Trouble with black bears in Tucson.

The "Ugliest House in Tucson" contest is underway, through Friday, July 2. Vote here.
The contest is sponsored by HomeVestors of America, known as the "We Buy Ugly Houses®" company.

Here's more info from a press release:

“The contest is a fun way to bring the community together to celebrate ugly houses and their potential to be transformed,” said Fred Hubbard of Catalina Valley Properties, LLC. “We all win when these ugly houses become the belles of their block after they’ve had a makeover, adding beauty and value to the neighborhoods.”

Voters can cast their ballots after viewing photos and detailed property descriptions. Nominees for the 2010 “Ugliest House in Tucson” contest were selected from a call-for-entries held in March, when all real estate investors in the Tucson area were invited to submit the ugliest houses they had bought at any time between March 1, 2009 and February 28, 2010. Most of the houses nominated have since been rehabbed and transformed into lovely homes, with some sold on the retail market and others maintained as rental properties.

Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, lets us know that a shallow-water well is also leaking in the Gulf of Mexico—and that shallow-water drilling has its share of problems:

On May 6, 2010, the U.S. Department of the Interior placed a partial moratorium on shallow and deepwater drilling in response to the April 20, 2010 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling project. Interior defines “shallow-water drilling” as occurring in less than 500 feet of water and “deepwater drilling” as that which occurs in greater than 500 feet of water.

The moratorium was to last 30 days while Interior conducted a drilling safety review. On May, 28, 2010, the deepwater moratorium was expanded with great fanfare, and the shallow-water moratorium was quietly lifted without comment or explanation from Interior. Despite the announced 30-day safety review period, the Interior Department has produced any report or finding to justify its apparent conclusion that shallow-water drilling is safe.

Today it was revealed that Taylor Energy Company LLC’s shallow-water drilling operation, using Diamond Offshore’s Ocean Sarasota oil rig, has been leaking oil since at least April 30, 2010. That is just 10 days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Taylor Energy has multiple drilling

Here's the Political Face-Off from last night's Arizona Illustrated. Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash tells a whopper: "Most Hispanics favor 1070. Here in Arizona, as well as nationally. It polls well among Hispanics."

We'd love to see that poll.

We've seen plenty of surveys that show support for SB 1070, but we haven't seen a single one that shows it has support from the Hispanic community.

Here are the results of polls that we found online:

Latino Decisions: 81 percent opposed.

Behavior Research Center: 69 percent opposed.

Research 2000: 76 percent opposed.

It's not even close. These numbers may soften over time, but to say that polls show that SB 1070 polls well among Hispanics is just makin' stuff up.

The Democratic Party is doing its best to capitalize on Latino unhappiness

The Supreme Court has reversed itself and declared that matching funds will not be available for candidates who use Arizona's Clean Elections system. But there's a chance the ruling could be reversed yet again.

John Munger, who blamed his decision to get out of the governor's race last week on the Supreme Court's decision to allow matching funds, must feel little silly right now.

The ruling, if it stands (and who knows what will happen at this point?), has big implications for many of the candidates who went with Clean Elections. We'll have more in this week's print edition.

The Arizona Republic lets us know that Glendale might be having trouble paying for that baseball palace they built for the White Sox when they stole them from Pima County:

The success in growing the Cactus League is indisputable. But when the economy cratered, tax revenues fell, crippling the long-term outlook for crucial funding for Cactus League cities from the Valley-based Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority. That agency is charged with managing and distributing funds collected from Maricopa County hotel and rental-car taxes earmarked for spring training.

Glendale and Goodyear may get no more than just over half the money they expected to help them pay off bonds issued to build their ballparks. The cash the sports authority promised for renovations of other ballparks could fall short, given that teams are demanding more amenities and new facilities. Mesa, which is fending off a bid from Naples, Fla., to lure away the Cactus League's marquee attraction, the Chicago Cubs, proposes to sell off land it owns in Pinal County to cover costs for a new ballpark to keep the team.

Meanwhile, protesters are calling for Cactus League teams to leave Arizona because of the state's new immigration law.

More details:

Hall and Oates cancels a Phoenix appearance to protest SB 1070. Wait: Hall and Oates are still performing?

FactCheck.org tackles SB 1070:

We’ll leave it to others to decide whether Arizona’s new immigration law is a good thing or a bad thing — but here we try to straighten out some of the confusing factual claims. First, a quick summary. Contrary to what the law’s defenders often say, the new statute does more than merely mirror federal law.

They also debunk an e-mail sent by state Sen. Sylvia Allen, which is kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

Read the whole thing here.

State Sen. Russell Pearce, fresh from his SB 1070 victory, has two new bills in mind: Blocking children born to illegal immigrants in the United States from automatically becoming U.S. citizens and forcing the children who are undocumented to pay tuition to attend public schools. The Arizona Capitol Times has details here.