Politico reports on a peculiar dust-up involving Congressman Raul Grijalva, Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino and Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, who hopes to challenge Grijalva in 2012:

A southern Arizona border mayor is denying he ever said his residents wanted to "lynch" Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva for supporting a boycott of the state — a charge made by Republican House candidate Gabriela Saucedo Mercer.

In an interview with POLITICO, Mercer said one of the reasons she can defeat Grijalva in the 7th Congressional District next year is because the mayor of Nogales told her "people down there want to lynch him."

"That is what the mayor says, people down there, they want to lynch him," she said. "He doesn't show up in Nogales because people want to lynch him."

But Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino, a Democrat, said he never uttered those words and doesn't know why Mercer would say he did.

"She's talking about lynching the congressman? No, I would never say that," Garino said when reached by phone. “She visited my office. But never did we discuss anything like that.”

[Politico]

If we can keep you from ever having to tune into Fox News, that's a service we're happy to provide, so here's the Jon Stewart/Bill O'Reilly debate from earlier tonight on the O'Reilly Factor.

The UA Athletic Department reports:

University of Arizona men's basketball player Lamont "MoMo" Jones announced Monday that he will transfer to another school. He has not yet made a decision on which school he will attend.

Jones, a 6-foot, 196-pound guard from Harlem, N.Y., averaged 9.7 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game in 38 appearances (all starts) in his recently completed sophomore season. He connected on 41.8 percent of his field goal attempts (130-of-311), including 31.6 percent (25-of-79) from three-point range, and averaged 26.0 minutes per game. He posted career-high totals of 27 points on Feb. 5 at California and six assists against both Duke (March 24) and Arizona State (Feb. 13).

"I would like to thank my coaches, my teammates and all of the U of A fans for making my two years at Arizona very special," said Jones. "After much thought, I have decided to pursue my goals at a school closer to home. My desire to be closer to my family, and in particular my grandmother, is the reason I am transferring. I want it to be known that I love this program, my coaches and teammates. I appreciate everyone for supporting me through this tough time."

In his two-year career, Jones appeared in 68 games (39 starts), helping the Cats amass a 46-23 (.667) record. Along the way, Arizona won a Pac-10 regular-season championship and advanced to the 2011 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight.

He posted career averages of 8.3 points, 1.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, while shooting 41.8 percent from the field (208-of-498). Jones notched improvement in nearly every statistical category in 2010-11.

"This spring MoMo expressed to me his desire to be closer to home while continuing his life as a student-athlete," said UA head coach Sean Miller. "After considering this for several weeks this spring, he's decided to leave our program. He did a great job in his two years here and helped us win a Pac-10 championship this past season. We wish him great success in the future."

Jones leaves the program in good academic standing.

NASA brings us a report from inside the Space Shuttle Endeavour as the astronauts settle into—and float around—their low-gravity surroundings.

It's a little difficult for me to believe, but Jonathan Richman turns 60 today. A frequent performer at Club Congress, Richman operates as a musician in a very strange place. He has some degree of fame (largely from his appearance in There's Something About Mary) and some amount of critical acclaim, but he's still plugging away night after night in club after club, switching genres every few albums, and largely presenting his charmingly youthful worldview through a thick Boston accent. He's just a remarkably charming guy, even if he insisted the air conditioning stay off during a summer show at Congress a few years ago.

Here are three of my favorite Jonathan Richman songs. Happy birthday, sir.

"I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar":

Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly face off tonight on O'Reilly's turf rehashing the Common controversy of last week, so it might worth setting the DVR to Fox News for one hour. Or just wait until tomorrow and someone (probably me) will post the video online. Your call.

There's a great deal of disagreement around my house over the influence of the Disney line of Princesses and Fairies. My wife feels that the characterizations are harmful to my daughter's emotional development and self-esteem, and I mostly agree, but am too much of a easy mark to tell her a crying three year old that she can't have a Sleeping Beauty coloring book. These illustrations, from a series by artist Chris Hill, are probably evidence in favor of my wife's take on the matter:

[HT: Flavorwire]

I took Wilco (the Dog) out to Kino Stadium for Bark in the Park night yesterday, but she got completely freaked out by something (perhaps the PA system or the Kino Bambino?) and had the doggie version of an anxiety attack, so I wasn't able to stay very long, despite the delightful weather. As it worked out, the Albuquerque Isotopes clobbered the Padres 10-5, but the T-Pads have a chance at revenge tonight. Get out to the ballpark with three other people and you'll get a great bargain: Four tickets, four hot dogs and four sodas for just $20 bucks, as long as you mentioned KIIM FM. First pitch is 7 p.m. Details here.

Here's a summary of last night's game from the Padres' Tim Hagerty:

The Albuquerque Isotopes scored seven times before the fourth inning Sunday and beat the Tucson Padres 10-5. Isotopes catcher Damaso Espino capped off a third inning rally with a long home run over the left field bullpen. In the third, Padres center fielder Luis Durango nearly made a sliding catch to leave the bases loaded, but the ball fell out of his glove, and three runs scored after the attempt.

Tucson starter Matt Buschmann allowed seven runs in five innings in his 2011 Triple-A debut. Buschmann was transferred from Double-A San Antonio and will fill the rotation spot of Simon Castro, who is on the disabled list with a right lat strain.

I would have spent more time reading this article in Mother Jones on the nature of persuasion and ideas, but I'm in the middle of a Facebook argument about something Rush Limbaugh said today.

Take, for instance, the question of whether Saddam Hussein possessed hidden weapons of mass destruction just before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. When political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler showed subjects fake newspaper articles [18] (PDF) in which this was first suggested (in a 2004 quote from President Bush) and then refuted (with the findings of the Bush-commissioned Iraq Survey Group report, which found no evidence of active WMD programs in pre-invasion Iraq), they found that conservatives were more likely than before to believe the claim. (The researchers also tested how liberals responded when shown that Bush did not actually "ban" embryonic stem-cell research. Liberals weren't particularly amenable to persuasion, either, but no backfire effect was observed.)

Another study gives some inkling of what may be going through people's minds when they resist persuasion. Northwestern University sociologist Monica Prasad [19] and her colleagues wanted to test whether they could dislodge the notion that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were secretly collaborating among those most likely to believe it—Republican partisans from highly GOP-friendly counties. So the researchers set up a study [20] (PDF) in which they discussed the topic with some of these Republicans in person. They would cite the findings of the 9/11 Commission, as well as a statement in which George W. Bush himself denied his administration had "said the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and Al Qaeda."

One study showed that not even Bush's own words could change the minds of Bush voters who believed there was an Iraq-Al Qaeda link.

As it turned out, not even Bush's own words could change the minds of these Bush voters—just 1 of the 49 partisans who originally believed the Iraq-Al Qaeda claim changed his or her mind. Far more common was resisting the correction in a variety of ways, either by coming up with counterarguments or by simply being unmovable:

Interviewer: [T]he September 11 Commission found no link between Saddam and 9/11, and this is what President Bush said. Do you have any comments on either of those?

Respondent: Well, I bet they say that the Commission didn't have any proof of it but I guess we still can have our opinions and feel that way even though they say that.

The New York Times reports:

Last month, in a Midtown office adorned with sports memorabilia, two longtime friends met for a private talk. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, sipped his morning coffee, expecting to be asked for career advice. Across from him sat Rick Welts, the president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns, who had come to New York not to discuss careers, but to say, finally, I am gay.

In many work environments, this would qualify as a so-what moment. But until now, Mr. Welts, 58, who has spent 40 years in sports, rising from ball boy to N.B.A. executive to team president, had not felt comfortable enough in his chosen field to be open about his sexuality. His eyes welling at times, he also said that he planned to go public.

By this point, Mr. Welts had already traveled to Seattle to share his news with another friend, Bill Russell, one of the greatest basketball players ever and the recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He had also met with Val Ackerman, the founding president of the Women’s National Basketball Association, in New York, and would soon be lunching in Phoenix with Steve Nash, the point guard and leader of the Suns and twice the N.B.A.’s most valuable player.

In these meetings and in interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Welts explained that he wants to pierce the silence that envelops the subject of homosexuality in men’s team sports. He wants to be a mentor to gay people who harbor doubts about a sports career, whether on the court or in the front office. Most of all, he wants to feel whole, authentic.

“This is one of the last industries where the subject is off limits,” said Mr. Welts, who stands now as a true rarity, a man prominently employed in professional men’s team sports, willing to declare his homosexuality. “Nobody’s comfortable in engaging in a conversation.”