Sen. Linda Lopez just told radio talk-show host John C. Scott that she was interviewed earlier today by The Daily Show, although she didn't reveal the name of the correspondent. Apparently, the Legislature captured the show's attention with the plan to sell and lease back the Capitol itself.

Lopez said the segment would likely air in early September.

The Arizona Republic reports that the Senate evidently doesn't have the votes to pass a budget.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett announced on the John C. Scott Show this afternoon that the window has closed on a November election for a sales-tax hike.

We're on pins and needles wondering if Republican senators will find their 16th vote today to pass their overdue budget for the state of Arizona. We're past the expanded deadline to get a referendum on the ballot to ask voters to pass a temporary sales tax to get Arizona through these tough times, but Secretary of State Ken Bennett says he can still make it happen if the vote happens today.

We're certainly hoping the budget package fails. There’s a lot wrong with this budget, but the biggest long-term problem has to be the tax cuts, which would primarily benefit the wealthiest people in the state.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimates that the tax cuts would ensure that Arizona would have budget shortfalls years into the future, even if voters were to approve the temporary one-cent-per-dollar sales tax that Gov. Jan Brewer wants. It’s perplexing that Brewer would recognize the need for additional revenue through a sales-tax increase, but then agree to massive cuts to corporate and income taxes that will cripple the state’s ability to fund social services that she purports to be concerned about, along with a property-tax cut that will primarily benefit business interests.

If the sales tax is approved, JLBC estimates that the state would have a $892 million shortfall in fiscal year 2011, which lawmakers will have to address when they start writing a budget five months from now. The numbers get worse from there: $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2012 and $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2013.

If the sales tax isn’t approved, the numbers are even more grim: A shortfall of $1.9 billion in 2011, $3 billion in 2012 and $3.1 billion in 2013.

This does not strike us as the fiscally responsible way of addressing the state's structural deficit, no matter how happy it makes Grover Norquist.

Read the JLBC report here: FY_2009_-_2013_Balance_Sheet__08-04___2_.pdf

You probably haven’t noticed, but there’s a Republican primary underway in southside Ward 5, where Democrat Steve Leal is stepping down from the Tucson City Council after two decades in office.

Political rookies Judith Gomez and Shaun McClusky are squaring off in the Sept. 1 primary. The winner will face Democrat Richard Fimbres in the November general election.

There are roughly 3,800 registered Republicans in Ward 5, according to the Pima County Recorder’s Web site, so the candidates don’t have many voters to contact. As of Aug. 9, 1,049 of the GOP voters had requested early ballots. Of those, 292 had sent their ballots back in.

Gomez and McClusky have what’s likely to be their only televised debate tonight on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated with anchor Bill Buckmaster and your truly. Get a look at the candidates at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6.

This week's Arizona Illustrated Roundtable segment, after the jump.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords stopped by the KUAT studios to talk about health care, illegal immigration and the economy. You can see it all after the jump.

Another bit of news from Giffords office: Former Tucson Citizen associate editor and columnist Mark Kimble is going to work with C.J. Karamargin in Giffords' communication office.

I didn't get along with my dad too well when I was a teenager. I was actually a bright kid, who would share a lot of insights with my dad when I was 9 years old. I used to have great discussions with my pops, ones where he would be convinced I was to become some sort of social worker when I grew up.

Don't laugh. I really was a sweet guy before puberty reared its ugly head.

When I hit my teen years, I guess I went from being a bright kid to a "wiseguy," and my relationship with dad suffered. Verbal confrontations and pushing matches would wind up with me on the street heading to a friend's house with my clothes in a Hefty bag. It really sucked.

But, in the middle of all the mayhem, my dad and I would still catch a movie when the fighting paused. I remember one night when we caught The Breakfast Club at a discount theater in the middle of a rainstorm (I stepped in a near waist deep puddle while leaving the theater, which Dad found very amusing). My Dad was a high school teacher, and I remember us bonding on the drive back home after the movie. He marveled at how this John Hughes guy managed to perfectly capture the different kinds of kids he dealt with on a daily basis. He also asked me if I thought he was as pigheaded as the teacher who threatened to beat up Judd Nelson in the movie. I politely told him no, but thought otherwise.

I guess my point is that John Hughes gave me a brief calm in the storm that was my teen years with his little movie. My dad and I didn't hate each other for something like a week, but we went back to war soon after. Perhaps we should've gone to see Ferris.

This is written as if my Dad is no longer around, but he is. After suffering multiple heart attacks and soldiering through, he's in Phoenix playing with his nephew and going to Diamondbacks games. Twenty years later, I have a decent relationship with him. He probably still thinks I'm a wiseguy, but that's OK ... I got better at dealing with that sort of thing.

Shockingly, John Hughes is dead. I'd like to thank him for speaking the language of us teenaged wiseguys in the '80s. I'd like to thank him for Steve Martin's F-word laden rent-a-car rant in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which even made my diehard Christian mother crack up. And I'd like to thank him for getting Dad off my back for at least seven days. I think I scored a little higher on my SATs because of that.

Bye, Mr. Hughes ... you ruled.

Check out this sweepstakes to win an annual trip to Hawaii for 10 years or $100,000. A Perfect Getaway opens Friday, Aug. 7 at the following theaters:

AMC Loews Foothills 15, Century El Con 20, Century Park 16, Century Park Place 20, Century Theatres at the Oro Valley Marketplace, De Anza Drive-In, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18, Tower Theatres at Arizona Pavillions.

MovieTickets.com announced it has partnered with ROGUE for an exclusive prize package tied to the suspense thriller A Perfect Getaway, in theaters Friday. Moviegoers who purchase tickets for the film at MovieTickets.com through Aug. 9 will be entered for a chance to win their choice of either an annual vacation for four to Hawaii for 10 years, or $100,000. The extensive vacation package includes round-trip airfare from the continental United States, accommodations in a four star hotel and a rental car.

A Perfect Getaway stars Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich as Cliff and Cydney, an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful, and remote, beaches in Hawaii. When the pair comes across a group of frightened hikers discussing the horrifying murder of another newlywed couple on the islands, they begin to question whether they should turn back. Unsure whether to stay or flee, Cliff and Cydney join up with two other couples, and things begin to go terrifyingly wrong. Far from civilization or rescue, everyone begins to look like a threat and nobody knows whom to trust. Paradise becomes hell on earth as a brutal battle for survival begins …

The sweepstakes at MovieTickets.com began at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 9, 2009. No purchase necessary to enter or win. Open to legal residents of Continental U.S., 18 and older. Please visit MovieTickets.com for complete rules and details.

Be careful browsing on slate.com. There's some apocalyptic party-pooping going on, and if you ride your bike every where you go, have chickens in the back yard and closed your bank account, then maybe you're ahead of this end-curve.

For more end-time revelry, check out Josh Levin's series on how America is going to end here. You get to choose how you think it all goes down and keep track of what others are thinking, too. A nice community-building social media exercise that even mom might like.

You can also keep track on Facebook, which is probably the real reason America ends, but I noticed Levin doesn't mention that as a possibility.

Everyone is wishing President Obama a happy birthday today, but I found out through this foodie blog that it happens to be Newswoman Helen Thomas' birthday, too.

This reminded me of Ms. Thomas' excellent chiding of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in early July.

Today, Obama brought Ms. Thomas some cupcakes, figuring, I guess, that if beer works on cops and college professors, then sweets work for reporters.