In news from Arizona, Tucson school district officials have released an initial list of books to be banned from the school system following last week’s vote to suspend the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program due to a state ban on the teaching of ethnic studies. The banned books include “Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years,” edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson; Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”; “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Paulo Freire; “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” by Rodolfo Acuña; and “Chicano!: The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement” by F. Arturo Rosales. Salon.com reported teachers have also been informed to stay away from any books where “race, ethnicity and oppression are central themes.”