The debate on whether the Legislative District 26 Senate candidates will debate has become like a cash cow for The Range. Every few weeks, there’s a new development, a new promise and a new complaint, but we still haven’t seen a debate.

We thought the good times were coming to an end, though, when Dave Perry, the editor and publisher of the Explorer newspaper, set up something that both candidates agreed on: a nonpartisan debate hosted by the paper between state Sen. Al Melvin and his rematch contestant, Democrat Cheryl Cage.

Perry says he wanted to run the debate himself to make sure it was fair and informative and didn’t get hijacked by either party or any special-interest groups.

Melvin apparently trusted Perry to do just that, and wrote a confirmation email saying, “Dave, Count me in. I’m sure you will give this a lot of thought and that you will do your utmost to make the event fair and balanced.”

But Melvin now says he won’t attend the debate unless his two new requirements are met: 1) The debate also includes the three House of Representatives candidates. and 2) it is held at one of four places he has chosen.

“I attempted to put together a debate between the two Senate candidates, and they both initially agreed to do it but on further reflection Senator Melvin has concerns about the venue and he has concerns about not including the House candidates,” Perry says.

Perry had originally scheduled it at Mountain View High School, which Melvin says he didn’t like because

Both Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and GOP challenger Jesse Kelly unveiled new TV spots today.

Giffords has a testimonial from Cochise County veterinarian and rancher Dr. Gary Thrasher, a Republican who is supporting the incumbent Democrat. Team Giffords notes that in July, Thrasher "presented Gabrielle with the Arizona Cattle Growers Association’s annual award for public service in recognition of her work to secure the border."

Kelly's spot defends the Republican candidate from charges that he wants to privatize Social Security. Kelly, who calls Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," says he wants to preserve Social Security for the current recipients, but would offer younger workers a chance to invest at least a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts.

We wrote last week about an ad that Conservatives for Congress used to attack Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who is facing a challenge from Republican Jesse Kelly. You can read our take here.

Now Factcheck.org says the ad was off-base:

An attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by a group called Conservatives for Congress hoodwinks viewers with selectively edited clips from a House hearing earlier this year.

The TV ad, which has been running in the Tucson market, lampoons the Arizona Democrat for asking Gen. David Petraeus about the military’s use of alternative energy sources such as hydro and solar power in Afghanistan. The question "left Gen. Petraeus almost speechless," the ad’s narrator says. Petraeus, who at the time was Commander of the U.S. Central Command, is shown saying, "Uh, I pause." But it’s viewers who should pause before accepting this version of events.

Read the whole thing here.

The gang at the UA Controlled Environment Agriculture Center have made progress on their lunar greenhouse.

I wrote about their South Pole greenhouse and their lunar ambitions here.

Now the UA's Ed Stiles tells us more:

The first extraterrestrials to inhabit the moon probably won't be little green men, but they could be little green plants.

Researchers at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, known as CEAC, are demonstrating that plants from Earth could be grown hydroponically (without soil) on the moon or Mars, setting the table for astronauts who would find potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables awaiting their arrival.

The research team has built a prototype lunar greenhouse in the CEAC Extreme Climate Lab at UA's Campus Agricultural Center. It represents the last 18 feet of one of several tubular structures that would be part of a proposed lunar base. The tubes would be buried beneath the moon's surface to protect the plants and astronauts from deadly solar flares, micrometeorites and cosmic rays.

The membrane-covered module can be collapsed

The Geeks Who Drink bring a weekly pub quiz night to Club Congress starting on Tuesday, Sept. 28. It's bar trivia, but with a sharp edge and great prizes. You can find more details here.

• Shrimp and broccoli is good and plentiful at Chinese Box.

We tried the drive through and were in and out in about 15 minutes. The place is open until 3 a.m. on weekends, and they seem to already have it together, despite opening just a week ago. Ample portions, good prices, huge styrofoam cups of delicious wonton soup ... without leaving the car? Works for me.

The menu is after the jump.

PARK(ing) Day Tucson returns on Friday, Sept. 17. According to the press release, you'd better reserve your spot by Sept. 15:

Providing temporary public open space . . . one parking spot at a time. The 3rd Annual PARK(ing) Day Tucson is Sept. 17.

PARK(ing) Day Tucson returns this year to the historic Downtown, Main Gate, and 4th Avenue entertainment districts Sept. 17 from 8am to 5pm. Groups and individuals are invited to participate.

More than 80 urban parking spots were transformed into fun, quirky and creative public spaces at last year’s PARK(ing) Day. Thirty groups participated to congregate, socialize, and play.

PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event where citizens, activists, and artists transform metered parking spots into temporary public spaces. It began in 2005 by a San Francisco art and design studio called Rebar that transformed a single metered parking spot into a park. The idea soon garnered wide-spread attention and became a global event with the mission of calling attention to the need for more urban open space, generating critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and improving the quality of urban human habitat.

Tucson had one of the highest levels of public participation in the world in 2009, according to Rebar.

To reserve a PARK(ing) space, contact ParkWise before Sept. 15 at (520) 791-5071. Downtown metered spaces are $4.50 and Main Gate metered spaces cost $9 for the whole day. There is no charge for PARK(ing) on 4th Avenue. Participants will need to pick their space, conceptualize, and plan their PARK(ing) installation.

PARK(ing) Day Tucson is coordinated locally by the City of Tucson ParkWise.
Original concept by Rebar.www.rebargroup.org.

Contact: Teresa Vasquez, ParkWise, (520) 791-5071, [email protected].

Nate Silver, the statistical wizard behind fivethirtyeight.com, has completed his analysis of the U.S. House races for The New York Times. Silver gives the GOP a 2-in-3 chance of retaking the House.

But he favors Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in CD8, saying she has a 51 percent chance of beating Jesse Kelly. Check out his analysis here.

The Arizona Republic reports that a half-dozen of the Green Scheme candidates have quit their races:

Six of the 11 Green Party candidates who a federal judge ruled can stay on the general-election ballot have withdrawn from their races.

It is unclear why.

Details here.

The best piece on the Green candidates had to be The New York Times' coverage:

The view, though, is different along Mill Avenue, where the first-time candidates appear to have been emboldened by the exercise, as Mr. Pearcy’s street corner campaign speech last Thursday night attests. Dressed up spiffily, he described himself as the illegitimate son of a stripper who had had run-ins with the law and a tough childhood but who had pulled his life together.

“I’ve been homeless,” he said, his eyes darting back and forth. “I got a place. Anyone can do it. We’re all good enough.”

There was nodding all around, more than when he went into his pitch to solve the budget deficit through the installation of solar panels. As Mr. Pearcy went on, Mr. May whispered “focus, focus, focus” into his ear to get him back on track and help prepare him for a debate in early October, which will be televised across the state.

Reading tarot cards has taught Mr. Meadows, who is known for his purple and green jester hat, to talk a good game. “This is not the land of the free,” he told the loungers on the sidewalk, pitching himself for treasurer. “It’s the land of what’s for sale.”

Grandpa, widely known in the area through the pedicab he drives for hire, is against higher taxes and for God in the classroom. The other night, he was supposed to debate his Democratic and Republican rivals in the race but after seeing only the Democrat on stage, he decided to watch from the back. “I got a bad vibe,” he said.

More tea leaves in Congressional District 8, where Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is facing a challenge from Republican Jesse Kelly.

Congressional District 8 didn’t make it onto the “Fix 50”—a round-up of the 50 most competitive House races in the country by Chris Cillizza of The Fix, a Washington Post blog. (Earlier this year, Cillizza’s readers voted for Congressional District 8 as a race they wanted The Fix to focus, but Cliizza has neglected Southern Arizona over the campaign season.)

You'll find the Fix 50 here.

CD8 has also dropped in the National Journal’s listing of competitive seats, from No. 34 to No. 51. The Journal's take:

Dems believe Iraq vet Jesse Kelly (R)—who took out the favored Republican in the primary—is too conservative for this marginal CD. But that should be small comfort to Giffords, who faces an environment in Arizona that is shifting heavily to the GOP this cycle.

Anne Hilby, spokeswoman for Team Giffords, says that the drop in rankings shows that national pundits don’t believe Kelly’s message will resonate with CD8 voters.

"Jesse Kelly's calls to eliminate Social Security, eliminate Medicare, eliminate the minimum wage, eliminate the corporate income tax and establish a 23 percent sales tax that raises taxes on 80 percent of Arizonans would be devastating for working families and seniors,” Hilby said in an e-mail. “It’s clear that Kelly's priority is his own radical political agenda, not serving Southern Arizona. One after another, voters and analysts are rejecting his dangerous and out of touch positions."

But Kelly dismissed the rankings as irrelevant in an e-mail to The Range.

"The voters of Southern Arizona are more concerned that Giffords voted to cut $500 billion from Medicare and that Giffords bailed out Wall Street than they are with what some Washington, D.C., paper thinks," Kelly says.

Clearly, Medicare reform is big in the messaging these days.

More tea leaves here.