MOBILE STORAGE & CONTAINER SOLUTIONS IN Tucson, AZ

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - One year ago, dispensaries across Arizona opened their doors for recreational use.

Prop. 207 passed during the 2020 election, making it legal for adults in Arizona to purchase marijuana for recreational use.

In 2021, shops like Prime Leaf in midtown Tucson were given the green light to sell marijuana for recreational use. But, Michael Crawford and his team at Prime, rolled it out slowly.

“While most people turned on adult use in January, we waited until March and April. We wanted to make sure we took care of our medical patients.”

Crawford said that was the key to a successful year.

“Seeing about a 30 percent increase. Word is that it will increase even more as people become more comfortable shopping. We get new people every day that it is their first time in a dispensary. So as that happens, I think we will see a bigger and bigger increase.”

According to the Arizona Dispensary Association, so far $196 million in tax revenue has been collected and around $45 million is going to the general fund. December numbers are not out yet.

“We likely never eclipsed a billion dollars in top line sales before going to adult use. We are on pace to approach if not clear $1.5 billion in total sales this calendar year,” said Samuel Richard with Arizona Dispensary Association.

KOLD News 13′s Allie Potter asked Richard if there was any sort of goal in mind for the first year.

“I think our biggest goal was to make sure we had enough product and capability to meet the demands of the consumers who walked through our doors. Heading into the year, we already had around 315,000 qualified patients that were part of the medical program. So, Arizona dispensaries were ready for hundreds of thousands if not approaching a million new customers.”

Potter asked Richard where he sees the industry in 2022.

“I am going to go ahead and make a bold prediction. In Arizona, revenue from cannabis will eclipse revenue from alcohol.”

Potter asked Crawford what his goals are for year number two of recreational marijuana sales.

“We are going to focus mainly on making sure we take care of our medical customers and keep our supply chains open. I am also looking for some sponsorship marketing opportunities.”

Tax revenue from recreational marijuana sales goes towards Arizona community colleges, rural infrastructure, and behavioral health programs.

Copyright 2022 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

If you’d like to visit the most distinctly unique bookshop in Arizona, perhaps in the entire Southwest, you don’t have to go far.

It is 45 miles south of Tucson, in Benson. Well, north of Benson. On a cattle ranch carved from the desert 100 years ago.

Just find the right dirt road, open the steel gate, and head toward the barn. Turn left at the mesquite tree, wave to the burros, and park in one of the five or six unmarked spots near the corral.

Welcome to Singing Wind!

Located on Singing Wind Ranch in Cochise County, the Singing Wind Bookshop opened in 1974. It still stocks America’s largest collection of Southwest literature. Authors such as J.A. Jance and Tom Zoellner now think of their visits as pilgrimages to a place where they can re-anchor themselves to home.

Singing Wind is so unforgettable because it is so unfathomable to find a bookstore so far off the beaten path, 5 miles from a small town in Arizona.

And that has become a problem.

Winn Bundy, the force of nature who somehow made it work, died in October 2020. The ranch is now for sale, and the family – like the customers who still look forward to making the drive – can only hope the buyer loves books.

The ranch and bookshop were willed jointly to Bundy’s son and daughter, T.C. and Sharon “Cookie” Bundy, and her granddaughter Tasha. The decision to sell was painful.

“I think we all knew it’s what we had to do,” Tasha Bundy said. “None of us live in Benson. None of us know the book business, or much about ranching, but it took months to decide because none of us wanted to let it all go.”

Their fingers are tightly crossed. In their dreams, the buyer hears the same call Winn Bundy heard, and is intrigued by the thought of owning a landmark business.

Barring that, they wonder if a conservation group such as The Nature Conservancy or Arizona Land and Water Trust would like to preserve the property – which borders the San Pedro River – from future development.

“Believe me, we think about dream buyers a lot” Cookie Bundy said.

They find hope in Bill Gates’ observation that even if you are one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you.

Winn Bundy was undeniably one in a million. There are 7 million people in Arizona. The Bundys have done the math.

The 500-acre ranch has been listed for $1.52 million by Hartman Commercial Real Estate. Not coincidentally, Alain Hartman grew up in Benson and was friends with Tasha’s late father, Ted.

According to Hartman’s ad, the ranch has five wells, several pastures, a mile of shoreline along the river … and a collection of 30,000 books.

“I think we realize it’s a real longshot, finding someone who wants to keep the ranch and the store going, but we won’t know ‘til we put it out there,” said Cookie Bundy.

Cookie is a retired science librarian, Tasha a musician and artist. Both live in Tucson. T.C. Bundy is a retired minister who lives in Phoenix. All three have long, loving relationships with Singing Wind.

“Tad (T.C.) and I were raised on the ranch,” Cookie said. “On a family ranch, everybody does everything, so we all had a job when it came to vaccinating, branding and castrating the cattle. We all had ponies. Because of mom, we all loved books and loved to read.”

Tasha lived on the ranch for a few years when she was young and developed a special bond with her grandmother.

Even when they’d left Benson to lead their own lives, the three Bundys were weekend regulars.

“My kids rode ponies there, too,” Cookie said. “My daughter Vanessa tried to teach mom how to work a modern TV.”

Only now are they learning how challenging it was for Winn Bundy to manage a 500-acre ranch … to say nothing of her Southwestern bookstore.

“She didn’t believe in technology, so almost everything needed to be done by hand,” T.C. Bundy said. “The bookstore has never had a website. For years she wouldn’t accept credit cards. One of the challenges for us now is finding a way to catalogue all the books. Winn didn’t need to because she knew where all of them were.”

And the books? The family is finding books everywhere, in every room of the house.

“She had thousands of books that never made it onto the shelves in the store,” T.C. Bundy said.

He has been spending two weeks a month on the property, doing day-to-day maintenance and keeping things running. Cookie and Tasha Bundy are on call the rest of each month.

The store is still open, but by appointment only. Visitors should call to set up a time to stop by. The number: (520) 586-2425.

“A lot of the visitors we’ve had just wanted to tell us stories about Winn,” Tasha said. “She was something. In a lot of ways, she’s still here.”

According to the Pima County Public Library, “Missing and Endangered” by J.A. Jance was the county’s most popular book in 2021. It led the 12-month list of checkouts by library cardholders. Next came “Dark Sky” by C.J. Box, “Daylight” by David Baldacci, “Unfinished Business” by Jance and “A Gambling Man” by Baldacci.

Adam Schiff and Noah Hawley are among the late additions to the list of authors coming to the Tucson Festival of Books March 12-13.

“Beautiful Little Fools,” the latest from Tucson novelist Jillian Cantor, will be available at local bookstores on Feb. 1. In it, she tells “The Great Gatsby” story from Daisy Buchanan’s point of view.

Get day-to-day news from the Tucson book community by following Bookmarks Arizona (@BookArizona) on Twitter.

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - This week we’re recognizing a woman who believes honestly is always the best policy.

Mireya Baldenegro and her husband were in Las Vegas for the weekend when they stopped at a 7-Eleven.

“So, I went into the restroom and then I saw this wallet there,” said Mireyo Baldenegro, the Heart and Sol recipient.

She felt bad for looking inside the wallet but wanted to find out who it belonged to. In it, she found a phone number.

“I did find a lot of stuff in there. I mean her whole live is in that wallet,” Baldenegro said.

Mireya is talking about Karen Soumas, a Las Vegas resident.

“My medical cards, my ID, my military ID, my driver’s license, credit card, debit card, everything was in there,” Soumas said.

She had stopped at the 7-Eleven on her way to babysit her grandson, Ezra.

“And when I realized it [her wallet] wasn’t there, I pulled over and literally ripped the seats out of my car,” Soumas said.

She backtracked and called all the places she was at earlier.

“And I called the 7-Eleven and the lady checked the bathroom and there was nothing,” Soumas said.

But then moments later, a Tucson number called.

“She was crying, and I am like please do not feel like that! Your wallet is safe,” Baldenegro said.

Baldenegro met up with Soumas and gave her the wallet, along with a hug.

“I took the wallet, and I was shaking. I tried to give her some money I tried to give him $20 and her $20. Merry Christmas and thank you, and she was like ‘nope,’” Baldenegro said.

Baldenegro thought she was doing a lighthearted story on the missing wallet going back to its owner. She did not know that Soumas nominated her as an Arizona Heart and Sol.

“Thank you. Thank you, Karen. I do not want to cry. Wow! Thank you,” Soumas said.

Baldenegro was given a $300 gift card from our sponsor Casino Del Sol. If you have someone you think embodies the “Heart and Sol of Arizona,” please nominate them, HERE.

Copyright 2022 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved.

For years — bordering on decades — Arizona football fans have pined for the program to reconnect the so-called Polynesian pipeline.

Players from the Pacific islands helped turn the Wildcats into contenders under Dick Tomey, who came to Tucson from Hawaii. Other programs, particularly on the West Coast, followed Tomey’s lead and stocked their rosters with recruits of Samoan and Tongan descent, eroding an advantage Arizona once had.

As the years passed, recruiting Polynesians became less of a priority for Tomey’s successors. Pac-12 rivals such as Utah and Washington reaped the benefits.

That appears to be changing.

Including transfers, Arizona has seven players with Polynesian roots in its 2022 signing class. The Wildcats have the most representatives — six — of any program in the country in the Polynesian Bowl, which is set to kick off Saturday in Honolulu.

How big a deal is that? Well, consider this: Arizona had only three commits, total, in the first five Polynesian Bowls. (Last year’s game was not played because of the pandemic.)

“I’m so excited about what’s about to happen,” said George Malauulu, the former UA quarterback and current president of the AIGA Foundation, a non-profit organization that assists Polynesian student-athletes.

Arizona’s ’22 class — ranked second in the Pac-12 by 247Sports.com and Rivals.com — landed its first Polynesian prospect in April, when quarterback Noah Fifita of Servite High School in Anaheim, California, committed. Next came offensive lineman Jonah Savaiinaea of Honolulu’s Saint Louis High School. In the fall, two of Fifita’s prep teammates, Jacob Manu and Tetairoa McMillan, joined the class. McMillan on Friday was named the 2021 Polynesian High School Player of the Year.

Arizona flipped defensive lineman Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei of Mater Dei High School in Sana Ana, California, in mid-December. The transfer portal brought UCLA defensive tackle Tiaoalii Savea and Washington State quarterback Jayden de Laura to Tucson. Both are Polynesian Bowl alums.

Not every participant in Saturday’s game is of Polynesian decent. Many non-Polynesians are invited to play. Arizona’s sixth representative is tight end Keyan Burnett, who was teammates with Fifita, Manu and McMillan at Servite.

Burnett has known them since they played together with the Orange County Buckeyes in middle school. They developed a bond that goes beyond friendship.

“Family is huge in their culture,” Burnett told 247Sports.com after a Polynesian Bowl practice this week. “I think growing up with the Buckeyes rubbed off a little.”

Jedd Fisch and his staff have made re-establishing ties to the Polynesian community a “clear and dedicated focus,” said Brandon Huffman, the national recruiting editor for 247Sports.com.

It isn’t something Fisch has discussed at length, at least not publicly. This is a case where actions have spoken louder than words for the pitchman of Arizona football.

Fisch’s original staff included one Polynesian coach in an on-field role: tight ends coach Jordan Paopao. Since then, Fisch has hired two more: Johnny Nansen (defensive coordinator) and Jason Kaufusi (edge rushers).

Whether intentional or coincidental, those moves have made an impact in the Polynesian community, where, as Burnett noted, family is everything. Brandon Manumaleuna, who played tight end under Tomey before a 10-year career in the NFL, said it’s important for parents to “know there’s a Polynesian coach on the staff that can look after their son and instill some of the teachings our culture has.”

“It’s moreso for the parents than the kids,” said Manumaleuna, who’s now the coach at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California. “’My son will be taken care of.’ It puts parents at ease.”

Shortly after he was hired, Paopao was asked about recruiting and connecting with Polynesian players. He smiled and said: “You didn’t know that all Polynesian guys are related?”

He was joking, of course. But he was also expressing an idea. With three Polynesian coaches on the staff from different parts of the U.S. — Paopao is from Oceanside, California; Nansen was born in American Samoa and went to high school in Long Beach, California; Kaufusi is from Salt Lake City — Arizona has widespread connections. The Wildcats have the most full-time, on-field assistants of Polynesian descent in the Pac-12, according to a survey of online staff directories.

“The fact they have three, that goes to show you they’ve made a commitment to bringing in our kids,” Malauulu said. “It’s almost like a call home.”

One week after Nansen was hired, Arizona offered Uiagalelei, who was committed to Washington State. He signed with the Wildcats a week after that.

Nansen was Savea’s primary recruiter to UCLA. It’s no coincidence that Savea transferred to Arizona after entering the portal.

Arizona has brought in Polynesian players. It has hired Polynesian coaches. The pipeline has been restored.

The question now is whether it’s sustainable.

It’s one thing to recruit and sign talented players. It’s another to develop them. Arizona has not had an exemplary record in that regard in recent years.

Huffman cited the example of Michael Eletise, a four-star offensive lineman from Hawaii who was the top-ranked player in the Wildcats’ 2016 class. Eletise appeared in 23 games for Arizona but never became a full-time starter.

Eletise transferred to Hawaii and played 19 games for the Rainbow Warriors. He retired from football, citing medical reasons, in June of last year.

“It’s not just about having success getting players,” Huffman said. “It’s about those players having success while they’re there.”

Of the three Aizona players who took part in previous Polynesian Bowls, only one, offensive lineman Donovan Laie, developed into a starter.

The new batch of players, most of whom already have enrolled, looks promising on paper.

De Laura — who’s from the same high school as Savaiinaea — was named Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year as a second-year starter at Washington State. Savea was the top-rated recruit in UCLA’s 2020 class and tallied seven tackles in his final three appearances of ’21.

UA staffers already are impressed with Savaiinaea, who could have a role as a true freshman, a rarity for offensive linemen. Fifita was named Offensive MVP of the highly competitive Trinity League and is considered Arizona’s quarterback of the future.

TUCSON, AZ — Starbucks will no longer require COVID-19 vaccinations of its 228,000 workers at 9,000 U.S. coffee shops, including those in Tucson.

Starbucks is one of the first big companies to change vaccination policies after the U.S. Supreme Court quashed a vaccine mandate that would have affected about 84 million workers, or about half of the U.S. labor force. Had the mandate been allowed to stand, workers would have had to either get fully vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

The court's Jan. 13 6-3 ruling came as the omicron coronavirus variant was driving a surge in COVID-19 infections. Nothing in the Supreme Court ruling, which allows the Biden administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most U.S. health care workers, requires companies with 100 or more employees to ease vaccination requirements.

Both the city of Tucson and Pima County require their employees to be vaccinated. Pima County last week fired 56 of its employees who refused vaccination, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

The new Starbucks vaccination policy, first reported by The Associated Press, was announced in a memo to employees Tuesday.

Amtrak temporarily suspended its vaccine mandate in December, before the Supreme Court ruling. In a memo to employees seen by Reuters, Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn said nearly 96 percent of its employees were either fully vaccination or had received an accommodation for religious or medical reasons.

More big businesses operating in Tucson could follow suit as the coronavirus surge worsens the country's labor shortage. A record 8.8 million people called out sick with COVID-19 between Dec. 29-Jan. 10, according to data reported by The Washington Post.

Retail establishments and their advocates have been vocal critics of the now-blocked requirement, arguing they're already struggling to find enough workers as the coronavirus pandemic persists. Millions of Americans have quit their jobs since the pandemic began in what's being called "The Great Resignation."

Brett Coburn, a lawyer at Atlanta-based Alston & Bird, told The New York Times "a lot of companies were pursuing the vaccine or test requirement only because they were being required to do so."

The AP reported Boston-based General Electric Co. got rid of its vaccine mandate last week after the court ruled, according to IEU-CWA Local 201, the union representing machinists, electricians and other GE employees. Overall, GE has 56,000 U.S. workers.

Not all big businesses plan to follow the lead of Starbucks and GE, though. New York-based Citigroup Inc., one of the largest banks in the U.S., in October said its workers needed to be fully vaccinated or receive an accommodation by Jan. 14. Citigroup told the AP that 99 percent of its employees are now fully vaccinated.

It's up to employers to navigate state and local laws in the absence of a federal mandate. More than a dozen states prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates of any kind, CNBC reported.

"For most employers, it has proved to be a day-to-day crisis because when they think they know the answer, the rules change," Domenique Camacho Moran, a labor and employment lawyer with the firm Farrell Fritz, told The New York Times.