TUESDAY: Martha McSally’s Telephone Town Hall – Special Guest Lindsey Graham Re: Immigration, Other Topics (Details)

Arizona Senator Martha McSally is hosting a telephone townhall this coming Tuesday with special guest Sen. Lindsey Graham. The main topic will be Graham’s new bill regarding immigration laws; however, the news release indicates that she will “address other issues facing the U.S. Senate”. McSally states that she is the “first co-sponsor” of the measure. … Read more

“Our Border Town” play at Tucson High School

WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION OF OUR BORDER TOWN April 25 to May 11, 2019 Tucson High Magnet School Little Theatre, 400 N. 2nd Avenue “OUR BORDER TOWN is a groundbreaking new multimedia play concerning the divisive border crisis that continues to unfold in our own backyard. This world premiere docudrama is crafted from interviews with members … Read more

Billy Kovacs Outlines 5-Point Plan to Grow Arizona’s Economy

Democratic Congressional Candidate Billy Kovacs
Democratic Congressional Candidate Billy Kovacs

Democratic candidate Billy Kovacs outlined a detailed plan for how he would grow Arizona’s economy as Tucson’s Congressman.

“We can grow our economy without giving massive tax breaks for corporations,” he said at a recent meeting of the Democrats of Greater Tucson.

Among the five serious candidates, Kovacs is the only one emphasizing the economy in Congressional District 2. As Bill Clinton pointed out in 1992, winning elections is about “the economy, stupid!”

In a nutshell, his plan focuses on:

  • Education – creating an educated workforce.
  • Renewable resources – solar energy and energy storage.
  • Public transportation – expanding the Tucson streetcar in all directions and preserving Amtrak in Arizona.
  • Infrastructure – creating millions of jobs with a $1 trillion investment over 10 years.
  • Immigration – creating a path to citizenship for 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants.

“We need to attract companies and workers to Arizona, and I’m talking about smaller companies that want to live in Arizona because of our natural resources and trained personnel from the university — and not for tax breaks,” he said.

Education

According to Kovacs, the US Department of Education is gutting public education with budget cuts to after-school programs, teacher training, Pell Grants, literacy programs and even school lunches. He calls for:

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Borderlands’ “Building the Wall” play at Temple of Music & Art

Written by Robert Schekkan

Directed by Marc David Pinate

September 27 – Octover 15
Cabaret Theater, Temple of Music and Art 330 S. SCOTT Ave, Tucson

“NNPN Rolling World Premiere of Building the Wall — The newest play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan(The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way, Hacksaw Ridge), directed by Marc David Pinate. It’s the very near future, and the Trump administration has carried out his campaign promise to round up and detain millions of immigrants. Now, a writer interviews the supervisor of a private prison as he awaits sentencing for carrying out the federal policy that has escalated into the unimaginable. This riveting, harrowing and illuminating drama delivers a powerful warning and puts a human face on the inhuman, revealing how when personal accountability is denied, what seems inconceivable becomes inevitable.

Building the Wall will be produced at Borderlands Theater as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Other partnering theaters are The Fountain Theatre (CA), City Theatre (FL), Curious Theatre (CO), and Forum Theatre (DC), with support from Paul Prokop. For more information please visit nnpn.org.”

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Undocubus

Trump Ends DACA: Will Congress Save Dreamers?

Undocubus
Undocumented workers and students protested at the DNC in 2012. (That’s me in the turquoise dress before the cops told me to move.)

Our country’s most ill-prepared president just lobbed one of our country’s stickiest problems into the court of the country’s least effective Congress, ever. What could go wrong? The dreams of nearly one million young people.

On Sept. 5, 2017, Attorney General and long-time anti-immigration advocate Jeff Sessions announced the Trump administration’s decision to rescind President Obama’s executive order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Implemented five years ago, DACA was supposed to be a stop-gap measure to shield children and young adults, who were brought to the US illegally as minors by their parents. The plan was that Congress would move on immigration reform while DACA protected these young people from immediate deportation.

Roughly 800,000 young adults under DACA could face deportation if Congress fails to act within the next six months. The crux of the problem is that DACA was created because Congress shirked its duty on meaningful immigration reform. For 16 years, Congress has failed to pass any immigration reform– let alone comprehensive reform, which is sorely needed. Even the DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) — which outlined a path to citizenship for Dreamers– has died a bipartisan death in Congress multiple times, since it was originally proposed in 2001.

Will Congress have the guts to save the Dreamers now?

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