www.tucsonlocalmedia.com
May 2021
DESERT TIMES The Voice of Southwest Tucson
Volume 34 • Number 5
Specialty Spirits
Independent bottling company showcases Whiskey Del Bac in 2021 release | Page 10
INSIDE
MOVING PICTURES
Desert To-Dos DeGrazia paintings, Gaslight shows, and Art Institute exhibits
Two photo exhibits at Etherton Gallery are serving as a bridge between their new and old locations. “For the Record: Documentary Photographs from the Etherton Gallery Archive” and “Danny Lyon: Thirty Photographs, 1962-1980” capture decades of American history, both local and worldwide. See page 8.
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Elliott Erwitt, Paris, 1989 ©
Increased fire risk threatens all inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert
Courtesy Etherton Gallery
On the Menu Vietnamese Street Food
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Madison Beal
Pima JTED balances handson learning in a virtual year Jeff Gardner Tucson Local Media
COVID Vaccines
Moble clinics coming to west side
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S
tudents in Demi Vaughn’s medical assisting class learn a variety of healthcare skills, from drawing blood to checking vitals. And at the end of a school year, they can earn multiple medical certifications that can lead to direct employment in the healthcare field. But when the pandemic hit, all of this became uncertain; how can students meaningfully
practice giving injections over the computer? For Vaughn, shifting to a virtual classroom came with its obvious difficulties—but also some lessons that she continues to utilize even now that her students are back to learning in person. “It took a lot of adjusting, because I usually taught everything hands-on right in front of them,” said Vaughn, a medical assistant instructor for the Pima Joint Technical Education District. “Now, I’ve learned so much this
year that I want to bring into my teaching going forward that I never would have known about or thought about. I’m a relatively new teacher, but I was already kind of stuck in the way I taught. I liked that I was pushed to try something new, like technology and different ways of teaching. And now I get to bring it all together and I think it will make me a stronger teacher because I have so many perspectives.” See Pima JTED, P6
Special to Tucson Local Media
T
he Sonoran Desert is not what it used to be. Over the past century, invasive grasses have spread across the region and transformed the landscape from the familiar diverse desert to more of an arid grassland that is highly susceptible to fires. Invasive grasses—from buffelgrass to red brome to love grass — have dramatically altered how fire can move through the desert. Places that used to burn once every 200 years may now be burning every 20 years because these grasses serve as a fuel source that can easily spread wildfires. They sprout up in places that would normally be barren, connecting otherwise separate patches of desert plants. See Fire Risk, P4