In which we discover that the Exotic East isn't much different from the unexotic East Valley
When you read the hedline on this EVT story out of Mesa (“Parents sue to stop suspension for drinking on China band trip”), you probably think the same thing we do:
Jesus, aren’t these conservative Mesa types all about personal responsibility and strict rules?
Their high schoolers get caught drinking on a fields trip—to China, no less—get a lenient three days os suspension… and they sue the district to protect their little ones from having to take responsibility?
Read the story and … it’s true: These grimy parental units are suing the district after their kids got a measly three-day suspension for drinking on a band trip, to China no less.
But there’s a twist: The parents do have a case on a different aspect of what turns out to be an story with a twist or two.
The kids were drinking in China, according to the suit, but the circumstances were a little … rococo:
A Chinese tour guide provided beer while spending hours in a hotel room with the teens. The suit says the tour guide took his shirt off because he was hot, then watched the students play drinking games until they were wearing nothing but boxers.
Now that’s something the kids could have experienced back home in the good old U.S. of A., and in church, to boot.
The district’s side:
The district contends the parents threatened to generate bad publicity if administrators kept the suspensions in place. The parents' suit includes other allegations of sexual conduct and a Chinese sex worker groping a boy in the hotel.
“In any event, Plantiffs' arguments are baseless and meant to do nothing more than embarrass and discredit the school and its staff in an effort to win a tactical advantage,” the suit states.
7:55 AM
AZ art gets spotlight at CNN
Of course, the lens is SB 1070,the filter through which Arizona is seen by the world. We suggested this exhibition on PHXated’s First Friday picks.
At CNN.com:
Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) — The flag of Arizona, skeletons and the Statue of Liberty are just some of the images evoked by a group of artists to give life to their views on Arizona’s new immigration law.
The collection of prints, sculptures, paintings and photographs are featured in the traveling exhibit, “SB1070: An Artist’s Point of View,” which opened at the Arizona Latino Arts & Cultural Center in Phoenix the weekend before the law took effect on July 29.
The show will move to galleries throughout Arizona and across the country in an effort to educate the public on how artists from the state that has become ground zero in the immigration debate perceive the matter, said the show’s organizer.
“This educational exhibit was born from the thought that there has to be a different way of reaching people’s hearts on this issue,” said Annie Loyd, founder and CEO of The FUSION Foundation, which organized the exhibit in collaboration with the cultural center.
Read more here.
2:25 PM
Special screening of Sleep Dealer tonight at Madcap Theater
It seems the boycott AZ movement has a few quirks in it now, perhaps as a result of Rep. Raul Grijalva’s move to rescind the measure after a partial triumph in the court July 28 over SB 1070.
Alex Rivera, writer and director of sci-fi blockbuster Sleep Dealer, is coming to support Arizona’s struggle for human rights, against SB 1070. Get your ticket to this exclusive screening today.
There will be limited seating only 399 seats available! After the showing of the film there will be an opportunity to have a Q & A discussion about the film and SB1070 both with each other and Alex Rivera. Tickets are $8
…All proceeds benefit PUENTE MOVEMENT
Today · 6:00pm – 9:00pm Madcap Theater 730 S. Mill Ave Tempe, AZ
5:38 PM
The Governator comes through
This is out-of-town news, but of interest here, too. What happens in Cali tends to drift east- this might help fight against the hate in AZ. Some people can’t get married because of sex-bias; others won’t until everyone can:
SAN FRANCISCO – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown filed motions Friday calling for resumption of same-sex weddings in the state.
The officials filed the motions after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker previously overturned Proposition 8, California’s voter-approved gay marriage ban.
Resuming gay marriage “is consistent with California’s long history of treating all people and their relationships with equal dignity and respect,” Schwarzenegger said in his legal filing.
Read more here.
6:29 PM
Is Brewer Bad for Business?
Gotta love the title of Newsweek ’s coverage of the damage that Governor Brewers politicization of immigration is doing to Arizona’s economy.
Razing Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer’s hawkish immigration stance is good politics. But is it bad for business?
Back before they grew distant, Barry Broome, head of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, would talk to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer every few weeks. They’d brainstorm ideas for how to make the state a leader in solar and other renewable energies. He’d bring in CEOs to schmooze with her. They’d fly around the country trying to drum up business for Arizona companies. “Not once did she mention immigration,” Broome recalls.
So he never imagined what was to come: that she would sign into law one of the nation’s most draconian illegal-immigration bills; pick a costly, high-profile fight with the federal government to defend it; and create a public-relations fiasco for the state. “The question is whether the tone of the debate has fractured [Arizona],” says Broome, who hasn’t spoken to the Republican governor since her bill-signing ceremony in April.
Strains between Brewer and the state’s business community are starting to show. Though her championing of the immigration measure has proved politically popular and catapulted her to national prominence, that success has come at a price. She has essentially sided with the immigration hawks in her party, at the expense of its business wing. Backers of the law, which would require police to check the papers of those they suspect are in the country illegally, justify it partly on economic grounds, claiming it would help rid the state of undocumented people who place a burden on public services.
Yet even though the law was mostly struck down by a federal judge two weeks ago, the state has already taken an economic hit (on top of the ravages of the Great Recession). Several companies have packed up and left. At least 40 groups have canceled conventions and conferences, says Debbie Johnson, CEO of the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association. And the Phoenix area alone is projected to lose $92 million in business, according to Mayor Phil Gordon. “Anyone who says our image has not been hurt is living in a bubble,” he says.
[…]
Read the whole article here
Image: Michael Dwyer/AP
7:32 PM