McClusky says the lucky recipients “will receive a cleaning kit, they’ll receive the shotgun, they’ll receive slugs, they’ll go through a background check and they’ll also go through the training class.”

The program is a local affiliate of the Armed Citizen Project, which launched in Houston earlier this year.

McClusky says he’s already raised $12,000 in pledges for the program. With each “package” costing about $350, that means he has enough money to hand out roughly three dozen “single-shot, break-action shotguns,” says McClusky, who hopes to raise more money to expand the program.

McClusky says the program will initially target three Tucson neighborhoods: Pueblo Gardens, Midvale Park and the Grant-Campbell area.

The latter area, he says, “is becoming rampant with break-ins.”

Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik, who lives in the Campbell-Grant area, is not supportive of McClusky’s plan.

“For someone to say it makes sense to be giving away loaded shotguns in high-crime areas is absolute lunacy,” Kozachik says. “These people have lost their minds.”

• Fox 32 News (Chicago)

A woman from North Carolina bought a billboard ad to let everyone know her husband is a cheater.

The punishment is unusual, especially in a society where relationship problems typically lead to a break-up or sleeping on the couch.

Nonetheless I'm sure she made her point, and apparently spent the ex-couple's investments doing so. Thank you, Jennifer, for the fair warning. Hopefully the ladies in North Carolina know to stay away from Michael!

From the oral arguments of Hollingsworth v. Perry, the landmark case to decide the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which made gay marriage illegal within California, an exchange between Charles Cooper, representing proponents of the law, and Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan:

KAGAN: Well, suppose a State said, "Because we think that the focus of marriage really should be on procreation, we're not going to give marriage licenses any more to any couple where both people are over the age of 55." Would that be constitutional?

COOPER: No, Your Honor. It would not be constitutional.

KAGAN: Because that's the same State interest, I would think. You know? If you're over the age of 55, you don't help us serve the government's interest in protecting procreation through marriage. So why is that different?

COOPER: You, you, Your Honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both couples — both parties to the couple — are infertile.

(Laughter from the gallery.)

KAGAN (interjecting): No really, because the couple — I can just assure you if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage.

(h/t: Blogging via Typewriter, which has been following the oral arguments throughout the day.)

Fitting in with the general theme of equality today, an Oregon High School has taken steps to ensure comfort for their students in one of the few places all of modern society agrees people should have comfortable access to by creating unisex bathrooms.

From the Advocate:

The unisex facilities were converted into two faculty bathrooms and four student bathrooms, with locks on the inside, according to ABC News. Previously, students who did not want to use the traditional restrooms had to request a key to a staff facilities.

According to student-run Grant Magazine, there are about 10 openly transgender students in the city's largest high school, with 1,600 students.

Scott Morrison, a male-identified senior, said he previously avoided drinking liquids throughout the day, just so he wouldn't have to go to the bathroom.

"If I had to drink something, I’d go into the women’s bathroom. I would rather feel kind of unpleasant (in there) than terrified in the men’s bathroom," he said in the report.

According to ABC News, the school's vice principal said that the change cost the school "a few hundred dollars":

"The only reaction I've heard there has been positive," she said. "We have a pretty accepting school system."

When asked whether she was surprised by all of the national attention the new bathrooms were receiving, Westphal laughed.

"It is kind of funny because it's such a simple thing," she said. "It was very simple to do, and it's something as pretty basic as a human right."

• Human Rights Campaign

There's good reason for that: Equal rights activism group Human Rights Campaign started a social media movement to support marriage equality by urging its supporters to "turn the Internet red" by changing their social media accounts to prominently feature logos and messages of equality. And man, is it working.

From MSNBC:

“Red is a symbol for love, and that’s what marriage is all about,” Human Rights Campaign spokesperson Charlie Joughin told MSNBC.com on Tuesday. “We wanted to give people an opportunity to show their support for marriage equality in a public and visible way.”

Since Monday afternoon, the original photo posted on the HRC’s Facebook timeline has been seen by over 9 million people, Joughin said, and shared over 77,000 times just from the organization’s Facebook page directly. Celebrities and politicians alike have replaced personal Facebook profile pictures with the HRC’s red logo—actor George Takei, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley—and even more have spoken out on Twitter.

“We never expected anything like this—for it to go viral,” HRC’s Joughin said. “So we’re excited. But more importantly, we’re excited that the public support for marriage equality has been so great.”

So there you go — it's a show of support for marriage equality and equal rights for all.

Something we're all for here at Tucson Weekly.

• Photo of Benjamin Alire Sáenz from Flickr Creative Commons by Alex Briseño.

The winner for America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction was announced March 19. Judges Walter Kirn, Nelly Rosario, and A.J. Verdelle viewed more than 350 novels and short story collections published in 2012 for the 2013 award.

When discussing the process of choosing a winner for the award, Verdelle said in a press release that, “judging the 2013 PEN/Faulkner contest proves that even in the advent of this digital age, American letters continues to thrive. American writers grace the page from small and large publishers, from traditionally known outfits like Random House and FSG, and from a great number of smaller entities like FC2 and Coffee House Press. Both the PEN/Faulkner competition and the impressive breadth of the submissions celebrates the hard work required to invent and imagine, to reimagine and revise.”

Artist, poet, novelist, and current chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Texas at El Paso, Sáenz won a $15,000 prize for his seven story collection he submitted for the contest.

The other four finalists for the award also received monetary prizes of $5,000, including Laird Hunt for her novel, Kind One, T. Geronimo Johnson for his debut novel, Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, Thomas Mallon for Watergate and Tucson native Amelia Gray for her debut novel, Threats.

So we're clear, that's actually a pretty terrible thing. Go us?

According to Coed Magazine (itself an honorable model of taste and restraint, featuring a story on the "40 Sexiest Mila Kunis GIFs"), our beloved state of copper, cactus and citrus — among other "c" words — features two locations among the nation's 15 trashiest spring break destinations.

Which kinda makes sense, when you check out Coed Magazine's criteria for selection, which consists of "Girls Gone Wild, bike weeks, Hooters, tattoo parlors, etc." And they've handily included local liquor laws, so you know when bars close and whether or not you can walk around with open containers (such as when you and your bros feel like rolling down the street with an open sixer of BL 'Numz).

With that in mind, let's check out the blurbs for Lake Havasu and Scottsdale (which are accompanied by handy slideshows, for those who are interested in the details of this spring break debauchery — so they can more easily combat it, of course):

#13: Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale is to Phoenix as South Beach is to Miami—it’s essentially the wilder extension of Arizona’s capital. Unless you happen to have the same Spring Break as ASU (located next door to Scottsdale in Tempe), there’s a good chance that you’ll see a lot of college revelers out and about.

Don’t expect to come to Scottsdale though if you’re looking to rage during the day. Locals tend to use the daylight hours working on their tans and uploading shitty gossip to the blog TheDirty. Instead, they tend to come out at night where they can spend absurd amounts of money in nightclubs.

#6: Lake Havasu, AZ
Anytime you see videos of drunk American women dancing or stripping on a boat, it’s a safe bet to assume you’re watching footage of Lake Havasu. As one of the premiere (we use that word lightly) destinations for West Coast Spring Breakers, you’re always guaranteed to see some ridiculous stuff here. Nipple tassles and tattoos are par for the course once things start getting rowdy. The only price of admission you have to pay is securing a working boat.

I'm so, so damn proud. Good job, folks.

If you're so inclined, check out the full list of, uh, "winners" at coedmagazine.com.

The desert has finally started to heat up this week. However, the night time temperatures are staying true to form at 30 degrees less than the day. This is a great time to plan for your summer flowers. You won't want to plant until mid- to late-April when the night time temperatures are staying above 55 degrees.

• Skirted Vinca Thrives All Summer

Dave’s Garden is a great site to check out plant varieties from the comfort of your own home.

I certainly love the color and tropical effect of flowers all year long. But, we do want to think about adding some pots with cacti or succulents, try something like this:

• Marylee, Potted Desert Gardener
• Potted Artichoke Agave Simply Stated

My inbox just flashed with an URGENT message from the NCAA. Thinking it was going to tell me that I'd won some raffle (that I didn't enter) to give me free tickets to Thursday's game in Los Angeles, I opened it quickly and with much anticipation.

Shoulda known better: it was for merch.

Not surprisingly, the Sweet 16 t-shirts are in ample supply online via either the NCAA or University of Arizona athletic department Web sites.

There appears to be a decent selection of choices (including the standard 'hey, we made it this far!' version shown below), and the prices aren't too bad. However, if you want your new gear in time for the big game, don't bother ordering it online: I got a warning message saying that, since this was a 'special' order, it wouldn't be shipped until April 2.

By then we all should be purchasing Final Four gear anyways, right?

In case you missed the University of Arizona Wildcats 74-51 demolition of the Harvard Crimson on Saturday, here's the one highlight you absolutely need to see:

• Bleacher Report
• A victory dance for the ages.

That young man is 21-year-old Jordan Ingram, an accounting junior and trombone player with the UA's Pride of Arizona Marching Band and Pep Band. We were able to fit into his busy schedule (the pep band is due to leave for Los Angeles tomorrow in preparation to cheer on UA basketball against Ohio State University on Thursday, March 28) and chat with him via text message. Below is the transcript, edited for spelling and clarity:

Tucson Weekly: So what's it been like getting all of this attention over the past few days?

Jordan Ingram: It's been crazy. I had 100 notifications on Facebook when I got back [from Utah, where UA played in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament].

TW: All from people saying they saw you on TV, or from the internet?

JI: It was a mixture of both. All my friends in pep band showed me internet postings, such as the Washington Post, after the game.

TW: How long have you been with the pep band? You also march with the Pride, right? If I remember right, you have to be involved with both.

JI: I have been in pep band for two years. I missed the cut my freshman year. And yes, I'm in the Pride and have been for three years, and yes, you must do both in order to be in pep band.

TW: OK, cool. So, what kicked off the dancing? Is it something you always do after wins?

JI: It's something I always do, period! If the music is playing, you can always count on me shaking it!

TW: That might be my favorite quote ever. So, what do you plan to do if/when UA beats OSU this Thursday? The pressure's on now, what with all of the attention you've gotten.

JI: I know, man. I've gotta come up with some new moves.

TW: No need to fix what isn't broken, Jordan. I wont' take up too much more of your time, since you've gotta prep for the trip out tomorrow. Any final thoughts?

JI: Bear Down, Arizona, and beat the Buckeyes!

TW: Right on. Thanks for your time, Jordan. Have a great trip, and enjoy the Sweet Sixteen.

JI: No problem, and thank you for your time!

We'll be following along with Jordan as the tournament rolls on, and we'll be watching out for him on Thursday, when the Wildcats take on Ohio State on Thursday. The opening tip is at 4:47 p.m. — and if you think that TVs and computer monitors around the Old Pueblo won't be tuned to that, you're insane.