We're told that legendary land speculator Don Diamond has given $1K to the campaign to defeat Prop 200, the Public Safety First Initiative that Tucson voters will decide on Nov. 3. Diamond joins the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Pima Alliance and Cox Cable as members of the local business establishment who oppose the initiative, which would force the city to spend an additional $63 million a year on police and firefighters.

Diamond is no friend of the Tucson City Council; after the firing of City Manager Mike Hein earlier this year, Diamond dismissed the body as "dysfunctional."

Our reasons to oppose Prop 200 here.

More on crime rates city politics and the cost of Prop 200 here.

• The waterfalls at Govinda's Natural Foods Buffet

Govinda’s Natural Foods Buffet (711 E. Blacklidge Drive) has been serving up excellent vegetarian and vegan food since 1992, and they hold quite a few free festivals and other events every year.

Speaking of free festivals … I somehow botched getting Govinda’s notice for their Diwali Festival of Lights and Indian New Year into our City Week listings this week. The event - which takes place from 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17 - features Indian dancing, music and fire spinners for the adults, and an activity area with face-painting, animal balloons and a jumping castle for the kids.

Best of all, there’ll be free food throughout the event, with a special vegetarian feast going down at 9 p.m. It’s all free, including the vegetarian feast.

Call 792-0630, e-mail [email protected] or visit Govinda's Web site for more information.

Yes, we know you're dying to know more about the "Big Dick" scandal now messily exploding all over the City Council race—and we're working with the Arts desk on a report of the poor man's "Piss Christ" escapade playing out this week. In the meantime, read Rhonda's account. (We think it's a shame she had to leave out the name of the piece: "Big Dick No. 1.")

But while we're massaging that piece: Dave Devine has a follow-up to his recent piece about pharmaceutical contamination in our groundwater wells:

Trace amounts of pharmaceutical contaminants were spotted in one well serving Marana back in 2008. But Tucson Water has now found them in several others.

Tucson Water Director Jeff Biggs reveals in a memo that traces of drugs have been found in five of six wells tested near Marana.

Perfluoro octanesulfonate-PSOS, an ingredient once found in 3M Scotchguard products, was found

If you missed the PBS series Latin Music USA, you can see the next installment on Monday, Oct. 19, KUAT Channel 6, 9 p.m.: The Chicano Wave.

The first episode on salsa happened to be my favorite. So far, after watching the series I've either wanted to put on some Celia Cruz and dance around the house yelling, "Azukar!" Or listen to Ruben Blades, my favorite Panamanian lawyer and salsa superstar (see him in the above video with Calle 13). The story about the salsa record label Fania is fantastic.

Any other salsa fans out there? I just found out about this Website tucsonsalsa.com and that Tucson will have its first salsa festival on Nov. 14th.

Here's your chance to launch a career in the sport of competitive eating! El Charro Cafe is looking for contestants in its first-ever tamale-eating competition.

Details from El Charro:

El Charro Café will host the 2009 World Championship Tamale Eating Contest at the inaugural Southern Arizona Food, Art and Wine Festival this Saturday, Oct. 17.

The object of the competition is to eat as many tamales as time will allow. The event, which is set to start at 1 p.m. at Rillito Raceway Park on First Avenue and River Road, is part of a full slate of events at the weekend festival put on by

The folks at KUAT-TV's Arizona Illustrated were gracious enough to invite me to do a commentary on this year's city election. You can watch it after the jump:

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five—that bottle's kicked, too?—four, three, two, one... CRASH!

They crashed a rocket on the moon the other day, on purpose. NASA was out of vodka, and a spokeswoman said, "This is the most cost-effective way to find out if the moon has any vodka."

Taxpayers remain skeptical, mostly because the crash was a dud: no photogenic fire, no photogenic heroes, no plume shaped like Bat Boy, and, worst of all, no vodka.

Folks tend to get more exited when things crash accidentally, like the Titanic, Evel Knievel and various television hosts.

If NASA had better PR people, they'd have pretended that the moon mission was manned. The spokeswoman would say, "This is the critical juncture for Astronauts X, Y and Z --all of whom have beautiful and anxious families. (Roll the stock photos.) We can only pray to Vodka that their retrorockets won't fail."

They'd place propaganda in all the important newspapers (both of them) informing the public that, for scientific reasons beyond our comprehension, this particular mission also carried a very fluffy bunny rabbit, whom the astronauts named "Cinderella," and who does backflips whenever their spacecraft is in trouble.

That way, when Cinderella started doing backflips, it would make the front page, and, when the craft finally crashed, taxpayers would cry into their Dunkin' Donuts coffee, tie ribbons around their trees, and call in sick at work. Even NASA might forget for a moment that they were still out of vodka.

Eventually, the TW staffer will cave in out of self defense and blog about the damned event, which actually sounds pretty funny.

Apparently comedian Scott Kennedy is gay, but not that many people know it. He does this schtick where he wears a football jersey and acts all macho, only to come out at the end of the show. I hope I'm getting this right, because all I can remember right now is some joke Gary told me about having midgets blow smoke into his lungs, and it's making it hard to concentrate.

Anyway, Kennedy is performing at Laffs Comedy Cafe at 8 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and midnight, Friday, Oct. 16; and 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and midnight, Saturday, Oct. 17. Gary says he'll pass a hat to collect donations for Wingspan at both midnight shows.

Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman, who won the Ward 2 seat just two years ago, has announced the formation of an exploratory campaign against U.S. Sen. John McCain. Now that's looking for a big promotion!

Glassman has a steep hill to climb, according to a recent poll that showed McCain crushing him 55 percent to 25 percent.

Glassman's Web site is here.

The text of Glassman's letter:

This week we formed the "Rodney Glassman U.S. Senate Exploratory Committee". Through this committee, we intend to raise funds in order to “test the waters” for the 2010 U.S. Senate race. We urge you to visit our website at www.rodneyglassman.com and make a contribution of $20 if you believe that Arizona needs a fresh, new voice advocating for our state in Washington, D.C.!

We are proud to have Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler, Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, and Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez as the co-chairs for our committee. As a City Councilman with a law degree and a PhD in Arid Land Resource Sciences, I have a strong record of

The Onion reports:

According to a report published this week in American Journalism Review, 93 percent of all newspaper sales can now be attributed to kidnappers seeking to prove the day's date in filmed ransom demands.

"Although the vast majority of Americans now get their news from the Internet or television, a small but loyal criminal element still purchases newspapers at a steady rate," study author and Columbia journalism professor Linus Ridell said. "The sober authority of the printed word continues to hold value for those attempting to extort large sums of money from wealthy people who wish to see their loved ones alive again, and not chopped into pieces and left in steamer trunks on their doorsteps."

"These are sick, sick individuals," Ridell added. "God bless them for saving our industry."