The Wobbly, MaryClare Brzytwa and Jess Matsen show at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave., previously scheduled for tonight, has been cancelled according to www.solarculture.org.

More on "Arizona's White Supremacist Problem" from The Daily Beast:

Support of Arizona’s immigration law by white supremacists is not surprising, says Heidi Beirich, a SPLC expert on hate groups, who contends folks who want the United States populated by whites only view the law as one good way to reduce the population of brown people.

“My view is you can’t separate white supremacists from what is going on with Arizona immigration,” Professor Doty says. “Even if politicians say they aren’t associated with white supremacists, the ideas behind SB 1070 are very attractive to white supremacists… The new face of the white supremacist isn’t the guy with a sheet and a burning cross, it is the more highly educated person with a professed focus on family values, national identity, and border security.”

Baggin's Gourmet Sandwiches at 5056 E. Broadway Blvd. is moving down the street to the former Jason's Deli location at 5420 E. Broadway Blvd.

Norma Gentry, who handles public relations for Baggin's, said the move is expected to happen in mid-September. A closing date for the current Baggin's location has not been set.

The new location has twice the seating of the current Baggin's location, said Gentry. She said additional details would be available after plans were finalized.

Officials from Jason’s Deli had planned to reopen the location, which closed in May due to financial problems with the franchisee.

Daniel Helfman, a spokesman for Jason’s Deli, said the company is now looking for a different spot for a second Tucson location.

“It’s unfortunate the Broadway location did not work out, but we look forward to surprising Tucson with more locations soon,” said Helfman.

Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18, 5455 S. Calle Santa Cruz, will screen Smile Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story the following days and times:

Tuesday, July 27 and Wednesday, July 28: 7:10 p.m.
Thursday, July 29 through Saturday, July 31: 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m.

Up With People formed in 1965 as an international singing group. They have performed at four Superbowl halftimes and featured actress Glenn Close in earlier years. The singers set out to change the world with cheery songs, but their foundation stressed right-wing political ideals and religious views. Up With People is "... a critical and objective analysis of the organization in a historical and political context ...," says filmmaker Lee Storey.

Read a review here.

The New Yorker has this to say about the politics of immigration reform and the border—and what to do with the millions of people who already crossed over it.

Senator John McCain, of Arizona, in a floor speech defending his state’s newly passed law requiring local officers to investigate individuals’ immigration status, described “an unsecured border between Arizona and Mexico, which has led to violence, the worst I have ever seen.” He went on to cite numbers for illegal immigrants apprehended last year “that stagger.”

In fact those numbers are surprising: they are sharply down, according to the Border Patrol—by more than sixty per cent since 2000, to five hundred and fifty thousand apprehensions last year, the lowest figure in thirty-five years. Illegal immigration, although hard to measure, has clearly been declining. The southern border, far from being “unsecured,” is in better shape than it has been for years—better managed and less porous. It has been the beneficiary of security-budget increases since September 11th, which have helped slow the pace of illegal entries, if not as dramatically as the economic crash did. Violent crime, though rising in Mexico, has fallen this side of the border: in Southwestern border counties it has dropped more than thirty per cent in the past two decades. It’s down in Senator McCain’s Arizona. According to F.B.I. statistics, the four safest big cities in the United States—San Diego, Phoenix, El Paso, and Austin—are all in border states.

The problem of illegal immigration isn’t a matter of violent criminals storming the walls of our peaceful towns and cities. It’s a matter of what to do about the estimated eleven million unauthorized residents who are already here. The mass-deportation fantasies of some restrictionists notwithstanding, the great majority of “illegals” are here to stay. That is a good thing, since they are, for a start, essential to large sectors of the economy, beginning with the food supply—the Department of Labor calculates that more than half the crop pickers in the United States are undocumented. National business leaders have no illusions about these basic facts of economic life. Last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg formed a coalition of big-city mayors and chief executives of major corporations—including Boeing, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, and even Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation—to lobby Congress for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants. Bloomberg calls the current immigration policy “national suicide."

Read the whole piece here.. Hat tip to Red Star

Dave Ewoldt, a Green-turned-independent candidate for the state Senate LD 28, wants to talk. Here's a news release:

Tonight, 7 pm to 9 pm
Monday Evening Community Conversation
2602 E. Grant Rd. Tucson, AZ
(Across Forgeus Ave from Kingfisher restaurant)

What issues are you most concerned about? What can we rationally and reasonably do about them? How can we further the project of improving quality of life?

The foundational assumptions for these conversations are that there is a path to a sustainable future; that we can strengthen community relationships; that we can create a viable and resilient local economy; and that we can protect and restore the environment all of the above depend on.

As part of Transition Pima's ongoing Chautauqua for Change and the Dave for Arizona campaign, please join us for these regular Monday Evening Community Conversations.

Rasmussen Reports says that John McCain has opened up a 20-point GOP primary lead over former Congressman J.D. Hayworth, according to its latest poll.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters in the state shows McCain attracting 54% of the vote, while Hayworth earns 34%.

For Hayworth, this represents another decline in support. In April, he picked up 42% of the vote. That fell to 40% in May, 36% in June and 34% in July.

For McCain, the 54% level of support is his highest yet.

As always, take Rasmussen's polls with a big grain of salt, as their reliability has been questioned by other pollsters.

Regardless, it's looking more and more like Arizonans will get six more years of McCain.

We told you a few weeks back about how Ted Downing, a former Democratic state lawmaker, is now making a run for the state Senate as an independent.

By going the independent route, Downing is able to avoid a Democratic primary against incumbent Sen. Paula Aboud in midtown Tucson’s Legislative District 28. Downing lost a primary to Aboud in 2006.

Downing isn’t the only independent in the race; Dave Ewoldt, who has been active with the local Green Party, has also abandoned the party label in order to run in the general.

Why all the reluctance to embrace a party label? Ewoldt tell us he decided against running as a Green because he thought voters were too dismissive of Green candidates. Downing says says he’s not running as a Democrat because he has a new vision of post-partisan politics.

We suspect Downing also figured out he’d lose a primary, but would have a shot at winning in a general election if he could grab some of his old Democratic supporters and win over the vote of a few Republicans who might reflexively vote against Democrat Aboud because there was no Republican in the race.

Or at least there wasn’t until recently, when Republican Greg Krino announced he was going to switch from running as for a House seat in LD28 to running as a write-in candidate for Senate.

Krino, a recent UA law school graduate and former A-10 fighter pilot, will need to get 214 write-in votes to earn a spot on the general-election ballot.

Here's a trailer of the upcoming film Red starring Bruce Willis. This was shown at Comic-Con, which runs through Sunday in San Diego.

If you're interested in voting in next month's primary election, you need to register to vote by Monday, July 26. And remember: Independents are eligible to vote in primaries in Arizona, so you don't need to register as a Democrat or a Republican to cast a ballot in those races. Details on how to register here. Take care of it online here.

Pima County Recorder tells us that at least 71,000 ballots will be going out to Democrats in Pima County and more than 57,000 early ballots will be going out to Republicans. She adds that the campaigns that have been working the early ballots the hardest have been Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Click here to get your early ballot.