

• An estimated 63 percent of American homes have some type of pet, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association

• Animals have been successfully used for therapy, companionship and service, helping those who have limited capabilities live a fuller and more independent life

• The Wrestler star Mickey Rourke is so devoted to his Chihuahua, Loki, that he dedicated his recent Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor to the dearly departed pooch

• Happiness is a warm puppy

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Do you trust people who hate animals?

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. University construction plan in doubt – The Arizona Republic The delays mean students and faculty may have to endure worn-out facilities and the schools can’t expand certain programs or keep up with student growth for a while.

A state paid for stimulus plan left in the budget lurch. The state is in a fiscal crisis and all pots of money need to be considered, but this pot was considered earlier this year and left alone because it draws from lottery money. Two motivations are at work here, a desire to steal every cent from every program to try and balance the budget without a tax increase and an animosity toward public education of any kind.

2. Obama taps Ariz. for cadre of leaders – The Arizona Republic While Napolitano is serving as Homeland Security secretary, fellow Arizonans will be overseeing the national-highway system, regulating the use of pesticides to protect the environment, working to improve the health of American Indians and providing legal advice to the Air Force.

Good news for Arizona’s Republican party, while the Republicans in the Legislature risk angering every constituency in the state with its proposed draconian budget cuts, potentially handing the state’s mostly moribund Democratic Party a truckload of wedge issue for next year’s elections, Obama raids the state for the handful of competenet Democrats who could help his party capitalize on Republican missteps. While Republicans eat Arizona’s young, the Democrats eat their own. I love this state.

3. Workers now allowed to help deserted pets – The Arizona Republic That will be welcome news for the increasing number of cats, dogs and other pets who have been abandoned when their owners let their homes go into foreclosure.

Good for Gilbert. I understand that people getting evicted because of foreclosure are in a financial crisis, but take the damn dog with you when you leave or turn it in to a shelter. Otherwise, I’ve got no sympathy for you or your plight.

4. Back-to-basics junior high on way – The Arizona Republic The Chandler Unified School District is building its first back-to-basics junior high by going back to the future and remodeling a 1950s-era campus that was the district’s first junior high school.

The 1950s? Translation: Teach my kids the way I was taught, dang it. Rote memorization, reading the works of dead white guys, history that ignores anything bad. Learn ‘em good. Like me.

5. As funds for summer fun dry up, citizens pool resources – USA Today In Payson, Ariz., businesses and the city have pledged to pay up to $5,000 to reopen nearby Tonto Natural Bridge State Park on weekends. Residents will volunteer at the park to reduce the need for paid staff, Mayor Kenny Evans says

But will they support a tax increase to help pay for services that have fallen under the budget ax that other families might need? Or are they only willing to chip in their own money to serve their own self interest? Maybe we can have a new form of a la carte government in which each year state, cities and counties put up lists of departments and programs to fund and you can go through it and pick the ones you’re wiling to pay for and the amount your willing to pay. If you chose not to pay for police, the police department can purge your name from 911 list.

6. Dogs sniff out phones hidden by AZ inmates – Arizona Daily Star Inmates usually get or buy the cell phones from visitors, contractors who work at the prison and staff members who sneak the phones in, said Kenny Vance, a service-dog trainer for the Corrections Department.

This is cool, but it seems to be more of an indictment of DOC’s inability to stop smuggling and staff corruption. While the dogs are treating the symptom, the disease lies elsewhere. Where there’s a will, there’s a way (and a bribe).

7. Simple Chinese shoe strives to be hip – Arizona Daily Star The story is that Brandt decided to settle in Shanghai, China, after college in California, noticed the crew rebuilding his street wore identical, but cool, canvas sneakers, and tracked down the source.

They’re cool shoes. They’re pinko, commie shoes made in a country hell bent on destroying the world, but they’re still cool.

8. AZ centennial lags on funds, planning effort – Arizona Daily Star Officials say there are almost no funds for the centennial celebration in next year’s budget, and nothing is being raised by the agency in charge of planning the event.

Save the state first, then the centennial celebration. At least they’ve got that priority straight. See below.

9. Budget work will ‘get done,’ Brewer insists – Arizona Daily Star “We’re going to have a budget,” the governor insisted. “It’s going to get done.”

Yeah, right. The state needs roughly $10 billion to pay for all the things past Legislatures and voters have done. About two thirds of that $10 billion is protected from cuts by voter initiatives. That leaves about $3.7 billion available for cuts with the state facing a roughly $3.3 billion income shortfall. The Guv wants a tax increase on the table, the Legislature’s Republican leadership says no way, it’s cuts and budget tricks or nothing. We’re all doomed. See below.

10. Lawmakers fiddle around, ignore reality – Arizona Daily Star You begin to wonder whether the GOP leadership of Arizona’s Legislature lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

See, told you so. We’re all doomed.

When Tucsonan Lisa Kent lost her job last summer, she gained something else.

Nearly 20 pounds.

Kent, like hordes of others who have been depressed, dejected or just plain in pain had turned to food for comfort.

“Yes, I realized what I was doing,” said the 47-year-old mother of a teen. “But I was so friggin’ depressed I didn’t even care.”

Emotional eating is never about physical hunger. It’s about “stuffing” emotions and the psychological need to fill that deep, dark void that screams out for more M&M’s.

Stuffing emotions through food is not a new phenomenon – Overeaters Anonymous was founded in 1960 – but it has become more pronounced in certain circumstances.

Like in the four months the Tucson Citizen teetered on extinction. Nary a day would go by that at least one person would not bring in at least two dozen donuts. One day we had five dozen.

I learned what a Dilly Bar is.

The break room table was also constantly littered with lollipops, Peeps and giant cookies bearing smiley faces that some would mangle, crush and crumble before eating. One woman stabbed hers with a letter opener.

“Emotional eating takes two forms,” said Nancy Mather, a nutrition specialist at the University of Arizona Extension.

“People can overeat and eat everything in sight. Their equilibrium is off. In the same way, people can not eat anything at all. There’s an anorexic kind or obese kind of emotional eating.”

While I’d much rather generally lose weight than gain it, neither option is particularly healthy.

What’s also unhealthy is some of the food choices that come along with emotional eating.

“People are turning to comfort food,” Mather said. “Things we ate as little children, in good times as families.”

That explains the Peeps.

Mashed potatoes, ice cream, piles of pierogies, anything with “deep fried,” “buttery” or “Aflredo” in the name.

“These tend to be high in carbohydrates,” Mather added.

Fancy dining, or dining out at all, is not really where emotional eaters flock, especially when money is tight.

In a bitter twist, the cheapest foodstuff also tends to be the least healthy. Generic cookies that masquerade as Oreos. Ninety-nine cent potpies.

“I was eating mostly Ramen noodles,” Kent confessed.

Restaurants are dropping like flies in soup, retail sales are down in everything from cars to couches, but one industry is actually thriving.

Candy.

“I ate chocolate a lot,” Kent said. “I just started getting those things for a quarter or 50 cents. M&M’s made me feel a little better. Believe it or not, the blue ones did.”

While candy sales dipped a bit in 2008 from the previous year during the Christmas, Halloween and even Valentine holidays, the National Confectioners Association reports overall sales were higher throughout the 12-month period.

Kent scored a new job in March. Her weight and compulsive eating both dropped.

“My weight went down a little bit,” she said. “It’s not like I’ve really been trying to lose weight. But I cut out the sweets and stuff. I’m not craving them anymore.”

Support groups have also helped others who battle with food.

“I would recommend Overeaters Anonymous,” said Sally H., whose last name could not be used because, well, it’s anonymous.

“Come check it out if you have a problem with food, if you feel hopeless and have nowhere to turn.”

She said eating issues are a constant struggle but the group makes it easier.

“They understand what I mean when I say a banana can steal my serenity,” she said.

Ryn Gargulinski is a poet, artist and performer who will continue to write her weekly column every Friday for TucsonCitizen.com. Listen to a preview of her column at 8:10 a.m. Thursdays on KLPX 96.1 FM. E-mail rynski@tucsoncitrizen.com

Like most journalists, I read a lot of news. I start out every morning reading three newspapers entirely – USA Today, Arizona Daily Star and the Arizona Republic – (used to be four, guess which one I don’t read anymore?) then during the day I get deluged with RSS feeds from Google and other places.

Some stories I used to forward to reporters, others to family and friends.

There’s no reason I still can’t do that for the good and loyal readers of TucsonCitizen.com.

Every morning I will post my top 10 stories I’m digging that day with a little commentary to go with each.

Here’s today’s list (and I know it’s not morning but from now on it will be in the morning):

1. Pelosi’s struggle with truth exposes deeper problems – USA Today – Now that it’s politically expedient to denounce torture, Pelosi denied knowledge and smeared the CIA.

Ain’t she great? Blue Dogs better wise up and start pushing their weight around the House and find a new Speaker or Dems may find their rise to power short lived (assuming Cheney and Steele go away before the ‘10 elections)

2. Faith, medicine at odds – USA Today – Most states have legal exemptions that provide some protection to parents who withhold medical care on religious grounds.

The First Amendment runs into parental rights and the state’s duty to protect children from abuse. When is a mother deeply religious and entitled to raise her children under the edicts of her religion, even though those edicts may prohibit modern medical practices, and when is she just stone cold crazy and needs to have her kids taken away? Glad I’m not the judge.

3. City takes hit on bond rating – Arizona Daily Star – “What it means is the cost of borrowing will be higher,” Plagman said, adding the timing is particularly bad because the city is “already in a budget crisis position.”

Former Citizen reporter Carli Brosseau was working on this story before she was laid off. She told me she heard this from several people in the city on the day Mike Hein was fired who told her that the bond rating was toast because of Hein’s outster. Apparently, the bond people had told the city Hein’s firing would affect the bond rating. Not sure how or why that might be but he sure was a nice guy. Most affable person I’ve ever met. Even when he hated me he still greeted me with a big smile, warm hello and a firm handshake. Hein’s firing probably had nothing to do with it, but it’s interesting to me that the bond hit was predicted the day he was fired and now it’s come true. Coincidence?

4. Bill expands state gambling venues – Arizona Daily Star – The plan is open-ended. Anyone who sets up a new racetrack elsewhere in Arizona would also have the right to operate a casino on site, though Tobin’s measure would set a limit of 10 track-based casinos.

Do we really need more places for poor people to lose their money? Their’s a sucker born every minute. (My friend Patrick Cavanaugh calls the state lottery a tax on stupid people. I love that. Still buy a ticket every week, though.)

5. S. Ariz. may need 3 more trauma-care centers – Arizona Daily Star – Paying for the new trauma centers will present a challenge, Rhee said. Currently, there is no public funding from the local, county or state level to support trauma, according to the report.

Should have been on the front page, IMHO.

6. Panel says 3 years of job losses likely – Arizona Republic – Metro Phoenix is likely to experience an unprecedented three consecutive years of job losses in a recession expected to last at least two years, experts predicted Wednesday during the Economic Club of Phoenix’s annual outlook lunch.

Oy. Phoenix is the state’s economic engine – so goes Phoenix, so goes Arizona. This is not good.

7. Prison officials suspended in inmate death – Arizona Republic – Three prison officials have been suspended while the state investigates the heat-related death on Wednesday of a woman who had been placed in an outdoor cage for several hours.

We still put people in cages? Can’t we do better than this? I’m all for punishing criminals but this is ridiculous. Was Carr, the floor walker, in charge up there? “These here spoons you keep with you. Any man loses his spoon spends a night in the box…”

8. Why do atheists feel they have to bore us? – Arizona Republic – Charlotte Allen is the author of “The Human Christ: The Search for the Historical Jesus” and a contributing editor to the Minding the Campus website of the Manhattan Institute.

If this woman is looking for Jesus, I think she missed him. What a (dirty word).

(This story was in the print edition of the Arizona Republic but not on its web site. The same column ran in the LA Times Sunday, so I grabbed the link from there.)

9. Bill revives land swap for copper mine – Arizona Republic – U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., introduced legislation Wednesday that throws her support behind a controversial underground copper mine near Superior that developers say could turn into the largest source of copper ore in North America.

A Democrat floats a bill that would help start a mine? Must be a lot of Republicans in her district.

10. In space, anyone can hear you tweet - USA Today – “Astro Mike” to his followers — has fired off nearly two dozen missives known as tweets, musing on such experiences as looking out the shuttle’s windows.

Story’s OK, but I thought the headline rocked. Then I tried to find its link on the web and saw that every news outlet on the planet that ran this story used the same or similar hed. Still cool, though.

Radio rocks. Or at least it can if you pick the proper stations. Tucson has a host of them, some that rile while others soothe.

Since I’m a creature of habit, I usually stick to my top trio of stations, although I’m open to other suggestions.

• KLPX FM (96.1) – www.klpx.com

Billed as “Tucson’s Real Classic Rock,” the station features an awesome Morning Wake-Up Call with Scott Barnett, groovy lunchtime requests and a number of games, contests and events that are fun to listen to if not to play.

One caveat: Playlist is limited, save for lunchtime requests. You can only listen to AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock” so many times.

• KUAT FM (90.5) – http://radio.azpm.org/classical/

Classical music galore, which makes the best background writing, art and cooking. Makes you feel like you’re in a symphony hall while you pound raw chicken for the crock pot.

One caveat: Can easily put you to sleep unless the rousing sounds of Stravinsky are interspersed between the soothing tunes of Debussy and Bach.

• KXCI FM (91.3) – www.kxci.org

Hodgepodge of fun local, independent and non-mainstream artists, you can hear some really, really cool stuff here. The DJs are also all volunteers, which means they are big-hearted, good people who obviously care about the station.

One caveat: The playlist can sometimes get stuck in a rut of several really bad songs all in a row.

What’s your favorite/non-favorite Tucson radio station and why?

———

Tune in:

What: Ryn Gargulinski on the KLPX Morning Wake-Up Call with Scott Barnett

When: 8:10 a.m. every Thursday

Where: KLPX FM (96.1)

Listen online: www.klpx.com

A severe storm last summer toppled midtown trees, signs and yard art.

Rain used to make the newsroom reporters duck.

Not necessarily to keep our hair from getting flat and wet, but so we wouldn’t get picked to cover the story.

Weather stories can be tedious. They need to be updated every time another road closes or opens, three drops of rain fall on the East Side or a roof shingle blows off in midtown.

Some staffers may have enjoyed the rain stories, but I don’t even enjoy the rain.

The reason I moved to Tucson from southern Oregon was to get away from constant downpours.

Places on the Pacific Coast can amass up to 122 inches per year.

Everything always smells like mildew, not unlike books from a thrift store basement.

Rain does have its high points. My dogs live to swim in the pools that form in the dusty riverbed. Rain also does wonders for removing patio and driveway debris.

It’s also fun to hear about the annual jerk who tries to drive through a flooded underpass.

For the record, Thursday morning’s rainfall hit 0.04 inches in Avra Valley and south of town. Wednesday night saw at least 1.64 inches in some midtown areas.

Check back during monsoon for more details.

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Check out the rainfall map on your own whenever you’re bored: 159.233.69.3/perl/pima.pl

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What’s your favorite Tucson weather condition and why?

Rain can rule when it actually puts water in the Rillito River.

Now what did he eat?

The gorgeous, post-rain morning started with my dog eating poop.

It’s a habit I’m guessing he picked up when he was a starving stray before I adopted him.

He’s also eaten rocks, raw chicken he stole from the countertop and a pair of my walking shoes in revenge.

The rock ingestion led to stomach surgery.

I thought he had gotten over the poop-eating habit, technically called Coprophagia, but I once again had to intervene.

My solution is to pick it up immediately before he has a chance to think about dining on it.

Another solution is a food additive, sold at pet stores, that supposedly makes the poo taste so horrible even the dog won’t eat it. I’ve never tried it but have seen others buying it.

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What’s your pet’s grossest habit?

What do you do about it?

TucsonCitizen.com will be the voice of Tucson.

That’s the goal.

How is that going to happen? There’s the rub.

Over the next two weeks and beyond, the site will be redesigned and improved to give Tucsonans a place where they can have a say on any number of topics.

What you see now is a site created for a metro daily newspaper’s online operation. That’s over.

What will come is a more user-friendly site created to reflect the fast-paced, edgy nature of the Internet age.

Most of what’s been discussed about this new site has been long on generalities and short on specifics.

I wish I could reverse that and give you more details but we’re still working that out.

That said, I’ve been tasked to make it work, along with my compadre, Ryn Gargulinski (and, I hope, a sports writer to be named later).

We have some ideas and we’re reaching out to the Tucson community for theirs, since in the end it will be more their site than ours.

But there is a loose framework we’re discussing.

What’s the BIG idea?

The operating model we’re using is The Huffington Post. Don’t jump to conclusions about political bent, it’s the way the Huffpo site operates, not what’s on it that I’m talking about.

The site is a collection of blogs and bloggers who post news, information, opinion and more on the site everyday.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of Tucson bloggers. They add a tremendous amount of knowledge and perspective to the total universe of Tucson.

But each is unique and mostly stand alone. All rely on Google searches, word-of-mouth and a few other modestly effective means to market their work.

Our idea is to offer them the economy and power of scale. To bring them in under the TucsonCitizen.com‘s big tent where the traffic for each benefits the other.

What’s in it for Gannett and Tucson Newspapers? Readers. Site traffic. Page views. Impressions. The things the companies sell to advertisers (this is a business, after all).

What’s in it for the bloggers? Scale. Site and CMS assistance, perhaps free site hosting. Maybe even a piece of the revenue action (pay based on percentage of site traffic generated is only fair and something I’m advocating for during this “transition” phase. Making that happen and how to do it will take a lot of negotiation and discussion with the powers that be here and in Virginia).

They toil away part-time, some full-time, on their blogs, using any number of content management systems. All bloggers have to learn to be a bit of a web monkey to make their blogs look good. Some become quite good at it, but most quickly reach their Peter Principle after learning how to upload photos and video. But the web is a much more powerful broadcast medium than that.

We can help them podcast, vodcast, live stream, create interactive graphics, find and use government data and much more.

But most significantly, instead of a few hundred or a few thousand page views a day, they will get tens or even hundreds of thousands. The reach and impact of what they write and post will exponentially increase. And isn’t that the point?

If they blog because they want to inform, then informing more people under the TucsonCitizen.com umbrella than they could on their own is a win-win.

If you have a blog and are interested in what we can do for you, or you want to start a blog for TucsonCitizen.com, e-mail me, mevans@tucsoncitizen.com (mevans@tucsoncitizen.com).

Blogging convention

Irrespective of whether only some or all of the above happens, today I have begun to scratch out the rudimentary plans for a Tucson bloggers convention. It would have guest speakers who will lead breakout sessions on copyright and libel law, the DMCA Safe Harbor Act, using public records, effective web searches, CMS add-ons and widgets, marketing your site, advertising and more.

Regardless of whether bloggers blog on TucsonCitizen.com, our site will be an advocate for online news, opinion and commentary. A convention such as this will help connect bloggers with each other, promote online debate and discussion about Tucson for Tucsonans and encourage and teach those who want to jump into blogging but may be intimidated by the depth of the pool.

I have no budget for this yet, but I’m working on it. If you have ideas for such a convention or believe you have the expertise to be a presenter or panelist, e-mail me at mevans@tucsoncitizen.com (mevans@tucsoncitizen.com).

Take your micro community macro

We humans like to divide ourselves into communities. The web is chock-a-block with them: Knitters, hikers, bikers, geocahers, foodies, book worms, movie buffs, sports team fanatics etc., etc. etc.

Those, too, are spread out in the great expanse of cyberspace, hoping some passing web spider hears their signal and aggregates them into the great RSS feed in the sky, routing them to computer screens of other like-minded people.

TucsonCitizen.com will seek to find and foster these local online communities, or help create and support new ones.

If you want your online group, even if it’s just an old-fashioned e-mail listserve, part of TucsonCitizen.com, or just talked about and discussed on our site, e-mail Ryn at rynski@tucsoncitizen.com.

The power of many

The hallowed halls of journalism schools and the stately board rooms of newspaper and TV news companies were shaken to their core a few years ago by two little words: Citizen Journalist.

TucsonCitizen.com will eventually be the publishing arm of a multitude of Tucson citizen journalists – bloggers and others who will report the news of their community to their community.

There are a million people in this valley and there are a million stories to tell. The handful of paid journalists in this city only begin to scratch the surface on the amount of news out there. Those stories will find an audience at TucsonCitizen.com.

There will be a how-to for using the state’s public records law and other news reporting tips to help citizens report and publish news.

If you need or want a public record and don’t know how or where to get it, or the government isn’t giving it to you, e-mail me, mevans@tucsoncitizen.com (mevans@tucsoncitizen.com), and I’ll help you get it.

A work in progress

All of this is in the discussion stage. It is what we’re working to create. Some of it may be available in a week, other aspects more than a week. Some may be a good idea that remains just that.

But Ryn and I will work every day to make as much of this as possible happen.

The key to this is you.

If you have other ideas than the above that you want this site to be, or comments or feedback on any of the above, e-mail Ryn or me and we’ll see about getting to work on it.

Chicken anyone?

Lunchtime can be a great time for some tasty eats around Tucson – or a hurried grab at Cheetos from the cafeteria vending machine.

One reader sent in a host of great ideas for the new site, one of which was a feature on lunch spots in different areas around town.

The newsroom is stuck on South Park Avenue and Irvington Road, a seemingly 200 miles from anything edible.

Unless you really dig vending machine Cheetos.

One South Side restaurat was reviewed by Tom Stauffer, former Citizen staffer and awesome food writer.

But he said Hacienda del Mar lacks a major commodity: taste.

(Read review below).

Anyone know of any tasty lunch spots on the South Side?

Hacienda del Mar suffers severe flavor shortage

TOM STAUFFER

I had a pleasant introduction to this South Side restaurant in August about a month after the owners took over the estatelike building, the former home of Parrilla del Rey.

It’s downright palatial, with impressive rock work, hardwood floors, rough-hewn beams and roomy, nicely done dining areas.

I ordered the Camarones con Crema Chipotle ($10.95) and was impressed. The large shrimp were cooked to a tender texture, the cream sauce was rich and savory, and the plate was generously accompanied by rice, steak fries, a small salad and fresh tortillas.

Since that time, the kitchen at Hacienda del Mar has apparently been outfitted with a new piece of equipment – a flavor extractor.

They had it set on high on a recent visit.

My companion and I started with the Tostada Ceviche ($2.99) and the Botana Marinera ($12.95). As with everything else we ordered, the large tostada came with a large helping of ceviche, which was primarily composed of shrimp. Seeing as how ceviche is, by definition, cold-cooked in lime juice, we were somewhat perplexed by the addition of what was either mayo or some type of liquid dairy product. The resulting marriage was odd, to say the least. It came off as an accident, as if someone carrying an overly bland bowl of ceviche collided with someone carrying an overly bland bowl of cole slaw.

The botana appetizer was an even bigger disappointment. The large plate was laid out with a good 15 or so cold, tailless shrimp and 30 or 40 nickel-sized wafers of sliced octopus. My companion and I were nothing less than astonished by the complete lack of flavor in the seafood. It was like eating rubberized air.

We didn’t fare much better with the entrees.

The Tampiquena ($10.95) was a thin slab of rather tough steak. It not only lacked the traditional topping of sautéed onions and bell peppers, but also the chile seasoning that’s normally imbued in the steak. It came with a large order of refried beans and rice, both of which were similarly lacking in soul.

My companion’s Enchiladas Suiza ($9.95) was composed of two large enchiladas stuffed with chicken. The enchiladas were topped with melted cheddar and a greenish cream sauce. They looked nice, but were as flavor-challenged as the rest of the meal.

The desserts were not half bad. The flan ($2.75) was respectable, a version that blended both variants, the cakey and the custardlike. The cheesecake ($2.75), while not overly notable, had a pleasant tang and subtle sweetness.

On my first visit, the server informed me that the people who own Hacienda del Mar also own La Fresita and The Taco Shop Co., fast-Mexican joints in town. I’ve eaten at both, and found them to be of decent quality.

If they served food even remotely as lively and fresh-tasting at their estate on South Nogales Highway, the uncommonly beautiful Hacienda could become a signature destination. The service is professional and prompt, the menu has something for everybody, the portions are huge and the prices are reasonable.

They just need to do something about that giant sucking sound in the kitchen.

AT A GLANCE

What: Hacienda del Mar

Phone and address: 807-5600, 5358 S. Old Nogales Highway

Specialty: Michoacan-style Mexican

Price: Appetizers from $2.99 to $10.95; soups $6.95 to $10.95; burritos $3.95 to $6.49; entrees $8.25 to $10.95.

Bar: Full

Vegetarian options: All soups, salads and entrees can be prepared without meat.

Desserts: Tres Leches Cake, Flan, Chocolate/Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, (all $2.95) and Ice Cream ($1.95)

Currency: Cash and credit

Latest health inspection: Passed its opening inspection Oct. 4. Has yet to undergo its first unannounced inspection.

We’re not dead.

A federal judge yesterday rejected an attempt by the state Attorney General to force Gannett Co. Inc., publisher of the Tucson Citizen, to resume printing the Tucson Citizen newspaper.

But if you read the Arizona Daily Star today, it’s headline says “Judge upholds Citizen closure.”

Nowhere in the story does it say the Tucson Citizen has been closed. If it is, what the hell am I doing here?

The Tucson Citizen lives on, albeit with a two-person crew tasked with creating a “robust” online opinion and commentary community portal.

Though the online version of the Tucson Citizen was discussed in court, neither the Star’s story nor The Associated Press story that has gone out over the wire to thousands of newspapers across the world, mentions that.

Last night the TV news broadcasts on all three stations said we were shutdown. None of the broadcasts I saw mentioned the continued online version of the Tucson Citizen.

This morning, driving in to work at the TUCSON CITIZEN, the rip-and-read Arizona Public Media reporter said the Tucson Citizen was shut down.

If I was editing those reporters, I would have changed the copy to say “the Tucson Citizen has ceased printing a newspaper but continues to have an online presence and a skeleton staff.”

The lights are still on. The computers still work. The site, TucsonCitizen.com is still up. We may be a work in progress, but we are still at work.

The final print edition of the Tucson Citizen was printed on Friday night.

U.S. District Judge Raner Collins Tuesday denied Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard’s request for a temporary restraining order against Gannett Co. Inc. to force the company to resume printing the Tucson Citizen.

Gannett announced Friday that it would no longer publish a print version of the Tucson Citizen but would continue a modified Web site of daily commentary and opinion with a weekly insert of editorial content appearing in the Arizona Daily Star.

Goddard filed the suit late Friday, claiming Gannett, publisher of the Tucson Citizen, and Lee Enterprises, publisher of the Arizona Daily Star, were attempting to silence a news voice in a community in violation of the Newspaper Preservation Act.

In order to convince the judge to grant the restraining order, the state had to show that there would be irreparable harm caused by the continued cessation of the printed Citizen and that the state had a reasonable chance of succeeding on the merits of its case – that Gannett and Lee were acting in an anticompetitive way.

Collins said in his ruling:

“The Court finds at this point the plaintiff has failed to show the likelihood of success at trial that the defendant committed an antitrust violation that caused irreparable harm by closing the Tucson Citizen. While regrettable that the Citizen’s illustrious legacy must come to end, it can not be said at this time, the decision to close the Citizen involves an anti-trust violation. The Court can not say at this point in time that there is a violation of the Newspaper Preservation Act. While, it is true the closing of the Citizen is an irreparable harm, the plaintiff has failed to show the balance of hardships weighs in their favor.

“Evidence at this time does not show a ready and willing buyer to pay the fair and reasonable liquidation value of the Tucson Citizen assets.

“If the Court were to apply the failing company test, the Citizen would qualify.”

Federal case law allows a paper operating with antitrust exemption to shut down if its parent company can demonstrate that it is losing money and no one wanted to buy it.

In court Monday, Nancy M. Bonnell, antitrust unit chief for the Attorney General’s Office, argued that there was a buyer for the Citizen, a Santa Monica, Calif., based newspaper company, that had offered as much as $400,000 paid out over time for the Citizen but the offer was rejected.

Gordon Lang, attorney for Gannett, said the offer was far to low and cited an appraisal of the paper done while the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Gannett’s and Lee’s efforts to stop publishing a printed Citizen. The appraisal said the assets of the paper, absent the interest in the JOA, were worth about $760,000.

The Justice Department signed off on the Citizen’s publication cessation Thursday and closed its investigation, a DOJ spokeswoman said Friday.

The Newspaper Preservation Act, passed in 1970, provides an exemption to antitrust laws for newspapers operating jointly in the hopes of increasing editorial diversity in cities and towns. The Star and the Citizen have had a joint operating agreement since 1940. That agreement was terminated Saturday, although the two companies will continue as business partners in Tucson Newspapers, a subsidiary that handles all noneditorial operations for both papers.

Lee and Gannett will continue to share equally in the operating costs and profits of Tucson Newspapers, also known as TNI Partners, just as they did with the JOA, CEO Mike Jameson said Friday. TNI, though, will no longer receive the limited antitrust immunity offered JOAs under the Newspaper Preservation Act.

Bonnell said Gannett and Lee have benefited from the antitrust exemption but now the “two competitors have come to an anticompetitive agreement.”

She argued that by closing the Citizen, the profits of the two companies would increase after having been freed from the operating costs of the Citizen. She said that would in essence be the same as Lee paying Gannett not to publish, something a federal court said was anitcompetitive in a similar case in Hawaii in 2000.

Attorneys for Lee and Gannett, however, argued that the Citizen was a failing paper, losing as much as $10,000 a day and was drag on the partnership.

They also argued that while Gannett has ceased a print publication, its web site remains and is being converted to a portal for community debate and commentary, even noting to the judge that Citizen staffers were in the courtroom covering the hearing.

———

On the Web

Read Judge Collins’ ruling:

www.tucsoncitizen.com/downloads/pdf/051909citruling.pdf

Longtime Tucsonan Sheldon Gutman walks around with a pile of Tucson Citizen newspapers under his arm.

He is not a hawker selling them on the corner of Ajo Way.

Nor is he a homeless man using them for padding.

He just loves the Citizen.

Gutman, in his 70s, loves it so much he even came to the Monday afternoon hearing that would decide if the Citizen were ordered to continue its print edition.

Gutman came to testify.

No matter it was not an open hearing and no testimony was being heard – just lengthy lawyer legalese – Gutman came anyway.

It was unclear if he normally walks around with copies of the Citizen under his arm or if this was a special occasion.

His favorite was the calendar section. “It has movie listings, concerts.”

He then proceeded to go over all the headlines on the other sections and issues he had laid out in a messy accordian style on a courtroom bench.

“It covers cultural areas, state legistlature, pets,” he said. “There is such a variety. It has the greatest University of Arizona basketball coverage with Steve Rivera.”

Although Gutman has been in Tucson for decades, he only discovered the Citizen last year and now can’t get enough of it.

He better hang on to those copies in case the restraining order doesn’t go through.

“For 19,000 subscribers all they read is the Citizen,” he said. “It has inserts, sales at department stores.”

The judge passes down his decision on Tuesday, and you can bet Gutman will be there.

I’ll let you know if he brings his pile of Citizens.

Read story on the hearing: www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/116713.php