Citizen Staff Report
THE FINAL EDITION
Jan. 21: In an inaugural address reminiscent of JFK’s, President Obama gives Americans hope and a dose of reality.
Jan. 22: Legislators should stop trying to ban photo radar cameras. They save lives.
Jan. 23: In her inaugural address, Gov. Jan Brewer offers no specifics. But there are hopeful signs for schools.
Jan. 24: Good for U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva in fighting to prevent mining on about 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon.
Jan. 26: Don’t call it No Child Left Behind. Nearly Every Child Left Behind is a more accurate title for this flawed federal program.
Jan. 27: A needed expansion and unified of the transit system will improve regional service.
Jan. 28: When the Citizen reported on hazing at some local fire stations, fire officials banned tape recorders in training sessions – the wrong way to address the situation.
Jan. 29: Tax credits have helped give schools needed programs, but if necessary, they should be cut to save basics.
Jan. 30: State secrecy on deficit-fix ideas is hurting TUSD’s ability to plan its next budget.
Jan. 31: The state must come up with guidelines to spend federal stimulus money as the feds intended.
Feb. 2: The state of the city is grim, but cheerleading Mayor Bob Walkup says, “We have what it takes.”
Feb. 3: A fix for the fiscal 2009 budget is shameful, unimaginative and harmful to education.
Feb. 4: Three TUSD officials are on leave for bid rigging and conflict-of-interest laws – the latest scandal to hit the district.
Feb. 5: UA cuts to the science center, museums and cooperative extension will hurt the community.
Feb. 6: The Tucson-based Morris K. Udall Foundation may be tripling its workload under the Obama administration.
Feb. 7: One partner in a three-way downtown development plan leaves. But the work must go on.
Feb. 9: The state must do more to inform people about food stamps. Qualified people are not being helped.
Feb. 10: Limitations on child care subsidies will hurt low-income families and keep them from working.
Feb. 11: Legislative Republicans are wrong to cut revenue, then blame the larger deficit on former Gov. Janet Napolitano.
Feb. 12: A City Council move to stimulate the economy turns into a finger-pointing farce and no answers.
Feb. 13: State schools chief Tom Horne says English Language Learning will cost substantially less. How? Show us the numbers.
Feb. 14: Legislative threats to yank millions of dollars in funding from Tucson’s downtown redevelopment are unfair and shortsighted.
Feb. 16: Proposals in the Legislature could reduce reproductive health choices for women – especially in rural areas.
Feb. 17: We support higher taxes, as considered by Gov. Jan Brewer – but only if they are temporary and targeted.
Feb. 18: The city again shoots itself in the foot on Rio Nuevo funding – paying UA invoices without the necessary scrutiny.
Feb. 19: In a misguided budget-butting move, Child Protective Services workers are ordered to take time off.
Feb. 20: A wide variety in state school standards undermines the goals of No Child Left Behind.
Feb. 21: Arizona, which has a sky-high teen pregnancy rate, needs more comprehensive sex education.
Feb. 23: Forget the naysayers. There are things happening downtown and delaying museum construction makes more money available.
Feb. 24: Kudos to Bishop Gerald Kicanas for leading a campaign for more affordable housing.
Feb. 25: Attorney General Terry Goddard should end doubts about the 206 RTA election and recount the ballots.
Feb. 26: The City Council is right to delay layoffs and consider every other possibility to cut expenses.
Feb. 27: The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. declines – possibly because of increased border violence.
Feb. 28: Gov. Jan Brewer is right to accept federal stimulus money for roads and other projects.
March 2: A legislator is flat wrong when he says education does not create jobs.
March 3: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio turns law enforcement into a media circus.
March 4: The Legislature’s move to grab open-space funds violates the state Constitution.
March 5: Arizona must step up and join the climate-change fight.
March 6: Gov. Jan Brewer has bold ideas but few specifics in her budget-fix proposals.
March 7: We put walls on the border, but turn a blind eye to guns smuggled into Mexico.
March 9: Compared with other states, Arizona pays too little in unemployment insurance.
March 10: Gov. Jan Brewer should take federal stimulus funds for unemployment compensation.
March 11: The next Tucson police chief should not spend time chasing illegal immigrants.
March 12: The Child Protective Services caseworker staff has been slashed beyond recognition – as a child murder trial is underway in Tucson.
March 13: The botched hunt for the next police chief is costly and embarrassing.
March 14: There isn’t much money, but it’s good that TUSD schools get to set their own spending priorities.
March 16: Arizona teens have big plans for the future, but adults don’t give them the necessary tools.
March 17: Arizona has lots of public information online, but there are continuing fights for access to public documents.
March 18: It’s about time that the feds decide to look for guns and money being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico.
March 19: It shouldn’t have taken Tucson officials so long to realize that city savings are almost depleted.
March 20: The Legislature should not force school districts to join in their budget-writing procrastination.
March 21: Battered by an unforgiving world economic crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen for eight decades, Rio Nuevo goes back to its basics.
March 23: Legislators should outlaw “hog dogging” – a vicious and bloody “sport” in which a pit bull is sicced on a wild boar in an arena with no escape.
March 24: The United States has wrongly banned Mexican trucks from U.S. highways, leading to consumer-harming retaliatory tariffs imposed by Mexico.
March 25: Arizona and other states must eliminate the financial incentives for nursing homes to house the mentally ill. The populations must be separated.
March 26: Help for our violence-wracked border with Mexico finally is on the way, thanks to President Obama and, especially, Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano.
March 27: Gov. Jan Brewer should not engage in a battle with the feds that could cost Arizona $1.6 billion in stimulus money.
March 28: A threat to cut federal stimulus money should persuade the Legislature to restore funding for community colleges and universities.
March 30: We long felt that voucher programs violate the Arizona Constitution – and the state Supreme Court agreed.
March 31: The city of Tucson is drifting toward its worst budget crisis ever, but all the City Council can do is to point fingers.
April 1: A hand count of votes from the 2006 RTA election will erase all doubts about whether the vote was flipped.
April 2: Local taxpayers – who already are enduring cuts in basic government services – should not shell out $125 million to build a third pro stadium for spring training.
April 3: With Christopher Payne sentenced to death for murdering his two young children, it is appropriate to recall the short lives of Ariana and Tyler Payne and remember lessons learned from their tragic deaths.
April 4: It’s the one-year anniversary of the free pass issued to ignore U.S. environmental laws to build a border fence.
April 6: U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is to be commended for requesting a federal probe into the death of the last jaguar known to have lived within the United States.
April 7: School districts must write their budgets without knowing from Gov. Jan Brewer how federal money might be used.
April 8: Not content with botching the hiring of a police chief, the Tucson City Council made a far more grievous error by firing City Manager Mike Hein.
April 9: Republicans, who hold majorities in both houses of the Arizona Legislature, should invite Democrats into the budget-writing process.
April 10: With their unexpected and ill-conceived firing of City Manager Mike Hein, City Council members face a litany of critical issues.
April 11: The controversial work required for immigration reform has been foiled and put on the back burner again and again.
April 13: You’d think Arizona’s working-poor families had just scored big time, with the arrival of millions of federal child care dollars. You’d think wrong.
April 14: As Tucson leaders debate the future of downtown – and whether it has much of a future at all – a new study on job sprawl provides direction.
April 15: The city’s desperate attempts to fend off legislative tampering with Rio Nuevo are making the operation look even more haphazard.
April 16: The time has come for the Board of Regents to say “no” to another cost increase at the state’s universities.
April 17: One year ago, we were happy to see National Guard members leaving our border with Mexico. With new border violence breaking out, they are needed back.
April 18: Despite promises of an open process that would encourage public input, the state budget is being drawn up in secrecy.
April 20: With the Bush administration gone, the upcoming Earth Day is the first in eight years that engenders hope instead of despair.
April 21: State prison costs can be cut, but it will take time. It is unrealistic to expect quick savings.
April 22: It is embarrassing that the U.S. Supreme Court has been forced to intervene in an English-learning case that Arizonans should have resolved eons ago.
April 23: Pima County voters can breathe easier now that a hand recount has validated the outcome of the 2006 election on the Regional Transportation Plan.
April 24: Give me a campaign donation, and I’ll give you an earmark. That’s the kind of quid pro quo that U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seeks to block.
April 25: An automated external defibrillator saved the life of a high school student. Every campus must have aty least one AED.
April 27: In adopting a budget, the City Council should look to cut costs, not just generate new revenue.
April 28: Life has become a little better for unemployed Arizonans, but the state still is not doing all it should to help those without a job
April 29: The swine flu outbreak is a serious matter. Caution and concern are merited, full-bore hysteria is not.
April 30: Sheriff Clarence Dupnik’s idea that schools should be able to check citizenship status when students enroll is poppycock.
May 1: As the city examines new revenue sources to balance its budget, Pima County is on much more sound financial footing.
May 2: Gov. Jan Brewer eased a hit on the pocketbooks of university students – but her demand for an overhaul of the higher education system leaves a lot to be desired.
May 4: Where is Gov. Jan Brewer as the Legislature works on a budget that slashes education and other critical state services?
May 5: Pima County’s response to six confirmed cases of swine flu has been sensible, compared with reactions elsewhere.
May 6: In its rush to cut spending, the Legislature is ignoring a voter mandate requiring that funding for education be increased annually.
May 7: The Legislature must let Rio Nuevo live long enough to prove that it can be viable when the economy recovers.
May 8: Good for the the Board of Supervisors for voting to undo an earlier decisions to impose fees on after-school and summer programs and to close some community centers and parks.
May 9: A state budget that can only be described as disastrous is taking shape as Gov. Jan Brewer stands on the sidelines.
May 11: President Obama halts construction of the medieval fence on the Mexican border, bringing to an end a chapter of pointless environmental devastation.
May 12: A legislator threw unsubstantiated and inaccurate allegations at school officials, accusing them of “illegally and secretly stockpiling millions of dollars.”
May 13: Proposed state budget cuts would will deeply affect the lives of developmentally and mentally disabled people.
May 14: TUSD has found that when you ask for ideas on how to save money, people can be creative.
May 15: Several members of the Tucson City Council violated the spirit – and possibly the letter – of the state’s Open Meetings Law.
May 16: Goodbye.