Citizen Staff Writer
THE FINAL EDITION

DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

The Internet killed the newspaper.

No, it’s the economy, stupid.

Or overleveraged publishing chains. Left-wing columnists. Whatever the cause, change is in the air of the publishing world, but it’s blowing faster than ever.

From the cover of Time to a slew of bloggers, the changes sweeping the news business are an untiring meme.

Newspapers big and small are stopping their presses, not to replate with the latest scandal, but to lay off their staffs, shutter the doors, retire the nameplates.

It may be news, but it’s not new. My family has been involved, off and on, in the newspaper game for more than a century. Each generation saw social shifts and technological advances challenge their publishing acumen.

My great-grandfather got into journalism in 1900. George M. Smith began writing for the Naperville (Ill.) Clarion fresh out of high school. After attending Wheaton College, just outside of Chicago, where his father taught, he worked his way through a succession of reporting jobs.

In 1913, he purchased the Du Page County Tribune, a weekly in Wheaton, setting himself up as editor and publisher.

Printing a newspaper in those days was a labor-intensive operation. Every line of type was set by hand, using individual die-cast metal letters, thousands per page.

Hot lead and Linotypes

In 1915, the Tribune purchased a new typecasting machine – a Linotype. Headlines still had to be made up by hand, but the body text of stories was cast in lines – slugs – by molding hot lead. Linotypes were complex contraptions, prone to breakdown, with 90-character keyboards.

The paper was successful under George’s leadership. To speed production, he invested in another Linotype. In 1933, in the midst of the Depression, it became a daily, and the nameplate was changed to the Wheaton Daily Journal. A subscription to the solidly Republican paper ran 5 cents per week.

My grandfather, Robert Smith, followed in his dad’s footsteps, writing a column for the Journal, and studying journalism at South Dakota State College – where he met my grandmother, Eileen.

She’d been active in her high school newspaper, which was a full page in the local Milbank (S.D.) Herald Advance, printed every week. She studied printing and journalism in college before graduating in 1938.

“There were not that many women in printing – really just a few of us in the whole field of journalism.” she said.

“At the college, we set some type by hand, but mainly with the Linotype. Working the hell box (where miscast slugs and wrongly-set type were discarded, to be sorted out later) wasn’t much fun. We had to go through and pull out all the letters and put them back.

“Everything was done by hand. The letterpress was hand-fed, which was a lot of work.

“Bob was very good at setting type. I suppose it came easy to me. I’ve been able to do a lot of computer work – at the museum and such – because of it, using a different keyboard than a typewriter.”

They both put themselves through school working for the college press – writing, proofreading, making up pages.

World War II came soon after my grandparents graduated, interrupting Bob’s endeavors in journalism with a stint in the South Pacific for him and California for Eileen. Two boys also arrived, my uncle, Joel, and my dad, Steve.

After the war, the Wheaton Daily Journal responded to its growing market.

“Everybody brought two papers – the Chicago paper (Tribune) and the Journal. People were working in Chicago, taking the train in.”

Many commuters began to identify more as Chicagoans than as members of their formerly sleepy suburbs. The ubiquity of radio and the growing television market – pioneered in the ’30s by The Chicago Daily News – challenged the small suburban publishers.

George Smith died in February 1949, having spent his life putting ink on paper, telling stories.

My grandfather and his two brothers stepped in to run the family business. Bob took over as editor, the others managing the business side.

Hand-set to high-tech

While the presses weren’t hand-fed anymore, pages were still cast in hot metal. Steve Smith – my dad – recalls the pressroom as a noisy, messy place.

“My father used to come home with burns” from working on the Linotype, he recalls. “You talk about a complicated machine. And that was a tough bunch of guys. He had a crown on one tooth from getting hit with a wrench by a pressman.”

The changing business and inevitable conflicts among the brothers led to a sale of the Journal in 1953.

Bob went into teaching, eventually becoming a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. Before he died in 1975, he was working to move the college’s program to a new computerized system.

From hand-set to high-tech, in a lifetime.

My dad went to college to study printing just as technology was shifting.

In the late ’60s, newspapers were moving to more-efficient platemaking processes and high-capacity web presses.

Colleges were still teaching outdated photoengraving techniques, even as the new technology penetrated the business. A career based on a fading process didn’t seem too viable.

Besides, the art department held more attraction. It didn’t take long for my dad to drop his journalism and printing courses.

My journey through journalism began in high school, where I learned how to type – badly – and paste up a news page by hand, using hot wax and type output from a primitive computer system at the local Prescott Courier.

After some schooling at the University of Arizona, I wrote and edited copy for a string of Tucson alternative papers whose names are mostly lost to history.

I served a stint as editor and publisher of ¿K? Magazine, an arts and culture monthly, in the mid-1990s. Despite the streamlining of the desktop publishing revolution, print publishing remained an expensive proposition.

Learning the code

In the late ’90s, I moved into Web design, learning an alphabet soup of languages: html, xml, js, css and more.

A few years ago, the Citizen was kind enough to take me on, and eventually let me manage the Web site.

In the short time I’ve been here, the technology we use has dramatically shifted. From basic html pages to rich applications that feature video and databases, the addition of reader comments and forums, the focus of the Citizen online has changed along with the culture of the Internet.

But the impressive values of the Citizen staff have remained: accuracy, fairness, truth.

This may well be the last piece I write for a daily newspaper. It leaves me with a bit of an empty feeling, sitting at my desk, preparing for the Citizen’s last edition, knowing that my family’s history with the printing press has stopped rolling.

The family paper, having changed hands several times through the years, continues as the Wheaton Sun – a suburban weekly that’s part of the Sun-Times group.

Yes, they’ve got a Web page.

And like many newspaper chains, the Sun-Times recently filed for bankruptcy.

I hope to carry on my ancestors’ legacy of reporting. Given the trend, that will have to be in some online-only capacity. I’ll miss the smell of fresh ink, but I enjoy the 24/7 challenge of keeping the news fresh.

No matter if it’s delivered by a paperboy on a bike, or via the never-ending stream of the Internet, it’s all about telling stories.

What newspaper history says about the future of news

Ink in the blood

Many Citizen staffers have families with long histories in the newspaper business.

Alan Fischer’s father, George Fischer, was in the newspaper industry his entire life. He started as a carrier for the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald as a youth, and became a pressman. He brought his skills here, working as a pressman for Tucson Newspapers from 1965 until his retirement in the late ’80s.

B. Poole’s mom, Norma Poole, and sister, Cathy Rowe, were typesetters for newspapers in Illinois during the ’60s and ’70s.

P.K. Weis’ grandfather P.K. Weis Sr. was a reporter for the Moberly (Mo.) Monitor in the early 1900s. Senior began his career as a printer’s devil when he was a young boy.

Polly Higgins’ grandfather Rathbun R. Higgins wrote a column called “The Stamp Man” for the Chicago Heights Star from 1948 to 1960 and resurrected it for the Columbus (Ind.) Republic 1967-82.

Garry Duffy’s father, Joseph L. Duffy, was an assistant to Roy Howard, of Scripps-Howard newspapers, in the late ’40s and early ’50s.

Fernanda Echávarri’s great-grandfather Jesús María Benítez Martínez, was a columnist for the local daily in Querétaro, Mexico, from 1973 to 1997.

Randy Harris’ grandfather was circulation manager of the Danville (Ill.) Press-Democrat from the age of 15. His mother was women’s editor for the Marion (Ind.) Chronicle-Tribune in the ’60s and ’70s.

Bruce Johnston descends from three generations of journalists on both sides of his family. Both of his great-grandfathers owned weekly newspapers in Canada. The papers passed on through the next two generations in his family. One still publishes today, although no relatives still work for it.

Ray Suarez’s grandfather Edgar worked for TNI in the mailroom and advertising. Grandmother Beatriz was a switchboard operator, while Ray’s father, Stephen, worked in the composing room. Aunt Selina works in circulation for Gannett, while another aunt, Eloina, worked the switchboards. All told, Ray says that his family has put in 117 years working for TNI and the Citizen.

Citizen Staff Writer
FROM OUR BLOGS

Comedian Stephen Colbert’s campaign to have a new room of the international space station named after him took a political turn to the west this week.

Colbert went after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is married to an astronaut – and knocked Tucson, too.

After calling Giffords “Miss Pink Sweater Set,” Colbert said she’ll have to be satisfied with representing half of Tucson – “not even the good half.”

“I’m kidding, there is no good half.”

The background:

Colbert beat out NASA’s four suggested options in its effort to have the public name the room, which Giffords pointed out will be for recycling urine.

Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes, clobbering Serenity, a NASA choice, by more than 40,000 votes.

NASA spokesman John Yembrick said NASA will give top vote-getters “the most consideration.”

- DYLAN SMITH

To see this clip from “The Colbert Report,” go to www.tucsoncitizen.com/blog.

Citizen Staff Writer

DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

Tweed jackets, drizzling rain, shamrocks, shillelaghs, leprechauns. Now is the time when thoughts turn to all things Irish.

That includes, of course, Guinness stout.

Whether you’re in Dublin or Tucson, if you want a great pint of stout, be prepared to wait. The “double pour” is a technique that produces a dark ruby (it’s not black, hold it up to the light) body and a thick, creamy white head on a glass of Guinness.

The company says a pour should take 119.5 seconds. Try that with a typical American megabrew! It would probably go flat before you finished.

Legend holds that Irish beer is served warm, but they seem to have discovered refrigeration on the Emerald Isle, as the company recommends its stout be served at 43 degrees. That’s a bit warmer than you might want your Budweiser, but room temperature it’s not.

The temperature and pour bring out the flavor – a weighty mouth-feel and creamy foam accentuate the bite of roasted barley and smoothness of the traditional recipe.

Dublin’s St. James’s Gate neighborhood, wherein lies the Guinness brewery, is suffused with the aroma of hundreds of years of roasting barley malt. You can’t find that in Tucson, but where can a punter purchase a perfect pint on St. Patrick’s Day?

Great pints can be found around Tucson, but beware a bad one.

A clean, dry glass is essential because, unlike most beers, stout doesn’t contain many hops. Without that bitter herb, the unfortunate flavor of bar cleanser and bleach can utterly ruin a glass. Traces that would go unnoticed in a fresh Sam Adams or Flat Tire can lead to bitter disappointment in a pint of stout.

Old Pueblo publicans who provide a proper pour include Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., and The Shanty, 401 E. Ninth St.

Plush’s Kini Wade takes his time, and serves up a pint that’s brimming with thick foam that lasts until the pint’s gone.

The barkeeps at The Shanty not only know how to pour a pint, they’ll serve up a delicious small glass with a nip of whiskey.

The Auld Dubliner, 800 E. University Blvd., brims with knickknacks and signage imported from the auld country. It offers a menu of Irish fare, including shepherd’s pie and corned beef and cabbage, but sometimes falls short on its pints.

It’s a busy college bar and getting a pint that features a whiff of bleach is a too-common occurrence. To its credit, the staff’s always been happy to pour again, and there’s plenty of Harp lager and Irish whiskey if you’re not in the mood for a heavy stout.

The Tap Room at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., is a great spot to sip a pint. Feed a couple of quarters into the best jukebox in town and enjoy.

Irish Pub, 9155 E. Tanque Verde Road, doesn’t much live up to its name. It serves Guinness, along with quesadillas and buffalo wings, but putting such items as the Paddy Melt and Tipperary Tuna on the menu don’t go far in reproducing a true Celtic atmosphere.

Got a favorite spot to quaff the black stuff? Who pours the best?

Let us know in our online comments at tucsoncitizen.com/taste.

Citizen Staff Writer
Week in Review

Online Editor
The war in Iraq is now one of the nation’s longest conflicts. As far as affecting our day-to-day lives, it may well be one of our most invisible.
For those who don’t have a loved one serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s easy to go through a day without giving a thought to the dangers of combat.
The war is the subject of incessant political debate.
But what the soldiers and sailors endure isn’t brought up much by those pro or con.
Even in the newsroom, as we’re inundated with headlines about car bombs and IEDs, our troops are barely seen in photos that flash by quickly on a computer screen.
When word of a Tucson soldier’s death in combat comes in, our reporters and editors have a sadly too-practiced drill: use Google and public records to search for more information. Try to contact the grieving family. Comb our archives for stories and photos about the deceased.
We jump into action, finding facts, trying to tell a soldier’s story.
There isn’t much time for reflection. Thinking too much can cloud the mind, and making errors when reporting on a fallen soldier is something we just can’t do.
Early Friday, we were informed that Chief Warrant Officer Robert C. Hammett was killed in Baghdad June 24.
Department of Defense press releases are as terse and short as you could imagine. Not much beyond name, rank, unit and a date that shouldn’t be.
As I write, we’re still reporting on Hammett. Some events are exciting to report. Some are challenging. Some can become painful.
The Citizen’s list of troops with southern Arizona ties killed in Iraq and Afghanistan now stands at 36.
We’ve reported on these men and women, their Tucson ties, their families, their accomplishments. We’ve done our best to honor their memories.
But there are some stories we wish we didn’t have to tell. I’d rather CWO Hammett were safe at home with his family.

Watching the skies

Just a couple of days after the traditional Dia de San Juan onset of the monsoon, and not too long after the new, official start June 15, rain finally burst from the afternoon clouds.
Gawkers across Tucson turned their faces skyward to catch a few raindrops on their brows, or less poetically, ran across parking lots to roll up their car windows, getting drenched.
Downtown underpasses filled with runoff, and the usual caravan of fools tried to navigate the intersection of roadways and running washes.
It doesn’t matter how high-tech your navigation system is if you’re being swept along by the current.
It’s not called the “stupid motorist law” for nothing.
Fiesta on Tuesday to celebrate monsoon
Monsoon cuts power to 400, swamps streets

“This one goes to eleven”

Former Wildcat basketball guard Jerryd Bayless was drafted by the Indiana Pacers, who agreed to trade him to Portland Trailblazers almost immediately, even as he was still wearing a Pacers hat.
Bayless didn’t seem all that happy to fall out of the top 10. I’d be happy if I could ever sink a free throw.

Not justified by faith alone

Another eternal verity of summer: the Chicago Cubs are setting their loyal fans up for another disappointment.
They lead their division and have the best winning percentage in all of baseball. The denizens of the Cubby Bear bar are whispering about completing a certain special trip for the first time since 1908.
To avoid any sort of jinx, I’m not allowing myself to watch an entire game. An inning here or there, OK. But who wants to purposefully, willfully even, set themselves up for disappointment?
Oh ye of little faith, you say? We’ll see how it works out. I’ll keep half an eye on the TV this weekend.

7 words you shouldn’t say

Comic genius George Carlin dead at 71.
The man who demonstrated that profanity needn’t be vulgar, that cursing needn’t be coarse, died Sunday night.
Carlin held a mirror up to a culture obsessed with the lewd and scurrilous, asking if we liked what we saw.
His classic riff about the seven words you can’t say on television can still draw a laugh, not for the shock value of the rhythmic incantation of “obscenities” (HBO’s seen to that), but for the absolute glee with which Carlin pointed out our hypocrisies.
In elevating swearing beyond an art form to a near-religious ceremony, Carlin had the ability to shake his audiences out of their daily rituals, if only for a moment.
Better to be shaken by a laugh than a tear.

Citizen Staff Writer
Week in Review

Online Editor

Editor’s note: Online Editor Dylan Smith is filling in for Judy Carlock, giving his own twist on the week’s news.

Fittingly enough for an election year, themes of flag and country threaded the news the past week.

Right and wrong, God and patriotism: grand subjects all.

If only we measured up.

There goes the neighborhood

Millions of Iraqis and Afghans have been displaced by the wars in their homelands. Bombed out of their homes, forced from their violence-wracked neighborhoods, many live in refugee camps. Many want to return to rebuild their lives. Many want to come to America.

Entrance quotas limit the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. to a few thousand each year.

An April 5 story introduced Tucsonans to a few of their new neighbors, a lucky 40 of the tens of thousands who wish to resettle in America.

They suffer from the trauma of leaving their homes, bear the scars of torture, the memories of kidnapping and the struggle with a new society.

Many of the Citizen’s online commenters don’t seem to be in an Emma Lazarus sort of mood. If it were up to them, the “Mother of Exiles” would no longer be our guide.

“Send them to Mexico, instead” was a popular sentiment.

Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit

“Freedom and Justice: Our schools suffered from more distraction this week as a silly contretemps erupted over a Gale Elementary School teacher leading her class in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those atheists again, you say.

Not so fast. The trouble this time wouldn’t be a passing mention of a supreme being, but mentioning him in Spanish. And American Sign Language to boot.

Anne Lee’s second-graders recite the pledge in English, then in Spanish, then in ASL.

Lance Altherr, a member of the Minutemen, started the controversy when he discovered his 8-year-old son was reciting the pledge in Spanish.

He complained to Lee’s principal, Paula Godfrey, posted about the Spanish-language pledge on a Web site, and raised the matter with the school board.

The result of Altherr’s campaign? Lee has received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls, including one that extolled the “exhilarating” prospect of “Nazis, klanners, skins and Aryan Nation members marching and protesting in front of your school.”

Sounds like what your average American family wants its children exposed to.

Far better that they learn a few phrases of German than the language of our neighbors?

A peak by any other . . .

Another ruckus was raised among online commenters by the renaming of Phoenix’s Squaw Peak. Now known as Piestewa Peak following a decision by the federal Board on Geographic Names, the mountain’s moniker was first changed by a state board soon after Lori Piestewa was killed in Iraq in 2003.

Piestewa, a 23-year-old Hispanic-Hopi mother of two from Tuba City, died when her convoy was ambushed. Some of the members of her company, including her best friend, Jessica Lynch, were taken prisoner; others died.

She was the first American Indian woman serving in the U.S. military to die in combat.

The feds require a five-year wait to consider changing the name of a geographic feature. Many American Indians felt Squaw Peak was an offensive name and had been trying to change it for years.

Some decried the change as political correctness run amok.

One online commenter was more charitably inclined: “Lori Piestewa’s memory lives in a positive way . . . for those who bemoan the change: What ultimate sacrifice have you made for your country?”

Teach us nothing . . .

Perhaps not ruffling nearly enough feathers was the news that many senior administration members were complicit in the harsh interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists.

Nice euphemism, that: “harsh interrogation techniques.”

Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice met in the White House and approved pouring water into the lungs of detainees, among other “harsh techniques.”

Practicing the same techniques, namely waterboarding, led to sentences of up to 25 years at hard labor for Japanese soldiers tried after World War II.

Then, our government didn’t call it a harsh interrogation technique. We called it like it is: torture.

American troops have been court-martialed for using the “water cure.” American courts have awarded Filipino victims of torture, including waterboarding, hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who also was present at the meetings, reportedly said at the time, “History will not judge this kindly.”

His qualms at the time weren’t enough for him to disagree with the decision.

While issues of language and culture can readily boil our melting pot, this is news that Americans shouldn’t take lightly.

Senior members of the Bush administration met in the People’s House and approved the torture of detainees, most of whom have never been charged, convicted or proved to be involved with terrorism.

History cannot judge this, or us, kindly.

Contact Dylan Smith at dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com or 806-7735.

Citizen Staff Writer
SMITH COLUMN

Editor’s note: Online staffer Dylan Smith reviews the week’s news – his way.

Likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain may have alienated part of his party’s conservative base while trying to curry favor with another part of the right wing.

McCain sought – and got – the endorsement of influential Texas televangelist John Hagee, raising the hackles of right-wing Catholic League President Bill Donohue.

Hagee, the leader of a San Antonio megachurch with tens of thousands of members, has referred to the Roman Catholic Church as “the great whore” and a “false cult system.”

His books promote an apocalyptic philosophy that endorses war in the Mideast as a precursor to (a welcomed) Armageddon.

Catholic groups, including the Catholic League, want McCain to reject the endorsement.

With one fringe pitted against the other, will McCain’s fading image as a centrist maverick go up in smoke?

ON THE BORDER: Another issue that creates friction between McCain and the conservative base is immigration. He favors immigration reform. They favor Stephen Colbert’s flaming moat filled with fireproof crocodiles.

The Comedy Central talk show anchor’s idea just might be more practical than the highly touted virtual fence, which Homeland Security honcho Michael Chertoff recently praised, saying he’d “personally witnessed the value of the system.”

Days later, after the feds had written a final check for the $20 million Project 28, Homeland Security announced that the project was flawed and would be delayed three years.

Here’s the rub: It turns out that Boeing Co. didn’t bother to consult with border agents on the ground before designing the system.

They’d have recommended asbestos alligators.

QUICK ON THE DRAW: In another instance of ignoring those who just might know best, Arizona is among the 13 states considering legalizing guns on college campuses.

Mesa Sen. Karen Johnson, a Republican, has drawn up legislation that would allow students with concealed weapons permits to carry those weapons on campus. The Arizona Board of Regents reacted swiftly by adopting a resolution making the university campuses gun-free.

Other bills winding their way through the state House include legalizing “defensive” displays of firearms, carrying firearms in restaurants that serve alcohol and keeping a loaded weapon anywhere in a vehicle.

Law enforcement professionals, including Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and many police organizations, oppose making it easier to carry firearms.

Triggered by the recent tragedies at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech, those who would loosen restrictions on guns say an armed society is a safe one.

Isolated examples, such as the Tucson homeowner who killed a home invader last week, are used to justify making it easier to pack a gun anywhere.

Those who fill those big shoes walking the beats see it otherwise. And in the past few days, they’ve seen too much.

Seven homicides and two additional shootings by police have claimed the lives of Tucsonans recently.

There seem to be enough bullets flying already. Will more guns on the street help or hurt? Some things are better left to the professionals. Taking advice from legislators on matters of life and death may not lead to the best policy.

QUICKER ON THE DRAW: Other (hopefully) isolated examples point to the tragedy, and idiocy, of some who find themselves in possession of firearms.

Mesa teen Hughstan Schlicker is accused of killing his father with a shot to the back of the head because he wasn’t allowed to use the Internet.

“Dad came home, I shot him in the head, what investigation?” Schlicker said when questioned by police.

Perhaps even more blithe was Daniel Kuch of Washington, who told police he had a friend shoot him in the shoulder to get some time off work and avoid a drug test.

In this case, the second reason would seem to have been primary.

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS RETORT: The real reason behind Lute Olson’s continuing leave of absence continues to be unreported. While rumors fly on Internet bulletin boards, both Olson and UA remain mum.

The team has had its share of ups and downs this year, with injuries and painful near-wins taking their toll.

Accustomed to rooting for a highly ranked team, the fair-weather fan might consider enjoying sunshine and cheering on the No. 1 UA baseball team.

The team has been diamond-sharp under coach Andy Lopez, taking seven out of its first eight games. With Tucson’s spring training future in doubt, there might be hope yet for the local baseball fan.

Contact Dylan Smith at 806-7735 or dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com.

Citizen Staff Writer
WEEK IN REVIEW

Editor’s note: Online staffer Dylan Smith reviews the week’s news – his way.

Doesn’t matter whether they’re public, sports, voting or even Guinness, the news is always filled with records.

Records are at the heart of a lawsuit filed by Pima County Democrats, who want to find out if the 2006 RTA election results may have been altered by computer manipulation.

They say that the county’s use of a Diebold-GEMS voting system and Microsoft Access database leaves elections with a “back door” that could be used to alter vote counts.

So the Dems want to examine all the records of the election to see if there were any irregularities in the data.

Turns out the computer tape containing that database has gone missing.

Other tapes and discs were taken home by an elections employee, potentially compromising their security.

You can get your opinion on the record at public meetings on election security to be held Dec. 10, 11 and 14.

–

Plenty of voices have been raised on a proposal to deny birth certificates to the children of illegal immigrants born in Arizona.

Papers were filed last week for a 2008 ballot initiative that would deny birthright citizenship to the babies of illegal immigrants by preventing them from receiving birth certificates.

State Rep. Russell Pearce says he plans to get a similar measure on the ballot by legislative referendum.

This despite the U.S. Constitution’s grant of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment.

Proponents of the measure say that illegal immigrants, and their children, being citizens of another nation, aren’t subject to U.S. jurisdiction.

If they’re not subject to our laws, how exactly are they illegal?

–

Another move in the courts was Lute Olson’s filing of divorce papers, pointing to an end of both his four-year marriage and the nation’s longest active streak of 23 straight years coaching in the NCAA tourney.

Make that a move off the courts. Is there hard wood in the plaintiff’s seat in divorce court?

–

Setting some sort of record, for audacity if not clichéd behavior, was the Irishman who loaded his truck with 450 kegs of beer straight from the Guinness brewery’s loading dock.

Two men were arrested in the heist plot, and the Garda Siochana police suspect that others were involved in the theft of 39,600 pints of beer.

According to the company, it was the biggest robbery in the 248-year history of the brewery.

There’s no word on whether the caper will make the record books.

Going to the dogs

The cases of two brutalized pets showed just how low some criminals can get.

Charlie, a 7-year-old rescued greyhound, was found dead, lying on the side of the road with a gunshot wound. Earlier, he’d gotten away as his owner walked him in the rain.

Tucson police are treating the case as an animal cruelty felony.

A wounded miniature Pinscher was euthanized in Phoenix on Sunday. The dog was found with multiple stab wounds and a cut deep enough to reach the animal’s spine.

Better pet news had Chicken the cat flying back to the Midwest. He stowed away on a moving van for a 1,490-mile trek across country with Dan McIntosh. Thanks for Northwest Airlines, he’s on his way to Iowa to owner Sarah Sutton, McIntosh’s sister.

Also keeping pets and families together was the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Cherub the potbellied pig will remain with his owner after the Supes ruled in favor of Cherub and other hogs similarly situated. No longer livestock, they’re now pets in the eyes of the law.

Dept. of the Obvious

Proving the necessity of codifying common courtesy, the state Department of Transportation announced that it will publicize the little-known “Move Over” law.

The law requires motorists to move over and slow down when emergency vehicles are stopped along the road.

The department will place 22 large signs around the state to inform drivers of the requirements of the 2005 law.

If you have ever changed a tire on I-10 in Eloy, you realize the importance of elbow room for those working next to hurtling traffic.

Contact Dylan Smith at dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com or at 806-7735.

Citizen Staff Writer
COMMENTARY

DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

It’ll take more than a few days of rain to make up for climate changes that scientists report are breaking down the West’s natural water delivery system.

Rising temperatures don’t bode well for Arizona’s water supplies, with possible severe consequences for power generation and development.

And the end-of-week rains didn’t resolve water concerns of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, whose challenge of a groundwater rights settlement involving the Tohono O’odham Nation was rejected by the state Supreme Court.

But Arizona’s supply of the valuable resource faces other challenges.

The state rejected a bid by a company to export groundwater to a growing area in southern Nevada.

Closer to home, Augusta Resource Corp. wants to build a line to deliver Colorado River water to Green Valley to offset groundwater pumping for its proposed copper mine in the Santa Ritas. A public hearing is set for Dec. 5.

Sunday’s forecast calls for clearing skies and some warming. Yep, more dry heat.

(Not) watering the grass

There are some fighting the good fight to save our desert.

The Sonoran Desert Weedwackers pull non-native buffelgrass out by the roots, removing the invasive species that chokes out native plants and increases wildfire risk.

The group’s volunteers have yanked out 65 tons of buffelgrass and fountain grass from Tucson Mountain Park.

Seasonal spirit

Getting into the seasonal spirit of giving are Don Diamond and wife Joan.

They ponied up a $15 million donation to kick-start fundraising for a new children’s hospital at University Medical Center.

The Diamond Children’s Medical Center, projected to cost $55 million, will also house UMC’s new trauma and emergency department.

The last time you took your kid to the ER for a five-hour wait, you probably could’ve been persuaded to write a check almost that big. Right?

2008 with a Bullitt

A bit more easy on your pocketbook would be a $25 ticket for a charity raffle.

To encourage donations to local charities, Jim Click is raffling off a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt.

The car dealer hopes to generate $1 million for the 224 local groups participating.

You, too, can be as cool as “über icy” Steve McQueen

, who made the Mustang model an icon of muscle-car cool in the ’68 film “Bullitt.”

Ticket to ride

If your idea of “old school” predates the machine age, then the University of Arizona Equine Center

just might have your ride.

The center is raising money for its four-legged athletes. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday

, visitors can learn about horse health care, including sports massage and saddle evaluation. Not to mention the chance to see all the pretty horses.

Cashing out on tobacco tax

Turns out that Arizona has been exploring the delicate relationship between death and taxes again.

A tobacco tax increase and the advent of the smoking ban led to cigarette sales falling off a cliff.

Absolute numbers were up, by $57 million

, but all that and more went to a new fund dedicated to early childhood education.

The 82-cent-per-pack increase was followed by a $17 million decrease in funds going to other programs dependent on tobacco-tax cash.

Among them is the state’s stop-smoking program, which has seen an increase in demand even as its funding source goes up in smoke.

It must be hard to run a program where success equates with less money.

Citizen Staff Writer

KONSTANTINOS KALAITZIDIS

kkalaitz@tucsoncitizen.com

Forced busing of 1,600 TUSD students could stop and students’ school choices might grow under a federal judge’s order Tuesday that apparently signals the end of a 27-year-old desegregation lawsuit.

Still, Tucson Unified School District must account for how it has eliminated “any vestiges of . . . segregation” to the “extent practicable,” U.S. District Judge David C. Bury ruled.

“After 27 years and close to $800,000,000 spent in public funds, the public is entitled to a clear, comprehensive record regarding TUSD’s unitary status,” Bury wrote.

Unitary status is a legal term that means the district has complied with the terms of the federal desegregation order and segregation has ended.

The district was allowed to levy extra taxes to comply with the initial 1978 desegregation order.

The interim order requires TUSD to meet with the attorneys of those who sued within 11 days and provide documents within 30 days to demonstrate the district’s good faith in resolving issues raised in the class-action lawsuit.

The lawsuit proved TUSD maintained three-way segregation, separating white, black and Hispanic students. Since the suit was filed, the district’s demographics have changed, but TUSD remained under the order to maintain certain racial balances at specific schools.

That meant some students were involuntarily removed from neighborhood schools. Tuesday’s ruling calls that policy unconstitutional because it discriminates against students based on race.

Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer expressed guarded optimism that the district could be released from the desegregation court order within 50 days. “We have a meeting later this week with our attorneys. We need clarification on some of the wording in the order,” he said.

The attorneys for those who sued could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Citizen online staffer Dylan Smith contributed to this article.

• More TUSD desegregation information, 10A

Citizen Staff Writer

By DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

The Kosher King clashed with the Hummus Hut, and a University of Arizona graduate emerged with an Oscar.

“I’ve just had the most amazing single 24 hours of my life,” Ari Sandel, a 1998 UA grad, said Monday. “It’s a dream come true.”

Sandel spent Sunday night partying after winning an Academy Award for best live-action short film.

Sandel’s “West Bank Story” is a 22-minute musical-comedy look at competing falafel stands, Kosher King and Hummus Hut.

The parody of “West Side Story” tells the story of a Palestinian cashier, Fatima, who falls for David, an Israeli soldier.

“We made the movie with the goal of getting into Sundance (Film Festival),” Sandel said. “When we got in, I said, ‘Mission accomplished.’ I never expected to win an Oscar.”

Words can’t describe stepping on stage to receive the award, he said.

“It’s like an out-of-body experience. I literally don’t remember what I said,” Sandel said of his acceptance speech. “I get to watch it on TiVo later tonight to make sure I got it right.”

Sandel said as he accepted the award: “It’s a movie about peace and hope.”

On the film’s Web site, Sandel explained it: “I truly believe that peace between Israelis and Arabs will be achieved and don’t believe it is a hopeless endeavor. We wanted to make a film that would convey that feeling.

“I had 215 text messages by the time I got back to my seat,” Sandel said. “I’ve gotten over 1,020 e-mails in the past day from all over the world, from friends I haven’t heard from in 25 years.”

Despite the movie’s sensitive topic, all of the messages have been positive, Sandel said.

Sandel said Monday he “spent last night partying. I didn’t get to bed until 10 a.m.”

Following the Oscar ceremony, Sandel, with the movie’s cast and crew, “rubbed shoulders with the big time” at the Governors Ball. “We got our photos taken with Al Gore.”

At the exclusive Vanity Fair party, Sandel had trouble getting in. “I had to physically show them my Oscar to convince them to let us in,” he said.

Sandel, who lives in Los Angeles and directed and co-wrote the film, studied media arts at UA, where he also earned a special certificate in Middle Eastern studies.

“West Bank Story” premiered at Sundance in 2005 and has screened at more than 100 festivals worldwide.

Sandel’s latest film is “Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland,” a documentary to be released Labor Day.

Citizen Staff Writer

By DYLAN SMITH

dysmith@tucsoncitizen.com

Filmmaker Clint Eastwood is poised for a potential triumph at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

And a celebration in Sacaton today honors a reluctant hero from Arizona and the 62nd anniversary of the Iwo Jima flag raising.

Two Eastwood films, “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima,” received Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for “Letters.”

The movies tell the story of the World War II invasion of the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima by U.S. Marines in 1945, a brutal battle that claimed the lives of 6,000 Americans and an estimated 20,000 Japanese.

One Marine who survived the battle was Arizonan Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Sacaton.

After four days of fighting, Marines had captured the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest point, and raised a flag.

The Feb. 23, 1945, act was captured in an iconic shot by photographer Joe Rosenthal.

His photo of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising a flag atop Mount Suribachi won him the Pulitzer Prize and was used as the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.

Rosenthal died last year at age 94.

Ira Hayes was one of the Marines in the photo. Born in 1923 on the Gila River Indian Reservation, Hayes enlisted in the Marines in 1942 and was trained as a paratrooper.

He served in several invasions during the Pacific campaign, and landed on heavily fortified Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945.

His outstretched arms helping to loft the flag made him an instant celebrity. He served on a bond-selling tour in spring 1945, raising money for the war.

Hayes appeared with fellow surviving flag-raisers John Bradley and Rene Gagnon in the 1949 John Wayne movie “Sands of Iwo Jima.” The three played themselves.

Following the war, Hayes returned to Sacaton. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, exacerbated by alcoholism and prejudice, and had brushes with the law.

On Jan. 24, 1955, after a card game turned into a scuffle, Hayes was found dead near his home on the reservation. It is not clear if his death was the result of foul play. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Festivities today will be at Mathew B. Juan and Ira Hayes Memorial Park. Military and public groups are welcome in the parade.

A military parade and a flyover by a World War II B-17 bomber were to begin at 9 a.m. with ceremonies to follow at 10 a.m. Lunch was to be provided by Auxiliary Unit 84 after the ceremonies.

Sacaton is just east of Interstate 10, between Casa Grande and Chandler.

• The Arizona Republic contributed to this article.

THE BALLAD OF IRA HAYES

“There they battled up Iwo Jima’s hill,

Two hundred and fifty men

But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over

And when Old Glory raised

Among the men who held it high

Was the Indian, Ira Hayes”

“The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” by Peter La Farge, was a Billboard hit for singer Johnny Cash, and was recorded by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Townes van Zandt.

Citizen Staff Writer

Officers with the Southern Arizona DUI Task Force stopped 1,275 motorists this weekend, arresting 36 of them on suspicion of drunken driving, the task force said in a summary.

Task force officers were on patrol Friday and Saturday nights, during which sheriff’s deputies assigned to the task force set up a sobriety check point at East Barraza-Aviation Highway and South Palo Verde Road, said sheriff’s Lt. Karl Woolridge.

There were no fatal drunken driving collisions over Friday or Saturday, Woolridge said.

He said officers encountered 11 designated drivers.

One underage motorist was arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.06 percent.

Adults arrested had an average blood alcohol level of 0.158 percent.

Under Arizona law, a person is presumed impaired with a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent and is presumed extremely impaired at 0.15 percent.

- DAVID L. TEIBEL

dteibel@tucsoncitizen.com

Gunman shot, killed by UA cop, police say

A University of Arizona police officer shot and killed 43-year-old Raul Marquez Jr. Monday morning after Marquez pointed a shotgun at him and refused to drop the weapon.

Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Decio Hopffer said the officer first encountered Marquez at about 4:50 a.m. after he spotted him driving a pickup truck with a stolen license plate.

The officer tried to make a traffic stop, but the truck driver kept going and then stopped at the entrance of University Medical Center, 1501 N. Campbell Ave.

The driver got out “brandishing a shotgun,” Hopffer said in a written statement.

He said Marquez pointed the weapon at University of Arizona police officer, Jeff Wadleigh, and refused the officer’s orders to drop the weapon.

Wadleigh fired, hitting Marquez. Marquez was pronounced dead at 5:35 a.m.

At the request of UAPD, Tucson police homicide detectives are investigating.

Wadleigh has been a UAPD officer since 2005, Hopffer said.

- DYLAN SMITH and SHERYL KORNMAN,

news@tucsoncitizen.com

Man, 47, struck by hit-and-run driver dies

A man struck by a hit-and-run driver on Christmas Eve has died.

The incident took place at about 7:56 p.m. at Grant Road and Ninth Avenue

Tucson police said Florentino R. Zavala, 47, died at a local hospital a short time later.

The vehicle fled the scene, police said.

Evidence, police say, indicates the driver was westbound on Grant when Zavala, who was near the northbound curbside lane, was struck.

- SHERYL KORNMAN,

skornman@tucsoncitizen.com

Deputy’s girlfriend dies from gunshot

The live-in girlfriend of a Pima County sheriff’s deputy apparently shot herself in the chest early Monday morning, according to Pima County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. James Ogden.

The incident was initially reported to authorities as a suicide.

Ogden said the 21-year-old woman and Deputy Luis Lopez were celebrating the holiday with family and friends at a home in the 2900 block of West Holladay St. They had been arguing throughout the festivities.

At about 3:30 a.m., the woman shot herself in the chest, he said. Alcohol was a major factor in the incident, Ogden said.

Detectives are investigating the death as “suspicious” until further details are learned.

Deputy Lopez was hired Jan. 22, 2006 and was assigned to the Green Valley division. He is on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

The woman won’t be publicly identified until her family is notified of her death.

- By SHERYL KORNMAN,

skornman@tucsoncitizen.com