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Tim Steller

@timsteller.bsky.social
2.6K followers 312 following 984 posts

Metro columnist, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Email: tsteller@tucson.com Signal: timsteller.87

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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Column: The cooler weather means that ideal tree-planting season is arriving in Tucson. Expert gardeners say it's time to stop planting citrus and other water-sucking, non-native fruit trees. The summer heat has just grown too hot and winter is too warm. tucson.com/instagram/ar...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Climate reality bites Tucson’s citrus tree tradition
Learn how the changing climate in Tucson is affecting fruit trees, prompting a shift towards growing heat-tolerant and native plants.
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Jim Lokay @jimlokay.com · 29/09/2026
If you want to really know how the outrage machine gets fired up: 1. Schmitt plans to drop “bombshell” on Smith 2. Someone plants story that Schmitt is a Vance VP contender to run same day 3. Right-wing Twittersphere gets talking points 4. Schmitt steps in it 5. Scheduled tweets go out anyway
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
For my nearly 30 years at the Arizona Daily Star, @tucson.com, USA Today Co. (formerly Gannett) has been a major presence, most recently as half-owner. Now, finally, USA Today Co. has acquired the Star in a trade of papers with Lee Enterprises. I'm feeling hopeful. tucson.com/news/local/a...
tucson.com
Arizona Daily Star becomes part of USA TODAY Network
USA TODAY Co. acquired the Arizona Daily Star in a deal with Lee Enterprises, expanding its news presence and audience reach across Arizona.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Column: As Pres. Trump becomes a liability to Republican candidates. Rep. Juan Ciscomani is proclaiming how bipartisan he has been. It's only true if you leave aside the most important votes he has cast, on issues like Medicaid and food aid, tariffs and the Iran war. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Ciscomani ‘bipartisan’ except when it mattered most
Independent analyses say Rep. Juan Ciscomani has been bipartisan and effective. But those measures prize small moves and miss the big moments, when Ciscomani sided with Trump.
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 26/09/2026
Independent analyses say Rep. Juan Ciscomani has been bipartisan and effective. But those measures prize small moves and miss the big moments, when Ciscomani sided with Trump.
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Ciscomani ‘bipartisan’ except when it mattered most
Independent analyses say Rep. Juan Ciscomani has been bipartisan and effective. But those measures prize small moves and miss the big moments, when Ciscomani sided with Trump.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 25/09/2026
An individual in Canada used ChatGPT for eight months to plan one of the country’s worst mass shootings. Yet, if you listen to politicians and media, the real threat of AI is a fantastical scenario where it might wipe out humans in ten years. They need to stop getting fooled by tech deceivers.
disconnect.blog
The media has the AI threat all wrong
Generative AI is harming people today. We don’t need to waste time fantasizing about science fictional scenarios.
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 25/09/2026
Gov. Katie Hobbs is siding with the Tohono O'odham Nation in its bid to at least delay work on a border wall the federal government wants to build along its
tucson.com
Arizona governor sides with Tohono O'odham in fight against border wall
Gov. Katie Hobbs is siding with the Tohono O'odham Nation in its bid to at least delay work on a border wall the federal government wants to build along its
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Glad about the result, but I don’t think it speaks well of us as a country that after two years of human rights violations, war crimes, naked gangster corruption, and contempt for the Constitution, he’s finally unpopular because gas got expensive.
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 25/09/2026
Park Place mall, one of Tucson's last enclosed malls, is now on the market. The 1.1 million-square-foot property includes major tenants like Dillard’s and Century Theaters. No asking price is listed.
tucson.com
For sale: Tucson's Park Place mall
Park Place mall, one of Tucson's last enclosed malls, is now on the market. The 1.1 million-square-foot property includes major tenants like Dillard’s and Century Theaters. No asking price is listed.
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Deva Woodly @devawo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Meanwhile the real miraculous future tech is solar & mRNA vaccines: preserving the planet and curing cancer. But we’re supposed to hand everything over to malevolent peeping toms and resource oubliettes for an ill defined ‘pay no attention to the man behind the curtain’ progress. It isn’t rational.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 24/09/2026
CNN pulled a clip of Michele Tafoya recently saying "I've never said I was embarrassed to be from Minnesota" and then displays an unearthed and deleted tweet of her saying "I am embarrassed to be from Minnesota" 🥴
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Column: The proposal is paradoxical when you think about it: Let us build and water a new golf course in Tucson, and we'll clean up the PFAS-polluted groundwater. What's really needed is for the Air Force to stop punishing Tucson for not drinking PFAS-contaminated water. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Air Force, not golf course, should solve Tucson water pollution
For Star subscribers: When you ponder it, the proposal is paradoxical: Tucson is being asked to support a new golf course to help solve its groundwater problem. In reality, that’s
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Today's forecast brought to you by the Arizona-New Mexico border, a magical place where weather bumps up against its limits.
Screenshot of National Weather Service map showing a green flash flood watch that runs the entire western border of New Mexico but stops there, with no flood watch along Arizona's entire eastern border.
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Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I just think it’s strange that all the gambling companies have ads with athletes and celebrities instead of featuring all their users who have become millionaires betting, very strange indeed
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Column: The City Council's options were simple -- yes or no. But the renaming of a Tucson park was compicated not just by the recent sexual-assault allegations against Cesar Chavez but also by a longstanding fracture in Tucson's West Side politics. tucson.com/news/local/c...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Council overreacts on Tucson park name rejection
Explore the complexities surrounding the Tucson City Council's decision to impose a moratorium on park renamings, delving into the impact of historical accusations and political relationships on the r...
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Emily M. Bender @emilymbender.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
And every day there is more Fresh AI Hell. What's worse than polluting the information ecosystem with synthetic text dressed up to look like news? Dressing it up further as the work of fake Indigenous journalists: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
cbc.ca
‘Very harmful’: website uses AI to generate northern Indigenous news ‘correspondents’ | CBC News
The website WE NEWS has three northern Indigenous 'AI correspondents.' Their profiles say they are 'a member of Yukon First Nation,' 'of Dene heritage,' and 'an Inuk raised in the North.' Experts in t...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
There have always been humans who thought: 1) The world will end soon 2) It will happen in a cool, exciting way 3) It’ll happen to me personally 4) I’ll be a martyred prophet, or a warlord, or otherwise special 5) People who don’t see this are lesser “Sexy apocalypse” is a great phrase for that
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Political Notebook: Those "Evil Torta" signs around Tucson are among a handful of unusual campaign signs lining our streets this season. I talked with the man who started the "Evil Torta" campaign along with the "approachable" candidate for state senate and others. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Political Notebook: ‘Evil Torta’ signs part of Tucsonan’s political project
Mystifying political signs around Tucson start with ‘Evil Torta’
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Correct me if I'm wrong: The real existential threat posed by AI is that our economy is dependent on this industry, which is so hyped that a bubble has built up and may burst, not so much that it will escape control and attack humanity. That's just sex cult doomerism paid for by Peter Thiel. Right?
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I hate that we have to care what these self-involved people think or are like. Unfortunately, in the AI world that has become our world, they are important.
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Evan Sutton @evansutton.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don't know who's helping Macklemore with his strategy and comms around this, but he and his team are putting on a fucking clinic on how to dog-walk your opposition lol
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Ed Sheeran at his next show
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
When people get angry about proposed data centers, as they have in the Tucson area, it's not just about the projects themselves. It's also about asserting some control over the AI-driven future. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Data center opposition is about gaining some control
For Star subscribers: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes got pushback for requesting a moratorium on new data centers in Arizona. She’s just voicing people’s wish for some control over the
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Column: Much of Tucson doesn't realize that the streetcar, far from being a downtown plaything, serves as real mass transit for U of A students and employees. It could do better and turn around last year's declines in ridership if it had reliable, reasonable wait times. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Tucson streetcar needs reliability to fulfill potential
Explore the significance of Tucson's streetcar as a vital transit option for the University of Arizona community, its recent operational challenges and the ongoing efforts to improve service efficienc...
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This conflict, between a tribe with a huge reservation west of Tucson and the federal government, is poised for a flare-up if and when the feds start border wall construction.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
It lived up to its nickname, Tilt-A-Hurl, last time I took it.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Column: Tucson suffers another violent blow, this one not our town's fault. Whose was it? I suspect more key information is yet to be discovered, but for now I see it this way: The Gambia gave him the ammunition, his beliefs, and the United States gave him the gun. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Tucson bar killings spur accusation, introspection
The alarming killings at a Tucson gay bar Monday aren’t so simply explained, and they extend the metro area’s series of upsetting, high-profile crimes.
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Arizona Mirror @azmirror.com · 04/09/2026
Eli Crane is among Republicans nationwide reworking their message amid Trump's rising unpopularity story via @jerodmacevoy.com
azmirror.com
Eli Crane scrubs ‘forever wars’ and spending pledges he voted against from campaign website
Changes Eli Crane made to his website include dropping anti-war and spending pledges he voted against as his re-election race tightens
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 03/09/2026
Tucson could be getting its first WinCo Foods location after the grocery chain purchased nearly 12 acres of commercial property on East Broadway for $18 million.
tucson.com
WinCo Foods discount grocery chain buys $18M property in Tucson
Tucson could be getting its first WinCo Foods location after the grocery chain purchased nearly 12 acres of commercial property on East Broadway for $18 million.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Tucson suffered another violent blow this week with the killings of two men outside a gay bar called the Venture-N. It happened about 12:30 a.m. Monday. I heard about it later that morning when working nearby and helped cover it. Later, police said it was a hate crime. tucson.com/news/local/c...
tucson.com
Double killing in Tucson investigated as a hate crime
A gunman kills two men at a Tucson gay bar in a suspected hate crime, shocking the close-knit community of regulars.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This was a crazy global soccer episode yesterday. As the transfer deadline closed, U.S. player Balogun nixed his own transfer because of the way the buying team, Everton, treated him. Kinda cool actually.
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Supriya Dwivedi @supriya.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
here’s me from last night on power & politics re: the recent behaviour of the Trump administration towards Canada
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 02/09/2026
If Wednesday’s vigil wasn’t for him, Cameron Davis Capara would have been photographing it.
tucson.com
Friends: Tucson shooting victim used camera to document injustices
If Wednesday’s vigil wasn’t for him, Cameron Davis Capara would have been photographing it.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Rest in peace, Wendell Berry.
The Peace of Wild Things
Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

from Openings: Poems (1968)
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The Associated Press @apnews.com · 31/08/2026
BREAKING: One person died and 15 others are missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood at the Grand Canyon. The National Park Service said the body of a 46-year-old man was recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River.
bit.ly
Grand Canyon flooding knocks out water pipeline serving tourists at the national park, officials say
One person has died and about 15 people are missing or unaccounted for after a major flash flood at the Grand Canyon.
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WIRED @wired.com · 30/08/2026
After Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the name change, Google is the first major online maps provider to flip the switch. www.wired.com/story/google...
wired.com
Google Maps Now Shows ‘Lake America’ Instead of Lake Ontario
After Donald Trump’s executive order demanding the name change, Google is the first major online maps provider to flip the switch.
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Clay Ranck @clayranck.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The next Dem president should change the name to Lake Google Sucks for a week and then restore it to Lake Ontario to force Google to humiliate itself or show their hypocrisy.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Column: Tucson-area elected officials are fluent in the language of social services and sustainability but not business. So their economic development efforts are focused on social services and sustainability. In Tucson's economic malaise, we can't afford to be so choosy. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Choosy Tucson governments seek ideal business fit
The Tucson area’s economy is in a malaise. Still, after last summer’s data-center debacle, elected officials are being choosy, maybe too choosy, about which industries to court.
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 28/08/2026
The Trump administration is suing the Arizona Board of Regents over its voter-mandated policy of allowing students without legal immigration status to pay the same tuition as other Arizona residents.
tucson.com
U.S. sues Arizona over tuition for undocumented immigrants
The Trump administration is suing the Arizona Board of Regents over its voter-mandated policy of allowing students without legal immigration status to pay the same tuition as other Arizona residents.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Last week the Tucson City Council was asked to approve a long-planned transfer of land to the Air Force on behalf of Raytheon, a massive employer here that makes Tomahawk missiles and other products. A council member raised awkward questions that usually go unspoken. www.youtube.com/live/f_Lv7U1...
youtube.com
Tucson Mayor and City Council Meetings AUG 18, 2026
YouTube video by CityofTucson
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southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This is a more significant breakdown in the fundamental bonds of the union than the headline might imply. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/u... 🎁
nytimes.com
ICE agent Christian Castro Released From Texas Jail After Minnesota Loses Court Fight (Gift Article)
The state had sought to have the agent extradited from Texas to answer charges in Minneapolis related to an on-duty shooting that wounded an immigrant.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I need someone to tell Florence, as well as the Machine, that the dog days are far from over in Tucson, where it was 110 (43 Celsius) today. The dog days are NOT over even thought their earworm song keeps telling me so.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Column: It took a while, but the city of Tucson appears to be getting serious about transit security. We need safety if we're going to have a better-used Sun Tran system, and a better used system is a safer system. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Tucson transit finally getting safety upgrades
Learn about the new Transit Safety and Security Action Plan in Tucson, addressing safety concerns on buses, streetcars, and at stops and transit centers, along with details on the initiatives being im...
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FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is not an unusual scene in most bigger cities, but it’s encouraging for me to see packed city buses in Tucson like the one I rode yesterday. Transit has been fare-free here since the pandemic, which costs the city an additional $10 million per year. It’s controversial, but jury is still out.
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#StupidSuez @diplomatofnight.com · 24/08/2026
New York Magazine says in response to criticism of its latest issue that “genocide” is “an accurate description of the atrocities in Gaza [...] and that accusations of antisemitic intent were in fact obfuscating an overwhelming ­scholarly consensus, and that its use would be allowed in our pages”
Some objected to the magazine’s use of the term genocide to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza. Close readers will recognize that this was not a decision specific to this series. This past fall, after an extensive review of genocide scholarship and interviews with multiple experts in the field of genocide studies, the magazine’s editors decided the term was an accurate description of the atrocities in Gaza, that accusations of antisemitic intent were in fact obfuscating an overwhelming ­scholarly consensus, and that its use would be allowed in our pages.
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Arizona Daily Star @tucson.com · 25/08/2026
A SWAT operation on the city's east side is connected to the search for suspect Alex James Barnett in the shooting of Tucson police recruit Carlos Ramirez. Barnett remains at large despite police efforts.
tucson.com
SWAT surrounds apartment in search for man wanted in Tucson police recruit killing
A SWAT operation on the city's east side is connected to the search for suspect Alex James Barnett in the shooting of Tucson police recruit Carlos Ramirez. Barnett remains at large despite police efforts.
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Molly Ploofkins @mollyploofkins.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Spiderman beating Jake Lang's ass in Minneapolis
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Tim Steller @timsteller.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Column: The disproportionate dispute over a $122,000 Pima County contract is about a lot more than the contract. It's about the practice of patronage in the Tucson area and about political rivalry, as networks rise, fall and shift in character. tucson.com/news/local/s...
tucson.com
Tim Steller’s column: Contract dispute shows Tucson politics changing
For Star subscribers: The controversy over a Pima County grant to a small nonprofit shows how Tucson politics are changing, as a new political group challenges the dominant network.
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Anu @nofirstorder.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
He’s just trying out new personalities until one finally polls above single digits.
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