BISBEE WIRE #101
- fred
- Oct 10
- 26 min read
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ARIZONA SCHOOLS LAST IN EVERYTHING
“The Grand Canyon State was ranked dead last for public school funding, 49th for student performance and 47th for school safety. The state’s colleges and universities fared comparatively better, ranking 35th in the nation. Contributing to Arizona’s poor rankings were its crowded classrooms, with an average student to teacher ratio of 23-to-1, along with its worst-in-the-nation 78% high school graduation rate.”
The article went on to talk about the impact of ESA voucher program, now around $1 billion.
Go here for the entire article in the Arizona Mirror.
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VOODOO SCIENCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Trumpie recently announced his medical diagnosis about autism.
He spoke at length about how Tylenol is a possible cause of autism and that pregnant women shouldn’t take it. Of course there was inadequate and spurious research to back the contention.
(Unfortunately he didn’t mention his own sad situation that diet coke causes verbal diarrhea.)
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ESA VOUCHERS....WHERE YOUR BUCKS GO
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RESOURCES
Another resource is Postcards to Voters (postcardstovoters.org). PtV postcards are cheaper to mail than letters, and it is structured in the sense that they give you a set message (3 sentences) to write based upon what the individual campaign approves as the message. No hard thinking about what to write but you can get quite creative with format and color on your cards! Campaigns must contact the founder (Tony the Democrat) to participate, and Tony/PtV org. has lists of addresses of Dem affiliated voters to which one can write for a variety of national, state, and local elections. It's a "get out the vote" effort to already registered Democrats. Go to the PtV website to sign up. (A nod to JD for this blurb)
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VOTER REGISTRATION STATS; DEMS TRAIL REPUBS & INDIES
The recently elected chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, Charlene Fernandez and the chair of the Cochise County Democratic Party has their work cut out for them. Although this is an odd off year, with a couple of significant elections (CD-7 & jail district) these registration stats are dismal news for them. Repubs continue to have a significant advantage overall. However, voters continue to flee both parties with increases in independent registrations, statewide, as well as not renewing registrations at all.
In Congressional District 7, (includes Bisbee and along the border past Yuma and catches bit of six counties) there has been a loss of 4000+ registered voters since the first of the year.
In Congressional District 6, (includes some of Pima, most of Cochise, and bits of 3 other counties) there has been a loss of about 600+ voters.
Statewide, as of July 2025 there were a total of 4,470,621 voters registered.
Dems… 1,270,307 28.41% loss -188,09 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Repubs…1,597,705 35.74% loss -5.704 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Indepnd…1,525,855 34.13%gain +26,847 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
No Labels…39,804 0.78%
Libertarian…31,905 0.71%
Green…5,045 0.11%
In Cochise County, as of July 2025 there were a total of 82,763 voters registered.
Dems… 18,873 22.8% loss of -262 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Repubs…33,442 40.4% gain +30 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Indepnt …28,924 34.9% gain +25 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
No Labels…682 0.82% gain +155 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Libertarian…660 0.79% gain +15 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Green…91 0.10% gain +2 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
In CD-7 as of July 1 2025 there was a total of 439,596 registered voters in the district.
Dems…174,992 39.8% loss -3191 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Repub…91,979, 20.9% loss -975 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Independ…166,373 37.8% gain +1973 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
No Labels…3,995 0.9% gain +582 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Libertarian… 2969 0.67% gain +77 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Green…726 0.1% gain +35 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
In CD-6 as of July 1 2025 there was a total of 553,178 total registered.
Dems…165,346 29.8%% loss -1794 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Repub…198,378 35.8% loss-596 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Independent…180,624 32.6% gain +2314 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
No Labels…4,160 0.75% gain +498 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Libertarian…3,967 0.71% gain +53 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
Green…703 0.12% gain +49 voters from 1/1/25 to 7/1/25
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ARE IMMIGRANTS ELIGIBLE FOR GOV ASSISTANCE
Mostly not unless they they have a green card. Tell and show this chart to those stoopid repugnicans talking about why they shut down the government putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of losing much.
.............. WORD...............
This series of articles talks about how the written word is written with an implement. It excludes keyboards.
Although many of us, including me, do most of our writing on computer keyboards, or if luddite inclined, typewriters, most of us, including me, use pens, pencils, and erasers occasionally during the day. This deep dive on pens, pencils, and erasers can add to your moments of quiet aesthetic satisfaction of doing a task with a tool that feels just right.
THE PAPERMATE INVESTIGATION
This investigation into Papermate pens, once a favorite, now not so much, was instigated by Ralph Nader, who thought that the Papermate pen he had used for years had been drying out and the quality had diminished. The article is a deep dive into the mechanics of ink pens, including the fill capacity, a paper’s absorbency, the change in plastic manufacturing, and how that affected the efficacy of pens. Basically, A history of manufacturing changes. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/ralph-nader-pens-drying-out/
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A SHORT HISTORY OF ERASERS
Erasers drying out? Not erasing? Leaving smudges? This article has the reasons. Just for your info, rubber is no longer used in pencil erasers! And a tip; don’t leave your pencils in the sun! Go here for everything you didn’t know about erasers/pencils. And the bonus of what are the best pencils.
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THE BEST BALL POINT PENS
I like the feel of a pen in my fingers, the glide across the paper, the no-smudge ink and the intrinsic satisfaction of using an instrument that feels good in use. This article on pens may be just what you need to get that small satisfaction that brightens your day.
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PICKING ON OLD PEOPLE
(groaners)
"If you want to know how old a woman is, ask her sister-in-law." (Eva Gabor)
"Old age comes at a bad time." (Ed Sullivan)
"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." (Stevie Wonder)
"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard, there is nothing you can do about it." (Golda Meir)
"The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. (Mark Twain)
"I'm at that age where my back goes out more than I do." (Phyllis Diller)
"Nice to be here? At my age, it's nice to be anywhere." (George Burns)
"First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up; then, you forget to pull your zipper down." (Rob Reiner)
"Old people shouldn't eat healthy foods. They need all the preservatives they can get" (Bob Hope)
"It's like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirit." (Ed Sullivan)
"The years between 55 and 75 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down." (T.S Elliot)
"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us.. at age 40, we don't care what they think of us... at age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all." (Ann Landers)
"The important thing to remember is that I'm probably going to forget." (Martin Scorsese)
"The older I get, the better I used to be." (Lee Trevino)
"Everything seems to slow down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips." (Elizabeth Taylor)
"You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks." (Dennis Quaid)
"Looking fifty is great — if you're sixty." (Joan Rivers)
"Time may be a great Healer, but it's a lousy Beautician." (Zsa Zsa Gabor)
“Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid sideways, totally used up and worn out, shouting 'Man, what a ride!' " (Hunter Thompson)
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