Now, this isn't to say installing a monument featuring the Ten Commandments at Oklahoma's State Capitol Building wasn't completely thought through, but...well, the construction of it wasn't completely thought through, apparently.

News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

From Oklahoma's KWTV News9, on Nov. 16:

In the commandment "Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy" the word "Sabbath" was misspelled as "Sabbeth." A second mistake was in the commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant." The word maidservant was spelled as "maidseruant," replacing the "v" with a "u."

This six-foot tall monument cost about $10,000 and was installed Thursday at the State Capitol. Broken Arrow Representative Mike Ritze's family funded the monument after the Ritze pushed a bill in 2009.

But hey, you can't expect something with glaring typos that are literally carved in stone to stand for long, right? Enter Oklahoma's KOTV News6 (which appears to have the same ownership as KWTV), who report that the monument was fixed by Saturday night.

That's how you know it was funded with private money: Someone got it done on the weekend.

"Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors" is an unreleased video game that was intended, generally, to screw with people. It's what Penn & Teller do: they perform illusions (because a trick is something a whore does for money); they make you laugh; and they're damn clever about everything they do.

But, for various reasons, "Smoke and Mirrors" never came out—which is no big loss, considering that one of the mini-games within the game, "Desert Bus" is a real-time bus-driving simulation, wherein the player drives a bus from Tucson to Las Vegas. In game-time, it's an eight-hour trek...and it earns you one point. For a second point, the player has to make the trek back from Vegas to Tucson—which is when the game starts to get dark. Literally. As in, the sun goes down.

This matters because for the last six years, the comedy group LoadingReadyRun has organized Desert Bus for Hope, a charity event in which a team of poor souls plays a "Desert Bus" marathon, collecting money for Child's Play, a charity organization that donates toys and games to children in hospitals worldwide.

This current marathon has been ongoing for, as of this writing, two days and 17 hours, which is a soul-crushingly long time to play a game that looks like this:

If you want to support Desert Bus for Hope, head to desertbus.org, or buy a commemorative Desert Bus for Hope 6 shirt from Tucson's very own Fangamer, which is donating all profits from the sale of that shirt to Child's Play via Desert Bus for Hope.

THE OUTLET- Cafe and Innovation Centre Crowd-Funding Video from Daniel Kirk on Vimeo.

In Tucson, we're pretty good at giving each other a hand. We promote local businesses, we encourage people to invest in local products, we're proud of local artists, we're into EVERYTHING local.

Well, here's your chance to live up to that and lend a hand to these 20-something, up-and-coming local entrepreneurs. Danny Kirk and Victor Alvarado are looking to open up a café and innovation centre by the name of The Outlet. But, much like everything in life, they need some cash. Here's what they have in mind for the place...

Mission
We will provide a 24/7 café + innovation centre to branch the gap between coffee shop ideation and collaborative implementation. Our café will offer high quality coffee and espresso drinks, beer + wine and a limited food menu and will have a light-hearted atmosphere. Our innovation center will offer all the resources needed to collaborate and implement ideas and projects.

Description
The Outlet will be, the first of its kind, cafe and innovation centre. We will be ending the search for the ultimate workspace by providing all the great aspects of a coffee shop, co-working space and your home, all in one. This space will be 24/7, centrally located to downtown and UofA and will aim to foster a more innovative and entrepreneurial Tucson.

So cash, that's where everyone else comes in. They've released a Kickstarter drive to plead everyone to invest in The Outlet, even if it's a couple of dollars. They've got a little something for everyone who decides to help out, from T-shirts to an exclusive work space at The Outlet. Check out their Propel Arizona site for more info on that.

This is an opportunity to support a local business since its beginning stages.

While all of Arizona is usually always on the same page about everything (insert sarcastic wink here) for most of the year, the one exception is Rivalry Week.

When Arizona and Arizona State — heretofore dubbed by former Weekly web editor Dan Gibson as the Girls Gone Wild University and Casino — meet up on the football field it's much more than a game to determine the winner of the Territorial Cup, or in the case this year a possible berth to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (!!!!!).

It's about bragging rights. It's about hating on people you're normally friends with, except when it comes to their fondness for gold and maroon (a.k.a., piss and blood). And for a lot of Tucsonans, it's a chance to for one brief moment to try and get past that inferiority complex so many of us have in relation to Phoenix and how they get all the good stuff like Fat Burger, and fake lakes that pop a leak, and Spring Training.

Every inch of the local mainstream media will be weighing in on the UA-ASU game this week, but if you're looking for the best possible insight on Friday, one needs only to hop on Twitter and follow the feed of @FakeRichRod.

Some pearls of wisdom of late:

What should I drink out of the Territorial Cup after the game on Friday night?
— Fake Rich Rodriguez (@FakeRichRod) November 19, 2012

I didn't tip the ASwho grad that delivered my pizza for lunch. #BeatTheScummies
— Fake Rich Rodriguez (@FakeRichRod) November 19, 2012

FakeRichRod also has found a way to tweet whilst calling plays for one of the country's top-rated offenses:

I hope Matt Scott pukes on Todd Graham on Friday after scoring a touchdown #BestCelebrationEver
— Fake Rich Rodriguez (@FakeRichRod) November 18, 2012

FakeRichRod is, by far, the best source of information about UA football, and not just this week. And it's certainly quicker to the interwebs than one unnamed daily newspaper who's Twitter account tells you the score at the end of the first quarter ... late in the second quarter.

In the interest of fairness, I did search for a Fake Todd Graham account, of which there are four variations. With a combined 188 followers, 151 of which I think are following someone pretending to be a different Todd Graham.

We've got this coming through here thanks to our friends over at the Phoenix New Times: Apparently, if you admit to having voted for Barack Obama, your money isn't welcome in Pinetop's Southwest Shooting Authority gun shop.

From Ammoland, where owner Cope Reynolds posted his announcement:

• Facebook
• The sign in question.

We will try to demonstrate once again that the bottom line for our business is principle, not money.

Yes, it has been damaging at times but our values are intact.

Effective immediately, if you voted for Obama, your money is no good here. You have proven beyond a doubt that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm. We have just put a sign up on the front door to save you the trouble of walking all the way in here….

As Reynolds admitted to the New Times, this is just a political statement, and a hell of an eye-catching stunt. But let's be honest: As someone who is considered responsible enough to legally carry a concealed firearm*, being considered too irresponsible to buy one for voting for someone of a different political party is asinine.

*Yes, I know, EVERYONE is legally permitted to carry a concealed firearm in this state. That's the joke. It's not funny when you make me explain it.

Just days after I cancelled the "Elmogate" banner I requested from our designers, it appears there is a need for it again. I have a feeling I'll have to do it myself this time.

Sheldon Stevens, a now 23-year-old male model who claims to have had an underage relationship with 52-year-old puppeteer Kevin Clash, has decided to retract his retraction — and in turn, forfeit the $125,000 settlement he reached with Clash, who earned his fame as the man behind Elmo, Sesame Street's fuzzy red megastar.

From TMZ:

We've learned Stephens has met with lawyers in Los Angeles and told them he was pressured into recanting his allegation and insists he's telling the truth when he says he had sex with Clash when he was 16.

Stephens — who is now 23 — is telling lawyers he will gladly forfeit the $125,000 to restore his name. Stephens is saying he was literally crying during the final negotiations and repeatedly said he didn't want to sign.

So there's that. We'll keep up on this childhood-crushing story, if our souls don't break in the process.

Pima County ran another batch of 11,511 ballots today, leaving just about 500 provisional ballots left to count, according to Pima County spokeswoman Rhonda Bodfield. Those last votes should go through the machines tomorrow.

And with so few ballots left to count, we can safely say that the city of Tucson's road-bond package has passed.

As of today's count, Prop 409 is passing by a mere 936 votes. That's 72,333 in favor and 71,397 opposed.

It doesn't get much close than that.

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild tells The Range via email: "I want to thank the people of Tucson for voting to fix our roads. Mr. Miranda and I intend to assure that the trust and confidence that has been given us proves to be well placed. This is a good first step towards repairing and rebuilding our city."

• Jim Nintzel
• Congressman Ron Barber: "We have many important decisions to make, and in order to make those decisions and do what's right, we have to find compromise and we have to find bipartisanship."

In a room packed with roughly 200 supporters, Congressman Ron Barber declared victory on Saturday afternoon.

"It's been a long wait, but here we are," Barber told the crowd just after 3 p.m. "I want to thank you all for coming out and helping us celebrate today."

An hour earlier across town, Republican challenger Martha McSally had conceded the race to Barber.

• Jim Nintzel
• Republican Martha McSally compared the lengthy vote count to running the Iron Man triathlon "and coming up on the finish line, only to find out you had to run another 10K."

The twin speeches brought an end to a race that had run into overtime as officials in both Cochise and Pima county tabulated ballots. Although Barber had taken an early lead when the first ballots were counted on Election Day, McSally had roared in from behind and led the race by more than a thousand votes on the day after the election.

Over the next few days, the vote count moved back and forth, with Barber gaining ground as Pima County completed a batch of ballots and McSally retaking the lead when Cochise County tabulated its ballots. On Friday, Nov. 9, McSally's lead was a mere 36 votes.

Barber took the lead on Saturday, Nov. 10, and hung onto it from that point forward. When Cochise County finished counting its ballots on Thursday, Nov. 15, Barber had a lead of 709 votes. When Pima County finished its first major count of provisional ballots on Friday, Nov. 16, his lead climbed to 1,402 ballots.

Although Pima County still has 14,000 provisional ballots to count, McSally saw the trend was moving in Barber's direction.

"We came so close," said McSally, a former Air Force combat pilot who had been stationed at Davis-Monthan between deployments.

McSally said the tight finish "reminds me of running the Iron Man triathlon … and coming up on the finish line, only to find out you had to run another 10K. It's horrible feeling, but I'll tell you: Our team and everybody who's been supporting us through the last 11 days has been extraordinary."

• Joshua Morgan

After more than a week of counting votes, the AP has called the Congressional District 2 race: Ron Barber is the winner:

Democrat Ron Barber has won a full term representing Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, squeaking out a win over Republican Martha McSally and giving Democrats a sweep of the state's three competitive races for U.S. House seats.

Voters decisively picked Barber to fill out the remainder of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords term in a special election in June, but last week's election was for a full term and was so tight it took until Saturday before a winner was clear. Barber and McSally each held leads since election night, with a difference of only a few dozen votes at times, before Barber steadily began pulling ahead.

By late Friday, Barber had a 1,402-vote margin with more than 285,000 votes cast in the race. Only about 15,000 provisional ballots remain to be counted in Pima County, although not all are in the 2nd District. An Associated Press analysis determined Barber's lead could not be overcome.

"I'm really proud and honored that I've been given another opportunity to serve," Barber told the AP on Saturday. "I never expected to be in Congress. When I won the special election I was thrilled about that and now I have two years to get some work done, and I really understand what the issues are nationally and locally and I'm going to be working hard on those."

Barber said McSally called and congratulated him at midmorning, and conceded the race.

McSally has a press conference at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Stay tuned for details.

Our coverage of the vote count here.

Mexican-American studies youth from CLASS (Chicano Literature After School Studies), MEChA from Tucson Magnet High School and the UA, and UNIDOS have organized a community forum to discuss the recently released Tucson Unified School District desegregation proposal.

The forum is Tuesday, Nov. 20 at Chicanos Por La Causa, 250 N. Silverbell Road at 6:30 p.m.