The Sunday Agenda: We're here to help
It's almost election season, again ... Let us help make sure you're prepared.
Another week has flown by and it won’t be long before we start focusing our attention on the upcoming election.
But first, we want to welcome all the University of Arizona students and staffers back to campus and wish them a wonderful first week of classes.
Caitlin is taking the semester off from teaching to focus on expanding our coverage and overseeing our team, but we still want your input to help guide our coverage.
If you haven’t yet, please take our short survey so that we can make sure we’re bringing you the news you want and need. It’s only five questions and will be a tremendous help as we plan out our General Election coverage.
But before we talk more about the election, let’s take a look back at our coverage from last week.
Monday: “A fragmented child care landscape.” Samantha dove into a recent county study about the cost of child care and the burden it places on its employees. Arizona is losing $4.7 billion each year due to insufficient child care and nationwide, the cost of care for two children exceeds the national monthly average rent payment. To help its staffers, the county created six action items to explore future and potential benefits to increase employees' access to affordable, high-quality child care.
Tuesday: “Move-in week generates big bucks for Tucson.” Caitlin talked with an employee of the University of Arizona’s Housing and Residential Life about the nearly $10 million that last year’s move-in week brought into Tucson’s economy. The study found that families that traveled further spent more money, with per-student spending ranging from $600 to more than $2,000.
Wednesday: “New nonprofit aimed at increasing Latinos in law.” Susan spoke with a trio of local attorneys who started a nonprofit aimed at decreasing aspiring Latino lawyers’ barriers to a career in law. Latinos are overrepresented as defendants in the criminal justice system, but make up just 5% of the nation’s lawyers. Aspiring Latino Lawyers launched last year and works with local high schools and the UA to help prepare students for law school.
Thursday: “When in doubt, bring in a celebrity. ” Susan talked with Daniel ‘El Güero Canelo’ Contreras and Pima Animal Care Center officials about the shelter’s recent Spanish-language outreach campaign to encourage Hispanic community members to microchip their dogs. PACC partnered with Contreras and got out into the community, hiring native Spanish speakers to help get out the word about ways to keep pets safe and services offered by the shelter.
Friday: “Can’t take the heat.” Pima became the first county in the state to adopt a heat safety plan to protect its workers and contracted employees when it approved a new ordinance earlier this week. While Supervisor Steve Christy voiced concerns that the policy could make its way into the private sector, that’s exactly what will happen if the federal government gets its way.
If these are the types of stories you want to see more, upgrade to a paid subscription!
Being a true community newsroom means doing more than just reporting on the candidates and races that show up on your ballot.
It’s also about getting out into the community and educating people through more than just the written word.
Last year, we partnered with our friend Becky Pallack from the Arizona Luminaria to put on a “What’s on the ballot?” presentation for members of Tucson Young Professionals.
We had a blast talking about the candidates in the city election and school district bond and override measures (cool stuff, right?) But we had even more fun talking with members about what they want to see from their election coverage and from their local news outlets.
We left with a few new subscribers and even more good ideas, and we’re excited to be a part of more election presentations as we lead up to November.
If you have a group that wants to learn more about candidates or issues appearing on the ballot, we’d love to help you out.
You can reach out to Caitlin to set that up. Just remember that ballots hit mailboxes in early October and need to be mailed back by the 29th.
But we know that people are busy and not everyone learns best via presentation, so we’ve got other ways of getting out the information in a quick an accessible way.
We created a Pima County election wiki leading up to the primary and updated it with coverage from the Agenda and other outlets. We also made interactive graphics for our friends at the Tucson LGBT Chamber of Commerce with a list of candidates and links to coverage and campaign websites.
Our goal is to help make sure you have the information you need to vote in whatever format suits you best, so you tell us what works for you.
And don’t sleep on democracy. Remember to exercise your right to vote!
Join the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson on Thursday for a public forum with candidates running for Tucson Unified School District Governing Board.
It’s unclear if all the candidates will be attending, but board members Dr. Ravi Shah, Sadie Shaw and Natalie Luna Rose are all seeking additional terms. They’re being challenged for the three open seats by Pilar Acosta Ruiz and Esteban Flores.
The event is from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the YWCA of Southern Arizona (525 N. Bonita Ave.) and pre-registration is not required. Learn more here.