The Tucson City Council is deciding whether to pay for the artists move out of the old warehouse, getting the property up to current building codes, and then  moving them back in while using state gasoline-tax money for this effort. Town West hopes to build a brewery, condominium and hotel on the property once the structural and safety issues are addressed. When this project is complete, the city expects to generate much more revenue for Tucson.

Looks like patience is needed when dealing with the planned 3-year closure of 1-10 through Tucson, Tucson’s major traffic artery. Construction has already begun this weekend closing westbound I-10 completely and rerouting all westbound traffic to the frontage road. The same is projected with eastbound Tucson traffic next weekend — with more to come. The good news is that they’ll be adding much needed lanes to the expressway in this massive $200.3 million construction project, which is ADOT’s most expensive single venture to date.

It appears that Tucson City Magistrate, Judge Tony Riojas, dismissed a felony theft case against a woman here in Tucson, Dionte Bates, 26, accused of stealing a puppy, because the Tucson police officers didn’t notify him of the dog’s worth. The puppy was an expensive Yorkshire terrier from a local Tucson Petland store 405 E Wetmore Road. The Judge said that if he had known that the puppy was worth $3,200 it would have made a difference in this felony charge and that the officers needed to prove the value of the puppy stolen. The good news is that the case can be re-filed.

John Wesley Miller, developer of solar-powered Armory Park del Sol in

Tucson, has long been involved in environmentally sensitive homes featuring energy-efficient building materials, solar power and water conservation. He was recently elected at the National Association of Home Builders board of directors meeting to create a national green home building program that will be a volunteer program and will raise the standard guidelines and consistency for homebuilders not only in

Tucson, but throughout the nation.  With this program in place those interested in buying “green” homes anywhere in the country can be confident that their home meets a uniform standard.

It appears that the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) undercharged for insurance and now wants the 4,500 employees to pay back the $700,000.00 accounting error for free health insurance that the district undercharged. The workers have an option to pay the monies back at once or over the next two years. Though

Tucson Unified School District may have had other means of colleting the money, they have been told to collect it from the employees. There was a concern about an accounting error as far back as 2004, when the switch in health insurance providers was made. As one might guess, many

Tucson teachers are quite concerned and unhappy about this error.

The world’s largest missile maker, Raytheon, in Tucson Arizona, said that it will meet the September deadline to test it’s system to protect vehicles from rocket attack while disputing a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that the technology might not be ready in time. It appears that the company will install its Active Protection System (APS) which includes missiles/mortars, radar to track incoming rockets, and a way to destroy them on a Stryker troop transport for the tests. The APS is being developed in Texas by Raytheon Network Centric Systems while Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson is making the portion of the system that is designed to track and destroy unguided rockets and incoming mortar rounds utilizing laser pulses. The GAO wants the Pentagon to test additional systems which can be accessed more quickly than Raytheon’s though they didn’t suggest replacing the Raytheon system.

A descendent of John Dillinger who was captured at the Hotel Congress in Tucson many years ago tried to stop the local Dillinger Days festival but now agrees to allow it to continue under a new licensing agreement.

Dillinger was a robber and a crook but not a murderer is what the relative says. The gang he was involved with killed and injured people.

Part of the Hotel Congress agreement ensures some proceeds from the festival benefit local charities, so it will be a positive event for this community and for people interested in the history of Tucson as well.

For an article about Dillinger’s history and Tucson try:
http://www.dotcomtucson.com/tucson_history/john_dillinger.html

The understanding is that U.S. Rep. (Democrat) Raúl Grijalva from Tucson is pushing a bill that encourages the federal government to find alternatives to building a 700-mile border fence across major public land preserves. This would force the U.S. Border Patrol to protect those preserves not just from illegal border traffic, but from the border patrol’s trucks and other border security measures financing projects to restore the wildlife habitat along the border and improve the environmental damage where there is also a huge amount of trash left behind by illegal entrants. This all sounds good but groups representing the Border Patrol agents said that Grijalva’s bill would tie the border agency’s hands and that Grijalva has never been a friend of the Border Patrol according to Mike Albon, spokesman for Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council. They want to study the bill closely because anything that would restrict them in doing their jobs is not wanted.

If Grijalva’s virtual fence will be nothing new. Many of the techniques are already in use, said Albon of the border patrol council. “If it’s possibly environmentally friendly with animals being able to cross, it is not going to be conducive to keeping aliens out of the country,” he said. “If animals can cross, people can cross.”

Grijalva’s bill also gives the Department of Homeland Security the flexibility to work with land managers, agencies and communities to decide what border infrastructure works best, said Neeley, Defenders of Wildlife’s Southwest associate.

Dave Stoddard, a retired Border Patrol agent living in Hereford, a Cochise County community near the border, said the bill would cripple the Border Patrol’s efforts to protect the public, and would turn the Border Patrol from an enforcement agency into an agency concentrated on environmental concerns.

If Mr. Grijalva were truly environmentally conscious, he would try to clean up the hundreds of tons of garbage strewn along the border, and into the interior, including Tucson, by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers which can do more to harm the environment than an army of Border Patrol officers and miles of much-needed fence ever could do.

A meeting will be held Monday evening from 5:30 – 8PM at the Doubletree Hotel 445 S Alvernon Way in Tucson regarding affordable housing, energy efficiency, infill, land use, sprawl, water issues, and more for the Tucson area. At this meeting the public has an opportunity to tell an outside panel of architects and other experts how it thinks Tucson should chart it’s course. This forum is part of a three-day, $40,000 meeting aimed at getting local residents to start thinking more about promoting a sustainable future for Tucson and the region.

Mexico complains that the U.S. is not doing enough to stop illegal weapons from being smuggled across the border and into the hands of brutal drug gangs. One of the main smuggling routes is through the Tucson area and down through Nogales. They are complaining that these powerful weapons — including assault rifles and even .50-caliber machine guns are fueling a wave of cartel-related executions and violent crime that is battering the nation.

Close to two dozen people were gunned down in separate incidents — many apparently drug-related — across the country and Mexican officials have repeatedly complained that the U.S. must do more to stop the flow of such weapons and as of yet, certainly not enough is being done. As Tucson is on the main gun-smuggling trail, the residents of tucson are becoming increasingly concerned.