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A big victory in a small Arizona city

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A big victory in a small Arizona city


South Tucson’s latest slate of progressive council members: Roxanna Valenzuela, Cesar Aguirre, and Brian Flagg. | by way of Defend Nuestro Barrio

SOUTH TUCSON, Ariz.—In a landslide victory, largely ignored by the company owned media, a slate of three neighborhood activists was elected to the town council in certainly one of Arizona’s most impoverished municipalities.

Town of South Tucson’s new Council members, Cesar Aguirre, Roxanna Valenzuela, and Brian Flagg, defeated three incumbents by such an overwhelmingly massive margin within the August major that they won’t have to compete within the November Normal election.

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South Tucson is a separate municipality, one and 1 / 4 sq. miles in dimension, surrounded on all sides by the town of Tucson. At one time it was a working-class suburb, however as Tucson has mushroomed into a big ‘trendy’ metropolis South Tucson has devolved right into a poor inner-city principally Chicano and immigrant barrio of about 5,000 people.

Because it’s tax base eroded, it has change into increasingly tough for the city to supply the essential providers its residents want. Half of the city’s workers positions stay unfilled for lack of funds inflicting residents to concern that even police and firefighting safety won’t at all times be accessible.

The three winners are related to the Casa Maria Catholic Employee collective that operates a soup kitchen within the barrio and has been organizing homeless and poor individuals for many years. Casa Maria has been a serious participant in Tucson progressive politics and struggles from immigrant rights, to elevating minimal wages, opposing U.S. navy aggression, and the anti-Apartheid motion within the Eighties.

Arizona’s very energetic ‘Jobs with Justice’ group is an outgrowth of the labor Solidarity Committee of the Casa Maria led Tucson Coalition for the Homeless.

The choice to hunt public workplace got here from the rising housing disaster and the specter of gentrification to native residents. Rich builders have begun South Tucson as their subsequent prey. Landlords are elevating rents to unaffordable quantities; homelessness is rising visibly, not solely in South Tucson, but additionally within the bigger metropolis of Tucson which is without doubt one of the nation’s poorest cities.

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At a presentation the three gave at Tucson’s Salt of the Earth Labor Faculty final Saturday they defined that certainly one of inheritor goals is to tackle Arizona’s regulation that forestalls municipalities from enacting lease management.  That regulation must be challenged for the sake of all Arizonans and one of the best ways to try this is by altering the state legislature the place the Republicans have very slim majorities in each homes and by electing a good governor.

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With all legislative seats and the governorship up for election this November, there’s an excellent probability it may be completed and campaigning on the necessity for lease management might assist end up voters. Additionally they really feel they’ll have sufficient help from the opposite 4 members of the town council who weren’t up for reelection this 12 months.

Brian Flagg, who has lived at Casa Maria for 39 years, defined that “individuals have to be political,” and except for attempting to straighten out a fiscally broke city, they’ll now have a bully pulpit to advocate for poor and dealing individuals.

Cesar Aguirre, a single father, stated he doesn’t need to be a politician, however to stay an organizer.

Roxanna Valenzuela, who grew up in an adjoining Tucson Barrio, added that organizing with Casa Maria has taught her what she by no means realized in class, and he or she additionally sees herself as a neighborhood organizer and never a politician.

Clearly, there may be a lot work that wants doing.

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Joe Bernick






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Arizona

‘We are united’: how Arizona’s attorney general plans to manage border chaos

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‘We are united’: how Arizona’s attorney general plans to manage border chaos


Kris Mayes, the attorney general of Arizona, has vowed to fight the incoming Trump administration over key aspects of its immigration policy, including any attempt to set up deportation camps on Arizonan soil or remove thousands of migrant “dreamers” who came to the US as children.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mayes said that any move by Donald Trump in his second presidential term to unpick the rights of dreamers to remain and work in the US would be a “bright red line for me. I will not stand for an attempt to deport them, or undermine them.”

Arizona, a critical border state that will be on the frontline of the struggle over Trump’s plans for mass deportations, has more than 30,000 dreamers, undocumented migrants who entered the US unlawfully as children but who were afforded rights under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca). The program was introduced by Barack Obama in 2012 but has been under relentless attack by Republicans ever since.

“I definitely will be fighting on behalf of dreamers,” Mayes said. “These folks are firefighters, police officers, teachers – they are part of the very fabric of our state and we will protect them.”

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Trump tried to scrap Daca protections during his first presidency and was only stopped by a narrow ruling from the US supreme court. He recently softened his position, telling NBC News that he wanted to find a way to allow dreamers to stay in the country, though his apparent U-turn has left many skeptical of his intentions.

The Daca program is already being challenged by Republican states in a lawsuit that is currently before the ultra-conservative fifth circuit court of appeals. The case is almost certain to reach the supreme court, which has a six-to-three supermajority of rightwing justices.

Despite the hurdles facing dreamers, Mayes said she remains optimistic.

“I think the supreme court will ultimately see the merits of protecting them. We want to give the courts the opportunity to make the right decision here, and we’ll be making very strong arguments on that proposition,” she said.

Arizona’s attorney general also had strong words about any attempt by Trump to construct detention camps in her state as part of his plans to mass-deport millions of undocumented immigrants. She said her army of lawyers were also primed to push back on any move to renew family separation, the policy under which thousands of children were taken away from their parents at the Mexican border as part of a “zero tolerance” strategy.

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“If Trump tries to engage in family separation, or build mass deportation camps, I will do everything I can legally to fight that. That is not happening in Arizona, not on our soil,” she said.

Mayes added that family separation – which has left up to 1,000 families still rent apart six years later – was “fundamentally anathema to who Arizonans are”.

Mayes and her team have been preparing for months for the anticipated whirlwind of activity as soon as Trump re-enters the White House on 20 January. They have “scoured”, as she put it, Project 2025, the rightwing playbook for a Trump second term compiled by the Heritage Foundation.

She has also been working closely with other Democratic state attorneys general, noting that between them they filed more than 100 lawsuits during Trump’s first presidency, winning 80% of them.

“One of our strengths is that we are doing this very much together, we are united and we are organized,” Mayes said.

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The importance of cross-state cooperation is likely to be all the more critical over border issues.

Mayes said that she was working with her Democratic counterparts Rob Bonta of California and Raúl Torrez of New Mexico – with only the Republican attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, taking a very different, anti-immigrant approach.

“Three of the four border states have attorneys general in Democratic hands and we are going to fight for due process and for individual rights,” she explained.

A complicating factor is Proposition 314, the ballot measure passed in Arizona in November with a resounding 63% of the vote. It allows state police to arrest any undocumented person who crosses into the US other than at legal ports of entry.

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Mayes said that the decision would not deter her from resisting Trump’s unconstitutional moves.

“Proposition 314 tells us that Arizonans are fed up with a dysfunctional border,” she said.

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“We are facing a serious fentanyl crisis in our state, and there’s no doubt that Arizonans want our border addressed. But when Arizonans voted for Donald Trump they did not vote to shred the Arizona and US constitution – I strongly believe that.”

What was needed at the border was more federal resources to increase border patrol boots on the ground, boost the interception of fentanyl, and enhance prosecution of drug cartels. What was not needed, Mayes insisted, was Trump’s threatened plan to send in the national guard and even the US military to act as a souped-up deportation force.

“There’s nothing more unAmerican than using the military against Americans,” she said. “It’s clearly unconstitutional, and it’s not something Arizonans want to see.”

Since being elected to the position of Arizona’s top law enforcement officer in 2022, Mayes has established herself as a rising star in the Democratic party capable of negotiating the at times fraught politics of a border state. Her most high-profile act came in April when she indicted 18 people including Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former chief of staff Mark Meadows for participating in the 2020 “fake electors” conspiracy.

A similar prosecution of fake electors in Georgia was recently upended after an appeals court disqualified the Atlanta prosecutor in charge of the case, Fani Willis.

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Mayes told the Guardian that despite Trump’s victory in November, she had no intention of dropping the fake electors case. “These indictments were handed down by a state grand jury, and you don’t do justice by popular vote. The case is in the courts now, and that’s where it’s going to stay until it’s over.”

Such a prominent prosecution could place her in the crosshairs of Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for director of the FBI. Should Patel be confirmed for the job by the US Senate, he has made it clear he will pursue revenge investigations against those deemed to be Trump’s enemies.

Mayes didn’t want to discuss Patel’s nomination. But she did say: “I’m not afraid of anyone. I’m going to do my job, uphold the law and protect Arizonans. I’m going to do it no matter who is at the helm of the FBI.”



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Miami Heat convert former Arizona forward Keshad Johnson to two-year contract

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Miami Heat convert former Arizona forward Keshad Johnson to two-year contract


Christmas arrived a day early for Keshad Johnson.

The Arizona Wildcats alum has secured a two-year contract with the Miami Heat after beginning the season on a two-way contract. Shams Charania of ESPN was first to report the contract conversion.

Johnson made two appearances for the Heat this month but otherwise has played with the organization’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.

He averaged 21.2 points and 8.3 rebounds in the G League. Johnson helped lead the Skyforce to the G League Winter Showcase championship game over the weekend.

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Johnson went undrafted after a standout redshirt senior season at Arizona where he averaged 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds. Johnson played his first four collegiate seasons at San Diego State.

Johnson’s promotion to the Heat means he’ll be teaming up with Pelle Larsson. Miami is one of two NBA teams to feature a pair of Arizona players, joining the Indiana Pacers (Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell).

The last time two former Arizona teammates played together in the NBA was 2019-20, when Stanley Johnson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson were on the Toronto Raptors.

Before that was the 2018-19 season, when Kadeem Allen and Allonzo Trier suited up for the Knicks.

Chase Budinger and Jordan Hill shared a front court with the Houston Rockets across parts of three seasons (2009-12).

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Santa and Mrs. Claus deliver adopted Arizona shelter dogs to their new home

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Santa and Mrs. Claus deliver adopted Arizona shelter dogs to their new home


MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — It was an exciting Christmas Eve morning for one Mesa girl who received an early (and furry) surprise from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

On Tuesday, Santa and Mrs. Claus teamed up with the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control to deliver adopted dogs to their new homes.

Santa and Mrs. Claus pulled up in a “sleigh” and took out a puppy wearing a cone. They then walked up to a decorated Mesa home, rang the doorbell and gave little Maya her early Christmas gift—a furry four-legged friend named Domino!

“He’s amazing, cute,” Maya said. “I just love holding him.”

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Maya said Domino also loves her.

“He has an extra toe, and I think it’s a mistletoe,” she said.

What a sweet surprise from Santa and Mrs. Claus and the team at MCACC!

“It’s a great time to add another family member to join them under their Christmas tree this year,” said Kim Powell, Communications Supervisor for MCACC.

Powell said there are still 650 pets at the shelter looking for their “fur-ever” home. To learn more about adoptable pets at MCACC, click/tap here.

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