Various eateries and shops inside the new Mercado San Agustin have been opening quietly over the past several months, but this weekend is when the place and its incredible courtyard officially opens to the public.

The opening celebration starts today, Friday, May 13, and continues through the weekend with brunches, live music and a chance to check out the new cake shops, taquerias, snow-cone shops and other businesses calling the market home. You can also check out the impressive commercial kitchen with all its fancy new appliances and square miles of stainless steel.

We were told by a woman speaking on behalf of the market that Argentinean restaurant Casa Marita Restaurante Argentino will not be a tenant after all. An unnamed group is opening a restaurant in the space instead, but there's no word on what it will be or when it will open.

We've also heard that the Santa Cruz River Farmers' Market—held weekly on Thursdays—will be relocating to the market, but we're still working on confirming that.

There's more information on the market's website.

If you're going by Facebook "likes", Jon McLane was seven times more likely to be mayor than Ron Asta (he's up to 12 likes!), but he's bowing out of a race he wasn't actually likely to be eligible for. Even better, he's joining the campaign of Republican/anti-tax zealot Shaun McClusky and not of his fellow Green, Dave Croteau. His press release is beyond the cut.

• Photo by user Jamiesrabbits, Flickr

James from local band Caliche con Carne is from Alabama, and after the band's previously scheduled show at the Red Room this Saturday, he's heading to help his family rebuild following the recent tornado caused devastation. The Red Room is hoping to send him off with money to donate to a local relief group, so the show has become a impromptu benefit. The Red Room is donating 10% of the bar sales and essentially a hat will be passed around as well. The lineup is still uncertain, but more details can be found at the show's event page on Facebook.

We pointed out on The Range last week and in The Skinny this week that Sen. John McCain was pushing back against the right-wing meme that torture helped lead to Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hide-out.

McCain emphasized his point in an op-ed in today's Washington Post:

Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently claimed that “the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information — including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.” That is false.

I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.

In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means.

I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering. Often, information provided to stop the torture is deliberately misleading.

Mistreatment of enemy prisoners endangers our own troops, who might someday be held captive. While some enemies, and al-Qaeda surely, will never be bound by the principle of reciprocity, we should have concern for those Americans captured by more conventional enemies, if not in this war then in the next.

[Washington Post]

Lament no longer, fellow fans of frozen custard!

After many months of teasing us with an “Opening Soon” sign, the new Frosty Jake's at 3102 E. Grant Road opens this weekend.

Will it be worth the wait? All signs are pointing to yes at this point, especially after my education this afternoon regarding the shop’s “concretes,” which apparently include a super-frozen-custard of sorts.

I’ve always known concretes to just be frozen yogurt or custard with candy or cookie chunks mixed in. Not so at Frosty Jake's. Their concretes are actually a way-thicker version of frozen custard with a distinct flavor due to the different egg-to-cream ratio, says Mark Lindley, who is opening the store with brother Eric Lindley and their parents, Lew and Linn Lindley.

Flavors will include raspberry, orange, caramel, pineapple, butterscotch, strawberry, banana, coffee, peach, vanilla and chocolate.

The store opens at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 14.

Matt Taibbi is turning out important, dynamic journalism at Rolling Stone month after month lately, and his new article brings up the same question that some of his recent work on the financial meltdown did: Why are these people not going to jail?

But Goldman, as the Levin report makes clear, remains an ascendant company precisely because it used its canny perception of an upcoming disaster (one which it helped create, incidentally) as an opportunity to enrich itself, not only at the expense of clients but ultimately, through the bailouts and the collateral damage of the wrecked economy, at the expense of society. The bank seemed to count on the unwillingness or inability of federal regulators to stop them — and when called to Washington last year to explain their behavior, Goldman executives brazenly misled Congress, apparently confident that their perjury would carry no serious consequences. Thus, while much of the Levin report describes past history, the Goldman section describes an ongoing? crime — a powerful, well-connected firm, with the ear of the president and the Treasury, that appears to have conquered the entire regulatory structure and stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history.

Yes, you'll have to download Google's Chrome browser if you haven't already, but the way things are going you're probably be required to have Google Everything sooner or later, so why not just submit now, play some Angry Birds while pretending to be working, and just relax. It's Thursday, the day I call Friday-Xtra. Plus, there are levels exclusive to Chrome that aren't on the three other Angry Birds games you already have on your phone! What will they think of next?

• Samantha Sais

A 10th-inning rally fell short last night as the Tucson Padres lost another close game. But they're back on the field tonight—and fans can enjoy $1 Budweiser beer from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. (First pitch is 7 p.m., but the beer stands are opening early tonight, so enjoy a happy hour and watch the sunset from Kino Stadium.) Details here.

The Padres' Tim Hagerty sums up last night's game:

The Tucson Padres scored once in the bottom of the tenth inning but left two runners in scoring position to end the game, losing to Round Rock, 7-5 in extra innings Wednesday. It was an eventful bottom of the tenth inning that saw the first two Tucson batters reach base, before the lead runner was taken off the base paths when the umpires reversed a call and said Jesus Guzman was tagged out by Round Rock’s Esteban German on a ground ball by Matt Clark. Two batters later, Terry Kennedy was ejected by home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski.

The Padres scored four times in the first inning before their first out. The rally included a three-run double by Jesus Guzman. Round Rock scored once in the third and three times in the fifth on a home run by Endy Chavez. With the score tied, the Padres had baserunners in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings but were unable to score.

Wade LeBlanc pitched seven innings and tied a season high with seven strikeouts. LeBlanc allowed four runs, three earned, on five hits. Scott Munter suffered the loss for Tucson after surrendering three runs on four hits in the top of the tenth inning.

Next Game: Thursday, 7:00 pm — Tucson RHP Jeremy Hefner (0-3) vs. Round Rock RHP Derek Hankins (4-1)

• Beatrice Nielsen of University High School and her winning entry, “Stools

We mentioned in this week's Skinny that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' office hosted a reception for the winners of the Congressional Art Contest at Tohono Chul Park last weekend.

The Range would like to extend congratulations to Beatrice Nielsen of University High School, whose ink-and-watercolor work, “Stools,” will be hanging in the Capitol building in D.C. for the next year.

There’s an impressive collection of runners-up in the competition, which was open to high schools throughout Congressional District 8. A total of 65 students won 74 prizes in the contest.

Some of their work remains on display in the gallery at Tohono Chul Park through mid-May, so if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to check it out.

We caught up with CD8 community-outreach staffer Pam Simon, who oversaw the contest, at the reception. Simon, who was shot twice on Jan. 8, says she’s got a lot more energy these days. But as she looked over the entries for the contest, she missed having a chance to share them with Giffords.

Here's complete list of the winners of 8th Congressional District's 2011 Art Competition

Grand Prize: Beatrice Nielsen, University High School, Stools

See for yourself: Common's appearance at the White House last night. In other news, Sarah Palin moves on to something about boots and business.