I was catching up with Colbert and noticed that he had high praise for the Arizona Legislature's plan to privatize the prison system.

"Let's replace the long arm of the law with the invisible hand of the market!"

Rumors are starting to bubble up regarding the list of people who agreed to take the Arizona Daily Star's buyout offer—and the biggest name on that list so far is Opinion page editor Ann Brown.

Those taking the buyout will celebrate their last day of employment at the Star tomorrow, Nov. 6

John Schuster and I are trying to confirm this rumor—and that's all it is at this point—as well as confirm other names.

Got any info? Let us know?

UPDATE (9:30 p.m. 11/5): Thanks for the comments and tips, everyone.

UPDATE (11 a.m. 11/6): We've fixed the last name of Rutha.

Names we've heard from sources and the rumor mill (please let us know if anyone sees any errors):

Mary Cooney
Margo Hernandez
Nick Pintozzi
Mark Stewart
Enric Volante
Bill Betterton
Ann Brown
Jim Davis
Rutha Grigsby (corrected last name)

Also, we've heard from several sources that folks at the Star are concerned about the possibility of layoffs—something which publisher John Humenik said would happen if not enough employees took the buyout. Those layoffs could come as soon as tomorrow, if they are to happen.

What's behind these cuts? Well, one need only to look at the Star to know ad counts remain down. Also, some Southern Arizona newspapers as of late (including some of the Weekly's sister papers in Wick Communications) have taken a financial hit after losing some grocery-store inserts to a direct-mail outfit. That could be a culprit in all of this.

The Goldwater Institute has spoken on its lawsuit on behalf of developer Michael Goodman vs. the city of Tucson, calling Pima County Superior Court Judge Paul Tang's ruling a victory for Prop 207, the Private Property Rights Protection Act passed in 2006:

"Arizona voters overwhelmingly embraced greater protection of private property rights," said Clint Bolick, director of the Goldwater Institute Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, "and this ruling vindicates that intent."

Mr. Goodman, a Tucson builder, buys run-down properties in the downtown area and near the University of Arizona, and replaces them with new housing that meets or exceeds zoning requirements and building standards. But in 2007 the City of Tucson enacted an anti-demolition ordinance that subjected property owners to a labyrinth of rules that limited property use and instantly reduced property values for thousands of homeowners and small business owners. This ordinance applied to Mr. Goodman after he had received building permits and begun the building process.

The next step in Goodman v. City of Tucson is to determine the amount of damages the City must pay. "[F]or every actionable injury there is a corresponding right to damages," Judge Tang added. Prop 207 is "part of a greater effort and movement in favor of individual rights."

We would quibble with Bolick's portrayal of Goodman as a heroic developer improving neighborhoods, but whatevs.

More importantly, Tucson City Attorney Michael McCrory says Bolick may be jumping the gun.

"We have a long way to go before we go to awarding damages," said McCrory, who is representing the city in this lawsuit, as well as other litigation Goodman still has against the city regarding his Feldman's and Jefferson Park neighborhood developments.

Since the anti-demolition ordinance has already been repealed, McCrory says Goodman no longer has any present damages. But next will be a discovery phase, and the Goldwater Institute will have to come before Tang and show specific damages.

McCrory says he expects to bring up a whole slew of legal issues regarding Goodman's claim, statutory interpretation and the question of whether damages can legally be awarded.

"We're not terribly upset by this ruling," quipped McCrory, who said that he expected to be back in the courtroom on the case early next year.

Arizona Illustrated host Bill Buckmaster invited me and radio ringmaster John C. Scott down to the studio to read the tea leaves from the city election. Watch it after the jump.

The latest City of Tucson election results:

Democratic Councilwoman Karin Uhlich now leads Republican challenger Ben Bueher-Garcia by 246 votes. That race remains tight, but Uhlich picked up a handful in the latest round.

Republican Steve Kozachik now leads Democrat Nina Trasoff by 1,675 votes.

Prop 400 is now losing by 783 votes.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez has delivered 45,067 early ballots and Pima County Elections has counted 44,584 early ballots.

Rodriguez' most recent report shows she sent over 699 provisional ballots. As of yesterday, she had more than 2,000 provisional ballots to process.

ETA to add updated provisional ballots numbers.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Here's one I missed in all the election excitement: The HiRISE camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the Phoenix Mars Lander on the frosty northern plains of Mars.

Lori Stiles of University Communications tells us:

The HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured one image of the Phoenix lander on July 30, 2009, and the other on Aug. 22, 2009. That's when the sun began rising over the northern polar plains at the end of the northern hemisphere winter, the imaging team said.

The new images are available at the HiRISE Web site.

"We decided to try imaging the site despite the low light levels," said. HiRISE team members Ingrid Spitale of the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Now if only Phoenix still works after all that time under Martian ice...

The latest City of Tucson election results:

Republican Steve Kozachik now leads Democrat Nina Trasoff by 1,722 votes. The Black Swan looks unbeatable!

Democratic Councilwoman Karin Uhlich now leads Republican challenger Ben Bueher-Garcia by 240 votes. That race keeps getting closer and closer.

Prop 400 is now losing by 784 votes.

Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez has done her usual efficient job of plowing through the piles of early ballots dropped off at the last minute by irresponsible voters who take forever to make up their minds. (We're sympathetic to the perspective that you ought to hang onto the ballots just in case something breaks at the end of the campaign, but it does slow returns.)

To recap: Pima County handled elections for the city of Tucson this year, which meant that about 68,000 city voters on the county's Permanent Early Voting List automatically got ballots as soon as early voting started. In previous city elections. voters had to request an early ballot.

That left us with a big question mark: How many early ballots would be sent back, given that interest in a municipal election tends to run a lot lower than interest in a presidential race?

Based on these numbers, 68,571 early ballots were requested and 45,067 came back in, for a return rate of 66 percent. Both Trent Humphries and I bet that the return rate would be greater than 68 percent, so we both lose on that proposition.

Correction: An earlier version of this post mentioned that the over-under was 66 percent.

UA-area developer Michael Goodman has prevailed in Pima County Superior Court in a legal fight with the city of Tucson over whether he could demolish existing houses and build mini-dorms. Details to follow.

Here's more on Goodman's fight with the city and the neighborhoods.

Here's the latest out of Pima County Elections: An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 remaining ballots will be run through the machines beginning around 1 p.m. It's expected to take two or three hours and we should get some new results online sometime after 3 or 4 p.m. Stay tuned!