This is the self-imposed assignment that convinced me to never ever go into the business of news reporting. Especially on shit I know nothing about.
Journalists are so annoying.
TUCSON – The number of people entering the United States illegally has decreased by 30 percent since last year, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.
This February, the Tucson Sector of the Border Patrol apprehended 34,164 migrants, compared with 43,153 arrests in February 2006, according to the Tucson Border Patrol Office.
Spokesman Gustavo Soto said the border is becoming "harder and harder to cross," since the federal government bolstered the Tucson Sector's force from 2,400 to 2,600 agents over the last year.
Agents, however, have received help from an outside patrol group: the Minutemen.
"The Border Patrol is spread thin," said Lance Altherr, director for the Tucson Chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps., which has gained at least 100 new members in the last year.
Altherr said the dramatic decrease in apprehensions does not reflect a decline in actual immigrant activity at the border. There are simply fewer illegal entrants being caught – a fact he said is undoubtedly linked to the Minutemen's success.
"We consider ourselves almost the third line of defense," Altherr said. "[Migrants] stay away because they kinow we're there."
No More Deaths, a Tucson-based humanitarian organization, has performed more rescues in the desert since December, but attributes this increase to normal seasonal patterns.
"We're doing just as much work as we've ever done," said Carrie Berry, a volunteer.
I'm sure you'd rather be reading a zine about the many varieties of air guitar, or how much I love muffins...
martedì 17 aprile 2007
martedì 27 febbraio 2007
Sex Workers Art Show
TUCSON – Renowned performers from around the world convened Feb. 1 in hopes of smashing negative stereotypes about the sex industry.
The Sex Workers Art Show stopped in Tucson for one evening of its monthlong national tour to perform burlesque, short stories, and drag cabaret intending to reveal the realities of prostitution. The 10 p.m. performance brought a few hundred people to the Space on East Congress Street.
“People are talented in different ways,” said Dan McCormick, 33. “I think this will open people’s eyes.”
Though lauded by students, hipsters and crossdressers in downtown Tucson, the program met religious opposition at Bucknell College last spring, and at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. last week.
United Families International, who did not attend the protests but support the American Family Association’s boycott of the Sex Workers Art Show, argued that using taxpayer dollars to support the mainstreaming of prostitution is a “blight on our country.”
Marcia Barlow, UFI regional director for Pinal and Gila counties, said prostitution is counterproductive to women’s rights, evident in the increased amount of trafficking in countries where it has been legalized.
“Making [prostitution] look like a valid profession is dangerous,” Barlow said. “I think women choose that path because they have no other options.”
The International Union of Sex Workers, however, maintains that prostitution is beneficial to society. According to the website, prostitutes discourage rape by satisfying clients with repressed and confused sexualities, thereby eliminating their propensity to target women on the street.
The union’s official statement demands “an end to social attitudes which stigmatise those who are or have been sex workers.”
In keeping with this demand, the art show’s performers addressed and contradicted common stereotypes associated with sex work.
Writer Amber Dawn, a former prostitute, performed a story titled “The Fisherman,” in which a group of women working at a massage parlor make fun of a large customer and his limpness problem, as though he were an eccentric regular at a convenience store or diner.
In a following burlesque performance, Dirty Martini – with mock excitement – pulled copious amounts of dollar bills from her outfit while dancing to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
“It showed that sex workers are intelligent people with ideals,” said Clay Letson, a substitute teacher at Satori Charter School.
The Sex Workers Art Show tour will continue through early March, performing at colleges and art galleries across the country.
The Sex Workers Art Show stopped in Tucson for one evening of its monthlong national tour to perform burlesque, short stories, and drag cabaret intending to reveal the realities of prostitution. The 10 p.m. performance brought a few hundred people to the Space on East Congress Street.
“People are talented in different ways,” said Dan McCormick, 33. “I think this will open people’s eyes.”
Though lauded by students, hipsters and crossdressers in downtown Tucson, the program met religious opposition at Bucknell College last spring, and at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. last week.
United Families International, who did not attend the protests but support the American Family Association’s boycott of the Sex Workers Art Show, argued that using taxpayer dollars to support the mainstreaming of prostitution is a “blight on our country.”
Marcia Barlow, UFI regional director for Pinal and Gila counties, said prostitution is counterproductive to women’s rights, evident in the increased amount of trafficking in countries where it has been legalized.
“Making [prostitution] look like a valid profession is dangerous,” Barlow said. “I think women choose that path because they have no other options.”
The International Union of Sex Workers, however, maintains that prostitution is beneficial to society. According to the website, prostitutes discourage rape by satisfying clients with repressed and confused sexualities, thereby eliminating their propensity to target women on the street.
The union’s official statement demands “an end to social attitudes which stigmatise those who are or have been sex workers.”
In keeping with this demand, the art show’s performers addressed and contradicted common stereotypes associated with sex work.
Writer Amber Dawn, a former prostitute, performed a story titled “The Fisherman,” in which a group of women working at a massage parlor make fun of a large customer and his limpness problem, as though he were an eccentric regular at a convenience store or diner.
In a following burlesque performance, Dirty Martini – with mock excitement – pulled copious amounts of dollar bills from her outfit while dancing to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
“It showed that sex workers are intelligent people with ideals,” said Clay Letson, a substitute teacher at Satori Charter School.
The Sex Workers Art Show tour will continue through early March, performing at colleges and art galleries across the country.
A brief introduction.
Not that I don't have enough blogs already, between Myspace and a retired livejournal and many personal journals that no one gets to read... but this exists for the purpose of receiving feedback on the stories I'm currently writing in journalism school.
The usual nonsense will remain in my other blogs, and in personal journals that you will probably never read.
Enjoy, send me praise and criticism, tell me what's missing. Can you think of a more gripping angle? An issue important to you that deserves its own story?
Keep in mind I'm a first-year student, so these are the first legitimate articles I've written. :)
The usual nonsense will remain in my other blogs, and in personal journals that you will probably never read.
Enjoy, send me praise and criticism, tell me what's missing. Can you think of a more gripping angle? An issue important to you that deserves its own story?
Keep in mind I'm a first-year student, so these are the first legitimate articles I've written. :)
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