A friend who is quite the coffee nut says Blue Bottle Coffee from San Francisco is some of the best, and after reading up on the company, I believe him.

The company's story—small microroastery claws way to fame—exactly the sort of success story I hope to watch our own little microroastery Cafe Aqui pull off, once the world discovers how amazing their coffee is.

But I digress ... Ari Shapiro dropped us an e-mail last week to announce that his up-and-coming shop Sparkroot—which is still under construction on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Congress Street—will be the first place in Arizona to carry Blue Bottle Coffee.

Sparkroot will specialize in high-end coffees, a little bit of booze and simple sandwiches made with quality ingredients, and will have a very cool elevated dining area overlooking Congress Street, when it opens later this year.

On March 18, the city of Tucson's zoning administrator ruled in favor of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association's "Request for Determination and Complaint of Violation" regarding the Michael Goodman mini-dorm developments that took over Feldman's Historic Neighborhood two years ago, and began to extend into Jefferson Park last year.

The ruling agreed with neighbors that Goodman's developments do no comply with R-1 zoning land-use regulations—which means mini-dorms are not single family housing.

All along, residents in these neighborhoods have been wondering: How can a five-bedroom-suite development with private bathrooms for each bedroom equal single family zoning?

From that ruling: “It is further determined that the Goodman Development is in fact being operated as group dwellings and is therefore not a permitted use in the R-1 zone.”

Yesterday, the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association sent out a press release that neighborhood resident Joan Hall, who lives next door to a Goodman mini-dorm development, filed an appeal on April 18 to the city of Tucson's Board of Adjustment, which determined that the aforementioned R-1 zoning ruling from March doesn't apply to Goodman properties being developed but "not yet in use."

From the press release (after the jump):

From KHOU:

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was seen publicly for the first time since a January shooting Wednesday when she boarded a NASA flight to Florida. She's headed to Cape Canaveral to watch Endeavour's final launch.

Giffords’ husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is commanding the mission.

Giffords arrived with a group of people — including a nurse from TIRR Memorial Hermann — in a dark-colored SUV around 9 a.m.

The vehicle drove right up to a waiting NASA plane, and Giffords — guided by a second person—walked up the stairs into the aircraft.

OM Modern Asian Kitchen is doing something different for an upcoming wine dinner: You choose the wines, and the restaurant’s culinary team pairs your choices with surprise entrées.

I don’t have to understand the motivation behind this role-reversal to appreciate its innovative nature, and it sounds sort of fun. My first thought was that such an event would feel a lot like a blind date—but with fewer awkward moments.

The list of wines to be featured at the dinner is posted below. It takes place Wednesday, May 4, and space is limited. Call 299-7815 to RSVP.

Update with playlist and download at bottom of the post

• Illustration Ryn Gargulinski
• Viagra beer, anyone?

That story and more are up this week on Rynski’s Shattered Reality radio show on Party934.com and FM 94.9 in Hudson Valley, N.Y.

Next show is Wednesday, April 27 (today!) and every Wednesday online at Party934.com. Showtime is noon in Arizona, 3 p.m. EST.

Party 934 is a radio alternative for listeners sick of stations that play one song followed by 500 commercials.

This week’s songs again mention boys and girls and we promise not to leave out the polka.

Thanks! to all who keep the song requests coming.

Here's a video from the Center for Biological Diversity that gets to the heart of why we should be concerned about uranium mining at the Grand Canyon.

For more information on how to get involved in stopping these mining efforts, go here.

Grand Canyon Uranium Mining PSA from James Q Martin Media on Vimeo.

The New York Times:

In a statement to the news media Wednesday morning, Mr. Obama said he decided to release the document in an effort to end the “silliness” about his birth that threatened to distract from the serious issues facing the country.

“Over the last two and a half years, I have watched with bemusement,” he said in brief remarks. “I’ve been puzzled by the degree to which this thing just kept on going.”

Mr. Obama said there would be a “segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest.” But he said that he was “speaking to the vast majority of the American people as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”

The president said he decided to release the “long-form” birth certificate two weeks ago, after news reports about the controversy dominated a week in which Republicans released their 2012 budget and Mr. Obama gave a speech on the nation’s debt.

“This is going to generate huge and serious debates, important debates,” Mr. Obama said of those issues. “That’s how democracy is supposed to work.”

But, he added that “we are not going to be able to do it if we are distracted. We are not going to be able to do it if we spend time vilifying each other. We are not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts.”

He also called out, without using names, Republicans like Donald Trump who have repeatedly raised the birth certificate issue, saying that the political process should ignore the “sideshows and carnival barkers.”

Carnival barkers and sideshows, indeed: From Trump to the dopes in the Arizona Legislature who voted for the birther bill. Gov. Jan Brewer is looking pretty good today for vetoing that nonsense.

A group of Mexican-American Studies supporters rushed into the TUSD Board's meeting room and chained themselves to the dais before a planned public hearing, forcing the TUSD governing board to cancel tonight's school board meeting to discuss the future of the controversial ethnic-studies program.

The board's small hearing room was jammed with backers of Mexican-American Studies, who spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of district's headquarters at 1010 E. 10th St.

TW staff writer Mari Herreras was inside the meeting room and will have more details on the meeting, where the board was set to consider a proposal by board member Mark Stegeman to turn some of the classes into electives rather than have them fulfill the basic core curriculum requirements.

But here's a question for the TUSD board: Surely, you knew that the topic was going to draw a huge crowd that would not fit into the tiny meeting room at 1010 E. 10th St. Why on earth didn't you move the meeting to the auditorium at Tucson High or another larger meeting space?

This just in, from the McClusky for Mayor campaign:

Tucson, AZ — Former State Senator and Congressional District 8 candidate Jonathan Paton has endorsed Shaun McClusky in his bid to become Mayor of Tucson. "The only way we're going to get Tucson back on track is with a leader like Shaun," said Mr. Paton.

"Jonathan Paton has been standing up for the citizens of Southern Arizona for years," said Shaun McClusky. "I'm honored to have his endorsement and, as Mayor, will do everything in my power to bring accountability, responsibility and growth back to Tucson.

Below is a video of yesterday's press conference, from Daniel Buckley, of the 11 ethnic-studies teachers currently suing Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal, the Arizona Board of Education and the Tucson Unified School District in an effort to save ethnic-studies classes, particularly the Mexican-American studies program.

In attendance, watching the press conference off to the side, was TUSD governing board president Mark Stegeman, who is expected to introduce a resolution at tonight's special board meeting that will make drastic changes to the Mexican American Studies program and classes.

Tonight's meeting begins at 4 p.m., with this portion of the agenda starting at 5 p.m., at 1010 E. 10th St. There will be a 30-minute call to the audience.

Stegeman told reporters who crowded around him toward the end of the teachers' press conference that Chicano-literature classes would not be touched and would remain as English-credit classes. It's the Mexican-American studies social-studies classes that would be changed to electives.

The teachers begged reporters to ask Stegeman why he was supporting a change in a program that actually closes the achievement gap in students, especially Mexican-American students. They also asked reporters to ask Stegeman what he plans to put in place to continue to close this gap.

Stegeman told reporters that his intension is to put TUSD in a better defensive position when dealing with the state. He agreed with the teachers about the appalling way desegregation funds have been spent by the district and how problematic it is that the district does not serve struggling-student populations well.

Here's an interview KGUN Channel 9's Steve Nunez did with Angelica Peñaran, a current TUSD Mexican-American studies student, and Stegeman, after the press conference: