The Daily Agenda: Let’s make this a two-way street

We’re trying something new, for us at least … Seeking thoughtful letters to the editor … Staffing shakeup at the border.

Look, the 2024 election season is going to be wild.

Voters in Tucson and Pima County will have to make hard choices about candidates for sheriff, county attorney, county supervisors, all the way up to Congress and the presidency. On top of that, they’ll elect constables, justices of the peace, and all the other local offices that tend to get overlooked.

It’s a lot. And there will be a lot to say about each of those races, particularly the issues they’ll run on, like jobs, crime, poverty, transportation, and so on.

We often talk about the need for a “conversation” about local government and politics in Tucson — that’s one of the reasons we founded the Tucson Agenda — but right now the conversation is a little one-sided. We get to write and report an entire newsletter, but our readers only have the comments section or emails they send to us.

We’d like to change that. So we’re pulling out one of the oldest tools in the news business: letters to the editor.

We have the skills to do it right. Curt used to be the opinion editor at the Arizona Daily Star. He spent countless hours reading and editing letters from readers. He also heard all the time from people who said letters were the first thing they read when they opened the paper. More than a few said letters were the main reason they subscribed to the paper.

Letters are a lot of fun. Readers end up saying to themselves, “Yes! That’s what I mean!” when they read a letter that reflects their view, or “Huh. I hadn’t thought of that” when they come across a new perspective.

Best of all, solutions to local problems can be hashed out. Keep in mind, most elected officials in Pima County subscribe to the Agenda, so when you write a letter to the editor, there’s a good chance the person in charge will read it!

We’re not the only ones who think the Tucson Agenda is a great place for community members to weigh in on the issues that matter.

Caitlin was recently invited to talk about the state of the news at a recent meeting of the Pima County Democratic Party’s Legislative District 17 and fielded a question about whether we’d be willing to open the Agenda up for letters to the editor.

We both love the idea of starting up a vetted and curated letters-to-the-editor page, but in true Agenda fashion, we want to do things a little differently than they’re done at traditional newspapers.

So, starting next week we are going to start running letters to the editor.

Here’s how it will work:

• We’ll send out a prompt in each Monday’s newsletter about a local topic of interest. You can write about that topic, or you can write about any other local topic you prefer.

• We’ll compile the letters, fact-check and edit them for clarity during the week, before running them either in our “In Other News” section or at the top.

• If we get a lot of good letters, we may end up spreading them out throughout the week’s newsletters.

Here are the guidelines:

• Letters must be 100 words or less. Our emails have a length limit, so it’s important that you make your point as concisely as you can so we can include as many letters as possible.

• Keep it local. We want to hear about Romero, Heinz, and Ciscomani much more than we want to hear about Biden, Trump, and Giuliani. If you want to write about national figures or issues, try to think about how they would affect Tucson or Southern Arizona.

• Stay grounded in fact. You are welcome to voice your opinion, but if you try to make a factual point, make sure you send us a link to a reputable source.

• Only paid subscribers can write letters to the editor. We’re looking for thoughtful comments here, not the madness you can find on Facebook or Twitter.

• Use your name. We aren’t going to run anonymous letters. Also include which town or city you live in.

• No slander. No profanity. No calls to violence. No lying. If you violate any of these rules, we won’t be fielding any more of your letters.

We’re excited to hear from you readers. Tell us what’s on your mind!

Starting next week, you can send letters, and any questions, to Curt at curt@tucsonagenda.com. Be sure to put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line.

Our first prompt is coming at you in just a few days, so get your keyboard ready. And happy writing!

Do you have friends or family members who love to weigh in on local issues? Share the Tucson Agenda with the people in your life so they can get in on the conversation.

Reallocating resources: The Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector began shifting agents away from interior checkpoints and other duties Sunday in response to an increasing number of people crossing the Arizona-Mexico border, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. The agency also said that it would stop updating its social media accounts. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Tucson Sector officials redeployed people from other duties to help take migrants into custody after thousands of people crossed into Arizona near Lukeville. 

Trash in space: University of Arizona scientists were able to connect a rogue rocket booster to a crash landing site on the far side of the moon, Arizona Public Media’s Tony Perkins writes. A UA professor says the finding shows that the danger of space junk from Earth extends all the way to lunar orbit, which is important given the expected increase in manned and unmanned missions to the moon over the next few years.

"Just as we have garbage pickup every Monday or Thursday, we need to have a disposal plan where after the rocket body has done its duty," said Professor Vishnu Reddy. "We crash it on the moon in a specific location or put it in certain orbits where it's going to remain for eternity."

Playing the odds: The Sentinel’s Blake Morlock spoke with Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Gabriel Trujillo for his latest column, saying that Trujillo beat the odds by remaining in the position for six years while making steady improvements to the district. Trujillo was initially tapped as “interim” after the district went through three superintendents in the previous seven years, but was hired to fill the post following a nationwide search. They spoke about Trujillo’s work to build relationships with students, teachers, school board members and the community and improve test scores across the district.

Back in business: South Tucson’s Taqueria Pico de Gallo reopened last week, 11 months after a suspected drunk driver plowed through the front of the 30-year-old restaurant, the Star’s Cathalena E. Burch writes. The car caught fire, destroyed the main dining room and caused major damage to the middle dining room, resulting in an extensive rebuild that required new building plans and a new electrical system. Owner Diana Delgado said that insurance only covered $76,000 of the $235,000 in work and that her family had to take out personal loans to save the business.

More border news: Less than 100 people remain in the small border town of Sásabe, Sonora, located about 75 miles away from Tucson, as gunfights between criminal groups have forced thousands of residents to flee to Arizona, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel writes. The arrival in Arizona of fleeing Sásabe residents has coincided with a larger surge in migrants from mostly Central America and southern Mexico, many of whom have been channeled to the Tucson sector of the border.

Raising their rates: Santa Cruz County has raised the reimbursement rate for holding federal detainees in its county jail to $85 per person, Fronteras Desk’s Alisa Reznick reports. The jail holds federal detainees arrested by the FBI or Customs and Border Protection, with the county previously receiving $60 per person. The jail has the capacity to hold more than 300 inmates, but is usually about a quarter full of state, local and federal inmates.

200: The number of tons of plastic diverted from the landfill through the City of Tucson’s plastics program. We wrote about the program, which converts plastic waste to 22-pound blocks using steam and compression, a few months ago.