Arizona Daily Star cartoonist Dave Fitzsimmons and comedian Robert Mac are headlining a Free Speech Benefit on behalf of Access Tucson, the plucky public-access TV station that's dedicated to helping Tucsonans get themselves on TV.

Access Tucson has seen its funding slashed in recent years and has had to do some major cutbacks in the services that it provides, including video training and TV studios for members. (Back in February, Access Tucson was kind enough to host a pair of presidential debates for Project White House, for example.)

The Free Speech gala next Wednesday, April 18, promises to be a whole lot of fun. Besides Fitz and Mac, you'll be able to enjoy a lovely dinner at Café a la C'Art in the Tucson Museum of Art courtyard and bid on a silent auction.

Good times for a good cause. Details here.

Hank Stephenson, TW's man at the Capitol, tells us that the House Ethics Committee had two brief meetings today to consider Rep. Daniel Patterson's response to the recent ethics report and will once again convene tomorrow to decide how to proceed.

Patterson himself held a curious press conference to defend himself. Details to come via Stephenson.

Stephenson also tells us that House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, who has been calling on the House to expel Patterson via a two-thirds vote, now says he's happy to have a full-blown ethics hearing.

Says Campbell: "He wants a hearing, let's give him a hearing, but let's do it tomorrow, let's just get it done with. Let's see if he can actually answer a question that's directed at him, because he hasn't proven that to anybody yet. His response today was woefully inadequate. It was just a bunch of rambling nonsense. ... If he claims he can respond to these allegations, lets give him a chance to respond. I would love to hear it."

This is totally happening right now. Daniel Patterson's argument (made by proxy via Rev. Jarrett Maupin, I guess) is that he's being discriminated against by the Arizona Legislature because he's middle aged and white.

Wow. Just...wow.

There's a lot going on out there today in the world of troubled politicians:

• State Sen. Frank Antenori has finally turned in his campaign-finance report—and his numbers are pathetic: $37K. Given that Team Antenori had earlier claimed that he had could have qualified for the NRCC's Young Guns program, which requires candidates to have raised at least $100K, Frank is way below expectations for a congressional race.

• Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been disbarred. Thomas, who came within an eyelash of becoming Arizona's attorney general, faced disciplinary action from the state bar for pursuing baseless charges against his political enemies.

• Rick Santorum is bowing to reality and abandoning his presidential campaign.

• The House Ethics Committee is deciding what to do about Rep. Daniel Patterson.

For the short-form version of Daniel Patterson's reply to the ethics investigation against him, here goes:

He found every claim against him to be "not subsantiated."

In fact, he used that phrase, "not substantiated" 50 times, with one instance of "claims" (96 times) against him being "unsubstantiated."

Also, he wants to "discuss" (62 times) the claims made by his "accuser(s)" (45 times, once in an op-ed to the Arizona Republic) with said accuser(s) and the Committee.

And, of course, he wants many of these unsubstantiated "allegations" (30 times, in combination with its root word, "alleged") to be "dismissed" (14 times).

One more note: Patterson erroneously claimed to have been re-elected in November of 2012, even after his wife alleged domestic violence during their marriage.

Of course, even if he were running this year, I've got a feeling that he wouldn't have much of a chance, given recent, uh, "events" (three times, if you count the singular).

Britpop legends Pulp will be performing at Coachella the next two weekends, but sadly, I won't be there for either show, since real world responsibilities like paying bills and such emerged ahead of buying tickets for a three day concert festival in the desert. However, the group did play two songs on Jimmy Fallon last night, their first performance in America since 1998, and that's almost good enough.

Ok, who I am kidding? It's only a cruel reminder that I won't be checking Pulp off the list of "bands I've never seen live." Well, I hope you enjoy these videos at least. "Like a Friend" is below the cut.

Well, here it is. Rep. Patterson might not be a member of the Arizona Legislature by the end of the day (although we've certainly heard that before), but here's his response to the extensive accusations detailed by the Ethics Committee report. To summarize, he feels nearly all of the charges are "not substantiated".

More surely to come today, for better or worse.

RepPatterson.Final.EthicsComm.Apr10.12.pdf

• Image courtesy of Shutterstock

It feels a little strange that I didn't know the name of one of the people who deeply influenced my life until today, but thanks for bringing home computing into my life, Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore:

Tramiel was born in Poland to a Jewish family in 1928. During World War II, he and his family were sent to Auschwitz, after which he and his father were sent to a labor camp called Ahlem, near Hannover. Tramiel was rescued in April 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1947.

In America, Tramiel started a typewriter repair business. Staying in the forefront of technology, his typewriters morphed into calculators, and later computers. In 1982, Commodore International launched the Commodore 64, which went on to the best-selling personal computer of all time. In 1984, after being forced to leave the company he founded, Jack bought the crumbling Atari Inc.’s Consumer Division and formed Atari Corporation.

“Jack Tramiel was an immense influence in the consumer electronics and computing industries. A name once uttered in the same vein as Steve Jobs is today, his journey from concentration camp survivor to captain of industry is the stuff of legends,” says Martin Goldberg, a writer working on a book about the Atari brand and the early days of video games and computing with Atari Museum founder Curt Vendel.

My first computer was a Commodore 64 and my family went through two of them (maybe even three?) hanging on to a box full of floppy discs and a dot-matrix computer long after the world of technology left that particular device in the dust. I tried to make birthday cards with Print Shop, explored underground worlds with the Zork Trilogy and probably started my way down the world of carpal tunnel issues rapidly smashing buttons playing low-tech sports games. My family couldn't afford the far more expensive products by Apple and IBM, so Tramiel's belief that computers should be for "the masses, not the classes" was directly responsible for introducing me to computing. There are times these days where I wish I could escape the world of keyboards and screens, but still, I wouldn't be wherever it is I am today, if I didn't have years of feeling comfortable with computers developed while using the C64. Thanks, Jack Tramiel.

It seems Tucson has an unquenchable thirst when it comes to the beer down at Borderlands Brewing Company. We stopped by on a recent Saturday to talk with the owners and they said they simply can't keep up with the demand, so they've put together a plan to expand.

This is all the more impressive when you consider the beer is only available during tasting hours, which take place for a few hours two days a week, and at the two places currently serving the beer on tap.

The Borderlands crew has already ordered another large tank, which should alleviate some of the panic they're currently dealing with as the tanks run dry each week. But Myles Stone, one of the owners, says the plan is to eventually expand the operation to six times its current size.

Rachael Ray and the ASPCA are giving away a hundred thousand dollars as part of some sort of populist voting thing, the rules of which are quite confusing to me (apparently there are stages and regions involved), but the Humane Society of Southern Arizona are involved and I'm sure they could use the money, so I'll be voting daily until they make me stop. It feels a little weird to say that one animal shelter should get funded instead of another, but on the other hand, go Tucson!