It's the final debate between Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Republican Jesse Kelly in Congressional District 8. We got a late start on our Facebook coverage, which you can find here.

We recently reviewed Innocent Until Interrogated: The True Story of the Buddhist Temple Massacre and the Tucson Four. See Tim Hull's Sept. 30 review: here.

Gary Stuart, the author of Innocent Until Interrogated, will speak tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the UA James E. Rogers College of Law, 1201 E. Speedway Blvd., Ares Auditorium, Room 164.

About the author:
Gary L. Stuart is an attorney in Phoenix. He is the author of six books, including The Gallup 14, a novel based on the notorious court case of 1930s New Mexico, and Miranda: The Story of America's Right to Remain Silent (UA Press).

If you're headed up to the Phoenix area this weekend and want to do a good deed at the same time, check out the 6th Annual Phoenix Brain Tumor Walk. Details are in the press release below, along with some surprising statistics.

Who: National Brain Tumor Society, East Coast Office, 124 Watertown Street, Suite 2D, Watertown, MA 02472
What: 6th Annual Phoenix Brain Tumor Walk
Where: Kiwanis Park (at Ruben Romero Corporate Area), 5900 S. All American Way, Tempe, AZ 85283
When: Saturday, October 23, 2010; registration 8-9 AM; program & activities 9 AM - Noon.
Fees: $50 for adults; $25 for ages 6-17; free for ages 5 & under. Fee includes food, beverages, and full access to event activities. Pre-register to receive an event t-shirt.

Why: Each year over 210,000 people in the United States and 10,000 people in Canada are diagnosed with a primary or metastatic brain tumor—that's over 575 people every day. Brain tumors are the leading cause of solid tumor death in children under age 20, now surpassing acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Brain tumor patients, including those with certain "benign" tumors, have poorer survival rates than breast cancer patients. Because brain tumors are located in the control center for thought, emotion, and movement, their effects on an individual's physical and cognitive abilities can be devastating. Only 31% of males and 30% of females survive five years following the diagnosis of a primary or metastatic brain tumor. Brain tumors cannot be prevented because their causes are unknown.

For information and to register online, visit www.PhoenixWalk.org or call toll-free 1.866.455.3214.

In case you’re wonky enough to care about this stuff: About one third of the 246,375 early ballots that were sent out have been returned and processed, according to Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez.

Roughly 81,300 ballots had been corralled by the Recorder’s Office as of this afternoon, with more in trays awaiting a signature check before they’re sent to the Elections Department.

That means there are a lot of voters who still haven’t made up their minds—or at least haven’t had time to fill out their ballot. So if you’re a candidate, there are plenty of potential persuadable voters out there.

BTW: It’s your last day to request an early ballot, so if you want one, call (520) 740-4330 now.

Keeping in mind that both congressional districts stretch into different counties, here’s how the picture is shaping up in Pima County:

Congressional District 8

Total ballots requested: 180,335
Ballots returned: 62,441

Democratic ballots requested: 65,229
Democratic ballots returned: 22,421

Republican ballots requested: 69,264
Republican ballots returned: 25,312

Independent ballots requested: 44,556
Independent ballots returned: 14.308

Congressional District 7

Total ballots requested: 66,051
Total ballots returned: 18,836

From our sister publication, Inside Tucson Business:

The Tucson City Council will vote on the future of the proposed $192 million downtown convention center hotel Tuesday (Oct. 26) following a public hearing at 5:30.

The council meeting that day has been moved to the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church. Both sides are beginning to rally the troops to show up.

Councilman Steve Kozachik is urging people who has questions about the project or believe the numbers don’t pencil out, to show up so the room isn’t overrun with those who want the short-term jobs without considering the long term costs to the community.

“The risks of negative consequences of building this Convention Center Hotel are too great,” Kozachick said in a letter he sent out. “Other communities have gone down the public subsidy path, only to find their General Fund at risk and being placed in the position of having to take on further debt to cover losses.”
He continues to contend too much of the risk is on the taxpayers and the city and not on anyone else.

On the other side, an e-mail from Kurt Wadlington, an employee owner of Sundt asks for contractors to contact the city councilmembers and show up for the hearing to “remind our city council how important this project is to Tucson and our crippled construction economy,” the e-mail said.

The e-mail asks for an even bigger turnout than several hundred that showed up at the Rio Nuevo meeting held June 23.

We made our maiden voyage to Don Pedro’s Peruvian Bistro (which we blogged about yesterday) and left with a full stomach and plans to return. Peruvian food takes many forms and combines disparate ingredients (for instance: tuna and cold mashed potatoes, which is quite good), and Don Pedro’s serves a fast and tasty version of it. The restaurant also has some of the hottest salsa we’ve tasted in a while, and a savory white condiment we have to get the recipe for. Good service, too.

Also new this week: Flavor of India, the new Oro Valley restaurant by the three brothers that own Gandhi Cuisine of India. They opened last Sunday and offer a buffet seven days a week. More information here.

The Cup Café at Hotel Congress unveiled a new menu this week. Notable additions include jerk chicken and a prime-rib sandwich. More here.

Speaking of jerk chicken, Tiki Tim’s Grill at the Hut does it right. We stopped in last Sunday and our lunch companion couldn’t stop talking about it. Wait, maybe the jerk she was talking about was me. Either way, Tiki Tim’s is awesome and well worth trying.

Discounted tickets are now available for the BBQ Classic at JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 29 and 30. We’re not sure how much tickets were originally, but they’ve been marked down to $10 per day, or $45 for VIP. More information here.

The owners of Casa Vicente are opening a new restaurant called Casa Marita in the Mercado San Agustin. Owner Vicente Sanchez says the new restaurant — which is named after his wife, Marita Gomez — will serve food from Gomez’s homeland of Argentina, with a focus on beef grilled over mesquite wood. Expect imported Argentinean beef, local, grass-fed beef and cuts of meat you may have never seen before. The restaurant is expected to open early next year.

Chefs from a number of local restaurants take on surgeons from the Tucson Orthopaedic Institute at a pumpkin-carving contest Thursday, Oct. 28. There will be snacks and wine and the pumpkins will be auctioned off to raise money for programs that help kids with arthritis. Admission is free. More information here.

We’ve also gotten word that they’ll try to set the world record for the largest matzo ball at this year’s Tucson Jewish Food Festival on Sunday, Nov. 7. That will require a matzo ball that weighs at least 500 pounds. Damn. More information here.

John Dougherty certainly isn't backing down on his accusation that Governor Brewer had a thyroid biopsy.

From Dougherty's InvestigativeMedia Facebook page:

Governor Brewer received a thyroid biopsy on Sept. 20, according to records and interviews with sources inside and outside her administration. The biopsy was likely conducted at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, where the governor was taken twice in one day in late Sept. Official office photo shows Brewer wearing bandage on her neck on Sept. 21 in Tucson. She's wearing the same outfit as in the KOLD TV interview that also shows bandage. The KOLD interview was not aired until Oct. 7.

As part of the "It Gets Better" project launched by columnist Dan Savage (whose Savage Love appears in our print version), Barack Obama delivers a powerful, moving message not just for LGTB youth, but for anyone. Regardless of what you think of the guy's politics, it's hard to argue there isn't some inherent value in the President of the United States saying in a public way that hate-driven bullying is wrong.

"Polka Dot Parisienne," by Valerie Galloway, is on display in Bonjour Mademoiselle, beginning Saturday, Oct. 23, and continuing through Nov. 17, at Bohemia, 2920 E. Broadway Blvd.

We goofed in The Skinny this week when we said that tonight's CD8 debate between Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Republican challenger Jesse Kelly would be at 6:30 p.m. on Arizona Illustrated.

Instead, it's an expanded one-hour affair starting at 6 p.m. If you're a political junkie, you won't want to miss this showdown in one of the tightest House races in the country.

Speaking of Arizona Illustrated: Fans of the show won't have to do without anchor Bill Buckmaster after he steps down from his nightly duties after Nov. 5.

Buckmaster, who will be starting 2011 with a new morning radio show on The Jolt, 1330 AM, says he'll be sticking with the Friday Roundtable through the end of year.

"I'm delighted that I have a chance to keep doing the Roundtable," Buckmaster says.

As a member of Buckmaster's posse on the Friday Roundtable, I'm also delighted to hear that we'll have more opportunities to interview newsmakers and talk politics together on Friday afternoons. The Range recently heard from a lot of folks in the community who tell us they're really going to miss having Buckmaster on Arizona Illustrated, which airs nightly at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6. Let's hope that The Powers That Be can find a way to keep him around on Friday nights for a long time to come.