Tuesday Microburst: Hobbs calls out UA leadership, pig prevents pavement placement

📢 There will be no Microburst Thursday. Jason will be recovering from sinus surgery. Send healthy thoughts! 🤧

Good afternoon. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high of 79°. Thursday should be mostly sunny with a high of 74°. 

🌵 Governor Hobbs called out University of Arizona leaders over the school’s financial crisis.

In a letter to the chair and executive director of the Board of Regents, which provides oversight for all three of Arizona’s public universities, Hobbs requested a third-party consultant be hired to oversee an independent audit and provide a plan of action to move forward. She also expressed concern over an article from the Arizona Republic that examined UA President Robert Robbins’ role in the school’s controversial acquisition of Ashford University. “If we do not see progress, I will work with stakeholders to identify further changes to leadership,” Hobbs wrote.

🌵 The Arizona Republican party elected Gina Swoboda to be its new chair.

Swoboda will take over for Jeff DeWit, who resigned after recordings surfaced in which he offered U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake a bribe to stay out of politics. Swoboda is an ally of Lake and former president Donald Trump. She runs the Voter Reference Foundation, an organization that seeks to make voter registration rolls publicly available.

🌵 The Tucson City Council approved the purchase of land for a new park. 

Barrio Nopal Park will be located near the northwest corner of Tucson International Airport. The new park is being funded through Prop. 407, which voters approved in 2018 to provide additional funding to city parks. Construction is set to begin in March or April. The park will have a playground, walking paths, splash pad, ramadas, and picnic areas.

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🌵 Two federal programs will help the Tucson Unified School District obtain electric buses and offer employees a one-time payment up to $1,000.

TUSD employees were potentially set to receive salary increases, until lower enrollment numbers led to a drop in state funding. The district is offering the payments as a “good faith effort” instead. The money will come from federal COVID relief funding. TUSD is also slated to receive 10 electric buses through the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program.  

🌵 Lastly, a pig delayed road construction work outside of Phoenix. 

The Arizona Department of Transportation purchased several acres of land for new road construction near Avondale. But the land already had a tenant: a pot-bellied pig named Pixie. Pixie evaded capture for weeks, even when baited with her favorite food, which turned out to be Cheerios. She was eventually caught inside a chicken pen that had been turned into a makeshift trap. She is now living at a sanctuary farm. 

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