BISBEE WIRE #97

...............AROUND TOWN.............

BISBEE CITY COUNCIL MEETS

(The city clerks, Ashley Coronado and Nina Williams, post agendas, generally the Thursday before council meeting (1^st and 3^rd Tuesdays of each month. You may request to get on the mail list from them.Click on the agenda here, and it will bring up not only the agenda, but the background notes that reveal details of individual topics such as contracts the city is signing, revised salaries/wages of departments, minutes of past meetings, special event details, monthly expenditures, and much more. In short it is how the city is functioning. It is a good idea to at least look at the background once to see the format and how topics are included. I tend to pick out those items of most interest...to me. You may have different ideas of what is interesting.

All sessions are streamed on the city’ youtube channel. Go here youtube

(I encourage you attend this meeting or to tune on the youbube channel. This work session will be interesting as a new business group will be talking with the council.)

WORK SESSION TUESDAY AUGUST 5, 6:00 118 Arizona St.

(background here) (see below for more on BF)

·     Presentation by Bisbee Forward business group about their new organization, improvements for all residents, alarm about visitation decline, and new approaches.

REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY AUGUST 5, 7:00

Of interest: (background here)

·     Ward 3 J. Hill resignation and discussion/recommendation to fill the position

·     General plan update

·     Opioid settlement opt in

·     Surplus City office property

·     Charter Review

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SUPES STOP ½ CENT SALES TAX COLLECTION,BACK TO 9.6%

As part of a lawsuit that successfully voided the passage of the jail district, the county supes has ordered the ½ cent sales tax collection instituted as part of the initial jail district to be stopped beginning July 31, 2025, per Jail District Board Resolution 25-02. The sales tax increase has been in effect since Jan 2024.

A do-over election for the jail district is scheduled for November 2025 and, if passed, the ½ cent sales tax increase would be reinstated beginning July 1, 2026 and continue until the new jail is paid for. 

(info from Cochise County PIO).

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SAND BUT NO WATER… PIRATES OF THE DESERT WEEKEND

Can it be 14 years? Yep. The annual event will be happening August 8-10 and feature a mermaids, merchants, and merriment (alliterative groan), a pub crawl and a pirate ball at the Pythian Castle.Bring your own water.  For more info go here 

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BISBEE FORWARD ON THE MOVE

For some months, several business people have been meeting to discuss their perception that business was declining since the end of the pandemic, tourism efforts in Bisbee were failing to attract visitors compared to other cities in the county, consternation about the overall effectiveness of the marketing of the city, and an acknowledgment of the powerlessness as individual businesses to effect significant changes.

   That group has now formed an organization, Bisbee Forward, applied for a 501c6, attracted 35 members, elected officers with Steve Ball, B-Active business owner, as president.  Several other relatively new owners in Bisbee have been involved in the groups’ formation, and have formulated a way forward. Their first public appearance will be at the city council work session Tuesday August 5.

   Given my own history with two different business groups in Bisbee a decade ago-Better Bisbee, and the Bisbee Chamber of Commerce-I think this is a very positive development for Bisbee and I hope they mature into a formidable advocacy group. 

   The overall approach of Bisbee Forward is to focus on the things that we all have in common through a vision and analysis that is encompassing for all of Bisbee. It is a rejection of a scarcity approach to business and embraces abundance:

…scarcity-there is one big pie and if one business gets a piece another loses a piece

…and abundance-there is one big pie and if one business get some of it, it will help other businesses and the pie will get bigger because of that.

  Another real concern is that workers are being priced out of the housing market, making it more difficult for businesses to find employees. With visitation slowing  less money is flowing. Increasing visitation will help raise wages, keep employees, and circulate more money throughout town via indirect spending.

I think some of their presentation to the council will be using ADOR (Arizona Department of Revenue) statistics illustrating the decline of visitation.

While Bisbee’s total Sales Tax collections are coming in about flat (before inflation) with last year, when looking closer at the data there are some alarming numbers:

• Bisbee’s Bar & Restaurants are down 4.4% from last year, before inflation

• The largest industry component of Bisbee’s Tax collections is Retail, non-grocery. In addition to Ace, B&D, Safeway and the dollar stores, there are dozens of small independent retailers who combine to drive about 1/3 of Bisbee total sales taxes. 

  • These retailers are down 2.3% from last year, before inflation

• Bisbee’s lodging providers are really taking it on the chin. There was some negative press around the state after the Main St. fire, which hurt.

  • This year, hotels are off 6.5% and the bed tax coffers fell by over 9%

Considering the revenue lost is mostly from visitors, this is a very bad trend. It gets worse though, if you look at the 2nd half only (comparing 24 vs 25):

Bars/Restaurants off 9%

Lodging off 15%

A tourism multiplier means when a visitor leaves a dollar, it gets spent locally and passed around, so that it’s creating somewhere closer to $2 in economic activity.  When less visitors come, there’s less for Bisbeeites to spend with their neighbors too.  When adding it up, this is hurting our neighbors – there’s less hours, jobs, and lower tips.

One other point is that as these stats show, there is a difference between a city measuring itself vs budget, which the city does often showing a rosier picture, as opposed to Year/Year comparisons, which all businesses do and is a realistic measure

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TINY HOUSES

The tiny homes community planned for a 17-acre parcel in Bisbee was solidified this week when the City Council approved the sales and development agreement with the company that will build the residences.

The sales and development agreement shows that United Tiny Homes (UTH), based in Goodyear, will build on about 12 of the 17 acres referred to as Sierra Cobre off Melody Lane. While the development agreement between Bisbee and UTH says the company will erect 100 tiny houses, City Planner Melissa Hartman said she’s not sure that many will be built. UTH purchased the city parcel for $125,000. The land had been donated to the municipality by Step Up Bisbee Naco, a nonprofit that helps build affordable housing in the two areas. It partnered with the town’s Workforce Housing Initiative, a program that also assists city employees and other residents to buy their own houses so that they can stay in Bisbee.

The agreement also shows that the houses, as well as 34 short-term RV spaces, will be constructed in phases. The contract between the town and UTH is for five years and it could be extended for an additional five if needed to complete the project.

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GILMAN NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR HERDING CATS

Sharon Gilman is the new Cochise County Administrator and the first woman to hold the position. After serving as interim, the supes made it permanent in June.

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HOW MUCH HAS SUPE TOM CROSBY RAISED ON GOFUNDME?

Well. it says $0 raised, but he has chosen to protect his donations so it is impossible to know. It can’t be much cause he is asking taxpayers to pay him $300,000 for legal fees incurred and to be incurred. The two remaining supes have sent a letter to the county Insurer to pay for it. But….the insurers have said publicly that they would not pay for a county official that has ignored legal advice from the county attorney and done something illegal. That advice was given before he did something illegal and is now being charged with two felonies. Stay tuned.

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CHURCH MAY BE ON THE CROSS

A lawsuit by three sexually abused children can be reinstated and go forward after a ruling by the appellate court in their favor. The issue is to decide if the Latter Day Saints (LDS) church officials had a duty to report child abuse to law enforcement. The law says that bishops, pastors, priests are not required to report criminal acts when divulged in a confession; it is privileged communication. However the father of the children Paul Adams, a former border patrol agent, divulged the abuse to non clergy. LDS has held that those people who heard of the abuse are also protected from reporting it.

   The three children were sexually and physically abused for years. Adams was arrested in 2017 and subsequently killed himself while in custody.

   This is just one of thousands of cases where religious groups go to great lengths to protect abusers.

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WARREN HISTORIC DISTRICT APPLICATION MOVES TO DC

The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has unanimously approved the application from the City of Bisbee to approve the Warren district for historical status. The nomination from SHPO will be forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register in DC to place Warren on the National Register of Historic Places.

   There were 777 buildings and vacant lots in the application for historical status.

   A group of volunteers tried to gain the coveted status in 2014 but was rejected. In 2021 city planner Melissa Hartman revived the effort along with volunteers and a consultant an that resulted in the current application.

   There are benefits such as qualified historical structures can get a property tax break in addition to a likely rise in valuation. However a few possible drawbacks in that there are regulations about what can be done for improvements to the property.

   According to Mayor Budge, ““There will be no DRB (design review board) for Warren. There are 534 contributing resources and 215 non-contributing resources within the district. The only review needed would be if the homeowner wants to make a change that they think will jeopardize their status as a contributor, they will need to contact SHPO to review their plans. With this designation, the City is not responsible for review, only SHPO.””

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PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAM: WHAT AUDITS?

In the longest running reality show in history “The Many Ways of Screwing the Taxpayers”, the latest episode involves feeble oversight of the almost $1 billion AZ private school voucher program. 

   Arizona school voucher program ignored state audit law for nearly a year, officials say

For almost a year, Arizona’s school voucher program was too busy for Arizona Department of Education employees to even attempt to comply with a new state law requiring ongoing audits of voucher spending. Instead, the Empowerment Scholarship Account voucher program, known commonly as ESAs, focused on appeasing parents who opposed new purchase limits, while workers struggled to keep up with purchase reviews. (AZ Mirror)

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ARTEMISIA GALLERY HOSTS ‘REFLECTING REALITY’ EXHIBIT

The stunning gallery will host Phoenix based artist Lucretia Torva’s ‘Reflecting Reality’ exhibition opening on Saturday August 16 1-4. Free admission for this event. And the Beatles exhibit continues through August 10, free admission for Bisbee residents.

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DOUGLAS HOSTS SPARKS EXHIBIT

The Smithsonian Institution is making its way to Douglas with a dynamic new traveling exhibition celebrating creativity and innovation in small-town America.

Titled “Spark! Places of Innovation,” the exhibition opens Sunday, August 3, at the Grand Theatre Gallery on G Avenue and will be on display through September 13, 2025. It is being presented by the Border Arts Corridor (BAC) in partnership with Arizona Humanities. More info here

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……..….ELECTIONS 2026…………

There is a November 2025 election to fill the CD-7 Representative seat. Adelita Grijalva (D) against the whathisnaame (R). But the 2026 election machinations have already begun. Here’s the skinny.

BISBEE COUNCIL SEAT UP FOR 2026 ELECTION

These council seats are up for election in 2026.

Mayor….(Ken Budge is termed out and cannot run)

Ward 1…Leslie Johns

Ward 2….Pete Singer

Ward 3…Anna Cline

Details on the city’s website. For forms and information contact the city clerk here

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ARIZONA LEGISLATORS (Some of these folks are termed out, more on that in future issues.)

LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT LD-19 (most of the county cept along the border)

Gail Griffin-Rep

Lupe Dias-Rep

David Gowan-Sen

LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT LD-21 (Bisbee, Douglas, Yuma, basically the border cities)

Consuelo Hernandez-Rep

Stephanie Stahl Hamilton-Rep

Rosanna Gabaldón-Sen

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ON THE SOAP BOX…U BE IT!

“The White House strategy is Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. Trump and the Republicans would not be trying to rig the system if they thought they could win a majority of voters.” (from Heather Cox-Richardson

This riff from Citizens Engagement Beyond Voting gets to it. Nobody else is going fix it for us.

“…government works best when we participate. We can't simply trust the government--whether city council, legislature, or Congress--to perform to our satisfaction without our input. Trust is slowly built over many years but it can be destroyed in an instant. Our trust in the institutions of our federal government is crumbling and may take generations to rebuild. Only when we reinforce and guide the governing structures closer to home will we ensure our nation can stand tall again. 

Local actions can seem small. It's hard to see how offering a resolution at our town council or volunteering at the local Zoning Council will rebuild Congress or the courts. We want to cut to the chase and just fix it all 

Democracy works best when we live it. It has weakened over generations, from the inside out, because (guilty as charged!) we have relied on a few elected officials to represent us while we go about our daily business. Many people fail to vote because "one vote doesn't matter." But voting is only part of our task in a democracy: we need to participate. We need to live our democracy.”

From CEBV.

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LOCAL FIRST

An interesting discussion with Kimber Lanning of Local First. A coherent analysis food, energy, and financial systems that impact all of us living in AZ. It’s about local businesses, energy demands of data centers mean not enough to go around for regular folks and businesses, limiting local farms, local financial systems, and lots more. Go here:

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PRINT NEWSPAPER PUBLISHING IS DWINDLING

There are some big changes happening in the Arizona newspaper world. Locally, the Herald Review has reduced the number of print pages and will only publish on Wednesdays and Sundays. They have also let go one of the most environmentally knowledgeable Southern Arizona journalists, Shar Porier.  For the past couple of decades she has delved in water issues, particularly in the Sulphur Springs valley and the San Pedro river, as well as other climate related problems. She was the beat reporter for the County and Bisbee for years, keeping readers informed about what went on meetings and covering other issues in depth. She has been a fair and impartial reporter and her objective and impartial reporting will be sorely missed. 

   Within the state, the Gannet Printing plant in Phoenix is closing in October, moving printing of the Arizona Star and Arizona Republic to Las Vegas. The papers trucked to Tucson and Phoenix respectively. Three other smaller Gannet-owned California papers will now be printed in Riverside, CA. There will be 110 jobs lost when the plant closes. Gannet had sold the press building in 2023 for $38 million and has leased the plant since then. The Arizona Star in Tucson gave up their own printing presses about 2019 and has been printing in Phoenix with the paper trucked to Tucson. Although a company press release mentioned having the same delivery schedule, the news might be a day or more old when it hits the street. 

   Gannet will be closing their Detroit plant in August.  Thirty Five newspapers including the Detroit dailies, New York Times, USA Today, and WSJ, will now be printed in Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, and Michigan.

   All newspaper/media outlets are now, and have been, attempting to push print readers to digital.  It is a tougher sell for older people who might not be as facile with the tech involved but print readership among young people 40ish and under has been declining rapidly.

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DATA CENTERS FOR AI

(Go here to High Country News for a graphic look at water and energy usage for data centers.)

Residents of Tucson/Pima County have begun mulling over a semi-clandestine proposal for a 10 building data center near I-10. In the initial stages there are significant questions about water and energy usage, who pays the bill, and more. Initially the operator, Amazon, was kept secret and only because of a leak were they named. 

This is from the Arizona Mirror 

Regular energy consumers, not corporations, will bear the brunt of the increased costs of a boom in artificial intelligence that has contributed to a growth in data centers and a surge in power usage, recent research suggests.

Between 2024 and 2025, data center power usage accounted for $9 billion, or 174%, of increased power costs, a June report by Monitoring Analytics, an external market monitor for PJM Interconnection, found. PJM manages the electrical power grid and wholesale electric market for 13 states and Washington, D.C., and this spring, customers were told to expect roughly a $25 increase on their monthly electric bill starting June 1.

Nationwide, the US has more than 5,400 data centers, more than ten times the number in the next closest market in Germany, according to Cloudscene. And the numbers are expected to increase, particularly in rural areas, as the AI race heats up — even as some tech companies like Microsoft are pulling back on data center construction. (Amazon, the world’s largest seller of rented computing power and data storage, meanwhile, is planning to aggressively expand its portfolio.)

“The growth in data center load and the expected future growth in data center load are unique and unprecedented and uncertain and require a different approach than simply asserting that it is just supply and demand,” Monitoring Analytics’ report said.

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And this from Boondoggle (apropos the proposed data center in Tucson)

“Regular readers will know that big tech and its allies have pushed states to subsidize data center construction and maintenance as an economic development tool, even though data centers are nothing of the sort.

They create few jobs, have no knock-on economic development effects, and come with a bevy of costs to society, such as increased power demand and environmental degradation.

The only benefit they consistently provide is property tax revenue, as data centers usually sit on previously empty fields, but too many officials act as if the choice for their community is between a data center or nothing, when something more economically useful is equally as capable of providing property tax revenue. As I’ve said, the rhetoric used to push these programs is dumb, and the political maneuvering around their adoption is even dumber.

Nevertheless, more than 30 states provide public handouts for data centers. And here’s the crucial point: In none of those states is the amount that any one corporation can claim or that the state can pay out overall capped in any way. So as big tech spends more and more, state costs are going to spiral out of control, and there will be nothing anyone in public office can do about it absent legislative changes.”

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EPSTEIN; CHILD MOLESTER, SEX TRAFFICER, BFOT

You may have heard of this, the one time BFOT (best friend of trump)….how could you not. Trump protects the rich; it is that simple.

   This is not complicated stuff. Epstein had hundreds of videos and other recordings of men having sex with young girls and women. When he was arrested in NY, those vids were confiscated by the NY police and FBI. It is not a big deal to reviews the vids and identify the people in them without revealing the underage women/girls.

This Bloomberg article has some heretofore buried information. Might be paywalled.

The NYT article has other details.

The FBI report.

The NPR timeline.

………….FOOD………

IT AIN’T CHICKEN FEED

Chicken processor Pilgrim’s, which is majority owned by Brazilian meat giant JBS, has posted an increase in profits as consumers increasingly turn to chicken for its protein content and affordability compared to other meats. First-quarter profit margins for Pilgrim’s reached a record 14.8%. (JBS is the biggest protein producer in the world in terms of revenue and operates over 400 production facilities in 22 countries. In 2024, JBS S.A. achieved a net revenue of $77.2 billion in the United States, a 14.6% increase compared to the previous year. This growth was driven by strong global demand for pork and chicken, leading to a net profit of $1.8 billion,)

   U.S. poultry demand has exploded in recent years, displacing a substantial amount of red-meat consumption, according to the National Chicken Council. Americans are expected to eat a record 104.1 pounds of chicken next year compared to 109 pounds of red meat, marking the closest margin between the two categories since tracking began in 1960. (Food Dive)

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JFK jr. GETS COOKIN; US CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN FOOD SAFETY PLUMMETS

New research from the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

The group found that the number of Americans who are very or somewhat confident in the safety of the US food supply in 2025 has reached 55%, the lowest recorded point in the 13-years IFIC has measured attitudes on food supply safety. In 2024, 62% of respondents were very or somewhat confident, and 70% were in 2023. Confidence has declined across all age demographics, led by Gen Z (down 10%), then Gen X (7%), millennials (5%) and baby boomers (5%).

Among groups with low confidence in the safety of US foods, primary causes include believing profit is prioritized over safety, thinking that “not all parts of the food system work together to ensure safety,” government regulations being insufficient and food recalls being too frequent. (Food Dive)

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SHIPPING CONTAINER VOLUME DOWN 7.9%; LESS STUFF=HIGHER PRICES

New data showing the number of shipping containers carrying US imports fell for a second straight month, setting the stage for one of the sharpest year-on-year reversals on record. This was based on the 10 largest US ports, that said inbound container volume fell 7.9% in June from a year before. Similar declines during the global financial crisis and the pandemic were short-term slumps. In this case, however, he estimated that a 25% reduction in US container volumes is “readily possible” and would translate “directly into a $510 billion reduction in annual commerce for the US.” 

(From Bloomberg)

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US RESIDENTS ON THE MOVE

U-Haul releases a report twice a year detailing where people are moving to and moving from, based on their rental stats. “With nearly half of all residential moves in the U.S. occurring between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends each year, the U-Haul midyear migration trends report answers the question: “Where did those new neighbors come from?

Many of the largest U.S. metros are in growth mode — a change from what was seen following the COVID-19 pandemic when people took advantage of remote work and migrated to less-crowded markets. More recently, big cities and their expanding suburbs are back to greeting a robust inflow of U-Haul equipment.” Go here for the full report

These stats are for Phoenix, the only AZ city in the report.

Top origin states for arriving U-Haul customers (excluding Arizona)

1.  California

2.  Texas

3.  Colorado

4.  Nevada

5.  Washington

6.  Utah

7.  New Mexico

8.  Oregon

9.  Illinois

10.                Florida

Top origin metro areas for arriving U-Haul customers outside Arizona

1.  Los Angeles, CA

2.  Las Vegas, NV

3.  Denver, CO

4.  Salt Lake City, UT

5.  Seattle, WA

Top origin metro areas for arriving U-Haul customers within Arizona

·      Tucson

·      Prescott

·      Flagstaff

·      Lake Havasu City

·      Yuma

WANNA BET SPORTS BETTING IS A PROBLEM? YOU BETCHA!

Between July 7 and 9, U.S. News ran a nationwide survey, conducted through PureSpectrum, of Americans who've placed a sports bet in the last six months. We asked the 1,200 respondents about their betting habits and finances, and how their sports betting impacts various aspects of their financial health. Here's what we found:

• One-quarter of sports bettors say they've been unable to pay a bill because of wagers they made. Some respondents say they bet their rent money on sporting events.

• Almost a third (30%) of sports bettors say they have debts they attribute to gambling. Of those with debts related to sports betting, more than half (51%) are facing debts of $500 or more.

• Over 15% of sports bettors say they've taken out a personal loan to fund their wagers. And 12% of respondents say they've taken out high-interest payday loans to bankroll their bets.

• More than half (52%) of sports bettors say they carry a credit card balance from month to month. About 45% say they haven't saved up enough emergency funds to cover three to six months of living expenses, the amount many financial experts recommend.

• One-quarter of sports bettors worry that they can't control their gambling. About 9% of respondents say they've sought treatment for a gambling addiction.

• 21% of sports bettors say they've verbally abused an athlete, either in person or online, after losing money on a bet. More than a quarter of respondents between the ages of 35 and 44 say they've lashed out at an athlete over a wager, the highest rate of any age group in the survey.

Go here for the eye opening article.

Interesting reading…

The Atlantic 6/25

·     Donald Trump is Enjoying This-An explanation by Trump  how he won in 2024

·     When Buckley met Baldwin

Wired 7-8/25

o  The Sky High Ambitions of Jay Graber (about Bluesky)

o  The God of DMT

o  A Billion Streams and no Fans (prevelance of AI music)

APPEALS COURT RULES CONCENTRATION OF LOCAL TV STATION OK

Local media mergers incoming: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Federal Communications Commission rules that prohibit TV conglomerates from owning more than one of the “top four” stations in a given market. (Arizona Agenda). And that is because…

… 9 of the 10 richest men in America are media executives and owners. They are gobbling up media outlets so that they can control the message.

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MYTHS OF MENOPAUSE

An interesting article about how both women and men have been/are wrong about menopause and perimenopause. Especially bout how the benefits of hormone therapy outweigh the risks;  “…For example, estrogen pills typically aren’t advised for people at high risk of blood clots, because they can increase the liver’s production of clotting proteins. But estrogen skin patches don’t do that. And low-dose vaginal estrogen for urinary and genital symptoms is safe for everyone,…” Go here for the NYT piece, may be paywalled.

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CUTS IN PUBLIC BROADCASTING ARE A SOUR NOTE FOR MUSICIANS

Corporation for Public Broadcasting will lose their funding in October and will close early next year.  It is becoming clearer that what that means is not only news, but weather, emergencies, and music will be cut. Musicians are paid a teeny amount every time one of their copyrighted songs are played. Several companies such as ASCAP, BMI, and other collect royalties for musicians from those entities that play copyrighted music publicly. CPB negotiated with several of the largest licensees and that agreement covered all public stations getting CPB funds. That is now under discussion and likely will be terminated. That will be a large loss of revenue for musicians.

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PROTECTING THE VOTERS

Republicans put up bills to change the early ballot drop-off deadline, ban voting centers and set a deadline for voters to update their names on the Active Early Voting List, but Gov Hobbs used her Veto pen and  said those measures to speed up election results would also prevent people from voting. (AZ Agenda)

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