< 1 min readNO GENERAL MEETING THIS WEDENESDAY Please attend the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, June 9 at 5:30 pm and /or The Transit Task Force Meeting on Monday, June 08, at 4:00pm, at the City/County Building, 201 N. Stone Ave., 6th floor (see previous blog post for details)
3 min readJune 4, 2015 By Brian Flagg, To: All Bus Riders and Supporters LAST MINUTE ATTACK ON BUS RIDERS BY CITY STAFF, THE MAYOR AND COUNCILMAN KOZACHIK The Bus Riders Union (BRU) requests your presence at the final budget hearing on: Tuesday June 9 at 5:30 p.m. City Hall, 255 W. Alameda Come and help us thwart the secretive, last minute $1.1 million worth of cuts to 9 bus routes. They are always being pressured to give everything to the cops. After this public hearing the City will finalize this year’s budget. Over this last year the Council has repeatedly voted to
< 1 min readChad Owens We need soup cooks and drivers, both on regular basis or you could put your name on our list of people to call when we are occasionally in need of a driver or a cook. Cooks come in at approximately 7:00 a.m. and can choose to stay and help serve or else leave at 8:30 or 9:00. Drivers use our shiny new van to go to Safeway’s and Food Cities to pick up food along with Chad Owens who has lived and worked here at Casa Maria for many years. WE NEED: COOKS AT 7:00 A.M. ON: Wednesdays
2 min readBy Brian Flagg, “There is something profoundly wrong” when so much of the nation’s income goes to the top 1 percent of all earners. “This grotesque level of inequality is immoral.” Bernie Sanders is the Vermont Senator who yesterday spoke these words to 5,000 supporters along the shore of Lake Champlain as he kicked off his presidential campaign (Star, May 27, 2015). I liked how he said “now is not the time for thinking small” and that we need a revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially and environmentally. Most politicos are posturing or outright lying when saying things
4 min readBarbara is a leader of The Just Faith group at Our Mother of Sorrows and has done food pick-ups for Casa Maria for many years. By Barbara Padilla-Bassett, Yes I too have read the Joy of the Gospel and find it refreshing to hear Pope Francis implore us to live the Catholic Social teachings in our parishes and everyday lives. My parish in particular has even re written their mission statement to align more with Francis’ wishes for a more mission minded church. But as a Catholic woman I cannot look past the fact that even though these are monumental
3 min readBy Cesar Aguirre, Last week Governor Ducey spoke to some of the state’s highest ranking business groups: Greater Phoenix Leadership, the Flagstaff Forty and the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. This probably doesn’t surprise you, but Ducey’s threat to the group might. He made it very clear that if any of the business groups tried practicing their constitutional right of pursuing a ballot initiative to increase education funding that he, and the dark money backing him, would fight them vigorously. The business leaders in attendance felt very threatened by this. Read about it here: http://azc.cc/1HhZno7 In 2012 there was a ballot
3 min readBy Cesar Aguirre, A few months back I remember my daughter Alissa coming to me with much excitement to tell me about a remarkable woman they were studying in history. She was fascinated by the strong will of this female role model and all of the accomplishments achieved by her in spite of her disabilities. I too remember studying the life of Helen Keller when I was in school and was inspired to do some more research in order to have deeper conversations with my daughter on the subject. What I found was a great surprise. Like most history taught
3 min readBy Brian Flagg, So, TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities) has now changed its name to Sun Corridor Inc.? (Page 1 Star May, 20, 2015). Seems to me like an admission that they are acknowledging that they are largely useless and mostly incompetent and making a change in their brand name is something that makes them a bit more relevant? I do admit that Joe Snell, president and CEO of TREO is competent in pimping himself a salary of hundreds of thousands of dollars and getting a brand new office on East River Road. Joe and TREO insist that the name
3 min readBy Jimmy Ojeda Shame on Councilman Kozachik for trying once again to balance the budget on the backs of the poor! According to him the City of Tucson should prioritize and move in the right direction, by increasing bus fares and cutting services. In his last newsletter dated May 11, 2015 he wrote: “We have to take a serious look and simply stop doing that which is beyond our core responsibility (but transit is one of his core responsibilities!) If we added a 10% fare increase to the base fare, we’d add another $730K in revenues that would go to
4 min readBy Jack McLinden – May 2015 I’m a Jesuit novice (aka Catholic priest-in-training), and I’m traveling on my “pilgrimage” right now, which has led me to Casa Maria! The Jesuits send us out one-by-one with $35 and a one-way bus ticket, and tell us to come back in a month. The pilgrimage is all about really developing our trust in God, and one of the greatest gifts for me has been the people I have met along the way. The people here at Casa Maria have welcomed me on my journey, and they have also really challenged me. My few
Fighting for Justice, Liberty, & Peace in Barrio Libre
