We had to call out Wienerschnitzel in our cover story this week, but the scam that Pee Wee's Famous Hot Dogs and Hamburgers is trying to pull might be worse.

From Gustavo Arellano and OC Weekly's Stick A Fork In It food blog:

Take a close look at Pee Wee's so-called Mexican hot dog at left from the snapshot of their website above. Notice the stream of mustard bisecting the dog, the tomatoes shoveled on top of the dog, the trickle of relish, the zig-zag of—HA!—Mexican creme fraiche (sorry, folks: HAHAHAHAHAHA!), the contours of its paper wrapping below, the indentations of the bread, the size and placement of everything in the picture. This is the shot that Pee Wee's uses to advertise itself as the "Home of the Mexican Hot Dog."

I knew I had seen that picture somewhere ...my own blog post on five "authentic" Mexican dishes that would make Rick Bayless scream! And that picture came from the website of Tucson's El Güero Canelo chain, where the art of the Sonora dog has reached beautiful heights highlighted even in the frou-frou food pages of The New York Times.

Pee Wee's rip-off is shameless. The only thing they did to make the picture theirs is Photoshop out the roasted pepper on the side (compare and contrast! compare and contrast!). How much effort would it have taken to merely take a picture of an item you're already claiming as innovative, an item you duped a poor Reg reporter into inaccurately reporting on? Do you really think online customers are that dumb? Actually, you do! Replace that photo ASAP, but such tactics have given me an ethical pepper belly for you guys that I don't think can ever be cured.

Oh, and Pee Wee's? $3.95 before tax for a Sonora dog is larceny—El Güero charges $2.71, a price that includes the tax. And a "true" Sonora dog doesn't use a bolillo as its bread. Bolillos are for tortas; hot dog buns are for hot dogs. Even in Mexico.

How dare you, Pee Wee's. HOW DARE YOU.

I tried calling Pee Wee's but no one answered (lunch rush, maybe?), so I sent an e-mail to the address listed on their site to get a comment. More information to come as the story develops.

The Arizona GOP's decision to cut funding for transplants remains a national story. TW has covered it here and here.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Congressman Raul Grijalva jump in today with a letter urging Gov. Jan Brewer to restore funding:

We write to you today to bring to your immediate attention a life-threatening crisis facing a fellow Tucsonan, David Hernandez.

Mr. Hernandez is a 48-year-old father and grandfather who worked in the construction industry for all of his adult life. Over the course of a career spent operating heavy equipment in dirty and dusty conditions, Mr. Hernandez contracted interstitial fribrosis, an illness that involves progressive scarring of the lungs.

Mr. Hernandez initially was accepted into the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and preapproved for a double lung transplant. But because of state budgetary issues, on Oct. 1 the state canceled his transplant along with the transplants of nearly 100 other Arizonans. This decision amounts to a death sentence for Mr. Hernandez.

Mr. Hernandez contacted our offices and said he is attempting to raise, through contributions and other means, the $200,000 cost of a privately funded transplant. But that is a daunting and difficult undertaking.

We understand the challenges our state budget is facing in this difficult economy. That is why we supported the extension of enhanced federal matching funds for AHCCCS which raised Arizona’s federal match from 65.8 percent to 75.9 percent, providing the state with $7.7 billion in FY2010. We supported this funding for Arizona along with a maintenance-of-effort

After I wrapped this week's Skinny, the Independent Redistricting Commission saga had a few new developments. Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic rounds them up:

Commissioner Louis Araneta, who questioned Gleason's ability to separate his spiritual views from his civic duties, resigned from the commission Tuesday.

In a statement, Araneta, a retired Maricopa County Superior Court judge, said his comments were "misinterpreted to infer that I was not in support of Mr. Gleason's application because of his religious beliefs."

Adams and Pearce said the nominating commission must ensure the religious beliefs of future candidates don't factor into the selection process.

That extends to all faiths, Pearce said, including Islam.

They called on the commission to tape future meetings so there would be no ambiguity about what transpired.

In response to the lawmakers' concerns, Rebecca Berch White, who as chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court oversees the nominating commission, is setting up another meeting of the commission.

Read the whole thing here.

This morning, I was driving down Fourth Avenue—and marveling at the number of new dining and drinking joints that have opened downtown—when I noticed yet another new eatery called Medusa Kabob House setting up in the old Casbah Tea House location at 628 N. Fourth Ave.

Downtown has welcomed Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, Empire Pizza and Pub, Mr. Head's Art Gallery and Bar, Rice House and Café Desta in recent months. HUB Restaurant and Ice Creamery and Sparkroot are also coming soon, and then there's the bakery, taco stand, market, snow-cone vendor, Argentinean restaurant and cocktail lounge opening at Mercado San Agustin.

Oh, and I almost forgot 47 Scott and the adjoined Scott and Co., and the massive An Congress going in at the corner of Congress Street and Fifth Avenue. We've also heard that the owner of Time Market is opening a restaurant that will serve sandwiches and beer somewhere along Congress Street, and that Ramiro Scavo —who used to be executive chef for Hacienda del Sol, Zona 78 and Harvest Restaurant—plans to open a new restaurant near the UA before long.

Boca, O'Hungry's Restaurant and Mama's Hawaiian Barbecue have also opened in the area this year.

It's a great and exciting time to eat and drink downtown. And if there's nothing down there that suits your fancy now, wait a few months. You never know what'll pop up next.

(A quick note to the Arizona Daily Star's food writers: Now that you have published stunningly slobbering accounts of the announcement, build-up and opening of Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails - not to mention today's do-no-wrong review—could you lay off the effusive stories about Janos Wilder for a while? Please? It's getting nauseating. That is all.)

Oscar Jimenez, Wingspan's anti-violence program manager, has been organizing rallies near Tucson schools to raise awareness about anti-gay bullying and violence. T

he last rally of the year is near Amphi High School. If you want to join up, meet at the southeast corner of Stone and Yavapai, this Thursday, the 16th, from 7 to 8:30 a.m. Bring posters of support (and your Mom will want you to remember to wear a sweater).

For more information on Wingspan's anti-bullying and anti-violence efforts, call or e-mail Jimenez at [email protected], or 624-1779.

Word has come from the Peck Canyon Corridor of another deadly shooting in Arizona's borderlands.

This latest episode took the life of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry. Details are sketchy as of now, but it appears Terry came upon a group of presumed smugglers at Peck Wells, which is part of Peck Canyon, when the shooting occurred.

The Border Patrol's public-information office in Tucson confirms that at least four suspects are in custody, and one more is being pursued. A massive manhunt is underway as Border Patrol and other law-enforcement agencies try to apprehend the suspect, believed to be trying to flee into Mexico.

A rancher in the southern part of the Peck Corridor, reached moments ago, tells me that law-enforcement vehicles have been roaring up and down Ruby Road all morning. "The hills around my house are crawling with agents," he says. "They're all over the place"

Peck Wells is on Coronado National Forest land about 2 miles west of David and Edith Lowell's Atascosa Ranch home. The Lowells played a prominent role in my recent Tucson Weekly cover story on the Peck Canyon Corridor.

The piece drew a parallel between the increasing violence in this area north and west of Nogales with what had been happening in the Chiricahua Corridor, above Douglas, prior to the March 27 murder of Rob Krentz.

The killer in that case is still at large. But investigators followed what were believed to be the killer's tracks into Mexico, and Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever says he has reason to believe the killer was a drug scout.

One of my Chiricahua Corridor articles revolved around Louie Pope, who agreed to tell his story, and allow his name to be used, in spite of the clear danger.

Louie said: "I really expect to get death threats from this, but we have the opportunity to tell an important story about what's happening out here, and we need to do it before something bad happens."

Krentz was killed six months later.

About the Peck Corridor, last month's story said: "Can the violence be stopped before we have another borderlands tragedy involving an American citizen or a lawman?”

Sad to say, we can't.

The Peck Corridor story reported that there had been at least five shootings on the Lowells' Atascosa Ranch in the past year.

Three of these were sniper-style shootings in Peck Canyon itself. There was another sniper-style shooting—this of a Border Patrol agent, wounded in the ankle—in Ramanote Canyon in December of 2009. Ramanote Canyon is about 2 miles from Peck Wells.

The story asked the question: Is it safe for American citizens to go onto this public land to hunt, hike and camp?

We got an answer shortly after the story ran, when gunmen menaced a group of quail hunters in the Peck Corridor, the bad guys firing shots over the hunters' heads as they fled.

And at a citizens' meeting at Border Patrol HQ in Nogales just last night, rancher Dan Bell told me of an episode that occurred along Ruby Road within the past week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were chasing smugglers along Ruby Road, the druggies heaving their bales out the back of the truck at the pursuing ICE vehicle.

Janet Napolitano—who keeps telling us the border is just fine, nothing to see here, move along—should be put under hot lights over the Terry killing.

She needs to explain why she thinks it's safe for American citizens to venture onto this Coronado National Forest land. Would she go there herself? Would she take her family, her dog? Or would she go only with a heavily-armed security detail?

From his ranch headquarters this morning, David Lowell says: "I feel bad about the really lousy job our government is doing—not Border Patrol, but the politicians. If the same Border Patrolman had shot first and killed the (presumed) Mexican that killed him, he'd probably have a ticket to go to prison. It's a really dumb way to try to protect our southern border.

"The rules of engagement need to be changed," Lowell continued. "We should do whatever we can to allow the Border Patrol to terrify the Mexican criminals, instead of vice versa."

Lowell says he spoke this morning with a Border Patrol agent and a friend from the Forest Service.

The agent told him the shooters were likely border bandits, although that is unconfirmed, and we don't know which side of the line they're from.

The forest service man told David this might not be a good day to go out working cattle on horseback.

In other words, American citizens have to hunker down, watch their backs, hope for the best.

"Edith and I just had a discussion, and we agreed to keep our doors locked," says David. "And she might move her shotgun from under the computer table to the top of it."

We shouldn't have to keep enduring horrors of this type any time of year, but they're especially difficult at Christmas. Keep Brian Terry and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

In last week's Skinny column, I make the modest suggestion that state lawmakers spend less time trying to reduce future revenues via tax cuts, seeing as there are giant deficits in Arizona's budget future.

Bob Robb of the Arizona Republic makes a similar point:

Now, despite all the perpetual hand-wringing, there’s nothing fundamentally flawed about the Arizona economy, or at least nothing fundamentally flawed about the Phoenix metro area economy. And, while improvements could be made, Arizona already has a tax structure quite compatible with robust economic growth, as the experience since the early 1990s amply demonstrates.

In fact, right now, the instability and uncertainty of government finance in Arizona is a greater threat to economic growth than the lack of a grab bag of goodies to throw at politically favored companies or industries, or Arizona’s slightly excessive income and property taxation of business.

Arizona has not had a truly balanced state general fund budget since 2007. Since then, deficits have been papered over with borrowing, sweeping other funds, postponing payments and federal funds.

State general fund spending this year is around $9.5 billion. State revenues for next year are projected at only $8.2 billion.

The Legislature should consider no bill that increases spending or cuts taxes supposedly to stimulate the economy until it first passes a truly balanced budget that doesn’t rely on borrowing, fund sweeps, payment postponements or stealing money from local governments.

If Brewer and Republican legislators really want to improve economic conditions in Arizona, that’s job 1.

Those good folks at the All Together Theatre, who do amazing family and children’s theater productions at Live Theatre Workshop (5317 E. Speedway Blvd.), have a family show you don't want to miss.

A Christmas Sing-A-Long features Richard and Amanda Gremel and is directed by Michael Martinez (all fantastic LTW performers and youth-theater instructors) with two performances on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 1 and 6:30 p.m.

From All Together Theatre:

Featuring live music by Michael Martinez with caroling and fun for the whole family! Help Santa's elves find their way back to the North Pole!

Tickets: $5 to $8 with discounts available

To make your reservation, call (520) 327-4242

The Tucson chapter of SWOP (Sex Workers Outreach Project) will recognize the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on Friday, Dec. 17, at the El Tiradito Shrine, 420 S. Main Ave., at 5:30 p.m..

From SWOP:

This event was created to call attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. Originally conceived as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle, the day has become an annual event to raise awareness about the violence that is commonly committed against sex workers. Existing laws prevent sex workers from reporting violence. The stigma and discrimination that is perpetuated by the prohibitionist laws has made violence against us acceptable. Please join with sex workers around the world and stand against criminalization and violence committed against prostitutes.

Visible and invisible, sex workers are among us. December 17th, join us to stand against violence, and memorialize sex workers murdered in the past year. We will remember their names, and send them skyward with paper cranes and biodegradable balloons.

Vigil and performance. Wear red, carry a red umbrella, and bring your love.

We are your parents, neighbors, friends, and partners. We are your hidden desires, your secrets, and your inspirations. We are the pulse that keeps communities together, and the underground economies that provide for our families. We need you as our allies. We do not deserve to suffer in darkness at the hands of killers. Help us bring our struggle into the light.

Beating out the Tea Party, Julian Assange, Hamid Karzai and the Chilean miners, Mark Zuckerberg is Time's Person of the Year.

It's a little difficult to disagree with Time—after all, it's a far better choice than 2006's "You" or the year they picked a Planet of the Year (guess who won? Earth!)—but parts of the essay explaining their choice sound like the middle of a college term paper written with minimal information, a couple of Adderall, and a looming deadline.

More than anyone else on the world stage, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is at the center of these changes. Born in 1984, the same year the Macintosh computer was launched, he is both a product of his generation and an architect of it. The social-networking platform he invented is closing in on 600 million users. In a single day, about a billion new pieces of content are posted on Facebook. It is the connective tissue for nearly a tenth of the planet. Facebook is now the third largest country on earth and surely has more information about its citizens than any government does. Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, is its T-shirt-wearing head of state.

Evolutionary biologists suggest there is a correlation between the size of the cerebral neocortex and the number of social relationships a primate species can have. Humans have the largest neocortex and the widest social circle — about 150, according to the scientist Robin Dunbar. Dunbar's number — 150 — also happens to mirror the average number of friends people have on Facebook. Because of airplanes and telephones and now social media, human beings touch the lives of vastly more people than did our ancestors, who might have encountered only 150 people in their lifetime. Now the possibility of connection is accelerating at an extraordinary pace. As the great biologist E.O. Wilson says, "We're in uncharted territory."