Federal judge blocks key parts of Arizona immigration law

Reporting from Phoenix —

A federal judge has halted the most controversial elements of Arizona's new immigration law, which had been scheduled to take effect at midnight.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton on Wednesday halted implementation of the parts of the law that require police to determine the status of people they stop and think are in the country illegally. She also forbade the state from charging anyone for a new crime of failing to possess immigration documents.

Bolton's ruling found that the Obama administration was likely to prevail at trial in proving the two provisions, and two other ones in the sweeping law, were an unconstitutional attempt by Arizona to regulate immigration. Arizona is expected to immediately appeal the decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. read more

New Prairie Dogs at Desert Museum

Three old bachelor prairie dogs were joined by 24 new, younger animals from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas. The new animals (six males, 15 females and three of indeterminate sex) are out of quarantine, and now on display at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. They are already renovating the network of tunnels in the exhibit. read more

Don’t rely on rattler’s rattle to warn you of danger

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Somehow, at some point, rattlesnakes have gone stealth. When they see something they want to bite — be it a dog paw or human foot — they’re striking without rattling.
Experts differ on whether rattlers have gone silent in recent years as a survival adaptation or they’ve always operated with discretion, but they agree that you shouldn’t rely on the telltale rattle to notify you of danger from the venomous snakes.
University of Arizona English lecturer Erec Toso believes rattlesnakes have adapted to become silent among people. He was bitten by a silent rattler while walking barefoot outside his home in August 2003.
“It was very surprising,” he said. “I didn’t even know what had happened at first. I was walking in the dark and didn’t see the snake.” read more

Laser Light Shows Return to UA Flandrau

(The last time I attended one of these was many years ago at Hayden Planetarium in NYC. Well worth seeing and hearing, quite a wonderful combination of some excellent music and stunning visual light show.) 

Tucson, Arizona – For the last 10 years, a week hasn’t gone by without the question – via phone, e-mail, or in person: “When are you going to offer laser shows again?”
Consider that question answered, as UA Science: Flandrau brings back a Tucson tradition beginning Friday, July 16, as part of a celebration of the laser’s 50th anniversary and the variety of ways that University of Arizona scientists use lasers in their research. Flandrau joins science educators and enthusiasts from around the world, who have been educating the public all year long through activities and sites such as www.laserfest.org on the importance of one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century in our everyday lives – from shopping at the grocery store, listening to music, and browsing the Internet, to more efficient and painless medical procedures.
Longtime Tucsonans will have the opportunity to revisit memories of laser light images dancing inside Flandrau’s planetarium dome to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” as well as introduce a new generation to this beautiful, abstract art form. The laser light show’s rich, vibrant colors, unique imagery, and immersive audio engulf visitors in what can only be described as “3D for your mind.”
“Tucson has never had the opportunity to see laser shows of this quality,” said Michael Magee, technical director of Flandrau’s laser light shows and planetarium director when the shows were last offered in 2000. “People who remember going to laser light shows here are in for a real treat.” read more and buy tix online

University of Arizona Bio-engineered Mosquito

A University of Arizona entomologist has bio-engineered a mosquito that is completely resistant to the parasite that causes malaria - a significant step toward creating a malaria-free "super mosquito" to replace current populations.
Michael Riehle predicts it will take another decade to produce a malaria-free mosquito that is engineered to out-compete wild populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Then the world's governments will have to decide whether the unknown risks of replacing mosquito populations with transgenic mosquitoes are outweighed by the opportunity to eradicate a disease that kills more than 1 million people annually, Riehle said.
"I personally think the benefits will outweigh the risks," Riehle said. read more

Solar power funding in AZ will create jobs, Obama says

Abengoa Solar, a unit of the Seville, Spain-based engineering company, will receive a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to build a solar power plant in Arizona that will create 1,600 construction jobs and 85 permanent jobs, according to White House documents released in conjunction with Obama's address.
The power plant will be the first of its kind in the United States and could generate enough energy to power 70,000 homes, Obama said.
"After years of watching companies build things and create jobs overseas, it's good news that we've attracted a company to our shores to build a plant and create jobs right here in America," he said.  read more

Tucson AZ is #1

5 Best Places to Take It Easy

Where to find low costs, minimal stress, and lots of fun.

Tucson, Arizona
Vibe: Latin culture embraces Native American spirit, cowboy grit, and Sunbelt growth
Population: 525,500
Median housing price: $155,500
Average commute: 24 minutes
Average number of sunny days: 286 per year
Most relaxing way to spend an afternoon: Enjoying the cool breezes and plentiful hiking in the Santa Catalina Mountains, just north of town
Simple fun for less than $10: Drinking a beer at the Hotel Congress, where famous criminal John Dillinger was nabbed back in 1934
Who knew?: The saguaro cacti that grow all over Tucson have an average life span of 150 years.
It's hard to pin down residents on what exactly is so mesmerizing about this desert town, just an hour north of the Mexican border. Maybe it's the beautiful wilderness that rings the city, including about 1.8 million acres of the Coronado National Forest, with its 12 different mountain ranges. Or maybe it's the sweet smell of pan dulce that drifts from the Mexican bakeries. Or maybe it's the unique way the city's Mexican, Native American, and frontier roots have mingled to create a mosaic all its own. "This atmosphere just doesn't exist anywhere else—the people, the natural beauty, the cultural mix," says Elizabeth Rodriguez Miller, 55, who retired last year from her job as assistant city manager. "I feel lucky to live in a place where people can move so graciously from one culture to another." She and her husband, Marc, 57, also like the buzz of downtown—with its plentiful restaurants (a favorite is Casa Vicente), funky Fourth Avenue arts district, and world-renowned annual Mariachi Conference. And for simple pleasures, there's incomparable hiking and camping. read more

Training Mustangs

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Seven trained mustangs and 14 months later, Logan Leach is a full-time horse trainer in Tucson and the most recent winner of the Extreme Mustang Makeover, a national competition put on by the Mustang Heritage Foundation and the Bureau of Land Management.
The challenge: Sign up to take a wild mustang home from the holding facility on federal land where the horses live in managed herds, bring it to your stables, earn its trust and train it to follow your commands from stirrups or reins. Oh, and do all of that in three months, then execute a designated pattern of reining movements in competition.
Leach took home the winner's ribbon, along with $3,250 and a large gold belt buckle, for earning the top score in the competition earlier this month in Fort Collins, Colo.
He did it with B.I.G., a smaller horse - the name is a joke - not quite ideal for the competition, Leach said.
"I was sitting in second with a horse with barely any natural talent; I knew the only way to win was bridleless, and I had never ridden him bridleless," he said.
Nonetheless, he slipped the bit out of the horse's mouth and took the bridle off B.I.G.'s head. Leach tossed it, reins and all, out of the arena during his final round of the competition.
Sure enough, the horse followed Leach's directions, even turning around in tight circles and backing up without reins.
All the competing mustangs are up for adoption after the event. The Mustang Heritage Foundation was created to increase the adoption rate of wild mustangs throughout the country.  read more

Waiting for Rain Festival

On Thursday Tucson held the 13th annual El Día de San Juan Fiesta, an event meant to celebrate the coming of the monsoon.
But when, exactly, will it come?
• The forecast: There's a "slight" chance of dry thunderstorms in the mountains east of Tucson over the next few days, but the likelihood of measurable rain in the area is minuscule, the National Weather Service has said.
"This is still a little early for Tucson," meteorologist Bill Turner said of the monsoon. "You'll see some clouds, but as far as actual rain, that could be a while."
The summer thunderstorm season officially began June 15, but the Tucson area generally doesn't start seeing rain until July. And this year all signs point toward the early part of July being relatively weak in terms of monsoon activity, Turner said.

El Día de San Juan is an annual festival that celebrates the day St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of water, was asked to help bring the rains to Tucson so the crops would be plentiful.
Legend says that on June 24, 1540, Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado stood on the banks of the parched Santa Cruz riverbed and prayed for rain. It rained, and Coronado deemed that from that day forward the summer rains would come on the 24th day of June. According to tradition, this begins the monsoon rain season, though the National Weather Service now lists June 15 as the start of the monsoon.  read more

Rest Stops Reopening on AZ Highways

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A bulletin from the Arizona Department of Transportation:

To aid summer travel, the Arizona Department of Transportation will reopen five of the state’s highway rest areas by the end of July, helping to expand the opportunities for travelers to make rest stops along some of the busiest routes in Arizona.

Another four rest areas will undergo repairs in an effort to open in the fall. When the nine closed rest areas reopen, bringing the total number of operational rest areas to 14, services will again be provided to more than 50,000 drivers and passengers each day.

Rest areas set to open by the end of July include: Ehrenberg (I-10), Canoa Ranch (I-19), Meteor Crater (I-40), Sacaton (I-10) and San Simon (I-10).

Rest areas that will require additional repair before being reopened, possibly this fall, include: Bouse Wash (I-10), Hassayampa (US 60), Haviland (I-40) and McGuireville (I-17).   source

Grand Vista

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People shell out millions of bucks for fancy Foothills homes - but the views they get are pitiful compared with the grand vista from David Medford's one-room shack.
It's the Lemmon Rock Lookout - a fire-watch post perched on a pinnacle of rock at 8,800 feet in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson.
Medford is manning the lookout this summer while he serves as a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service.
Hikers trekking trails in the area are welcome to stop by the tiny cabin and check out the view. It's a priceless panorama of ridges, peaks, canyons and the sprawling Tucson valley - dramatic visual proof of that real estate adage: location, location, location.
HIKE TO THE LOOKOUT
The shortest approach is from a trailhead near the top of Mount Lemmon. Hike about half a mile down the Lemmon Trail, which follows an old roadbed, to a 0.2-mile connecting trail leading to the lookout.
A slightly longer but more scenic route begins at the same trailhead and follows the Meadow Trail 0.8 mile to a connection with the Lemmon Trail. Go left on the Lemmon Trail and follow it 0.4 mile to the 0.2-mile connecting trail to the lookout.
Many hikers combine the two approaches into a loop route totaling about two miles, including a visit to the lookout.
WORDS OF CAUTION
• Take care not to interfere with work at the lookout.
• Many visitors walk onto the rock outcrop in front of the cabin. It's steep and potentially dangerous terrain. Move carefully and keep a close watch on children.
GET TO THE TRAILHEAD
Take Tanque Verde Road to the Catalina Highway ($5 per vehicle fee) and follow the highway past milepost 24 to a turnoff for Mount Lemmon Ski Valley. Drive to Ski Valley and continue on a narrow road beyond the ski area 1.7 miles to a parking lot at road's end.
A signed trailhead is at the parking lot. Follow the trail about 0.2 mile to a junction where you can choose the Lemmon Trail or the Meadow Trail approach to the lookout. source

Oro Valley Restaurant Boom

Above: Picazzo's Organic Italian Kitchen (click image to view larger)

Deciding where to go for dinner isn't as easy as it used to be in Oro Valley.
A half-dozen or so new eateries recently opened in the town or are expected to do so over the next few months.
The restaurant boom follows years of heavy growth in the municipality, which has morphed from a mecca for senior citizens into a haven for higher-income families.
The number of households in Oro Valley has soared from about 12,000 to 21,000 over the last decade or so, said town spokeswoman Mary Davis.
The average age has dropped from 65 to 45 and median family income was $67,563 - compared to $44,446 in Tucson - in the last census in 2000.
"We used to be a retirement community," said Davis. When it came to dining out, "there weren't a lot of options."
Now, restaurants "are going where the critical mass is," she said.
Besides providing more choice for diners, she added, the eateries also are creating scores of jobs.
Picazzo's Organic Italian Kitchen opened last month at 7850 N. Oracle Road. The Arizona chain chose Oro Valley as its 11th location because it saw a chance to fill a void in the market, said general manager Amber Hughes.
"Oro Valley has little to no places to dine out," said Hughes. The firm also hopes to capture business from nearby Tucson.
When Arizona's newest In-N-Out Burger opened June 9 at Oro Valley Marketplace, 11895 N. Oracle Road, some hungry patrons lined up four hours early to be among the first in the door.
"Oro Valley was appealing to us because it is a growing, vibrant community, and we are excited to be in a shopping center that attracts a lot of business," said Carl Van Fleet, vice president of planning and development at the burger chain's headquarters in Irvine, Calif.
In-N-Out is one of several new eateries at the southwest corner of North Oracle and East Tangerine roads, which also is home to an Olive Garden and a Red Lobster.
A Mexican place, San Carlos Grill, is expected to open soon, as is The Keg Steakhouse and Bar.
A few miles away, McDonald's famed golden arches are coming to Rooney Ranch at the corner of North First Avenue and North Oracle Road.
And a frozen-yogurt franchise is about to open on North Oracle Road near West Ina Road.
Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, a self-serve store featuring fresh fruit, nuts and other toppings, is run by the family that runs Tucson's El Charro cafes.
Rene Fritts, a mother of two teens who lives 10 minutes from the new In-N-Out Burger, welcomes the new dining choices.
"We've been needing some new places out here," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's fantastic." source

(Oro Valley is the very nice suburb north of Tucson where our rental condo is located)

Tucson Options on Water Use

HOW WE'RE DOING: The Tucson area is making progress toward safe yield. The region's overdraft - the amount of pumping exceeding groundwater recharge - was 86,000 acre-feet in 1985, rose to 156,000 by 1995, but dropped to 50,000 by 2006 after the city of Tucson got renewable Central Arizona Project water. An acre-foot will serve three to four families for a year.
THE OUTLOOK: It's not good without another water source or more conservation. The overdraft will be about 112,900 acre-feet by 2025. It was nearly 23,000 acre-feet in 2006. The forecasts stem from three possible scenarios for regional water demand based on factors including population growth, the continuation of agriculture and the future of the area's copper mines.
IF CAP RUNS SHORT. If the water project has shortages during eight of the next 15 years, the groundwater overdraft would rise by 4 percent to 27 percent.
WITH MORE EFFLUENT. If the region can boost effluent use by 59 percent, the overdraft drops - to zero - by 2016 before rising slightly over the next few years. By 2025, it would be very small. This scenario does not consider the possibility of CAP shortages or the potential of using 28,000 acre-feet of effluent set aside for the Tohono O'odham Nation.
WHAT'S NEXT: Mawhinney said he will form a group to study the idea of using more effluent along with other solutions. read more

Monsoon Season Arrives Tuesday

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The monsoon officially arrives Tuesday by National Weather Service declaration, though its actual onset is not expected until the first week of July at the earliest.
It is the Super Bowl of weather events in Southern Arizona - a 108-day period during which we receive half our yearly rainfall and almost all of our lightning strikes, along with damaging winds, dust storms and flash floods. read more

Wolf-recovery program in eastern Az 'at risk of failure'

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Twelve years after Mexican gray wolves were reintroduced in Eastern Arizona, their dwindling numbers are putting the population "at risk of failure," says a recent report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Factors such as the rigid borders of the endangered wolves' recovery area, removal of wolves to protect livestock, and illegal shooting of wolves are keeping the only wild population of Mexican gray wolves from growing, says the "conservation assessment" released last month. read more

Hummingbird in Wind Chimes

Our neighbor has a hummingbird nest in one of their wind chimes.
The baby is getting pretty big.
I would think having the nest in a wind chimes would not be such a good idea,
but it worked out this time.

It's neat how the nest is attached to the metal.

Orchid delays Rosemont Mine plans

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The presence of a rare orchid on the proposed Rosemont Mine site in the Santa Rita Mountains is delaying an environmental report on the mine. read more

Sundays are for music on Mount Lemmon

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Music on the Mountain takes place under a huge tent located at 12901 N. Sabino Canyon Parkway in Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon.
Concerts are 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 5. Admission is free. Bring a lawn chair, but no outside food or drinks please.
Details, including links to the musicians' websites, are at the www.lavamusic.org website.
Here's the schedule:
Sunday: Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs
June 6: Crystal Ridge Bluegrass Band
June 13: Backbeat
June 20: Bad News Blues
June 27: Jim Howell Band
July 4: Kevin Pakulis Band
July 11: Black Leather Zydeco
July 18: Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs
July 25: Retro Rockets
Aug. 1: The Wyatts
Aug. 8: Strait Country, a tribute to the music of George Strait
Aug. 15: The Dreadnutts
Aug. 22: Last Call Girls
Aug. 29: Wayback Machine
Sept. 5: Chuck Wagon and the Wheelchairs
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Imagine Tucson in the 'Sun Corridor'

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The Tucson region should look to capitalize on the Phoenix area's success by positioning itself as the best place to live and work in the "Sun Corridor" that stretches from the Mexican border to Prescott.

Arizona's Sun Corridor is one of 11 emerging megaregions of the country, said Petra Todorovich, director of a national urban planning initiative called America 2050. read more

Tumacácori Mission

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Tumacacori.
For years, it has served as a stopover for those traveling between Mexico and Southern Arizona.
Father Kino passed through what was originally a Pima settlement in the late 1600s, founding mission San Cayetano de Tumacácori on the east bank of the Santa Cruz River in January of 1691. The next day, Mission San Gabriel was founded at Guevavi, 15 miles upriver.
But the mission we see today is not the one Kino founded, but a replacement built more than 100 years later.
Even later in time, Tumacacori would beckon those traversing what we once called the Nogales Highway.
Families — many of them with longtime ranching roots in the area — built bars, restaurants and other businesses to lure the weary traveler.
When Interstate 19 opened in 1979, Tumacacori was bypassed. The old Nogales Highway became a frontage road.
Even so, many of the old-time businesses on this road survived — still run by the same families. Other enterprises sprang up as well.
Just an hour south of Tucson, Tumacacori is well worth a visit. read more and see more pictures