2 min readby Brian Flagg I know of no one who would argue that. Laura has lived and worked here at Casa Maria for the last 9 years, with her mom Librada, her grandpa the 94 year old comedian Antonio, and her youngest daughter Yanseli, the tennis star from Pima College. She works fast. She works hard. She never complains and is liked by everyone. She is 100% Mexicana and proud of it. She also has a team of chicas whom are ready to cook anytime people come together to fight the forces of evil. Birria, barbacoa, fajitas, super nachos, hot dogs,

4 min readby Brian Flagg A year ago I was in the midst of a 30 day silent retreat at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, CA. This week Barbi Urias from Casa Maria is going to do an 8 day silent retreat there. One year later I’m still feeling like I’m on a path of being transformed, thanks be to God. Almost daily I still feel the love of Jesus I experienced there. I would hope that if anyone came down to Casa Maria and asked, my friends, comrades, and co-workers would say something like, “Oh yeah, he is significantly

3 min readby Brian Flagg In the middle of this recent attack on the transit budget orchestrated by the Mayor? the City Manager? and whomever else, I received an email from the renowned transit advocate Suzanne Schafer, entitled: “Where were we (and Karin Uhlich) on May 19?” It read: “That’s when the budget was presented and the cap was approved with the $2.4 million out of transit. Staff was not explicit about the route changes involved and senior transit officials were aghast that NO ONE ASKED. Basically they got direction from the City Manager’s office to not bring on a fuss but

4 min readby John Tancock, Project Leader for the Santa Catalina Social Awareness Ministry Volunteers from the Santa Catalina Catholic Parish have been working on various upgrades for the soup kitchen and house bathroom since early February. The church’s Social Awareness Ministry asked Brian Flagg if they could work on some improvements and Brian was enthusiastic for the help. We asked Brian what his primary need was; without hesitation he talked about the large stoves in the kitchen that needed to be replaced. The Santa Catalina team led by Sr. Jean Mariani and John Tancock inspected the kitchen with Brian and noted

5 min readby Madeline Kiser The papers are full of news about water, our waning Colorado River, life-blood source for western states, and it’s hard to tell, reading, what our options are amidst the complex data. We know that the river is over-allocated, even without climate change. We know that it’s likely that a shortage on the river, which supplies 35-40 million people, seven states, and much of our agriculture in the U.S., will likely be declared in the next few years, or even months. We know that it’s likely that to meet the shortage, conservation efforts will be intensified; water will

2 min readby Brian Flagg, The City Staff ordered this EMERGENCY meeting of their Transit Task Force. We need Union members to be there to back up Task Force members Suzanne Schafer and Brian Flagg as they encourage the Task Force to not okay the cuts, especially the cuts in frequency to some routes. When the City Council passed their budget on June 9, they did so saying that these cuts were subject to the input of the Transit Task Force. Right now there are signs and flyers on the buses saying the cuts take effect on August 2. This can be partially

3 min readBy: Gilberto Contreras Saturday, June 13th, will be my last day at Casa Maria de Guadalupe Soup Kitchen. It has been an incredible three months, but I was given the opportunity to work in California, and I took it. It’s not easy writing this, simply because everyone will be deeply missed. All the people that volunteer, all the familiar faces that show up once or twice a week, be the El Rio clinic or retirees that have been volunteering for years. But most importantly the women, the back bone, of Casa Maria are the people my heart will ache to