ElIndeNews.com

A few months ago Hubert Russell was gainfully employed at a local plastics company. Today, he sits in the February sun outside the Primavera Foundation, a place where homeless people can collect phone messages, their mail and medicine – things they don’t have access to on the street. He now spends his nights at a Salvation Army shelter.  

“It’s better than being outside,” he says quietly.

Russell was one of 1,561 homeless people counted in late January during the 2010 Homeless Street Count, a 16 percent increase from last year, according to Sylvia Cuestas and Laurie Mazerbo, co-chairs of the count.

 

Peña Blanca Lake has come back to life, and all it took were some winter desert storms.

Thanks to more than four inches of rain in Southern Arizona this year, Peña Blanca Lake is full again and reopened to the public.

Created in 1957, Peña Blanca Lake was a hotspot for fishing, boating and camping. Northwest of Nogales at an altitude of 4,000 feet, the lake was a cooler oasis for Tucsonans seeking refuge from the valley heat.

But the lake was drained in September 2008 to filter out deadly mercury which had leached in from surrounding mines. Once empty, the lakebed was lined with clean soil and the winter storms have since refilled it to the brim.

Outdoorsmen and families can find themselves on the shores of this revived Southern Arizona treasure an hour's drive from Tucson.

The 50-acre lake was recently stocked with rainbow trout, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department has plans to add other species as well. Fishing is open to any angler with an Arizona fishing license.

Currently, boats that can be carried by hand to the water can use the lake. There are plans to build a new dock and boat ramp in April to allow the use of motorized boats.

View Peña Blanca Lake in a larger map

 

Just before midnight on Saturday, South Fourth Avenue is quiet. The snowbirds and locals who pack the city's most legendary Mexican restaurants have long since left the heart of South Tucson.

The piercing shriek of an accordion breaks the silence. From nearly a block away the bass holds the beat. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4; the drums are right on cue. A smooth guitar and rapid violin top off the sound.

Antonio's, 2231 S. Fourth Ave., is very much alive, and should have a sign that reads "locals only." The last standing bar in the city of South Tucson is also the nation's home to Waila music.

The music and the people pour out of the small bar on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 33rd Street where Gertie and the Tohono O'odham (T.O.) Boys are playing at full blast. The only noises over the music are the yelps and whistles of those standing around the circle of dancers. It started with two or three, but now about 15 people dance the "chicken scratch" packed tightly together in the tiny bar.

South Tucson's packed city hall broke into cheers when the city council voted unanimously to oppose Walgreens' liquor license.

The license will go before the state liquor board in either April or May, said Peter Schelstraete, Wal-greens' lawyer. In the past, licenses have been approved despite the council voting against them, South Tucson Mayor Jennifer Eckstrom said.

"The best we can do is forward our recommendation," she said.
The Class 10 license would allow the store—located at 1900 S. Sixth Ave.—to sell beer and wine to go. It must receive final approval from the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control.

The University of Notre Dame and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson have created a partnership in an effort to increase the quality of education and enroll more Hispanic students in Catholic schools.

Santa Cruz Catholic School Principal Sister Leonette Kochan, explained that Notre Dame did a study that focused on the enrollment of Hispanics in Catholic schools and on schools that serve Hispanics in economically challenged communities.

"They found out they are under served," Sister Kochan said. "Meaning that only three percent of the Hispanic population is attending Catholic schools."

Tucson artist and muralist David Tineo's retrospective collection of work is now on display at the Tucson Museum of Art.

 

Nuestras Raíces, the Pima County Public Library program that celebrates Mexican-American culture, is joining the Tucson Festival of Books this year.

Historically, the library has held a single festival for Nuestras Raíces (Our Roots) every year in March, says Adriana Rendon, a librarian and the co-chair for Nuestras Raíces.

This year, the library joined forces with other groups to showcase different aspects of Mexican-American culture, such as music, language and arts during the UA-based Tucson Festival of Books, March 13 and 14.

A recent study found that immigration reform is capable of reviving the nation's struggling economy.

With a comprehensive reform model, the report shows that alternative immigration policies could "yield at least $1.5 trillion in added U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years."

By legalizing unauthorized workers and basing immigration limits on the U.S. labor demand, comprehensive reform would "raise the 'wage floor' for the entire U.S. economy - to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers," according to "Raising the Floor for American Workers: The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform," conducted by UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda and released through the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center.

Construction began Jan. 4 on an interim U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 and should be completed in early April, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. But as of yet, there is no timeline for the construction of a permanent facility.

The $1.5 million interim facility will include a third lane for semitrailers, a secondary area for vehicles requiring further inspection and a canopy to cover the entire facility, said Omar Candelaria, a Border Patrol spokesman.

It is 6:30 a.m. and 10 men stand shivering outside the Southside Presbyterian Church in the dark on a cold Tucson morning.

For many of them, this is a daily routine. Their only way to earn a little money is to join the Day Laborers Program at the church in hopes that someone will need to hire a few men for landscaping, construction or moving for the day.

But Rigoberto Polanco, a day laborer for five years, says that it has recently become a more difficult way for him and the others to earn a few dollars.

Polanco, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, said that he has been a day laborer for so long because it's hard to find a full-time job.

"The city of South Tucson could probably throw a rock and hit someone that Sol knows," says Aaron Valdivia, branch manager of the El Pueblo Library. "He's a man of the people. It sounds cliché and corny, but that's Sol."

Sol Gómez, 32, is the branch manager of the Sam Lena Library and the winner of the 2009 "I Love My Librarian" award. The award recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding librarians nationwide.

Keeping tabs on all U.S. residents is a tricky job that census workers undertake every 10 years, and it's time to start counting.

The U.S. Census Bureau is gearing up for Census 2010 and one of the first orders of business is hiring census workers.