Ron Barber supporters wait at a table for their candidate just before the start of the CD8 debate at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.

By Paul M. Ingram
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Tucson, AZ — In a repeat performance of last week’s televised debate, Republican Jesse Kelly and Democrat Ron Barber traded barbs over Social Security and ‘Obamacare’ in their only live debate for the campaign to fulfill Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s seat, vacated by the Congresswoman earlier this year.

In front of a packed house at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, the two men went after each other
each other with hammer and tongs, debating Kelly’s positions on Social Security and Barber’s position on the Affordable Care act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare.” A large part of the 75 minute debate focused on healthcare, Social Security, and the economy.

Little time was spent discussing border issues, however, at the opportunity, Barber cited his work with the Gifford’s office to add 1,000 agents, as well as drones, mobile surveillance systems, and horse patrols to border. He argued that agents should be on the border and not 10 or 100 miles away, and that a new cellular communications system be put into place.

Kelly responded, arguing that the border could be protected by a “double-layer” fence with a “big gate.” He cited San Diego’s use of the fence and its falling crime rate, but he also argued that the Nogales entry point was too small and that sent a “bad message” to our “southern neighbors.”

Kelly followed-up this by stating that 50 percent of narcotics flowed through Arizona and that Phoenix was “the kidnapping capital of the world,” a widely-stated, but factually incorrect idea.

Green Party candidate Charlie Manolakis argued that the cost should be brought down and joked that the horse patrols should be replaced by camels. This led Kelly to later joke, “one hump or two.”

Kelly and Barber also locked horns over the Rosemont Mine. The mine is “pretty much a no-brainer,” Kelly said. “A copper mine in the copper state? I’ll bet they’ll even make a profit.”

Barber said he’s “not against mining,” but that proposed copper mine is “in the wrong place, and the wrong way.” While Kelly argued that the project would create jobs, Barber followed up stating, “Profit will be there—and good for them—but it’s going to Canada.”

“Where are they going to get the water?” Barber asked.

If it comes from the “already depleted aquifer in Green Valley and Sahaurita,” development in those areas “simply won’t happen,” he said, arguing that businesses and homes would be limited without water. Manolakis largely agreed, echoing Barber and stating that the mine would endanger the “heritage” of the mountains.

“There are no jobs and no profit if the copper stays in the ground,” Kelly retorted.

The earliest the mine could open would be in 2-3 years, Barber said.

“We need jobs in this community now,” Barber said, arguing that the earliest the mine could open would be in 2-3 years. Kelly, he said, has a “fantasy that this mine is going to open immediately.”

Instead, Tucson needs more high-tech jobs like “biotech and solar” to grow the local economy, Barber said.

Manolakis also took his shots, citing Barber’s sudden “conversion” in Medicare fraud as well as Kelly’s “four conversions on Social Security.” Manolakis had trouble with the end section, when he was given an opportunity to ask the other candidates questions and he digressed gun control arguing that pepper spray was a better weapon for self-defense.

“Even after the summer monsoon, most of Southern Arizona remains in severe drought. This lack of rain is likely to continue or intensify into 2012, according to the National Weather Service.
The chaotic summer monsoon delivers about half the region’s 12 inches of rain, but as the climate shifts, the natural variability of the storms may change dramatically leaving the desert drier than before.

A new project at the University of Arizona will look for these shifts using a unique approach. While current models focus on changes in the atmosphere, the new system will incorporate other factors, such as surface terrain, vegetation, wildfires and invasive species growth. By adding more information to weather forecasts, researchers hope to gain a better understanding of how monsoons develop and, therefore, predict how a drier, warmer climate will affect future storms.”[Read more]

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Be sure to check out an impromptu encounter between Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and an inmate that was included in a side report.

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Panchito hands out first-aid supplies to deported migrants in Nogales, Sonora. Photo by Curt Prendergast.

“Francisco “Panchito” Olachea starts his days by passing out first-aid supplies and legal advice to deported migrants outside a soup kitchen a few yards south of the Mariposa Port of Entry.

He carries a backpack full of vitamins, electrolytes, allergy medicine, socks, talcum powder and chlorine tablets, all of which has earned him the nickname “The Walking Ambulance.”

“It’s hard to say ‘I have it, but I left it at home,’” Olachea, 52, said in accented but effortless English. “That’s something you learn in the United States: you have to be equipped for everything you do.”

Olachea is a freelance operator in an informal web of support for dispossessed people in Nogales, Sonora that includes organizations such as the Kino Border Initiative and No More Deaths.” [Read more]

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To donate to Olachea’s efforts, which include giving first-aid supplies to recently deported migrants, contact him at: (602) 384-6206 or fco_olachea@hotmail.com.

(Reuters) – The search for a missing 6-year-old Arizona girl who authorities said may have been snatched from her bedroom in Tucson entered its third day on Monday as search dogs shifted investigators’ attention back to the child’s home.

The parents of first-grader Isabel Mercedes Celis told detectives she was last seen on Friday night when they tucked her into bed, and was found to have vanished when a family member entered her room the next morning to awaken her, police said.

After an intense but fruitless door-to-door search of a 6-mile-wide swath of Tucson surrounding the girl’s house over the past two days, investigators renewed their focus on the interior of the home, this time with the family removed from the residence, Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said. [Read more]

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Photo by Curt Prendergast.

“It’s rare to find someone who can tell first-hand accounts of Pancho Villa riding his black horse around southern Arizona, but Mirihilda Moreno is one of them.

On Friday, Moreno, also known as “Nana Hilda,” celebrated her 102nd birthday with friends, family and several cakes in her home in Nogales. Her tales of life on the border were only interrupted by congratulatory phone calls and frequent knocks on the door.

She was born on April 13, 1910 in the mining town of Mineral de Dolores, Chihuahua. She moved to Arizona as a “chamaca,” or young girl, and lived in Bisbee, Sonoita and Nogales, where she earned money cleaning houses and doing domestic work.

Even after witnessing a century of history on the border, she still maintains a sense of humor and gentle attitude. “For me, people are equal. We’re all equal. We’re all alive, all of us,” Moreno said in Spanish.” [Read more]

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“On a corner in downtown Nogales, streets aren’t the only things that intersect.

As complaints pour into the city about an ongoing urban mural project, beliefs about what constitutes art, free speech and property rights are crossing paths with concerns about offensive messages in public, the rights of neighbors, and even the definition of littering

Last month, a crew of local artists led by Felix Lawrence and Carlos Liñeiro coalesced, and with expressed permission from property owner Manuel Lopez, began painting a mural on Lopz’s wall at the corner of West Ellis Street and North Potrero Avenue.

At the time, Mayor Arturo Garino, himself an artist, said he’d seen the mural and liked the idea adding art to the city.” [Read more]

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A view of the Santa Cruz River in San Lazaro, Sonora. Photo by Curt Prendergast.

“A local festival, which will include a birdwatching tour of the Santa Cruz River in Sonora, aims to combat the borderlands’ negative image and bring tourists back to Santa Cruz County and northern Mexico,

The Santa Cruz Nature and Heritage Festival, to be held May 3-6 in Rio Rico, will include a variety of tours and speakers. Some tours will take attendees through ranches and local food traditions, while another will offer a historic walk through Ambos Nogales. Speakers will explain the natural side of the area, as well as its economic and social history.

“We’ve all agreed that the area needs some good publicity,” said Linda Rushton, lead organizer of the festival. “Everybody comes to Arizona in the winter. Our goal specifically is to bring tourism back to Santa Cruz County and northern Sonora.” [Read more]

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Dennis Lynch talks with ranchers near the border in Cochise County. Photo courtesy Dennis Lynch.

“A new immigration documentary featuring Nogales is now playing at the Oasis Cinema.

The documentary presents immigration and border issues in a relatively non-partisan light, a rare approach in the volatile national immigration debate. Instead of demonizing immigrants or vilifying anti-illegal immigration advocates, it threads the needle to show the human side of immigrants, unemployed American workers, and those that speak on their behalf.

The creator of “They Come to America,” Dennis Lynch, traveled from his hometown of New York City to Nogales in November 2010 to capture the immigration situation on the border.

“When we got to Nogales the first thing we saw was the McDonald’s and the thriving commerce. Everything was so normal,” said Lynch in a phone interview. “As we drove away from Nogales, we began to see why people are complaining about there being no border security.” [Read more]

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