If you don't already have tickets to tomorrow night's screening of investigative reporter John Dougherty's Cyanide Beach, you're out of luck: There are no more tickets left to the 23-minute film about the environmental disaster left behind from an Italian gold mine, which was operated by some of the key players with Augusta Resource Corp., the parent company of Rosemont Copper, which plans on opening a massive open-pit in the Santa Rita Mountains.

But if you'd still like to see the film, Dougherty has scheduled a second showing at 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 27, at the Crossroads Festival theater at Grant and Swan roads. Here's how you get a free ticket.

From Dougherty's InvestigativeMEDIA's website:

The same Canadian mining speculators that are now seeking government permits to blast a mile-wide, half-mile deep hole in the Santa Rita Mountains and dump waste rock and mine tailings on more than 3,000 acres of the Coronado National Forest once owned and operated an open-pit gold mine in Sardinia.

What happened near the iconic Sardinian farming town of Furtei provides crucial insight into what could happen here, in southern Arizona.

InvestigativeMEDIA, LLC’s 23-minute video documentary “Cyanide Beach” tells an important and timely story that anyone interested in the Rosemont copper mine project needs to know.

Every year, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., puts out a "mindset list" for its professors — a set of reference points for instructors to have some idea of what references to avoid when talking to their freshmen about cultural matters.

A few of the items on the list are interesting to note (and will make you feel damn old), such as:

8. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.

16. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16-cent rise in the price of a first-class postage stamp.

A few, however, are just headscratchingly painful:

4. Michael Jackson's family, not the Kennedys, constitutes "American royalty."

63. The Twilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.

69. Pulp Fiction's meal of a "royale with cheese" and an "Amos and Andy milkshake" has little or no resonance with them.

70. Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.

I have literally, never once, heard anyone from the Jackson family referred to as "royalty" in any sense, aside from snide jokes about his two sons, both named "Prince."

Head over here for the rest of the list.

Anyone who makes a regular trip through the Interstate 10/Interstate 19 interchange as part of their morning or evening commute has probably noticed the ever-increasing mound of smoothed-out dirt that is forming just west of where the freeways collide.

Or, maybe you're not like me, and you keep your eyes on the road.

Anyways, this pile of earth seems to grow a little bit each day, and earth-moving vehicles regularly work the dirt into a nice, flat surface.

The start of some new project?

Nope, says the Arizona Department of Transportation, which controls the land as official right-of-way for the freeway area, and is using that particular plot to hold onto what it calls "recovered material" from the ongoing road project at I-10 and Prince Road. With Prince Road getting raised above I-10—and thus I-10 being lowered to ground level—all the dirt that currently elevates the freeway has to be dug out and moved.

Thus the growing pile at I-10 and I-19, ADOT spokeswoman Linda Ritter says.

"The recovered material is being stockpiled, watered for compaction, covered with straw for dust control, seeded and bermed," Ritter wrote in an email to The Range. "Stockpiling this material for future use will save dollars for future state road projects."

How tall the mound will get before the Prince/I-10 project is completed is anyone's guess.

Monday, Aug. 20, was the first in a series of three Tucson Unified School District town hall meetings, and going by comments and criticism offered by those who spoke, the town halls may be off to a rocky start.

For example, in attendance at Sahuaro High School was South Tucson Mayor Jennifer Eckstrom, who questioned what kind of town hall TUSD was running considering only two out of five TUSD board members showed up. (See video above, courtesy of Three Sonorans.) She also questioned how the town hall was organized.

A podium was set on one side of the stage, while TUSD officials sat on the opposite end. Questions from the public had to be written on cards and school officials had to walk back and forth until Superintendent John Pedicone suggested they stay put.

A microphone was set up on the floor, and when it came time for public comment, all TUSD officials left the stage, leaving Eckstrom and TUSD parent and Mexican-American studies supporter Jana Happel wondering out loud who they were directing comments to. In Happel's case, she had a question, but no one was left on stage to answer.

The next town hall meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, Aug. 22, at Cholla Magnet High School, 6:30-8:30 p.m., 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd.

There's been an interesting Tucson-related blip on Twitter today in the wake of last week's announcement that PBS Newshour's Jim Lehrer would be moderating the first presidential debate on Oct. 3.

@newshour Since Tucson, more than 60 mass shootings have devastated American communities. Pls #askaboutguns Mr Lehrer
— Melissa Reifler (@mreifler) August 21, 2012

This is but one of many tweets posted today by organizations such as the Brady Campaign, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and their followers.

According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, topics are to be chosen by the moderator and announced a few weeks before the debate, so we'll see what ends up making the cut.

Two weeks after that, they'll probably be calling for his head and throwing batteries at Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid.

But the fact of the matter is that last night, former University of Arizona quarterback and current Eagle Nick Foles showed the nation that he might, eventually, be kind of a big deal.

Sure, it's only the preseason, and, sure, he was playing against the second- and third-stringers of the New England Patriots, but he still threw for 217 yards and completed 64 percent of his passes while Michael Vick sat on the sidelines after being knocked out of his second straight game.

How did Foles feel about coming in with the Eagles first-team? From ESPN.com:

"I didn't give any speech or anything" when he joined his teammates in the huddle, Foles said. "I was ready to play and they were, too. I could look in their eyes and see the confidence."

'Atta boy, Sunshine.

Long walls and square pots can add to the linear look of a back yard wall.

• Two Squared

We typically design in odd numbers—there is probably some psychological reason for this, but we know it works. These two pots just did not seem right against this wall. I added a third pot—round in shape—and twisted the squares to change the angles.

• Voila!

And here we are with three weeks of growth.

• 3 Weeks Later!

For more information on potted gardens in the desert, visit The Contained Gardener of Sonoran Gardens.
Have a question? Email Marylee

The Tucson Culinary Festival isn't until October, but tickets are available now. The festival is taking place at new venues this year, which should freshen things up a bit.

The festival is broken into three events: The World Margarita Championship, the Reserve Tasting and the Grand Tasting. The margarita championship takes place in the courtyard of the Tucson Museum of Art this year, and the tastings take place at Casino del Sol. More information and tickets are available over here.

I'm not much for food festivals, but I attended these events last year and had a very good time. The tickets can seem a bit pricey, but don't forget that they include tastes of food by dozens upon dozens of restaurants, plus a bevy of wine samplings. I only made it to about half of the booths last year and left bewildered by the sheer magnitude of what was available.

• Commenters at the Arizona Daily Independent express a narrow definition of what a real Republican is.

At last week’s Pima County Republican Club luncheon, Republican National Committeeman Bruce Ash was explaining why he is supporting Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll over challenger Sean Collins in next week’s Republican primary.

“I don’t agree with Ray on everything, but he’s accessible,” said Ash, who praised Carroll’s record of providing constituent service, opposing county sales taxes and voting against Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry’s budgets. “This guy is best for the job.”

Ash is so upset by what he calls the “unsubstantiated accusations and scurrilous innuendo” coming from Team Collins that he took the unusual step of getting involved in a GOP primary—and even cut a radio ad to condemn the campaign against Carroll.

“There are a few people who have been up to no good in this election,” Ash said in the ad. “It’s not OK to make stuff up, and the crew that’s helping wannabe supervisor candidate Sean Collins have been purposely trying to mislead us.”

Ash took aim at ArizonaDailyIndependent.com (a relatively new blog that has made a variety of unattributed accusations against Carroll in recent weeks), as well as KNST AM 790/FM 97.1 morning-radio talk-show host Garret Lewis, and former state-lawmaker Randy Graf, who is one of Collins’ chief political supporters.

“Randy is throwing out a load of B.S. for Collins, no matter if it has any truth or not,” Ash said in the radio spot. “How many in Pima County would want Randy Graf being a ventriloquist for any supervisor?”

Image pulled from Imgur, via Reddit

I've seen a number of false-tree cell towers back up in Phoenix (that palm tree with the vertical frond doesn't fool me), but the photo above is something new to me. Seen here and on Reddit's front page, the very mention of Tucson brought haters of the region out en masse, who were responded to by scores of Southern Arizonans coming to the Old Pueblo's defense. That lasted all of a few days, until Reddit was once again swept up by love of more cat pictures.

Fun bonus: The "cell tower in Arizona" brought forth a wave of more hidden towers throughout the world. My favorite? "How NOT To Hide A Cell Tower In Arizona," with aftermath photos here.