HOLIDAY SPECIALS, MORE NEWS & A NEW CHANNEL

posted to From the General Manager by Laura McKee

Arizona Public Media has a host of exciting specials to inspire your Thanksgiving holiday spirit. AZPM’s winter television membership campaign, “Home for the Holidays,” starts over the Thanksgiving weekend and includes some very special holiday programs; two Nature programs, Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air and Christmas in Yellowstone, Great Performances: Andrea Bocelli and David Foster: My Christmas and Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes just to name a few. Please tune in, enjoy the festive programs and consider a pledge to AZPM to show your support.

Local news on NPR 89.1 FM now begins one hour earlier on weekdays (5:00 a.m.) and coming in 2012, AZPM will add weekend newscasts on NPR 89.1. These changes are the result of a strategic initiative to produce more local news content for and about our community, and made possible through your generous membership support.

Arizona Public Media takes pride in our community programs. In partnership with the Pima County Library and Community Cinema, Now Showing at Your Library film series features screenings of films from the Emmy® Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. This month the featured film is We Still Live Here, the story of the revival of the language of the Wampanoag nation in southeastern Massachusetts. This is the first time a language with no Native speakers has been revived in this country. Click here for a list of Pima County Library locations and film schedules.

If you liked Create TV – you’ll love ReadyTV. ReadyTV is Southern Arizona’s new lifelong learning channel and another step in AZPM’s strategic plan to provide more original programming. Having made great strides with local news programs such as Arizona Week and Political Roundtable, ReadyTV, with its dedicated how-to and lifestyle programming, provides an entertaining and enriching destination for viewers in Southern Arizona who like to cook, build, travel, garden, craft, paint, do yoga, enjoy music, and so much more! ReadyTV includes your favorite programs such as master chef Julia Child, This Old House, Rick Steve’s Europe, and The Desert Speaks. Find it on Comcast channel 201, Cox channel 82 or Broadcast channel 6-3.

Other PBS-HD 6 programming highlights for November include:

The American in Primetime series continues with the final episode The Crusader on Sunday, the 20th at 7 p.m. The Crusader, delves into the increasingly grey area between right and wrong as television heroes confront internal demons while seeking their own forms of justice. Guests include the creators, writers and actors from the televisions series 4, Dexter, MASH, House, The Wire* and more. Go here for an advance video clip.

The final two episodes of the NOVA, Fabric of the Cosmos series air consecutively on Wednesday the 16th with a double header, Quantum Leap at 8 p.m. followed by Universe or Multiverseat 9 p.m. Join physicist and accomplished author Brian Greene on a mind-bending journey through space, time, and the universe with the final two episodes.

PBS Arts Fall Festival Series continues on Friday night, Nov. 18th at 9:30 p.m. with PBS Arts from Cleveland: Women Who Rock. Inspired by the "Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power" exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, "Women Who Rock" reveals new insights into what it means to be female in the male-dominated world of rock and roll, while exploring how those dynamics between the sexes have changed with time. Hosted by Cyndi Lauper. Learn more here.

Woody Allen: American Masters premieres over two nights, Sunday the 20th and Monday the 21st at 9 p.m. This documentary provides unprecedented access to this notoriously private film legend’s life and creative process, from his childhood to his most recent film Midnight in Paris.

Saturday nights now feature our new commercial-free Hollywood at Home film series. On Nov. 19th PBS-HD 6 airs the Academy® Award winning romantic comedy, Moonstruck, starring Cher, Nicholas Cage and Olympia Dukakis. On Thanksgiving Day we present a movie marathon*. For film schedules and fun film trivia click here.

On behalf of all of us at AZPM, please accept our very best wishes to you and your family for a festive Thanksgiving. As always, thank you for your viewership, listenership and continued support of Arizona Public Media.

Jack Gibson

SIBELIUS EIGHTH SYMPHONY?

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Finnish music scholars--or at least a couple of them--think they may have found enough sketches to piece together the Eighth Symphony of Sibelius, something the composer was known to have been working on in his later years, but it was believed that he'd ultimately burned almost all of what he'd done. Recently, though, experts have been sifting through some 800 pages of sketches Sibelius didn't burn, and there's some loose talk of stitching them together into a full symphony. Caution is in order. How can they be sure that all these pages really are related to the symphony, and not other things? Of those that can be connected to the symphony, how do they know that these are not rejected scraps, and that the destroyed manuscript contained quite different material? Nevertheless, they are forging ahead, and three fragments adding up to about two minutes of material have been performed and can be found online. Read this article for the background, then check out the video by going to this page and clicking the button below the photo.

GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, IN HER OWN WORDS

posted to Political Buzz by Michael Chihak

In an audio recording, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made the following statement, her first since Jan. 8, to her fellow Southern Arizonans. The audio is posted on Giffords' Facebook page. Here's what she said:

"Hello, this is Gabby Giffords.

"I miss you. I miss Tucson, the mountains, blue skies, even the heat.

"I'm getting stronger. I'm getting better.

"It has been a hard year - for all of us. Thinking about that day makes me sad. Six people died. Six innocent people. So many people hurt.

"There is lot to say. I will speak better.

"I want to get back to work. Representing Arizona is my honor.

"My staff is there to help you. They keep me informed on your behalf.

"I miss you, I miss home. I will see you real soon.

"Thank you."

PEARCE RECALL ANALYSIS CONTINUES

posted to Political Buzz by Michael Chihak

The conservative stronghold that is the Arizona Legislature isn't immediately imperiled by the recall of Russell Pearce.

Given that Republicans still hold a 21-9 edge in the chamber and that Pearce is being replaced by another conservative, Jerry Lewis, the agenda should continue.

It just may continue in a slightly less dogmatic and acerbic way. And there may be a level of pragmatism added to the mix from new Senate President Steve Pierce of Prescott.

Arizona Capitol Times Senate reporter Luige del Puerto tells us that one potential area of change will be in the approach to immigration legislation. Russell Pearce pushed a new wave of anti-immigration bills in the spring, only to have them rebuffed by fellow Republicans, including Steve Pierce.

But del Puerto says if the details of that package of bills changes, even a tweaking, it could come back and be acceptable to the pragmatists.

Their worry about the bills from last spring was that with the Legislature pushing so hard, it was giving Arizona a bad reputation. Fifty big-name business leaders in the state urged the Legislature to back off.

Meanwhile, Democrats who think this is an opportunity for them to make some headway have two hard facts to face:

• First, the GOP still holds super majorities for another full year AND the governor's seat, plus every other state elected office for another three years.

• Second, Dems still can't get out the vote. Despite Democrats winning the Tucson mayoral race and all three City Council seats up for grabs, Republicans had an edge of several points over Democrats in turnout. In heavily Democratic Sunnyside School District, voter turnout was 19 percent.

PREVIEW OF FRIDAY'S PROGRAM: OCTOBER JOBS

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Melanie Huonker

The Arizona Department of Administration will release its October jobs report Thursday at a 10 a.m. press conference in Phoenix.

The report is expected to show if there will be a temporary increase in retail sector jobs in preparation for the holiday season. For the past year, the jobs report demonstrated an upward look for Arizona.

In September, the Arizona Republic reported, the state unemployment rate fell to 9.1 percent, dropping two-tenths of a point to match the U.S. rate. Arizona added 26,100 jobs.

The hiring of school employees at the beginning of the school year helped the state add 19,600 public sector jobs. The private sector added 4,100 jobs. This marked the first month since 2006 that Arizona added rather than eliminated private sector jobs.

Another section that saw gains was construction, which added 3,700 jobs. That's a 6.3% increase from August.

However, according to the Phoenix Business Journal, the September jobs reports showed that Phoenix had a 155 percent growth in the number of people out of work, compared with four years earlier, an increase of 104,000.

Furthermore, according to the Arizona Republic, professional services in finance and business lost jobs, each dropping 1,500.

What will the jobs report look like for October? What will it mean for Arizona’s economic outlook?

Friday’s program will break down the numbers in the report to identify if it’s the right growth to meet Arizona’s needs.

NEW SENATE PRESIDENT

posted to Political Buzz by Christopher Conover

In a closed-door meeting, the majority party in the state Senate chose Sen. Steve Pierce as the new Senate President. Pierce is a rancher from Prescott. His seatmate is House Speaker Andy Tobin. Pierce was elected to the Senate in 2009 and has served as Majority Whip.

Pima County Sen. Frank Antenori was elected to serve as Majority Whip. Sen. Andy Biggs will remain the Senate Majority Leader.