Dragon's Spark, a temporary store selling crafts by local artisans, products made of recycled materials, fair trade merchandise, and combinations thereof, is celebrating its grand opening tonight from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring many of the artisans with items at the store.

Dragon's Spark is located at 4280 N Oracle Road, Suite 130.

Hard to believe (that he might be lying about what he took from the Fiesta Bowl or that this guy is still in office, your choice), but the Arizona Republic looked further in Pearce's somewhat adaptable story about his relationship with the free stuff express formerly available from the Fiesta Bowl committee:

In 2005, Pearce pushed through legislation giving the Fiesta Bowl a public subsidy worth $263,000, as well as more control over operations during the 2007 national championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Pearce, in a written response to questions from The Republic, said the 2005 legislation passed with overwhelming support. There was just one "no" vote, and it was signed into law by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The bill "was not in my control," Pearce wrote. "I did not sponsor the bill."

However, legislative records show Pearce was the sponsor of the bill. While the bill was amended by another lawmaker, it was done so with Pearce's knowledge, and he has publicly taken credit for helping the Fiesta Bowl.

In 2007, the bowl said, it paid $2,140 for tickets for Pearce for a Navy football game.

Pearce, however, said he did not have to pay for those tickets because the Fiesta Bowl asked him to attend a speaking engagement at the game in Annapolis, Md. At the event, he said, he presented a check from the Fiesta Bowl. He said he was not required to reimburse the bowl because state law allows a legislator to accept gifts when performing a "ceremonial function."

A Navy spokesman said he was unable to determine if Pearce attended a speaking engagement. Terry Fahn, a Fiesta Bowl spokesman, said to the best of his knowledge there was no record of the bowl asking Pearce to make a presentation at the Navy game.

In 2008, the bowl said it paid $4,060 to provide Pearce tickets for a Los Angeles game between Ohio State and the University of Southern California. Pearce, however, said the tickets went to a family member.

Pearce wrote that his adult son, Justin, "contacted his personal friend Gary Husk (who also was Justin's attorney) about purchasing tickets to this game." The bowl said it was never paid for the tickets.

Husk is the bowl's former lobbyist, now facing a State Bar of Arizona investigation after Fiesta Bowl employees accused him of being involved in a scheme to reimburse employees for campaign contributions. Husk could not be reached to discuss Pearce's explanation. But he previously denied any wrongdoing.

I could be wrong, but when the script for your advertisement has the line "I'm Korean!" for a woman running a dry cleaning establishment, that could be on the border of bad-idea-land.

[Mother Jones]

From Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office:

TUCSON — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ office today released details about her attendance at the Monday launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour, which will be commanded by her husband, Capt. Mark Kelly.

Endeavor is scheduled to lift off from NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A at 8:56 a.m. EDT Monday on a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.

Giffords’ transportation to Florida will be provided by NASA, which provides transportation to and from shuttle launches for all astronaut spouses. Shortly after the launch, Giffords will return to Houston to resume her rehabilitation.

Due to privacy concerns and in deference to the family wishes, no additional details regarding the congresswoman’s travel will be released.

Congresswoman Giffords, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, traveled to Florida late last month to attend the launch of Endeavour. But that mission was delayed because of technical problems.

The congresswoman attended Capt. Kelly’s most recent launch when he commanded the space shuttle Discovery in 2008. His upcoming mission is scheduled to be the last flight for Endeavour and the next-to-last space shuttle flight before the fleet is retired.

Capt. Kelly and other members of Endeavour’s crew are scheduled to arrive in Florida tomorrow.

Other information on the launch and Congresswoman Giffords’ attendance:

* The congresswoman will not meet with the media or issue a statement while she is in Florida.

* The congresswoman, like other spouses and family members, will watch the launch in private. There are no plans to release photos of the congresswoman watching the launch. It is possible that photos of the scene will be released, but that will not be known until the day of the launch.

* Any photos that are available as well as updates of the congresswoman’s trip will be posted on her Facebook page. Check her Twitter account for the latest news: www.facebook.com/GabrielleGiffords and www.twitter.com/Rep_Giffords.

* One hour after the launch, NASA will hold a news conference in the Kennedy Space Center News Center. Expected to participate are: Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations; Mike Moses, mission management team chair and space shuttle program launch integration manager; and Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director.

* After the conclusion of that news conference, members of Congresswoman Giffords’ staff will meet with the media in the same location to discuss the event and her reaction to her husband’s latest mission. Pia Carusone, Giffords’ chief of staff, is among those expected to participate.

Earlier today, I talked with Sen. Frank Antenori, who wanted to let me know that he didn’t have anything to do with an amendment to HB 2650 that would have stripped county workers outside of Maricopa County of civil-service protections if they were new hires or accepted a promotion.

I reported in this week’s feature that Antenori had been behind the amendment to the bill, which was vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer.

“I did not write that write that amendment, I did not push that bill, I had nothing to do with it,” Antenori says. “That was all Judy Burges and David Gowan.”

My apologies to Frank.

• Samantha Sais

It was a beautiful spring evening to be at the ballpark last night, even if the Padres lost another one to Round Rock.

The T-Pads are back on the field tonight and the ZOOperstars will be hand to entertain the kids. (We caught a glimpse of Harry Canary last night!) And there's lots of fun on deck all weekend long, including a visit by Myron Noodleman tomorrow night and Bark in the Park on Sunday, so put your dogs on leashes and bring ’em to the ballpark. Details here.

Here's Tim Hagerty of the Padres with a game summary:

The Round Rock Express have shown why they have the best record in the PCL, overcoming Tucson leads in all three games of the series so far. Thursday the Padres had a 5-3 lead slip away and Round Rock won 10-8. The Padres have now dropped two of three in the series, and have lost five of their last six games.

Matt Clark hit two home runs for the Padres, both to right field, his third and fourth of the season. Clark’s previous two home runs were both on the road. He was one of three Padres players with two hits in the loss; Robbie Hudson and Alex Cintron were the others. Tucson starter Jeremy Hefner left with the lead, but was unable to get his first Triple-A win, pitching five innings, allowing four runs on six hits.

The Padres showed life in the ninth inning when they were trailing 10-7 and down to their final out. Jesus Guzman hit a double over the right fielder’s head to score Anthony Rizzo, who had walked one batter earlier. Clark then came up representing the tying run and flied to left.

Next Game: Friday, 7:00 pm vs. Round Rock — Tucson RHP Will Inman (1-3) vs. Round Rock RHP Seth McClung (2-0)

A Tucson Weekly co-worker and I were having a discussion of how many bands from Phoenix we could actually say we liked to other day, and to be honest, we weren't coming up with that many names. Whether that's due to inter-city rivalry or just not seeing a lot of the city's bands down here remains to be seen, but two of the capital area's most interesting groups will be down here tonight at Plush: What Laura Says (celebrating the release of their new disc) and Black Carl. While it's a busy night for music in town, the show's only $5, so you can get a sense of what's happening musically in Phoenix for yourself while saving a tank of gas.

What Laura Says, "Lines and Colours":

Black Carl, "Grandma's Hands/No Diggity":

TNR's Jonathan Chait looks at the strategy behind Obama's immigration push this week:

In the narrow analysis, Texas is a deeply Republican state. Obama lost it by a dozen points in 2008. It can't possibly help him win in 2012. If he does win the state, which could conceivably happen only in some kind of blowout scenario, he'd easily have enough electoral votes elsewhere to win.

However, there is long-term potential in Texas. The Latino population there is as large a proportion as in California, but it's heavily demobilized. A concerted campaign to register Latino voters could eventually change the dynamic. The catch is that you have to be willing to spend $20 million or so in order to register them — a huge investment that is hard to justify short term. But Obama might have enough money in 2012 to spare for a long-term investment. And a high-profile Latino Senate candidate like Sanchez could lure a lot of previously unregistered Latinos. The only way to make this work is to create an energizing atmosphere for Latinos.

What's more, Obama does need to mobilize the Latino vote in general, especially in states like Colorado, New Mexico, and Florida. That's where the immigration push comes in. Obama failed to pass immigration legislation because a coalition of Republicans and red state Democrats killed it. Because the bills never had a high profile vote, though, it looked a lot like Obama simply didn't care. That's why Democrats are making a high profile push now. Obviously, passing something is the best case scenario. But if Republicans want to kill comprehensive reform or even the very modest DREAM Act, the point is to make them do it in a high profile setting that clarifies just who killed it. That kind of clarification is necessary to make the mass mobilization they're planning in Texas effective. You can't carry out a mass registration campaign in an atmosphere where the stakes are perceived to be low.

And since Texas is such a vital center of the Latino community, a large scale effort to register Latinos, plus the Sanchez candidacy, would reverberate nationwide...

So the plan is to make the long-term investment in registering Hispanics in Texas, hastening the state's eventual turn to purple, while maaaybe getting a competitive Senate race (Sanchez is a general running on a centrist message) and helping mobilize Latino voters in true swing states. Add it all together, and three decisions that make little or no sense on their own suddenly make a great deal of sense.

[The New Republic]

I haven't been the biggest fan of Phoenix New Times writer Stephen Lemons lately for his pro-Sound Strike stance, but it's nice that he came down to Tucson to actually try to understand the ethnic studies debate, something the people actually making the decision on a state level can't seem to be bothered to do:

In his finding against TUSD's ethnic studies, signed a day before the law actually went into effect, Horne slams acclaimed academic Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, from which seniors in ethnic studies classes read excerpts.

Horne calls Freire a "Brazilian Marxist," which he was. He also was jailed by Brazil's military junta in the 1960s, forced to flee the country, and ended up a professor at Harvard and, later, moving on to Geneva, Switzerland.

If Horne had bothered to read and understand Freire's work regarding the philosophy of education, he would have realized that more than anything else, Freire was a humanist, and he was influenced by an intensely repressive political system, one that might well have killed him if he'd stayed in his native land.

Moreover, if you start excluding works of those influenced by Karl Marx, you'd have to rid your library of a truckload of modern authors: John Reed, Jean-Paul Sartre, and John Steinbeck, to name a few.

Ultimately, both Horne and MacEachern have taken an anti-intellectual stance, one described, ironically, in Freire's book.

Freire writes: "Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world."

• Illustration Ryn Gargulinski

He said women should not dress like sluts if they want to avoid being raped.

Nice. And men shouldn’t dress like police officers if they’re going to make such inane statements.

The cop, Constable Michael Sanguinetti, made the remark back in January at a university campus-safety event. The area’s Excalibur newspaper that reported he even prefaced his statement with something like, “I’ve been told I shouldn’t say this.” Sanguinetti has since apologized, according to CBS, but he was merely disciplined, and not fired from the force.

Meanwhile, people lose their jobs in a heartbeat for Tweeting they’re bored at work.

Although his apology was much delayed, and the dude is still serving a community that he evidently neither respects nor understands, the Slutwalks are serving him a fine slap in the face.

They’ve already popped up all over Canada, England, at Arizona State University, California and Maine, and one is scheduled in Tucson at 5 p.m. Friday, May 13 (today!).