Month: September 2022

After a beloved Tucson sunset, the dark night rises
Arizona News, Pima News, Science, Top Stories

After a beloved Tucson sunset, the dark night rises

A time-lapse of the skies above Kitt Peak on October 13, 2021. (Courtesy Pandreve under license) By QUENTIN S. AGNELLO Something that most Tucsonans notice is that we have a starry night sky.  However, you may be surprised to know that the darker skies are a direct ordinance by the City of Tucson.  The International Dark-Sky Association, a group working to preserve starry night skies, writes that a 2012 lighting ordinance is responsible for our clear skies.  The ordinance, or Lighting Code as titled by the City of Tucson, states its intentions clearly in Section 101: “The purpose of this code is to preserve the relationship of the residents of the City of Tucson, Arizona, and Pima County, Arizona, to their unique desert environment through protection of access to ...
Pima College adding travel rider to cover out-of-network services, namely abortion
Arizona News, Health, News, Pima News, Politics, Top Stories

Pima College adding travel rider to cover out-of-network services, namely abortion

Pima College announced Monday that it is in the final stages of adding a travel rider to the college's plan with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona that will cover $5,000 of expenses tied to travel and lodging to receive covered services that they are unable to receive locally. Terminating a pregnancy is not the only service covered by the new insurance coverage, although it was the focal point of the announcement from Chancellor Lee Lambert. Phil Burdick, Vice Chancellor of External Relations, was able to give us additional details that weren't included in the email announcement sent college-wide Monday. The services are expected to be available beginning October 1. Pima college had 2,368 employees at the end of the pay period ending on September 9. Slightly fewer than half of al...
Making a bold mid-career move: from business to cybersecurity
Features, Top Stories

Making a bold mid-career move: from business to cybersecurity

For Tauty Sanchez, choosing Pima was easy – she knew she'd feel represented and supported By Kanika SamraPima Community College External Relations Tauty Sanchez is amongst a group of student-interns gaining hands-on experience at the Center of Excellence in Information Technology/Cybersecurity (IT CoE) on PCC’s East Campus. As an intern at the Cybersecurity Operations Center –CSOC for short– Tauty is working on an Elasticsearch project that looks at incoming cybersecurity threats, such as attacks on an institutions’ firewall, and parses them for information. Parsing, she explains, helps to identify relevant information from long and complicated data feeds which contain strings of numbers and characters. Making sense of incoming traffic and then taking appropriate decisions is ke...
BRIEF: Dow drops as grizzly markets get worse
Briefs, Business, News, Top Stories, US News

BRIEF: Dow drops as grizzly markets get worse

A red bear illustrating a downtrending stock market. (Courtesy of Encik Tekateki under license.) The last holdout of major indexes of the U.S. stock market has gone grizzly as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell into a bear market Monday. All other indexes continued to drop, extending a 5-day decline. According to NerdWallet.com, "a bear market is defined by a prolonged drop in investment prices — generally, a bear market happens when a broad market index falls by 20% or more from its most recent high." The Associated Press reports, "The S&P 500 fell 38.19 points to 3,665.04. The Nasdaq dropped 65 points to 10,802.92. The Dow lost 329.60 points to close at 29,260.81. It's now 20.5% below its all-time high set on Jan. 4. A drop of 20% or more from a recent peak is what Wall ...
BRIEF: Snowden granted Russian citizenship
Briefs, News, Politics, Top Stories, US News, World News

BRIEF: Snowden granted Russian citizenship

Edward Snowden receives the Sam Adams award for Intelligence Integrity on November 7, 2013, in Moscow. (Photo courtesy McZusatz under Attribution 3.0 Unported) Multiple sources are reporting Edward Snowden has been granted Russian citizenship. It has been 9 years since material leaked by Snowden was used by The Guardian in 2013 to reveal a top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) granted an order requiring Verizon to hand over data on all telephone calls in their system to the FBI over a 3-month period. According to the Guardian, "Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are n...
Fang shui: Get your reptile fix at upcoming show
Arizona News, Arts & Entertainment, Culture, Education, Events, Science

Fang shui: Get your reptile fix at upcoming show

By QUENTIN S. AGNELLOPima Post For those who live in Tucson, the Gem and Mineral Show is a busy, well-known event that’s often an inconvenience for regular commuters.  As someone who has attended the Gem Show, I can say that it certainly is interesting. However, colorful crystals have never really been my forte.  For people who might feel the same way, there is another show that has been running in Tucson for the past 20 years: the Tucson Reptile and Amphibian Show. The show is targeted to all ages, and the two-day show Oct. 1 and 2 will include a variety of vendors selling captive-bred reptiles and amphibians.  Animal lovers will enjoy the petting zoo, which will include giant tortoises, lizards and snakes. This year, even warm-blooded animals will be repres...
Pima Theatre to present family-friendly ‘Ballet & Bagels’ in October
Arts & Entertainment, Culture, Education, Events, News, Pima News, Top Stories

Pima Theatre to present family-friendly ‘Ballet & Bagels’ in October

Director Milta Ortiz directs cast members during rehearsals of Ballet & Bagels (Photo courtesy Pima Theatre) Pima Theatre presents'Ballet & Bagels'Pima West Campus, Black Box Theatre,2202 W, Anklam Rd. 85709October 6 - 16Thursday - Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., General Admission: $10Students/Seniors/Military/Groups: $5Advanced reservations are recommended. Pima Community College students can receive one free ticket to each performing arts production as part of their tuition. Tickets can be purchased at pima.edu/arts. The box office is open Tuesday - Friday from 12-5 p.m., and one hour prior to each performance.520-206-6986 | [email protected] Tucson, Arizona -- Pima Theatre starts off its season with family-friendly 'Ballet & Bagels', directed b...
PCCEA president seeks transparency from Chancellor
Arizona News, News, Opinion, Pima News, Top Stories

PCCEA president seeks transparency from Chancellor

By MAKYLA HAYSPresident of Pima Community College Education Association The Pima Post welcomes opinions from students, faculty and staff. If you'd like to submit an op-ed,email [email protected]. For quite some time, representatives from PCCEA, the full-time faculty association at Pima Community College, have called for more transparency from the Chancellor and upper administration.  This past year, several events have transpired that reveal an issue with transparency from the Chancellor. While each individual situation may not seem like a major issue on its own, the pattern that emerges when viewed together is what concerns PCCEA the most.  At the Governing Board meeting in September, I gave a public comment attempting to address this pattern. My...
The Beauty of Astronomy in Arizona
Education, News, Pima News, Science, Top Stories

The Beauty of Astronomy in Arizona

The Rosette Nebula, or NCG 2237, from the photo gallery of Kitt Peak National Observatory website. By QUENTIN S. AGNELLOPima Post UPDATE: The event has been moved to the Cienega Creek Natural Preserve parking lot at 16000 E Marsh Station Road from 7 – 9 pm. Fire at Agua Caliente Park currently has the park closed for a short time. When I was 10 years old, I would gaze up at the stars at night using a telescope with a wobbly stand, wondering all the while if I would see something special or magnificent.  I would take every opportunity I could to see the wonders of our universe, but I never questioned why my view was such a good one.  Not only is Southern Arizona considered one of the best places for stargazing in the United States by astronomers, Tucson is con...
BP reaches $2.75M deal over Indiana refinery pollution
AP, Business, News, Politics, Science, Top Stories, US News

BP reaches $2.75M deal over Indiana refinery pollution

FILE - The BP Whiting refinery in East Chicago, Ind., is shown on Sept. 21, 2017. Oil titan BP reached a $2.75 million settlement Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, over air pollution from its largest refinery after environmentalists complained of repeated emissions violations at the Whiting facility in Indiana. (DroneBase via AP, File) By JOHN FLESHERAP Environmental Writer TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Oil titan BP reached a $2.75 million settlement Thursday over air pollution from its largest refinery after environmentalists complained of repeated emissions violations at the Whiting facility in Indiana. The agreement is the second in the past year between advocacy groups and BP involving the refinery on the southwestern Lake Michigan shoreline between Hammond, Indiana, and Chicago. Both ...