Guests - Betsy Smith, Joel Strabala, Lisa Von Geldern
Fort Stewart Shooting Update: Sergeant Radford in Custody as Victims Recover
On Wednesday, a shooting at Fort Stewart, Georgia left five soldiers wounded. According to information from Army sources, the three male victims have been released from the hospital, while two female victims remain hospitalized. One woman is expected to be released this weekend, while the other sustained more serious injuries and faces a longer recovery period.
The shooter has been identified as Sergeant Cornelius Radford, a 28-year-old soldier who has served in the Army for over a decade. Assigned to a combat unit in a technical role, Sgt. Radford had never been deployed overseas. He is currently in pre-trial confinement and, as Betsy Brantner-Smith of the National Police Association notes, "He's going to remain in custody until he goes to trial. He's not going to get out on bond."
Heroic Response from Fellow Soldiers
Army officials praised the immediate response of six soldiers who took action during the shooting. "One soldier tackled the suspect and wrestled his gun away when the shooting started. A second soldier jumped on the suspect and restrained him until the military police arrived, and others then attended to the wounded soldiers," reported Betsy Brantner Smith.
This quick response likely saved lives, including potentially the shooter's life. "The MPs would have come and eliminated him immediately. There's no doubt in my mind," Smith explained. "Their knowledge of first aid undoubtedly is one of the reasons that these five injured soldiers are all alive."
Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, who visited Fort Stewart representing the president, confirmed that all soldiers are expected to fully recover. Brigadier General John Lubas, who commands Fort Stewart, emphasized that the fast action of soldiers under fire absolutely saved lives.
Possible Motivation and Investigation
According to Radford's father, Eddie Radford, his son had been trying to get a transfer and had told family members he experienced racism at Fort Stewart. The shooting allegedly followed a disagreement between Radford and one of the victims two days prior, though details of that disagreement remain unclear.
Investigators noted that Radford used a personal handgun, not his military-issued weapon, in the shooting. Bringing personal firearms onto base violates military regulations.
Base Security Considerations
The shooting has prompted discussion about security measures on military installations. Smith suggested one potential improvement: "I think on our military installations, we have to have a fair amount of personnel on base who are not law enforcement, but people who are trained and screened to carry personal or small arms."
She compared this approach to Arizona's constitutional carry laws, citing criminologist Dr. John Lott's research suggesting "more guns equals less crime."
The incident follows another security breach at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson on August 1st, when a man crashed through a vehicle barrier and was fatally shot by Air Force Security Forces.
Tucson Elections: Low Turnout for City Council Primary
Tuesday's primary elections in Tucson saw remarkably low voter turnout at approximately 15%, despite contested races in three City Council wards. Out of 138,373 eligible voters in wards three, five, and six, only about 21,000 cast ballots.
City of South Tucson Recall Election
The City of South Tucson, with 2,432 registered voters, saw an even lower turnout of just 7.15% (174 voters) for its recall election targeting three council members including the mayor.
Joel Strabala, chairman of Legislative District 17 who serves in an election capacity, explained the peculiar circumstances: "None of the candidates to replace the incumbents filed the correct paperwork listing the candidate that they were running against. So this election was strictly all a write-in candidates for recall."
The results showed incumbents maintaining their positions by significant margins:
Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela received 123 votes, while her challenger Anita Romero received only 31
Councilmember Brian Flagg received 103 votes to challenger Christopher Dotson's 26
Councilmember Cesar Aguirre received 106 votes to Eduardo Baca's 31
An additional 53 ballots remained to be counted, though Strabala noted these would not affect the outcome.
Tucson City Council Primary Results
In the City Council primary elections:
Ward 3: A tight race between Democrats Kevin Dahl (incumbent) and Sadie Shaw, separated by only 148 votes with approximately 1,000 ballots still to be counted. Janet Wittenbraker advanced as the Republican candidate.
Ward 5: Democrat Selena Brajas won decisively with 2,025 votes, defeating Jesse Lugo (1,200 votes) and Chris Alsner (288 votes). With no Republican challenger, Brajas will likely face only a write-in candidate in November.
Ward 6: Democrat Miranda Schubert defeated Layton Rockefeller and James Cinex by a two-to-one margin. She will face Republican Jay Tocoff in November.
Final results were expected by Friday evening, with the general election scheduled for November 4th. Unlike the primary, where voters could only vote in their specific ward and party, the general election allows all Tucson residents to vote for candidates in all three wards regardless of where they live in the city.
Project Blue Rejected: Tucson City Council Unanimously Halts Data Center Development
The Tucson City Council voted unanimously (7-0) to direct city staff to stop all work on Project Blue, a proposed $3.6 billion Amazon Web Services data center planned for 290 acres near the Pima County fairgrounds.
The project faced fierce opposition from residents concerned about water usage, power consumption, environmental impact, and health risks. Although the Pima County Board of Supervisors had previously approved selling the land for the project, it still required city approval for a development agreement and annexation.
Water and Energy Concerns
Project Blue would have used 1,910 acre-feet per year of reclaimed water (about 6% of the city's supply) and required 1.3 gigawatts of energy—more than every home in Tucson combined, according to projections from a local AI company.
Lisa Von Geldern, a local activist with the John Birch Society, applauded the Council's decision: "Absolutely. They got it right. There's no question. We're talking about health effects, power and water—and guess who's going to pay for it? They're already increasing our power and water fees."
Environmental and Health Concerns
Von Geldern highlighted additional concerns beyond resource usage: "These data centers damage the environment, and they cause health care issues, hot spots for cancer." She referenced studies from Washington State, North Carolina, and Virginia showing increased rates of thyroid cancer and other health problems near data centers.
Other concerns included e-waste disposal and property value declines for nearby residents.
Developer's Next Steps
While this particular proposal was rejected, Ryan Lee of Beale Infrastructure (the San Francisco-based developer) indicated they have a "Plan B" ready. The company is already considering expanding on two other sites—one within Tucson city limits and another in the metro area but outside city jurisdiction.
Despite the setback, Von Gelderen cautioned that developers rarely give up easily: "Evil never rests. When we stop their plans, they just get to work on reconfiguring the plan because they're going to ram it through whether we like it or not."
Community Response
The project had sparked significant community engagement, with over 1,000 people attending a contentious meeting at the Tucson Convention Center on Monday.
Kate Hotten, co-executive director for Sonora Desert Protection, celebrated the outcome: "This is the outcome we were looking for. We need to go back to the drawing board and make sure the protections are in place that we need here for Tucson."
Ed Hendel, co-founder of Sky Island AI, noted: "There's plenty of room in the US to build data centers in places that are better suited for it than Tucson."
Healthcare Data Privacy Concerns Highlight Broader AI Issues
During the discussion about data centers, a caller named Kate raised concerns about healthcare data privacy that resonated with the broader conversation about technology and data collection.
Kate described being asked to sign authorization forms at healthcare facilities allowing DAX Co-Pilot—an AI transcription tool—to record patient interactions. The form stated that "the purpose of this disclosure is to allow the use of this protected health information during the recording for analyzing testing, developing, maintaining, refining, training, tuning, improving, enhancing, optimizing, automating, and expanding the insights, processes, methods, and tools."
Most concerning to Kate was language stating that patients cannot "alter or amend" records and that any changes "will have no force or effect."
Von Geldern, who was receiving treatment at Cleveland Clinic, expressed similar concerns: "What they're doing is they're doing large language models and they're training to make decisions so that the computers are going to make the decisions, not humans. There's so much nuance and artistry to medical care, to art, to everything, to humanity. And they want to make it all a computer spreadsheet."
She recommended that patients: "Say no to the AI in the medical office and also ask for a form to opt out of the information health exchange. They automatically, you know, you're automatically opted in at your doctor's office and you have to ask to be opted out."