The Daily Agenda: Fresh faces, new voices have joined our crew
We've more than doubled in size, adding four new contributors to our ranks ... Stay tuned for some exciting new features ... New president south of the border.
Some of you eagle-eyed readers may have noticed a new byline on Monday’s edition of the Tucson Agenda, and since the spring semester at the University of Arizona is behind us, that can only mean one thing.
It’s time for a new group of contributors, and we’re excited to be bringing a great mix of interns and newly-graduated journalists to the “pages” of the Agenda!
We loved what Sam Parker and Liv Leonard did this spring with their regular coverage of school boards and smaller town and city councils, so we’re going to keep that as a regular feature. Our part-time reporter Susan Barnett will be keeping up with the South Tucson City Council and we’ve brought on two reporters to handle the rest.
Desarae Tucker stepped up our social media game and got us started on TikTok, helping us figure out what works and what doesn’t. We’re going to build on her progress and have a talented new intern to help with that, but we’re also taking our visual coverage of the news another step further.
For the first time since our launch, we’ll be featuring original photography that isn’t shot on Caitlin or Curt’s cell phones (you’re welcome,) and we’re very excited to bring a professional photographer into the mix.
One final note before we get to introductions, and this one is especially important. We’re supporting all of our contributors this summer without the assistance of the Jamieson-Metcalf Fellowship that funded Sam and Liv’s positions last semester. And while we’re still on a tight budget, we’re committed to paying students and contributors for their work.
You can help us out by upgrading to a paid subscription if you’re a free reader. And if you’re already paying for your subscription (thank you!) you can still help us spread the word about the comprehensive, local coverage being produced by the Agenda, with the help of our contributors.
Enough business, let’s get to the fun stuff. It’s time to meet the new crew!
Covering schools for us this summer is Refugio Del Cid, who graduated from the UA School of Journalism in May. Refugio grew up on Tucson’s Southwest side and spent his K-12 career in the Sunnyside Unified School District, but his connection to the district runs deeper than your average student.
“My mother was a kindergarten teacher at the school I attended. I essentially grew up within the teacher’s lounge, allowing me to make personal connections with teachers outside the classroom,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized just how much of an appreciation I have for my community and where I come from.”
Refugio was a student in Caitlin’s Reporting Public Affairs class last fall and gravitated towards education coverage, working hard to give a voice to students and administrators.
“I took the initiative … because I felt the importance of public education and felt these public school boards deserve positive credit, as well as accountability, when applicable,” he said. “My goal is to continue to thoroughly research and report on our local public schools because I know that public change begins in our public education.”
We published several of Refugio’s stories for the Arizona Sonoran News Service in our “other news” section this spring and we’re excited to have him reporting for the Agenda.
Samantha Callicutt, a journalism graduate student at the UA who spent last semester working as a broadcast journalism intern with KOLD, will be covering Oro Valley, Marana and beyond for us this summer.
She’s from Scottsdale, but has been in Tucson since 2016, when she came to the UA as a freshman majoring in information science, technology and arts. She earned her degree, but after spending a few years working as an engineer and developer, she realized a career in tech wasn’t the right fit. She’s back in school for journalism, where she feels much more at home.
“As a new journalist, I am elated to start my career as an intern at the Tucson Agenda,” she said. “I look forward to developing my writing and reporting skills … and can’t wait to see what stories I produce.”
Samantha enjoys exploring the community in search of hidden gems, like a profile she wrote last semester about a Syrian mother who fled a civil war and brought her children to Tucson.
“I am eager to learn more about reporting on local civics and government and writing more specifically about how decisions made in small government positions impact our community on a grander scale,” she said.
Taking the reins for the Agenda’s social media accounts is Angelina Maynes, a journalism major at the UA who published her first novel when she was 16. Angelina will also be doing some reporting of her own and producing videos to complement other reporters’ stories, so she’ll have her hands full, but says she’s up to the challenge.
“Through my education, I've gained a variety of skills that I am eager to bring to the Tucson Agenda, helping to grow a loyal community of readers who crave both truth and entertainment,” she said. “What drew me to Tucson Agenda is their unwavering commitment to our community. As a Tucson native, I am dedicated to producing content that is factual, unbiased, and truly reflective of what our community needs to know.”
Angelina has been passionate about writing since she was a child and wants to make the world a better place, one story at a time.
“Growing up in Tucson, I have chanted ‘Bear Down’ more times than I can count,” she said. “I’m looking forward to starting this adventure with all of you and playing a part in a platform that celebrates and represents the heart of Tucson.”
When you notice the quality of our embedded images and photographs have improved, you have Mac Tronsdal to thank for that.
Mac was born and raised in Tucson and is home for the summer from Northern Arizona University, where he’s majoring in photography.
"I have been photographing sports for years, but I enjoy photographing anything that is put in front of me,” he said. “With the Tucson Agenda, I hope to improve my versatility in photography. I'm super excited for this opportunity, and can't wait to see what it has in store!”
You can find one of Mac’s photos in today’s “other news” section (keep an eye out for his byline) and in upcoming editions of the Tucson Agenda. We’re very excited to offer up some improved photographs to accompany our reporting and to give Tucson’s visual diversity the attention it deserves.
We can’t wait to see what this new group of talented young people has to offer and to expand our coverage and bring new voices into the mix.
And more hands on deck means more time for Curt and Caitlin to dig into election coverage and explore other topics and issues, so make sure you send along your ideas by clicking on our names.
We’ve more than doubled our staff in the past few months, but upsizing costs money and we’re in a nonstop fundraising cycle to help us grow and remain sustainable. Your donation to the Tucson Agenda will help support robust reporting by new, emerging voices in journalism.
We have a winner: Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidential election, according to preliminary results from the election last weekend, the New York Times reported. She will be the country’s first woman president. Preliminary results show she has a commanding lead, winning 59% of the nationwide vote, including a similar percentage in Sonora. Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico City and plans to continue the agenda of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Minor-league deal: The deal to keep the Roadrunners in Tucson won’t cost taxpayers much, but it’s still an example of sports teams taking advantage of host cities, Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller writes. The offer the Rio Nuevo board made to the team pretty much amounts to giving the team a rebate on the sales tax revenue the team generates, about $240,000 a year.
Leaving options open: A Santa Cruz County judge heard arguments Monday about whether prosecutors should be able to refile charges against a Nogales rancher, KGUN’s Craig Smith reports. A jury could not agree on whether to convict George Alan Kelly in the shooting death of a Mexican man, Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who was crossing Kelly’s property near the border. Prosecutors want to leave the door open to future charges after the mistrial, in case new witnesses surface.
Will he or won’t he?: The Tucson Sentinel is moderating two debates this week for candidates running in Congressional District 6 and for Pima County sheriff this week, the Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. So far, incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani has declined to participate, which would leave the stage open to GOP challenger Kathleen Winn. In a separate event, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos will debate Sandy Rosenthal in the Democratic primary race for sheriff. The debates are hosted by the Arizona Clean Election Commission and the Arizona Media Association.
We’re applying for a grant from Press Forward, a national movement to strengthen democracy by investing in local news.
Press Forward is looking to give 100 newsrooms up to $100,000 in funding over two years, and while we think we’ve got a strong proposal and a good chance, the competition will be fierce.
You can help us add a full-time reporter to the Tucson Agenda staff by sending along letters of endorsement that tell the funders how we fit into and how we’re serving the community here in Southern Arizona.
If you’re enjoying the Agenda and you want to help, please send your letter to Caitlin by clicking the button below. The deadline for the application is June 12, so please get those letters to Caitlin by Monday, June 10.
The new group of interns sound amazing! Looking forward to seeing their contributions in the coming months. Especially if you all can get some real news on platforms like TikTok and Instagram!
I hope they can also inspire their peers to start following better sources of information like local media.
Welcome to the newbies! Keep up the good work.