For those of you looking to this space for perspective on the Citizen’s demise, for those looking for What It All Means – you are looking in the wrong place. ¶ Excuse us, but we’re a little too close to the situation right now.

Do you ask someone how it feels when a relative dies after a long bout with cancer? After all, we knew the end was coming for months.

But here’s a revelation: When death comes, even if it’s not supposed to be a shock . . . it’s still a shock.

So give us six months, or six years. Then we can provide some context.

Let’s stick, then, to the few points we can make with a sufficient degree of conviction:

• If there’s a way to spin the Citizen’s closure into a positive for Tucson, we’d love to hear it. But one doesn’t exist.

It would be bad enough if we were just any company. But a newspaper is the type of high-salary, knowledge industry, “smart” business that any of the city’s TREOish, economic-development types would love to recruit.

Those of us who have explored Tucson’s, uh, challenging employment environment know we won’t be making anywhere near the money we make now. Bottom line for Tucson: More than five dozen well-paying jobs lost.

But a newspaper isn’t just any company. It’s a repository of the city’s collective memory and of our aspirations and hopes.

Healthy journalism equates with a vibrant city. A dead paper is analogous to the city’s libraries closing – a chilling prospect.

• To all those bloggers and “citizen journalists” who, if you believe the Internet, are this close to reinventing the industry, here’s your opportunity.

Now is your chance to cover never-ending board meetings, make Freedom of Information Act requests to dislodge facts from public officials, call sources – you have cultivated sources, right? – and otherwise do what we in our dying industry like to call “reporting.”

To do it right, you’ll have to work eight to 10 hours a day, five to six days a week.

If it sounds like a job, not a hobby, it is. But don’t expect to get paid; apparently, that business model has been discredited.

We’re rooting for you. Public officials need vigilant scrutiny if our dollars are to be wisely spent and public policies are to be sane and progressive. So good luck with that.

• Finally, frankly, this paper’s closing dissolves a colorful, creative cast of characters the likes of whom you’ll never find in one place again. From sweet Mary Bustamante’s long-time devotion to schools to Dan Buckley’s vivid mariachi videos, from Ryn Gargulinski’s bizarre takes of the macabre to Alan Fischer’s scintillating science coverage, from Steve Rivera and Geoff Grammer’s mastery of Wildcats basketball and high school sports, respectively, to Anthony Gimino’s personal peeks at sports personas, we’ve had it all. And you had it, too.

But not now. With the loss of the Tucson Citizen, everybody in Tucson loses. And that’s a fact. Goodbye.

Construction of a city-county courts complex downtown has been delayed because an old cemetery was on the land.

But Pima County did the right thing by taking the time and spending the money to exhume and store more than 1,800 sets of remains.

Saturday, the remains of 61 U.S. Cavalry soldiers and some of their dependents will be reburied in the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista.

The remains will be escorted from Tucson by scores of motorcyclists from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Patriot Riders.

Burial will come with full military honors at a new cemetery for historic burials near Fort Huachuca.

That’s as it should be. These soldiers from long ago deserve the same honors as current members of our military.

Nine students from southern Arizona high schools are headed to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair – and most of them share a single teacher.

Margaret Wilch, a science teacher at Tucson High Magnet School, will have six of her students at the fair: Angela Schlegel, Mahwish Khalid, Negin Nematollahi, Michael Wallace, Emily Derks and Alice Glasser.

Also attending this week’s fair in Reno, Nev., are Ebaa Al-Obeidi from Canyon del Oro High School, and Martin Lopez and Mario Valdez, both from Rio Rico High School.

The nine students are the most to ever represent southern Arizona in the world’s largest precollege science contest.

Congratulations to all of them. They are among those who will lead us into the next generation of scientific exploration.

Congratulations to the University of Arizona softball team, which is headed to its 23rd consecutive postseason tournament.

Unfortunately, the Wildcats – seeded ninth nationally – won’t be playing at home in the first round of the NCAA championship tournament. The team was inexplicably sent to Louisville, Ky., as lower seeds won the right to host regionals.

But no matter. The Cats are used to winning the first game of the tournament regardless of where it is played. UA has won 20 of the 22 first-round games in its current streak.

The Wildcats have made it to the College World Series 20 times under coach Mike Candrea. And they have come home with the national title eight times.

We wish them the best as they go after No. 9.

Hats on to the Arizona Cancer Center’s Skin Cancer Institute for putting a 12-minute video online to help people detect cancers.

(“Hats off” won’t prevent skin cancer, but “hats on” surely can.)

Early detection saves lives, and the quick spotting of skin cancers just became a whole lot easier thanks to the video that can be watched at www.azskincancerinstitute.org.

We denizens of the desert get plenty of sun exposure, so we need to indulge in sunblock, hats and other protection.

But spotting cancers promptly also is vitally important in the battle against skin cancer. Melanoma survival rates are 98 percent with early detection.

So check out the video now online, and follow the guidelines and instructions. The 12 minutes you spend now may provide you with many more years of life.

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

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

Hundreds of people were being held in a Hong Kong hotel because one man had swine flu, for example, and China quarantined more than 70 travelers simply because they’re from Mexico.

By contrast, in the Tucson area, public schools remain open despite two student cases of confirmed swine flu.

One child who contracted the flu was expected to return to Tortolita Middle School on Monday.

That school – like all others in Marana Unified School District – remained open.

Another student with the flu is from Safford Magnet Middle School; it and all other schools in Tucson Unified School District also are staying open.

Both of the students and the other four people confirmed to have had swine flu here have recovered.

With the school year almost over, and many students taking final exams now, keeping schools open was a logical response by area school districts.

It also was in keeping with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, as the CDC isn’t recommending school closures.

The four other swine flu cases in Pima County were confirmed on the Tohono O’odham Nation, authorities said, involving a 3-year-old, two youths of high school age and one adult about 20 years old

The Pima County Health Department now has begun “active surveillance.”

Health officials are checking to see whether other schoolchildren and tribal members contract the disease while also trying to determine who the victims were associating with and checking the health history of their families and friends.

As of Sunday night, the number of swine flu cases confirmed in the U.S. totaled 245 in 35 states.

Only one flu victim is known to have died in this country – a Mexican toddler who was visiting Texas.

Pima County, despite its proximity to the border, has been relatively fortunate to date, and we hope that good luck will continue.

We also are grateful that cool heads have prevailed here, despite hysteria erupting in other quarters. We hope the sensible approach will continue, even if more local cases of swine flu are confirmed.

The swine flu – also known as H1N1 – is, after all, a form of influenza. Regular forms of flu and its complications kill about 36,000 people each year in the U.S. So the outbreak of swine flu is no reason to panic.

Wash your hands frequently, cover your sneezes and practice healthy habits. But like local health and school officials, let’s also keep calm.

A Tuesday editorial lamented the resignation of Leesa Berens Morrison, director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, just as the swine flu crisis arose.

Morrison said she will remain director until she and the Governor’s Office decide on a mutually agreeable last day. Morrison said she hopes to stay until her replacement is selected to ensure a smooth transition.

The swine flu outbreak is a serious matter, having killed about 150 people in Mexico and infected about 50 in the United States.

But while the virus has potential to morph into a pandemic – one of the most terrifying words in the English language – it isn’t even an epidemic at this point.

Caution and concern are merited, but full-bore hysteria is not.

Our government declared a national health emergency so it could release about 12 million doses of flu medications to states.

That’s a wise precaution, not cause for alarm. We wish similar efforts were under way in Mexico, where the onslaught of swine flu has not been handled as well as it should be.

As The Associated Press reported Tuesday, two weeks after the first known swine-flu death of the current outbreak, Mexico still hasn’t given medicine to families of the dead.

Our neighboring nation hasn’t determined where the outbreak started, how it spread or how to get frightened ambulance drivers to take sick people to hospitals.

“A portrait is emerging of a slow and confused response by Mexico to the gathering swine flu epidemic,” the AP reports. “And that could mean the world is flying blind into a global health storm.”

Let’s hope not. People need to be careful and follow the instructions issued by health experts: Wash your hands thoroughly and often. Avoid exposure to people who are sick. Stay out of Mexico. And if you get sick, stay home and call a doctor. Don’t share your germs with the masses.

Troops can’t stop virus

Border enforcement activists’ response to the flu outbreak has been unrealistic and counterproductive, however.

Many are calling for troops on the Mexican border, for example, as if a virus can be stopped by brute force.

It can’t. And even if it could, we would need to also shut down several of our own states as well as Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions, all of which now have documented cases of swine flu.

U.S. officials are responding appropriately by screening people at the Mexican border, looking for those who are ill and barring them from entry.

But commerce between Mexico and the U.S. is conducted with thousands of trucks heading in both directions.

Even if all cross-border traffic were stopped, results would be marginal at best in preventing spread of the disease, noted Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

We hope that Napolitano and President Obama will make some recommendations to the Mexican government about its handling of this outbreak.

HHS secretary is needed

We also urge the Senate to confirm Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the new secretary of Health and Human Services.

That department has been functioning efficiently and professionally, but leadership will be essential as this swine flu outbreak runs its course.

Likewise, we reiterate our request to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to quickly find a replacement for Leesa Berens Morrison, who stepped down as director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security.

There is much to be done to safeguard the public health, and so far our government has responded swiftly and logically to try to quell this threat.

The American people must do likewise.

Let’s save the hysteria for a pandemic or at least an epidemic, and let’s shelve the tendency toward xenophobia, recognizing that the U.S. and many other countries are battling the same threat as Mexico.

Our focus should be on staying healthy.

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

Friday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation giving at least 13 more weeks of unemployment benefits to Arizonans who have been laid off.

But the move is hardly a gesture of generosity from the state. All of the money to extend benefits to 72 weeks is coming from the federal government as part of the stimulus bill.

Seven more weeks could be added if Arizona’s unemployment rate hits 8 percent. At the end of March, it stood at 7.8 percent.

Brewer signed the legislation after it was passed by the Legislature – with lawmakers griping about federal mandates and requirements.

For example, the federal stimulus package also includes “modernization” changes, providing a longer period of unemployment benefits for laid-off workers who are receiving education or training for a new vocation. That change also would make people eligible for benefits even if their former job was only part time.

But those additional benefits are paid by the federal government only as long as the stimulus money lasts – then the state must continue the benefits. That was a commitment the Legislature was unwilling to make – an unfortunate decision. Accepting the money would have benefitted many job-seeking Arizonans.

Arizona also is failing to process unemployment benefits in a timely manner – despite adding staff and having employees working nights and weekends.

Employees for the state Department of Economic Security are simply overwhelmed. In one recent week, DES received 13,722 claims for new and extended unemployment benefits – on top of 12,356 the week before. More than 110,000 Arizonans are receiving unemployment benefits, up from 28,000 in January 2008.

The William E. Morris Institute for Justice, a Phoenix group that represents low-income residents, filed a federal suit last month to have the state unemployment process speeded up. It acted on behalf of a woman who had been waiting five months for benefits and a man who ended up in a homeless shelter after waiting unsuccessfully for 10 weeks.

The suit was dropped after both received their benefits. But it indicates deep problems in the state’s ability to respond to this unprecedented economic crisis.

The good news for Arizonans: They now are eligible for a longer period of unemployment benefits. The bad news: They still face daunting challenges in getting the benefits started.

Every high school needs a defibrillator such as the one that saved a Cienega student.

Cienega High School athletic trainer Deana Schneider used an automated external defibrillator to revive sophomore football player Emilio Martinez after the 17-year-old collapsed in the school's weight-lifting room April 20.

With public school systems scraping for every dollar these days, some cost-benefit analysis is in order.

Athletic trainer salary? $40,000.

Automated external defibrillator? $1,500.

The life of a student? Priceless.

That’s the lesson learned Monday, when a sophomore football player fainted, collapsed and went into cardiac arrest at Cienega High School.

Emilio Martinez, 17, would have died Monday, doctors say, if not for athletic trainer Deana Schneider and the automated external defibrillator (AED) she insisted the school purchase last July.

But Schneider calmly sprang into action with the AED and saved Emilio’s life.

The teen was released Friday from University Medical Center after successful surgery Thursday for his ventricular fibrillation, reports Nemer Hassey, assistant principal at Cienega.

The school requires every head coach to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid, which typically includes a briefing on use of the AED.

But that magical piece of machinery is virtually foolproof, Hassey advises. “It won’t let you do something wrong. It takes you through every step, and it’ll tell you if something goes wrong,” he notes.

Some high schools in Pima County don’t have any AEDs, though, and that deficiency clearly must be addressed now.

“Every single school should have one. Every sporting event should have one. It’s common sense now,” Hassey says. “Learn from our experience.”

We couldn’t agree more. Cienega, for example, plans to buy two more AEDs – one in May and a second in July.

One of the devices will be kept in the stadium area, for the safety of teams and spectators alike, while the other will be in a centralized site at the administration building, so anyone at the school can access it quickly.

Flowing Wells High doesn’t have an AED but has requested several for the next school year.

At Sahuaro High in Tucson Unified School District, an AED was bought through the Sahuaro Cougar Foundation and personal donations.

That’s a great example for leaders at schools with especially tight budgets.

Parents and other concerned community members undoubtedly would donate to ensure that life-saving AEDs are on their neighborhood campus.

“It’s a no-brainer,” Hassey told Citizen sportswriter Geoff Grammer. “You do more fundraisers or find other areas to work around. But cutting back on stuff like this, things that are about safety, you can’t cut corners on that.”

Cienega bought its AED, a Cardiac Science Power Heart G3, at the urging of the 28-year-old Schneider.

“These are things you hope you never have to use,” she says, “but why risk not having one ready if something does happen?”

High schools throughout Pima County have high participation in competitive sports, and it is often during physical exertion that previously undiagnosed conditions surface unexpectedly.

That’s what happened with Emilio. He had just completed his daily workout in an advanced weights class when physical education teacher Jay Johnson saw the boy faint, hit his chin on a barbell on his way down and collapse unconscious on the floor.

Johnson started administering CPR and sent a student to fetch Schneider.

This story obviously had the happiest of all possible endings. But without the AED, that very well may not have been the case.

As the end of this school year draws nigh, we urge administrators to get to work now on deciding how they will acquire AEDs for any of their high schools that don’t have them.

Over the course of the next four months, they must raise the money to ensure that every high school campus has at least one AED on hand. Let’s learn from Emilio’s example and keep the kids safe.

Schools: Invest in device that saves lives

Emilio Martinez

Maurice J. Sevigny

These are exceptionally difficult times for the University of Arizona, and Maurice J. Sevigny is one of the victims.

Sevigny, dean of the College of Fine Arts for 18 years, recently told his faculty he will retire in June.

“In this lousy economy, it’s not as much fun,” he said.

Under Sevigny, UA has developed a nationally recognized college with five distinctive schools – art, music, dance, theater arts and media arts – that draw students from across the country. Admission to the college is extremely competitive.

Tough economic times are difficult, and it is understandable that after four decades in higher education, Sevigny doesn’t want to fight new battles.

But UA will deeply miss his vision and his leadership.

When the 2010 census is conducted, it is essential that illegal immigrants know they have nothing to fear from the government counters.

An estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants are in Arizona, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington, D.C. That would represent about 9 percent of Arizona’s population – the highest percentage of illegal immigrants of any state.

The census is supposed to count all residents of the nation – not just those who are here legally. It is not a count of citizens but a count of people living here and using services here.

The census numbers are used to allocate everything from House membership to federal dollars.

Without an accurate census count, Arizona could lose millions of dollars in federal funding for roads, schools, redevelopment and other projects.

It is important that residents of Arizona know that the Census Bureau does not care about immigration status and does not share the information it collects with law enforcement agencies.

A complete count is needed, and that word must get out.

Landing Sean Miller as the men’s basketball coach is a victory for the University of Arizona, even if athletic director Jim Livengood had to go into overtime before coming away with a successor to Lute Olson.

Last week – after USC coach Tim Floyd had turned down the Cats, after Washington State’s Tony Bennett had taken a job at Virginia, after Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl had decided to stay in Knoxville and after several other schools had filled their hoops-coaching vacancies – it looked as though the Cats might be forced to settle for a second-tier talent.

Instead, UA got Miller, 40, a rising star among college coaches who led Cincinnati’s Xavier University to four NCAA Tournaments in five years, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2008.

Details of Miller’s salary haven’t been announced, though Internet reports not confirmed by UA place it at about $2 million a year. That might provoke gasps – Olson’s base salary at the time of his retirement was $737,790 – but it’s the price of luring big-time basketball talent.

UA was searching while the coaching landscape was rocked by the unprecedented $4 million a year that Memphis coach John Calipari accepted to switch to Kentucky. In that context, $2 million doesn’t sound too outrageous. And Miller’s salary will be paid by the self-supporting athletic department, not by taxpayers.

Replacing Olson is an impossible task; it’s like replacing Mount Rushmore. But by getting Miller, UA seems to have nailed a buzzer-beater.

Arizona school districts are damned if they don’t and damned if they do.

They have to write their budgets without solid information, because Gov. Jan Brewer hasn’t said how federal money might be used – and no one knows what the state budget will look like and whether it will reflect cuts or increases in tax.

By law, school districts have to warn teachers of potential layoffs no later than April 15, though they may not have to get rid of all of those teachers after all.

And in the midst of all this insanity, state schools chief Tom Horne is telling districts not to panic, not to “overcut” their budgets and not to destroy the confidence of their staffs.

He’s also assuring them that K-12 education won’t be cut more than 2 percent – a promise that rings hollow.

Tucson Unified School District, for example, is operating under the threat of as much as $63 million in funding cuts – meaning 15 percent to 18 percent – the worst-case figure given to TUSD by the head of the Senate Education Committee.

Horne’s optimistic projection of 2 percent cuts – even if true – means 2 percent of district budgets that already have been drastically cut this year.

And the 2 percent doesn’t take into account the higher costs of utilities, health benefits, exceptional education, English language learning, workers’ and unemployment compensation or, in many districts, decreased enrollment.

If the governor and Legislature won’t give school districts guidance on what funding to expect, then district superintendents are wise to prepare for the worst.

But in a landscape littered with pink slips, teachers also will prepare for the worst – and many of them will seek work out of state or perhaps even decide to leave teaching altogether.

Horne is correct in noting that an exodus of teachers would be a huge problem for Arizona’s schools.

But the solution to that problem is not for superintendents to ignore reality and assume the cuts won’t be too deep, as Horne seems to suggest.

Rather, the solution lies with the governor and legislators, who must decide how they will fund schools.

If they’re true leaders, they will decide to keep a healthy tax base (rather than continue tax cuts due to expire), and they will accept all stimulus money available and funnel as much of it as possible to schools.

Damage to schools, including teacher losses, can take decades to undo. As much as possible, lawmakers should first do no harm.

Lawrence Ponoroff

The University of Arizona snagged a star when it selected Lawrence Ponoroff as dean of its James E. Rogers College of Law.

Ponoroff comes to UA after eight years as dean at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans.

He was highly praised for leading a traumatized student body and faculty through the rebuilding of Tulane in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Ponoroff also served as part of Tulane’s leadership group that coordinated the rebuilding and reopening of the university after Katrina struck. He called that incident “an extraordinary experience that forced us to face challenges that were unprecedented in legal and higher education.”

Leading a school through one of the worst natural disasters in American history is an experience unlike any other. We hope Ponoroff’s challenges here are far less daunting.