Augusta Resource Co., the latest Canadian corporation to come down to Southern Arizona to with plans to devastate the Santa Rita Mountains, has finally found a way to move forward with plans to pull copper out of the ground. While they’ve been stymied by court decisions that have kept them from the original plan of digging an open pit mine on the eastern flank of the Santa Ritas, they can move forward with their new plans to dig Copper World on the west side, in full view of the residents of Green Valley and Sahuarita. And while their plans are on hold on the east side, Augusta may well eventually find a way to dig their open-pit mine on that side, too. Despite the efforts of groups like Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Tohono O’odham tribe, it looks as though the bad guys are going to forever scar our local mountain. Contributor David Abbott has the unhappy details starting on Page 8.
Meanwhile, staff reporter Katya Mendoza talks with organizers for this weekend’s March for Our Lives. The movement to prevent gun violence has a new urgency after the slaughter of 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas, last month, but Republican politicians seem to want to talk about anything—door control, trap doors in schools, you name it—except for backgrounds checks and limits on anyone purchasing weapons of war. It’s astounding that more than eight years after Sandy Hook, mass shootings are still happening in our schools.
Elsewhere in the book this week: Mendoza also looks at how supporters of the Community Food Bank have a special show of sculptures for the new few months at Park Place; staff reporters Alexandra Pere and Nicole Feltman talk with Parish and Delta chef Gary Peters as part of the latest episode of their Prickly Pair podcast, focused on local chefs; Laughing Stock columnist Linda Ray shares the latest at Tucson Improv Movement; music contributor Christina Fuoco-Karasinski talks to The Fixx ahead of the band’s upcoming show at Rialto Theatre; and there’s plenty more in the book this week, including calendars about where to have fun this week, cannabis news, plenty of local cartoons and all our usual features.
Jim Nintzel
Executive Editor
Hear Nintz talk about where to howl in this town at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday mornings during the world-famous Frank Show on KLPX, 96.1 FM.
