BISBEE WIRE #66/money/honey/words/birds/lege rundown/look at AI/more

................​AROUND TOWN................

GET RIGHTEOUS WITH THE GOSPEL CONCERT!

The Gospel Show with, Melissa Reeves, Phillip Bynoe, Sam Panther, and others. Get your ass Testifying!

SUN./ JAN. 21 / 5pm

Covenant Presbyterian Church/19 Howell St.

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HELP! POLL WORKERS NEEDED

There are election workers need for the three elections this year. Pay is about $120 a day and there are positions open in cities throughout the counties. Applications here Although it is non partisan there is a push by both parties to get people in place.

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SSSSTTTTRRRREEEETTTTCCCCHHHH

Rita Verri wants to stretch you out. Stretch, Barre ballet, beginning techniques. Wed 5:15-6:16 at the Y. More info: 845 304-0412

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TALKIN BIRDS COFFEE AT KAFKA

Trevor Lauber of WaterWise will be presenting Waterfowl of Southern Arizona on Sunday, January 21, 2024 at Kafka Cafe.  Swans, geese and ducks belong to the order anserifmores.  These birds are often referred to as waterfowl due to their dependence on water for habitat.  In winter, many of these species find their way to lakes, ponds, wetlands and cienegas of southern Arizona.

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SPEAKING OF BIRDS...BISBEE BIRDS BE GOING

An article in the W. Post details the decline of birds, 30% over a half century, 3 billion adult breeding birds! The cause is the usual suspects; humans. Drought in the SW adds to the problems of habitat removal and pesticide use. If you go to the site and scroll down, type in a city, it will tell you which species are in decline. In Arizona Roadrunners  have declined 27% and the state bird, the Cactus Wren, 21%. In Bisbee Black-throated Sparrows have decline 40%, Lucy's Warbler has declined 42%, finches and gold finches down about 12%. On the bright side, Turkey Vulture population is up 12%! To get the very handy bird ID app Merlin, go here for directions. Not only will it help id birds by look, but also by song!

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TALKIN REVOLUTION

Tuesday Jan. 23/Bisbee Library/5:30

The Revoltosos were Mexican radical anarchists who organized in the Borderlands before the Mexican Revolution. They were close to the Industrial Workers of the World, the Wobblies. They organized a Liberal Club in Bisbee, Arizona in 1912 and were a leading force among the hundreds of Mexican workers rounded up in the 1917 Bisbee Deportation.

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GET THE SCOOP BOUT GETTIN THAT DOUGH!

“Introduction to fundraising planning” is a webinar designed to help organizations  “provide the basic steps for developing a fundraising plan, including tips on:

...Making your case for support ...Diversifying your organization’s fundraising base ...Creating a plan of action “ Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 12:00-1:30 pm, Here is the link to register for the class:  https://candid.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_nRnQedy3QBynchWqWi41gw#/registrationJust complete the registration form with your email  and hit the Register button.

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GIVE THOSE ARTISTS LOVE!

The Bisbee Arts Commission is hosting this in-person event from 4 to 7 on February 11, at Cafe Roka, 35 Main to express our appreciation for the artists who make work for the Cig-Art Machine, a redesigned vintage cigarette machine that sells local art and raises funds for the Bisbee Arts Commission. Get your tickets on Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com/.../we-love-our-artists-a... Tickets will also be available for purchase at the Information Booth at the Bisbee Saturday Market and a limited amount at the door at the event. Please purchase them ahead of time if possible.

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GADSEN HOTEL LAYS OFF WORKERS

The Gadsen Hotel ownership group abruptly closed the Saddle and Spur bar and restaurant, Cafe 333, and laid off 27 workers, most of the staff. They “are restructuring and reorganizing their business model for their long term vision.” The layoffs came without warning in December. Twenty Two hotel rooms will be open while renovation and demolition take place.

Balwant Aulck, Rashpal Thind and Sukhchain Sandu of Bright Brain Hospitality in Seattle bought the Gadsden Hotel in downtown Douglas for $1.6 million in late November 2022. The three men also recently bought a Motel 6 in Willcox and  the 123 room Eagles Nest in Quincy IL. Their LLC is registered in Springfield, IL, but Aulck said he and Sandhu have worked together in the Seattle area for more than 20 years.

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ALBERTSON'S/KROGER MERGER ON HOLD

The merger expected to be completed early this year, has been delayed until August. Kroger (Frys) employed more than 20,000 people in Arizona and Albertsons (Safeway) employed around 14,500, in 2023. Significant opposition to the proposed merger from state officials as well as employees has developed since it was announced last year, including a lawsuit from the Washington State AG. AZ AG has gone on record opposing the merger.

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BISBEE BURGER TRUCK

Fortunately in our town there are a few places we can find good burgers. One of the best is the Bisbee Burger Truck usually at Ace Hardware Sat and Sun, but moves around a bit. Check the website for menu, location of the week, and ordering. Chewy bun, good fries, good ingredients. Is there anything more American than putting a cow between two pieces of flour? 

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COYOTE MATING SEASON

Love is in the air! From the Tucson Wildlife Center, Coyote mating season is from January to March. "Coyotes are not aggressive toward people, but if you put a little dog or a little cat out there, unattended, they will think of it as a steak sandwich."

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...............BISBEE ECONOMY................

The Southeast Area Development Group (SAEDG) is an organization that focuses on five counties. One of their projects is Southeast Economics that publishes statistics in their focus areas  in order to aid research/decision making/planning/development.

There is a wealth of data on each county on their website tracking labor employment, sales tax, bank deposits, tourism, census, border and much more. For info go here: Cochise County

A recent posting supplied historical data (1994-2023) for bank deposits derived from the FDIC.

From 1994 to 2003, deposits were in the $60 million range.

(In $000)

year       Cochise           Bisbee       Population       

2006        1,025,652             95,634           5,808

2013      1,118,042                86,445         5,287

2014	1,148,049	64,949	5,217
2015	1,133,687	69,887	5,082
2016	1,198,482	81,276	5,087
2017	1,270,989	82,348	5,023
2018	1,279,635	87,565	4,999
2019	1,326,137	80,590	4,988
2020	1,484,880	80,590	4,923
2021	1,753,329	102,140	4,968
2022	1,665,100	111,869	5,045
2023	1,600,826	99,982	5,091

The increase in Bisbee deposits in 2021 & 2022 was substantial; $32 million. That likely reflected the state and federal governments pandemic responses rather than economic activity that generated revenue in the city The $12 million drop in 2023 is prolly the result of resumption of a post pandemic economy.

As our population decreased, bank deposits increased! (These numbers are not adjusted for inflation.)

The county as a whole also saw a big increase in 2021 & 2022. The decrease in 2023 was not nearly as substantial as Bisbee's drop.

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HOUSE SALES

According to realtor.com:

• "The median listing home price in Bisbee, AZ was $297K in December 2023, trending down -6.3% year-over-year. The median listing home price per square foot was $228. The median home sold price was $205K"

• Homes in Bisbee, AZ sold for 2.7% below asking price on average in December 2023

• On average, homes in Bisbee, AZ sell after 79 days on the market. The trend for median days on market in Bisbee, AZ has gone up since last month, and slightly up since last year

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Nine sales in December.

Address                        OP/LP/SP   (buyer unknown unless stated)

305 N WASHINGTON  49,000/45,000/45,000 (buyer from Bisbee)            

107 COCHISE DR        109,000/109,000/100,000 (buyer from Sierra Vista)

925 AMERICAN           125,000/125,000/120,000 (buyer from Sebring FL)

307 VAN DYKE ST        145,000/145,000/147,000

703 Shattuck ST          189,000/189,000/179,000 (buyer from Wisconsin)

103 DOROTHY DR         230,000/219,500/219,500

84 NEPTUNE AVE          229,000/225,000/220,000 (buyer from Bisbee)   

621 BISBEE RD              220,000/215,000/220,000

313 OAK AVE                425,000/425,000/405,000 (buyer from Tempe)

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BUILDING PERMITS

There was one permit for construction of a house! Don't know how long it has been since that has happened. Tossing out that $200k permit, there were $559k worth of work done in December, a bit below Dec/22.

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ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION

Bisbee Baseball Boosters

477 W. Purdy Lane

Kenneth Bradshaw

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AUCTION

608 Congdon

2/28/24

County Courthouse/100 Quality Hill

..............COCHISE COUNTY................

BARTLESMEYER TALKS ELECTION DENIERS

This CNN interview with former county elections director Bob Bartlesmeyer is illuminating in that even he, a MAGA supporter in 2020, came to realize there was nothing that would appease the election deniers in Cochise County. Worth a read.

What Bartlesmeyer found out is that there is nothing that will ever convince election-deniers/anti-democracy zealots that elections are fair. That is why giving in to them should never be an option; it will never be enough. In our county they were not satisfied even though their candidates won.

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HAND VOTE COUNTER WHINES TO THE JUDGE

Mojave supervisor Ron Gould want a judge to rule that any county can hand count ballots if they want to. Goldurnit! He objects to AG Kris Mayes telling him he'll be arrested if he does so. Doggonit! He objects to his voter-given right to waste taxpayayer money. So off to court he goes.  And once again county taxpayers are footing the bill for a supervisor's stubborness. What Gould did not mention, of course, was that hand counting is expensive, time consuming and inaccurate. But why spoil a good whine?

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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE COUNTY RECORDER

Ali Morse and I had an opinion piece in the Observer and the HR. Go here to read.

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MORE LEGAL WOES FOR SUPES/RECORDER

Cochise County supervisors and recorder David Stevens have been sued for delay of public record requests about the conduct of the 2022 election management. The suit, brought by American Oversight-a watchdog group enforcing citizens' right to government records-that won a similar suit in Maricopa County, alleges that the records request have been delayed for months.The request also pertain to the aborted $1 million 'ballot security grant' as well as information about communication with conspiracy theorists. A shining example of a waste of taxpayer money not only having to defend actions that are indefensible, but on the hook for a potential fine.

In another action highlighting the supervisors-actually Crosby and Judd only- questionable decision making...Attorney Daniel McCauley has been ordered to retire for one year by a superior court judge. The lawyer, who had no election law experience, was representing election -denier, Mark Finchem in a baseless election fraud case. Of interest locally, McCauley represented Cochise County supervisors in a losing effort to delay approval of the 2022 election results. Idle minds wonder if Finchem recommended the attorney to the recorder/supes???? Another excellent waste of taxpayer money by the two supervisors Crosby and Judd.

...............THE LEGE................

I'm reprinting Melinda Lyer's weekly newsletter about what is going on with the lege. If you haven't signed up you can. But of particular interest is CEBV's linktree You can join many others and voice your opinion on  the good but mostly bad legislation being proposed. Sign up for Register To Speak.

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CEBV Weekly: January 15, 202 Melinda Merkel Iyer

Jan 13, 2024

On Friday the 12th, the nonpartisan analysts at the Joint Legislative Budget Committee dropped a bombshell on the fledgling 2024 session with their forecast of a jaw-dropping $1.7 billion deficit over this year and next year. Arizona is facing skyrocketing expenses and plummeting revenues thanks to two Ducey-era boondoggles: a massive tax cut for the rich and a ballooning universal ESA voucher program.

Lawmakers now face the difficult task of balancing Arizona’s budget without slashing essential services like public education, public safety and health care, which were just beginning to recover from the massive cuts made during the Great Recession. (Fortunately, Gov. Hobbs has said she won’t allow those programs to be cut.) Finding new revenues will be difficult at best: in 1992, Arizona voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote before lawmakers can increase taxes or reduce tax credits, exemptions or deductions.

News coverage of this train wreck has been relentless. Media outlet after media outlet is pointing out (accurately) that when revenue plummets and expenses skyrocket, budgets become imbalanced. Meanwhile, the Republican lawmakers who passed these policies are struggling and failing to keep control of their narrative. Their verbal gymnastics have gotten increasingly desperate and outlandish.

The difficult task of balancing our state budget will become even harder if our legislative majority refuses to address the systemic problems they created. We foresee a looming crisis similar to that of the failed “Kansas experiment” and yet another cycle of “fiscal conservatives” cutting taxes in hopes of an economic boom that never arrives.

The nation is watching as today’s Arizona GOP drives our state’s budget into a crater, while the culpable lawmakers clutch their pearls and hyperventilate over the fiscally prudent alternative Gov. Hobbs is presenting. As journalist Jim Small points out, Gov. Hobbs is using her budget proposal to “show voters the Arizona she thinks is possible, and then let Republicans demonstrate exactly why it won’t happen” — teeing up a sea change for November.

If you have 20 minutes: Use Request to Speak to oppose bills in committee.

If you have 30 minutes: Share the Weekly with one person who “doesn’t do politics.”

If you have 60 minutes: Join us on Zoom at 4pm on Sunday for our next CEBV Happy Hour. This week’s featured guest is Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo (District 5). Then, stay on for our Civics 101 presentation, a primer for state and local government focusing on the levels that impact our lives most directly: School Board, City or Town Council, and the Board of Supervisors. We’ll meet every Sunday at 4 PM through the end of session. Sign up in advance here.

2024 Session Timeline

Monday, 2/5  	        Bill introduction deadline
Friday, 2/16	        Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its originating house
Monday, 2/19	        Crossover Week begins (most committee hearings are suspended)
Friday, 3/22              Last day for a bill to get out of committees in its crossover house
                                  (and the last day to use RTS until a budget drops)
Tuesday, 4/16          100th Day of Session (the stated end goal; can be changed) 

Flag this handy list of contact info, committee chairs and assignments, freshly updated for 2024.

View Committees

Bookmark CEBV’s Linktree. Want other ways to take action? Need to stay informed? Looking for our social media, inspiration, or self-care tips? Look no further than our Linktree.

...............EVERYTHING ELSE................

COMPREHENSIVE EXPLANATION OF IMMIGRATION AT THE BORDER

The two part article is a primer on immigration problems and the solutions being proposed. Best summary to understand the complexity of immigration at the border I've seen.

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SOME COMMONSENSE PROPOSALS FOR IMMIGRATION

According to Tucson.com the Migration Policy Institute has published a report on how to deal with current immigration. In the summary of the report here it  deals with changing conditions at borders and offers new policy initiatives. One suggestion, that Bisbee mayor Ken Budge has championed, is to provide more judges for immigration courts to hear asylum cases.

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VERIZON CAUGHT CHEATING, GET YOUR MONEY BACK!

Verizon Wireless has tentatively settled a class action lawsuit that alleged the company advertised a price for cell plans but then jacked-up consumers’ bills with hidden administrative charges.Claims must be filed by April 15, 2024 at the settlement website. Most customers were just notified via postcard of their eligibility to file a claim and were given a notice ID and confirmation code to enter on the website. If you did not receive that, here is the official claim form.

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A VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

LLM's are Large Language Models. They are used with increasing frequency in commercial applications by corporations as well as academica. This is a representation of how they work.  Go here

A more detailed explanation and although dumbed down is still complex. here.

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............... WORD...............

A tip of the hat to RC for this. Subject: Tech support

The young woman who submitted the tech support message below (about her relationship to her husband) presumably did it as a joke. Then she got a reply that was way too good to keep to herself. The tech support people's love advice was hilarious and genius!

The query: Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as: NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and House cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed: Desperate

The response (that came weeks later out of the blue)…

Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. 

Please enter command: I thought you loved me.html and try to download Tears 6.2. Do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. However, remember, overuse of the Tears application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download Snoring Loudly Beta version.

Whatever you do, DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Mother-In-Law 1.0 as it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.

In addition, please do not attempt to re-install the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0.

Good Luck

Tech Support