Arizona's Clean Election program, which provides campaign dollars for candidates for state office, suffered another blow today, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that its matching-fund program is unconstitutional.

The 5-4 ruling (which you can find here) doesn't bring an end to the program—but it does seriously hamstring candidates who decide to use it. Qualifying candidates will still be able to get an initial lump sum of money, which varies depending on the office they are seeking. But if their opponent (or independent committees) spend more money than that, the Clean Elections candidates will no longer be eligible for matching funds to level the playing field.

On a practical level, this decision means that any candidate who can raise funds privately would be smarter to go that route.

Clean Elections faces more threats in the future. State lawmakers have put a proposition on the 2012 ballot that would ban the use of any public funds on political campaigns, which would bring an end to both Clean Elections and the city of Tucson's system of publicly financed campaigns. Supporters of Clean Elections have challenged the constitutionality of the ballot proposal in state court.

The Salazar-Ajo Library will be screening the 2010 documentary Copyright Criminals, looking at music sampling and the conflict between commercial and creative interests.The free showing is Friday, July 1, at 1:30 p.m.

For more information visit the film's website.

A banner on the new shopping complex on the corner of Oracle and Wetmore roads says Paradise Bakery and Café is opening a location there.

The chain-restaurant also has a location in Main Gate Square, although it's owned by a different franchisee.

There’s more information about the company here. The new location is expected to open this fall.

"Harbor Study #2," by James Cook, is on display in Small Things Considered: 19th Small Works Invitational, continuing through July 2, at David Dominguez Gallery, 154 E. 6th St.

Wingspan formally announced on Thursday that beginning next month, Oscar Jimenez will officially take over as program director for Tucson's LGBT community center.

Outgoing program director Linda Thomas, who joined Wingspan in April 2010, said she wants to spend more time with her partner, Hollace Lyon, and focus on fundraising and development. Thomas, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, will serve on Wingspan's board as development chair.

You can read more about Thomas' new role at Wingspan here.

About Jimenez:

Oscar currently serves as assistant program director and Anti-Violence Programs manager. He has been on staff for five years, coming aboard in June 2006 as a bilingual advocate/educator, doing outreach to the Spanish-speaking populations through Wingspan’s Puertas Abiertas program.

Twenty years after the first crew was sealed inside its glass walls, the University of Arizona is set to be the new owner of Biosphere 2.

The UA will announce Monday that the giant terrarium, located on Oracle Road north of Catalina, will be given to the College of Science, which has been managing the facility for several years to conduct climate-change research.

Biosphere 2—which features different “biomes,” including a tropical rainforest, a grassland savannah, a mangrove wetland, a desert, and a small saltwater ocean and beach—was originally built as an experiment to keep a sealed environment for a century, but the effort was abandoned after the first two-year stint by a crew that entered the facility in 1991 came to an end.

Since then, Biosphere 2—which is owned by Texas billionaire Ed Bass—has had several managers, including Columbia University, which gave up its interest in the facility in 2003.

While it’s hard to pin a precise value on Biosphere 2 (there isn’t a comparable facility anywhere in the world), it cost more than $200 million to build. UA officials are estimating the facility is worth $100 million today.

The UA College of Science will receive 40 acres around Biosphere 2, including a conference center and a collection of casitas.

Bass’ Philecology Foundation will also give the UA a $20 million grant to cover the cost of running the facility in future years, according to UA sources.

TW covered the UA's work at Biosphere 2 in 2009:

Researchers are now planning their first large-scale experiment. They've cleared out the biome where Biospherians once grew their crops, and the now-bare concrete floor will soon be covered by experimental hillsides to better understand how water moves through the earth from mountains to rivers, says John Adams, Biosphere 2's assistant director for planning and facilities.

With all the speculation regarding Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' political future in light of the recent articles about her recovery, the Pima County Republican Party has released a brief statement that they will not make any effort to push Giffords out of office:

The Pima GOP has not and will not support or pursue efforts to remove Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords from her seat in Congress prior to the end of her elected term. Our prayers for a full and speedy recovery are with Ms. Giffords. We remain committed to fielding a quality candidate for the 2012 election cycle, and our efforts are and will remain focused on the normal election process.

"Chief Joseph-Nez Perces," by Frank A. Rinehart, is on display in Masters of American Photography, continuing through Aug. 27 at Etherton Gallery, 135 S. Sixth Ave.

Who Is the Real Howe Gelb?

Playing in multiple bands simultaneously is nothing new for stage-struck musicians who will do almost anything for their art. Certainly Howe Gelb is neither the first nor the best player to go that route. In two quick years, however, he has managed to strike an impressive if somewhat manic balance between his new wave/streetwise Giant Sand (formerly Giant Sandworms) and his desire to play hard but authentic country music, longings that go back to his tenure with Ned Sutton & the Rabbits.

Since moving to Los Angeles in the late 1984 he’s released one album with Giant Sand, one album with The Band of Blacky Ranchette on a French label, has toured bits and pieces of Europe (and is about to depart for the continent again) and has just completed the final mix-down for Heartland, Blacky’s second album.

Unfortunately, the Band of Blacky Ranchette, a legitimate Tucson supergroup with Rainer on slide guitar, Jack Martinez on bass, Tom Larkins on drums and Neil Harry on pedal steel, has only been captured on state a handful of times. Their work, however, on Blacky’s first album shows a group feel for the material that’s managed to transcend whatever excess baggage they may have brought along from their won working bands, be in blues, new wave, hard rock or straight country.

I don't know if these ice creams pops are actually worth eating (and the Che Guevara shaped one seems like sort of a bad idea), but tequila flavored ice cream in Mario form might actually challenge paletas as my new favorite frozen dessert on a stick.