The Cochise Music Teachers Association will hold two days of master classes this weekend in their Stepping Stones program. Eighteen piano and strings students will receive coaching from outstanding teacher-performers Kathryn Christenson and Dennis Bourret. On Friday, Feb. 3, at Cochise College, Room 700, three pianists — Hannah Struse, Hope Struse, and Maranatha Struse — will meet with Kathryn Christenson of Phoenix for individual lessons, beginning at 3:30 p.m.

There are some who say you can’t be too rich or too thin. I say you can’t have too many rocks and minerals — and for that there is the fabulous Tucson Gem and Mineral Show — now in session.

That’s the 58th annual Tucson Gem and Mineral Show which begins this weekend. It’s a “must see” event. You don’t have to be a rock hound, a jeweler or a bead enthusiast.

SIERRA VISTA — The Buena girls soccer team had seen this movie more times than they cared to.

Twenty-four minutes away from securing a much-needed win over Tucson High, an own goal on a Badger corner kick erased a 1-0 Buena advantage and put the Colts in danger of losing their fourth one-goal game in their last five, and also of being eliminated from state playoff contention.

But, this time, things played out differently. 

 Higher postal rates for already beleaguered businesses. Longer waits for seniors waiting for medications. And several hundred jobs lost for the struggling Southern Arizona economy.

 That’s the deal offered to the Tucson area by the U.S. Postal Service as it attempts to address an $8.5 billion operating deficit – a deficit that would be disproportionately dumped on the backs of those of us who live here, even as other less populous and slower growth states escape the chopping block.