Here's a pretty depressing chart that pretty much sums up the miserable state of Arizona's finances.

You'll find it at azcheckbook.com, a new site that tracks Arizona's revenues and expenditures. It's a treasure trove that lets you create your own graphs and pie charts to better understand where money is coming from and where it's going.

It was set up by State Treasurer Dean Martin, who's in the hunt for Gov. Jan Brewer's job. We can't figure out how Martin can look at these numbers and still oppose any new sources of revenue (aka higher taxes), outside of a new tax to cover the cost of AHCCCS, the state's insurance program for low-income Arizonans.

Martin explains on the site:

Welcome to AZCheckbook.com! Each year the State of Arizona spends billions of your tax dollars from hundreds of different sources. As a taxpayer, you deserve to know what the state is doing with your money. This website is the result of two years work to provide the greatest level of transparency in Arizona history and is a reflection of my commitment to provide Arizona taxpayers with a searchable, user-friendly website that discloses all revenues and expenditures for Arizona State government.

AZCheckbook.com provides daily status and monthly comparisons

• Courtesy Sky Island Alliance

The Sky Island Alliance is sharing snapshots of a northern jaguar in Sonora.

Here's the background from SIA's Sergio Avila:

Almost one year after Macho B’s tragic death in Arizona, Sky Island Alliance (SIA) released today its first photographs of a northern jaguar in the Mexican State of Sonora. Three years into a conservationist-rancher partnership, a jaguar was photographed by a remote camera placed along an isolated canyon of the Sonoran Sky Islands. These are SIA’s first photographs of this elusive cat, and were taken only thirty miles south of the US/Mexico border.

“Northern jaguars are a reality and they want to stay” said Sky Island Alliance biologist Sergio Avila. “Jaguars don’t recognize political boundaries; instead they choose robust prey populations, open space and safe corridors. This healthy feline represents our chance to recover this species in the region.”

In the last three years Sky Island Alliance has surveyed

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Congressman Raul Grijalva have both sent out notices that U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the passage of the stimulus plan at downtown's historic train depot at 10 a.m. this Thursday with a big announcement about a project in Tucson.

Given that Mayor Bob Walkup will also be on hand and the fact that it's at the train depot, we get the feeling that Tucson will be getting some major funding for the urban streetcar.

Longtime Pima County watchers may recall the stink that arose when the county awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to count manholes in Pima County.

The question came up again at today's Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting, when Republicans Ray Carroll and Ann Day asked that a $500,000 contract related to the project be pulled from the consent agenda and delayed for a few weeks. Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry says he'll be happy to answer any questions.

Here's what the late Chris Limberis wrote about the project in TW way back in 2001:

Pima County government is a sewer. The member of a previous Board of Supervisors who used to say that, Republican Greg Lunn, was a smart college drop-out who was a quick study with zero tolerance for the day-to-day grind that is the job of supervisor. He had no stomach for it. That is why he was a much better player in the state Legislature before coming back to sit on the board from 1989 through 1992. The Skinny has previously noted Lunn's disdain for long hours in the shop.

Nonetheless Lunn's characterization of county bids and the award of millions of dollars of county contracts was not off. It is why hardened county officials nicknamed Lunn "Ed Norton," not after the popular young actor (American History X, Rounders) but after the New York sewer worker who was Ralph Kramden's buddy on The Honeymooners.

Lunn, now a legislative and Indian tribe lobbyist, would have been delighted by the Board of Supervisors' 4-1 vote last week to award $3.8 million to Tetra Tech Inc., a Pasadena, Calif. engineering company. Tetra Tech, which last year swallowed up the Phoenix and Tucson engineering company Collins-Piña, will be paid to check out the county's 59,000 sewer manholes. That's $64.41 per manhole. Ray Carroll, a Republican, dissented.

Data collected, according to the paperwork

Massimo Tenino, the owner of Tavolino Italian Restaurant at 7090 N. Oracle Road, is moving his well-reviewed restaurant to the former VinTabla location at 2890 E. Skyline Drive, just across the street from La Encantada.

Tenino said yesterday that he’ll close the Oracle Road location when the move is complete, ending a six-year run at the place. Diners will find the same quaint atmosphere and a similar but expanded menu at the new location.

“I get a lot of people that say, ‘When we come to Tavolino, we feel like we’ve been transported to Italy,’” said Tenino. “We want to transmit the same feeling at the new restaurant as much as we can.”

A bigger, better-equipped kitchen will allow Tenino to expand the menu beyond what he was capable of doing at the original location, and an open kitchen will let diners watch fresh pasta being made. Tenino also wants to add a salumeria where guests can watch prosciutto, cheese and salami being sliced for appetizer plates.

Wood-fired pizzas will be available for lunch and dinner (they’re only on the lunch menu at the original location), and a rotisserie will be installed to produce slow-cooked chicken, pork and duck. A private dining area and deck will also be available.

Tenino will also make use of the ample bar area at the location, where he’ll offer a special menu of pizzas and appetizers.

He hopes to have the new location open by the end of March.

Former Congressman J.D. Hayworth formally launched his campaign against Arizona Sen. John McCain on yesterday, showing up in Tucson at the end of a long day of speeches around Arizona.

Hayworth is not holding back in his punches against McCain, dismissing Arizona’s senior senator as too liberal for the state because he opposes drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, thinks it’s wrong to waterboard terrorists like the underwear bomber and supports “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.

Hayworth, who was introduced by Congressional District 8 candidate Jesse Kelly, called his campaign “a classic political confrontation: John McCain and the Washington establishment on one side, and we the people on the other.”

In Tucson, we the people added up to about 100 folks at El Presidio Park, many of whom identify with the Tea Party movement, although The Skinny did not see Tucson Tea Party leaders Trent Humphries and Robert Mayer in attendance.

Hayworth has captured a few high-profile endorsements, including Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has never been much of a fan of McCain, and Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox, who announced he was giving up his own campaign against McCain to support Hayworth. (Given Simcox’s lousy polling numbers, that move probably just saves him several gallons of humiliation on primary day.) And might we even see Joe the Plumber coming to Arizona to help Hayworth as St. Sarah of Alaska comes to the rescue of McCain?

McCain has kept the support of the members of Arizona’s congressional delegation, although the Hayworth challenge has him moving further to the right than ever. This race will expose all the weird contradictions that exist within the modern Republican Party and its ongoing love/hate affair with government. Frankly, we can’t wait to watch it all unfold.

If nothing else, the GOP primary should encourage Democratic City Councilman Rodney Glassman to take the gamble of getting into the race on the chance that Hayworth pulls off an unlikely upset or McCain alienates enough conservatives that they don’t support him in November.

Glenn Hamer of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to save hundreds of millions of dollars by cutting health-care insurance coverage hundreds of thousands of Arizona workers is the wrong way to go.

Brewer wants to ask voters to rescind the Healthy Arizona proposition they passed in 2000. That prop required the state to give health-care coverage to anyone under the federal poverty line, which is now $18,310 for a family of three. Before that passed, Arizona residents who earned more than one-third of the federal poverty level were ineligible for state coverage.

Hamer warns that reducing that coverage would have dire consequences for the state’s health-care industry.

“If you’re taking 300,000 people off of health insurance, it doesn’t mean they won’t receive care,” Hamer says. “Federal law requires that care be provided in the emergency room for people who go there for health-care needs. It’s going to be covered one way or another. That’s a highly inefficient, extremely expensive way to provide care.”

Hamer says that ends up increasing costs for hospitals, which leads to a “hidden health-care tax.”

“What winds up happening is those costs are passed on to private insurance, private insurance passes those costs on to the private sector and the cost of insurance goes up, which means fewer businesses can afford to provide coverage, which means that fewer Arizonans will have coverage,” he says.

"Five and Dime," by David Christiana, is among the works on display from Saturday, March 6, through Wednesday, March 31, at the Lulubell Toy Bodega, 439 N. Sixth Avenue, Suite 187. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. The gallery will host an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, March 6.

Following President Barack Obama's recent question-and-answer session with House Republicans, Sen. Jonathan Paton wants to force governors of Arizona to face questioning from state lawmakers.

Although I'm sure it would create great copy and wonderful YouTube moments, it all sounds kinda gimmicky to me.

Republicans are trying to do the same thing at the national level. Forbes columnist and former Reagan advisor Bruce Bartlett has a similar take:

It appears to me that Republicans are simply looking to save face from having believed their own propaganda about Obama's inability to speak without a teleprompter. Also, it's standard debating technique for underdogs to be elevated by being granted a debate with the leader. The debate makes both appear equal and the challenger has less to lose than the leader.

Nevertheless, I think Republicans are being short-sighted in their demands. Would they really have wanted the grossly inarticulate George W. Bush to have had to take questions regularly from Democrats in Congress? I think not.

Moreover, the dismal quality of presidential news conferences does not lead me to think that much useful information will be gleaned from question time with members of Congress. They will just ask "gotcha" questions or about obscure issues that are only of interest to them.