Three Sonorans

Questions about employment and MAS purity: Will the real Kristel Foster please stand up?

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

Activist and educator Kristel Foster began campaigning for a seat on the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Governing Board not long after the board voted 4-1 to shut down the embattled Mexican American Studies (MAS) program– rather than lose $15 million over a program that had been declared illegal by the state of Arizona.

From the get-go, Foster made it clear that she was running as a "save MAS" candidate. In fact, when Foster and fellow "save MAS" candidate Ralph Ellinwood spoke at Drinking Liberally (DL) in June, the audience was twice the normal size, due to a strong showing of MAS stalwarts who came to cheer them on– including ThreeSonorans blogger Abie Morales and Tucson Weekly reporter Mari Herreras.

Unfortunately for Foster, since the August 8 Drinking Liberally kibitz fest, Morales has started attacking her for being an MAS turncoat. (He's even calling for MAS supporters to suggest possible write-in candidates.)

The special guest for the August 8 meeting was supposed to be Cam Juarez (also a "save MAS" candidate). Unfortunately, it poured down rain that night, and the DL turnout was very low. As a result, Drinking Liberally reverted to DL Classic Mode (ie, everyone sits around and endulges in free-form political discussion, with no official speaker). On that fateful night, four TUSD board candidates were present– Foster, Juarez, Betts Puttnam-Hildalgo, and incumbent Mark Stegeman. 

Stegeman asked the others the $15 million question: Would they have voted to shut down MAS in order to avoid the $15 million fine from the state? Puttman-Hildalgo and Juarez said, No. They said they would have defied the state ruling and voted with board member Adeltia Grijalva to retain the program– regardless of the cost to the district. (This is the MAS true believer stance.) Foster said she would have voted with the majority to shut down MAS, hence the attack from the ThreeSonorans blog. This looks like a giant flip-flop from a long-time, in-the-trenches MAS supporter.

After the jump is her Facebook explanation. Also, the plot thickens with the question: Should a Sunnyside School District employee vote on the next superintendent of TUSD?

MAS: Use critical thinking skills when reading the news

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Truthmeter-3 ar-nolayers-sm

by Pamela Powers Hannley

The state of news in Southern Arizona is fractured. Tucson's former flagship newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, was loping along like a dinosaur trying to outrun an asteroid– until the owners fired dozens of writers and other staff last summer. Now a collection of wire stories and full-page ads, this dinosaur of the print era is barely viable.

Pesky blog sites like this one report the news while the newspaper is in typesetting. Still, a handful of beat reporters file regular stories, and the editorial page occasionally includes an opinion piece not written by an out-of-town pundit.  

One of those beat reporters, the Star's Alexis Huicochea covers education– including the story too tough to die– the ongoing tug of war known as the Mexican American Studies Program (MAS). Along side, Huicochea's many articles in the Star are hundreds of blog posts by the Three Sonorans (pro-MAS), the Arizona Daily Independent (anti-MAS), and many others, including two Blog for Arizona bloggers– Dave Safier and me.  

There are so many voices shouting and writing their opinions on MAS that to be truly informed, one must read multiple versions of the same story– with a critical eye– to understand the whole picture.

The saga continues after the jump.

The Tucson Progressive vs The Three Sonorans (video)

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by Pamela Powers Hannley

The Three Sonorans took issue with my last article stating that my headline was in error. In his answer song article, he says that he has not "joined" FOX News; they merely posted one of his stories. (I'm assuming after he submitted it to them.)

Doesn't that imply some sort of collusion with the dark side, since FOX's whole raison d'etre is to shill for the 1%? 

He also vehemently denied that he was trying to discourage voting in the CD8 special election and said he already voted. OK, so I took the bait and looked at the online image of his ballot… curious to see who he voted for since he said he wasn't voting for either Jesse Kelly (AKA evil) or Ron Barber (AKA the lesser of 2 evils, according to the 3Sons). Who did he vote for? "Nana Freida de Mexicans". Hmmm…you can draw your own conclusions: Does it appear as if he is encouraging people to throw their vote away?

At any rate, the exchange reminded me of this video…

Check it out by clicking on the jump link.

Three Sonorans joins FOX News Latino and discourages voting

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by Pamela Powers Hannley Local firebrand blogger D.A. Morales (AKA the Three Sonorans), who was ousted from the TucsonCitizen.com for his "reckless disregard for the truth," has joined FOX News Latino. Judging by FOX News' reputation… well, you get the picture. Except for Republicans Attorney General Tom Horne, Former State Senate President Russell Pearce, and … Read more

Are bloggers really journalists?

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by Pamela Powers Hannley This week, a shockwave rippled through Tucson's blogosphere when TucsonCitizen.com Editor Mark Evans pulled the Three Sonorans blog from the citizen journalism website. I' not going to offer a lengthy rehash of the facts of the case or the pros and cons of blogger David Morales' or Evans' actions because many … Read more