Good morning, Tucson. Here’s your news roundup for May 7, 2024.
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🌵 The Tucson City Council voted 6-0 for Karin Uhlich to take over the seat of Steve Kozachik, who resigned in March.
Uhlich will become the representative for Ward 6 until the end of Kozachik’s term in 2025. She has prior experience as a council member, having been elected to three terms as the Ward 3 representative starting in 2005. She also stepped in to fill the remainder of council member Paul Durham’s term after he resigned in 2021.
🌵 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Tucson to discuss the opioid crisis.
Blinken said that about 95% of illegal fentanyl coming into the U.S. does so via legal ports of entry. About half comes through the Tucson region. Arizona is receiving $35 million in funding to help fight the crisis. Mayor Regina Romero said that the Tucson City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors are planning to pass resolutions declaring the situation an emergency.
- Arizona Daily Star: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discusses fentanyl during Tucson visit
- AZPM: Blinken talks battling fentanyl with Mayor Romero
🌵 An investigation reveals how the University of Arizona monitors and stores political social media posts by students and faculty.
Internal emails show that the university’s communications department tracked student groups’ pro-Palestinian social media posts and sent them to senior UA leaders, including the chief of the university police. The university said that the monitoring is focused on campus safety and is not politically motivated, pointing to past monitoring of the conservative group Turning Point USA.
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🌵 A pair of endangered Mexican gray wolves were released in southeastern Arizona.
The two wolves, Llave and Wonder, spent the winter in captivity at a New Mexico wildlife refuge. They were released as part of ongoing efforts to expand the range of the wolves. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there were just 257 Mexican gray wolves in Arizona and New Mexico at the end of 2023.
- AZ Central: Two Mexican gray wolves are released in southern Arizona’s Sky Islands. Why that matters
- Center for Biological Diversity: Mexican Gray Wolf
🌵 Lastly, the Arizona Bowl has a new sponsor: Snoop Dogg.
Tucson’s annual college football bowl game is now officially the “Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop.” It will be the first time a college bowl game has been sponsored by an alcohol brand; in this case, a line of premixed spirits created by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.