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In today’s newsletter:
🚨 Agents in a tank-like vehicle detained five people, including two teens, at a north side Tucson home Thursday — neighbors say officers wore no uniforms or ID and wouldn’t say what agency they were with. Part of our new Borderlands Bulletins feature. Read more
đź“… TUSD is surveying families on four possible calendars for 2027-28, including a four-day week and a year-round schedule that would run July 22 to May 25. Read more
đź’° A 21-year Bloom Elementary teacher works two extra jobs — swim coach and Gaslight Theatre manager — just to support her family, one face of Arizona’s teacher retention crisis. (Co-published with Channel 13 News) Read more
🎠Immigrant women and survivors of domestic violence perform their own stories in a new play challenging “the myth of the perfect victim,” running Sept. 4 and Oct. 16 at Live Theatre Workshop. Lee en español | Read more
Featured stories
After early morning Tucson raid, 5 detained and few answersÂ
Tiff Williams was walking their dog around 6 a.m. Thursday in their north side Tucson neighborhood when they saw a commotion at the house across the street.  Williams watched as […]
Fight, flee or freeze: 3 responses at the heart of a community play challenging “The Myth of the Perfect Victim”
Ana fights. Priscila flees. Judith freezes. All three are survivors of domestic violence and immigrants who will take the stage in Tucson to tell, in their own words, about the […]
Pelear, huir o paralizarse: ejes de la obra comunitaria que desafĂa “El Mito de la VĂctima Perfecta”Â
Ana pelea. Priscila huye. Judith se paraliza. Las tres son sobrevivientes de violencia doméstica, son inmigrantes y subirán a un escenario en Tucson para contar en primera persona el momento […]
Second jobs can keep Tucson teachers in the profession, but at what cost?
Before her 7:20 a.m. arrival at Bloom Elementary School on Tucson’s east side, Rebecca Vieira wakes up, preps three boys for the day and makes breakfasts and lunches. Her day […]
TUSD surveys families on 4-day week, year-round options for 2027-28
The Tucson Unified School District proposed a four-day school week and a year-round calendar for the 2027-28 school year in an email survey to families late Friday afternoon. The year-round […]
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Saturday Aug 15
The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday denied a permit for a 150-foot cell tower on Diamond Bell Ranch Road in a rural community almost 40 miles southwest of downtown Tucson that would have provided service to Verizon networks. Supervisor Jennifer Allen, of District 3, the district where the cell tower was proposed, said she moved to deny the permit and support an appeal filed by organized residents of Diamond Bell Ranch because the permit request lacked transparency and a full analysis showing that the developer considered all other possible alternatives both in the size and location of the tower. At the board of supervisors meeting, several residents spoke in opposition to the placement of a cell tower in their community, saying it would obstruct their desert views. The president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Tower, the company that applied for the permit, said they did consider other locations before deciding on the location right next to the remote residential neighborhood. A radio frequency engineering consultant with the company said the height of the tower is necessary to cover a larger rural area.
Discuss “Empire of AI,” journalist Karen Hao’s inside account of OpenAI and the race to build artificial intelligence, at the Solutions-Focused Community Book Club from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26, at the Community Foundation Campus, 5049 E. Broadway Blvd. The event, hosted by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona with Tucson Tome Gnome and Tucson Spotlight, will include a panel discussion and small-group conversations, and attendees don’t need to have finished the book to participate. Get the book.
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a new rule that would leave it up to each state to regulate “whether, when and to what extent” it has to give public notice and allow for public comments on minor source Clean Air Act permits. People can submit comments on the proposed EPA rule change until Aug. 21. You can find instructions on how and where to submit a comment here. Environmental advocacy groups across the country are concerned the proposal would weaken public participation and reduce oversight, allowing states to issue permits without the public’s knowledge. Minor source permits include developments like data centers, landfills, asphalt plants, concrete block plants, facilities that still have a large impact on the air quality of an area, said Keri Powell, an air program leader and attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.
Utility billing problems at mobile home parks, power outages and indoor heat deaths have all been recurring issues in Pima County. A similar case played out in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where three people were found dead in their mobile home Aug. 3 — days after the city-owned utility cut off their power over an unpaid bill, according to NC Newsline reporting. Relatives told local outlets the family, who’d been running a generator, had offered a partial payment to avoid disconnection, but city policy requires either the full balance or a plan to pay it off within three months. The deaths have prompted North Carolina state lawmakers to press Rocky Mount officials for answers and renew a stalled bill that would ban power shutoffs for nonpayment during extreme heat. Read the full story at NC Newsline.
Arizona had the third-highest rate of uninsured children under age 6 in the nation in 2024, at 9%, according to a Georgetown University Center for Children and Families analysis released in June. The report found the national uninsured rate for young children climbed to 5.3% that year — the highest level in nearly a decade — with nearly 220,000 more infants, toddlers and preschoolers uninsured than in 2022, a trend researchers linked in part to the unwinding of pandemic-era Medicaid protections. American Indian and Alaska Native children under 6 had the highest uninsured rate of any racial or ethnic group nationally, at 10.5%.
The Arizona Multihousing Association announced winners of the 2026 Tribute Awards, including Milagro on Oracle, developed by the city of Tucson and Gorman & Co., which won for best affordable community design, and Encantada La Estancia, developed by HSL, which won for best garden-style community design.
Quilt for a cause. The summer quilt display at the Tucson Botanical Gardens will be unveiled Aug. 20 from 5-7 p.m.. Registration for the free event is recommended, but not required.
Joyous monsoon: Celebrate the monsoons with live music by local musicians at the Tucson Botanical Gardens Aug. 14, 21 and 28 from 6 -9 p.m. Drinks and food are available. Cost is $12 and members are $6.
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